Menu

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Twelfth Night Sebastian Quotes

And what should I do in Illyria?
My brother he is in Elysium.
Perchance he is not drowned.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 2. Viola to the Captain following her survival from a shipwreck. She says her brother Sebastian is in Heaven, or maybe there’s a chance he didn’t drown.

Where, like Arion on the dolphin’s back,
I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves
So long as I could see.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 2. The Captain shares his belief that Viola’s twin brother Sebastian, who has been lost at sea, might still be alive. He tells how he saw Sebastian swimming away, foreshadowing his later arrival.

My stars shine darkly over me.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 1. Sebastian explains to Antonio why he doesn’t want him to go with him. Following his shipwreck and loss of his twin sister Viola he feels he is cursed. As Sebastian likes Antonio, who has cared for him after his bad fortune, he doesn’t want bad things to happen him. In an ironical way, this quote foreshadows what later happens to Sebastian – he is blessed with good fortune when he is mistaken for Cesario by Olivia.

But I perceive in you so excellent a touch of modesty, that you will not extort from me what I am willing to keep in. Therefore it charges me in manners the rather to express myself. You must know of me, then, Antonio, my name is Sebastian, which I called Roderigo.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 1. Sebastian confesses to his new friend Antonio who saved his life that he was fully honest about who he was, lying about his identity and calling himself Roderigo.

A lady, sir, though it was said she much resembled
me, was yet of many accounted beautiful.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 1. Sebastian describes his beautiful twin sister Viola here, preparing us for the confusion later when Sebastian is mistaken for Cesario (Viola disguised) and Viola (as Cesario) is mistaken for Sebastian by Antonio. Terrible gender confusion here!

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.

If you will not murder me for my love, let me be your servant.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 1. Antonio is moved by Sebastian’s story of the loss of his ship and sister at sea, and he pledges his services to him. Has Antonio fallen in love with Sebastian?

But come what may, I do adore thee so
That danger shall seem sport, and I will go.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 1. Viola’s twin brother Sebastian has been washed ashore near the coast of Illyria after a shipwreck and Antonio has been caring for him in his home. Antonio is willing to risk danger by following Sebastian to Duke Orsino’s court, where Antonio has “many enemies.” Because of his strong attachment to Sebastian, he feels he cannot live without him.

I am all the daughters of my father’s house,
And all the brothers too – and yet I know not.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 4. Viola’s (Cesario’s) confusing yet revealing response to Duke Orsino, when he asks if Cesario’s sister died of her love. Viola reveals here that she is the sister, and is also dressed as a boy to keep the memory of her brother Sebastian alive. She is obviously aching to tell Orsino that she is the girl with the secret love for him.

I could not stay behind you. My desire,
More sharp than filed steel, did spur me forth.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 3. A good example of love crossing gender lines. Antonio says that his desire for Sebastian is “more sharp than filed steel” – an arrow, sword or spear. There is no denying the closeness and intimacy of the relationship between the two. It is one of the most famous bromances in Shakespeare’s plays, right up there with Hamlet and Horatio (Hamlet), Mercutio and Romeo (Romeo and Juliet), Arcite and Palamon (The Two Noble Kinsmen), and Leontes and Polixenes (The Winter’s Tale). But in this case, it’s a bromance that verges on the romantic – for Antonio, at least. One possible reason for Antonio’s love is that he rescued Sebastian and nursed him back to health.

My willing love,
The rather by these arguments of fear,
Set forth in your pursuit.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 3. Antonio confesses that his love for Sebastian and fears for his safety have driven him to follow him.

Out of the jaws of death.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 4. Antonio says Cesario (Viola) is the youth whom he snatched out of the jaws of death. He mistakingly thinks Viola is her twin Sebastian because of her male disguise.

In nature there’s no blemish but the mind;
None can be called deformed but the unkind.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 4. Antonio’s bitter comment on the ingratitude of the handsome boy he thinks is Sebastian – but is Viola dressed as a male.

Prove true, imagination, O, prove true,
That I, dear brother, be now ta’en for you!

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 4. After Antonio accuses her of not knowing him, Viola (Cesario) realizes he thinks she is her twin brother Sebastian.

Oh, if it prove
Tempests are kind and salt waves fresh in love.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 4. Viola begins to hope that her brother Sebastian has survived the shipwreck, and not drowned as she had believed. If that’s true, then storms are kind and oceans full of love.

Nothing that is so, is so.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 4, Scene 1. Feste is confused by Sebastian denying the fact that he knows him. He says this ironically, convinced that Sebastian is actually Cesario. While he is talking about a specific situation, the whole play could be summed up in this quote.

Ungracious wretch,
Fit for the mountains and the barbarous caves,
Where manners ne’er were preach’d! Out of my sight!

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 4, Scene 1. Olivia excoriates Sir Toby, who has drawn his sword on Sebastian – Olivia thinks he is Cesario (Viola in disguise).

What relish is in this? How runs the stream?
Or I am mad, or else this is a dream.
Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep;
If it be thus to dream, still let me sleep!

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 4, Scene 1. Sebastian wonders if he is mad or dreaming, because the beautiful Olivia whom he has never seen before is in love with him. He doesn’t realize she has mistaken him for Cesario – his sister disguised. Oh what a tangled gender web Shakespeare weaves, where not everybody is who they appear to be.

This is the air; that is the glorious sun.
This pearl she gave me, I do feel ‘t and see ‘t.
And though ’tis wonder that enwraps me thus,
Yet ’tis not madness. Where’s Antonio, then?
I could not find him at the Elephant.
Yet there he was; and there I found this credit,
That he did range the town to seek me out.
His counsel now might do me golden service.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 4, Scene 3. In Sebastian’s monologue, he tries to make sense of Olivia’s love for him. He treasures his new found love as a pearl and assures himself that he is not mad. But he wishes Antonio was around to give him some golden advice about his new girlfriend.

Yet doth this accident and flood of fortune
So far exceed all instance, all discourse
That I am ready to distrust mine eyes.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 4, Scene 3. Sebastian, in this opening monologue, is perplexed as to why Olivia is lavishing so much love on him. Questioning his sanity, he wonders if he might be imagining it all.

There’s something in ‘t
That is deceivable.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 4, Scene 3. After wondering is Olivia is mad because of her sudden new-found love for him, Sebastian becomes suspicious that there is some mix-up. And sure enough there is, Olivia thinks he is Cesario, Sebastian’s twin Viola who has been disguising herself as a man. Things are never quite what they appear to be in this play.

Blame not this haste of mine. If you mean well,
Now go with me and with this holy man
Into the chantry by. There, before him
And underneath that consecrated roof,
Plight me the full assurance of your faith
That my most jealous and too doubtful soul
May live at peace.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 4, Scene 3. Olivia doesn’t let the grass grow under her feet when she wants to wed her man. Stepping into the traditionally male role she appears with a priest and promptly proposes marriage to Sebastian – mistaking him for Cesario (Viola). Appearances can be deceptive, especially in this play!

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.

One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons,
A natural perspective that is and is not!

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 5, Scene 1. Orsino on seeing identical twins Sebastian and Viola both in male attire. He says that nature has created an illusion that is at once real and impossible.

I never had a brother…I had a sister…Of charity, what kin are you to me?

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 5, Scene 1. Twins Sebastian are Viola are finally reunited. Sebastian stares at Viola (disguised as Cesario) and questions her, trying to determine who she is. He had believed her dead in the shipwreck.

Be not amazed; right noble is his blood.
If this be so, as yet the glass seems true,
I shall have share in this most happy wrack.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 5, Scene 1. Orsino to Olivia after she learns that she has married Sebastian and not Cesario (Viola). Orsino is happy with his good fortune that he has the love of Viola. He is also happy that Sebastian and Viola are “right noble” in blood.