The Use of the Word ‘Comb’ in

Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and Cymbeline

Joel Friedman

Petruchio: A herald, Kate? O! put me in thy books.

Katherine: What is your crest? A coxcomb?

Petruchio: A combless cock, so Kate will be my hen.

(II i. 222-224, Arden Edition)

In The Taming of the Shrew this repartee has been insufficiently understood. The particular bawdy implications, no doubt, have either escaped the editors or kept them, due to a sense of propriety, at a distance.

The Yale Shakespeare:

coxcomb badge of the court fool

combless gentle, with the crest cut down.

The Pelican Shakespeare:

in thy books in your heraldic registers (playing on ‘in your good graces’)

crest armorial device

coxcomb cap or a court fool (playing on crest, comb: Petruchio then quibbles on cock’s comb)

combless gentle (with comb or crest cut down)

The Arden Shakespeare:

crest (i) a figure or device borne above the shield and helmut in a crest of arms.

(ii) a ‘comb’ or tuft of feathers, or the like, on the head of a bird or animal

coxcomb the professional fool’s cap, like a cock’s comb in shape and color.

A combless cock an aggressive cock, the cut comb being indicative of humiliation.

All the editors cited generally agree on the definitions to which we are giving our attention. However, even without specifically solving the problem one would be hard put to expect Petruchio to characterize himself as ‘gentle’, ‘unaggressive’, or a subject of humiliation.

In 1611 Thomas Coryat (1577?-1617) succeeded after several rejections in printing a book on his world travels called Crudities. Its opening lists a series of panegyrics to the author, most probably solicited and collected by him to facilitate its publication. One of them written by Inigo Jones is most relevant to our investigation. Its opening verses are:

Odde is the Combe from whence this Cock did come,

That Crowed in Venice gainst the skinless Jewes,

Odcombe was Coryats’s birthplace and its division into ‘Odde’ and ‘Combe’ was as well-used literary device. The book has a section where the life-style of the Venetian Jews is discussed including a description of their rite of circumcision.

Taking the couplet on its literal level what is odd about Coryat’s comb cannot be ascertained and is beyond the scope of this inquiry. But the word ‘skinless’ (circumcised) and its juxtaposition with the term ‘cock’ and ‘combe’ suggests particular genital implications. In this context the comb of the cock is equated with the foreskin of the penis, and a ‘combless cock’, in the case of the Jews, is the penis without a foreskin (skinless). Moreover, the association of comb with the crest of an armorial shield adds further substantiation since the function of the foreskin is to shield the penis.

But Petruchio’s retort to Kate of a ‘combless’ or ‘skinless’ cock depicts a condition other than that of circumcision. ‘What is your crest? A coxcomb?’, she asks. ‘A combless cock, so Kate will be thy hen.’ He is telling her his cock is combless due to an erection, and that he is sexually ready to use her as a ‘hen’ (the primary play on ‘cock’) or to bed her.

The Taming of the Shrew was performed in 1594. Jones, like Shakespeare, was a man of the theatre and his contemporary. There is a strong likelihood that he recalled Petruchio’s remark from this or a later revival of the comedy, or that the bawdy use of these terms, as evidenced in Jones’ panegyric to Coryat, may have been current during this period.

In calling Petruchio a coxcomb Kate invited more than she bargained for; but only momentarily. A few lines later, contemptuous of his sexual arrogance, to Petruchio’s, ‘Now, by Saint George, I am too young for you,’ she ripostes, ‘Yet you are withered.’

The further use of ‘comb’ signifying a foreskin is found in the following exchange in Cymbelline:

Cloten: …I must go up and down like a cock,

That nobody can match.

Second Lord: You are cock and capon too, and you

Crow ‘cock’ with your comb on.

(11 i. 1123-26)

The Yale Shakespeare:

Capon…comb on Both these words refer probably to the fool’s cap or coxcomb.

The Arden Shakespeare:

Capon idiot. There’s a play on the “fool’s cap” or “coxcomb,” which also meant simpleton.

Once more the editors’ limited knowledge and conventional use of these terms obscure the full appreciation of the author’s brilliant verbal imagery and ingenious use of the pun. Cloten boasts his penis goes ‘up and down’ and is such ‘that nobody can match.’ The Second Lord careful that he is not too well understood mumbles? (there is no direction of ‘Aside’ in the Folio): You boast you are the possessor of a cock but you are a capon (eunuch) as well. But a further meaning is: Your cock has a ‘cap on’, i.e. as a cock it acts like that of a eunuch-it is incapable of an erection. Furthermore, you boast of your masculine prowess by crowing “’cock’ with your comb on,” i. e. your comb or foreskin tells us your penis is not erect. Is it any wonder Cloten’s response is: Sayest thou?

ã 2009