The "nothing" is actually a double pun, although I've rarely heard this stressed in productions. Men have "something" between their legs and women have "nothing," as it is commonly explained today for our Puritan ears. But that explanation ignores the double pun that "nothing" contains.
"Nothing" isn't simply intended to refer to a woman's lack of exterior genitalia. Originally in the Hamlet text, it was printed "no thing" and likely was intended to be pronounced as "no thing" rather than how we commonly pronounce "nothing." "No thing," when the "no" is stressed, is a rhyming pun for another common Shakespearean pun, "O" which in the right context is also a pun for the vaginal opening, most commonly, and occasionally, the anus too (note, though, an "O" in Shakespeare is not always a pun--context is everything!).
So, men have "something" between they legs, while women have an "(n)O thing."
I have not seen this version so I do not know if it is pronounced so to stressed this double punnery. In Shakespeare's time, one who not have needed to stress the "country (c--- entry) matters" because his audience would have be aware of that pun as is. But they would have needed the "no thing" stressed so they could hear the rhyming pun and know it was intended as a pun.
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14 years ago
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sights0d
14 years ago
That scene is possibly one of the dirtiest scenes in Shakespeare. Hamlet is pretty crude and rude in it.
Country matters...
The country, I imagine here, is where rude behavior is permitted. Country people... bumpkins without manners. That's one possible explanation. Obviously there is the first syllable which fits well with the section.
It is, indeed, a pleasant thing to think on... nothing.
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bok602
14 years ago
Mercutio gets in a pretty ribald line when he tells Juliet's Nurse that "the bawdy hand of the dial is upon the very prick of noon."
"If you don't know the answer -change the question."
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