If Music Be the Food of Love, What’s Next?
Ever wondered why that line from Shakespeare about music and love gets quoted so much? It’s not just pretty words – it’s actually one of the most relatable metaphors ever crafted about how music and love interact in our lives.
Shakespeare’s Most Delicious Love Quote Explained
Shakespeare really nailed it when he wrote “If music be the food of love, play on” as the opening line of Twelfth Night. This isn’t just some flowery language – it’s a genius metaphor comparing music to food, suggesting that just as our bodies need sustenance, our romantic feelings need music to thrive and grow.
But here’s where it gets interesting.
The Meaning Behind the Famous Line
The character who speaks this line, Duke Orsino, is basically the Shakespearean version of a lovesick teenager. He’s completely obsessed with Countess Olivia (who wants nothing to do with him), and he’s asking for more music because he hopes that by overdosing on it, he might actually cure himself of his love sickness.
It’s like saying, “I love chocolate so much it hurts, so I’m going to eat an entire cake until I get sick of it!”
This contradictory desire shows Shakespeare’s brilliant understanding of how weird and complex love can be. We simultaneously want more of what hurts us and to be free from that same desire.
As the play unfolds, Orsino’s feelings evolve in unexpected ways, showing how love can be both fickle and fantastic.
Why This Metaphor Is So Perfect
Think about it – music really is the perfect “food” for love:
- It nourishes our romantic feelings
- It can intensify our emotions (just think about “our song”)
- It provides emotional sustenance when we’re love-hungry
- Too much of the same song can make us sick of it (just like Orsino hopes)
In Elizabethan times, music carried even more symbolic weight in drama. It wasn’t just background noise – it was a crucial storytelling element that helped express characters’ emotions when words alone weren’t enough.
Music and Love: A Universal Connection
Beyond Shakespeare’s play, the connection between music and love is something we all experience. Have you ever:
- Made a playlist for someone you like?
- Felt your heart swell during a romantic song?
- Connected with someone over shared musical taste?
- Danced with someone special to “your song”?
Music creates this incredible pathway for intimacy – it lets us connect on a level that’s sometimes hard to reach through conversation alone. It becomes a shared experience that deepens emotional bonds between people.
As Friedrich Nietzsche said, “Without music, life would be a mistake” – suggesting that like love, music gives meaning to our existence.
Shakespeare’s Deeper Insights on Love
If we dig deeper into Orsino’s speech, Shakespeare’s giving us a masterclass on love’s complicated nature:
- Love is vast like the sea – capable of receiving endless emotion
- Yet it’s also incredibly changeable – shifting moods rapidly
- It has a brief sweetness that can quickly fade
- It creates conflicting desires – wanting more while wanting relief
This complexity plays out throughout Twelfth Night with its love triangles and mistaken identities. Orsino loves Olivia, who falls for Viola (who’s disguised as a man), while Viola loves Orsino. It’s complicated!
How This Applies to Modern Life
So what does this 400-year-old metaphor teach us today?
Music still functions as love’s nourishment. Think about:
- How streaming services create “romantic dinner” playlists
- The way we make mixtapes/playlists for crushes
- How couples choose “their song” for first dances
- The way a breakup playlist helps us process heartache
Music can amplify our feelings or help us move past them – exactly what Orsino was hoping for.
The connection between music and emotion is even backed by modern neuroscience, which shows that music activates the same reward centers in our brains as food and love.
Shakespeare understood something fundamental about human nature – that art, particularly music, both reflects and influences our experiences of love. Whether we’re falling in love, nursing a broken heart, or celebrating a relationship, music feeds those emotions in ways nothing else can.
So next time you hear “If music be the food of love, play on,” remember you’re not just hearing a pretty phrase – you’re hearing one of the most enduring truths about how we experience both music and love.
And maybe, like Duke Orsino, you’ll find that the music leads you somewhere unexpected.
