W E have followed the reaching consequences of that
memorable Twelfth Day at Whitehall north to
Archangel and south to Rome and Madrid. Notable
abroad, it was unluckily obscured on its home soil in
England by the rebellion of Essex, which 'followed
hard upon'. The rude shock of the Sunday hurly-burly
in London, and the tragic end of that spoiled darling of
the populace on Tower Hill a few weeks after Twelfth
Night, at once threw present memory of that high feast
and genial entertainment into shadow.

Latter-day historians have been so absorbed in tracing
the imminent crisis of conspiracy as to neglect the two
significant events of state on Twelfth Day 1600/1: the
League with Russia, and the visit of the sovereign of Tus-
cany's chief assistant. And modern students of Shake-
speare are more likely to have heard of the examination of
the player Augustine Phillips -- on how Shakespeare's
company came to revive the stale Richard II at the Globe
the very day before Essex's rising -- than to be aware
that Don Virginio Orsino, the Duke, was entertained on
the preceding Twelfth Night at Whitehall. ¹ Our fresh

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