ABSTRACT
The fact that the most delightful of Shakespeare's comedies was on the boards in the sixteen-sixties, when Pepys saw it more than once, 'a silly play', he calls it, 'and not related at all to the name or day', may well be misleading. For though, in 1703, Twelfth Night furnished ideas and a certain number of lines to a negligible piece by William Burnaby called Love Betray'd, it was not acted again until 1741, this time, we may be certain, without the slightest guidance from tradition. In one of two Twelfth Night promptbooks prepared by George Becks, when Sir Toby says 'Let me see thee caper', Sir A does so, Sir Toby taps his cane on stage, higher &c. Dyce, in 1853, could well remember that, when Twelfth Night was revived at Edinburgh many years ago, Terry, who then acted Malvolio, had 'straw about him', on his release from durance.
