Twelfth Night or What You Will Flashcards
If music be the food of love, play on (1.1.1)
In the opening speech of the play, Duke Orsino gives vent to his deliciously impossible love-longing for the Lady Olivia.
I am sure care’s an enemy to life (1.3.2-3)
Sir Toby’s comment on the foolishness of his niece, Olivia, devoting her life to mourning for her dead brother.
I’ll confine myself no finer than I am (1.3.10-11)
Sir Toby Belch, told to control (“confine”) himself, replies with a pun, saying that his clothes are good enough to drink in
I have them at my fingers’ ends (1.3.78)
Maria, touching Sir Andrew Aguecheek’s hand, says that she has a world of jests readily available.
Methinks sometimes I have no more wit than a Christian or an ordinary man has (1.3.83-84)
Sir Andrew Aguecheek worriedly responds to Sir Toby Belch’s comment that Maria has put him down (made a joke at Sir Andrew’s expense).
I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit (1.3.84-86)
The witless Sir Andrew Aguecheek tries to analyse his problem.
Is it a world to hide virtues in? (1.3.131)
Sir Toby Belch encourages Sir Andrew Aguecheek to dance by telling him that he ought to display his abilities (“virtues”).
O, had I but followed the arts! (1.3.94)
The ignorant Sir Andrew Aguecheek bemoans his lack of education.
And all is semblative a woman’s part (1.4.34)
Irony: Orsino, sending Cesario (Viola in disguise) to woo the Lady Olivia, tells him (her) that he (she) is very like a woman, and therefore will be more appealing than he would be.
Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife (1.4.42)
Situational Irony: Viola (in disguise as Cesario), having promised to woo the Lady Olivia on Orsino’s behalf, reflects on her dilemma.
Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage (1.5.19)
The Clown’s witty reply to Maria’s threat that he could be hung or turned out of the house.
He is very well-favoured and he speaks very shrewishly; one would think his mother’s milk were scarce out of him (1.5.159-162)
Malvolio’s description of the young man, Cesario (Viola in disguise), who insists on speaking with Olivia.
we will draw the curtain and show you the picture (1.5.233-234)
Metaphor: Viola agrees to lift her veil and show her face to the insistent young man, Cesario (Viola in disguise).
Make me a willow cabin at your gate (1.5.268)
Cesario (Viola in disguise) says what he would do to win Olivia’s love.
Oh Time, thou must untangle this, not I.
It is too hard a knot for me t’ untie! (2.2.40-41)
Viola’s comment about the love triangle in which she has become involved.
not to be a-bed after midnight is to be up betimes (2.3.2)
Sir Toby Belch’s joking justification of staying up and carousing all night.
O mistress mine, where are you roaming?
O, stay and hear; your true love’s coming (2.3.39-40)
The opening of the clown’s song on the carpe diem (seize the day!) theme.
Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty,
Youth’s a stuff will not endure (2.3.51-52)
The conclusion of the clown’s song on the carpe diem theme.
Am I not consanguineous? am I not of her blood? (2.3.77)
Sir Toby Belch’s statement of his right to carouse in his niece’s house.
He does it with a better grace, but I do it more natural (2.3.83)
Sir Andrew Aguecheek compares his foolery with Sir Toby Belch’s.
Is there no respect of place, persons, nor time in you? (2.3.91-92)
Malvolio’s indignant question to Sir Toby and his hard-partying crew.
Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale? (2.3.115-116)
Sir Toby’s mockery of Malvolio’s self-important righteousness.
My purpose is, indeed, a horse of that colour (2.3.167)
Maria’s response when Sir Toby catches on to her plan to make a fool of Malvolio.
I was adored once too (2.3.181)
Poor Sir Andrew Aguecheek’s wistful reply to Sir Toby’s statement that Maria adores him (Sir Toby, not Sir Andrew).
Now, good Cesario, but that piece of song,
That old and antique song we heard last night (2.4.2-3)
Orsino asks for a melancholy love song.
Let still the woman take
An elder than herself (2.4.29-30)
Ironic: Orsino gives love-advice to Cesario.
Mark it, Cesario, it is old and plain;
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 (2.4.43-48)
Orsino’s description of a favourite love song.
Now, the melancholy god protect thee; and the tailor make thy doublet of changeable taffeta, for thy mind is a very opal (2.4.73-75)
The Clown’s ironic comment on Orsino’s moody taste for melancholy music and love.
She sat like Patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief (2.4.114-115)
Viola (in her disguise as Cesario) tells Orsino a story illustrating the constancy of women in love.
Now is the woodcock near the gin (2.5.83)
Metaphor: Fabian’s gleeful comment as Malvolio picks up the letter that Maria dropped for him to find.
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em (2.5.144-146)
Malvolio reads from the letter that Maria wrote. He thinks it’s from the Lady Olivia and thinks that the greatness of being the Lady’s husband is about to be given to him. (Later Malvolio repeats (3.4.41-45) this line to Lady Olivia, and towards the end of the play the Clown mocks Malvolio by repeating (5.1.370-371) it again.)
Remember who commended thy yellow stockings, and wished to see thee ever cross-gartered (2.5.152-154)
Maria’s letter (supposedly from the Lady Olivia) instructs Malvolio to wear a style of stockings and garters which Olivia detests.
This fellow is wise enough to play the fool
And to do that well craves a kind of wit (3.1.60-61)
Viola’s comment on the intelligence of the Clown’s folly.
O world! how apt the poor are to be proud (3.1.127)
Lady Olivia, having failed to wring a confession of love from the beautiful boy, Cesario (Viola in disguise), says that at least she has nothing more to worry about, but realizes that she’s grasping at straws.
O! what a deal of scorn looks beautiful
In the contempt and anger of his lip (3.1.145-46)
Lady Olivia’s comment on “Cesario.”
Love sought is good, but giv’n unsought is better (3.1.156)
The Lady Olivia, having declared her love for Cesario (Viola in disguise), says that he ought to love her back, because her love is a gift.
You are now sailed into the north of my lady’s opinion; where you will hang like an icicle on a Dutchman’s beard (3.2.26-28)
Metaphor/Simile: Fabian, talking Sir Andrew into challenging Cesario to duel, tells Sir Andrew that he has fallen out of the Lady Olivia’s favor.
as many lies as will lie in thy sheet of paper, although the sheet were big enough for the bed of Ware in England (3.2.46-48)
Fabian gives Sir Andrew Aguecheek advice about what to put in his letter to Cesario, to make it properly insulting.
Look, where the youngest wren of nine comes (3.2.66-67)
Thus Sir Toby announces the entrance of Maria, who is a very small person.
He does smile his face into more lines than is in the new map with the augmentation of the Indies (3.2.78-80)
Maria’s description of Malvolio’s desperate attempt to make himself pleasing to the Lady Olivia.
I think we do know the sweet Roman hand (3.4.28)
Malvolio, speaking to the Lady Olivia, says that he knows she wrote the love-letter, because he recognizes the handwriting.
Why, this is very midsummer madness (3.4.56)
Lady Olivia’s comment on Malvolio’s wooing of her by quoting what he thinks her own words.
Go, hang yourselves all! you are idle shallow things: I am not of your element (3.4.123-124)
Malvolio’s bitter response to the mocking attempts of Maria, Fabian, and Sir Toby to care for him, because the Lady Olivia believes he’s gone mad.
If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction (3.4.127-128)
Meta theatre: (references to drama while in a drama) Fabian expresses his appreciation of the success of Maria’s plot to make a fool of Malvolio.
More matter for a May morning (3.4.142)
Sir Toby’s comment on the arrival of Sir Andrew Aguecheek, with his letter challenging Cesario to a duel.
Still you keep o’ the windy side of the law (3.4.164-65)
Sir Toby’s facetious praise of Sir Andrew’s letter challenging Cesario to a duel.
Nay, let me alone for swearing (3.4.183)
Sir Andrew’s boast that he’s really good at cursing.
I hate ingratitude more in a man
Than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness,
Or any taint of vice whose strong corruption
Inhabits our frail blood (3.4.354-357)
Cesario (Viola in disguise) defends himself against Antonio’s charge of ingratitude.
This youth that you see here
I snatch’d one half out of the jaws of death (3.4.359-360)
Situaltion Irony: Antonio, seeing Viola disguised as Cesario, thinks he’s talking about Sebastian, Viola’s twin.
In nature there’s no blemish but the mind;
None can be called deformed but the unkind (3.4.367-368)
Antonio’s bitter commentary on the ingratitude of the beautiful boy who he thinks is 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! (4.1.60-64)
Sebastian’s confused and happy reaction to the discovery that the beautiful Olivia, who he has never seen before, is in love with him.
leave thy vain bibble babble (4.2.96)
The Clown, pretending to be a Welch priest, advises Malvolio to top talking like a crazy man.
Thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges (5.1.376-377)
The Clown’s reminder to Malvolio that what goes around comes around.
I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you (5.1.378)
With these words Malvolio makes his last exit.
When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day (5.1.389-392)
The opening of the song with which the Clown ends the play.
“If music be the food of love, play on.”
Melodramatic-Petrarchan Lover like Romeo
“Conceal me what I am, and be my aid
For such disguise as happily shall become
The form of my intent. I’ll serve this duke.”
Disguise
“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”
Visions of love
“.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 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.”
Love-Metaphor/Imagery
“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 maidenhood, honor, truth, and everything,
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, though therefor hast no cause;
But rather reason thus with reason fetter:
Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.”
Love
“What relish is this? How runs the stream?
Or am I 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!”
Disguise/Surprise!
“But when in other habits you are seen,
Orsino’s mistress, and his fancy’s queen.”
Disguise revealed
“O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first, methought she purg’d the air of pestilence…and my desires, like fell and cruel hounds, e’er since pursue me.” Act 1, Scene 1, line 20
Imagery-metaphors
“What else may hap, to time I will commit; only shape thou thy silence to my wit.” Act 1, Scene 2, line 64
verse/end rhyme/metaphor
“I’ll confine myself no finer than I am.”
Disguise
“Methinks sometimes I have no more wit than a Christian or an ordinary man has.”
Comedy
“Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife.”
Love
“Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage; and for turning away, let summer bear it out.”
Love-Feste sees all. . .
“Infirmity, that decays the wise, doth ever make the better fool.” Act 1, Scene 5, line 74
Deceit/Folly
“The fool shall look after the madman.”
situational comedy
“How now? Even so quickly may one catch the plague?” Act 1, Scene 5, line 298
metaphor-class division/status
“I am the man: if it be so, as ‘tis, poor lady, she were better love a dream.”
Irony
“I know not: but I know, to be up late, is to be up late.” Act 2, Scene 3, line 3
debauchery/comedy
“Dost thou think because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?”
status
“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.”
Love/deceit
“make no compare between that love a woman can bear me and that I owe Olivia.”
Love
“Jove knows I love; but who? Lips, do not move, No man must know.”
Love/deceit
“I could marry this wench [Maria] for this device.”
Love/status
“I do live by the church, for I do live at my house, and my house doth stand by the church.”
status
“You do think you are not what you are.”
deceit/disguise
“I am as well in my wits, fool as thou art.”
deceit/folly
“Since you called me master for so long, here is my hand; you shall from this time be your master’s mistress.”
Love/reveal
“A great while ago the world begun, with hey, ho, the wind and the rain, but that’s all one, our play is done, and we’ll strive to please you every day.”
Twelfth Night-folly and carnival
Olivia seems to want to disguise herself to the point of disappearing: her pain is that great. She, like Viola, lost a brother, and she wants to devote her entire being to his memory. She tries to use her body to mourn for him (“watering” his memory with her tears) and almost seems to be punishing herself by covering her face and staying away from other men.
Disguise
Viola, for unexplained reasons, wants to escape from the world, so she decides to pretend to be a lowly male servant. Interestingly, she takes on this new, very different identity partly because she identifies strongly with Olivia, who is a woman with a similar temperament to her own.
Disguise
The clown disguises himself as an idiot, but no one is entirely fooled. He seems to enjoy countering a seemingly ridiculous statement with one that appears profound. He is thus able to live as a fool while entertaining intelligent people like Olivia and Maria.
Disguise
The clown disguises his real and reasonable advice to Olivia in a speech that seems to make no sense. He effortlessly combines puns and wordplay with true wisdom, and plays the clown while also commanding respect from Olivia (he is supposed to be her lowliest servant, but he is giving her advice.) She tries to send him away, but she also calls him “sir.”
Disguise
Olivia wishes to disguise her love for Cesario, so she tells Malvolio that Cesario left the ring with her, when she is in fact giving Cesario her own ring as a token of love. She assumes that Cesario will understand what she is doing and come back to woo her in secret, even though his job is to woo her on behalf of the Duke. Though she is unafraid to be honest about her feelings for the Duke, she is apparently uncomfortable with proclaiming her new feelings for Cesario.
Disguise
Sebastian says that he and his sister looked remarkably similar, and since Viola has disguised herself as a man, she now (unbeknownst to any of them) looks exactly like him. This will account for much of the comedy later in the play. Mistaken identity and gender confusion are, of course, integral to the way the play develops.
Disguise
Because of her disguise as Cesario, Viola is able to make a poignant speech about love and the nature of women. Orsino, a man, claims to understand women, saying that they are incapable of loving someone as deeply as men are. Viola knows this isn’t true, because she has listened to Orsino complain about his love for days, while suffering silently herself. She tells Orsino that men might be more vocal in their declarations of love, but women are just as affected by love as men are. Her speech is all the more effective because Orsino doesn’t know who she is, but the audience does.
Disguise
Cesario sees that the clown, who plays a fool though he is surely wise in some ways, has more freedom than most people at court. A wise man who falls into foolishness is easy to criticize, but a fool who is sometimes wise is looked upon as very entertaining and even admirable. Thus the clown, who is probably just a normal man, acts like a fool and gets respect for it that he might never have had otherwise.
Disguise
Viola’s disguise has made her look exactly like her brother. Interestingly, the one who reveals this fact (thus unraveling both Viola’s disguise and her separation from her brother, as well as Olivia’s love for her and her love for Orsino) is Antonio. Antonio is perhaps the most constant, honest character in the play. While most of the characters treat their friends and lovers as means to an end or as part of a joke, Antonio loves Sebastian, and feels deeply betrayed when he thinks Sebastian has used him. His feelings are perhaps the deepest and most true of all the characters, (he never hides them) so it is no surprise that he ends all of the jokes and disguises.
Disguise
While the other characters have disguised themselves for some purpose, both Malvolio and Sebastian have become “disguised” against their will. Malvolio has made himself appear to be a madman, and he acted the part so well that now he cannot convince anyone that he’s sane. Sebastian, because he looks so much like Viola/Cesario, has been beaten, and has gotten Antonio sent to prison without any money. Both men are unable to change their situations or even understand what is going on, because they do not even realize they are disguised.
Disguise
Shakespeare enjoys wordplay, and jokes that hinge on word meanings are common in the play. They often indicate which characters are intelligent and which are fools: Andrew misunderstands the meaning of “accost,” for example, while Maria, and even Toby the drunk, do not.
Comedy
Sir Andrew often takes seriously what others would joke about, with humorous results. He wishes, for example, that he had not spent so much time bear-baiting. His wish is so earnest and heart-felt, and yet so ridiculous (bear-baiting is an extremely foolish pastime) that the audience cannot help but laugh at him. In contrast, Toby, who is just as much of a drunk, seems to at least have a minimal education.
Comedy
Sometimes it is unclear whether Sir Toby likes Andrew, or whether he just keeps him around to make fun of him. He leads Andrew to brag about his talents, and then asks him to display those talents so that he can watch and laugh. Toby is entertained, and Andrew has no idea he is being laughed at.
Comedy
The clown’s jokes, like those of Toby, reveal him to be more intelligent than he seems to be. While Toby and Maria seem to enjoy exposing others (especially Sir Andrew) as fools, the clown turns his humorous criticism on the whole world. He suggests that wisdom is sometimes mistaken for foolishness, and vice versa. In fact, he even suggests that wisdom and foolishness might, at times, be the same thing.
Comedy
Toby is a drunk, but he is not a fool. He thus is able to make fun of himself and Andrew by pretending that their all-night drinking binges are noble and wise activities. Andrew, on the other hand, does not understand this kind of joke. He explains that what they do is actually pretty simple: they have all-night drinking binges. The audience thus laughs both at Toby’s overly complex speeches and Andrew’s overly simply ones.
Comedy
One of the most common types of joke in the play is the confusion of a compliment with an insult. Andrew does this more often than anyone else, and Toby sometimes leads him to it. Toby, for example, calls a song “contagious,” (perhaps meaning “catchy”) and Andrew heartily agrees, calling it “sweet and contagious.” Toby, who is educated and understands subtle meanings of words, is teasing Andrew, but simple Andrew doesn’t see that.
Comedy
Maria’s ability to play a good joke on Malvolio earns her the respect of Toby and Andrew. Toby, whose entire purpose in life seems to be to have fun and make fun of people, admires the special brand of cleverness it takes to play a trick. Andrew finds it even more impressive: he tends to think of practical joking as a form of wisdom.
Comedy
Maria decides to play a joke on Malvolio because she is fed up with his holy, pompous, superior attitude. She wants to teach him a lesson, and knows that there is no better way to do it than to make Malvolio himself reveal what a fool he is. Since he acts so superior, she wants to bring him down to their level, and tells him to act like a clown, wearing yellow stockings and smiling like an idiot.
Comedy
Toby has been able to live off of Andrew’s stupidity for some time now, while entertaining himself by playing jokes on Andrew. Toby and Fabian do not feel guilty about playing even the most extravagant trick: they incite him to fight in a duel, for example, even though he may get injured or killed. Maria feels the same way about Malvolio: he is such a fool that he deserves to be exposed as one. The group enjoys exposing people for what they really are: Malvolio is a lovesick idiot who pretends to be a wise nobleman, and Andrew is a foolish coward who pretends to be a brave gentleman.
Comedy
The joke on Malvolio is finally explained by Fabian, who reasons that since the pranksters were all injured by the trick as well, there is no reason to punish them: they have already been punished. Olivia understands that, no matter what happened to Toby, Fabian and Andrew, Malvolio was “notoriously abused.” The audience would have to agree–Malvolio was kept imprisoned in darkness for some time. However, since Malvolio cannot see the humor in the situation, and remains at the end of the play the only bitter and angry character (everyone else has something to be joyful about) the audience cannot feel too sorry for him. When he runs away, swearing revenge, his rage is merely comical.
Comedy
Orsino loves Olivia so much that he cannot imagine she doesn’t love him back. Thus even when he hears that she is mourning her brother and will not see any man, he doesn’t give up. Clearly, he has been rejected many times, but he is deaf to her protests. He sees romance as just another intense emotion, and believes that her grief could easily turn into love for him.
Love
Viola, who has disguised herself in order to get away from people, has fallen in love with the Duke only three days after meeting him. She now finds herself in the comical position of having to court Olivia, the woman the Duke loves, because she is (for some reason) unwilling to reveal she is a woman.
Love
Olivia falls in love just as easily as the Duke and Viola did. While she, like the others, is disturbed and pained at first, she quickly decides that since it has happened, she must accept it. It seems that she has never been in love, because she is surprised at how quickly it happened to her, and wonders, “Even so quickly may one catch the plague?”
Love
Antonio loves Sebastian in a very different way than most of the other characters love. While his affection is presumably not romantic, Antonio cares deeply for Sebastian, and even wants to be his servant. His affection is not based on beauty, infatuation or typical “romantic” behavior: he simply wants to be with Sebastian, and to help him in any way he can.
Love
Viola ponders the silliness of love. Like Olivia and the Duke, she sees love as a kind of painful mess, and almost wishes she could be rid of it. She believes that their gender has something to do with her and Olivia’s troubled lives: it is the nature of women, she says, to fall in love easily.
Love
Viola painfully hides her love for the Duke, even when he asks her directly if she has ever been in love. Her discomfort and efforts to be vague are comical: she will not lie, so she ends up saying that she loved someone a lot like the Duke. The Duke assumes this person was a woman, and reasons that any woman who looked like him was not worth Cesario’s (Viola’s) love.
Love
Orsino offers his advice on romance to Cesario. His advice is amusing both because he doesn’t realize he’s talking to someone who loves him, and because he himself is such a failure at love. Earlier, Viola’s captain told her that Orsino has been unmarried for many years, and has been in love with Olivia for a long time, though she has consistently told him that she cannot love him and will never marry him.
Love
Viola, pretending to be Cesario, claims that women love just as deeply as men do. She disagrees with Orsino, which turns out to be significant because, while he has a change of heart at the end of the play, falling in love with Viola, and Olivia, too, substitutes Sebastian for Viola, Viola herself remains constant. She falls in love with Orsino the moment she meets him, and stays in love for the remainder of the play.
Love
Maria anticipates what kind of romance will appeal to Malvolio, and her letter suits him perfectly. Since he is so vain that he assumes Olivia must be in love with him anyway, Maria only has to write a few romantic cliches in order to make him sure of it. He enjoys her intentionally silly babbling, because it flatters him and allows him to think of himself as a nobleman. He is enchanted with this idea, and fantasizes in a comical way about his romantic life with Olivia.
Love
As with most romantic comedies, the romance, which was at the beginning of the play the cause of so much pain, ends up the cause of great joy. No love is thwarted in this play–except, perhaps, for that of Malvolio, but his interest in Olivia always seemed to stem more from her wealth and position than anything else. Orsino’s long-lasting affection for Olivia is quickly replaced by love for Viola, and Olivia easily transfers her love from Cesario/Viola to Sebastian. The play is therefore not so much about love as it is about romance: infatuation, courtship, marriage.
Love
