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In this article, Dottore Noemi Magri locates Illyria along the southern Adriatic coast from modern-day Dubrovnik in Croatia to Albania. Illyria, also known as Epirus, had been ruled by Dukes called Orsino.
Oxford and Illyria.
Duke Orsino: Historical Accuracy in Twelfth Night
by Noemi Magri
The Venetian Empire and the Adriatic c. 1600
The aim of the present paper is to show the Earl of Oxford’s personal experience, to explain the choice of Illyria and its ruler Orsino in the setting for Twelfth Night. To that purpose, I will reconstruct his travels along the Adriatic, trace the route he covered, and locate the places he may have visited.^1 I will substantiate, with reference to history, that Shakespeare’s Illyria was a precise, well-defined region on the Adriatic, ruled in the past by a historically real ‘Duke Orsino’.
Illyria is the place where the action of Twelfth Night is set and Duke Orsino, the main male character, is the ruler of that country. Why did Shakespeare choose this setting? Various explanations have referred to literary sources, inn talks with merchants or the dramatist’s intention to create a romantic atmosphere, for Illyria may not have been so well known to an Elizabethan audience. Ancient and medieval Illyria was the littoral from Ragusa (Dubrovnik), south along the coast of modern Montenegro (black mountains) and Albania (white, i.e. snow-topped, higher mountains). Owing to the lack of correspondence between the life of William Shakepere of Stratford and the Works , Stratfordian
criticism has always been inclined to disregard the personal experience of the author, his life and environment, and his feelings or thoughts. Of all the major writers of the western world (Europe and the Americas), Shakespeare is the only one whose works have been denied any autobiographical basis.
Firstly, let us consider the literary sources for Shakespeare’s play. It is generally agreed that Twelfth Night is derived from an Italian comedy, Gl’Ingannati , written and first performed in Siena by nobles and humanists of the ‘Accademia degli Intronati’, and first published in Venice in 1537.^2 But Gl’Ingannati is set in Modena, northern Italy, and the name of the main character is Flamminio. Why did Shakespeare set his play in Illyria and why did he choose the Italian name ‘Orsino’? And where was his Illyria? Various editors of the play agree that for his romantic comedy Shakespeare may have wanted to create an atmosphere of phantasy or evoke an imaginary world, so he chose a remote setting, a distant, almost unknown place which in his time had no physical borders nor any political unity.^3 Opinions vary. Arden editors refer to Greek romances or Golding’s translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (the latter mentions the ‘coast of Illirie’) as Shakespeare’s possible source of the geographic name.^4 Torbarina believes that the dramatist had in mind the seacoast of Croatia and had gathered his information from ‘Illyrian sailors and merchants residing in London’.^5 According to Draper, Shakespeare ‘seems to have thought of Illyria as a semi-independent fief of the Holy Roman Empire’.^6 Leslie Hotson argues that Illyria meant to Shakespeare ‘wild riot and drunkenness, and the lawless profession of piracy’.^7 Shakespeare does not describe the place, and because some of the comic characters are modelled on real personages of the English court, and the atmosphere of the play, with its melancholic love and ‘music from the spheres’, is typically Shakespearean, critics contend that Illyria is a ‘nowhere’ country, a place of the imagination, and its ruler, Duke Orsino, a mere invention. Stratfordian critics, for obvious reasons, turn only to literature or hearsay. However, direct experience becomes more and more likely when Edward de Vere is taken as the true author of Shakespeare’s works.
Twelfth Night contains two plots: the shipwreck of the twins and the satire of Court personages, connected to each other by rather weak links, which may suggest that Shakespeare had conceived the two parts in different times. This is, in short, the content of the play: a pair of twins are separately stranded on the coast of Illyria. The sister, Viola, disguised as a page, enters the service of Duke Orsino under the name of Cesario. Orsino is in love with Countess Olivia and sends his page Viola/Cesario to court the lady and bring her presents on his behalf. But Olivia, mourning the recent loss of her father and brother, refuses his love. Here Shakespeare develops one of his peculiar themes - ambiguity: Olivia is conquered by the refined, courtly manners and witty speeches of Cesario, and, in the same way, Orsino is attracted to the noble mind of his affectionate page. Meanwhile, Viola has at once fallen in love with the Duke. The arrival of Sebastian, the twin brother, brings in the denouement with a double marriage: the Duke marries Viola, and the Countess marries Sebastian. The secondary plot, the light part of Twelfth Night , focuses on satirizing personages of the English Court: it forms a separate unit and is linked to the Orsino story only by the fact that the satirical characters are gentlemen belonging to Olivia’s household. Malvolio, one of the gentlemen, is in love with Olivia and dreams of marrying her and becoming ‘Count Malvolio’: he is presumed to be a caricature of Sir Christopher Hatton, faithful to Queen Elizabeth throughout his life.^8
Don Virginio Orsini
The name Orsino is not contained in any of the play’s sources. Hunter noted that ‘Orsino Innamorato’ is a character in Il Viluppo , a comedy by Girolamo Parabosco (1547) but he agreed that there is no evidence that Shakespeare ever read or saw that comedy.^9 In following Sarrazin and Draper,^10 Hotson argues that ‘Orsino’ was suggested by the name of the Duke of Bracciano, Don Virginio Orsini (1572-1615). Bracciano is a small town about twenty miles north of Rome. Don
Oxford could not have composed the play in 1601. Oxford was going through a sad and desperate period of his life: his health was poor, his leg injured and he was in no condition to travel from his house in Hackney to the Court. That he did not take part in the Jan. 6th entertainments is substantiated in the notes of Lord Hunsdon containing lists of names of lords and ladies present at the dinner and performance of the play at Whitehall. The first on the list of ladies is ‘the Countesse of Oxford’, whereas the name of Lord Oxford is not recorded in the list of lords. It is true that de Vere may have learnt from his wife about the Italian guest, but it is also true that on Jan.6th he was not at Court.^20 Hotson’s hypothesis, in spite of its too many conjectures, may sound acceptable to Oxfordians since it would establish another link between de Vere and Italy. However, given the arguments above and historical evidence, ‘Orsino’ is likely to have been suggested by Illyrian history, not by the name of the Italian visitor.
Ancient Illyria, Roman Illyricum, Epirus A historical outline may clarify which period Shakespeare was referring to, and where exactly his Illyria was. Oxford knew well from his reading in the classics^21 that originally Illyria was the coastal region extending north of Greece along the Adriatic and inhabited by tribes of different languages and customs: Illyrians the largest group; other tribes included the Dalmatians, and the Liburni. The Illyrians were a warlike people, strong and aggressive seamen, and skilled shipbuilders: they constructed a new type of galley, the ‘Liburna’ (named after the tribe), a swift ship later constructed also by the Romans, which moved easily between the many rocks and small islands off the Adriatic coast. In the 7th century BC the Greeks started to settle along the coastal region of Illyria and, there, they founded a colony called Apollonia (now an archaeological site known as Valona in Albania), which was a thriving city until adversely affected by an earthquake. Further north, colonists from Corinth founded Epidamnos (later known as Dyrrachium to the Romans, Durazzo to the Italians, and Durrës to the Albanians).^22 With the Roman Empire expanding into Greece, Dyrrachium became an important strategic port, as the landing place for armies, officials, merchants, and travellers crossing from Brindisi (in southern Italy) en route to the East. From here a Roman road, the Via Egnatia, still leads to Thessalonica and Constantinople. Durazzo remained one of the most important trading ports for the on the Adriatic Sea.
At times, the native Illyrians allied with the Greeks. Their greatest king, Bardhyl (385-358 BC) defeated King Perdicca III of Macedonia and ruled Epirus for a while. Shakespeare mentions Bardhyl in 2 Henry VI (IV. i. 107) as ‘Bargulus, the strong Illyrian pirate’. 23 Alexander the Great soon recaptured the lost regions. During the Roman Republic, generals such as Pompey and Julius Caesar tried to curb the Illyrian seafarers, who were feared as dangerous pirates. After more than a century of hard fighting, the pirates were suppressed under the Emperor Augustus. The pirates are depicted in Antony & Cleopatra : in Act I scene iv, Octavius urgently requires the help of Antony to rid the seas of three pirates, Pompey, Menecrates and Menas. In Act II scene vii, the triumvirs make peace with the pirates. In 9 AD the lands from the Danube in the north to Macedonia in the south became a Roman province under the name of Illyricum. Several later Roman emperors were of Illyrian origin: the most famous was Diocletian (284- 305 ).^24 He built the magnificent palace of Spoleto ( Split in Croatia), still extant though turned into apartments by the Turks. Under his rule, the Roman Empire was divided into two parts: East and West. Illyricum became one of the two Prefectures of the East, with Greek as its official language.
Medieval Illyricum
After the fall of the Roman Empire in the west (476 AD), the Prefecture of Illyricum remained under the jurisdiction of the Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire. From that time to 1204 the borders of Illyricum often changed in consequence of barbaric and Slav invasions (5th-10th centuries). The Slav
tribes, that had settled there, founded new states and Illyricum was divided into various kingdoms: Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Dalmatia and others. An important fact for identifying the setting of Twelfth Night is that the littoral with the cities of Dyrrachium and Apollonia remained within the territory of the Byzantine Empire. In 1204 the Crusaders – mainly French and Italian feudal barons – captured Constantinople and divided the Byzantine Empire among themselves. The Republic of Venice thus acquired control of coastal ports along the Adriatic, which they held for almost 600 years against the Slav kings and the Byzantine Emperors.
Shakespeare’s Illyria: the Despotate of Epirus
While the port of Durazzo was ruled by the Venetians, the hinterland now known as Albania, and the coastal area of NW Greece became an independent Greek-Byzantine state, Epirus. It was ruled by a despot (the Greek word for master or in this case Duke) from the Comnenus family, who were related to the Emperors of Byzantium. The word ‘despot’ acquired the meaning of ‘tyrant’, ‘absolute ruler’ much later. The language of administration was Greek.
The last despot of the Comnenus family, Thomas I, was assassinated in 1318 by Nicola Orsini, Count of Cefalonia. As a relative of the Byzantine Emperor, Nicola Orsini justified seizing power and was invested as despot, that is Duke of Epirus (ancient Illyria). The Orsini ruled Epirus for 40 years until 1358 when Nicephorus II Orsini was murdered.^25 For a long period the despotate was disputed by Byzantium, Serbia, and Albania until the beginning of the 15th century when it was again ruled by the descendants of the Orsini, - the Tocco-Orsini, a collateral branch. In 1468, Epirus was seized by the Turks who continued to hold it until it became Independent Albania in 1912. On the coast, the Venetians fortified the port of Durazzo but it finally fell to the Turks in 1501. Nevertheless, Durazzo remained open to traders from Venice throughout the sixteenth century.
Who were the Orsini of Illyria? They were the southern Italian branch of the dominant Orsini family that who had been prominent in the history of Italy, of the Papacy, and of other European states including those in the Balkan peninsula. The name Orsino belongs to the history of Epirus, that is, of Byzantine Illyria.
Orsino, Count and Duke: no error Shakespeare has unjustly been criticized for his (alleged) limited knowledge and incorrect use of royal titles (see Two Gentlemen of Verona , Othello .). It has also been said that he paid little attention to the difference between them. But one detail in Twelfth Night is evidence not only of his knowledge of the existence of the Orsini of Epirus but also of their heraldic titles. In the Stage Directions, speech heading, and four times in Act I, Orsino is called ‘Duke’, but throughout the play the various characters refer to him as ‘Count’: a detail that has been taken as an example of inconsistency or a discrepancy ‘originating in the error of some scribe copying Shakespeare’s foul papers’^26 , or in the dramatist’s carelessness.^27 Torbarina gives a rather odd explanation: in Twelfth Night , ‘duke’ is synonymous with ‘count’.^28 The use of both titles for Orsino is no inconsistency nor error: it is, instead, a precise historical detail. In history, the Orsini of Epirus had the title both of ‘despots’, i.e. ‘dukes’, and, since 1194, of ‘counts’, when Maio (Matteo) Orsini, their forefather, was created Count Palatine of Cefalonia, Zante and Ithaca. The title passed on to Maio’s descendants, including the Orsini of Epirus. The three major Ionian islands, Cefalonia, Zante (Zacynthos) and Ithaca, were ruled by Counts Orsini until the 15th century, when they were seized by the Venetian Republic. In the 16th century. the Orsini family was still flourishing: in 1588, one Nicola Orsini still claimed the title of Count of Kefalonia. In calling Orsino both ‘count’ and ‘duke’, Shakespeare merely drew on history, using historical facts.
‘now last coming from Genoa’. Although Parretti was one of Oxford’s servants, he seems also to have been an informer for Lord Burghley. Peretti also mentions: “His Lordship hurt his knee in one of the Venetian galleys.”^32 So in the summer of 1575, de Vere had been travelling by sea. Elsewhere, he is reported to have been in Palermo at an unknown date (Edward Webb, Travels , 1590). The only time when he could have travelled to Palermo was the summer of 1575, that is, during the four-month period before he called at Genoa.^33
If we allow him time to find a lodging in Venice from his arrival in mid-May and meet some members of the Venetian nobility, it is probable that he left Venice some time in June and reached Sicily after about one month’s navigation. He travelled in one of the many Venetian galleys that regularly transported soldiers, passengers, pilgrims, and merchandise along the customary route southbound, driven by winds along the eastern side of the Adriatic.^34 Some of the ports where the galleys docked were Venetian; others were in foreign countries. In the ports, the galleys were kept in dock for a couple of days: the goods were unloaded and disinfected. Oxford would thus have had the some opportunity to visit such places.
What de Vere did in the cities he visited can be inferred from two scenes in Twelfth Night , one in Act I and the other in Act III, where the characters show what a learned noble of wide interests would do in a foreign country. Scene 2 of Act I opens with the line: ‘What country, friends, is this?’ (I. ii. 1). Viola, the twin sister, is speaking to the Captain, who answers, ‘This is Illyria, lady.’ She laments the death of her brother and the Captain comforts her: he had seen her brother make for the shore; he also says he knows the place because he ‘was bred and born not three hours travel from this very place.’ At this point. we might expect Viola to ask the Captain to take her in at his home or at least to the nearest lodging. Instead. she asks: ‘Who governs here?’ and hearing the answer, she says ‘I’ll serve this duke.’
These are questions which de Vere himself is likely to have asked as he set foot in an unknown city-port in the Adriatic. whether Venetian or any other. He would have tried to meet the dignitaries or rulers of the place, as nobles did when arriving anywhere. In many cases, such people would offer hospitality to the noble traveller. Oxford had a harbinger when he travelled by land, but in the case of a sea journey it would not have been possible for him to use a harbinger.
My second example concerns Sebastian, the twin brother, having safely arrived at a city in Illyria with Antonio, his friend and rescuer, asks him:
Sebastian What’s to do? Shall we go see the relics of this town? Antonio : Tomorrow, sir, best first go see your lodging. Sebastian : I am not weary, and ‘tis long to night. I pray you, let us satisfy our eyes With the memorials and the things of fame That do renown this city. Twelfth Night III. iii. 18-24. It may be that, in writing those lines, de Vere was recalling his visits. ‘Relics’ signifies ‘ancient remains or antiquities’. All the cities on the Adriatic coast were, and still are, renowned for the palaces and rich homes in Venetian architectural style, and for Greek, Roman and Byzantine monuments. The word ‘relic’ also relates to the cult of saints. The churches in those cities preserved, and still do, masterpieces of Venetian gold work: reliquaries, chalices, caskets, and monstrances.
Oxford must have been impressed by the ancient monuments, the pleasantness of the coastal region, and by the religious spirit of the inhabitants if he witnessed a procession in honour of a saint or a religious feast.
After leaving the lagoon, a Venetian merchant ship, probably in a flotilla of ships for safety, would have crossed to the eastern side of the Gulf of Venice (as the Adriatic was called), then coasted along the Istrian peninsula, which had been entirely incorporated into the Venetian Empire in 1420.
Oxford’s possible ports of call in 1575
Passing around the Istrian peninsula, the Venetian galley would then sail some way off Segna [ Senj now in Croatia], ruled by the Kingdom of Hungary and a base for pirates at that time. De Vere would have seen movements of war-galleys in that part of the Gulf, because in 1575, it is recorded, after years of fighting against the Uskoks, the Venetians engaged in a battle under the command of Captain Ermolao Tiepolo, who was resolved to block the port of Segna, so for many months that area swarmed with galleys. Mention is made of Illyrian pirates in 2 Henry VI. The next major port was Zara [ Zadar , an ancient city with impressive new fortifications against the Ottomans]. Sebenico and Trogir were other towns famous for their Venetian buildings and fortifications. The most impressive town along the coast thus far was and is Spolato [Split] with the enormous palace of the Emperor Diocletian.
Moving south-east, we encounter another fine city: Ragusa [ Dubrovnik ] sits on a rocky outcrop and was an important port and trading centre. The architecture of its buildings and fortifications was also Venetian. Large merchant ships were named ‘argosies’ after the city because they were first built there. Shakespeare uses the word ‘argosy’ in three plays.^35 In addition, Shakespeare refers to a notorious pirate from Ragusa in Measure for Measure.^36 Shakespeare gives no description that might identify the place; historically Ragusa lay in Illyria. Josip Torbarina, a Croatian critic, believes that Orsino’s city in Twelfth Night is Ragusa [as does Richard Malim in 2016].^37
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ENDNOTES
The original article was published by Noemi Magri in the De Vere Newsletter in March 2008 and republished in Such Fruits out of Italy (2014). It has been clarified and brought up to date with reference to recent publications. Editor: Kevin Gilvary. 2021.
(^1) A great part of Shakespeare’s dramatic and poetical production has strong links with France and Italy, as shown
by Georges Lambin Voyages de Shakespeare en France et en Italie (Geneva, 1962), translated by W. Ron Hess in an appendix to The Dark Side of Shakespeare , Vol. I (2002). See also Richard Paul Roe The Shakespeare Guide to Italy (2011).
(^2) Bullough lists other possible sources may be the various adaptions or imitations of Gl’Ingannati : Bandello (1554.
Novella II, 36); Cinthio Hecatommithi (1565, Novella VIII, 5, the source of Barnabe Riche’s Apolonius and Silla ,
- Belleforest (1570, IV, 59); Nicolò Secchi, Gl’Inganni (performed 1547, printed 1562): There is also a French version by Charles Estienne, Les Abuzes (Paris, 1540), which had immediate success and was determinant in the development of French drama; other French versions were by Jacques Grévin, Les Esbahis (performed 1560); Jean de la Taille, Les Corrivaux (1562). Laelia , a Latin version of Gl’Ingannati , was performed by the university students of Queens’ College, Cambridge, in 1547, ten years after the first edition of the Italian play. La Comedia de los Engañados (1567) is the first of the many adaptations written in Spanish.
(^3) C.Knight (1839); E.Smith (1926) p.11; M.Luce (1929); O.J.Campbell et al. (1964) p.2.
(^4) J.M. Lothian & T.W.Craik (1975) pp.8, 10.
(^5) J. Torbarina (1964) p.
(^6) W. Draper (1950) p.
(^7) L. Hotson (1954) p.151. Apart from doubtful conjectures, Hotson’s book contains interesting documents.
(^8) Sir Christopher Hatton was Lord Chancellor under Elizabeth I from 1587 until his death in 1591. See Wallace
MacCaffrey ‘Hatton, Sir Christopher, c. 1540-1591’ ODNB (2004) and Malcolm Deacon The Courtier and the Queen. Park Lane Press, (2008). The comic scenes of Twelfth Night reveal that the author, no matter who he was, took the liberty to treat his characters in an impudent, disrespectful, though amusing, way without incurring the Queen’s indignation. Only someone like Lord Oxford of high status could have written Twelfth Night , certainly not Shakspere from Stratford, who would have been prosecuted for it.
(^9) J. Hunter (1845) vol.i, pp.393, 398 quoted in Lothian & Craik (1975) p. xli.
(^10) G. Sarrazin (1896) p.168; J.W.Draper (1950) pp.113-120.
(^11) L. Hotson (1954) pp.35-64.
[According to Valerio Morucci, ‘Poets and musicians in the Roman-Florentine circle of Virginio Orsini’ in Early Music , 43 (2015), Virginio was an important patron of music, including composers such as Caccini, Marenzio and Cavalieri, and some prominent singers of that time. His visit to Protestant England followed his attendance at the wedding of his cousin, Maria de’ Medici, with Henri of Navarre. See R. Zapperi, V irginio Orsini: Un paladino dei palazzi incantati (Sellerio, 1993). Ed .]
(^12) Lothian & Craik (1975) xxiii and xxix. Virginio Orsini’s letter is held in Rome, Archivio Storico Capitolino.
Archivio Orsini. Corrispondenza di Virginio II. SPQR nri. 0394. (Hotson 1954, 226-31)
(^13) Hotson (1954) p. 15
(^14) 1597: Q1 Romeo and Juliet ; Q1 Richard II ; Q1 Richard III ; 1598: King John (Meres); Q1 1 Henry IV ; 1599: Julius
Caesar (Platter); 1600: Much Ado about Nothing (SR); Q1 2 Henry IV ; 1602: Othello (Egerton Papers); 1603: Q Hamlet.
(^31) See Philip Johnson’s article ‘De Vere on the Continent’ in the DVS Newsletter of December 2005. Mark
Anderson “Shakespeare” by another Name (2005) discuss the travels in detail, 79-104.
(^32) Letter from Clemente Peretti to Lord Burghley dated 23 September, from Venice. Cecil Papers, 7/100. A galley was a large, heavy ship used at sea. So Oxford must have been sailing in the Adriatic at least.
(^33) How he returned to Genoa can only be conjectured. However, since he was in Palermo (or at least in
Messina), it is most likely that, from there, he travelled in stages along the west coast of the Italian peninsula, with stops in Naples and Rome before arriving in Genoa.
(^34) It may be asked whether he might have travelled along the Italian coast of the Adriatic rather than the eastern
side, thus stopping at Ancona to visit the courts of Pesaro and Urbino. That western course can be excluded on the grounds of navigability. In the summer, galleys travelling from Venice to the south would take the eastern route because of the favourable winds, whereas the winds off the Italian coast, at a suitable distance for the galleys to travel safely were northbound. Only merchant ships with a shallow draught could sail close to the Italian coast. Such ships were called marciliane , and were mainly used for the transport of salt.
(^35) Shakespeare mentions ‘argosy’, a type of merchant ship associated with Ragusa (Dubrovnik) at 3 Henry VI, II.
vi. 36; Taming of the Shrew II. i. 370-75; and four times in The Merchant of Venice I. i. 9; I. iii. 18; III. i. 92; V. i.
(^36) In Measure for Measure, a provost announces to the Duke: “Here in the prison, father, There died this morning
of a cruel fever One Ragozine, a most notorious pirate.” (IV. iii. 65-68). The name and the allusion to piracy are obscure and unnecessary to the plot. The name Ragozine is taken to mean a person from Ragusa (Dubrovnik), taken with the mention of piracy suggest that the original draft of the play was based in Venice not Vienna.
(^37) Richard Malim in ‘ Twelfth Night : How Much Did De Vere Know of Dubrovnik?’ The Oxfordian 18 (2016, 55-
65). Malim likewise identifies Shakespeare’s Illyria with Ragusa (Dubrovnik) with a study of its rulers: the title of Duke of Illyria was used by the Hapsburgs in the sixteenth century; in 1575, it was one of the subsidiary titles of Archduke Charles (1540-90) the Emperor Ferdinand’s third son.
(^38) For further discussion about Oxford’s stay in Palermo, see the Afterword in ‘Shakespeare’s Bohemia’ by
Noemi Magri.
