1. Introduction 1.1 Shakespeare and his sonnets William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) was an incomparable English playwright and poet in the Elizabethan era and Jacobean era, widely regarded as the greatest writer ever in the history of English language, the giant of the European Renaissance, and the founder of modern European Literature. His marvelous works have significantly influenced tremendous writers from generations to generations, and even posed the undeniable impact on the English language itself. Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. He produced most of his well-known works between the year 1589 and 1613. In his early age, he mainly focused on comedies and histories, such as the Merchant of Venice, As You Like It and Henry IV. He then wrote mostly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English literature. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights, like Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest. Besides his extraordinary plays, Shakespeare was also worshiped as an immortal sonneteer for his 154 sonnets. Shakespeare#8217;s sonnets was firstly published in 1609. In his sonnets, he planned two contrasting series: one about uncontrollable lust for a married woman of dark complexion (the "dark lady"), from sonnet 1 to sonnet 126; and one about conflicted love for a fair young man (the "fair youth"), from sonnet 127 to sonnet 154. It remains unclear if these figures represent real individuals, or if the authorial "I" who addresses them represents Shakespeare himself, though Wordsworth believed that with the sonnets "Shakespeare unlocked his heart". To be exact, a sonnet is a poem in a specific form which originated in Italy. The term sonnet is derived from the Italian word sonetto. Giacomo da Lentini is credited with its invention. By the thirteenth century it signified a poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme scheme and specific structure. In the genre of English sonnets, sonneteers especially follow the rhyme scheme, which is ”abab cdcd efef gg”, developed by Earl of Surrey in the Renaissance period. The form is often named after Shakespeare, not because he was the first to write in this form but because he became its most famous practitioner. The form consists of fourteen lines structured as three quatrains and a couplet. The third quatrain generally introduces an unexpected sharp thematic or imagistic "turn", the volta. In Shakespeare's sonnets, however, the volta usually comes in the couplet, and usually summarizes the theme of the poem or introduces a fresh new look at the theme. With only a rare exception, the meter is iambic pentameter. There are many rhetorical devices which are profusely used in Shakespeare#8217;s sonnets. Apart from metaphor, personification, oxymoron, simile, which have been studied by many other scholars, there are also twenty-two other figures of speech used in Shakespeare#8217;s sonnets, including alliteration, synecdoche, hyperbole, metonymy, euphemism, rhetorical question, irony, parallelism, transferred epithet, litotes, periphrasis, ellipsis, climax, assonance, hyperbaton, antithesis, epistrophe, epanalepsis, anaphora, apostrophe, allusion and pun. Among all these above, ”pun” is especially of great significance as well as entertainment. The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophonic, homographic, metonymic, or figurative language. Through out the sonnets by Shakespeare, we could get a clear view of how extraordinary Shakespeare was at wordplay, by wisely selecting puns. The puns not only enrich the rhythm of sonnets by making it more poetic and catchy, but also sublimate the theme by expressing something unsaid via the puns he wisely chose, and of course add more fun to the appreciation of Shakespeare#8217;s masterpiece. So knowing how the puns are used in Shakespeare#8217;s sonnets will be a great help to appreciate the sonnets or any other Shakespeare#8217;s great works. 1.2 Need for the study Precisely speaking, Shakespeare#8217;s sonnets are not easy to comprehend, for his well-known obscure language in his time, as well as all the complex rhetorical devices he used. Puns are widely used in all his sonnets. If one can#8217;t get what Shakespeare really tried to express through his puns, his understandings of this particular sonnet might be way off the point. Understanding the usage of puns in Shakespeare#8217;s sonnets are important for readers to seize the main idea of Shakespeare and to appreciate the greatness of this literary giant. Generally speaking, knowing how and why puns are used in Shakespeare#8217;s time are also of enormous value when one approaches the works produced in the Renaissance period. The reasons why Shakespeare chose a pun word instead of using the word itself might give an index to the literary preference of that era, as well as the political situation that made Shakespeare have the scruple of using the direct word. One can appreciate more of the Elizabethan era and all the literature production of that time, if he truly understands the usage of puns in Shakespeare#8217;s sonnets. 2. Literature review 2.1. The Previous studies on Shakespeare#8217;s Sonnets Shakespeare#8217;s sonnets was published in 1609 for the first time, while its Chinese version came into public eyes about 350 years later. Tu An (1927-2013) was the first one ever to translate this masterpiece into Chinese, which was published in 1950, whose version was more of a literal translation than a free one. Later on, Liang Zongdai#8217;s (1903-1983) translation was out in 1983, who was crowned as the ”Chinese Byron” and made this version the ”best translation ever of Shakespeare#8217;s sonnets”. His version was more poetic, yet reserved most of the charm of the original sonnets. In 1998, the most controversial version made the scene. Professor Gu Zhengkun (1952- now) has transformed the English sonnets into the classical Chinese free verse poems. It was poetic and gorgeous enough in Chinese without any doubt, but many argued it was so free translated that it was nothing related to Shakespeare#8217;s sonnets any more. And there are many other versions translated, of course. But all in all, they all have to deal with the puns used in the original sonnets by Shakespeare, which is no doubt a huge challenge, for the corresponding Chinese word of a certain English pun may not have the multiple meanings as the pun itself does, obviously. More and more scholars have worked on the sonnets home and abroad, focusing on the sonnets themselves, including the main theme and contents of Shakespeare, the emotions conveyed by certain imagery, as well as the rhetorical devices he used, etc. In addition, some also emphasize on the translations from different translators. To be exact, as Zhu Tingbo (2011) point out in his essay that Shakespeare#8217;s 154 sonnets could be divided into three parts: The first part is from Sonnet 1 to 126, which is dedicated to his handsome young friend; The second part is from Sonnet 127 to 152, dedicated to his dark haired lady; and the third part includes Sonnet 153 and Sonnet 154, to Cupid, the god of love in Roman mythology. Further more, the first 126 sonnets could be classified into 5 parts: Part One, 1#8212;26, marriage and family; Part Two, 27#8212;55, adultery and forgiveness; Part Three, 56#8212;77, the coldness of their friendship and the decay of the society; Part Four, 78#8212;101, the competition between Shakespeare and another poet; Part Five, 102#8212;126, excusing his friend for being silent. Besides, through his analysis of three most famous sonnets and other famous lines, the conclusion is that the most important theme of all the sonnets is nothing but ”love”. Just as Luo Yizhong (2005) expounded in his essay that the three major themes of Shakespeare#8217;s sonnets are ”love”, ”infinity” and ”time”. Time is so cruel that it withers one man#8217;s youth, so Shakespeare urged that one should seize his time, as the famous Latin saying goes, ”Carpe diem”. Moreover, only love is immortal and infinite, which never fades away. 2.2 Previous studies on Puns Pun is one of the figures of speech in English language. It is widely used in plays, poems and many other literature in which rhyme and rhythm are greatly emphasized. Many scholars have worked on this area. As Zheng Qimei (1984) showed in her essay, pun is also named as ”quibble”, ”quip”, ”wordplay” and ”paronomasia”. Pun could be divided into three major types, that is ”homophones”, ”homographs”, and ”homonyms”. Among them, homonyms refers to a pair words with both the same pronunciation and spelling, but differ in meanings and roots. For instance, the word ”grave”, which means serious and solemn, but also can refer to the dead. And there#8217;s ”homonyms”, which refers to the ambiguities of an individual word that can be used in different contexts to express two or more different meanings. For example, the word ”see” not only have the meaning of ”understand” as in ”oh, i see”, but also means ”observe” as in ”I see something”. Another specific kind of pun is ”homograph”, when two words share the same or similar pronunciation but different spellings. As the word ”wood” and ”would”. This kind of pun is of the greatest number in the Shakespeare#8217;s sonnets. Among all the scholars who studied Shakespeare#8217;s sonnets, quite a few have showed great interest in puns. As Liu Yongquan and Zhao Juan (2002) expounded in their research, they think some deep and unnamed feelings are carried out by the puns. In sonnet 147, ”Make but my name thy love, and love that still. And then thou lovest me, for my name is Will.” Needless to say, here ”will” is a significant pun. First of all, ”my name is Will”, indeed it is, as Will in William Shakespeare. Second, it means ”wish, hope and desire”, which shows the willingness of Shakespeare#8217;s love for the dark lady. Third, it is an auxiliary, strongly suggesting the meaning of ”I will do anything for you”. Last but not least, there also is an ”ill” in the word ”will”. One can feel Shakespeare#8217;s thick and sick love for this dark lady, which is sick, ill, unstoppable, desperate and hopeless. 2.3 Deficiency in previous studies Although tremendous scholars have studied the Shakespeare#8217;s sonnets over and over, the relevant articles published online cannot witness any analysis of the exact usage of puns in Shakespeare#8217;s sonnets. Despite the fact that some scholars have conducted many studies on the rhetorical devices of Shakespeare#8217;s sonnets, all of those essays are still too general to narrow down into puns. A few other scholars did work on the puns though, yet they were not all about the sonnets, but some plays, such as Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet. For instance, Ali Reza Ghanooni (2012) has conducted a specific survey on sexual puns used in Romeo and Juliet. Therefore, it is of vital importance to conduct a specific study of the puns used in Shakespeare#8217;s sonnets , which will also be fruitful and meaningful. Works Cited Campillo Arnaiz, Laura. ”Bowdlerizing Or Maximizing? Two Strategies To Render Shakespeare#8217;s Sexual Puns In Nineteenth-Century Spain”[J]. Ilha do Desterro, 2008(0):26-36. Derks, Peter L. ”Pun Frequency And Popularity Of Shakespeare#8217;s Plays”, Empirical Studies Of The Arts, 1989(7):23-31. Ghanooni, Ali Reza. ”Sexual Pun: A Case Study of Shakespeare#8217;s Romeo and Juliet.” Cross-cultural Communication, 2012(2), 91-100. Hill, Archibald A. ”Puns: Their Reality and Their Uses [J]”, International Journal of American Linguistics, 1985(7). Kiernan, Pauline. ”Filthy Shakespeare: Shakespeare#8217;s Most Outrageous Sexual Puns”, Voice and Speech Review, 2011(7):343-344. Ma, Chunli, ”Multiplicity in Shakespeare#8217;s Sonnets”, Southwest University, 2007. 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[肖四新], 莎士比亚戏剧与基督教文化，巴蜀书社，2007(1). Zheng, Qimei. [郑启梅]，英语中的”双关”及其修辞作用，武汉师范学院学报（哲学社会科学版），1984(1):113-128.