Though, yes, in Elizabethan slang, whorehouses were also referred to as "nunneries," and Shakespeare was fond of making exactly that kind of double entendre in his works, the context of the scene suggests that this was one of the times he did not intend the line to be suggestive.
Let him do his thing, and then you get him out. No messing with him for laughs.
Mal ,'Ariel'
Spike's Bitches 42: Which question do you want me to answer first?
[NAFDA] Spike-centric discussion. Lusty, lewd (only occasionally crude), risqué (and frisqué), bawdy (Oh, lawdy!), flirty ('cuz we're purty), raunchy talk inside. Caveat lector.
Sean K - Sep 06, 2008 9:48:08 am PDT #4684 of 10001
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty
Steph L. - Sep 06, 2008 9:48:26 am PDT #4685 of 10001
I look more rad than Lutheranism
so nunnery != whorehouse?
Um, no. Hamlet follows his "Get thee to a nunnery" line by asking Ophelia why she would want to be a breeder of sinners.
"Nunnery" was Elizabethan slang for "whorehouse," though. I mean, yes, Hamlet has flipped his shit and gone all St. Paul with the "don't marry" bit, but to read it as just a straight line is really an incomplete reading, and not nearly as salacious as it comes across with the "whorehouse" bit tucked in there.
Steph L. - Sep 06, 2008 9:50:58 am PDT #4686 of 10001
I look more rad than Lutheranism
the context of the scene suggests that this was one of the times he did not intend the line to be suggestive.
Hm. I disagree. Hamlet is pretty contemptuous of Ophelia there, and he's not speaking out of concern for her future well-being by saying to her that it's better if she doesn't marry; he's saying that, because she loved him (in good faith, I might add), she's a big whore, *like his mom.*
Oh, Hamlet. You so fucked up, dude.
DavidS - Sep 06, 2008 9:53:49 am PDT #4687 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Oh, Hamlet. You so fucked up, dude.
"It is to be
Or Not to Be
That Is the question
That I ask of me."
From the immortal Gilligan as Hamlet musical version.
Sean K - Sep 06, 2008 9:56:06 am PDT #4688 of 10001
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty
SHAKESPEAREAN TEXTUAL THROWDOWN!
Calli - Sep 06, 2008 9:56:28 am PDT #4689 of 10001
I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul—Calvin and Hobbs
Your incessant monologizing fills the castle with ennui
Your antic disposition is embarrassing to see
And by the way you sulky brat the answer is To Be
You're driving poor Ophelia insane
So shut up you rogue and peasant
Grow up it's most unpleasant
Cheer up you melancholy Dane
--from the potentially immortal Slings and Arrows song.
DavidS - Sep 06, 2008 9:57:14 am PDT #4690 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
SHAKESPEAREAN TEXTUAL THROWDOWN!
Good thing Jen's in the house. And Juliana and Fay. This could be a battle royale.
Barb - Sep 06, 2008 9:59:20 am PDT #4691 of 10001
“Not dead yet!”
Good thing Jen's in the house. And Juliana and Fay. This could be a battle royale.
Word.
Anyone got popcorn?
::sits back to watch::
Jen - Sep 06, 2008 10:04:24 am PDT #4692 of 10001
love's a dream you enter though I shake and shake and shake you
I save my Shakespearean throwdowns for the Sonnets. I claim no expertise of Hamlet, or any of the plays, though my amateur opinion of this particular scene sides with Teppy.
Laga - Sep 06, 2008 10:04:43 am PDT #4693 of 10001
You should know I'm a big deal in the Resistance.
I once heard a docent at the Art Institute of Chicago explain to a bunch of tourists that the women in Seurat's Afternoon at the Isle of La Grande Jatte were all in fact prostitutes so perhapes the whore is in the eye of the beholder.