Twelfth Night

“O, she that hath a heart of that fine frame

To pay this debt of love but to a brother,

How will she love, when the rich golden shaft

Hath kill'd the flock of all affections else

That live in her; when liver, brain and heart,

These sovereign thrones, are all supplied, and fill'd

Her sweet perfections with one self king!

Away before me to sweet beds of flowers:

Love-thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowers.” 

Orsino says this after a messenger tells him Olivia will not be seen for the next seven years, as she mourns her brother. It shows Orsino’s blind determination to pursue her despite her rejecting his advances, which continues throughout much of the play. For Orsino, Olivia’s rejection only fuels his interest, which may cause the audience to wonder if he would feel as strongly for Olivia if she accepted his suit.

“True, madam: and, to comfort you with chance,

Assure yourself, after our ship did split,

When you and those poor number saved with you

Hung on our driving boat, I saw your brother,

Most provident in peril, bind himself,

Courage and hope both teaching him the practise,

To a strong mast that lived upon the sea;

Where, like Arion on the dolphin's back,

I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves

So long as I could see.

The captain describes seeing Sebastian during the shipwreck to Viola. He suggests that Sebastian may still be alive, foreshadowing his eventual presence that drives the play’s later events and ultimate resolution. Until then, however, Viola believes that her brother is dead.

“Viola: I prithee, and I'll pay thee bounteously,

Conceal me what I am, and be my aid

For such disguise as haply shall become

The form of my intent. I'll serve this duke:

Thou shall present me as an eunuch to him:

It may be worth thy pains; for I can sing

And speak to him in many sorts of music

That will allow me very worth his service.

What else may hap to time I will commit;

Only shape thou thy silence to my wit.

Captain: Be you his eunuch, and your mute I'll be:

When my tongue blabs, then let mine eyes not see.” 

Viola learns she can’t work for Olivia because Olivia refuses to see anyone. It announces Viola’s decision to disguise herself as a man, which initiates the events of the play. A reader of the play may wonder why Viola, a noblewoman, feels the need to the work for either Olivia or Orsino, instead of simply telling them she was shipwrecked and asking for help. However, as becomes clear, the motivations for Viola’s actions are less important than their outcomes. Viola’s decision sets the play’s plot in motion.

“Stand you a while aloof, Cesario,

Thou know'st no less but all; I have unclasp'd

To thee the book even of my secret soul:

Therefore, good youth, address thy gait unto her;

Be not denied access, stand at her doors,

And tell them, there thy fixed foot shall grow

Till thou have audience.” 

Orsino speaks to Cesario just a few days after he first arrives at Orsino’s court. In only a short time, Cesario has gained his trust and affection, intimating that their relationship is singular and charged. Indeed, it seems that Orsino’s bond with Cesario is more authentic than his unreciprocated infatuation with Olivia, foreshadowing their ultimate union when Viola reveals herself. These lines also include Orsino’s directing Cesario to go to Olivia, which instigates the play’s central love triangle.

“I’ll do my best

To woo your lady. (Aside) Yet a barful strife!

Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife.” 

This is the first time in the play that the close relationship between Orsino and Cesario is shown to have an explicitly romantic component since Viola is actually in love with Orsino. 

“Olivia: Your lord does know my mind; I cannot love him:

Yet I suppose him virtuous, know him noble,

Of great estate, of fresh and stainless youth;

In voices well divulged, free, learn'd and valiant;

And in dimension and the shape of nature

A gracious person: but yet I cannot love him;

He might have took his answer long ago.

Viola: If I did love you in my master's flame,

With such a suffering, such a deadly life,

In your denial I would find no sense;

I would not understand it.

Olivia: Why, what would you?

Viola: Make me a willow cabin at your gate,

And call upon my soul within the house;

Write loyal cantons of contemned love

And sing them loud even in the dead of night;

Halloo your name to the reverberate hills

And make the babbling gossip of the air

Cry out ‘Olivia!’ O, You should not rest

Between the elements of air and earth,

But you should pity me!” 

Olivia and Cesario have this exchange during Cesario’s first appearance at Olivia’s estate, as she brings Orsino’s message of love. Olivia states clearly that she respects and even admires Orsino—but she does not and will not love him. Love is presented as an unknowable and irrational thing. Though Olivia does not love Orsino, Cesario’s way with words and intimate understanding of women’s desires has an immediate effect on her.

“Olivia: What is your parentage?

‘Above my fortunes, yet my state is well:

I am a gentleman.’ I'll be sworn thou art;

Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions and spirit,

Do give thee five-fold blazon: not too fast:

soft, soft!

Unless the master were the man. How now!

Even so quickly may one catch the plague?

Methinks I feel this youth's perfections

With an invisible and subtle stealth

To creep in at mine eyes. Well, let it be.” 

Olivia recounts her conversation with Cesario after he leaves and before she sends Malvolio to give him the ring. Olivia accepts her love for Cesario easily and without resistance. She begins her pursuit of him not realizing that he is actually a woman. 

“No, sooth, sir: my determinate voyage is mere

extravagancy. But I perceive in you so excellent a

touch of modesty, that you will not extort from me

what I am willing to keep in; therefore it charges

me in manners the rather to express myself. You

must know of me then, Antonio, my name is Sebastian,

which I called Roderigo. My father was that

Sebastian of Messaline, whom I know you have heard

of. He left behind him myself and a sister, both

born in an hour: if the heavens had been pleased,

would we had so ended! but you, sir, altered that;

for some hour before you took me from the breach of

the sea was my sister drowned. […]

A lady, sir, though it was said she much resembled

me, was yet of many accounted beautiful: but,

though I could not with such estimable wonder

overfar believe that, yet thus far I will boldly

publish her; she bore a mind that envy could not but

call fair. She is drowned already, sir, with salt

water, though I seem to drown her remembrance again with more.”

Speaking to Antonio when they arrive in Illyria, Sebastian confesses that he pretended to be someone named Roderigo while they were aboard the ship together. Why he hid is identity is unclear, but it provides yet another example of performance and hiding identity in the play. Sebastian stresses how much he looks like Viola, which helps establish the plot device that will result in others mistaking Cesario and Sebastian for each other later in the play.  

“I left no ring with her: what means this lady?

Fortune forbid my outside have not charm'd her!

She made good view of me; indeed, so much,

That sure methought her eyes had lost her tongue,

For she did speak in starts distractedly.

She loves me, sure; the cunning of her passion

Invites me in this churlish messenger.

None of my lord's ring! why, he sent her none.

I am the man: if it be so, as 'tis,

Poor lady, she were better love a dream.

Disguise, I see, thou art a wickedness,

Wherein the pregnant enemy does much.

How easy is it for the proper-false

In women's waxen hearts to set their forms!

Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we!

For such as we are made of, such we be.

How will this fadge? my master loves her dearly;

And I, poor monster, fond as much on him;

And she, mistaken, seems to dote on me.

What will become of this? As I am man,

My state is desperate for my master's love;

As I am woman, —now alas the day!—

What thriftless sighs shall poor Olivia breathe!

O time! thou must untangle this, not I;

It is too hard a knot for me to untie!” 

Viola delivers this monologue after receiving Olivia’s ring from Malvolio. She realizes that by pretending to be a man, she has unwittingly caused Olivia to fall in love with her and pities her for loving someone who is less real than a “dream.” She ascribes Olivia’s willingness to fall in love with someone false to her femininity, though she also admits that “as a man” she is “desperate for [Orsino’s]. She also clearly highlights the play’s love triangle, describing it as a tangled knot, between her, Orsino, and Olivia.

“Malvolio: My masters, are you mad? or what are you? Have ye

no wit, manners, nor honesty, but to gabble like

tinkers at this time of night? Do ye make an

alehouse of my lady's house, that ye squeak out your

coziers' catches without any mitigation or remorse

of voice? Is there no respect of place, persons, nor

time in you?

Toby: We did keep time, sir, in our catches. Sneck up!

Malvolio: Sir Toby, I must be round with you. My lady bade me

tell you, that, though she harbours you as her

kinsman, she's nothing allied to your disorders. If

you can separate yourself and your misdemeanors, you

are welcome to the house; if not, and it would please

you to take leave of her, she is very willing to bid

you farewell. […]

Toby: Out o' tune, sir: ye lie. Art any more than a

steward? Dost thou think, because thou art

virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale? […]

Malvolio: Mistress Mary, if you prized my lady's favour at any

thing more than contempt, you would not give means

for this uncivil rule: she shall know of it, by this hand.” 

Malvolio interrupts Toby, Maria, and others why they are partying. His killjoy attitude and threats to tattle to Olivia ultimately inspire Toby and Maria to prank him by writing a letter convincing him that Olivia is in love with him.

“Maria: The devil a puritan that he is, or any thing

constantly, but a time-pleaser; an affectioned ass,

that cons state without book and utters it by great

swarths: the best persuaded of himself, so

crammed, as he thinks, with excellencies, that it is

his grounds of faith that all that look on him love

him; and on that vice in him will my revenge find

notable cause to work.

Toby: What wilt thou do?

Maria: I will drop in his way some obscure epistles of

love; wherein, by the colour of his beard, the shape

of his leg, the manner of his gait, the expressure

of his eye, forehead, and complexion, he shall find

himself most feelingly personated. I can write very

like my lady your niece: on a forgotten matter we

can hardly make distinction of our hands.

[…]

Toby: He shall think, by the letters that thou wilt drop,

that they come from my niece, and that she's in

love with him.” 

Maria describes the qualities in Malvolio that she finds most aggravating: he’s a trend-chaser (“a time pleaser”) and is self-important (“an affectioned ass”). Maria knows that Malvolio’s aspirations for a higher station and his own high opinion of himself are vulnerabilities, and she uses these weaknesses to trick him. 

“Orsino: Make no compare

Between that love a woman can bear me

And that I owe Olivia.

Viola: Ay, but I know—

Orsino: What dost thou know?

Viola: Too well what love women to men may owe.

In faith, they are as true of heart as we.

My father had a daughter loved a man

As it might be, perhaps, were I a woman,

I should your Lordship.

Orsino: And what’s her history?

Viola: A blank, my lord. She never told her love,

But let concealment, like a worm i’ th’ bud,

Feed on her damask cheek. She pined in thought,

And with a green and yellow melancholy,

She sat like Patience on a monument,

Smiling at grief. Was this not 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.” 

Viola/Cesario and Orsino have this exchange as they discuss Orsino’s love for Olivia, before he sends Cesario once again to tell Olivia of his love. Viola indirectly expresses her unrequited love for Orsino, as she confesses her feelings through the guise of her father’s daughter. Orsino asserts that women are incapable of feeling love as he does for Olivia, but Viola shows as great a depth of feeling for Orsino, proving that this is not the case, and what’s more, Viola is at least close to her object of affection and knows him, unlike Orsino who has yet to be on stage with Olivia.

“‘If this fall into thy hand, revolve. In my stars I

am above thee; but be not afraid of greatness: some

are born great, some achieve greatness, and some

have greatness thrust upon ‘em. Thy Fates open

their hands; let thy blood and spirit embrace them;

and, to inure thyself to what thou art like to be,

cast thy humble slough and appear fresh. Be

opposite with a kinsman, surly with servants; let

thy tongue tang arguments of state; put thyself into

the trick of singularity: she thus advises thee

that sighs for thee. Remember who commended thy

yellow stockings, and wished to see thee ever

cross-gartered: I say, remember. Go to, thou art

made, if thou desirest to be so; if not, let me see

thee a steward still, the fellow of servants, and

not worthy to touch Fortune's fingers. Farewell.

She that would alter services with thee,

THE FORTUNATE-UNHAPPY.’

Daylight and champian discovers not more: this is

open. I will be proud, I will read politic authors,

I will baffle Sir Toby, I will wash off gross

acquaintance, I will be point-devise the very man.

I do not now fool myself, to let imagination jade

me; for every reason excites to this, that my lady

loves me. She did commend my yellow stockings of

late, she did praise my leg being cross-gartered;

and in this she manifests herself to my love, and

with a kind of injunction drives me to these habits

of her liking. I thank my stars I am happy. I will

be strange, stout, in yellow stockings, and

cross-gartered, even with the swiftness of putting

on. Jove and my stars be praised! Here is yet a

postscript. (Reads)

‘Thou canst not choose but know who I am. If thou

entertainest my love, let it appear in thy smiling;

thy smiles become thee well; therefore in my

presence still smile, dear my sweet, I prithee.’

Jove, I thank thee: I will smile; I will do

everything that thou wilt have me.” 

Malvolio reacts to Maria’s letter in Olivia’s hand and falls into the trap she and Toby have set for him. Tellingly, Malvolio doesn’t have a hard time believing that Olivia really loves him, which speaks to the arrogance that Toby and Maria loathe in him. The letter sets up the ridiculous behavior that will present some of the play’s funniest moments, and it lays the groundwork for Malvolio’s confinement and punishment, which is a darker turn.

“Olivia: (aside) O, what a deal of scorn looks beautiful

In the contempt and anger of his lip!

A murderous guilt shows not itself more soon

Than love that would seem hid: love's night is noon.—

Cesario, by the roses of the spring,

By maidhood, honour, truth and every thing,

I love thee so, that, maugre all thy pride,

Nor wit nor reason can my passion hide.

Do not extort thy reasons from this clause,

For that I woo, thou therefore hast no cause,

But rather reason thus with reason fetter,

Love sought is good, but given unsought better.

Viola: By innocence I swear, and by my youth

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.

And so adieu, good madam: never more

Will I my master's tears to you deplore.” 

When Cesario comes to deliver Olivia a jewel from Orsino, Olivia tells him that there is no reason to woo for him—because Olivia is in love with Cesario. Cesario tells her that he can’t love any woman, a clever white lie that obfuscates the truth that Cesario is a woman—Viola—and she is in love with Orsino. 

“Antonio: But O how vile an idol proves this god

Thou hast, Sebastian, done good feature shame.

In nature there's no blemish but the mind;

None can be call'd deform'd but the unkind:

Virtue is beauty, but the beauteous evil

Are empty trunks o'erflourish'd by the devil.

Viola: (aside) Methinks his words do from such passion fly,

That he believes himself: so do not I.

Prove true, imagination, O, prove true,

That I, dear brother, be now ta'en for you! […]

He named Sebastian: I my brother know

Yet living in my glass; even such and so

In favour was my brother, and he went

Still in this fashion, colour, ornament,

For him I imitate: O, if it prove,

Tempests are kind and salt waves fresh in love.”  

Antonio says this as he’s arrested after breaking up Cesario and Andrew’s duel, and asks Cesario for the purse he gave Sebastian. It marks the first case of Cesario and Sebastian getting confused for each other, which helps to bring about the play’s conclusion, and is the first suggestion to Viola that her brother may in fact be alive. It also shows how Antonio’s love for Sebastian is causing him to suffer (as he believes he’s been betrayed), furthering the play’s theme of love as inspiring suffering.

Viola’s response to Antonio provides perhaps the clearest reason she decided to dress as a man in Illyria. Viola and Sebastian look very much alike, and dressing as a man, she and him are essentially identical. Viola thinks that Sebastian is dead; dressing like him is a way that she keeps his memory alive or “living in my glass.” However, if Sebastian did survive the shipwreck, there is no longer a need for Viola to “imitate” him in this way. This foreshadows the play’s resolution. 

“Sebastian: What relish is in this? How runs the stream?

Or I am mad, or else this is a dream.

Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep;

If it be thus to dream, still let me sleep!

Olivia: Nay, come, I prithee. Would thou’dst be ruled by

me!

Sebastian: Madam, I will.

Olivia: O, say so, and so be!” 

Sebastian and Olivia have this exchange when she comes upon Sebastian and mistakes him for Cesario, asking Sebastian to spend time with her (and he, not being Cesario, complies). It marks another instance of mistaken identity, as well as the beginning of Sebastian and Olivia’s romance. It also shows one of Sebastian’s few personality traits, as he’s proven to be passionate and impulsive by immediately following Olivia though he doesn’t know who she is or how she knows him.

“Sebastian: This is the air; that is the glorious sun;

This pearl she gave me, I do feel't and see't;

And though 'tis wonder that enwraps me thus,

Yet 'tis not madness. Where's Antonio, then?

I could not find him at the Elephant:

Yet there he was; and there I found this credit,

That he did range the town to seek me out.

His counsel now might do me golden service;

For though my soul disputes well with my sense,

That this may be some error, but no madness,

Yet doth this accident and flood of fortune

So far exceed all instance, all discourse,

That I am ready to distrust mine eyes

And wrangle with my reason that persuades me

To any other trust but that I am mad

Or else the lady's mad; yet, if 'twere so,

She could not sway her house, command her followers,

Take and give back affairs and their dispatch

With such a smooth, discreet and stable bearing

As I perceive she does: there's something in't

That is deceivable. But here the lady comes.

Olivia: Blame not this haste of mine. If you mean well,

Now go with me and with this holy man

Into the chantry by: there, before him,

And underneath that consecrated roof,

Plight me the full assurance of your faith;

That my most jealous and too doubtful soul

May live at peace. He shall conceal it

Whiles you are willing it shall come to note,

What time we will our celebration keep

According to my birth. What do you say?

Sebastian: I'll follow this good man, and go with you;

And, having sworn truth, ever will be true.” 

Sebastian and Olivia say these lines as they continue their romance, which leads to their quick marriage. Sebastian remarks that the situation would seem crazy—if Olivia herself were not so capable, accomplished, and of such a “smooth, discreet and stable bearing.” The exchange sets up one of the play’s major conclusions—Sebastian and Olivia’s marriage—which allows for the unstable love triangle to separate into two stable pairs.

“Orsino: Why should I not, had I the heart to do it,

Like to the Egyptian thief at point of death,

Kill what I love? —a savage jealousy

That sometimes savours nobly. But hear me this:

Since you to non-regardance cast my faith,

And that I partly know the instrument

That screws me from my true place in your favour,

Live you the marble-breasted tyrant still;

But this your minion, whom I know you love,

And whom, by heaven I swear, I tender dearly,

Him will I tear out of that cruel eye,

Where he sits crowned in his master's spite.

Come, boy, with me; my thoughts are ripe in mischief:

I'll sacrifice the lamb that I do love,

To spite a raven's heart within a dove.

Viola: And I, most jocund, apt and willingly,

To do you rest, a thousand deaths would die.” 

Orsino and Viola have this exchange when they are with Olivia, who tells Orsino that she loves Cesario and not him. It shows both Orsino’s relentless love for Olivia and his ruthlessness, as he’s fully willing to sacrifice Cesario just to spite Olivia, as well as Viola’s (or, as Orsino believes, Cesario’s) love for Orsino. This demonstrates again Orsino’s dramatic and over the top commitment to the ideals of love without demonstrating an understanding of anyone’s feelings but his own.

“One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons!

A natural perspective, that is and is not!” 

Orsino says this when Sebastian first appears to their group, and him and Cesario/Viola are seen together for the first time. It marks the moment of recognition that Sebastian and Cesario are two separate people, rather than one person who keeps getting confused for the other.

“Viola: If nothing lets to make us happy both

But this my masculine usurp'd attire,

Do not embrace me till each circumstance

Of place, time, fortune, do cohere and jump

That I am Viola: which to confirm,

I'll bring you to a captain in this town,

Where lie my maiden weeds; by whose gentle help

I was preserved to serve this noble count.

All the occurrence of my fortune since

Hath been between this lady and this lord.

Sebastian: So comes it, lady, you have been mistook.

But nature to her bias drew in that.

You would have been contracted to a maid.

Nor are you therein, by my life, deceived:

You are betrothed both to a maid and man.” 

Viola says this to Sebastian as the two siblings tentatively deduce that they are, in fact, each other’s twin, followed by Sebastian talking to Olivia. It marks the moment of Viola revealing her true identity as Viola, and not the male Cesario, and is in fact the first time that Viola’s name is spoken in the play. In other words, up to this point, the audience has been in a similar position as the people of Illyria: not knowing Cesario’s real name. It also shows how the play’s mistaken identities have brought about a happy ending, as Sebastian says because of her mistake, Olivia is now married to a man rather than a woman. When Sebastian says that Olivia is now betrothed to both a “maid and a man,” he is referring both the fact that he and Viola are twins, so Olivia will have a sister-in-law, and making a pun that implies he is still a virgin, though there is no way to know if this is true.

“Orsino: If this be so, as yet the glass seems true,

I shall have share in this most happy wrack.—

Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times

Thou never shouldst love woman like to me.

Viola: And all those sayings will I overswear,

And all those swearings keep as true in soul

As doth that orbed continent the fire

That severs day from night.”

Orsino and Viola have this exchange after Viola reveals her true identity. It depicts the moment in which Viola finally makes her romantic love as a woman for Orsino clearly known, and suggests Orsino’s feelings for Viola, as he calls her gender reveal a “most happy wrack.”

“Your master quits you; and for your service done him,

So much against the mettle of your sex,

So far beneath your soft and tender breeding,

And since you call'd me master for so long,

Here is my hand: you shall from this time be

Your master's mistress.” 

Orsino says this to Viola as they continue to discuss her womanhood. Essentially, he fires her as an attendant and then proposes to her. Orsino suggests that Viola’s work for him was both poorly matched to her abilities as a woman (which we know not to be the case) and beneath her status as a noblewoman. He suggests that the more appropriate station for her in light of both her sex and her class is his wife.

“Olivia: Alas, Malvolio, this is not my writing,

Though, I confess, much like the character

But out of question 'tis Maria's hand.

And now I do bethink me, it was she

First told me thou wast mad; then camest in smiling,

And in such forms which here were presupposed

Upon thee in the letter. Prithee, be content:

This practise hath most shrewdly pass'd upon thee;

But when we know the grounds and authors of it,

Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge

Of thine own cause. […]

Alas, poor fool, how have they baffled thee! […]

Malvolio: I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you.” 

Olivia says this after being presented with the letter that Maria wrote to Malvolio in Olivia’s handwriting. Olivia’s tries to soothe Malvolio, and her remarks have a pitying tone, yet he is not satisfied. His exit vowing revenge also illustrates Malvolio’s unhappy ending in the play, which stands in stark contrast to the comedy’s otherwise happy ending.