Here's another excerpt from Pauline Kiernan's Filthy Shakespeare--this time, taking a look at Sonnet 135:
Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will,
And Will to boot, and Will in overplus.
More than enough am I that vex thee still,
To thy sweet will making addition thus.
With thou, whose will is large and spacious,
Not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine?
Shall will in others seem right gracious,
And in my will no fair acceptance shine?
The sea, all water, yet receives rain still,
And in abundance addeth to his store;
So thou, being rich in Will, add to thy Will
One will of mine to make thy large Will more.
Let no unkind no fair beseechers kill;
Think all but one, and me in that one Will.
Even without the puns rendered into modern English, this sonnet, like most of Shakespeare's sonnets, already throbs with sexual energy. And it seems Shakespeare, who wouldn't take "No" for an answer, was something of a swordsman in his day:
While other women can only wish for sex, your sexual desires are fulfilled by your Will, and you'd get Will's prick into the bargain, in fact you'd get an excess of Will's fucking.
I can fuck you better than all your lovers put together and I'll keep tormenting you with my sexual advances: I can add another prick to your sweet cunt.
Will you not, with that vagina of yours which is large and spacious from so much use by other men, just once let me hide my prick in your cunt?
Are you saying that other men seem well-hung to you but you don't find my prick acceptable? The sea is all water, but it still receives rain, and adds to it abundantly. It's the same with you. Even though you're already rich in the pricks of all your lovers, I'm asking you to add my prick to your vagina--to make it even larger. My cock's already got a hard-on just by looking at you and now it's bigger. Stop saying 'No', unkind lady, stop killing my perfectly reasonable sexual advances. Think of all your lovers as being a single one, and treat me as the only one you want to fuck, the sole occupier of your cunt--your Will.
And for Kiernan's explanations of the puns:
Whoever hath her wish. While other women wish for sex.
Will. Christian name.
Will. Prick.
More than enough. Bragging that he can fuck better than all other lovers put together.
Will. Cunt, vagina.
Gracious. Well-endowed with all the graces (i.e. genitals), well-hung.
Will. Sexual desire.
Will. In the last line, 'Will' puns on all four meanings: Christian name, prick, cunt, sexual desire.
They certainly won't be teaching that in English class. Shame.



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