I only pointed out a selection of allusions, references, and puns and explained to the actors that if they found any lines which they needed help with they could come to me for assistants. Lines cited are from the Arden edition
Act I
I.i.3-4 Messenger: He is very near by this, he was not three leagues off when I left him.
A league is a unit of measure which denotes the distance that a person can walk in one hour, equivalent to three and a half miles.
I.i.168 Claudio: Can the world buy such a jewel?
Jewel was a slang word for female genitalia in Shakespeare‘s day.
I.i.169 Benedick: Yea, and a case to put it into.
Benedick takes Claudio‘s pun on female genitalia a step further here. Jewel was also slang for male genitalia, and Benedick is here using it in that way, because case was slang for female genetalia.
I.i.224 Benedick: …or hang my bugle in an invisible baldrick…
Bugle was a pun on male genitalia, and baldrick was a pun on female genitalia. All together it is a pun on sex.
I.i.200-201 Benedick: Like the old tale, my lord: ‗It is not so, nor ‗twas not so: but indeed, God forbid it should be so!
Benedick quotes from an English fairy tale (a variant on the Bluebeard story, which was published in 1698, and tells of a nobleman and his young curious wife who goes into the one room in the house which she is told not to and discovers the bodies of all of his former wives, who were killed for snooping). In the fairy tale Benedick quotes from the man is suspected by his bride-to-be of having killed his former wives, the quotation is him denying his guilt.
Act II
II.i.113 Beatrice: With a good leg and a good foot…
Foot being a pun on male genitalia.
II.i.20-21 Beatrice: ‗God sends a curst cow short horns‘
Receiving horns is the sign of cuckoldry. The risk in marriage for a man is that by taking a wife he is putting his reputation into her hands for she has the power to cuckold him.
II.i.35-36 Beatrice: …therefore I will even take sixpence in earnest…
Sixpence, a coin worth half of a shilling, was in existence from 1551 to 1971 (it remained in tender until 1980). It is equal to 2½ new pence (i.e. modern pence, but that is not an accurate translation of worth from Shakespeare‘s time to ours in terms of inflation). One pence in the early 1600s was equal to one pound now. Therefore sixpence is about six pounds, or twelve dollars (based on average exchange rate).
II.i.88-89 Don Pedro: My visor is Philemon‘s roof; / Within the house is Jove.
Philemon and his wife were very lowly, humble, and much in love. When Jove and Hermes come to their house as mortals, they give them the best of what they have, even though it is not much. (The story is in book eight of Ovid‘s Metamorphoses if you would like to read it yourself, it is a short section). Jove, being Jupiter, was the Roman
equivalent of Zeus. For the Romans he was the grandfather of the founders of Rome (Romulus and Remus). He ruled over social laws and order, and was the chief god.
II.i.185-186 Benedick: Ho, now you strike like the blind man! ‗Twas the boy that stole your meat, and you‘ll bead the post.
Alluding to a folktale about a boy who robbed and played a trick on his blind master.
Post referring to Benedick as the messenger of bad news.
II.i.248-249 Benedick: I will go on the slightest errand now to the Antipodes…
Geographically, antipodes are two points on the earth‘s surface which are opposite of each other if you drew a line through the earth. In Britain, the antipodes often refer to Australia or New Zealand. In actuality New Zealand is antipodal to Spain.
II.i.334-335 Claudio: Tomorrow, my lord: time goes on crutches till love have all his rites.
As with many other character‘s in Shakespeare‘s plays (Theseus from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Juliet from R & J) Claudio is complaining about the wait for the marriage night and the ―rite‖ that will come with it. Needless to say, ―rite‖ is a pun on sex.
II.i.341-342 Don Pedro: I will, in the interim, undertake one of Hercules‘ labours…
Hera, Zeus‘ jealous wife, causes Hercules to go insane and murder his own children.
After recovering from his insanity he prayed to Apollo, and the god‘s oracle told him he must serve Eurytheus, the king of Tiryns and Mycenae, for twelve years, as his
punishment. As part of this, he had to perform twelve labours, feats so difficult that they seemed impossible. The labours were: 1.) Slay the Nemean Lion and bring back its hide 2.) Slay the Lernaean Hydra 3.) Capture the Golden Stag of Artemis 4.) Capture the Erymanthian Boar 5.) Clean the Augean stables in a single day (because it was degrading and the animals were immune to disease so the stables had never been cleaned) 6.) Slay the Stymphalian Birds 7.) Capture the Cretan Bull 8.) Steal the Mares of Diomedes 9.) Obtain the Girdle of Hippolyte 10.) Obtain the Cattle of Geryon 11.) Steal the Apples of Hesperides 12.) Capture Cerberus (the three-headed dog with a snake for his tail who guarded the gate to Hades)
Act III
III.ii.86 Don John: …and in dearness of heart hath holp to effect…
Holp is the past tense of help.
III.iii.106-107 Borachio: … I have earned of Don John a thousand ducats.
A ducat was a coin used throughout Europe up until WWI. There were both silver and gold ducats. The gold ducats were the most dependable gold coin. There were almost endless varieties of ducats in size, shape, and design. It is difficult to place the worth of the ducat in modern day money, because the coin‘s value was constantly changing in its Shakespeare‘s day. But by the early 1600s it would have been equivalent to twenty-four pounds, or forty-eight USD.
III.iii.160-162 First Watch: …we have here recovered the most dangerous piece of lechery that ever was known in the commonwealth.
The term commonwealth first began being used in the 15th century. It originally meant the common well-being (i.e. ruling a people for the betterment of all), and grew to mean the union of nations and states as under the British Commonwealth.
Act IV
IV.i.40 Claudio: She knows the heat of a luxurious bed…
Blunt reference to sex.
IV.i.44 Claudio: To an approved wanton.
OED says wanton was used from the 12th century to the 18th century to mean lascivious, unchaste, and lewd when referring to women.
IV.i.57-61 Claudio: You seem to me as Dian in her orb, / As chaste as is the bud ere it be blown; / But you are more intemperate in your blood / Than Venus, or those pamper‘d animals / That rage in savage sensuality.
Diana, or the Greek Artemis, was Goddess of the hunt and fertility/childbirth, but at the same time guarded her own chastity. All of her companions remained virgins. In Chaucer‘s Knight‘s Tale, Emelye prays to Diana to protect her chastity.
Venus, or the Greek Aphrodite, was Goddess of love, lust, and beauty. Her husband, Vulcan, or the Greek Hephaestus, was the blacksmith of the gods, was rather unattractive.
Venus had a love affair with Adonis. She is not just important for her love and sensual passion, but also because she is a simple of adultery.
Act V
V.ii.9-10 Margaret: To have no man come over me? Why, shall I always keep below stairs?
Come over A sexual pun which she has taken from Benedick‘s meaning of ―surpass,‖ or
―climb over.‖ Below stairs The servants quarters, i.e. never a mistress.
V.ii.18. Margaret: Give us the swords, we have bucklers of our own.
Benedick was referring to shields with spikes. Margaret takes the sexual pun of bucklers and female genitalia.
V.ii.94 Benedick: I will live in they heart, die in the lap…
―Die‖ had a common Elizabethan connotation with orgasm, and lap with the female genitalia.