If music be the food of love, play on. Give me excess of it that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.

Twelfth Night: Act 1 Scene 1 Lines 1-15


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.
5 Oh, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odor. Enough, no more.
'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou,
10 That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the sea, naught 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
15 That it alone is high fantastical.


In this passage, Orsino reveals his indulgence in love when he continues to listen to music though it makes him sad. "Food" and "appetite" show that he is hungry for love, or rather his idealization of love. In his mourning for love, it seems like he is moaning since he keeps saying "O." Words like "dying," "ear," "quick," and "naught" show Orsino experiencing orgasm as he talks. (Professor Little also states that Orsino is "cumming all over the place" in the passage.) In Elizabethan time, ear represents a sexual organ; quick represents sex; die represents orgasm; and naught represents female genitalia. Because Orsino fails to regulate his own desire, he continues to excessively and festively indulges in his emotions.


Uyen Dinh
142B; Dis. 1F (Aaron 5-5:50)