If music be the food of love, play on

Cultural

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.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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 Familiar Quotations by Bartlett, John

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

From The Man Shakespeare by Harris, Frank

If music be the food of love, play on.

From The Redemption of David Corson by Goss, Charles Frederic

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023