Twelfth Night quote bank

Viola - A1 S4 - shows her commitment to the job and the maturity/selflessness it must take to complete the task in order for Orsino to be happy.

= 'Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife'

Viola - A1 S5 - Subtly dropping hints of identity. =

What I am and what I would are as secret as maidenhead.'

Viola - A1 S5 - Sees Olivia's excess. =

'I see you what you are, you are too proud.'

Viola - A2 S2 - Forced to disguise herself for survival, but essential for plot development. =

Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness.'

Viola - A2 S2 - Too complicated to solve herself - foreshadows the ending. =

'O time, thou must untangle this, not I.'

Viola - A2 S4 - to Orsino - Demonstrates her pain. =

'he never told her love, but let concealment, like a worm i' the bud.'

Viola - A3 S1 - Tries to remain honest despite her disguise. =

'I am not what I am.'

Viola - A3 S4 - Has reason to believe Sebastian is alive after Antonio may have mistaken her for him. =

'Prove true, imagination, oh, prove true, that I, dear brother, be now ta'en for you!'

Duke Orsino - A1 S1 - He's frustrated with love and wants to become sick of it. =

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

Duke Orsino - A1 S1 - Love is imaginative; does love have more to do with reality of the person or fiction? =

So full of shapes is fancy / That it alone is high fantastical.'

Duke Orsino - A1 S4 - Opening up to Viola already =

'To thee the book even of my secret soul.'

Duke Orsino - A1 S4 - Expecting Viola to go to lengths to woo Olivia, sees it as a conquest =

'leap all civil bounds / Rather than make unprofited return.'

Duke Orsino A1 S4 - Ironic as they've never even met and he's disrespecting her choice to stay single. =

'unfold the passion of my love, / Surprise her with discourse of my dear faith.'

Duke Orsino A1 S4 - Complimenting Cesario's effeminate appearance. =

'Diana's lip / Is not more smooth and rubious'

Duke Orsino A2 S4 - displays his superficiality. =

'For women are as roses, whose fair flower Being once displayed, doth fall that very hour.'

Duke Orsino A2 S4 - to Viola - Women aren't as capable of love as men - hypocritical. =

'Alas, their love may be called appetite, no motion of the liver, but the palate'

Duke Orsino A2 S4 - consummation connotations =

'But mine is all as hungry as the sea, and can digest as much'

Duke Orsino A5 S1 - about Olivia - 'Altars' suggests he worships her - quick change of heart later on in the scene. =

'You, uncivil lady, to whose ingrate and unauspicious altars'

Duke Orsino A5 S1 - To Viola - Shows sexual possibilities =

'boy' 'thou' 'Cesario'

Duke Orsino A5 S1 - About Viola ' - Insensitivity, selfishness =

'I shall have share in this most happy wreck.'

Duke Orsino A5 S1 - End of the gender ambiguity =

'Give me thy hand / And let me see thee in thy woman's weeds.'

Olivia A1 S2 - Has devoted herself to her brother's death. =

she hath abjured the company / And sight of men.'

Olivia A1 S5 - More of a perfunctory advance - a diplomatic mission. =

'We'll once more hear Orsino's embassy.'

Olivia A1 S5 - To Viola - Forward and suggestive question. =

'What is your parentage?' 'Unless perchance you come to me again'

Olivia A1 S5 - Shows her open-mindedness. =

'Fate, show thy force. Ourselves we do not owe. What is decreed must be, and be this so.'

Olivia A2 S5 - Links to predestination =

'Be not afraid of greatness: Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.'

Olivia A3 S1 - To Viola - Finally expressing her emotions. =

'A cypress, not a bosom, hides my heart. So, let me hear you speak.'

Olivia A3 S4 - highlights her confusion as to why Malvolio is acting this way. =

'Why, this is very midsummer madness.'

Olivia A3 S4 - Still acts caring even though Malvolio has stepped out of line. =

'I would not have him miscarry for the half of my dowry.'

Olivia A5 S1 - Selfishness, bisexuality nod? =

'Most wonderful!'

Malvolio A2 S3 - To Toby and Andrew - Trying to stick up for Olivia. =

'My masters, are you mad? Or what are you?'

Malvolio A2 S3 - To Maria - Threatening Maria to report her to Olivia. =

'She shall know of it, by this hand.'

Malvolio A2 S3 - From Maria - Excess of self love. =

'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.'

Malvolio A2 S5 - about Olivia - Doesn't correctly place his stance in class. =

'Besides, she uses me with a more exalted respect than anyone else that follows her.'

Malvolio A3 S4 - Overtly sexually explicit and confident. =

'To bed? "Ay, sweetheart, and I'll come to thee."

Malvolio A4 S2 - Stage directions - comedy of situation. =

'they have laid me here in hideous darkness.'

Malvolio A4 S2 - to Feste - Ironic but true =

'I am no more mad than you are.'

Malvolio A5 S1 - He doesn't receive a comic resolution. =

'I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you.'

Feste A1 S5 - Comic inversion =

'Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.'

Feste A2 S3 - Knows how to trick Sir Andrew for more money. =

'the Myrmidons are no bottle-ale houses.'

Feste A2 S4 - to Orsino - sees he is very flippant - foreshadowing change of heart? =

'for thy mind is a very opal.'

Feste A3 S1 - to Viola - sees through her disguise =

'send thee a beard!'

Feste A4 S1 - to Sebastian - Can probably see he isn't Viola. =

'Nothing that is so is so.'

Feste A4 S2 - Mock latin (a real priest would know it) Ironic as it contrasts previous quote in scene before. =

'Bonos dies... "That that is is."'

Feste A4 S2 - He believed the soul of the dead would migrate into another person - would've offended Malvolio. =

'thou shalt hold the Feste opinion of Pythagoras.'

Feste A4 S2 - Socially aware, highlights hypocrisy of priests and the church. =

'nd I would I were the first that ever dissembled in such a gown.'

Feste A5 S1 - Bad stuff is always going to happen, it's how you deal with it. Repetition implies it might happen a lot. =

'For the rain it raineth every day.'

Sir Toby A1 S3 - Toby doesn't know how to talk to Maria - phallic symbol of sword. =

'An thou let part so, Sir Andrew, would thou mightst never draw sword again.'

Sir Toby A2 S3 - To Malvolio - Shocked Malvolio is trying to stand up to him. =

'Art any more than a steward ... there shall be no more cakes and ale?'

Sir Toby A2 S3 - about Maria - Suggests he's starting to fall for her because of the cruel trick on Malvolio. =

Good night, Penthesilea (strong warrior woman) '

Sir Toby A2 S5 - about Malvolio - Wants to see him suffer - 'sheep-biter' = hypocritical Puritan. =

'niggardly rascally sheep-biter'

Sir Andrew A2 S3 - What their world revolves around. =

'Faith, so they say, but I think it rather consists of eating and drinking.'

Sir Andrew A2 S3 - Made up all of these names to feel superior. =

'Pigrogromitus.... of the Vapians ... Queubus. 'Twas very good, i' faith.'

Sir Andrew A2 S3 - Accidentally calling himself a true fool instead of an artful one. =

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

Sir Andrew A2 S4 - References to the afterlife. =

'Truly, sir, and pleasure will be paid, one time or another.'

Sebastian A2 S1 - Wishes he could've died with Viola. =

'If the heavens had been pleased, would we had so ended!'

Sebastian A2 S1 - Motif of the sea, the depth to which he is affected. =

'She is drowned already, sir, with salt water, though I seem to drown her remembrance again with more.'

Sebastian A4 S1 - about Olivia - dream-like state doesn't understand what's going on but goes along with it anyway. =

'Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep If it be thus to dream, still let me sleep!'

Sebastian A4 S3 - Fast to be caught up in the mess =

'And though 'tis wonder that enwraps me thus, yet 'tis not madness.'

Sebastian A5 S1 - To Olivia about Viola - Suggesting homosexuality is unnatural. =

'So comes it, lady, you have been mistook. But nature to her bias drew in that.'

Antonio A2 S1 - Willing to risk his life for Sebastian and his safety. =

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

Antonio A3 S3 - Connotations with knife which cause injuries (love), also sexual penetrations. =

'My desire, more sharp than filèd steel, did spur me forth.'

Antonio A3 S3 - Almost taking care of Sebastian (sugar daddy???) =

'Haply your eye shall light upon some toy you have desire to purchase.'

Antonio A3 S4 - to Viola - Plot complication =

'Virtue is beauty, but the beauteous evil are empty trunks o'erflourished by the devil.'

Antonio A5 S1 - Orsino about Antonio - outfought Orsino - he admires him. =

'a baubling vessel...unprizeable' 'most noble bottom'

Antonio A5 S1 - about Sebastian - Love is like a spell. =

'A witchcraft drew me hither.'

Gender / Disguise / Sexuality - A1 S4 - Orsino - Complimenting Cesario's effeminate appearance. =

'Diana's lip Is not more smooth and rubious'

Gender / Disguise / Sexuality - A1 S5 - Olivia - We can't control our destinies - what will be, will be. Sexual possibilities? =

'Fate, show thy force. Ourselves we do not owe. What is decreed must be, and be this so.'

Gender / Disguise / Sexuality - A1 S5 - Feste to Olivia - Irony as Feste seems to see through all of the disguises in the play. =

'Lady, Cucullus non facit monachum (don't judge a book by its cover) — that's as much to say as I wear not motley in my brain.

Gender / Disguise / Sexuality - A2 S2 - Viola - Plot device, needs disguise for survival in this time period. =

'Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness'

Gender / Disguise / Sexuality - A2 S4 - Orsino to Viola - Implying women aren't as capable with love as men - hypocritical. =

'Alas, their love may be called appetite, no motion of the liver, but the palate.'

Gender / Disguise / Sexuality - A2 S4 - Viola to Orsino - drives plot forward. =

'he never told her love, but let concealment, like a worm i' the bud'

Gender / Disguise / Sexuality - A3 S1 - Feste to Viola - Sees through her disguise. =

'send thee a beard!'

Gender / Disguise / Sexuality - A3 S1 - Viola - Tries to remain honest without deceit. =

'I am not what I am.'

Gender / Disguise / Sexuality - A5 S1 - Olivia - Bisexuality connotations =

'Most wonderful!'

Gender / Disguise / Sexuality - A5 S1 - Antonio - Illyria is a crazy place. =

'for three months before' vs 'he hath known you but three days.'

Gender / Disguise / Sexuality - A5 S1 - Olivia to Viola - Your fear is so great it makes you disguise your true identity. =

'Alas, it is the baseness of thy fear, That makes thee strangle thy propriety.'

Gender / Disguise / Sexuality - A5 S1 - Sebastian to Olivia about Viola - Sexuality =

'So comes it, lady, you have been mistook. but nature to her bias drew in that.'

Madness - A2 S5 - Malvolio - false hope. =

The lady of the Strachy married the yeoman of the wardrobe.'

Madness - A2 S5 - Toby about Malvolio - Making him appear insane out of spite. =

Why, thou hast put him in such a dream that when the image of it leaves him he must run mad.'

Madness - A3 S4 - Maria to Olivia - Seems cruel as she's a catalyst to the prank. =

'our ladyship were best to have some guard about you if he come, for sure the man is tainted in 's wits.'

Madness - A3 S4 - Olivia - Totally confused and oblivious to the prank. =

'why, this is very midsummer madness.'

Madness - A4 S3 - Sebastian about Olivia - Why isn't it? =

'And though 'tis wonder that enwraps me thus, yet 'tis not madness.'

Excess - A1 S5 - Viola to Olivia - Excess of makeup / appearances. =

'Excellently done, if God did all.'

Excess - A2 S3 - Sir Andrew =

'Faith, so they say, but I think it rather consists of eating and drinking.'

Excess - A2 S3 - Maria about Malvolio - His excess of self love makes him believe Olivia did write the letters. =

'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.'

Excess - A2 S5 - Malvolio about Sir Toby - Hypocrites as they have excess in different areas. =

'"You must amend your drunkenness."

Excess - A3 S1 - Viola to Antonio - Addresses all of the character's excess in the play - dramatic irony. =

'I hate ingratitude more in a man than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness, or any taint of vice whose strong corruption Inhabits our frail blood.'

Love / Lust - A1 S1 - Duke Orsino - Frustrated by love, source of unhappiness. =

'If music be the food of love, play on.'

Love / Lust - A1 S5 - Olivia - Poetry is seen as clever liars - superficiality. =

'It is the more like to be feigned. I pray you, keep it in.'

Love / Lust - A1 S5 - Olivia - Love is like a sickness. =

'Even so quickly may one catch the plague?'

Love / Lust - A2 S4 - Orsino - displays his superficiality. =

'For women are as roses, whose fair flower Being once displayed, doth fall that very hour.'

Love / Lust - A2 S4 - Feste to Orsino - Feste recognises Orsino's flippant tendencies - could foreshadow ending. =

'for thy mind is a very opal.'

Love / Lust - A2 S4 - Orsino - Connotations of consummation. =

'But mine is all as hungry as the sea, and can digest as much.'

Love / Lust - A2 S4 - Viola to Orsino - source of torture but expression. =

'he never told her love, but let concealment, like a worm i' the bud'

Love / Lust - A3 S4 - Olivia to Viola - Willing to go to Hell for her. =

'A fiend like thee might bear my soul to hell.'

Love / Lust - A5 S1 - to Olivia about Viola - Ridiculous love triangle nearly climaxing. =

'But this your minion, whom I know you love, And whom, by heaven I swear, I tender dearly'

A2 S3 - Sir Toby to Malvolio - Shocked Malvolio has attempted to stand up to him. =

'Art any more than a steward? ... there shall be no more cakes and ale?'

A2 S5 - Sir Toby about Malvolio - Hypocritical Puritan, can't wait for him to have his comeuppance. =

'Wouldst thou not be glad to have the niggardly rascally sheep-biter come by some notable shame?'

A2 S5 - Fabian about Olivia - Totally inappropriate. =

'I would exult, man. You know, he brought me out o' favour with my lady about a bear-baiting here.'