Often when tragic events occur, one can find solace in humor as a way to offset the tension of the moment. Through comic relief, authors allow readers to have a break from intense moments. One of the masters of using humor within tragedy is William Shakespeare, whose brilliant and memorable puns have captivated readers for centuries. In one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies Romeo and Juliet, he cleverly weaves puns throughout the action that involves the deaths of six characters. Readers learn in the sixth line of the play's prologue that the main characters will die, thus Shakespeare keeps readers engaged throughout the heaviness of death with his witty puns.
Puns are a play on words that often use homophones, similar sounding words with different meanings, to create amusement or thought-provoking statements. Authors also create puns by exploiting words that have multiple meanings. Consider the following homophones and how they could be used to create a witty pun: steal, steal; eight, ate; wear, where; none, nun; and cell, sell. Shakespeare uses many puns in his 37 plays and 154 sonnets. One of Shakespeare's most famous puns is found in the opening lines of Richard III, when the King remarks, ''Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun of York.'' Shakespeare is punning on the word, ''sun'' since Richard is the son of the Duke of York.
Act I of Romeo and Juliet is also filled with puns; in fact, the first scene opens with a triple pun as Gregory and Sampson jest about carrying coal as colliers do. They then use two other words: ''choler'' (anger) and ''collar'' (for a hangman's noose) to complete the pun. The dialogue is meant to entertain readers just before a violent confrontation occurs between servants of the two feuding families, which demonstrates how Shakespeare balances comedy and tragedy throughout the rest of the play. This lesson will provide examples of the most famous puns found in Act I.
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Romeo, who is dramatically burdened in his quest for the love of Rosaline, puns in the following interaction in Act I, Scene IV of "Romeo and Juliet" as he walks with Mercutio:
Give me a torch: I am not for this ambling;
Being but heavy, I will bear the light.
Romeo is playing with the dual meanings of a pair of opposite words here. He says that he is heavy, which illustrates his sadness in his unrequited love for Rosiline, but he states that he will carry a torch for light. Mercutio then responds by his urging Romeo to attend the masquerade party at the Capulet's house:
Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.
Not I, believe me: you have dancing shoes
With nimble soles: I have a soul of lead
So stakes me to the ground I cannot move.
Here, Romeo is punning and uses the dual meaning of shoe soles and his soul that is overwhelmed by lustful desires that he cannot quench. This is an example of the use of homophones for the pun. Their conversation continues:
You are a lover; borrow Cupid's wings,
And soar with them above a common bound.
I am too sore enpierced with his shaft
To soar with his light feathers, and so bound,
I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe:
Under love's heavy burden do I sink.
Here, Romeo uses wordplay again in his puns utilizing the words ''soar,'' ''sore'' and ''bound.'' This conversation continues in the same scene:
I mean, sir, in delay
We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day.
Take our good meaning, for our judgment sits
Five times in that ere once in our five wits.
And we mean well in going to this mask;
But 'tis no wit to go.
This time, Romeo plays on the word ''wit'' in his response to Mercutio's reference to their five senses, but Romeo's use of the word ''wit'' refers to his ill-feeling about going to the masquerade. Romeo also puns on Mercutio's use of the word ''lie'' and claims that dreamers dream true things and not lies. This exchange follows:
That dreamers often lie.
In bed asleep, while they do dream things true.
Mercutio is quite intelligent and uses the most playful language of any character in the play. He also is the character who uses the most puns in Act I. In Act I, Scene IV as he walks with Benvolio and Romeo on their way to the Capulet's masquerade, Mercutio's response to Romeo below plays on the word ''dun'' in the sense that its literal meaning is a gray-brown mouse. But when he tells Romeo that he is not stuck up to his ears in love rather than mud, Mercutio is making light of Romeo's meek and moping nature.
A torch for me: let wantons light of heart
Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels,
For I am proverb'd with a grandsire phrase;
I'll be a candle-holder, and look on.
The game was ne'er so fair, and I am done.
Tut, dun's the mouse, the constable's own word:
If thou art dun, we'll draw thee from the mire
Of this sir-reverence love, wherein thou stick'st
Up to the ears. Come, we burn daylight, ho!
In one of the most famous speeches in the play, also in Act I, Scene IV, Mercutio remarks on a long story about Queen Mab, who was thought to be a fairy that brings dreams to those asleep at night. On the surface, Mercutio's mention of the queen of fairies is an interesting tale, but actually, the entire speech is a pun because in Elizabethan England, the term ''queen'' referred to prostitutes, and a ''mab'' referred to a promiscuous woman. Excerpts from Mercutio's lengthy speech are as follows:
O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep;
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers.
And in this state she gallops night by night
Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love;
This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,
That presses them and learns them first to bear,
Making them women of good carriage:
Mercutio also uses a pun as he plays on the word ''prick'' in his exchange with Romeo also in Scene IV. In a literal sense, the word denotes something that can pierce or puncture, but Mercutio is using the word to make sexual innuendo. Their dialogue from the scene follows:
Is love a tender thing? it is too rough,
Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn.
If love be rough with you, be rough with love;
Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.
Give me a case to put my visage in:
A visor for a visor! what care I
What curious eye doth quote deformities?
Here are the beetle brows shall blush for me.
In the initial scene of Act I, Sampson and Gregory, both servants of the Capulet household, are strolling the streets of Verona and expressing their hatred for the Montague family. Their first pun is as follows:
Gregory, o' my word, we'll not carry coals.
No, for then we should be colliers.
I mean, an we be in choler, we'll draw.
Ay, while you live, draw your neck out o' the collar.
Their second pun quickly follows when the two men provocatively remark that they will physically conquer their rivals and sexually conquer the Montague women when they state the following:
A dog of that house shall move me to stand: I will
take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's.
That shows thee a weak slave; for the weakest goes
True; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels,
are ever thrust to the wall: therefore I will push
Montague's men from the wall, and thrust his maids
The innuendo continues in the following wordplay between the two Capulet servants:
Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads;
take it in what sense thou wilt.
They must take it in sense that feel it.
Me they shall feel while I am able to stand: and
'tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh.
Thus, the two men make pun after pun in reference to their male anatomy and conquering the Montague women. They continue to reference their genitalia in the following lines:
'Tis well thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thou
hadst been poor John. Draw thy tool! here comes
two of the house of the Montagues.
My naked weapon is out: quarrel, I will back thee.
Puns often utilize different meanings of words that both actually fit the context, which creates a humorous, witty phrase. The following examples illustrate this concept:
When writers use homophones to create puns, they rely on the way words sound alike while having multiple meanings and spellings. Writers also use words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. For example, in the following pun, ''No matter how much you push the envelope, it will still be stationery,'' one can find the humor in the wit. Another example is as follows: ''A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.'' Thus, one can easily understand the double meaning involved in puns when they are used skillfully. What also helped Shakespeare's craft in utilizing puns in his writings is that in his era, there was no standardized system for spelling. This allowed for much easier pathways for puns and rhyming in Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. For example, the word ''loin'' was pronounced as ''line'' in Shakespeare's era, which easily allowed for pun creation.
In light of the humor that Shakespeare created in his use of puns, today there are humorous jokes that utilize puns in reference to his Romeo and Juliet. Here is an example:
What is Romeo's and Juliet's favorite fruit? Answer: Cantelope
Despite being a tragedy, William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is filled with puns that help lighten the tension of the deaths of the main characters in the play. A pun is a play on words based on dual meaning or homophones that deliver a humorous or witty statement. Homophones are words that sound the same. Although many characters in the play utilize puns, Mercutio is the character in Act 1 who speaks the most puns. In Act 1, Mercutio makes a pun about Romeo being 'dun,' which means that he had a meek and moping nature.
Though Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy, or a play in which the characters suffer extreme loss or misfortune, Shakespeare included numerous puns. A pun is a play on a word's meaning or it may be a homophone (a word that sounds like another word with a different meaning, like the words 'eight' and 'ate'). Shakespeare used puns and wordplay to engage the audience as well as reveal his characters' attitudes and feelings.
Act 1's opening scene is filled with puns intended to warm up the audience. Sampson and Gregory, two Capulet servants, are bantering. They play on the words 'collier/choler/collar', all sounding alike, as you'll see in the following dialogue:
Sampson: Gregory, on my word, we'll not carry coals.
Gregory: No, for then we should be colliers.
Sampson: I mean, if we be in choler, we'll draw.
Gregory: Ay, while you live, draw your neck out of collar.
They joke about refusing to do low labor (carrying coals), or the work of a collier. They proclaim they'd be angered (in choler) if made to do so, and draw arms against their master. Gregory points out that's fine, but then they'd then have to 'draw your neck out of collar,' meaning they'd be hung (the collar being the hangman's noose).
Sampson and Gregory continue their exchange, making puns about taking the virginity of the maids (cutting off their heads, making them lose their maidenhead) until they are interrupted by the arrival of Benvolio and Tybalt. The exchanges between Sampson and Gregory are typical of puns in Shakespeare's plays, ribald and fast, serving as an antidote to the more serious parts of the play and keeping the audience's attention.
By far, the most notable puns in Act 1 come from Mercutio, a nobleman and close friend of Romeo. He engages in witty wordplay in every scene he is in, revealing his attitudes about life while trying to cheer up his friend. He is a major character in Scene 4 of Act 1, where he spouts ribald puns and banter with the other characters. Most famous is his Queen Mab speech, which is one long and extended pun beginning when Romeo tries to tell him of a dream he'd just had. Mercutio says he had a dream as well, and it was that 'dreamers often lie,' a pun on the word 'lie' meaning untruth, and also the fact that dreams come most often in sleep, when one lies down. He is also using the word 'dreamer' in a double meaning, one being a dreamer is asleep, but also a dreamer is one who is given to flights of fancy and ignoring responsibility.
Mercutio's many puns tend to focus heavily on sex, women, and also death. In Act 1, Scene 4, he tells Romeo that 'If love be rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.' He encourages Romeo to let go of his mooning over Rosaline and also over Juliet, telling him it's not worth it and to 'be rough with love', let his ideal go. Mercutio then uses a double entendre with the word 'prick'--telling Romeo to prick love, or stab it, kill it, and also implying he should focus just on having sex rather than falling in love, using 'prick' as a euphemism for an erection.
Mercutio further uses puns to tease Romeo, playing on the words 'done' and 'dun'. Romeo, in Act 1, Scene 4, is unwilling to sneak into the Capulet's party. 'The game was ne'er so fair, and I am done,' he tells his friends. Mercutio plays on that, invoking a phrase popular in Shakespeare's time, 'Tut, dun's the mouse, the constable's own word!' 'Dun as the mouse' not only referred to the drab, unexciting coloring of a mouse, but 'dun' also meant meek or quiet. Constables were jokingly referred to as sitting around and doing nothing, meaning Mercutio just called out Romeo for being meek and boring with his play on Romeo's 'done'.
Many of the other puns in Act 1 allude to sorrow and grief as befits the tragedy and its central characters. Romeo, still bemoaning his love life, tells Benvolio, 'Not I, believe me You have dancing shoes with nimble soles. I have a soul of lead, so stakes me to the ground I cannot move.' He has no joy in his life; he feels like he is weighted down by his sadness and mourning of Rosaline's rejection, while Benvolio and Mercutio are still carefree and able to love life.
A close reading of Act 1 reveals quite a few puns, plays on the meaning of words, based on homophones, words that sound like other words with different meanings, as well as popular expressions of Shakespeare's time. Mercutio's lines are the most rife with puns and are intended to serve as comic relief while advancing the story.
The play itself begins with a protracted pun between two servants of the Capulet household, something historians feel was meant to warm the audience to the play and get them in a good mood before the more fraught scenes took place. Many of Shakespeare's puns had sexual meaning in order to appeal to a wide audience, but he also alluded to death and sorrow in Romeo and Juliet with his use of wordplay, indicating the direction of a character's development.
