Thomas Nashe
coined the word dilldo for masturbation. Shakespeare shortened it to dildo in The Winter’s Tale, and applied it to Dido the
Queen of Carthage in The Tempest.
The word dilldo
was used by Thomas Nashe (1567–1601) in his The Choosing of Valentines (1592), a story about Tomalin and a prostitute called Francis. Tomalin fails to satisfy Francis, who later takes
a dilldo to gratify herself.
Curse
Eunuke dilldo, senceless counterfet
Who
sooth maie fill, but never can beget.
Dilldo can be a
perfect anagram of dill-do; dill has
the usage of to soothe, assuage, or trim. Dill-do complies to “who sooth may fill”
by filling the dilldo into the body of Francis. Eunuch’s dilldo, a counterfeit,
can never beget a child.
Duplicated
letters were often shortened in Shakespeare’s time, e.g. meddle medle, sonnet
sonet, widdow widow. Dilldo can be dildo the same way. The word dildo appears once
in The Winter’s Tale when a servant describes a peddler at the door.
Servant.
He
hath songs for man, or woman, of all sizes: No
Milliner can so fit his customers with Gloves: he has the prettiest Love-songs
for Maids, so without bawdry, which is strange, with such delicate burthens of Dildos and Fadings: Jump-her, and thump-her; and where
some stretch-mouthed Rascal, would (as it were) mean mischief, and break a foul
gap into the Matter, he makes the maid to answer, “Whoop, do me no harm good
man”; put’s him off, slights him, with “Whoop,
do me no harm good man.”
This paragraph
describes functions of condom and dildo via various metaphors. The “burthens of
Dildos and Fadings: Jump-her, and thump-her” says how dildo or a man with
condom can jump and thump inside a woman’s body to reach climax as dying.
The peddler has
“all sizes” of condoms and dildos for “man or woman.” They fit well as gloves
by milliners. Pronoun “him” at the end indicates dildo or gloved penis.
Condom made by linen sheath was proposed by physician Gabriele Falloppio (1522–62)
for against syphilis infection.
Adrian.
Tunis was never graced before with such a
Paragon to their Queen.
Gonzalo.
Not
since widdow Dido’s time.
Anthonio.
Widow? A pox of that: how came that Widdow in? Widdow Dido!
Sebastian.
What
if he had said Widdower Aeneas too? Good Lord, how you take it?
Adrian.
Widdow
Dido said you? You make me study of that: She was of Carthage,
not of Tunis.
Gonzalo.
This
Tunis, Sir, was Carthage.
Adrian.
Carthage?
Gonzalo.
I
assure you, Carthage.
.
. .
Sebastian.
Bate (I beseech you) widdow Dido.
Anthonio.
O Widdow Dido?
I,
Widdow Dido.
*widdow Dido: indicating Dido the Queen of Carthage.
Widow is printed as widdow in the 1623 folio. In this dialogue “widdow Dido”
appears five times as a hint, that the name Dido is within the middle of widdow.
*Widow: The word widdow
appears 69 times in the 1623 folio; widow only once here to
emphasize the difference of one letter.
*A pox of that, how came that Widdow in? Widdow Dido!: Place the exclamation mark of “Dido!” into the middle of Dido
will result Di!do, which looks like Dildo. This line can be read as “A pox of that
dildo, how came that dildo into a widow’s body?”
*Bate (I beseech you) widdow Dido. Bate has the usage of to dill assuage, or soothe.
Bate (dill) is a hint to connect Dido with dilldo (dill-do) in Thomas Nashe’s The
Choosing of Valentines.
*O Widdow Dido: To make a widow cry O. “I, Widdow Dido”: To insert letter I (which shapes letter l) in Dido to make dildo; or to put
letter I that shapes penis into a widow. Some editions change I to Ay and miss the
wordplay.
Cruxes related
to shapes of letters include M,O,A,I. (Twelfth Night), Fair as Text B (Love’s Labour’s Lost), and
whoreson Zed (King Lear).
Dilldo, Dildo,
and Dido can be treated as a special anagram of extracting letters of a word
without changing th e sequence of remaining letters in that word.
Dildo derived
from dilldo alludes that dildo possesses certain functions of dilldo. Similar
design include egma from enigma (Love’s Labour’s Lost), and Ercles from Hercules (A Midsummer Night’s Dream).