If music be the food of love, play on

Cultural  

1. The first line of the play Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare. The speaker is asking for music because he is frustrated in courtship; he wants an overabundance of love so that he may lose his appetite for it.

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Example Sentences

If music be the food of love, play on!

From Seattle Times • Mar. 31, 2017

Question 3: "If music be the food of love, play on; give me excess of it."

From BBC • Feb. 14, 2015

If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken and so die.

From Twelfth Night by Shakespeare, William

If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.—

From Shakespeare and Music With Illustrations from the Music of the 16th and 17th centuries by Naylor, Edward W. (Edward Woodall)

If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it; that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.—

From Familiar Quotations by Bartlett, John