Twelfth Night, Or What You Will

Dating Shakespeare’s Plays: Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night, or what you will

welth Night can be dated between 1581, the Commedy of Errores, or Menechmi in Plautus, publication of Barnabe Riche’s Farewell to but most like and neere to that in Italian Militarie Profession, and 1602, when it was called Inganni a good practise in it to make Tdescribed in performance by John Manningham. the Steward beleeve his Lady widdowe was in love with him, by counterfeyting a letter as from his Lady in generall termes, telling him Publication Date what shee liked best in him, and prescribing his gesture in smiling, his apparaile, &c., and Twelfth Night was entered in the Stationers’ then when he came to practise making him Register on 8 November 1623 as one of eighteen beleeue they tooke him to be mad. plays not previously published: The diary is in the British Museum and Arlidge Mr Blounte Isaak Jaggard. Entered for presents a photocopy of it. Although Race made their Copie vnder the hands of Mr Doctor suggestions that the nineteenth-century writer, Worral and Mr Cole – warden, Mr William John Payne Collier, may have tampered with Shakspeers Comedyes Histories, and some entries in Manningham’s handwritten diary, Tragedyes soe manie of the said Copies as the Arden editors, Lothian & Craik, offer four are not formerly entered to other men. vizt. Comedyes. The Tempest. The two gentlemen reasons for finding this particular entry genuine: of Verona. Measure for Measure. The Comedy 1. This passage is consistent in lay-out and of Errors. As you Like it. All’s well that ends presentation with other entries in the well. Twelft night. The winters tale. Histories. diary; The thirde parte of Henry the sixt. Henry the 2. The mistake that Olivia is in mourning eight. Coriolanus. Timon of Athens. Julius for a lost husband rather than a brother Caesar. Tragedies. Mackbeth. Anthonie & is easier to make when watching the Cleopatra. Cymbeline. play; 3. The statement that Gl’Inganni was the It occupies the thirteenth position in the F1 source is not made elsewhere by Collier comedies, coming after All’s Well that Ends Well (who stated Riche as the main source); and before The Winter’s Tale. 4. Collier printed “inscribing his apparell” rather than correctly reading “in smiling, Performance Dates his apparraile”.

The notebook of John Manningham, a student All editors have accepted the entry as genuine. of law at the Middle Temple, gives a detailed The King’s Men revived the play at Court, under description of a performance there in 1602 of “a its present title on 6 April 1616, and probably on play called Twelue night or what you will”. 2 February 1623 as Malvolio.

Feb. 2 At our feast wee had a play called Twelue Night, or what you will, much like the

Sources does the Riverside edition. Halliday has the slightly earlier dating of 1600. Leslie Hotson proposed Bullough confirms John Manningham’s entry that that the play was written for performance on the the ultimate source of the play’s story is the Italian twelfth night of Christmas, 6 January 1601, in his play Gl’Ingannati (‘The Deceived Ones’), written full-length study, The First Night of Twelfth Night. and performed in Siena in 1531, first published Arlidge argues that the play was commissioned in Venice in 1537 and often reprinted. It was for performance on 2 February 1602. Wiggins translated into French as Le sacrificeby Charles dates this play to 1601. Estienne in 1543, republished as Les Abuséz Cairncross makes the unusual proposal of in 1549. Most orthodox scholars accept that 1592. Shakespeare read the original in Italian. Helen Kaufman argues that two other Italian plays, both Internal Orthodox Evidence by Nicolò Secchi, Gl’Inganni (‘The Deceived’) (composed c. 1547, published in Florence, 1562) Orthodox commentators have found a few topical and L’interesse (‘Interest’ composed c. 1547, allusions to support their 1600–02 dating. Two published in Venice 1581), were probably used references to “the Sophy” (the Shah of Persia) by the dramatist; in these a woman, dressed as (2.5.174; 3.4.271) are generally accepted as a man, helps another man woo another woman. references to the journey of Sir Anthony Shurley Bullough identifies only one major source in to the Persian court; it was first known about English: the prose story of ‘Of Apolonius and in the summer of 1598, and two accounts of Silla’ in Riche his Farewell to Militarie Profession, his travels (he became a roving ambassador for published in 1581. While ultimately adapted from the Shah) were subsequently published, the first Bandello’s 1554 Italian play, Barnaby Riche’s in September 1600, the second late in 1601. At narrative is derived from Belleforest’s 1579 French 3.2.26. Warren and Wells see an allusion (“like translation. In writing Twelfth Night Shakespeare an icicle on a Dutchman’s beard”) to the Arctic evidently did use Riche’s story, for both include voyage of William Barentz, an account of which details absent from all previous versions. Firstly, was mentioned in the Stationers’ Register in 1598. the dramatist used four words found in Riche, Further possible allusions from the text (coisterell, garragascoynes, pavion and galliarde) concern Will Kemp, a former member of the which are not used elsewhere in the canon; Lord Chamberlain’s Men, who in summer 1601 secondly, the references to dancing in 1.3 seem returned from a continental tour during which to draw on Riche’s dedicatory epistle; thirdly, he had met Sir Anthony Shirley in Rome. The the punishment of Malvolio seems to draw on Clown’s comment: “I might say ‘element’, but the another of Riche’s stories (‘Of two brethren and word is overworn” (3.1.57–8) is taken to be an their wives’). There was also a Latin version, allusion to the triple use of ‘out of [one’s] element’, Laelia, which was produced at Queens’ College, as a catch-phrase, in Dekker’s Satiromastix, Cambridge, possibly as early as 1546–7 (the performed in the second half of 1601 by the Lord college accounts show the purchase of costumes Chamberlain’s Men and the Children of Paul’s. for the play) and again in 1595 when the Earl of The sung dialogue between Sir Toby and the Essex stayed at the college (Moore Smith, xxvi– Clown (2.3.100–8) is closely based on the song xxviii). ‘Farewel dear loue since thou wilt need be gon’, first published in Robert Jones’s The First Book of Orthodox Date Songes and Ayres in 1600. Hood Phillips argues that a celebrated case which went before the Star Chamber in 1602, Chambers dates the play 1599–1600, immediately between Sir Posthumous Hoby and William Eure, preceding As You Like It (as does the Signet editor). involved night-time disturbances and probably Most commentators date it 1600–02: Alexander, inspired the scene between Sir Toby Belch and Lothian & Craik, Warren & Wells and Donno, his friends. Finally, commentators generally agree propose the middle of 1601, Mahood suggests the that Maria’s comic image of Malvolio’s newly end of 1601; Wells and Taylor suggest 1601–2, as adopted physiognomy – “he does smile his face

© De Vere Society 2 Dating Shakespeare’s Plays: Twelfth Night into more lines than is in the new map with the upon “the oaths of judgement and reason” (3.2.13) augmentation of the Indies” (3.2.74–5) – alludes and his knowledge of the distinction between to Edward Wright’s ‘A Chart of the World on “battery” and “assault” as well as the right to Mercator’s Projection’, published in Hakluyt’s strike first in self-defence to prevent a threatened Voyages in 1599 and again, with minor corrections, attack (4.1.32–5): in 1600; the map has radiating rhumb lines, suggesting the wrinkles around Malvolio’s eyes. A I’ll go another way to work with him. I’ll have different interpretation is offered under ‘Internal an action of battery against him, if there be Oxfordian Evidence’, below. any law in Illyria. Though I struck him first, yet it’s no matter for that. Mahood, however, observes that playwrights often revise their script in rehearsal, and adds: Secondly, Arlidge notes some references which he calls ‘inn-jokes’. John Shurley, who made the other changes in a play may be made years later and without the playwright’s knowledge. journey to Persia cited above and was Treasurer to Shakespeare’s fellow actors presumably saw the Middle Temple in 1602, is twice the object of no harm in adding the odd topical joke to his ridicule, firstly at 2.5.173–4: plays from time to time. Fabian I will not give my part of Thus if the topical allusions are no more than few, this sport for a pension it is possible that they were added at a later stage of thousands to be paid from to an existing text. the Sophy. The second reference occurs at 3.4.271–2: External Orthodox Evidence Sir Toby They say he has been a fencer Manningham’s reference to the Middle Temple to the Sophy. performance is the only reliable evidence for the Sir Andrew Pox on’t. I’ll not meddle with existence of the play by 1602. The Arden editors him. assert there is “no reason to believe that this was the first production of the play”. They adduce the Thirdly, Arlidge links Shakespeare with one of the following arguments: law students, Thomas Green, who completed his studies at the Middle temple in 1602 and moved a) Manningham did not mention that the to Stratford was where he linked to Shakespeare play was new; through legal actions concerning the Welcombe b) the manuscript shows the word mid, Enclosure (Chambers, WS, ii, 141–152). crossed out before the title ‘twelve’ is Leslie Hotson researched contemporary written, suggesting he had heard of the records and argued that the play was especially title A Midsummer Night’s Dream and written for performance on 6 January 1601. momentarily confused the titles; In a memorandum, George Carey as the Lord c) Manningham records similarities with other plays, suggesting that Twelfth Chamberlain, Lord Hunsdon, gave instructions: Night had been on the stage long enough for there to have been talk about its To confer with my Lord Admirall and the sources. Master of the revells for taking order generally with the players to make choyse of [the] play that shalbe best furnished with rich apparell, None of the above arguments seems strong have greate variety and change of Musicke enough to discount the play as newly composed and daunces, and of a Subiect that may be in February 1602. Anthony Arlidge, the Master most pleasing to her Maiestie of Entertainments at the Middle Temple in London, argues that the play was commissioned The occasion was when Queen Elizabeth’s guest for performance on 2 February, 1602. He points was Don Virginio Orsini, Duke of Bracciano. out that there are a large number of legal phrases, According to Hotson, the noble Orsini was love- correctly used, which show it was intended for an sick for the unattainable Olivia, identified as Inn of Court. These include Sir Andrew’s proof Queen Elizabeth. In his letters in Italian, this

Orsini describes how he sat next to the Queen in Internal Oxfordian Evidence the Palace at Whitehall and saw a play performed on 6 January. Hotson describes him as “virtuous, We return to the “new map, with the augmentation noble, of great estate, of fresh and stainless youth”. of the Indies”, suggested as evidence that the Three arguments against Hotson’s claim have play was written in 1600–01. Cairncross, not an been advanced: Oxfordian but prepared to reconsider historical evidence with an open mind, identified the “new a) The Lord Chamberlain’s memorandum map” as “the Molyneux map or globe of 1592”. for choosing a suitable play mentions Its forthcoming publication was announced in neither title nor author, and it stipulates 1589, and Emery Molyneux engraved his “very that it include expensive costumes and large and most exact terrestriall globe” three years a great variety of music and dancing: later. The newness of this map was emphasised in Twelfth Night is not such a play (Much Blundeville’s Exercises (1594): “there are found out Ado is said to be a much better candidate). divers new places towards the North Pole as in This does not appear to be a very strong the East and West Indies, which were unknown argument: both Orsino and Olivia are to Mercator”. Wright’s 1600 map was based on high ranking personages and would be his projection of Molyneux’s 1592 globe; indeed, expected to dress in expensive clothing; geographers often designate this cartographic there is certainly a lot of music in Twelfth landmark the ‘Wright–Molyneux Map’. Like Night and much scope for dancing. the later map which copies it, the globe has the b) the announcement of the Duke’s rhumb lines which evoke Maria’s unusual simile. impending visit left only eleven days, in Curiously, one of Molyneux’s globes stands in the the busy Christmas period, to write and library of the Middle Temple.1 rehearse a new play; against this it might Cairncross also states that the Clown’s sentence be said that the play had been planned “But indeed, words are very rascals, since bonds since the Duke was expected at some disgraced them” (3.1.19–21), was interpreted point. The coincidence would only be in by some commentators as a reference to the the title (which appears to have no relation Privy Council’s inhibition against the players in to the action of the play). 1600 or 1601 – an explanation which he finds c) it is unlikely that the Queen would allow a unsatisfactory. performance to continue in which she was But is it not obvious that some equivocation presented as love-sick for an errand boy or in the terminology or interpretation of legal that the visiting Duke would approve the bonds is intended? It suggests rather the use of his name for the lovesick hero of a situation in the sub-plot of Greene’s Looking Glass for London and England (acted March comedy. 8, 1592), where a usurer takes advantage of his debtor’s failure to comply with the literal Hotson’s proposal has not found general support conditions of the bond. Such a case seems among scholars, but certainly raises some to be alluded to in Twelfth Night. Greene interesting connections. and Shakespeare might well be alluding to the same case. Such an event would confirm the evidence of the map, and fix the date of Oxfordian Date Twelfth Night around 1592. (Cairncross, 132)

Clark and Ogburn Jr favour 1580–1; Holland Other evidence concerning the acting companies opts for 1587 (or at least finds evidence of revision leads Cairncross to conjecture that Twelfth Night then). Hess et al. find late 1600 the likeliest date, was written for performance at the Middle but allow that the present play could have been Temple by Pembroke’s Men on 6 January 1593. revised from an earlier version. Chambers (ES, ii, 128) confirms that pembroke’s Men performed at Court at that time but the title of the play was not recorded. Two further reasons support Oxfordian authorship and an earlier date: firstly, the sources were in Italian and/

© De Vere Society 4 Dating Shakespeare’s Plays: Twelfth Night or French, which would have been easy enough other historical personages. Apart from the clear for the ‘Italianate earl’ to read. Secondly, Oxford likeness between Olivia and the Queen, Clark had studied at Gray’s Inn and was therefore identified Orsino with François, duc d’Alençon (a in a position to have learned much of the legal suitor to Elizabeth at the time) and Sir Andrew knowledge evident in this play.2 Aguecheek with Sir Philip Sidney. Anderson (148–50) has noted the striking parallel between External Oxfordian Evidence the play and the events in 1579 when Alençon sent ahead of himself an envoy called Jean de Simier. Elizabeth was though to have fallen in love with There is a record from the archives of Abraham the envoy instead of with the Duke. As Alison Fleming, one-time secretary to Oxford, and his Weir observes (318–21): “Anyone observing them literary protégé, of Oxford writing a play which together might have been forgiven for concluding follows the plot of Twelfth Night: that she meant to marry him rather than his

a pleasant conceit of Vere, earl of Oxford, master.” Mallin concurs that Twelfth Night is discontented at the rising of a mean gentleman based on events some twenty years before its at the English court, circa 1580 [earliest known] performance concerning the Alençon–Simier wooing of Elizabeth as well as This was mentioned in a list published in 1732 problems with Puritans. A further identification by the antiquarian, Francis Peck, of documents concerns the role of the Fool. Many commentators he intended to have printed. Unfortunately, Peck have noticed the exceptional licence of the Fool to failed to achieve his aim and the document has mock Olivia openly (1.5) and Orsino (5.1). They disappeared. Clark and all the Ogburns base their see Oxford as the Fool, who is excused in the 1580–1 date on the identification of this “pleasant words of Olivia (1.5.88): conceit” with the first draft ofTwelfth Night. So the play is assumed to allude to the contemporary There is no slander in an allowed fool, though rivalry for Queen Elizabeth’s favour between he do nothing but rail; Oxford and his upstart rival, Sir Christopher The play may have been linked with an academic Hatton, satirised in Malvolio – “Some are born performance at Cambridge. On 1 March 1595 an great … and some have greatness thrust upon ’em” anonymous Latin play, Laelia, was performed (or (2.5.140–1). Hatton was a leading Puritan, and revived; see section ‘Sources’) at Queens’ College, Malvolio is termed a “Puritan” three times within Cambridge to celebrate Essex’s visit. The one seven lines (2.3.140–6); Hatton’s nickname was surviving manuscript (edited by Moore Smith) ‘Sheep’ or ‘Mutton’, and Malvolio is called a reveals several similarities to Twelfth Night. “niggardly rascally sheep-biter” (2.5.5); Hatton’s Sebastian’s meeting with Olivia’s clown (4.1.1– Latin pen-name was ‘Felix Infortunatus’ (the 22) is paralleled in Laelia. Both plays have a time happy unfortunate one) and this is reversed – “The discrepancy: in Twelfth Night, the elapse of three Fortunate Unhappy” (2.5.154) – in the signature months is twice mentioned (5.1.92 & 97), yet the of the prank letter that Malvolio receives. That stage action lasts three days; in Laelia the action Hatton was jealous of Oxford has been noted by lasts two days, while a fortnight is supposed to Alison Weir (289): have elapsed. Viola’s readiness to follow Orsino to Hatton, who was prone to expressing his death (5.1.130–6) parallels Laelia. The adjective resentment in tears or sulks, deeply resented ‘festus’ [= festal, celebratory], which occurs twice the favour shown by the Queen towards in the Latin play, suggests the name ‘Feste’ and Oxford [i.e. in 1572] because he had recently “a pang of heart” (2.4.89) matches ‘cordolium’. apparently been given cause to believe that Boas is alone among orthodox commentators in he himself stood higher in her affection than linking Laelia with Twelfth Night. Oxfordians anyone else. believe that the author of Laelia adopted aspects of the existing Shakespearean play. Interestingly, The rivalry between Hatton and Oxford as a boy, Oxford had studied at Queens’ College, continued over many years. Various identifications Cambridge, where the play was staged. have been made between characters in the play and

Conclusion Kegan Paul, 1958 Cairncross, A. S., The Problem of Hamlet – a Solution, This play can be dated between the 1581 London: MacMillan, 1936 Chambers, E. K., The Elizabethan Stage, 4 vols, Farewell to publication of Barnaby Riche’s Oxford: Clarendon, 1923 Militarie Profession, and 1602, when it was Chambers, E. K., William Shakespeare, A Study of described in performance by John Manningham. Facts and Problems, 2 vols, Oxford: Clarendon, There are a few internal references to support 1930 a date c. 1601, but these may be no more than Clark, Eva Turner, Hidden Allusions in Shakespeare’s topical additions to an existing play. Cairncross’s Plays, New York: Kennikat, 1931 (reprinted arguments for dating the play, while not designed 1974) to support Oxfordian authorship, indicate the Donno, E. S. (ed.), Twelfth Night, Cambridge: CUP, 1985 (updated 2004) likelihood that Twelfth Night was largely in its Elam, Kier (ed.), Twelfth Night, or what you will, present form by the end of 1592, about nine years London: Arden, 2008 before the date conventionally assumed. There Halliday, F. E., A Shakespeare Companion, London: are strong indications, from events and people at Duckworth, 1952 Court, to suggest an original date of composition Hess, W. R., et al., “Shakespeare’s Dates”, The c. 1580 –1. Oxfordian, 2, Portland, 1999 Holland, H. H., Shakespeare, Oxford and Elizabethan Times, London: Denis Archer, 1933 Notes Hood Phillips, Owen, Shakespeare and the Lawyers, London: Routledge, 1957 (reprint 2005) 1. For the Molyneux Globe of 1592, see D. B. Quinn, Hotson, Leslie, The First Night of ‘Twelfth Night’ The Roanoke Voyages, 1584–90(1955: 850). London: Rupert Hart-David, 1954 Mark Monmonier (2004: 11) has described the Kaufman, Helen A., “Nicolò Secchi as a source of Wright–Molyneux map. See C. E. A. Bedwell Twelfth Night”, SQ, 5 (1954), 271–80 A Brief History of the Middle Temple (1909: 83) Lothian, J. M. & T. W. Craik (eds), Twelfth Night, for the acquisition of the globes. London: Arden, 1975 2 Nelson (23–5) describes how the young earl Mahood, M. M. (ed.), Twelfth Night, Harmondsworth: attended Queens’ College, Cambridge and (37) Penguin, 1968 how his daily educational timetable at Cecil Mallin, E. S., Inscribing the Time: Shakespeare and House (37) included two hours of French and the End of Elizabethan England, Berkeley: two hours of Latin. Oxford enrolled at Gray’s University of California Press, 1995 Inn in 1567 (Nelson, 46) but his purchase of Moore Smith, G. C. (ed.), Laelia, Cambridge: CUP, expensive books in French, Italian and Latin 1910 showed literary interests. Oxford spent about a Nelson, Alan, Monstrous Adversary, Liverpool: LUP, year (1575–6) in Italy where an Italian servant 2003 testified to the earl’s proficiency in Italian and Ogburn, Charlton, The Mysterious William Shakespeare, Latin (Nelson, 121–41; 155–7). Virginia: EPM, 1984 Race, S., “Manningham’s Diary: the case for Re- examination” in N&Q, 199, 1954, 380–3 Other Cited Works Warren, Roger, & Stanley Wells (ed.), Twelfth Night or what you Will, Oxford: OUP, 1994 Arlidge, Anthony, Shakespeare and the Prince of Love: Weir, Alison, Elizabeth the Queen, London: Pimlico, The Feast of Misrule in the Middle Temple, 1998 London: Giles de la Mare, 2000 Wells, Stanley & Gary Taylor (eds), William Alexander, Peter, Shakespeare’s Life and Art, London: Shakespeare: The Complete Works, Oxford: James Nisbet, 1939 OUP, 1986 Anderson, Mark, “Shakespeare” by Another Name, Wells, Stanley & Gary Taylor, William Shakespeare: A New York: Penguin, 2005 Textual Companion, Oxford: OUP, 1987 Blakemore Evans, G. (ed.), Riverside Shakespeare, New Wiggins, Martin (ed.) British Drama 1533–1642: A York: Houghton Mifflin, 1997 Catalogue, Volume IV: 1598–1602. Oxford, Boas, F. S., The University Drama in the Tudor Age, OUP, 2014 Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1914 Bullough, Geoffrey, Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare, vol. II, London: Routledge and