Philomusus. ‘Now is the winter of our discontent
Philomusus.Made glorious summer by the sun of York.’
Burbage. Very well, I assure you!
VIII. Twelfth Night, 1602.
Extract from diary of John Manningham,[1] February 2, 1602, alluding to performance in the Middle Temple.
At our feast we had a play called Twelve Night, or What you Will, much like the Comedy of Errors or Menechmi 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 in general terms, telling him what she liked best in him, and prescribing his gesture in smiling, his apparel, &c., and then when he came to practice making him believe they took him to be mad.
IX. Hamlet and Richard II acted at sea, 1607, 1608.
Notes of Captain William Keeling of the East India Co. ship Dragon, off Sierra Leone, 1607, 1608.[2]
September 5. I sent the interpreter, according to his desire, aboard the Hector, where he broke fast and after came aboard me, where we gave the tragedy of Hamlet.
September 30. Captain Hawkins dined with me, where my companions acted King Richard the Second.
March[3] 31. I invited Captain Hawkins to a fish
- ↑ Compare ante, p. 39.
- ↑ These notes were first printed in 1849 by Thomas Rundall from a manuscript not now available. Their authenticity is vindicated by F. S. Boas, Shakespeare and the Universities, 1923, pp. 84 ff.
- ↑ The date was printed by Rundall as ‘September 31’ (sic), but corrected in manuscript, probably by Rundall, as above.
