This Month's Twelfth Night Feature >>

But after hearing strands of the same tune being played in the background, Orsino commands "Enough, no more,/`Tis not so sweet now as it was before" (I, i, ll.10-11). In Twelfth Night, Orsino is irrational in his pursuit of the lovely Olivia, but he cedes her readily to Sebastian and then falls instantly in love with "Cesario" when he reveals himself to be Viola. Love is powerful, but its constancy is certainly in question. In Act II, scene iv, the Duke says to Cesario, that "For women are as roses, whose fair flow'r/Being once display'd, doth fall that very hour" (ll.38-39). Love at first sight is rampant in Shakespeare's Illyria, but he will not vouchsafe its permanence.