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All Site ContentHamletAct 2Scene 2
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"goose quills"
Wordplay
Act 2,
Scene 2
Lines 334-340

An explanation of the wordplay in the phrase “goose quills” in Act 2, Scene 2 of myShakespeare’s Hamlet.

Rosencrantz   

Nay, their endeavor keeps in the wonted 
pace. But there is, sir, an eyrie of children, little eyases,
that cry out on the top of question, and are most
tyrannically clapped for't. These are now the fashion, and so
berattle the common stages (so they call them) that
many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose quills and dare
scarce come thither.

This moment of wordplay allows for two possible interpretations of this phrase:

  • Rosencrantz is saying that the very socially prominent are afraid to be seen at a regular theater, for fear that the playwrights for the children’s companies will mock them in their next play. In those days, writing was done with goose quills.
  • Rosencrantz is himself mocking these same prominent figures for being fearful of being ridiculed in a play, for being “afraid of a goose.”