# Duke Orsino — Twelfth Night character guide

> Duke Orsino in Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Duke, Duke Ay, Duke Husband, Duke One, Duke Gracious Olivia, Duke O

**First appearance:** 0002-act-i-scene-i

## Snapshot

Illyria's music-drunk Duke, who wants love the way he wants a song — played past satiety — and sends a disguised girl to plead his case to a woman in mourning.

## Who they are

Orsino opens the play declaring 'If music be the food of love, play on,' and his appetite for feeling is bottomless, self-renewing, and slightly absurd. Olivia has walled herself away for seven years to mourn a brother, and he reads her refusal as proof of a heart that will love extravagantly once turned. He trusts Cesario with his 'secret soul' and his suit, never suspecting that the messenger he praises for a 'woman's part' is falling for him. His self-absorbed courtship is the foil against which the play's real affections sharpen.

## In the story

### [Scene I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelfth_night_se/chapters/act-i-scene-i)

Orsino is introduced as a lovesick nobleman, using music to feed his passion and comparing his desires to hounds pursuing him.

### [Scene II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelfth_night_se/chapters/act-i-scene-ii)

Mentioned as the noble ruler of Illyria who is courting the mourning Olivia.

### [Scene IV: The Duke's Commission](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelfth_night_se/chapters/act-i-scene-iv)

He confides his secret soul to Cesario and commands him to woo Olivia, showing his obsessive love and trust in the young page.

### [Scene IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelfth_night_se/chapters/act-ii-scene-iv)

Continues to indulge in melancholy music and sends Cesario again to Olivia, insisting his love is unmatched and that women cannot love as deeply as he does.

### [Scene I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelfth_night_se/chapters/act-v-scene-i)

Accepts Viola as his mistress and proposes marriage.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelfth_night_se/characters/orsino
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelfth_night_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twelfth_night_se/characters