# Twelfth Night (1922) Yale/Appendix B

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APPENDIX B
The History of the Play
The earliest definite account of the performance of Twelfth Night is given, under date of February 2, 1601–2, in the diary of John Manningham, of the Middle Temple, London:
'At our feast wee had a play called "Twelue Night, or What you Will," much like the Commedy of Errores, or Menechmi in Plautus, but most like and neere to that in Italian called Inganni. A good practise in it to make the Steward beleeve his lady widowe was in love with him, by counterfeyting a letter as from his Lady in generall termes, telling him what shee liked best in him, and prescribing his gesture in smiling, his apparaile, etc., and then when he came to practise making him beleeue they tooke him to be mad.'
The reference to Olivia as a 'widowe' may be due to Manningham's faulty recollection of the exact cause of her mourning or to possible variations in Shakespeare's original text from that later established in the Folio of 1623. This latter theory may perhaps gain color from the fact that, in Riche's Apolonius and Silla, Julina (Olivia) is represented as in mourning for her deceased husband.
Twelfth Night is not among the plays of Shakespeare listed by Meres in 1598. Manningham's explicit account of the plot points to the probable novelty of the comedy when it was chosen for production at the Middle Temple, though it by no means establishes that performance as actually the earliest. It has been conjectured that Shakespeare himself may have played the part either of Malvolio or of Orsino at the Middle Temple festival. Manning​ham's recognition of the importance of the role of Malvolio is supported by other early evidence. Sir Henry Herbert records that on Candlemas Day (February 2), 1623, 'Malvolio was acted at Court by the King's Servants.' The title Twelfe Night in the copy of the Second Folio owned by Charles I was altered to Malvolio. In the Commendatory verses which Leonard Digges prefixed to the 1640 edition of Shakespeare's poems are these lines:
'The Cockpit Galleries, Boxes, all are full To hear Maluoglio that crosse garter'd Gull.'
The importance of Malvolio as a stage-character is thus a long established tradition. The popularity of Twelfth Night at court as well as with the general public is attested not merely by the reference in Herbert's Record but by a manuscript entry of the Audit Office which shows that John Hemminge, later one of two editors of the First Folio, presented the comedy before James I on Easter Monday, 1618.
After the reopening of the theatres in 1660, Twelfth Night resumed its place on the English stage. Pepys gives three characteristic references to it in his Diary under dates of September 11, 1661, January 6, 1662–3, and January 20, 1668–9. On the first occasion the attraction of a 'new play' was irresistible though he 'took no pleasure at all in it' and 'went home with my mind troubled for my going thither, after my swearing to my wife that I would never go to a play without her.' His freer judgment on the second occasion held that the comedy was 'acted well, though it be but a silly play, and not related at all to the name or day.' John Downes in his Roscius Anglicanus (1708) says that the play 'had mighty Success by its well Performance'—with Thomas Betterton as Sir Toby, and Harris as Sir Andrew—but declares that 'it was got up on purpose ​to be Acted on Twelfth Night.' The final dictum of Pepys on Twelfth Night as revived in 1669 was, 'one of the weakest plays that ever I saw on the stage.'
The not infrequent comment that Twelfth Night escaped the perversion so frequently visited on Shakespeare's plays by Restoration adapters apparently neglects Wycherley's abuse of the Viola-Olivia theme in The Plain Dealer (1674)). Wycherley's Fidelia is a debased Viola, his Olivia a wanton who sullies her borrowed name. But despite his disfigurement of character and incident, Wycherley has not defaced his great originals beyond recognition. Early in the eighteenth century, Charles Burnaby, a playwright devoid of Wycherley's undeniable dramatic vigor and vitality, followed him in borrowing from Twelfth Night. Love Betray'd, or the Agreeable Disappointment, produced at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre in 1703, took from Shakespeare's comedy its main incidents and characters and, according to Burnaby's own preface, 'about 50 of the Lines.' He adds: 'Those that are his, I have mark'd with Inverted Commas, to distinguish 'em from mine. I endeavoured where I had occasion to introduce any of 'em, to make 'em look as little like Strangers as possible.' With equal courtesy Burnaby strove to set at ease Shakespeare's characters in the novel depths to which he made them descend. Viola and Sebastian retain their names, but the others are more happily, though but partially, shielded by new masks for old faces. A confidant for Viola and a servant for Sebastian are generously supplied, and the uneasy distinctions of rank and title are thoughtfully minimized in the poverty of dialogue common to all the characters. Apart from the actual verbal borrowings from Shakespeare's text, the consistency with which Burnaby 'transprosed' Twelfth Night will not be questioned seriously. Happily Burnaby's piece failed to gain the success which was ​unworthily won by various similar perversions of other plays of Shakespeare.
During the eighteenth century, revivals of Twelfth Night became increasingly popular. In the 1741 production at Drury Lane, Charles Macklin appeared as Malvolio, Mrs. Pritchard as Viola, Woodward as Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and 'Kitty' Clive as Olivia. On April 15, 1746, Mrs. Woffington—'lovely Peggy'—acted Viola for the first time, with Macklin and Mrs. Clive in their previous roles, and Neale replacing Woodward as Sir Andrew. At the Haymarket Theatre in 1782, Bensley was Malvolio and Palmer Sir Toby Belch. In the Drury Lane production of 1785 they retained the same parts, Dodd acted Sir Andrew, 'Dicky' Suett the Clown, and Mrs. Jordan, for the first time, Viola. Their impersonation of these parts has been fixed as a stage tradition for the readers of Charles Lamb's Elia essay. On Some of the Old Actors. Before the close of the century both John Kemble and 'Jack' Bannister played Malvolio.
Early in the nineteenth century. Twelfth Night shared in the popularity of John Kemble's Shakespearean revivals at Covent Garden Theatre. Although Barrymore reappeared as Orsino, the cast was essentially changed from that of Elia's fondest memories. Liston played Malvolio, Blanchard Sir Andrew, Emery Sir Toby, Fawcett the Clown, Mrs. S. Booth Viola, and Mrs. C. Kemble Olivia. Kemble's acting text transposes the first two scenes of the play and introduces, as Genest notices, 'several names which Shakespeare never dreamt of—among them Roberto, a decided 'sea-change' for Viola's Captain. But to the adaptation and adequate presentation of Twelfth Night Kemble brought his customary powers of dramatic craftsmanship and a spirit of essential respect for Shakespeare's text.
This respect, unhappily, was not shared by Fred​erick Reynolds, who, in 1820, inspired with the zeal of his previous similar attacks upon A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Comedy of Errors, brought out at Covent Garden an operatic version of Twelfth Night. Leigh Hunt, indeed, reviewed the performance with evident delight in the scenery and 'the lyrification of this delightful play' and an uneasy conscience at the 'pickings and stealings' from Shakespeare which he could not quite bring himself to resent properly. That task, however, was assumed by the Reverend John Genest with whole-hearted satisfaction: 'In the Devil's name, why does not Reynolds turn his own plays into Operas?—does he think them so bad, that even with such music as he has put into Twelfth Night, they would not prove successful?—or has he such a fatherly affection for his own offspring, that he cannot find it in his heart to mangle them?'
Since the days of John Kemble, performances of Twelfth Night have been too numerous to note in detail. In the season of 1850–1, it was Charles Kean's most popular success at the Princess's Theatre. In 1865 Miss Kate Terry doubled the parts of Viola and Sebastian in the attempt to solve one of the practical difficulties of stage production. The Lyceum revival of 1884 was marked by Irving's appearance as Malvolio, with Miss Ellen Terry as Viola. Among more recent productions on the English professional stage have been those of Sir J. Forbes-Robertson, Sir Herbert Tree, and the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Outdoor performances of Twelfth Night, such as those of Ben Greet's company, have been frequent.
Twelfth Night was produced in the United States as early as 1794, when it was given in Boston. Its most noteworthy American associations have perhaps been with such interpretations of the part of Viola as those of Adelaide Neilson, Madame Modjeska, and ​Ada Rehan. During the winter of 1917–18 a French translation of the play was successfully given in New York at the theatre of Le Vieux Colombier. Of recent university productions may be noted two in June, 1921—one at Oxford University, in the Garden of Wadham College, the other by the Yale Dramatic Association at its Commencement performance.