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On the 6th of January 1601, a comedy was performed at the court of Queen Elizabeth to honour the arrival in England of Duke Virginio Orsino of Bracciano.

Many believe that the play was Twelfth Night, because this genteel comedy presents a charming Duke Orsino as the romantic lead. In addition, the 6th of January is the Twelfth Night of the Epiphany and there is no reference to any "Twelfth Night" in the text, i.e. there is no other justification for the title of the play.

The first documented performance of the play was not on Twelfth Night but in February a year later.

In this post we detail documentary evidence that strongly supports this earlier date and the close involvement of England’s ambassador to France, Sir Henry Neville.

The lost Sebastian

Twenty two years earlier, in 1578, the young King Sebastian of Portugal had charged into battle in Morocco and disappeared without trace. Although five years later a body was returned to Portugal, nevertheless all of Europe continued to pray that the heroic "lost" Sebastian would one day be found safe, and return to reclaim his throne.

In November 1600 Sebastian was of enormous interest in Elizabeth’s court because new, credible reports had confirmed that finally, miraculously, he may have been found alive (1). 

The lost Sebastian, King of Portugal (Sofonisba Anguisola, 1572)

7 weeks before performance - Sebastian

Sir Henry Neville was so intrigued by these reports that he urged his secretary in France (Ralph Winwood) to investigate and to report back (2).

Neville to Winwood, 15th November 1600

In Twelfth Night, Viola's twin is another lost Sebastian, a young nobleman castaway.

As in Neville’s letter (above) at the end of the play Viola identifies her lost brother Sebastian by a token upon her father’s body:

Viola: My father had a mole upon his brow.

Sebastian: And so had mine.

Indeed, another letter attempting to identify Sebastian lists 22 marks and signs which the King of Portugall Dom Sebastian beares naturally on his body. (3)

The very last of these "marks or signs" is:

22. Another upon the right eye-brow.

6 weeks before performance - Duke Orsino

Winwood sent Neville intelligence from France that Duke Virginio Orsino was travelling to England in disguise (4).

Neville was the only person in England who knew this secret.

Winwood to Neville - 20 November, 1600

12 nights before performance 

Even more remarkably, Winwood referred Duke Orsino to Sir Henry Neville to introduce him to the English Court.

 Winwood to Neville - 4 December, 1600 (received 25 December)

Neville's detailed reply to Winwood on 28th December states that he did not receive Winwood's advice until Christmas day. This would allow only 12 days for the play to be amended, and for the actors to integrate these changes before performance on the 6th January. Happily, the changes extended only to updating the name and title of the romantic lead to Duke Orsino. No-one in England had more time to arrange all than Neville. Nevertheless, there is evidence that the name was changed in a hurry. In two instances at the start of the play, Orsino is referred to as “Duke”, whereas for the remainder of the play he is referred to as “Count”. We may infer from this that originally the character was intended to be a Count - a lower rank than a Duke and arguably more consistent with the action of the play.

The performance

In London, the Queen put on a lively play for Duke Orsino. As noted, many have argued that this play was Twelfth Night.

The principal argument against the play being Twelfth Night is the extreme unlikelihood that Shakespeare could have known in advance of Orsino’s visit.

Certainly, from Christmas day in 1600, only Sir Henry Neville knew.

1 week after performance

Winwood sent the disappointing news that the King of France had been informed that the prisoner was not Sebastian but an impostor.

Winwood to Neville - 13 January, 1601

3 weeks after performance

Neville replied to Winwood concerning Orsino’s entertainment. 

Neville to Winwood - 29 January, 1601

Further evidence of a 1601 date

The full title of Shakespeare's play is Twelfth Night, or What you Will. Interestingly, in 1601 a play by John Marston was first performed, called What you Will.

Beyond the similarity of the titles, there are several striking correspondences:

1) Twelfth Night presents Sebastian as a castaway thought dead who encounters his disguised double (his sister Viola). What you Will presents Albano as a castaway thought dead who encounters his disguised double (Francisco).

2) Sebastian in Twelfth Night and Albano in What you Will struggle to makes sense of their mistaken identities in very similar sensory terms (click to zoom in):

3) Sebastian and Albano both confirm their identities with reference to distinguishing marks (as with the "tokens" on King Sebastian's body referred to by Neville, above):

4) Both plays feature a Duke whose opening speech consists of instructions to musicians: 

Duke Orsino's entrance in Twelfth Night are the memorable opening lines of the play, "If music be the food of love, play on". It is possible that Shakespeare was referencing  Marston's character, but the reverse seems much more likely - that Marston was referencing an earlier performance of the brilliant Twelfth Night.

Necessarily then, this performance of Twelfth Night must have occurred earlier, i.e. in 1601 or before.

Conclusion

The documentary evidence above demonstrates that only Sir Henry Neville knew of Duke Orsino's secret visit to London in late 1600. Indeed, Orsino had been directed to Neville personally. Similarly, recovery of the lost King Sebastian of Portugal was of particular interest to Neville, and as Ambassador to France he had exclusive access to intelligence from the French court.

From these two circumstances we conclude that there is no-one better placed than Sir Henry Neville to have amended, at the very least, Twelfth Night for this celebratory performance. There is no evidence, nor likelihood, that Shakespeare could have had access to the intelligence concerning Duke Orsino.  Indeed, given the danger to Duke Orsino, it would seem unlikely in the extreme that Sir Henry Neville would have passed this intelligence concerning the secret visit onto anyone outside of the Privy Council.

(1) Neville's interest in Sebastian of Portugal coinciding with the presentation of Twelfth Night is first noted in Casson, J. and Rubinstein, W. Sir Henry Neville was Shakespeare: The evidence, Amberley, 2016. pp104-5.

(2) The extracts from letters above are from: Memorials of affairs of state in the reigns of Q. Elizabeth and K. James I. by Winwood, Ralph, Sir, 1563?-1617; Sawyer, Edmund, d. 1759, ed. Sourced from Archive.org 

(3) I'm grateful to Ken Feinstein for directing me to this documentary account of the search for Sebastian.

(4) The evidence of Neville's involvement with Duke Orsino was first observed in James, B, and Rubinstein, W, The Truth Will Out, Pearson, 2005. pp132-6.

Duke Virginio Orsino of Bracciano