Note to Hamlet, 3.2.246-247: "I could interpret between you and your love, if I could see the puppets dallying."


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Hamlet,
Act 3, Scene 2, lines 246-247
In a puppet show, the puppet master who spoke the dialogue was known as the "interpreter," and "dally" meant "to act or speak sportively, make sport, amuse oneself; to toy, play with, esp. in the way of amorous caresses; to flirt, wanton" (Oxford English Dictionary). Thus, Hamlet's joking comment insults Ophelia in several ways. It accuses her of having a lover with whom she engages in what we now (CE 2020) call "making out," "getting down," or "going there." It also portrays her as a child's doll (another meaning of the word "puppet") who (like a doll) is predictable and controlled by others.


The first recorded puppet shows in London happened about the time Hamlet was written, but the English had puppet shows since the middle ages, and they continued on after Shakespeare's time. Punch and Judy shows (such as seen above) date from the 17th century.