1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Ask a Question

Scene I

Duke Orsino'

[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.

[Enter Valentine.]

How now! what news from her?(25)

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.]

• filling to excess
• Orsino is saying that since music is the food of love, he wants it to continue playing so his appetite for love will be filled so much that it will eventually die. This opening line tells us a lot about Orsino's character and also about one of the themes of the play. Orsino is melodramatic about his love for Olivia, as the above line illustrates. Throughout the play, it seems as though he is more in love with the idea of being in love than with Olivia herself. The line also establishes the theme of love as a sickness or a force that strikes people without warning or invitation. Both Orsino and Olivia are self-involved people who actually enjoy the suffering and drama that being in love brings.
• musical note
• cadence
• Orsino means that love is so great that it has the capacity of the sea. However, anything that falls into love (as if love is a great ocean) eventually loses its value, no matter how priceless it had been before. Just as things are transformed into insignificance by the sea, they are also swallowed up and made unimportant by love.
• nothing
• height
• soever (as in whatsoever)
• a lessening
• diminished value
• Orsino means that love (fancy) is deceptive, can take many forms, and can be more about fantasy than about reality. Instead of being truly in love, Orsino seems to be a victim of the fantasy of love.
• deer
• Curio has just asked Orsino about hunting the hart, a male deer. Orsino, however, gives the word a double meaning. By “the noblest that I have,” he refers to both a hart and a heart (Olivia's).
• disease
• a male deer
• fierce
• Orsino is referring to the ancient Greek myth of Actaeon and Artemis. Actaeon was out hunting when he saw the naked Artemis bathing. As punishment for watching her, she turned him into a deer. Actaeon was then chased and torn to pieces by his own hounds. In this metaphor, Orsino compares himself to Actaeon and compares his desires to the destructive hounds.
• a female attendant
• sky, air
• until seven years of the sun's course across the sky
• a nun
• “…;she will veiled walk…;eye-offending brine…;” – Valentine is explaining that Olivia wears a veil and stays in her room all day mourning for her dead brother. The “eye-offending brine” refers to tears that she cries at least once a day.
• a reference to the golden arrow of Cupid, the Roman god of love
• While Elizabethans considered the brain the center of thought, both the liver and the heart were believed to be the locations of love and emotion.

1. Strategies for Understanding Shakespeare's Language
2. Reading Pointers for Sharper Insights
3. Dramatis Personæ
4. Act I
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
   4. Scene IV
   5. Scene V
5. Act II
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
   4. Scene IV
   5. Scene V
6. Act III
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
   4. Scene IV
7. Act IV
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
8. Act V
   1. Scene I
9. Copyright

Need the paperback?

Get the paperback version of this eText at our partner's site. Includes glossary and reader's notes. Perfect for the classroom!