Twelfth Night quotes Flashcards
Orsino, love
‘If music be the food of love, play on.’
Feste, wit
‘Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.’
Malvolio, madness
‘Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em.’
Olivia, mourning
“O time, thou must untangle this, not I.
It is too hard a knot for me t’untie.”
Malvolio about Cesario (Violas) disguise
‘He is very well-favored and he speaks very shrewishly; one would think his mother’s milk were scarce out of him.’
Olivia about Malvolio’s madness
‘Why, this is very midsummer madness.’
Malvolio, reaction to finding out he has been pranked.
“I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you!”
When the twins find out they are related
“my father had a mole upon his brow”
True love Viola feels for Orsino
“More than I love these eyes, more than my life”
Fabian, ironic as this is exactly what no one in the entire play does
“I will prove it legitimate, sir, upon the oaths of judgement and reason.”
Theme of disguise.
“How easy is it for the proper false”
States the truth about Malvolio and his attitudes towards his equals
“O you are sick of self love, Malvolio”
Maria, insulting Sir Andrew by calling him a joke
“Marry, now I let go your hand, I am barren”
This is the first line that shows Viola (who is in disguise as Cesario) has fallen in love with Orsino
‘Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife.’
Viola feels pity for Olivia
‘Poor lady, she were better love a dream.’
Viola is disguised as a man called Cesario and this causes all sorts of confusion and mistaken identity
‘I am not what I am.’
Orsino’s language here is suggesting that Olivia’s beauty is so strong that it cleans the air of disease
‘O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first, Methought she purged the air of pestilence!’
Orsino uses metaphors here to express his anger about the fact that Olivia loves Cesario. The lamb is Cesario and Olivia is the dove with a raven’s heart. language suggests he is threatening Cesario with violence even though he Cesario is a friend.
‘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.’
Orsino is amazed when he sees Sebastian and his twin, Viola, together
‘One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons.’
Olivia rejects Orsino’s romantic messages but shows an interest in seeing Cesario again
‘I cannot love him: let him send no more - Unless perchance you come to me again?’
Olivia declares her love for Cesario, unaware that Cesario is not who he appears to be
‘By maidhood, honour, truth and everything, I love thee so.’
Malvolio is disgusted by the behaviour of Sir Toby and his friends. He wants them to stop drinking and partying.
‘Have you no wit, manners, nor honesty but to gabble like tinkers at this time of night.’
When Malvolio visits Olivia in his strange costume, he starts quoting lines from the letter he thinks she has written
‘Remember who commended thy yellow stockings and wished to see thee cross-gartered.’
