But no words of mine, I fear, will justify to others my own sense of this delectable workmanship.  I can hardly think of any thing else in the whole domain of Poetry so inspiring of the faith that “every flower enjoys the air it breathes.”  The play, indeed, abounds in wild, frolicsome graces which cannot be described; which can only be seen and felt; and which the hoarse voice of Criticism seems to scare away, as the crowing of the cocks is said to have scared away the fairy spirits from their nocturnal pastimes.  I know not how I can better dismiss the theme than with some lines from Wordsworth, which these scenes have often recalled to my thoughts: 

                    “Nature never did betray
    The heart that lov’d her; ’tis her privilege
    Through all the years of this our life to lead
    From joy to joy:  for she can so inform
    The mind that is within us, so impress
    With quietness and beauty, and so feed
    With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,
    Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,
    Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all
    The dreary intercourse of daily life,
    Shall e’er prevail against us, or disturb
    Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold
    Is full of blessings.”

TWELFTH NIGHT; OR, WHAT YOU WILL.

The comedy of Twelfth Night; or, What You Will, was never printed, that we know of, during the author’s life.  It first appeared in the folio of 1623:  consequently that edition, and the reprint of it in 1632, are our only authorities for the text.  Fortunately, in this instance, the original printing was very good for that time; the few errors have proved, for the most part, easy of correction; so that the text offers little matter of difficulty or disagreement among editors.

In default of positive information, this play was for a long time set down as among the last-written of the Poet’s dramas.  This opinion was based upon such slight indications, gathered from the work itself, as could have no weight but in the absence of other proofs.  No contemporary notice of the play was discovered till the year 1828, when Mr. Collier, delving among the “musty records of antiquity” stored away in the Museum, lighted upon a manuscript Diary, written, as was afterwards ascertained, by one John Manningham, a barrister who was entered at the Middle Temple in 1597.  Under date of February 2d, 1602, the author notes, “At our feast we had a play called Twelfth Night, or What You Will, much like The Comedy of Errors, or Menechmi in Plautus, but most like and near to that in the Italian called Inganni.”  The writer then goes on to state such particulars of the action, as fully identify the play which he saw with the one now under consideration.  It seems that the benchers and members of the several Inns-of-Court were wont to enrich their convivialities with a course of wit