“Romeo & Juliet” – Language Worksheet – Appreciating Puns
When you look up words in a dictionary, you notice that a single word may have many meanings.
Shakespeare and other writers have used this fact to create puns. A pun is the humorous use of a word that
derives its effect from a word’s multiple meanings and the fact that more than one meaning is applicable in a
given situation. Puns are also created from two words that similar in sound but different in meaning.
Popular in Shakespeare’s time, puns form a part of the so-called “low humor” injected into even the most
serious of Shakespeare’s plays for the sake of comic relief. In Act IV of Romeo and Juliet, for example,
Shakespeare punctuates the final scene with a humorous exchange of puns and imagery.
Following are two passages of dialogue from Act IV, Scene v. On the lines below each passage,
explain the meaning of the pun being “played” on the italicized word.
1. “FIRST MUSICIAN. Faith, we may put up our pipes and be gone.
NURSE. Honest good fellows, ah, put up, put up!
For well you know this is a pitiful case.”
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2. “PETER [after the First Musician insults him]. Then will I lay [my] dagger on your pate…I’ll re you, I’ll
fa you. Do you note me?
FIRST MUSICIAN. And you re us and fa us, you note us.
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