Menu

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Twelfth Night Sir Toby Belch Quotes

Confine? I’ll confine myself no finer than I am. These clothes are good enough to drink in.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 3. Sir Toby Belch responds to Lady Olivia’s lady-in-waiting Maria, who complains about his behavior. Maria scolds Toby, Olivia’s uncle and a drunkard, for his staying out late at night, urging him to “confine yourself within the modest limits of order.”

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.

I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 3. Sir Andrew Aguecheek, avowing his own stupidity because of too much beef eating, says this to Sir Toby Belch. Toby promptly agrees: “No Question.” These are two of the play’s comic characters.

I would I had bestowed that time in the tongues that I have in fencing, dancing and bear-baiting. O! had I but followed the arts!

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 3. Feeling discouraged in his hope of wooing Lady Olivia, Sir Andrew Aguecheek announces that he he going to leave Illyria. Sir Toby Belch asks why, saying the French word Pourquoi. Sir Andrew doesn’t understand the word, and says he wishes he had spent more time studying the arts.

She’ll none o’ the Count. She’ll not match above her degree, neither in estate, years, nor wit. I have heard her swear ‘t. Tut, there’s life in ‘t, man.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 3. Sir Toby Belch to Sir Andrew Aguecheek. When Andrew announces that he is going home tomorrow, as Lady Olivia will have none of him and Duke Orsino is wooing her, Toby is not convinced. Preoccupied with marrying Andrew to his niece Olivia, Toby doesn’t believe she will marry someone above her social rank like Orsino. He tells Andrew he is still in with a chance.

Is it a world to hide virtues in?

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 3. Sir Toby Belch to Sir Andrew Aguecheek, taking him to task for not dancing his way through every scene in life.

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.

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.

OLIVIA: Go thou and seek the crowner and let him sit o’ my coz, for he’s in the third degree of drink: he’s drowned. Go, look after him.
FESTE: He is but mad yet, madonna, and the Fool shall look to the madman.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 5. Olivia asks her Fool Feste to look after her drunken uncle Sir Toby Belch who has passed out.

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?

Not to be abed after midnight is to be up betimes.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. Sir Toby to Sir Andrew, who have both stayed up late eating and drinking together.

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.

SIR ANDREW: A mellifluous voice, as I am true knight.
SIR TOBY: A contagious breath.
SIR ANDREW: Very sweet and contagious, i’ faith.
SIR TOBY: To hear by the nose, it is dulcet in contagion. But shall we make the welkin dance indeed? Shall we rouse the night owl in a catch that will draw three souls out of one weaver? Shall we do that?

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. Tony and Andrew are partying it up with Feste, whom they compliment for his sweet voice and catchy song.

Am I not consanguineous? am I not of her blood?

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. Sir Toby to Maria, who warns him and fellow partiers Sir Andrew and Festive that if they aren’t quiet, Olivia will have them thrown out of her house. Tony retorts that he is Olivia’s relative and she will do no such thing.

He does it with a better grace, but I do it more natural.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. Sir Andrew says Sir Toby has more experience playing the fool, but for him Sir Andrew it comes naturally.

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 Andrew 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.”

Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. Sir Toby fires back at Malvolio after his protest about the late night festivities. Just because Malvolio is self-righteous, does he think fun will disappear, he asks? Malvolio’s order and duty vs Sir Toby’s chaos and excess.

Thou ‘rt i’ th’ right.- Go, sir, rub your chain with crumbs.- A stoup of wine, Maria!

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3. When Sir Toby and friends are chided by Malvolio for their raucous behavior, Toby tells Malvolio to rub his steward’s chain in some crumbs, a demeaning remark to Olivia’s head servant. Toby then calls for more wine. The party just never stops for Sir Toby!

The niggardly rascally sheep-biter.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 5. Sir Toby Belch is no fan of Malvolio, as his description of him to Fabian shows.

FABIAN: I would exult, man. You know, he brought me out o’ favor with my lady about a bearbaiting here.
SIR TOBY: To anger him, we’ll have the bear again, and we will fool him black and blue, shall we not, Sir Andrew?

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 5. Fabian and Toby are talking about the cruel practical joke they and Maria prepare to play on Malvolio. A letter written by Maria to trick Malvolio into thinking Olivia is in love with him have been dropped in the garden path for Malvolio to find. Toby compares the prank to a bear-baiting contest.

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.

Go, write it in a martial hand. Be curst and brief. It is no matter how witty, so it be eloquent, and full of invention. Taunt him with the license of ink.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 2. Sir Toby advises Sir Andrew on how to write a letter to Cesario (Viola) challenging him to fight. He urges him to taunt his enemy.

As many lies as will lie in thy sheet of paper, although the sheet were big enough for the bed of Ware in England, set ’em down: go, about it.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 2. Sir Toby tells Sir Andrew to make the letter challenging Cesario (Viola) to fight as insulting as possible.

Let there be gall enough in thy ink; though thou write with a goose-pen, no matter.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 2. Sir Toby goads Sir Andrew to ensure his letter of challenge to Cesario (Viola) is dripping with bitterness and bad feeling.

Look, where the youngest wren of nine comes.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 2. Sir Toby compares Maria, who is a small woman, to the youngest wren in a brood.

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).

Still you keep o’ the windy side of the law.

– William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 4. Sir Toby offers this facetious praise of Sir Andrew’s letter challenging Cesario (Viola) to a duel.

- 1
- 2