This scene continues from Act II, Scene 4, when Duke Orsino was preparing to send Cesario on another mission to Olivia. We should still be aware that the scenes have been alternating between the romantic plots and the subplots concerning the gulling of Malvolio. Thus, after the hilarious scene at the end of Act II, Act III opens in Olivia's garden, but the scene is light and jovial because Cesario has just encountered Olivia's clown, Feste. Together, they delight the audience by turning one another's sentences inside out, demonstrating that each has a finely honed wit.
With the entrance of Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, the punning is continued but, more important, Sir Andrew is able to take note of the manner in which Cesario (Viola) addresses Olivia, which will later give rise to the pretended duel between the two.
After Olivia dismisses everyone in order to be alone with the young messenger, she immediately and desperately wants to hear words of love from Cesario, but all that he can say is that he pities her. Olivia then shows herself to be very much like Duke Orsino — that is, she is as changeable as the duke is. At first, she tells Cesario, "I will not have you." Then as Cesario is about to leave, Olivia cannot quite dismiss him before she finds out what he thinks of her: "Stay, I prithee, tell me what thou think'st of me." There follows, then, a series of speeches which serve to remind the audience of the importance and the complications issuing from the fact that everyone is in some sort of disguise:
Viola: That you do think you are not what you are. [That is, that you think that you are in love with a man and you are mistaken.]
Olivia: If I think so, I think the same of you. [If I think lower of myself, I think the same of you; i.e., that you are a nobleman in disguise.]
Viola: Then think you right: I am not what I am. [She is a girl, not a boy.]
Olivia: I would you were as I would have you be. [That is, she wishes that Cesario were a man in love with her.]
After further exchanges, Olivia makes a passionate declaration of love for Cesario:
Cesario, by the roses of the spring,
By maidhood, honour, truth and everything . . .
I love thee so . . .
Nor wit nor reason can my passion hide.
(146-49)
Despite this beautiful and spontaneous (and completely unsought) declaration of love, Cesario cannot surrender or explain to Olivia without revealing the disguise; but in refusing her, "he" is guilty in her eyes of wanton cruelty. Lady Olivia is now reduced to the same state as Orsino in this scene. She is pleading for love and is rejected.
