Twelfth Night

excerpt from Twelfth Night

by William Shakespeare

(spoken by Orsino, Duke of Illyria)

If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it, that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again, it had a dying fall;
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odor. Enough, no more,
'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art though,
That notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch soe'er,
But falls into abatement and low price
Even in a minute. So full of shapes is fancy
That it alone is high fantastical.

Act 1, Scene 1, lines 1-15
The twelfth night of Christmas, January 6, is the celebration of the Epiphany. It was, and sometimes still is, celebrated as a holiday of more importance than Christmas day itself (the first day of Christmas). It marks the arrival of the Magi, the baptism of Jesus, and the miracle at Cana (water to wine). The relationship of Shakespeare's play to the holiday is hotly debated. The lines are said to be about a somewhat bulimic view of love--insatiable at one instant, overfull at the next. This, by the way, is not healthy for the soul.

Christmas Poems
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