Make me a willow cabin at your gate,
And call upon my soul within the house;
Write loyal cantons of contemned love
And sing them loud even in the dead of night;
Halloo your name to the reverberate hills
And make the babbling gossip of the air
Cry out ‘Olivia!’ O, You should not rest
Between the elements of air and earth,
But you should pity me!
– William Shakespeare
Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 5. Viola (disguised as Cesario) delivers this speech to Olivia, after Orsino appoints her to bring his messages of love to Olivia. But instead of speaking Orsino’s cliched language of lust, she says the right things to make Olivia fall in love – except it is Cesario that Olivia will fall in love with! In this significant and beautiful speech, Cesario describes what he would do if he loved Olivia as much as Orsino. Writes poems of his love, sing them throughout the night and cry out her name so that the air would echo with it. Viola actually imagines what it means to truly love someone.