Twelfth Night Study Guide
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Act IV, Scene 1
Before Olivia's house

Scene Summary

Sebastian arrives at Olivia's house and is immediately mistaken for Cesario. Feste insists he was sent to fetch him, then Sir Andrew strikes him — expecting the timid Cesario — and gets a thorough beating in return. Sir Toby intervenes and draws his sword, but Olivia arrives and furiously dismisses her uncle. She turns to Sebastian with tender concern, calling him "Cesario" and inviting him inside. Sebastian, bewildered but enchanted, decides this beautiful dream is worth following.

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✨ Character Voice Translations PREMIUM
Original Text
[Enter SEBASTIAN and FESTE] FESTE. Will you make me believe that I am not sent for you? SEBASTIAN. Go to, go to, thou art a foolish fellow: Let me be clear of thee. FESTE. Well held out, i' faith! No, I do not know you; nor I am not sent to you by my lady, to bid you come speak with her; nor your name is not Master Cesario; nor this is not my nose neither. Nothing that is so is so. SEBASTIAN. I prithee, vent thy folly somewhere else: Thou know'st not me. FESTE. Vent my folly! he has heard that word of some great man and now applies it to a fool. Vent my folly! I am afraid this great lubber, the world, will prove a cockney. I prithee now, ungird thy strangeness and tell me what I shall vent to my lady: shall I vent to her that thou art coming? SEBASTIAN. I prithee, foolish Greek, depart from me: There's money for thee: if you tarry longer, I shall give worse payment. FESTE. By my troth, thou hast an open hand. These wise men that give fools money get themselves a good report--after fourteen years' purchase. [Enter SIR ANDREW, SIR TOBY BELCH, and FABIAN] SIR ANDREW. Now, sir, have I met you again? there's for you. [Strikes SEBASTIAN] SEBASTIAN. Why, there's for thee, and there, and there. Are all the people mad? [Beats SIR ANDREW] SIR TOBY BELCH. Hold, sir, or I'll throw your dagger o'er the house. FESTE. This will I tell my lady straight: I would not be in some of your coats for two pence. [Exit] SIR TOBY BELCH. Come on, sir; hold. [Seizes SEBASTIAN] SIR ANDREW. Nay, let him alone: I'll go another way to work with him; I'll have an action of battery against him, if there be any law in Illyria: though I struck him first, yet it's no matter for that. SIR TOBY BELCH. Come on, sir; hold! SEBASTIAN. Let go thy hand. SIR TOBY BELCH. Come, sir, I will not let you go. Come, my young soldier, put up your iron: you are well fleshed; come on. SEBASTIAN. I will be free from thee. What wouldst thou now? If thou darest tempt me further, draw thy sword. SIR TOBY BELCH. What, what? Nay, then I must have an ounce or two of this malapert blood from you. [Draws] [Enter OLIVIA] OLIVIA. Hold, Toby; on thy life I charge thee, hold! SIR TOBY BELCH. Madam! OLIVIA. Will it be ever thus? Ungracious wretch, Fit for the mountains and the barbarous caves, Where manners ne'er were preach'd! out of my sight! Be not offended, dear Cesario. Rudesby, be gone! [Exeunt SIR TOBY, SIR ANDREW, and FABIAN] I prithee, gentle friend, Let thy fair wisdom, not thy passion, sway In this uncivil and thou unjust extent Against thy peace. Go with me to my house, And hear thou there how many fruitless pranks This ruffian hath botch'd up, that thou thereby Mayst smile at this: thou shalt not choose but go: Do not deny. Beshrew his soul for me, He started one poor heart of mine in thee. SEBASTIAN. What relish is in this? how runs the stream? Or I am mad, or else this is a dream: Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep; If it be thus to dream, still let me sleep! OLIVIA. Nay, come, I prithee; would thou'ldst be ruled by me! SEBASTIAN. Madam, I will. OLIVIA. O, say so, and so be! [Exeunt]
Modern English

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This scene marks the moment when the play's mistaken identity plot shifts from comic complication to comic resolution. Sebastian enters the world that Viola has been navigating in disguise, and everything that was tangled begins to untangle — though nobody realizes it yet. The structural irony is exquisite: the same events that would have been painful for Viola (being struck, being fought) become transformative for Sebastian because he responds with an entirely different nature. The contrast between Sebastian and Cesario is immediately physical. Where Viola-as-Cesario dreaded the duel and nearly revealed her identity to avoid it, Sebastian fights back without hesitation: "Why, there's for thee, and there, and there." His bewildered question — "Are all the people mad?" — is the audience's cue to laugh at the entire situation from the outside, seeing clearly what no character on stage can grasp. Sebastian's willingness to use his fists establishes him as genuinely masculine in a way that ironically validates Olivia's attraction to "Cesario" — she was drawn to qualities that actually belong to the twin she hasn't met. Olivia's entrance and her furious dismissal of Sir Toby — "Ungracious wretch, / Fit for the mountains and the barbarous caves" — reveals the depth...

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"Nothing that is so is so." — Feste (IV.1.8-9)

"Are all the people mad?" — Sebastian (IV.1.26)

"Or I am mad, or else this is a dream: / Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep; / If it be thus to dream, still let me sleep!" — Sebastian (IV.1.60-62)

Themes
Mistaken Identity Violence Love Confusion
Literary Devices
Dramatic Irony Situational Irony Physical Comedy
Characters
Sebastian Feste (Clown) Sir Andrew Aguecheek Sir Toby Belch Olivia
Motifs
Twins Violence Madness
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