Gail, a few years ago we had a thread on this and I did a take on it. The pun is clearly deliberate in one of Will's plays ("Taming of the Shrew"?).
Then, owls and bats,
Cowls and twats,
Monks and nuns, in a cloister’s moods,
Adjourn to the oak-stump pantry.
Browning, "Pippa Passes"
The Poet Who Mistook His Hat for a Twat
Some balding nuns, their duties shirkin’,
learned about the perfect merkin
when reading rhymes with wording quaint
(but no allusions to a saint!)
that made them restless on their cots:
the poet traded hats for twats.
Cheers,
------------------
Ralph
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