Sir Toby Belch

Play

Twelfth Night

Summary

Sir Toby Belch is Olivia's roisterous uncle, a knight who lives in her household and personifies festive disorder, excess, and the spirit of misrule. Perpetually carousing, he exploits Sir Andrew Aguecheek for his money while engineering the gulling plot against Malvolio. He is the engine of the play's comic subplot and voices the most famous defense of pleasure in the play — his rebuke of Malvolio's puritan disapproval. For all his excess, there is genuine wit and camaraderie in Sir Toby; he marries Maria at the play's end as reward for her ingenuity.

Notable Quotations

"Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?" *(II.iii)*

"I am a fellow o' the strangest mind i' the world; I delight in masques and revels sometimes altogether." *(I.iii)*

Cross-references

• Twelfth Night — the play
• Comedies — genre
• character_olivia — his niece and hostess
• character_sir_andrew — his gullible companion, whom he fleeces
• character_maria_twelfth — his co-conspirator and eventual wife
• character_malvolio — the target of his gulling plot
• character_feste — fellow reveler and partner in midnight song