Menu

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Twelfth Night Quotes

But come what may, I do adore thee so
That danger shall seem sport, and I will go.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 1. Viola’s twin brother Sebastian has been washed ashore near the coast of Illyria after a shipwreck and Antonio has been caring for him in his home. Antonio is willing to risk danger by following Sebastian to Duke Orsino’s court, where Antonio has “many enemies.” Because of his strong attachment to Sebastian, he feels he cannot live without him.

I left no ring with her. What means this lady?
Fortune forbid my outside have not charmed her!
She made good view of me.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 2. Viola as Cesario, meditating on the meaning of the ring and realizing that her male disguise is causing some gender troubles for her. Olivia uses Malvolio in a trick to get Cesario to return to talk with her another day. She sends Malvolio to return Cesario’s ring. Olivia is lying about the ring, but she has fallen in love with Cesario. This passage foreshadows Olivia’s love with Sebastian, Viola’s twin brother.

Poor lady, she were better love a dream.
Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 2. Viola realizes that Olivia has fallen in love with Cesario (Viola in disguise) and becomes alarmed and distressed over this. She feels bad because Olivia has fallen in love with the appearance – the “dream” – but the reality is unattainable.

Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness,
Wherein the pregnant enemy does much.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 2. Viola has just become award of Olivia’s affection for her in her Cesario role. This was something she had not bargained for by donning a male disguise. She sees disguise now as something deceitful and evil that causes damage.

How easy is it for the proper false
In women’s waxen hearts to set their forms.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 2. How easy it is for handsome deceptive men to play havoc with women’s hearts, Viola muses in her soliloquy.

Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we,
For such as we are made of, such we be.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 2. Viola says that women cannot help being duped by deceptive men, the fault lies in their female frailty. So she blames her gender’s frailty on Olivia falling for Cesario.

O time, thou must untangle this, not I.
It is too hard a knot for me t’ untie.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 2. Viola, disguised as the young man Cesario, laments the complicated and difficult situation she finds herself in. She loves her master Orsino, who loves Olivia, who in turn loves Viola thinking she is a man. The quote foreshadows how time will intervene in the end to resolve the conflicts.

A false conclusion: I hate it as an unfilled can.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. Sir Toby tells Sir Andrew that he hates his logic like he hates an empty wine goblet. Does Sir Toby ever think of anything other than alcohol?

Not to be abed after midnight is to be up betimes.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. Sir Toby to Sir Andrew, who have both stayed up late eating and drinking together.

Th’art a scholar; let us therefore eat and drink.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. Sir Toby invites his friend Sir Andrew to do what they appear to do best. Their bonds of friendship have been formed while passing the bottle. And far from being a scholar, Sir Andrew is not the brightest and a fool.

Welcome, ass.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. A drink-filled Sir Toby greets the jester Feste in this rumbustious scene.

O mistress mine, where are you roaming?
O, stay and hear; your true love’s coming,
That can sing both high and low:
Trip no further, pretty sweeting;
Journeys end in lovers meeting,
Every wise man’s son doth know.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. Feste sings of journeys that end up in lovers meeting. The song foreshadows the happy romantic ending to the play, when Viola and Orsino find love together and Olivia and Sebastian are wed. It is particularly directed towards Feste’s mistress Olivia – “your true love’s coming.”

What is love? ’tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter;
What’s to come is still unsure:
In delay there lies no plenty;
Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty,
Youth’s a stuff will not endure.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. Drinking and singing with Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, Feste sings this song about the fleeting nature of love and youth. He says love is a young person’s game and it must be seized in the moment.

Youth’s a stuff will not endure.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. Feste in melancholic mood about the fragility of youth and nearness to death.

SIR ANDREW: A mellifluous voice, as I am true knight.
SIR TOBY: A contagious breath.
SIR ANDREW: Very sweet and contagious, i’ faith.
SIR TOBY: To hear by the nose, it is dulcet in contagion. But shall we make the welkin dance indeed? Shall we rouse the night owl in a catch that will draw three souls out of one weaver? Shall we do that?

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. Tony and Andrew are partying it up with Feste, whom they compliment for his sweet voice and catchy song.

Am I not consanguineous? am I not of her blood?

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. Sir Toby to Maria, who warns him and fellow partiers Sir Andrew and Festive that if they aren’t quiet, Olivia will have them thrown out of her house. Tony retorts that he is Olivia’s relative and she will do no such thing.

He does it with a better grace, but I do it more natural.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. Sir Andrew says Sir Toby has more experience playing the fool, but for him Sir Andrew it comes naturally.

Have you no wit, manners, nor honesty, but to gabble like tinkers at this time of night?

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. When merrymakers Sir Toby and Sir Andrew get rowdy in Olivia’s house, her stewart Malvolio asks them if they are mad and admonishes them. And he compares them to tinkers, suggesting they are acting like bad-mannered commoners instead of noble men. Later Sir Toby turns the tables and gets revenge on Malvolio by making him appear mad in the company of Olivia.

Is there no respect of place, persons, nor time in you?

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. Malvolio accuses the drunken Sir Toby and Sir Andrew of disrespect when they “make an ale-house of my lady’s house.”

Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. Sir Toby fires back at Malvolio after his protest about the late night festivities. Just because Malvolio is self-righteous, does he think fun will disappear, he asks? Malvolio’s order and duty vs Sir Toby’s chaos and excess.

Thou ‘rt i’ th’ right.- Go, sir, rub your chain with crumbs.- A stoup of wine, Maria!

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. When Sir Toby and friends are chided by Malvolio for their raucous behavior, Toby tells Malvolio to rub his steward’s chain in some crumbs, a demeaning remark to Olivia’s head servant. Toby then calls for more wine. The party just never stops for Sir Toby!

If you prized my lady’s favour at anything more than contempt, you would not give means for this uncivil rule.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. Malvolio scolds Maria for taking part in the rowdy behavior alongside Sir Toby and Feste. The “puritan” Malvolio, as Maria calls him, appears to think he is better than the other people. So it’s no surprise that they plot revenge on him.

I will drop in his way some obscure epistles of love.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. Maria hatches a plan to forge a love letter to trick Malvolio into believing Olivia is in love with him.

My purpose is, indeed, a horse of that colour.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. When Maria says she is going to copy her mistress Olivia’s handwriting and write Malvolio love letters, a delighted Sir Toby says he will think his niece is in love with him. Maria responds with this line.

I was adored once too.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. Sir Andrew’s wistful reply to Sir Toby’s statement that Maria adores Toby. A hint of past live lost, perhaps?

Now, good Cesario, but that piece of song,
That old and antique song we heard last night:
Methought it did relieve my passion much,
More than light airs and recollected terms
Of these most brisk and giddy-paced times.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 4. Melanchly lover Orsino orders more music to feed his melancholy, hoping to relieve the hopeless passion that he has for Olivia.

If ever thou shall love,
In the sweet pangs of it remember me,
For such as I am, all true lovers are,
Unstaid and skittish in all motions else,
Save in the constant image of the creature
That is beloved.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 4. As they wait for Feste to arrive to sing, Orsino tells Cesario (Viola) to remember him whenever he falls in love and he speaks about the nature of his love.

Let still the woman take
An elder than herself: so wears she to him,
So sways she level in her husband’s heart:
For, boy, however we do praise ourselves,
Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm,
More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn,
Than women’s are.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 4. Orsino talks about men and women and love to Cesario (Viola), and suggests Cesario marry someone younger than himself. Men are more fickle than women, says the Duke, and more likely to change their love from one woman to another. Women are more committed and faithful with their love, he observes. This foreshadows the end of the play when Orsino’s love does indeed change to another woman.

Then let thy love be younger than thyself,
Or thy affection cannot hold the bent.
For women are as roses, whose fair flower,
Being once displayed, doth fall that very hour.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 4. Orsino advices Cesario (Viola) to marry a young woman, since a woman’s beauty fades as quickly as a husband’s desire for his wife especially after he has slept with her.

The spinsters and the knitters in the sun,
And the free maids that weave their thread with bones,
Do use to chant it: it is silly sooth,
And dallies with the innocence of love,
Like the old age.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 4. Orsino to Cesario (Viola), asking for a song that wool spinners and knitters used to sing while they sowed, and maidens while they weaved.

- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- …
- 7
- 8