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JANUARY 22, 2022

Words, Words, Words

The Essence of Words

Originally published by our sister publication, General Surgery News.

By Henry Buchwald, MD, PhD

Polonius: What do you read, my lord?
Hamlet: Words, words, words.
—William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act II, Scene II: 191-194
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Because Hamlet wishes to feign madness or simply to disguise what he is reading from Polonius, he implies that whatever the words, they don’t matter. Of all people, however, Shakespeare used words for their explicit and multiple meanings, knowing that specific