What great ones do, the less will prattle of. – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 2. The Captain saying that common people will gossip about the nobility, in this case about Duke Orsino’s pursuit of the love of Lady Olivia.
Let them hang themselves in their own straps. – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 3. Hard-drinking partygoer Sir Toby Belch when Maria chides him for his behavior.
A fellow o’ th’ strangest mind i’ th’ world. – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 3. Sir Andrew Aguecheek, about himself.
Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage. – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 5. Lady Olivia’s clown Feste make this witty reply to Maria when she warns him that Olivia will “hang” him or kick him out for his absences from work. There is a double meaning to Feste’s quip, as he suggests a “well-hung” man can stop a bad marriage by pleasing his wife in bed.
Go to, y’are a dry fool: I’ll no more of you. – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 5. Lady Olivia says this to her jester Feste, tired of his brand of humor.
He speaks nothing but madman. – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 5. Olivia asking that her uncle and drunkard Sir Toby Belch be sent away from her house.
How your fooling grows old, and people dislike it. – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 5. Olivia to Feste, her clown, saying how his fooling has become boring.
A plague o’ these pickle-herring! – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 5. Sir Toby Belch, who has been snacking on herring and getting drunk.
How have you come so early by this lethargy! – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 5. Olivia to a drunken Sir Toby Belch, wondering why he so sick this early in the day. As Toby makes a career of drinking and eating to excess, this seems a rhetorical question.
Not yet old enough for a man, nor young enough for a boy: as a squash is before ’tis a peascod, or a codling when ’tis almost an apple. ‘Tis with him in standing water, between boy and man. – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 5. Cesario (Viola dressed as a young man) arrives as a messenger to Lady Olivia’s house. Malvolio describes him to Olivia as not quite a man, yet not exactly a boy. Not ripe enough to be a man, he suggests.
If you be not mad, be gone: if you have reason, be brief. – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 5. An impatient an unimpressed Olivia responds to Orsino’s love messenger Cesario (Viola) and his attempts at poetry. She instructs Cesario to get to the point, as she is not in the mood for lively conversation.
Pardon me, sir, your bad entertainment. – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 1. Antonio reminds Sebastian – mourning a sister he thinks has drowned – that his sad story makes for bad entertainment.
A false conclusion: I hate it as an unfilled can. – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. Sir Toby tells Sir Andrew that he hates his logic like he hates an empty wine goblet. Does Sir Toby ever think of anything other than alcohol?
Th’art a scholar; let us therefore eat and drink. – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. Sir Toby invites his friend Sir Andrew to do what they appear to do best. Their bonds of friendship have been formed while passing the bottle. And far from being a scholar, Sir Andrew is not the brightest and a fool.
Welcome, ass. – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. A drink-filled Sir Toby greets the jester Feste in this rumbustious scene.
Have you no wit, manners, nor honesty, but to gabble like tinkers at this time of night? – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. When merrymakers Sir Toby and Sir Thomas get rowdy in Olivia’s house, her stewart Malvolio asks them if they are mad and admonishes them. And he compares them to tinkers, suggesting they are acting like bad-mannered commoners instead of noble men. Later Sir Toby turns the tables and gets revenge on Malvolio by making him appear mad in the company of Olivia.
Is there no respect of place, persons, nor time in you? – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. Malvolio accuses the drunken Sir Toby and Sir Andrew of disrespect when they “make an ale-house of my lady’s house.”
Give me now leave to leave thee. – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 4. Orsino dismisses Olivia’s clown Feste.
Here comes the trout that must be caught with tickling. – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 5. Malvolio is the trout about to get caught when he steps into the trap set by Maria, who is is pranking him.
Shall this fellow live? – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 5. Sir Toby, wondering should they let Malvolio live. This is after Malvolio fantasizes about being Olivia’s husband and master of her house with power over all the other servants and even Sir Toby.
Corrupter of words! – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 1. Feste, summing up his role to Cesario (Viola), saying he is not Olivia’s Fool, but her “corrupter of words.” He may be paid to act like a madman and wit, but is one of the sanest and smartest characters in the play.
Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun, it shines everywhere. – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 1. Certainly there is a lot of foolery going on in this play, as the sharply aware Feste observes. Feste may carry the title of court jester, but there are a lot of other characters whose behavior patterns fit that of fools.
Why appear you with this ridiculous boldness? – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 4. Maria to Malvolio, who is acting strangely and foolishly.
Why, this is very midsummer madness. – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 4. Olivia says this after listening to Malvolio reading from a love letter he mistakingly thinks was written by her. She thinks the lovesick Malvolio, who is wearing a big grin and looks ridiculous in yellow cross-gartered stockings, has gone mad.
Lo, how hollow the fiend speaks within him! – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 4. Maria suggests that crazy Malvolio is evil and the devil speaks loudly through him.
Go, hang yourselves all! you are idle shallow things: I am not of your element. – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 4. Malvolio’s bitter response to the mocking concerns of Maria, Fabian and Sir Toby for him, after the Lady Olivia thinks he has gone mad. He talks down to them like they are fools of a lower intellectual class, when he is the one who looks a fool dressed in his yellow stockings and believing he could marry his employer Olivia. His ego and foolish ambition have brought him only ridicule.
If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction. – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 4. Fabian expresses his pleasure with the success of the prank to make a fool of Malvolio, whose conceit and arrogance lead him right into the forged love letter trap. In the kingdom of Illyria, it seems, nothing is quite as it appears.
Youth, whatsoever thou art, thou art but a scurvy fellow. – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 4. Sir Toby reads from Sir Andrew’s insulting letter of challenge to Cesario (Viola).
A fiend like thee might bear my soul to hell. – William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 4. Olivia says that she would follow Cesario (Viola) to hell. She really has it bad with her crazy love!
