Act 5, Scene 1

The Street before OLIVIA's House.

[Enter CLOWN and FABIAN.]
Fabian
1924 Now, as thou lovest me, let me see his letter.
Feste
1925 Good Master Fabian, grant me another request.
Fabian
1926 Anything.
Feste
1927 Do not desire to see this letter.
Fabian
1928 This is to give a dog; and in recompense desire my dog again.
[Enter DUKE, VIOLA, and Attendants.]
Orsino
1929 Belong you to the Lady Olivia, friends?
Feste
1930 Ay, sir; we are some of her trappings.
Orsino
1931 I know thee well. How dost thou, my good fellow?
Feste
1932 Truly, sir, the better for my foes and the worse for my friends.
Orsino
1933 Just the contrary; the better for thy friends.
Feste
1934 No, sir, the worse.
Orsino
1935 How can that be?
Feste
1936 Marry, sir, they praise me and make an ass of me; now my
1937 foes tell me plainly I am an ass: so that by my foes, sir, I
1938 profit in the knowledge of myself, and by my friends I am abused:
1939 so that, conclusions to be as kisses, if your four negatives make
1940 your two affirmatives, why then, the worse for my friends and
1941 the better for my foes.
Orsino
1942 Why, this is excellent.
Feste
1943 By my troth, sir, no; though it please you to be one of my
1944 friends.
Orsino
1945 Thou shalt not be the worse for me; there's gold.
Feste
1946 But that it would be double-dealing, sir, I would you could
1947 make it another.
Orsino
1948 O, you give me ill counsel.
Feste
1949 Put your grace in your pocket, sir, for this once, and let
1950 your flesh and blood obey it.
Orsino
1951 Well, I will be so much a sinner to be a double-dealer: there's
1952 another.
Feste
1953 Primo, secundo, tertio, is a good play; and the old saying
1954 is, the third pays for all; the triplex, sir, is a good tripping
1955 measure; or the bells of Saint Bennet, sir, may put you in mind;
1956 one, two, three.
Orsino
1957 You can fool no more money out of me at this throw: if you
1958 will let your lady know I am here to speak with her, and bring
1959 her along with you, it may awake my bounty further.
Feste
1960 Marry, sir, lullaby to your bounty till I come again. I go,
1961 sir; but I would not have you to think that my desire of having
1962 is the sin of covetousness: but, as you say, sir, let your bounty
1963 take a nap; I will awake it anon.
[Exit CLOWN.]
[Enter ANTONIO and Officers.]
Viola
1964 Here comes the man, sir, that did rescue me.
Orsino
1965 That face of his I do remember well:
1966 Yet when I saw it last it was besmeared
1967 As black as Vulcan in the smoke of war:
1968 A bawbling vessel was he captain of,
1969 For shallow draught and bulk unprizable;
1970 With which such scathful grapple did he make
1971 With the most noble bottom of our fleet
1972 That very envy and the tongue of los
1973 Cried fame and honour on him.—What's the matter?
First Officer
1974 Orsino, this is that Antonio
1975 That took the Phoenix and her fraught from Candy:
1976 And this is he that did the Tiger board
1977 When your young nephew Titus lost his leg:
1978 Here in the streets, desperate of shame and state,
1979 In private brabble did we apprehend him.
Viola
1980 He did me kindness, sir; drew on my side;
1981 But, in conclusion, put strange speech upon me.
1982 I know not what 'twas, but distraction.
Orsino
1983 Notable pirate! thou salt-water thief!
1984 What foolish boldness brought thee to their mercies,
1985 Whom thou, in terms so bloody and so dear,
1986 Hast made thine enemies?
Antonio
1987 Orsino, noble sir,
1988 Be pleased that I shake off these names you give me:
1989 Antonio never yet was thief or pirate,
1990 Though, I confess, on base and ground enough,
1991 Orsino's enemy. A witchcraft drew me hither:
1992 That most ingrateful boy there, by your side
1993 From the rude sea's enraged and foamy mouth
1994 Did I redeem; a wreck past hope he was:
1995 His life I gave him, and did thereto add
1996 My love, without retention or restraint,
1997 All his in dedication: for his sake,
1998 Did I expose myself, pure for his love,
1999 Into the danger of this adverse town;
2000 Drew to defend him when he was beset:
2001 Where being apprehended, his false cunning,—
2002 Not meaning to partake with me in danger,—
2003 Taught him to face me out of his acquaintance,
2004 And grew a twenty-years-removed thing
2005 While one would wink; denied me mine own purse,
2006 Which I had recommended to his use
2007 Not half an hour before.
Viola
2008 How can this be?
Orsino
2009 When came he to this town?
Antonio
2010 To-day, my lord; and for three months before,—
2011 No interim, not a minute's vacancy,—
2012 Both day and night did we keep company.
[Enter OLIVIA and Attendants.]
Orsino
2013 Here comes the countess; now heaven walks on earth.—
2014 But for thee, fellow, fellow, thy words are madness:
2015 Three months this youth hath tended upon me;
2016 But more of that anon.—Take him aside.
Olivia
2017 What would my lord, but that he may not have,
2018 Wherein Olivia may seem serviceable!—
2019 Cesario, you do not keep promise with me.
Viola
2020 Madam?
Orsino
2021 Gracious Olivia,—
Olivia
2022 What do you say, Cesario?—Good my lord,—
Viola
2023 My lord would speak, my duty hushes me.
Olivia
2024 If it be aught to the old tune, my lord,
2025 It is as fat and fulsome to mine ear
2026 As howling after music.
Orsino
2027 Still so cruel?
Olivia
2028 Still so constant, lord.
Orsino
2029 What! to perverseness? you uncivil lady,
2030 To whose ingrate and unauspicious altars
2031 My soul the faithfull'st offerings hath breathed out
2032 That e'er devotion tender'd! What shall I do?
Olivia
2033 Even what it please my lord, that shall become him.
Orsino
2034 Why should I not, had I the heart to do it.
2035 Like to the Egyptian thief, at point of death,
2036 Kill what I love; a savage jealousy
2037 That sometime savours nobly.—But hear me this:
2038 Since you to non-regardance cast my faith,
2039 And that I partly know the instrument
2040 That screws me from my true place in your favour,
2041 Live you the marble-breasted tyrant still;
2042 But this your minion, whom I know you love,
2043 And whom, by heaven I swear, I tender dearly,
2044 Him will I tear out of that cruel eye
2045 Where he sits crowned in his master's sprite.—
2046 Come, boy, with me; my thoughts are ripe in mischief:
2047 I'll sacrifice the lamb that I do love,
2048 To spite a raven's heart within a dove.
[Going.]
Viola
2049 And I, most jocund, apt, and willingly,
2050 To do you rest, a thousand deaths would die.
Olivia
2051 Where goes Cesario?
Viola
2052 After him I love
2053 More than I love these eyes, more than my life,
2054 More, by all mores, than e'er I shall love wife;
2055 If I do feign, you witnesses above
2056 Punish my life for tainting of my love!
Olivia
2057 Ah me, detested! how am I beguil'd!
Viola
2058 Who does beguile you? who does do you wrong?
Olivia
2059 Hast thou forgot thyself? Is it so long?—
2060 Call forth the holy father.
[Exit an ATTENDANT.]
[To Viola.]
Orsino
2061 Come, away!
Olivia
2062 Whither, my lord? Cesario, husband, stay.
Orsino
2063 Husband?
Olivia
2064 Ay, husband, can he that deny?
Orsino
2065 Her husband, sirrah?
Viola
2066 No, my lord, not I.
Olivia
2067 Alas, it is the baseness of thy fear
2068 That makes thee strangle thy propriety:
2069 Fear not, Cesario, take thy fortunes up;
2070 Be that thou know'st thou art, and then thou art
2071 As great as that thou fear'st—O, welcome, father!
[Re-enter Attendant and Priest.]
Olivia
2072 Father, I charge thee, by thy reverence,
2073 Here to unfold,—though lately we intended
2074 To keep in darkness what occasion now
2075 Reveals before 'tis ripe,—what thou dost know
2076 Hath newly passed between this youth and me.
Priest
2077 A contract of eternal bond of love,
2078 Confirmed by mutual joinder of your hands,
2079 Attested by the holy close of lips,
2080 Strengthen'd by interchangement of your rings;
2081 And all the ceremony of this compact
2082 Sealed in my function, by my testimony:
2083 Since when, my watch hath told me, toward my grave,
2084 I have travelled but two hours.
Orsino
2085 O thou dissembling cub! What wilt thou be,
2086 When time hath sowed a grizzle on thy case?
2087 Or will not else thy craft so quickly grow
2088 That thine own trip shall be thine overthrow?
2089 Farewell, and take her; but direct thy feet
2090 Where thou and I henceforth may never meet.
Viola
2091 My lord, I do protest,—
Olivia
2092 O, do not swear;
2093 Hold little faith, though thou has too much fear.
[Enter SIR ANDREW AGUE-CHEEK, with his head broke.]
Sir Andrew Aguecheek
2094 For the love of God, a surgeon; send one presently to Sir Toby.
Olivia
2095 What's the matter?
Sir Andrew Aguecheek
2096 He has broke my head across, and has given Sir Toby a
2097 bloody coxcomb too: for the love of God, your help: I had rather
2098 than forty pound I were at home.
Olivia
2099 Who has done this, Sir Andrew?
Sir Andrew Aguecheek
2100 The Count's gentleman, one Cesario: we took him for a
2101 coward, but he's the very devil incardinate.
Orsino
2102 My gentleman, Cesario?
Sir Andrew Aguecheek
2103 Od's lifelings, here he is:—You broke my head for
2104 nothing; and that that I did, I was set on to do't by Sir Toby.
Viola
2105 Why do you speak to me? I never hurt you:
2106 You drew your sword upon me without cause;
2107 But I bespake you fair and hurt you not.
Sir Andrew Aguecheek
2108 If a bloody coxcomb be a hurt, you have hurt me; I think
2109 you set nothing by a bloody coxcomb.
[Enter SIR TOBY BELCH, drunk, led by the CLOWN.]
Sir Andrew Aguecheek
2110 Here comes Sir Toby halting; you shall hear more: but if he had
2111 not been in drink he would have tickled you othergates than he
2112 did.
Orsino
2113 How now, gentleman? how is't with you?
Sir Toby Belch
2114 That's all one; he has hurt me, and there's the end on't.—
2115 Sot, didst see Dick Surgeon, sot?
Feste
2116 O, he's drunk, Sir Toby, an hour agone; his eyes were set at
2117 eight i' the morning.
Sir Toby Belch
2118 Then he's a rogue. After a passy-measure, or a pavin, I hate a
2119 drunken rogue.
Olivia
2120 Away with him. Who hath made this havoc with them?
Sir Andrew Aguecheek
2121 I'll help you, Sir Toby, because we'll be dressed together.
Sir Toby Belch
2122 Will you help an ass-head, and a coxcomb, and a knave? a
2123 thin-faced knave, a gull?
Olivia
2124 Get him to bed, and let his hurt be looked to.
[Exeunt CLOWN, SIR TOBY, and SIR ANDREW.]
[Enter SEBASTIAN.]
Sebastian
2125 I am sorry, madam, I have hurt your kinsman;
2126 But, had it been the brother of my blood,
2127 I must have done no less, with wit and safety.
2128 You throw a strange regard upon me, and by that
2129 I do perceive it hath offended you;
2130 Pardon me, sweet one, even for the vows
2131 We made each other but so late ago.
Orsino
2132 One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons;
2133 A natural perspective, that is, and is not.
Sebastian
2134 Antonio, O my dear Antonio!
2135 How have the hours rack'd and tortur'd me
2136 Since I have lost thee.
Antonio
2137 Sebastian are you?
Sebastian
2138 Fear'st thou that, Antonio?
Antonio
2139 How have you made division of yourself?—
2140 An apple, cleft in two, is not more twin
2141 Than these two creatures. Which is Sebastian?
Olivia
2142 Most wonderful!
Sebastian
2143 Do I stand there? I never had a brother:
2144 Nor can there be that deity in my nature
2145 Of here and everywhere. I had a sister
2146 Whom the blind waves and surges have devoured:—
[To Viola.]
Sebastian
2147 Of charity, what kin are you to me?
2148 What countryman, what name, what parentage?
Viola
2149 Of Messaline: Sebastian was my father;
2150 Such a Sebastian was my brother too:
2151 So went he suited to his watery tomb:
2152 If spirits can assume both form and suit,
2153 You come to fright us.
Sebastian
2154 A spirit I am indeed:
2155 But am in that dimension grossly clad,
2156 Which from the womb I did participate.
2157 Were you a woman, as the rest goes even,
2158 I should my tears let fall upon your cheek,
2159 And say—Thrice welcome, drowned Viola!
Viola
2160 My father had a mole upon his brow.
Sebastian
2161 And so had mine.
Viola
2162 And died that day when Viola from her birth
2163 Had numbered thirteen years.
Sebastian
2164 O, that record is lively in my soul!
2165 He finished, indeed, his mortal act
2166 That day that made my sister thirteen years.
Viola
2167 If nothing lets to make us happy both
2168 But this my masculine usurp'd attire,
2169 Do not embrace me till each circumstance
2170 Of place, time, fortune, do cohere, and jump
2171 That I am Viola: which to confirm,
2172 I'll bring you to a captain in this town,
2173 Where lie my maiden weeds; by whose gentle help
2174 I was preserv'd to serve this noble count;
2175 All the occurrence of my fortune since
2176 Hath been between this lady and this lord.
[To OLIVIA]
Sebastian
2177 So comes it, lady, you have been mistook:
2178 But nature to her bias drew in that.
2179 You would have been contracted to a maid;
2180 Nor are you therein, by my life, deceived;
2181 You are betroth'd both to a maid and man.
Orsino
2182 Be not amazed; right noble is his blood.—
2183 If this be so, as yet the glass seems true,
2184 I shall have share in this most happy wreck:
[To VIOLA]
Orsino
2185 Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times,
2186 Thou never shouldst love woman like to me.
Viola
2187 And all those sayings will I over-swear;
2188 And all those swearings keep as true in soul
2189 As doth that orbed continent the fire
2190 That severs day from night.
Orsino
2191 Give me thy hand;
2192 And let me see thee in thy woman's weeds.
Viola
2193 The captain that did bring me first on shore
2194 Hath my maid's garments: he, upon some action,
2195 Is now in durance, at Malvolio's suit;
2196 A gentleman and follower of my lady's.
Olivia
2197 He shall enlarge him:—Fetch Malvolio hither:—
2198 And yet, alas, now I remember me,
2199 They say, poor gentleman, he's much distract.
[Re-enter CLOWN, with a letter.]
Olivia
2200 A most extracting frenzy of mine own
2201 From my remembrance clearly banished his.—
2202 How does he, sirrah?
Feste
2203 Truly, madam, he holds Belzebub at the stave's end as well
2204 as a man in his case may do: he has here writ a letter to you; I
2205 should have given it you to-day morning, but as a madman's
2206 epistles are no gospels, so it skills not much when they are
2207 delivered.
Olivia
2208 Open it, and read it.
Feste
2209 Look then to be well edified when the fool delivers the
2210 madman:—'By the Lord, madam,—'
Olivia
2211 How now! art thou mad?
Feste
2212 No, madam, I do but read madness: an your ladyship will have
2213 it as it ought to be, you must allow vox.
Olivia
2214 Pr'ythee, read i' thy right wits.
Feste
2215 So I do, madonna; but to read his right wits is to read
2216 thus; therefore perpend, my princess, and give ear.
[To FABIAN]
Olivia
2217 Read it you, sirrah.
[Reads]
Fabian
2218 'By the Lord, madam, you wrong me, and the world
2219 shall know it: though you have put me into darkness and given
2220 your drunken cousin rule over me, yet have I the benefit of my
2221 senses as well as your ladyship. I have your own letter that
2222 induced me to the semblance I put on; with the which I doubt not
2223 but to do myself much right or you much shame. Think of me as you
2224 please. I leave my duty a little unthought of, and speak out of
2225 my injury.
2226 The madly-used Malvolio'
Olivia
2227 Did he write this?
Feste
2228 Ay, madam.
Orsino
2229 This savours not much of distraction.
Olivia
2230 See him delivered, Fabian: bring him hither.
[Exit FABIAN.]
Olivia
2231 My lord, so please you, these things further thought on,
2232 To think me as well a sister as a wife,
2233 One day shall crown the alliance on't, so please you,
2234 Here at my house, and at my proper cost.
Orsino
2235 Madam, I am most apt to embrace your offer.—
[To VIOLA]
Orsino
2236 Your master quits you; and, for your service done him,
2237 So much against the mettle of your sex,
2238 So far beneath your soft and tender breeding,
2239 And since you called me master for so long,
2240 Here is my hand; you shall from this time be
2241 You master's mistress.
Olivia
2242 A sister?—you are she.
[Re-enter FABIAN with MALVOLIO.]
Orsino
2243 Is this the madman?
Olivia
2244 Ay, my lord, this same;
2245 How now, Malvolio?
Malvolio
2246 Madam, you have done me wrong,
2247 Notorious wrong.
Olivia
2248 Have I, Malvolio? no.
Malvolio
2249 Lady, you have. Pray you peruse that letter:
2250 You must not now deny it is your hand,
2251 Write from it, if you can, in hand or phrase;
2252 Or say 'tis not your seal, not your invention:
2253 You can say none of this. Well, grant it then,
2254 And tell me, in the modesty of honour,
2255 Why you have given me such clear lights of favour;
2256 Bade me come smiling and cross-garter'd to you;
2257 To put on yellow stockings, and to frown
2258 Upon Sir Toby and the lighter people:
2259 And, acting this in an obedient hope,
2260 Why have you suffer'd me to be imprison'd,
2261 Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest,
2262 And made the most notorious geck and gull
2263 That e'er invention played on? tell me why.
Olivia
2264 Alas, Malvolio, this is not my writing,
2265 Though, I confess, much like the character:
2266 But out of question, 'tis Maria's hand.
2267 And now I do bethink me, it was she
2268 First told me thou wast mad; then cam'st in smiling,
2269 And in such forms which here were presuppos'd
2270 Upon thee in the letter. Pr'ythee, be content:
2271 This practice hath most shrewdly pass'd upon thee:
2272 But, when we know the grounds and authors of it,
2273 Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge
2274 Of thine own cause.
Fabian
2275 Good madam, hear me speak;
2276 And let no quarrel, nor no brawl to come,
2277 Taint the condition of this present hour,
2278 Which I have wonder'd at. In hope it shall not,
2279 Most freely I confess, myself and Toby
2280 Set this device against Malvolio here,
2281 Upon some stubborn and uncourteous parts
2282 We had conceiv'd against him. Maria writ
2283 The letter, at Sir Toby's great importance;
2284 In recompense whereof he hath married her.
2285 How with a sportful malice it was follow'd
2286 May rather pluck on laughter than revenge,
2287 If that the injuries be justly weigh'd
2288 That have on both sides past.
Olivia
2289 Alas, poor fool! how have they baffled thee!
Feste
2290 Why, 'some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some
2291 have greatness thrown upon them.' I was one, sir, in this
2292 interlude;:—one Sir Topas, sir; but that's all one:—'By the
2293 Lord, fool, I am not mad;'—But do you remember? 'Madam, why
2294 laugh you at such a barren rascal? An you smile not, he's
2295 gagged'? And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.
Malvolio
2296 I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you.
[Exit.]
Olivia
2297 He hath been most notoriously abus'd.
Orsino
2298 Pursue him, and entreat him to a peace:—
2299 He hath not told us of the captain yet;
2300 When that is known, and golden time convents,
2301 A solemn combination shall be made
2302 Of our dear souls.—Meantime, sweet sister,
2303 We will not part from hence.—Cesario, come:
2304 For so you shall be while you are a man;
2305 But, when in other habits you are seen,
2306 Orsino's mistress, and his fancy's queen.
[Exeunt.]
[Song.]
Feste
2307 When that I was and a little tiny boy,
2308 With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
2309 A foolish thing was but a toy,
2310 For the rain it raineth every day.
Feste
2311 But when I came to man's estate,
2312 With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
2313 'Gainst knave and thief men shut their gate,
2314 For the rain it raineth every day.
Feste
2315 But when I came, alas! to wive,
2316 With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
2317 By swaggering could I never thrive,
2318 For the rain it raineth every day.
Feste
2319 But when I came unto my bed,
2320 With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
2321 With toss-pots still had drunken head,
2322 For the rain it raineth every day.
Feste
2323 A great while ago the world begun,
2324 With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
2325 But that's all one, our play is done,
2326 And we'll strive to please you every day.
[Exit.]

Reading mode

Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 1928wordplay
“This is to give a dog; and in recompense desire my dog again”
Fabian jokes that Feste's 'request' — 'do not ask to see the letter' — is no gift at all, like giving someone a dog and immediately demanding it back. The joke was proverbial: John Lily's court play Campaspe (1584) records that Queen Elizabeth once gave a dog to a courtier who asked for it back, making 'to give a dog' a catchphrase for a hollow gesture.
TLN 1932rhetorical device
“the better for my foes and the worse for my friends”
Feste argues, through deliberate paradox, that his enemies profit him more than his friends: friends flatter him (which makes him an ass), while foes tell him bluntly he is an ass (which teaches him self-knowledge). The argument turns the usual friendship-enmity values upside down, a running device of Feste's riddling humour.
TLN 1946wordplay
“it would be double-dealing, sir, I would you could make it another”
'Double-dealing' literally means duplicity — acting two-faced or dishonestly. But Feste is angling for a second coin while pretending to be too conscientious to take one; his 'double-dealing' pun lets him request a second payment while appearing to refuse it. The wordplay turns the sin of dishonesty into permission for more money.
TLN 1949wordplay
“Put your grace in your pocket, sir, for this once”
Feste puns on two meanings of 'grace': (1) the title used to address a duke ('Your Grace'), and (2) the Christian virtue of moral goodness. He tells Orsino to pocket both — pocket his titled dignity and pocket his moral scruples — so that he can give Feste a second coin. 'Let your flesh and blood obey it' means: act on natural human generosity rather than moral restraint.
TLN 1953cultural context
“Primo, secundo, tertio, is a good play; and the old saying is, the third pays for all”
Feste counts in Latin — first, second, third — to justify pressing Orsino for a third coin. 'The third pays for all' was a proverbial saying meaning the third attempt clinches the deal. 'Triplex' is a musical term for triple time (three beats in a bar); Saint Bennet is a London church known for its three bells — all three images converge to make the number three feel inevitable. This is how Feste extracts a third coin through the appearance of learned argument.
TLN 1967classical allusion
“black as Vulcan in the smoke of war”
Vulcan was the Roman god of fire and the forge — the divine blacksmith, always pictured soot-darkened from the flames. Orsino uses him as a simile for Antonio's face, which was blackened with gunpowder smoke during the naval battle. The comparison flatters Antonio's fierceness while explaining why Orsino barely recognises him now that he is clean.
TLN 1968archaic vocab
“A bawbling vessel was he captain of, For shallow draught and bulk unprizable”
'Bawbling' means paltry, trifling, barely worth notice. 'Shallow draught' means the ship sat high in the water (drew little depth), marking it as small. 'Bulk unprizable' means a hull of no value — too small to be worth capturing as a prize. Orsino is acknowledging that Antonio fought heroically against the odds: his little ship had no business going up against the largest ships in the duke's fleet.
TLN 1970archaic vocab
“such scathful grapple did he make With the most noble bottom of our fleet”
'Scathful' means causing great harm or damage. 'Grapple' in naval warfare meant locking ships together with grappling hooks to board the enemy. 'Bottom' means the hull of a ship, used by extension for the ship itself. Orsino describes how Antonio's little vessel rammed and boarded the best ships in the Illyrian navy, causing severe damage.
TLN 1975archaic vocab
“the Phoenix and her fraught from Candy”
'Fraught' (also spelt 'fraight' or 'freight') means cargo. 'Candy' is the Elizabethan name for Candia — the island of Crete and its chief port. The Phoenix was one of Orsino's ships; Antonio seized it along with its entire cargo somewhere off Crete. These are the specific acts of piracy that make Antonio a wanted man in Illyria.
TLN 1979archaic vocab
“In private brabble did we apprehend him”
A 'brabble' is a noisy brawl or squabble. 'Private brabble' distinguishes this from a formal or state-sanctioned conflict — Antonio was caught fighting in a street scuffle (the duel between Sir Andrew, Sebastian, and company), not in a military engagement. The officer notes this as an added embarrassment: so dangerous a pirate was arrested in what amounted to a petty public brawl.
TLN 1991cultural context
“A witchcraft drew me hither”
Antonio means he was pulled to Illyria by an overpowering, irrational force he could not resist — his love for Sebastian. 'Witchcraft' was a common Elizabethan metaphor for compulsion that overrides reason, especially the compulsion of love. In a play where characters repeatedly accuse one another of magical enchantment, Antonio's word choice also places his feeling for Sebastian in the same register of overwhelming, inexplicable attraction.
TLN 2003archaic vocab
“face me out of his acquaintance, And grew a twenty-years-removed thing While one would wink”
Antonio says the person he knew as Sebastian (actually Viola in disguise) denied ever knowing him — stared through him as if he were a stranger, becoming 'a twenty-years-removed thing' (acting as if they had been strangers for twenty years) in the time it took to blink. 'While one would wink' means 'in the blink of an eye.' 'Face out of his acquaintance' means to brazen it out, to look someone in the face and deny knowing them.
TLN 2013cultural context
“now heaven walks on earth”
When Orsino says 'heaven walks on earth' at Olivia's approach, he is speaking in the hyperbolic language of Petrarchan courtship, which compared the beloved to a goddess or an angel descended among mortals. The line exposes his self-deceiving idealism: he has spent months sending a page to woo a woman for him, and his 'heaven' is now turning to face him dismissively.
historical Petrarch and the Petrarchan lover
TLN 2025archaic vocab
“fat and fulsome to mine ear As howling after music”
'Fat' here means gross, clumsy, dull — not slim or agile. 'Fulsome' in Shakespeare's day meant excessive, cloying, or offensively overfull (the modern meaning of 'fulsome praise' preserves this sense). Olivia compares Orsino's repeated suit to the noise of a dog howling after music has ended — toneless, out of place, and tiresome. She is telling him bluntly that his love-suits have become noise.
TLN 2030cultural context
“ingrate and unauspicious altars My soul the faithfull'st offerings hath breathed out”
Orsino frames his love in the language of religious sacrifice, calling Olivia's indifference 'ingrate' (ungrateful) and 'unauspicious' (offering no favorable omen — from Roman augury, where an 'auspice' was a sign of divine favour). He has burned his most faithful offerings at an altar that gives nothing back. The religious metaphor, mixed with Roman-augury language, captures both his sincerity and his theatrical self-pity.
TLN 2035classical allusion
“Like to the Egyptian thief, at point of death, Kill what I love”
The 'Egyptian thief' is Thyamis, the brigand-captain in the Greek prose romance Aethiopica (also called Theagenes and Chariclea) by the Egyptian author Heliodorus. Cornered and about to die, Thyamis tries to kill his captive Chariclea, whom he loves, rather than let her be taken from him. Orsino threatens to do the same to Viola/Cesario — kill what he loves to spite Olivia — invoking the extreme jealousy of a man who would destroy his beloved rather than lose her to a rival.
TLN 2038archaic vocab
“you to non-regardance cast my faith”
'Non-regardance' is a formal-sounding Latinate word for 'disregard' — Orsino says Olivia has thrown his sworn love onto the rubbish-heap of things beneath her notice. The word appears nowhere else in Shakespeare; it has the ring of legal or courtly language, as if Orsino is formally presenting a grievance.
TLN 2052cultural context
“After him I love More than I love these eyes, more than my life, More, by all mores, than e'er I shall love wife”
Viola, forced to stay in disguise, declares she loves Orsino more than her own eyes, her own life, and more than she will ever love any woman she might marry. The oath is simultaneously true (she loves him) and a coded revelation of her sex: she says she will never love a 'wife' the way she loves him — which, heard correctly, tells us she is a woman who cannot marry a woman. The audience who knows her secret hears the declaration's full irony.
TLN 2067archaic vocab
“the baseness of thy fear That makes thee strangle thy propriety”
'Propriety' here means 'proper self' or 'identity' — what properly belongs to you as a person. Olivia tells Viola/Cesario that fear of Orsino's anger is making Cesario suppress and deny his own true self (which Olivia believes is that of her secret husband Sebastian). She does not know she is accidentally telling the exact truth: Viola is indeed strangling her own proper identity by staying in disguise.
TLN 2077cultural context
“A contract of eternal bond of love, Confirmed by mutual joinder of your hands, Attested by the holy close of lips”
The Priest describes the three elements of a legally and religiously valid Elizabethan betrothal (or 'hand-fast'): clasping hands ('joinder of your hands'), a kiss ('close of lips'), and the exchange of rings. Together they constituted a 'contract,' which in English law could be binding even without a church ceremony, and was often treated as equivalent to marriage. Olivia and Sebastian's private ceremony is thus legally — if not conventionally — a real marriage.
TLN 2085archaic vocab
“O thou dissembling cub! What wilt thou be, When time hath sowed a grizzle on thy case”
Orsino furiously calls Viola/Cesario a 'dissembling cub' — a deceitful young animal (cubs being young, immature). 'Grizzle' means grey hair; 'case' means the skin or outer covering (here, the face and head). He is saying: 'If you deceive so cleverly now while young, what kind of schemer will you become when age has sprinkled grey through your hair?' The lines show Orsino completely misreading the situation.
TLN 2094archaic vocab
“send one presently to Sir Toby”
'Presently' in Shakespeare's time meant 'immediately, at once,' not (as in modern English) 'soon, in a little while.' Sir Andrew is asking for a surgeon right now — the urgency of his plea is comic given that both he and Sir Toby were beaten in a brawl they started.
TLN 2096archaic vocab
“given Sir Toby a bloody coxcomb too”
A 'coxcomb' was a fool's cap made to look like a cock's comb (the red crest on a rooster's head); by extension it became a word for the top of a person's head. 'A bloody coxcomb' means a bloodied head — Sebastian has split both Sir Andrew's and Sir Toby's scalps. The word also carried its familiar meaning of 'fool,' so Sir Toby's 'bloody coxcomb' is both his wound and, ironically, his foolishness in provoking the wrong man.
TLN 2101wordplay
“he's the very devil incardinate”
Sir Andrew means 'incarnate' — a devil in the flesh (Latin 'incarnatus,' made flesh). He mangles the word to 'incardinate,' turning it accidentally into a colour word ('cardinal red'). The malapropism is typical of Sir Andrew's dim-witted speech: he reaches for a grand word and lands on the wrong one. The audience hears the mistake where Sir Andrew hears only emphasis.
TLN 2103archaic vocab
“Od's lifelings”
A mild oath: 'Od's' is a softened form of 'God's' (substituting the letter 'd' to avoid directly using the divine name, as required by the Act to Restrain Abuses of Players, 1606); 'lifelings' is a diminutive of 'life,' making the oath 'God's little life' — a minced, trivial-sounding swear word. Sir Andrew's exclamations are consistently the weakest oaths on stage, matching his cowardice.
TLN 2111archaic vocab
“would have tickled you othergates than he did”
'Othergates' means 'otherwise, in a different way' (from 'other' + 'gates,' an archaic form of 'ways'). Sir Andrew is insisting that the sober Sir Toby would have beaten Cesario/Sebastian much more thoroughly. The word is an Elizabethan colloquialism, now completely archaic.
TLN 2118cultural context
“After a passy-measure, or a pavin, I hate a drunken rogue”
A 'passy-measure' (properly 'passamezzo') was a slow, stately Italian dance; a 'pavin' (or 'pavan') was another dignified, slow court dance. Sir Toby, drunk and bleeding, is insulting the surgeon by saying he moves as sluggishly as the slowest dance steps — a joke from a man who himself embodies the play's festive misrule. The irony that the lord of 'cakes and ale' objects to someone else's drunken slowness is sharp.
TLN 2133cultural context
“A natural perspective, that is, and is not”
A 'perspective' was a trick painting or optical device (like a mirror, prism, or anamorphic picture) that showed different images depending on the angle of viewing, or that created the illusion of something that was not really there. Orsino says what he sees — two identical people — is like nature playing the same trick: an image that seems real but also seems impossible. The phrase 'that is, and is not' captures the double-take: the twins both exist and, as a single unified image, they cannot exist.
TLN 2144cultural context
“Nor can there be that deity in my nature Of here and everywhere”
Sebastian says he is not a god — he cannot be in two places at once. The ability to be simultaneously everywhere (omnipresence) was a divine attribute that only God possessed. Sebastian denies he is a spirit or an apparition by insisting he lacks the divine quality of existing in multiple places at the same time. The theological framing is precise: gods are omnipresent; humans, even identical twins, cannot be.
TLN 2152cultural context
“If spirits can assume both form and suit, You come to fright us”
Elizabethan tradition held that spirits of the dead — especially those of people recently drowned — could assume their former appearance and walk among the living, usually as a sign or warning. Viola, who believes Sebastian dead, toys with the idea that this figure is her brother's ghost, clothed in his own body and clothes ('both form and suit'). The possibility was taken seriously enough by Shakespeare's audience to give the moment genuine unease.
TLN 2167archaic vocab
“If nothing lets to make us happy both But this my masculine usurp'd attire”
'Lets' means 'prevents' or 'hinders' (an archaic usage that survives only in the tennis term 'let,' a stroke hindered by the net). Viola says the only obstacle to everyone's happiness is her male disguise — she is ready to reveal herself as a woman. The word 'usurp'd' frames her male clothing as a temporary seizure of something not properly hers.
TLN 2178cultural context
“But nature to her bias drew in that”
In the game of bowls, a 'bias' is the weighted side of the bowl that makes it curve in a predictable arc toward the target rather than rolling straight. Sebastian uses the metaphor to say that nature — even through Olivia's error — followed its own natural inclination: she was drawn toward someone of the right sex (a man), even if by the wrong route (mistaking Viola for a man). The bias is nature's tendency toward heterosexual pairing, which Olivia unwittingly honoured.
TLN 2189cultural context
“As doth that orbed continent the fire That severs day from night”
Viola swears her love is as sure as the sun — the 'orbed continent' (the sphere that contains fire) that divides day from night. In Ptolemaic astronomy the sun was a sphere carrying fire, and its daily motion literally divided light from darkness. The image is as geometrically precise as it is beautiful: her love is as reliable as the sun's revolution. It answers Orsino's own opening images of music and appetite with the certainty of celestial mechanics.
TLN 2203biblical allusion
“he holds Belzebub at the stave's end as well as a man in his case may do”
Beelzebub (here spelt Belzebub) is a name for the devil, from the Hebrew 'Baal Zebub' (Lord of Flies), used in the New Testament as a name for Satan. 'Hold at the stave's end' means to keep at arm's length with a staff — to keep something threatening at a safe distance. Feste says Malvolio is keeping the devil at bay as well as anyone in his situation could. The joke is grim: Malvolio has been imprisoned in darkness and accused of being possessed, and now Feste acknowledges he is holding up quite sanely.
TLN 2205cultural context
“as a madman's epistles are no gospels, so it skills not much when they are delivered”
'Epistles' and 'Gospels' are both parts of the Christian Bible: the Epistles are the letters of the Apostles (Paul's letters to the Romans, Corinthians, etc.) and are read during the Communion service; the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) carry the words of Christ and are received with higher authority. Feste jokes that a madman's letters, like the Epistles, are not the Gospel truth — so the timing of delivery doesn't much matter. The wordplay mocks both Malvolio and the liturgy.
TLN 2213archaic vocab
“you must allow vox”
Feste insists that to read madness properly, you must allow the voice — 'vox' is Latin for 'voice.' He means Olivia must let him use a ranting, wild delivery appropriate to a madman's letter rather than calm reading. It is also a piece of theatrical showing-off: Feste, who has been performing madness as the fake curate Sir Topas, now claims authority over what mad voice should sound like.
TLN 2262archaic vocab
“the most notorious geck and gull That e'er invention played on”
A 'geck' is a fool or dupe (from a Low German word); a 'gull' is a person easily cheated (from the bird, believed to be foolish). Together they form an emphatic doublet: the biggest fool and dupe that malicious human imagination ever worked on. Malvolio's language at this moment is precise and dignified — he is not ranting but making an exact legal-sounding complaint — which makes it all the more affecting.
TLN 2271archaic vocab
“This practice hath most shrewdly pass'd upon thee”
'Practice' means a scheme, trick, or plot (not rehearsal or habit). 'Shrewdly' means keenly, sharply — in a way that caused real damage ('shrew' originally carried the sense of wicked or injurious). Olivia is saying the plot has been played on Malvolio with unusual sharpness and skill. The word 'practice' acknowledges the trick was calculated, not accidental, and Olivia's tone here is sympathetic: she is genuinely sorry.
TLN 2283archaic vocab
“The letter, at Sir Toby's great importance”
'Importance' here means 'importunity' — urgent pressing and solicitation. Fabian says Maria wrote the letter at Sir Toby's insistent urging. The word reflects Elizabethan usage where 'importance' carried the meaning of 'that which is pressed urgently upon someone' before it settled into its modern sense of 'significance.' Maria acted at Sir Toby's request, which is why Sir Toby now owes her the reward of marriage.
TLN 2290cultural context
“'some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrown upon them'”
Feste quotes back the forged letter's most famous phrase (first read in 2.5), which had been devised to flatter Malvolio's social ambitions. The letter had used 'greatness' to mean noble rank and Olivia's love; Feste now repeats it to Malvolio's face as a joke, reminding him of the humiliation. The line has become one of Shakespeare's most quoted aphorisms, which gives it an irony in context: it is not wisdom but bait in a cruel trap.
classical Fortune and her wheel
TLN 2295cultural context
“the whirligig of time brings in his revenges”
A 'whirligig' is a spinning top or any toy that whirls. Feste's image condenses Fortune's Wheel into a child's toy: time spins around, and what goes down comes back up. Here Malvolio's revenge has come back on the tormentors — Feste was once rebuked by Malvolio ('I protest I take these wise men that crow so at these set-kind fools, no better than the fool's zanies'), and now Feste has had his revenge. The image is comic but carries a genuine point about retributive justice.
classical Fortune and her wheel
TLN 2307cultural context
“When that I was and a little tiny boy, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain”
Feste's closing song traces a fool's life from boyhood through manhood, marriage, and old age — every stage governed by the refrain 'the rain it raineth every day.' Rain that falls on everyone regardless of rank, age, or virtue is the play's final image: life's weather does not change for love, disguise, or festivity. Unlike the play's other songs, this one closes not with lovers but with a lone performer addressing the audience directly, breaking the comedy's frame and returning them to the ordinary world.
historical Twelfth Night and the Lord of Misrule