Friday 3 April 2015

What are some puns said by Mercutio in Act 1, Scene 4 of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet?

makes
onefrom the word "prick" in his lines,

If love
be rough with you, be rough with love.
Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.
(I.iv.28-29)

The term "prick" can be used to
mean "to pierce," or to "puncture," especially to cause pain (Random House
Dictionary). However, since it can also refer to an "erected" object, like a dog's
ear, Mercutio is also using the term with sexual connotations (Random House
Dictionary).

Mercutio forms two other puns from the word "done."
Whencontinues to refuse to join his friends in crashing the Capulet's ball, saying, "The
game was ne'er so fair, and I am done," meaning I am finished playing these silly games
(40), Mercutio responds, making his first pun out of "done," with, "Tut, dun's
the mouse, the constable's own word!" (41). While Romeo, in saying that he is
"done," actually means finished, Mercutio makes a pun by rhyming the word
"dun" to refer to the adjective "dun," which can describe a "gray-brown
color," just like the color of a mouse. Historically, the expression, "dun's the
mouse" meant "be as quiet as a mouse" ( href="https://shakespeare-navigators.com/romeo/T14.html" title=""Romeo and
Juliet," shakespeare-navigators.com">"Romeo and Juliet,"
shakespeare-navigators). Beyond that, Mercutio's phrase, "the constable's own
word," also refers to the historically understood concept that the constable of a town
"sat around" quietly "doing nothing." Hence, through the pun of
"dun" referring to the silence of a mouse, just like the constable, Mercutio is
chastising Romeo for sitting around and doing nothing ( href="https://shakespeare-navigators.com/romeo/T14.html" title=""Romeo and
Juliet," shakespeare-navigators.com">"Romeo and Juliet,"
shakespeare-navigators).

The second pun Mercutio makes by rhyming
the word "done" with "dun" is in his line, "If thou art Dun, we'll draw
thee from the mire" (42). In this line "Dun" refers to a historic game called
"Dun the horse." The game was played at Christmas time and consisted of pulling a log
out of mud ( title=""Romeo and Juliet," shakespeare-navigators.com">"Romeo and
Juliet," shakespeare-navigators
). Hence, Mercutio is saying that if Romeo is
truly "done" then, due to his lovestruck behavior, he has also allowed himself to sink
into "mire," or a poor state of mind. Mercutio is claiming that if Romeo is truly
"done" then they will pull him out of the "dun," or mud, or
mire.

href="https://shakespeare-navigators.com/romeo/T14.html">https://shakespeare-navigators.com/romeo/T14.html

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