O Mistress Mine is a famous lyric by the great English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is a song performed by the clown, Feste, in Act II, Scene 3 of the romantic comedy Twelfth Night. The play was first published in 1623, but it was probably first performed in 1600.
Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare’s most popular and enduring plays. It tells the story of twins Viola and Sebastian, who are separated during a shipwreck. Viola makes her way to the country of Illyria, where she disguises herself as a boy named Cesario. She becomes a page to the Duke Orsino, who sends her to help win the love of the countess Olivia. Olivia falls in love with Cesario (the disguised Viola), while Viola secretly loves Orsino. After a series of complications and entanglements, Sebastian, the lost twin, appears. Viola reveals her identity, and all is resolved. Orsino realizes he loves Viola, Olivia transfers her love to Sebastian, and the two happy couples marry.
Feste’s song is one of many in Twelfth Night, a play that uses music as a central theme. The play opens with the famous line, spoken by Orsino, “If music be the food of love, play on.” “O Mistress Mine” is performed by Feste at Olivia’s house, after Viola’s first visit to woo Olivia on Orsino’s behalf. Olivia has shunned the duke’s love and declared that she will live shut off from men so she can mourn her dead brother. The clown’s song seems a pointed comment on Viola’s misguided ways, and on the folly of all who dally while time passes:
O mistress mine! Where are you roaming? Oh! Stay and hear; your true love’s coming, That can sing both high and low. Trip no further, pretty sweeting; Journeys end in lovers meeting, Every wise man’s son doth know. What is love? ’tis not hereafter; Present mirth hath present laughter; What’s to come is still unsure: In delay there lies no plenty; Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty, Youth’s a stuff will not endure.
One of the central themes of Twelfth Night is the capacity of human beings for self-deception. Most of the romantic confusions result not from outside influences but from the characters themselves. These characters use various kinds of physical or mental disguises in their interactions. The muddle is only resolved when the characters learn the truth about themselves and about their real feelings.
In this context, the words of the clown have a special relevance. As in many of Shakespeare’s plays, the clown or “fool” speaks a truth and reveals a wisdom that the other characters lack. In “O mistress mine,” what seems a conventional and pretty love song actually is a comment on the mistakes of the confused lovers in the story. When Feste remarks of love that it “’tis not hereafter,” he conveys the urgency of recognizing love while there is still time. Youth is something that these self-obsessed and somewhat foolish characters cannot take for granted.
More generally, nobody knows “what’s to come,” and the clown’s song is a sober reminder of the uncertainty of life. The passage and destruction of time is one of Shakespeare’s major themes. The light-hearted and satisfying romantic conclusion to Twelfth Night, one of Shakespeare’s great comedies, is tempered by this reality.
For more information, see Shakespeare, William (Shakespeare’s poems) (The second period (1595-1600)).
