The Winter's Tale - Language (Puns & Soliloquy) - Revision Notes in A Level and IB English Literature

Puns – these are used frequently in most Shakespearean plays, and not always for overtly comic effect.
Many are almost double entendres and somewhat lewd in nature, but others emphasise the duality and contrasts inherent in characters and situations.
An example would be Leontes’ loaded use of the word ‘play’ in Act One scene Two – he uses it four times within one sentence, in close succession but with several intended meanings.
He tells Mamillius to go and ‘play’ as befits a child, but then says Hermione also ‘plays’, with connotations of sexual misconduct, and adds that he too will "play in the sense of an actor playing a role, outwardly behaving as though everything were normal but inwardly aware of her supposed ‘wrongdoing’, and plotting…

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