General play quotes

• If music be the food of love, play on. Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die.


  First lines of play; Duke Orsino's opinion of love, gives insight as to what he really feels toward Olivia: lust.
• O spirit of love! How quick and fresh art thou


  What Duke Orsino in opening says about how fast-changing love is
• So full of shapes is fancy that it alone is high fantastical


  What Duke Orsino says in opening monologue about love being a fantasy/ illusion. Duke Orsino relates the idea of overpowering love to the imagination, raising the question of whether romantic live has more to do with the person who is loved or with the lover's own imagination. Hints at illusions in the play.
• And though that nature with a beauteous wall doth oft close in pollution.


  What Viola says to the Captain after he agrees to help her disguise herself as a eunuch in order to serve Duke Orsino. She says that his behavior is fair and that though she believes him to be genuine, oftentimes one cannot take things for face value
• Diana's lip is not more smooth and rubious; thy small pipe is as the maiden's organ, shrill and sound. All is semblative a woman's part.


  How Duke Orsino compliments Viola/Cesario's beauty, showing that he feels some subconscious attraction to her/him and foreshadowing the ending of the play where the Duke and Viola marry. Dramatic Irony.
• Who'er I woo, myself would be his wife.


  Viola says this about Duke Orsino after he sends her to woo Olivia on his behalf. Provides the first hint of a love triangle in the play as Viola admits she is falling for the Duke. Irony.
• Lady, cucullus non facit monachum; that's as much to say I wear not motley in my brain.


  Feste says this to Olivia after she commands her attendants to "take the fool away." In this quote, Feste states that just because he dresses like a fool or jester (in motley) this does not mean he is a fool. Cucullus non facit monachum= the cowl does not make the monk
• Make me a willow cabin at your gate, and call upon my soul within the house.


  What Viola, disguised as Cesario, tells Olivia when she asks what (s)he would do if (s)he was in love with someone who didn't love him back.
• Poor lady, she were better love a dream. Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness.


  Viola says this in a soliloquy when she suspects Olivia has fallen in love with her after her ploy with the ring. Viola laments the trickery she has had to engage in and admits that it has caused much trouble. Her deception will lead to much pain for Olivia, just as it has caused much pain in Viola's own relationship with the Duke.
• O time, thou must untangle this, not I. It is too hard of a knot for me to untie.


  Here Viola refers to the twisted love triangle she has found herself in and realizes that it is too messy a situation for her to get out of on her own.
• Journeys end in lovers meeting.


  Feste songs this in a song to Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Sir Toby Belch. Exemplifies the theme of love prevalent in the play and foreshadows the happy ending: Olivia and Sebastian married, the Duke and Viola together, Sir Toby and Maria married
• Our fancies are more giddy and infirm, more longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn, than women's are.


  In this scene, Duke Orsino presents Cesario with some love advice and attempts to explain that women are not capable of loving like men do because their "hearts lack retention." However, he contradicts himself here, saying that men's love is inconstant and fickle, and that that's why men must marry younger women.
• Thy mind is a very opal!


  In this quote Feste accuses Duke Orsino's mind and emotions of being extremely inconstant and ever-changing by comparing him to an opal, since opals change color depending on the light.
• I do not now fool myself, to let my imagination jade me, for every reason excites to this, that my lady loves me.


  Malvolio has been completely fooled by Maria's plot and has been set up properly for later humiliation in the play. Dramatic irony.
• This fellow's wise enough to play the fool, and to do that well craves a kind of wit.


  Viola says this about Feste and this verbalizes what everyone in the audience must be thinking- that Feste is too smart for the role that he has been assigned in the play
• I have one heart, one bosom, and one truth, and that no woman has; nor never none shall mistress be of it, save I alone.


  Here Viola speaks in riddles. As Cesario, she claims to Olivia that no woman will ever have a hold over her heart- only Viola herself. So she is telling the truth, however her words are interpreted differently by Olivia
• I'm as mad as he, if sad and merry madness equal be.


  Olivia expresses her deep sadness due to the fact that Cesario/Viola does not reciprocate her love. She says she is as mad as Malvolio is crazy.
• Thou hast, Sebastian, done good feature shame. In nature, there is no blemish but the mind.


  Antonio says this to Viola/Cesario, mistaking him for Sebastian. Antonio accuses Sebastian of putting his good looks to shame by refusing to return Antonio's money to Antonio. Through this line, Viola realizes that her brother is still alive. Hey
• Nor your name is not Master Cesario; nor this is not my nose neither. Nothing that is so is so.


  In this scene, Feste has confused Sebastian for Cesario, and when Sebastian claims not to know Feste, Feste utters this line. Irony.
• I say there is no darkness but ignorance


  In this quote Feste claims that nothing is more dark than ignorance, showing wisdom that is uncharacteristic of a fool. He also directly implicates Malvolio's ignorance, as he will respect Feste when he cannot see him but condemn him as lass when he can.
• And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.


  Feste through this quote references the motif of time in the play. In act 2, scene 3, Viola said "O time, thou must untangle this not I; it is too hard a knot for me to untie." Feats mentions that time has finally solved the conflict of the play.
• A little hung would make me tell them how much I lack of a man.


  Viola, in this quote, for the first time expresses the desire to reveal her true identity due to the extreme fear she has as she has been forced into a duel with Sir Andrew, who has been painted as a trained killer by Sir Toby.
• Sebastian: Antonio, my name is


  Sebastian, which I called Roderigo
• Sebastian: Before you took me from the breach


  of the sea was my sister drowned.
• Viola: Fortune forbid my


  outside have not charmed her
• Viola: I am

  the man!
• Viola: My master loves her deeply and I ,


  poor monster, fond as much on him.
• Malvolio: My masters are


  you mad?
• Malvolio: Have you no wit,


  manners nor honesty?
• Sir T: Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous,


  there shall be no more cakes and ale?
• Sir A: I was


  adored once too
• Orsino: For women are as roses, whose fair flower, being once display`d,


  doth fall that very hour.
• Viola: My father had a daughter


  lov`d a man -
• Malvolio: Calling my officers about me,

  in my branched velvet gown
• Sir T: I could marry this


  wench for this device
• Viola: I am all the daughters of my father`s house,


  and all the brothers too.
• Maria: Marry, sir sometimes he is


  kind of a puritan