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courtesy, and joyfully accepted an invitation to supper on the following evening. He went, he loved; and Julina did not suffer him to languish in despair. Reflecting on what had passed, Silvio clearly perceived that he had been mistaken for some other person: apprehensive, therefore, that Julina's discovery of her error might plunge him into difficulty, he determined to quit Constantinople and resume his journey in search of Silla.

When the duke again preferred his suit to Julina, she silenced his importunity by the reply, that she had transferred her power to another; and it quickly reached the ears of Apolonius that he was rejected in favour of his page, on whom the most profuse and lavish favours were bestowed. Piqued and enraged, he cast the supposed offender into prison in spite of his most vehement protestations of innocence.

Julina found it necessary to take some active steps for the preservation of her fame; and she accordingly resolved to wait upon the duke and claim Silvio as her husband. Apolonius could not but believe his page to be the most despicable of hypocrites; and he was confirmed in his opinion by the perseverance of Silvio in asseverations of his guiltlessness, even when assured by Julina herself of protection, and conjured, by

every motive of honour and of gratitude, to declare the truth and rescue her reputation from destruction.

Moved by compassion for a lady he had long tenderly loved, and disgusted to the last degree with what he imagined the unparalleled effrontery and villany of his page, the duke solemnly swore to put Silvio to death upon the spot without he made honourable reparation to Julina. It being no longer possible to dissemble, Silla solicited a private interview with her accuser, and on that occasion revealed her sex and told her tale.

When Apolonius was informed of these circumstances, he instantly recognised the daughter of his benefactor, the governor of Cyprus, and struck with admiration at love and disinterestedness so unequivocal, immediately directed the commencement of preparations for the solemnisation of his nuptials with her. The fame of events so extraordinary was bruited through every corner of the country; and it no sooner came to the knowledge of Silvio than he comprehended the whole affair, and hastened back to Constantinople. His marriage with Julina concludes the tale.

It will be immediately perceived that this story contains many particulars of the play, of which Shakspeare could not have received the most distant hint from the Italian novel. Here the

prototype of Orsino is, like himself, a duke, and not a private citizen, as the hero of the other tale. Lattantio first returned the passion of the maid who loved him, and the design of her disguise is not to make an original conquest, but to reclaim his affections. The dukes know no attachment but to the ladies to whom the pages are sent, till they are rejected by those scornful beauties. They are then subdued by the fidelity of their disguised lovers.

There is no shipwreck in Bandello; but the heroine of the English story is cast away, and her life with difficulty is saved: hence the shipwreck of Viola on the coast of Illyria. But it must not be concealed, that, after all, the separation of Sebastian and Viola, in the play, assimilates more closely to a tale in the Heccatommithi than to either of those already mentioned. Cinthio relates the story of a gentleman, who, falling under the displeasure of the King of Naples, leaves that country with his two children, a boy and a girl, bearing a strong resemblance to each other. Their vessel is wrecked, and their father is lost; but the two children getting safely to the shore are brought up, unknown to each other, by different persons. Shakspeare's Sebastian and Viola are twins and orphans separated by shipwreck; each is ignorant that the other had

survived, and both are indebted to strangers for their preservation.

Shakspeare makes no mention of the occurrences of Viola's voyage previous to the shipwreck. Silla narrowly escaped violation by the master of the vessel; but the dramatic captain is a humane and honourable man, and zealously assists Viola in her distress.

It has been thought improbable that Viola, shipwrecked on a foreign shore, should immediately form the plan of captivating an unknown prince, and of supplanting the lady whom he loved. The novel of Bandello does not solve the difficulty; but we learn from the English tale, that the lady had long previously loved the prince; that she had forsaken her friends and country in pursuit of him. With such violence of attachment, and, after such sacrifices, her resolution to surmount every interposing difficulty is natural; and Viola's conduct is only chargeable with incongruity because Shakspeare has neglected to represent, or narrate, the circumstances that constitute her justification. It is this forgetfulness that has also laid Viola open to the charge of indelicacy, since she at present wants the excuse of a previous attachment, which may be urged in defence of the hazardous experiment of that "peerless beauty," Silla. On the other hand,

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Viola is no contemner of the ties of nature, she deserts not her relatives, and flies not from her country in pursuit of a man by whom she is not loved. A helpless, houseless, friendless orphan may be justified in adopting many expedients not to be sanctioned in a female of more happy circumstances.

Viola is endued with all the warmth of romantic love, which characterises the heroine of the novel, who "altogether desirous to please her master cared nothing at all to offend herselfe, followed his businesse with so good a will as if it had been in her own preferment." But no where but in Shakspeare is to be found the fascinating tenderness, the pathetic eloquence, and the thousand charms of mental grace, loveliness, and purity, by which Viola is distinguished.

While Bandello's tale was regarded as the origin of Shakspeare's plot, it was regretted, that he had attributed the actions of a young, thoughtless, and inexperienced girl, the indiscreet and wanton Catella, to one who sways her house, commands her servants, and, in other respects, regulates her affairs "with smooth, discreet, and stable bearing." But Shakspeare followed Riche's fable, and had it not been that he expressly calls her "a virtuous maid," Olivia might

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