The book “Filthy Shakespeare” by Pauline Kiernan is a collection of various poems, sonnets, and excerpts from the works of W.S, with a translation to reveal the rather down and dirty and sexual puns lurking beneath the verse! So apparently, in Act 3, Scene 2, of the well known, “Hamlet,” Hamlet himself gets a bit of a stiffy from the psychopathic (seriously, she’s crazy) Ophelia. The dialogue goes:
Hamlet: I could interpret betwewen you and your love if I could see the puppets dallying.
Opehlia: You are keen, my lord, you are keen.
Hamlet: It would cost you a groaning to take off mine edge.
Ophelia: Still better, and worse.
But what all that supposedly means is…
Hamlet: I could act as a pimp between you and you love, if I could see the puppets flirting.
Ophelia: You are sexually excited, my lord.
Hamlet: You would need let out a groan in orgasm to take the stiffness out of my erection.
Ophelia: More erotically witty, and more obscene.
Indicated by my handy book…Kiernan outlines the following definitions:
Keen-Sexually excited, erect {suggesting the keen edge of a sword, a pun on penis}
Groaning-Cries of sexual pleasure or orgams
Take off mine edge-Satisfy my sexual appetite {the edge of a sword, ie penis}
Better-More erotically witty
Worse-More obscene, as “worse” is a frequent pun on the sound of the word ‘whores’
My My! W.S. has me blushing over here!
