Duke Orsino: An essay describing Shakespeare's Duke Orsino from his play, The Twelfth Night.

Duke Orsino By: Susan Humphrey "If music be the food of love, play on. Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die." These are the opening words of Shakespeare's play, "Twelfth Night", which welcome us into an atmosphere of depressed love, as Count Orsino, the Duke of Illyria, expresses his feelings of love towards the Lady Olivia. Duke Orsino has received word that the Lady Olivia would none of …

…to her in marriage. Now how quick was that? Going from being madly in love with Olivia, to threatening to kill Cesario, to marrying his female version, Viola? This is a prime example of Count Orsino's fickleness, as well as these words spoken to him by Viola: "We men may say more, swear more, but indeed our shows are more than will, for we still prove much in our vows, but little in our love."