REVIVAL OF SHAKESPEARE'S "TWELFTH NIGHT"

Otago Witness, Issue 2250, 15 April 1897, Page 10

REVIVAL OF SHAKESPEARE'S "TWELFTH NIGHT"

AT THE MIDDLE TEMPLE. Tli9 following is au extract; from a lefctar from a bencher of the Middle Templa to hit brother in Dunedin :—: — "The Elizabethan Sbage Society requested the permission of the treasurer and benchers of the Middle Temple to revive Shakespeare'a j play ' Twelfth N'ght ' (which was flrat prej sented in the Middle Temple Hell iatbe yew: j 1601) before the treasurer and masters of the bench. On Wednesday, February 10, and Thursday, February 11, each bencher was invited to be j-reseut with too ladies. The function was too interesting to be missed, and so I resolved to be present, with our two daughters. It was most interesting. The hall wis crammed. The Prince of Wales was present, as were many of the nobility. We had excellent paces in the row next to the front row, in which the Prince of Wales was fitting. Tho play was acted in the manner in which (according to the diary of a student of the Middle» Temple extending from 1601 to 1603 found in the Buiish Museum in 1823) it was presented , in February, 1601. It was not divided into act*,' and there was no interval in the course o£ the play. The costumes were o£ 'the Elizabethan period. The Du'se of Illyria's household was a reproduction of thab of Q's*en Elizabeth* court. The music was of the time of Shakespeare, and the instruments wore of that period — virginals, bass viol, the lute, and treble viol. You will gather from this inadequate description how intensely interesting was the revival of the play in the p!ac^ and ia the manner in which it was first produced I nearly three centuries ago."