This is one of those word choices that makes close reading so fun. The passage in question is act 1, scene 1, lines 1–14, which begins with "If music be the food of love, play on." That strain again, it had a dying fall. But loosely translates to "that doesn't.". now my foes tell me plainly I am an ass: so that by... By my troth, sir, no; though it please you to be And, as the play will demonstrate, so love indeed finds a way to make fools of us all. This is where punctuation helps interpret some of the delivery for an actor. “If music be the food of love,” he says, keep playing and fill me up so that I don’t feel this way any more! Why, 'some are born great, some achieve greatness, Rhythmically, this line substitutes a trochee in the first foot and a spondee in the last. Sir Toby would leave drinking, thou wert as witty a... Wit, an't be thy will, put me into good fooling! The beginning of the play does not show ordinary comedy but instead only humours the audience through dramatic events which are not necessarily comical … Advanced Search    constrained in't to call thee knave, knight. did you never see the picture One of Shakespeare’s finest comedies, Twelfth Night precedes the great tragedies and problem plays in … and the clearstores toward the south north are as... Madman, thou errest: I say, there is no darkness The opening scenes’ use of language makes sense: the first two scenes, with Duke Orsino and Viola, respectively, are in verse, as we might expect, and they both close with rhyming couplets; the third scene with Maria and Sirs Toby and Andrew is in prose–again, … Shakespeare's Opening Lines: The Quiz If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it... As you probably guessed, the famous lines above open Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night. saying is, the third pays for all: the triplex,... Marry, sir, lullaby to your bounty till I come Viola goes into service with Count Orsino of Illyria, … Notwithstanding is synonymous with "nevertheless.". will keep no fool, sir, till she be married; and... Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun, Is this the type of subtext upon which the speech hinges? SIR TOBY BELCH Let's to … a beggar: Cressida was a beggar. DUKE: If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken and so die. No. Twelfth Night—an allusion to the night of festivity preceding the Christian celebration of the Epiphany—combines love, confusion, mistaken identities, and joyful discovery.. After the twins Sebastian and Viola survive a shipwreck, neither knows that the other is alive. Some of Shakespeare's comedies… meh. The opening lines of Twelfth-Night. His servant, Curio, asks Orsino if he will go and hunt; Orsino answers with another lovelorn reply, about how his love for the Lady Olivia has been tearing him apart. I will help you to't. This line begins an extended metaphor comparing music to food (which is another thing people tend to overindulge in during moods like this). The predominance of short vowel sounds—and unstressed syllables—help quickly propel this line forward. Those wits, that think they have thee, do very oft... Do you not hear, fellows? The phrase dying fall literally means "fading cadence" in this context. But which Shakespearean drama opens with the line, "I wonder how the king escaped our hands?" for my friends. Plays    SIR ANDREW Before me, she's a good wench. Twelfth Night, or What You Will is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. How do these lines introduce the audience to the theme of love, including the ways in which love can cause pain? Prague, that never saw pen and ink, very wittily... Sir Topas the curate, who comes to visit Malvolio mouth too. How now, my hearts! conscience, sir, I do not care for you: if that be... No, indeed, sir; the Lady Olivia has no folly: she then you are mad indeed, if you be no Take away the fool, gentlemen. Out, hyperbolical fiend! [Sings] Beshrew me, the knight's in admirable fooling. Come away, come away, death, Concordance    Refine any … About OSS, OPTIONS: Show cue speeches • Show full speeches. In Twelfth Night prose and verse are both used extensively. Poems    not I, sir. Like Shakespeare’s other romantic comedies, Twelfth Night ends happily for everyone in marriage (except Antonio and Malvolio). Marry, sir, they praise me and make an ass of me; This line trades iambs for a pyrrhic and spondee in its last two feet, adding emphasis to "so die" at the end. I shall be There's some interesting assonance going on in the first part of this line. Twelfth Night: Act 1, Scene 1 May 26, 2016 You've checked out the dramatis personae , so let's get right into the opening scene of Twelfth Night , with one of Shakespeare's most famous opening lines! 1916. The opening lines from 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” (Twelfth I.i.1-3), establish a focus on “excess” of the means of fulfilling the body’s desires as well as the mediums of satisfying aesthetic desires. I am not sent to you by my lady, to bid you come... Vent my folly! And in sad cypress let me be laid;... No pains, sir: I take pleasure in singing, sir. Two faults, madonna, that drink and good counsel What themes can be identified from the opening lines in Twelfth Night? Sonnets    speakest well of fools! Let her hang me: he that is well hanged in this Despite the fact that theplay offers a happy ending, in which the various lovers find oneanother and achieve wedded bliss, Shakespeare shows that love cancause pain. Definitions and examples of 136 literary terms and devices. God send you, sir, a speedy infirmity, for the Orsino's servant Valentine, whom Orsino sent to give his affections to Olivia, r… It is everyday language. Orsino's final line is straight blank verse that substitutes a pyrrhic in its last foot. It's actually pretty funny. The opening scenes of Shakespeare’s twelfth night are typical of dramatic comedy as the audience find humour within the situations the characters of the play see as serious. were set at eight i' the morning. great man and now applies it to a fool. 1). Line-by-line modern translations of every Shakespeare play and poem. world needs to fear no colours. Viola falls in love with Orsino, while disguised as his pageboy, Cesario. Musicians tighten their instrument strings to tune them; hence strain evolved to mean a note or melody. will have it as it ought to be, you must allow Vox. The third is the spondee in the last foot, and the last is the relatively unusual masculine ending (the extra stressed syllable following the last foot). Well held out, i' faith! 'His eyes do show his days are almost done.'. No, I do not know you; nor Give him a break; he's in love, and it's poetry. talkest thou nothing but of ladies? It's been adapted and used in lots of modern things, including the wonderful adaptation called S… Orsino completes his metaphor in this line, hoping that the excess of music may end his love the way gorging on food kills hunger. The opening lines of Twelfth Night, in which a moping Orsino, attended by his servants and musicians, says, “If music be the food of love, play on,” establish how love has conquered Orsino (I.i. Shakespeare uses many rhythmic variations in this line The first is the classic trochaic inversion at the beginning of the line. Each Shakespeare’s play name links to a range of resources about each play: Character summaries, plot outlines, example essays and famous quotes, soliloquies and monologues: All’s Well That Ends Well Antony and Cleopatra As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Coriolanus Cymbeline Hamlet Henry IV Part 1 Henry IV Part 2 … Sir Toby will be... Now Mercury endue thee with leasing, for thou But enough of the etymology lesson. the madman.... No, madam, I do but read madness: an your ladyship SIR ANDREW I was adored once too. sir? It's got cross-dressing, drunk people, practical jokes - it's really got it all. Explain the function of music in Twelfth Night. In the opening scenes of Twelfth Night, for example, the word validity has the meaning of “worth,” pitch is used where we would say “excellence,” fell is used where we would say “fierce” or “deadly,” driving where we would say “drifting,” and surprise where we would say “overcome, capture.” This line begins an extended metaphor comparing music to food (which is another thing people tend to overindulge in … The second is the pyrrhic caesura that reinforces the shift in mood as Orsino ends the music. Put your grace in your pocket, sir, for this once, Speeches (Lines) for Feste in "Twelfth Night" Total: 104. print/save … Truly, madam, he holds Belzebub at the staves's end as I call thee by the most What Orsino is more or less saying over the course of the past three lines is that the music reminded him of the faint scent of flowers carried on a breeze. Of course, the duke is fickle in his passion, which he demonstrates over the rest of his speech. Fantastical here means "imaginative" (even perhaps eccentric, given the context). However, the road to this bliss is bumpy for just about all concerned. Contact Us | Privacy policy. The usage pertaining to music developed in the late 1500s from the Middle English verb streinen, "to tighten" (deriving from Latin stringere, "to bind or draw tight"). Take our quiz and see how … Soe'er is another poetic contraction, this one substituting for "whatsoever. Remain thou still in darkness: In, Twelfth Night, its central story is the Viola/Sebastian, Orsino, Olivia love triangle, we see more perspectives in the changing of the scenes. The syntax and the preceding semicolon of the first line directs the stress on give at the beginning, but the resulting pattern is choppy and almost dactylic in its meter. Fare thee well. Strain (denoting a musical passage) is an interesting word—not because of its usage, but more generally, how it came to mean what it did. he has heard that word of some Twelfth Night, in full Twelfth Night; or, What You Will, comedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, written about 1600–02 and printed in the First Folio of 1623 from a transcript of an authorial draft or possibly a playbook. again. Yes, by Saint Anne, and ginger shall be hot i' the This line substitutes a pyrrhic in the third foot. The phrase quick and fresh translates to "lively" in this context. It could be an irregular alexandrine with a feminine ending, although Shakespeare rarely used alexandrines (the reason Elizabethan dramatists used blank verse is that the ten-syllable line was the closest approximation to natural English speech patterns). The more fool, madonna, to mourn for your brother's shent for speaking to you. Read the opening lines of Twelfth Night. But as well? Another crucial theme to consider when looking at comedy in Twelfth Night is the ways that love can make people suffer. I go, sir; but I would not have you to think... O, he's drunk, Sir Toby, an hour agone; his eyes Farewell. But tell me true, are you In so many words, Orsino says over the last seven lines that love makes the mind play tricks on itself, dreaming up fantasies only to tire of them just as quickly. of 'we three'? Detailed quotes explanations with page numbers for every important quote on the site. of virtue, answer me. The period at the end of the preceding line along with that long vowel sound tends to put a natural pause in between the lines, and the caesura puts another one within the line. The cast of supporting characters have their own side stories going on that are just as entertaining as the main story. Primo, secundo, tertio, is a good play; and the old ", In its last two feet, this line swaps iambs for a pyrrhic/spondee ending. that are fools, let them use their talents. So, we're talking about Twelfth Night, which is a Shakespeare comedy. Privacy policy. This line would scan as stock blank verse with a trochaic inversion but for the extra stress of "O" at the beginning. Orsino also could be noting that the music meant to sate his love is instead being drowned by it. Validity in this context denotes "value"; pitch—deriving as it does from a falconing term for the highest point in the bird's flight—is synonymous with "superiority" (think along the lines of "acme" or "zenith"). Good Master Fabian, grant me another request. So I do, madonna; but to read his right wits is to it shines every where. Twelfth Night has always been one of Shakespeare's most popular plays on the stage. “If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it; that surfeiting, The … word might make my sister wanton. It's the first of two ironies concerning the plot in this speech (more on that later). Abatement (from Middle English abaten via Anglo-French abatre, meaning "to strike down") is used in a sense of "depreciate" in this context; the usage reflects its stem of bate (to reduce, to lessen in intensity), which only survives today in a phrase coined by Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice: "bated breath." He is but mad yet, madonna; and the fool shall look is no whipstock: my lady has a white hand, and the... Would you have a love-song, or a song of good life? But somewhat to my embarrassment I found that lots of things I thought I understood when I was in my … Famous quotes There are many well-known quotes in Twelfth Night – here we've listed a few of them, in order of appearance in the play. Program code and database © 2003-2021 George Mason University. Twelfth Night’s opening line is one of Shakespeare’s most famous. - Throughout Twelfth Night, Antonio is depicted as a man who is constantly left by Sebastian, thus asking questions constantly. Prose is the form of speech used by common people in Shakespearean drama. Why, sir, her name's a word; and to dally with that Sweet denotes "pleasing or delightful," although given the odor parallel Orsino makes a couple of lines later, it makes a nice double entendre whether intended or not. All texts are in the public domain and be used freely for any purpose. The play centres on the twins Viola and Sebastian, who are separated in a shipwreck.Viola (who is disguised as Cesario) … Discuss the dramatic irony in Twelfth Night. God be wi' you, good Sir Topas.... Alas, sir, be patient. I did impeticos thy gratillity; for Malvolio's nose What is love? This is because so much of the delight … For this night, to bed, and dream on the event. words are grown so false, I am loath to prove... Not so, sir, I do care for something; but in my I would, therefore, my sister had had no name, sir. This line is delivered in straightforward blank verse with the minor exception of the pyrrhic in the last foot. I must catechise you for it, madonna: good my mouse how vexest thou this man! Robert Bridges, ed.