Act I
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar
On your noteguide,
write your own
definition for the
word “pun.”
Now, look down the center of
your noteguide at each of the
sentences marked by a diamond.
Each one of these sentences will be a
pun--when you have filled in the
blank to complete the sentence.
Let’s do the first one
as an example.
Reading while sunbathing
makes you well-___.
red
Now, you try the
other puns on your own.
When two egotists meet,
it's an ___ for an ___.
When two egotists meet,
it's an I for an I.
A bicycle can't stand on its
own because it is ___ tired.
A bicycle can't stand on its
own because it is two tired.
What's the definition of a
will? (It's a ____ giveaway.)
What's the definition of a
will? (It's a dead giveaway.)
In democracy your vote counts.
In feudalism your count ____.
In democracy your vote counts.
In feudalism your count votes.
With her marriage, she got a
new name and a ______.
With her marriage, she got a
new name and a dress.
When a clock is hungry, it
goes back ____ seconds.
When a clock is hungry, it
goes back four seconds.
You feel stuck with your
debt if you can't ______ it.
You feel stuck with your
debt if you can't budge it.
Local Area Network in Australia:
the ____ down under.
Local Area Network in Australia:
the LAN down under.
Bakers trade bread recipes on
a _______-to-know basis.
Bakers trade bread recipes on
a knead-to-know basis.
A boiled egg in the
morning is hard to ____.
A boiled egg in the
morning is hard to beat.
A midget fortune-teller
who escapes from prison is
a small ________ at large.
A midget fortune-teller
who escapes from prison is
a small medium at large.
Those who get too big for
their britches will be
exposed in the ___.
Those who get too big for
their britches will be
exposed in the end.
Once you've seen one shopping
center, you've seen a ____.
Once you've seen one shopping
center, you've seen a mall.
Did your definition of “pun”
allow for each of the
previously cited examples?
A rhetorical wordplay in which
the writer surprisingly reveals
that words with totally different
meaning have similar or even
identical sounds
Act I, scene i
Remember the one thing that
Shakespeare and other Elizabethan
playwrights HAD to take care of right
at the beginning of their plays:
Getting the attention of the groundlings!
fight
In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses a _______
to get their attention.
ghost to get their
In Hamlet, he uses a ___________
attention.
witches to get their
In Macbeth, he uses ___________
attention.
In The Tragedy of Julius
Caesar, however,
puns to
Shakespeare uses _______
get the attention of this rowdy
bunch.
In your notes, identify the puns
that the plebeians use to get the
best of the tribunes.
Lines 10 and 11
• “workman” verses “cobbler”
The word “workman” implies that the
cobbler is a skilled worker; however, a
“cobbler” (besides being someone who
repairs shoes) is somebody who messes up
everything he tries to do.
Lines 13 and 14
• “safe conscience…mender of bad soles”
The wordplay here is on the homophone
“soles”—which, when used after the word
“conscience,” sounds like “souls”; however,
we know that since the speaker is a cobbler,
he speaks in reality of the soles of shoes.
Lines 17 and 18
• When the cobbler tells Flavius to “be not
out with him,” he actually means for
Flavius to not be angry with him; however,
when he says “yet, if you be out, sir, I can
mend you,” he speaks of fixing the soles of
the shoes that are worn out.
Line 21
• When Marullus asks what the cobbler
means when he says that he can “mend
him,” the cobbler replies by saying “Why,
sir, cobble you.” Taken in the connotative
meaning of the word, the cobbler is saying
that he’s “messing up” the tribune—which
he’s doing verbally.
Lines 23 through 28
• The pun in the lines is with the word “awl,”
which is a tool. But the way it was heard
would have been “all.”
• In addition, he says that he meddles with no
“women’s matters,” which is an off-color
pun.
Lines 31 through 33
• When Flavius asks why the cobbler leads
the men about the streets, he tells them that
he’s trying to get himself more work by
wearing out the men’s shoes.