You are here

All Site ContentHamletAct 4Scene 5
Back to the Play
"maid"
Wordplay
Act 4,
Scene 5
Lines 47-55

An explanation of the wordplay on “maid” in Act 4, Scene 5 of myShakespeare’s Hamlet.

Ophelia

Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's day, 
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose, and donned his clothes, 
And dupped the chamber door,
Let in the maid, that out a maid 
Never departed more.    

Claudius    

Pretty Ophelia... 

Ophelia’s song plays on two senses of the word “maid”. A maid (young woman) came to a boy's home to be his Valentine, and when she left, she was no longer a “maid” (virgin).