the arid sands of his Bracton and his Fleta; and here its gentle satire upon the vain and the foolish penetrated into the natural heart of some grave and formal dispenser of justice, and made him look with tolerance, if not with sympathy, upon the mistakes of less grave and formal fellowmen; and here its ever-gushing spirit of enjoyment,—of fun without malice, of wit without grossness, of humour without extravagance,-taught the swaggering, roaring, overgrown boy, miscalled student, that there were higher sources of mirth than affrays in Fleet Street, or drunkenness in Whitefriars. The Globe has perished, and so has the Blackfriars. The works of the poet who made the names of these frail buildings immortal need no associations to recommend them; but it is yet pleasant to know that there is one locality remaining where a play of Shakspere was listened to by his contemporaries; and that play, 'Twelfth Night.' Dr. Hermann Ulrici, in his interesting volume on "Shakspeare's Dramatic Art," has given the following explanation of the double title of this comedy: "With great propriety it is only in the title that the author gives the slightest hint or information how the whole is to be taken. Twelfth Night' was, in ancient times, the prelude to the merry season of Shrovetide, and this day was set apart for convivial games and festivities of every kind. In the evening a king was usually elected from the assembled company, by the lot of the bean baked in the cake, who thereupon had to select a queen, and constitute a mimic court, who are to pay punctual obedience to the behests of their fortuitous sovereign, and sustain with wit and humour their several characters. Games of chance were peculiar favourites on this festive evening, and Tieck justly remarks, that Sebastian, Viola, and Maria (we may add the Duke also, and Olivia, to the number), win great and important prizes, in the lottery of life, and Malvolio alone, who thinks he holds the highest prize safe in his hands, draws a blank. The title, therefore, corresponds entirely to the spirit and essence of the piece, which sets forth life itself, like the Feast of the Three Kings, as a merry and fantastic lottery. The second title, 'What you Will,' is still more clear and significant. It refers, no doubt, to the relation between the public and the piece, but not in the inadmissible sense in which some have understood it, as if poesy could take any meaning and signification that the spectator might choose to assign to it. For such is never the case; for poesy has no other law of its creations than its own will, and whatever it presents, is, by an intrinsic necessity, even such as she offers it. But because the groundwork of the piece is the general comic view itself; and because it does not here assume any modification, but all its motives and elements are put forth at once, it is left to the spectator to select at pleasure from them all, and to give to the whole the special signification and reference that may suit him, and apply it according to his own personal humour and circumstances." Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act V. sc. 3. ANTIGONUS, a Sicilian lord. Appears, Act II. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act III. sc. 3. CLEOMENES, a Sicilian lord. Appears, Act III. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act V. sc. 1. Appears, Act III. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act V. sc. 1. Appears, Act II. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act III. sc. 2. ROGERO, a Sicilian gentleman. Appears, Act V. sc. 1. An Attendant on the young Prince Mamillius. Officers of a Court of Judicature. Appear, Act III. sc. 2. POLIXENES, King of Bohemia. Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act V. so. 3. FLORIZEL, Son to Polixenes. Appears, Act IV. sc. 3. Act V. sc. 1; sc. 3. ARCHIDAMUS, a Bohemian lord. Appears, Act I. sc. 1. A Mariner. Appears, Act III. sc. 3. |