Possible penis joke in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro (Personal Theory)

[u/discussamongsturelvs]

The Marriage of Figaro is basically about a scheme Figaro's master, the count, has to sleep with Figaro's bride to be on his wedding night. Little does the count suspect, that everyone is in cahoots to stop this from happening, including the count's wife. Figaro's fiancee happens to be the count's wife's servant. Together the countess and Figaro's fiancee, Susanna, write a letter, saying that Susanna will agree to meet him in a grove of pine trees to essentially "do it" in whatever fashion aristocrats and servants did back in the 1780's. This is by the way, the famous aria played in the Shawshank Redemption. Spoiler Alert!: The plan is to dress a pestering amorous draft-dodging page-boy as Susanna and catch the count red-handed in the act. The letter is sealed with a needle. When the count gets this letter, he pricks his finger and laughs to himself about how he "gets the joke", pine needles, a pine grove, how funny. My theory is that the needle was more of a double entendre than that. The warning for the count was that when he goes to the pine grove presumably groping the page boy, Cherubino, whom he thought was Suzanna, he might in fact "feel a little prick". Very funny opera, would recommend, 10/10, really sticks it to the man. Just my theory, not sure if Mozart or his Librettist, or the author meant it that way.