ABSTRACT
The existence of an Italian element in Shakespeare’s plays is obvious at first glance, but its nature, provenance and significance have been matters of controversy for years and will probably remain so for many more. The long held general opinion was that he knew Italian novelle in some form and recycled their plots as plays. This is not a false idea, merely an incomplete one. More recent studies contend that Shakespeare also knew the methods of Italian playwrights and actors and drew upon their repertory of interchangeable parts or theatergrams. 1 Among his plays, however, only Twelfth Night elicited evidence that his contemporaries recognized a direct connection with the Italian theater, specifically with the single most popular Italian comedy of the century, celebrated throughout Europe. In a famous note made after a performance of 1602 at a feast of the Gentlemen of the Middle Temple, John Manningham likened the play called “Twelve Night, or What You Will” to the Comedy of Errors or Menaechmi, “but most like and neere to that in Italian called Inganni”. 2
