SHAKSPER 1998: Questions on R&J

From: Hardy M. Cook (editor@ws.bowiestate.edu)
Date: 12/12/98 

The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 9.1292  Saturday, 12 December 1998.

From:           Marilyn Bonomi <pootersox@rocketmail.com>
Date:           Thursday, 10 Dec 1998 07:32:50 -0800 (PST)
Subject:        Questions on R&J

Two questions from my 15-year-old Honors students about R&J:

In the nurse's speech in 1.3, she speaks of Juliet's weaning and says
that she had upon her head a bump big "as a young cockerel's stone."
The Arden footnotes "stone" as "testicle." However, cokerels'
reproductive organs are not external, are they?  (This question needs
answering by a poultry expert, not a Shakespeare expert, no doubt <g>!)

In the same vein, the students wanted to know if "cock" as a slang term
for penis was current in Elizabethan times.

This is a really alert group!

Thanks for any help; I'll be sharing answers w/ the class from my
classroom computer!

Marilyn Bonomi


about SHAKSPER | current postings | submitted papers | browse SHAKSPER | search SHAKSPER
  
Copyright © 2002, Hardy M. Cook, design by Eric Luhrs. All rights reserved.