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The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Twelfth Night Disguise Quotes

Fear not, Cesario. Take thy fortunes up.
Be that thou know’st thou art, and then thou art
As great as that thou fear’st.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 5, Scene 1. Olivia speaks to Cesario (Viola in male disguise), believing him to be Sebastian, whom she has just married. She thinks Cesario is afraid of admitting the two of them have secretly married. She urges him to take up his new fortune and elevated social status. Oh what a tangled web these confounded disguises and gender mix-ups weave.

O, welcome, father.
Father, I charge thee, by thy reverence
Here to unfold (though lately we intended
To keep in darkness what occasion now
Reveals before ’tis ripe) what thou dost know
Hath newly passed between this youth and me.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 5, Scene 1. Olivia asks the priest to confirm that she is married to Cesario (Viola), whom she mistakingly thinks is her husband Sebastian because of the male disguise.

ORSINO: Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times
Thou never shouldst love woman like to me.
VIOLA: And all those sayings will I overswear,
And all those swearings keep as true in soul
As doth that orbèd continent the fire
That severs day from night.
ORSINO: Give me thy hand,
And let me see thee in thy woman’s weeds.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 5, Scene 1. This exchange takes places following the climax of the play, when Sebastian and Viola are reunited, and all misunderstandings and deceits are resolved. Viola identifies herself as woman of noble blood and finally gets her man. Orsino asks for her hand and to see her in women’s clothing. But he also addresses her as “boy,” apparently liking her in her male disguise too.

Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times
Thou never shouldst love woman like to me.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 5, Scene 1. Act 5, Scene 1. After Viola’s secret is revealed, Orsino recalls words that Viola used while pretending to be Cesario. She had said that she could never love a woman as much as she loved Orsino. Orsino did not understand what she meant then but now it all makes sense.

Cesario, come,
For so you shall be, while you are a man,
But when in other habits you are seen,
Orsino’s mistress, and his fancy’s queen.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 5, Scene 1. Even after Viola’s true appearance and reality have been revealed and they are engaged, Orsino still seems to have an attraction to the boy “Cesario” that Viola once was disguised as. A little gay attraction here perhaps, or does Orsino just love disguises?

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