Twelfth Night
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Twelfth Night est comoedia Gulielmi Shakesperii. In editione in folio (titulo Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories & Tragedies) anno 1623 primum edita est. Fons quo usus est auctor fuit collectaneum fabularum a Barnaba Riche anno 1581 congessum, Riche's Farewell to Military Profession, ubi eadem historia, nominibus autem aliis, comprehenditur (titulo "Of Apolonius and Silla"). Riche hanc historiam minime finxit sed ex alia quadam extraxit, olim Italiane in ludo scaenico Gl'ingannati anno 1531 praesentata, postea oratione soluta a Matthaeo Bandello scripta et in opere suo Novelle anno 1554 edita.
Comoedia die 2 Februarii 1602 docta est (an et antea nescitur). Id satis constat ex ephemeride Ioannis Manningham, eo tempore iuris prudentiae apud Templum Medium discipuli:
- At our feast we had a play called "Twelve Night, or What You Will", much like "The Comedy of Errors" or "Menaechmi" in Plautus, but most like and near to that in Italian called "Inganni". A good practice in it to make the steward believe his lady-widow was in love with him, by counterfeiting a letter as from his lady, in general term telling him what she liked best in him and prescribing his gesture in smiling, his apparel, etc. and then, when he came to practice, making him believe they took him for mad.[1]