Act I - Scene I

Duke Orsino's Court

[Enter Duke, Curio, Lords; Musicians attending.]

DUKE ORSINO:
If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound,(5)
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more;
'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou,
That, notwithstanding thy capacity(10)
Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch soe'er,
But falls into abatement and low price,
Even in a minute: so full of shapes is fancy
That it alone is high fantastical.(15)
CURIO:
Will you go hunt, my lord?
DUKE ORSINO:
What, Curio?
CURIO:
The hart.
DUKE ORSINO:
Why, so I do, the noblest that I have:
O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first,(20)
Methought she purg'd the air of pestilence!
That instant was I turn'd into a hart;
And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds,
E'er since pursue me.
How now! what news from her?(25)

[Enter Valentine.]

VALENTINE:
So please my lord, I might not be admitted;
But from her handmaid do return this answer:
The element itself, till seven years' heat,
Shall not behold her face at ample view;
But, like a cloistress, she will veiled walk(30)
And water once a day her chamber round
With eye-offending brine: all this to season
A brother's dead love, which she would keep fresh
And lasting in her sad remembrance.
DUKE ORSINO:
O, she that hath a heart of that fine frame(35)
To pay this debt of love but to a brother,
How will she love, when the rich golden shaft
Hath kill'd the flock of all affections else
That live in her; when liver, brain, and heart,
These sovereign thrones, are all supplied, and fill'd(40)
Her sweet perfections with one self king!
Away before me to sweet beds of flowers:
Love-thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowers.
[Exeunt.]


Act I - Scene II
Dramatis Personæ

Footnotes

  1. "Excess" describes the aristocratic extravagance that Shakespeare disparages. Orsino's love rather proves to be infatuation not love.

    — Yebin

  2. Olivia’s sadness and ardent commitment to keeping that sadness “fresh” in her “remembrance” can be seen as a pose of melancholy. Like Orsino who affects the tropes of love-sickness, Olivia plays the role of melancholy. Together, these two characters represent the two sides of theatrical performance: tragedy and comedy.

    — Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff

  3. Olivia’s sadness and ardent commitment to keeping that sadness “fresh” in her “remembrance” can be seen as a pose of melancholy. Like Orsino who affects the tropes of love-sickness, Olivia plays the role of melancholy. Together, these two characters represent the two sides of theatrical performance: tragedy and comedy.

    — Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff

  4. The wooden length of an arrow is called a shaft, and since Orsino includes the adjective "golden" in this speech about love, this is clearly a reference to the golden arrow of Cupid, the Roman god of love.

    — Wesley, Owl Eyes Editor

  5. Orsino compares himself to a stag being hunted to allude to the Diana Actaeon myth. In the myth, Actaeon comes across Diana, the goddess of chastity, bathing naked in a pool. He watches her for too long and she punishes him by turning him into a stag. He is then torn apart by his own hunting dogs.

    — Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff

  6. The reference to “pestilence” would have had particularly poignant connotations for Elizabethan audiences. “Pestilence” here refers to the Black Death, or bubonic plague, a virulent, infectious disease that swept medieval Europe and killed about a third of its population. There were outbreaks of pestilence in London throughout the Elizabethan era which were so bad that the government closed the theaters in 1593 in an attempt to stop it from spreading.

    — Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff

  7. When asked if he will go on a hunt for a “hart” (a male deer), Orsino puns on the word “hart” by giving it a double meaning in order to employ a metaphor for his love of Olivia: he is both the hunter and the hunted; he is the hart pursued by his desire for Olivia. Such wordplay is so overly dramatic that it’s as if Orsino were self-conscious of his own performance.

    — Wesley, Owl Eyes Editor

  8. Orsino muses on love in this opening speech, lamenting its melancholy nature while noting that it manifests itself in different ways, which makes it magical. While dramatic and excessive, this speech not only gives the audience insight into Orsino’s views on love, but it also foreshadows the many "shapes" and disguises that the characters wear during the events of Twelfth Night.

    — Wesley, Owl Eyes Editor

  9. This archaic noun refers to excessive indulgence in things like food or drink in an effort to gratify one’s appetite or senses. By wanting to surfeit himself, Orsino wishes to be overwhelmed with pleasurable things so he can distract himself from thoughts of his love, Olivia. This touches on the theme of love that runs through the play and how desire and love can be so overwhelming that he feels as if he were drowning in it.

    — Wesley, Owl Eyes Editor

  10. Orsino opens the play in an overly melodramatic exclamation of love. Orsino claims that he wants to be so stuffed full with his own love that it exceeds his boundaries and he dies. This pose of love sets the play in a comedic sphere in which the characters are so hyperbolic and ridiculous that they are not meant to be taken seriously. With characters such as Orsino opening the play, the audience understands that they must suspend their disbelief about the comedic, slapstick situations that the characters get themselves into.

    — Caitlin, Owl Eyes Staff