Anaphora
Anaphora, repeating the same word at the beginning of each phrase, is present in the play when Polonuis speaks:
Polonius: Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.
Double Entendre
HAMLET: My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern?
Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do you both?
ROSENCRANTZ: As the indifferent children of the earth.
GUILDENSTERN: Happy, in that we are not overhappy.
On Fortune’s cap we are not the very button.
HAMLET: Nor the soles of her shoes?
ROSENCRANTZ: Neither, my lord.
HAMLET: Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favors?
GUILDENSTERN: Faith, her privates we.
HAMLET: In the secret parts of Fortune? Oh, most true. She is a strumpet. What news?
ROSENCRANTZ: None, my lord, but that the world’s grown honest.
(Hamlet by William Shakespeare)
William Shakespeare used countless examples of double entendre in his poetry and plays. At times it can be difficult for modern audiences to pick up on all the puns he used in his writing because the meanings of words have changed over the centuries. For example, in his day “nothing” was a euphemism for female genitalia (which certainly changes the way you might think about his play Much Ado About Nothing—a clear double entendre to audience members in Elizabethan England). In the above exchange, Hamlet talks to his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in a joking manner. When he asks them how they are they quickly turn to banter with double entendre, such as Guildenstern’s use of “privates” (either army members or genitalia) and Hamlet’s response about the “secret parts of Fortune.” Indeed, of all of his characters, Hamlet was one that Shakespeare gave the highest number of clever, punning lines with double entendre.
2. Which of the following real news headlines is NOT a double entendre example?
A. Children make nutritious snacks
B. New obesity study looks for larger test group
C. Titanic sinks four hours after hitting iceberg
Writing Assignment:
Choose any passage in Act three and rewrite it to reflect the literary device Anaphora.
Senior Shakespeare 