Twelfth Night quotes

Question 1

Orsino, love

Answer 1

‘If music be the food of love, play on.’

Question 2

Feste, wit

Answer 2

‘Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.’

Question 3

Malvolio, madness

Answer 3

‘Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em.’

Question 4

Olivia, mourning

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Malvolio about Cesario (Violas) disguise

Answer 5

‘He is very well-favored and he speaks very shrewishly; one would think his mother’s milk were scarce out of him.’

Question 6

Olivia about Malvolio’s madness

Answer 6

‘Why, this is very midsummer madness.’

Question 7

Malvolio, reaction to finding out he has been pranked.

Answer 7

“I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you!”

Question 8

When the twins find out they are related

Answer 8

“my father had a mole upon his brow”

Question 9

True love Viola feels for Orsino

Answer 9

“More than I love these eyes, more than my life”

Question 10

Fabian, ironic as this is exactly what no one in the entire play does

Answer 10

“I will prove it legitimate, sir, upon the oaths of judgement and reason.”

Question 11

Theme of disguise.

Answer 11

“How easy is it for the proper false”

Question 12

States the truth about Malvolio and his attitudes towards his equals

Answer 12

“O you are sick of self love, Malvolio”

Question 14

Maria, insulting Sir Andrew by calling him a joke

Answer 14

“Marry, now I let go your hand, I am barren”

Question 15

This is the first line that shows Viola (who is in disguise as Cesario) has fallen in love with Orsino

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Viola feels pity for Olivia

Answer 16

‘Poor lady, she were better love a dream.’

Question 17

Viola is disguised as a man called Cesario and this causes all sorts of confusion and mistaken identity

Answer 17

‘I am not what I am.’

Question 18

Orsino’s language here is suggesting that Olivia’s beauty is so strong that it cleans the air of disease

Answer 18

‘O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first, Methought she purged the air of pestilence!’

Question 19

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.

Answer 19

‘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.’

Question 20

Orsino is amazed when he sees Sebastian and his twin, Viola, together

Answer 20

‘One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons.’

Question 21

Olivia rejects Orsino’s romantic messages but shows an interest in seeing Cesario again

Answer 21

‘I cannot love him: let him send no more - Unless perchance you come to me again?’

Question 22

Olivia declares her love for Cesario, unaware that Cesario is not who he appears to be

Answer 22

‘By maidhood, honour, truth and everything, I love thee so.’

Question 23

Malvolio is disgusted by the behaviour of Sir Toby and his friends. He wants them to stop drinking and partying.

Answer 23

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

Question 24

When Malvolio visits Olivia in his strange costume, he starts quoting lines from the letter he thinks she has written

Answer 24

‘Remember who commended thy yellow stockings and wished to see thee cross-gartered.’