Duke Orsino
Play
Summary
Orsino is the Duke of Illyria, a wealthy and powerful ruler entirely consumed by his self-dramatizing passion for the Countess Olivia. He is more in love with the idea of love than with Olivia herself — a romantic egotist who luxuriates in melancholy music and florid declarations. He employs the disguised Viola (Cesario) as his messenger, not realizing that his most faithful and perceptive companion is also the one who truly loves him. When the complications unwind at the end, he pivots with surprising speed to love Viola instead.
Notable Quotations
"If music be the food of love, play on, / Give me excess of it; that surfeiting, / The appetite may sicken and so die." *(I.i)*
"O, she that hath a heart of that fine frame / To pay this debt of love but to a brother, / How will she love, when the rich golden shaft / Hath kill'd the flock of all affections else." *(I.i)*
Cross-references
- Twelfth Night — the play
- Comedies — genre
- character_viola — his servant Cesario, who loves him truly
- character_olivia — the countess he pursues unsuccessfully
- character_feste — the fool he also employs and enjoys