What is the pun in act 2, scene 4 of Romeo and Juliet?
This particular scene is full of puns, particularly shown to reveal Mercutio's playful and rather bawdy personality. Many of these puns, therefore, are sexual in nature. Consider this one:
MERCUTIO: Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy.
ROMEO: Pink for flower.
Although on the surface the men...
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are talking about courteous behavior, Mercutio actually sets Romeo up for a playfulpun. The “pink flower” is here a reference to female genitalia.
They continue this pun in the following lines:
ROMEO: Why, then is my pump well flowered.
MERCUTIO: Sure wit, follow me this jest now till thou hast worn
out thy pump, that when the single sole of it is worn,
the jest may remain, after the wearing solely singular.
On the surface, Romeo counters that his shoe (or pump) is well-patterned (or flowered). The pun is that his pump (or male genitalia) has been covered in flowers (or female genitalia).
Mercutio delivers another pun later in the scene when talking to Juliet's nurse:
NURSE: Is it good e’en?
MERCUTIO: ’Tis no less, I tell you, for the bawdy hand of the
dial is now upon the prick of noon.NURSE: Out upon you! What a man are you?
The nurse has questioned Mercutio’s use of “evening” in his greeting, and his response is laden with puns. The round dial of the clock is a pun for female genitalia, and the "prick" of the hands stand straight up at noon—a pun for an erection. Thus, the nurse scolds him for such a bawdy reply to her.
Videos
What are 10 puns in Romeo and Juliet and their meanings?
Romeo and Juliet begins with a triple pun on the word collier (coal vendor) which sound like choler (anger) and collar(hangman's noose). (I,i,1-4)
Here are some others:
Give me a torch. I am not for this ambling./Being but heavy(sad, weighing much) I will bear the light (brightness, weighing little). (I,iv,1-2)
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. (I,iv,4-6)
...What dost thou make us minstrels? An thou makes mistrels of us, look to hear nothing but discords (off-key notes/disagreements). (III, i, 34-35)
We see the ground (earth/reason) whereon these woes do lie,/But the true ground of all these piteous woes/We cannot without circumstance descry. (V,iii,179-181)
What are 10 puns in Romeo and Juliet and their meanings?
Shakespeare wrote some great puns in Romeo and Juliet. I can't give you 10, but my favorite is Mercutio's pun in Act III when he realizes he has been fatally wounded:
...ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man.
Grave meaning "serious," but, in this case, also meaning dead.
What are five puns in Romeo and Juliet and their meanings?
SAMPSON Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads;
take it in what sense thou wilt.
This refers to cutting off heads of women—but is a pun for taking their
virginity.
GREGORY '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.
They've been talking about violence, but also sex: draw your tool means draw
sword/penis.
ROMEO Not I, believe me: you have dancing shoes
With nimble soles: I have a soul of lead
Romeo speaks to Mercutio: he has a soul of lead (he's sad) so he has soles of
lead (heavy feet).
MERCUTIO That dreamers often lie.
ROMEO In bed asleep, while they do dream things true.
Dreamers lie (are false), and lie (down)
MERCUTIO You are a lover; borrow Cupid's wings,
And soar with them above a common bound.
ROMEO I am too sore enpierced with his shaft
Soar/sore : hurt/fly