Love and Illness
In perhaps the most famous metaphor of the play, Orsino's opening words are, "If music be the food of love, play on. / Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, / The appetite may sicken and so die" (1.1). In this metaphor, Orsino equates music with something that "feeds" love. He asks to have more and more music so that he will overindulge and become sick, thereby stripping him of his capacity to love and therefore his capacity to suffer the pains of unrequited love. This quotation introduces audiences to Orsino's specific conception of love as something related to both indulgence and suffering.
Hunting and the Hart
In Act One, Orsino laments his unrequited love for Olivia, saying, "O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first, / Methought she purged the air of pestilence. / That instant was I turned into a hart, / And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds, / E’er since pursue me" (1.1). In this metaphor, Orsino compares himself to a hart (a male deer) who is "hunted" by his own desires. This is an interesting take on the conventional metaphor of the woman or beloved as hart and the man as hunter/pursuer. Orsino's equating himself with the hart underscores his self-interested behavior and lack of awareness.
The Sea
Also in Act One, Orsino continues his description of his unrequited love by comparing it to the sea: "O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou, / That, notwithstanding thy capacity / Receiveth as the sea" (1.1). In this simile, Orsino suggests that his love is vast and unpredictable, like the ocean, and he wishes that he was able to control it so that it did not give him so much anguish.
Words and Gloves
In a moment of wisdom that belies his character's role as the fool, Feste says, "A sentence is but a chev'ril glove to a good wit. / How quickly the wrong side may be turned outward!" (3.1). In this metaphor, Feste compares words to a glove in the hands of a wordsmith (or a playwright, like Shakespeare). He suggests that those who are good with words are able to twist and manipulate language for their own ends.
Secret Love and Worms
As Viola reckons with the realization that she has fallen in love with Orsino, whom she is supposed to be setting up with Olivia, she decides to keep her feelings a secret and remain his trusted page, Cesario. She says, "She never told her love, / But let concealment, like a worm i’ th’ bud, / Feed on her damask cheek" (2.4). In this simile, Viola compares secrecy to a worm that will slowly eat away at her. This gruesome image was actually a common one in early modern literature, made most famous by Andrew Marvell's poem, "To His Coy Mistress," in which the speaker asserts that the beloved's virginity will ultimately be defiled by worms when she is buried in the ground.
