Twelfth Night Quotes

• “If music be the food of love, play on,

  Give me excess of it; that, surfeiting,

  The appetite may sicken, and so die.” Orsino Act 1 Scene 1 (Motif)
• “If you will lead these graces to the grave

  And leave the world no copy.” Cesario Act 1 Scene 5 (Irony and Parody)
• “Make me a willow cabin at your gate…

  Write loyal cantons of contemned love…

  Cry out 'Olivia!’” Cesario Act 2 Scene 5 (Imagery and Juxtaposition)
• “What is love? Tis not hereafter; 

  Present mirth hath present laughter” Feste  Act 2 Scene 3 (Parallelism)
• “She sat like patience on a monument,

  Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed? We men may say more, swear more; but indeed / Our shows are more than will, for still we prove / Much in our vows but little in our love." (Metaphor and Paradox)
• “So full of shapes is fancy

  That it alone is high fantastical.” Orsino Act 1 Scene 2 (Symbolism of hallucinations, Foreshadowing)
• “Thy small pipe

  Is as the maiden's organ, shrill and sound,

  And all is semblative a woman's part.” Orsino Act 1 Scene 4 (Dramatic Irony)
• “My purpose, indeed, is a horse of that color.” Maria Act 2 Scene 3 (Idiom)
• “This fellow's wise enough to play the fool,

  And to do that well craves a kind of wit.” Cesario Act 3 Scene 1 (Paradox)
• “Why have you suffered me to be imprisoned,

  Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest,

  And made the most notorious geck and gull” Malvolio Act 5 Scene 1 (Rhestorical Question and Tone of lamentation”
• “Conceal me what I am” Viola Act 1 Scene 2  (Metaphor)
• “I can write very like my lady your niece: on a forgotten matter we can hardly make

  distinction of our hands.” Maria Act 2 Scene 3 (Dramatic Irony)
• “My purpose is, indeed, a horse of that color.” Maria Act 2 Scene 3 (Idiom) This moment brings reveals how deception and disguise can be used against an individual, to hurt instead of the help.
•  “this letter will make a contemplative idiot of him” Maria Act 2 Scene 5 (Metaphor)
• “Pistol him, pistol him.” Sir Andrew Act 2 Scene 5 (Epizeuxis)
• “thou hast put him in such a dream that when the image of it leaves him he must run mad.” Sir Toby Act 2 Scene 2 (Hyperbolic Language)
• “He will come to her in yellow stockings, and ’tis a color she abhors” Maria Act 2 Scene 5 (Dramatic irony) This creates a sense of anticipation and amusement as the audience anticipates the comedic misunderstanding that will likely occur when the character arrives wearing the disliked color.
• “Or I am mad, or else this is a dream.” Sebastian  Act 5 Scene 1 (dichotomy)
• “We took him for a coward, but he’s the very devil incardinate.” Sir Andrew Act 5 Scene 1 (Hyperbolic Language) 
• “How have you made division of yourself? 

  An apple, cleft in two.” Antonio Act 5 Scene 1 (Simile)
• “Why have you suffered me to imprisonment. Kept me in a dark room visited by the priest, and made the most notorious geck and gull of me?” Malvolio Act 5 Scene 1 ( Re historical question and Alliteration) Malvolio is certainly arrogant, dull, and hates any kind of fun, but the punishment he suffers seems to far outweigh his "crimes," and the glee the other characters derive from his suffering often feels downright cruel.
• “I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you.” Malvolio Act 5 Scene 1 (Foreshadowing)
• “For the rain it raineth every day” Feste Act 5 Scene 1 (Pathos)