“There’s one thing, of course. She used to love me. As recently as this afternoon. Dearly. She said so. One’s got to remember that.”
“She still does.”
“You really feel that, do you?”
“Of course.”
“In spite of calling me a miserable fathead?”
“Certainly. You are a miserable fathead.”
“That’s true.”
“You can’t go by what a girl says, when she’s giving you the devil for making a chump of yourself. It’s like Shakespeare. Sounds well, but doesn’t mean anything.”
Joy in the Morning, ch. 16
Jane Armstrong introduces her Arden Dictionary of Shakespeare Quotations singling out our author: “the works of P. G. Wodehouse are practically a dictionary in themselves”. What follows, in a way, is an attempt at putting together such a dictionary: “Shakespeare Quotations and Allusions” (ShQA for short) is a systematic collection of references of every kind to the works of William Shakespeare found in PGW’s writings. Its main purpose is to serve as a source or reference tool for readers and scholars alike, whether they wish to obtain an overview of the wealth of references through hundreds of stories and essays, discover yet unsuspected allusions, appreciate how a familiar reference evolves through the decades, and generally delve into the rich and complex literary relationship between Wodehouse and his “brother author” or “brother-pen,” as he once called the Swan of Avon.
It will be evident to anyone acquainted with other works already hosted by the Madame Eulalie site how much this was inspired by such projects as Fr. Rob Bovendeaard’s Biblia Wodehousiana or Arthur Robinson’s list of Gilbert & Sullivan references. This can be regarded as a sister enterprise and a complement to them, in that its object is to provide a guide to the references to the last main source that makes up Wodehouse’s literary inheritance.
However, the project to which this is most closely related is the ongoing effort to compile detailed Annotations to individual novels and stories. Much of the work presented here (perhaps more than half of it) is derived directly from references already noted elsewhere, so that the task was rather one of organizing in a different format what was already there, extending the search to writings for which there are yet no annotations, and checking sources and variations. So, it is not inexact to regard this as a reverse index to Shakespearian references in the Annotations. This role was not actually sought at first, but it was embraced very early as it became evident how much this kind of integration would benefit both projects.
This is also reflected in the way ShQA is organized: rather than listing all the references contained in each Wodehouse work, the quotations are sorted by Shakespeare plays and poems, with an inventory (in chronological order) of all the references to each passage detected so far. Thus, there is a section for each play and poem quoted or alluded to by Wodehouse, with sub-sections for specific passages. These are introduced by three sections on general subjects: references to Shakespeare the man or to his oeuvre as a whole; allusions to authorship theories (like the Baconians’), which PGW was specially fond of satirizing; and misattributions of other authors’ writings to Shakespeare. A separate section is dedicated to Shakespearian language without specific reference to one play. Finally, the Appendices—two so far—provide complementary material on some special cases, and a series of statistics for numbers of different quotations, numbers of quotations per works, and so on.
Each quotation is introduced by a code indicating the exact source where it can be found. The codes used here are those initially created by Dan Garrison for his Who’s Who in Wodehouse (2nd ed. 1989), now expanded by Neil Midkiff for the third edition. To view the title and bibliographical details associated with the code, either hover your mouse pointer over the code without clicking, or finger-tap the code on a touch-screen display, and a yellow “bubble” will pop up with more information. For a fuller description of the codes, see here.
Some quotations are followed by short notes between square brackets, where differences between versions of the text—books vs. magazines, or American vs. British editions—are briefly described, again using the code system. By necessity these are selective, focusing on the part of the quotation directly related to the Shakespearian text, and often ignoring such aspects as editorial conventions, spelling, or printer’s errors. First UK and US editions have been used whenever possible; some heavily condensed magazine versions have been ignored. This is the more scholar-oriented part of the project, but even the general reader may find it interesting to know that Wodehouse (or his editors) chose to remove or maintain a specific reference on the many occasions when he revised a text.
Many of the individual quotations deserve or even require a separate commentary, pointing out peculiarities or providing additional information. These have been kept to a minimum, since a critical analysis of Wodehouse’s use of his Shakespearian sources is beyond the scope of this work. The proper place for such discussions are the Annotations, and so links have been added whenever relevant information was available elsewhere, and will continue to be added as the work progresses on either side.
The edition of Shakespeare used for each play or poem is indicated at the beginning of each section. The text of the play or poem quoted always follows that edition, except for minor adjustments of format, layout, and typography that allow for easier reading. This often differs from Wodehouse’s quotations, reflecting changes and advances in Shakespearian scholarship. A short comment in the introduction to the quotation gives details on the more significant cases—see for example pith/pitch or sleave/sleeve.
ShQA aims at completeness but does not pretend to have achieved it. The only way to ensure that every single quotation is included would be to read through Wodehouse’s writings in all their versions, having first memorized the whole Shakespearian corpus. (The other way around would also work.) So, it is to be expected that it will keep growing, maybe for years. Even now there are a number of well-known phrases that were considered for inclusion and were presently left out, not because there is any doubt that there is a Shakespeare connection, but because of difficulties of presentation: for example, “scurvy knave”. These will surely find a place in future versions of the project. It goes without saying that all suggestions, additions and corrections are welcome; see the Contact information in the navigation bar above.
One reference work that must be mentioned here is N. T. P. Murphy’s A Wodehouse Handbook (Popgood & Groolley, 2006; rev. edition, 2013). When the first draft of this project was done, having extracted from the canon all the Shakespeare I was able to find, turning to the Handbook’s index produced enough new quotations to make it impossible to call ShQA “complete” until this new material was added. Thus, while this project expects to improve on Murphy’s work and become the next standard source for its subject, its debt to him cannot be overstressed. Other sources used extensively have been Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (15th ed., Little, Brown, 1980) and J. Armstrong’s already mentioned Arden Dictionary of Shakespeare Quotations (AS, 2009), each providing many examples that led to a fruitful search through the canon.
ShQA has also benefited from the assistance of many people, who have brought missing quotes to my attention, made suggestions and corrections, discussed obscure references and—above all—provided encouragement right from the beginning. Giving names would be unfair, so let a comprehensive “thank you” express my gratitude. But the editors of the Madame Eulalie website (Ananth, Ian, Neil), apart from providing the hosting and necessary expertise for bringing it online, have devoted many hours to proofreading, checking references and variants, discussing the general approach and format, and in general helping this project to cross the threshold between amateurism and scholarliness to such an extent that the result cannot be said to be still my own work alone. Nevertheless, all responsibility for errors, omissions, and inaccuracies remains with me.
—Diego Seguí
IV.4.35-36 “All’s well that ends well”
II.2.191-197 “so perfumed that the winds were love-sick”
II.2.235-240 “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety”
“How different, how very different from the home life of our own dear Queen!”
II.1.15-17 “sermons in stones”
II.1.54-57 “fat and greasy citizens”
II.7.26-28 “and thereby hangs a tale”
II.7.142-144 “one man in his time plays many parts”
II.7.144-145 “mewling and puking”
II.7.146-148 “shining morning face”
II.7.150-154 “full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard”
II.7.158-164 “slippered pantaloon, with spectacles on nose”
II.7.175-177 “Blow, blow, thou winter wind”
III.5.58-59 “thank heaven fasting for a good man’s love”
III.5.82-83 “Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?”
V.4.69-81, 89-96 “the lie direct”
I.1.113-116 “A little ere the mightiest Julius fell . . .”
I.2.129-130 “this too too solid flesh”
I.2.143-145 “As if increase of appetite had grown by what it fed on”
I.2.146 “Frailty, thy name is woman!”
I.2.179-180 “the funeral baked meats”
I.2.186-187 “take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again”
I.2.197-200 “armed at all points”
I.2.227-230 “more in sorrow than in anger”
I.3.36-37 “The chariest maid . . .”
I.3.62-63 “Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel”
I.3.65-67 “Beware of entrance to a quarrel . . .”
I.3.75-77 “Neither a borrower nor a lender be”
I.3.78-80 “This above all: to thine own self be true”
I.4.1-2 “a nipping and an eager air”
I.4.39 “Angels and ministers of grace defend us!”
I.4.51-6 “Making night hideous”
I.5.9-20 “like quills upon the fretful porpentine”
I.5.106-109 “one may smile, and smile, and be a villain”
I.5.166-167 “There are more things in heaven and earth . . .”
II.1.101-105 “the very ecstasy of love”
II.2.205 “Though this be madness, yet there is method in ’t”
II.2.242-248 “there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”
II.2.326-328 “an aery of children, little eyases”
II.2.352 “you are welcome to Elsinore”
II.2.412-417 “ ’twas caviare to the general”
II.2.532-533 “What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba?”
II.2.579-580 “The play’s the thing”: The Mouse-trap
III.1.57-60 “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”
III.1.60-64 “a consummation devoutly to be wished”
III.1.64-68 “Ay, there’s the rub”
III.1.76-82 “Who would fardels bear”
III.1.83-88 “the native hue of resolution”
III.1.149 “O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!”
III.1.154-159 “like sweet bells jangled”
III.2.4-8 “Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand . . .”
III.2.362-364 “ ’Tis now the very witching time of night”
III.3.80-95 “full of bread, with all his crimes broad blown . . .”
III.4.54-55 “Look here, upon this picture, and on this”
III.4.56-63 “an eye like Mars”
III.4.135-136 “in his habit as he lived”
IV.5.37-39 “Larded with sweet flowers”
IV.5.73-75 “not single spies but in battalions”
IV.5.120-122 “There’s such divinity doth hedge a king . . .”
V.1.166-173 “Alas, poor Yorick!”
V.2.9-11 “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends . . .”
V.2.334-340 “The rest is silence”
V.2.341-342 “Good night, sweet prince”
II.4.189-196 “Four rogues in buckram let drive at me”
III.1.52-54 “I can call spirits from the vasty deep”
III.1.253-256 “a good mouth-filling oath”
V.4.110-121 “The better part of valour”
V.4.144-147 “by Shrewsbury clock”
I.1.67-75 “Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless . . .”
III.2.215-216 “We have heard the chimes at midnight”
III.1.1-2 “Once more unto the breach, dear friends . . .”
III.1.3-14 “stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood”
III.1.31-32 “like greyhounds in the slips”
III.7.145-153 “give them great meals of beef . . .”
IV.3.41-43 “rouse him at the name of Crispian”
IV.3.60-63 “we few, we happy few, we band of brothers”
IV.8.35-37 “what an arrant, rascally, beggarly, lousy knave it is”
II.1.64-67 “the saddest spectacle”
II.2.17-18 “the smallest worm will turn”
III.2.350-358 “This is the state of man . . .”
I.1.10-11 “Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman . . .”
I.2.100-111 “accoutred as I was, I plunged in”
I.2.135-138 “he doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus”
I.2.148-150 “Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he is grown so great?”
I.2.192-195 “Let me have men about me that are fat”
II.1.63-69 “Between the acting of a dreadful thing . . .”
III.1.271-274 “the dogs of war”
III.2.74-75 “lend me your ears”
III.2.76-77 “The evil that men do lives after them”
III.2.78-100 “and Brutus is an honourable man”
III.2.93 “made of sterner stuff”
III.2.170-174 “that day he overcame the Nervii”
III.2.184 “the most unkindest cut of all”
III.2.210-220 “I am no orator, like Brutus is”
IV.3.18-21 “Remember March, the ides of March remember!”
IV.3.38-40 “Must I give way and room to your rash choler?”
IV.3.46-50 “You shall digest the venom of your spleen...”
IV.3.58 “When Caesar lived, he durst not thus have moved me.”
IV.3.66-69 “arm’d so strong in honesty”
IV.3.98-99 “Oh, I could weep my spirit from my eyes!”
IV.3.215-219 “there is a tide in the affairs of men”
IV.3.223 “meet them at Philippi”
V.5.73-75 “His life was gentle . . .”
III.4.107-109 “as tedious as a twice-told tale”
IV.2.9-16 “To gild refined gold, to paint the lily”
V.7.112-118 “Come the three corners of the world in arms”
I.2.138 “Some villain hath done me wrong”
I.4.214 “thou marble-hearted fiend”
I.4.239-244 “sharper than a serpent’s tooth”
I.4.250-254 “What’s the matter, sir? / I’ll tell thee.”
II.2.11-21 “A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats . . .”
III.2.1-9 “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks!”
III.2.57-58 “more sinned against than sinning”
III.4.166-168 “Childe Roland to the dark tower came”
III.4.19-22 “that way madness lies”
V.3.164 “The wheel is come full circle”
I.2.1-3 “What bloody man is that?”
I.4.7-11 “nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it”
I.5.13-16 “the milk of human kindness”
I.7.1-2 “if it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly”
I.7.2-5 “the be-all and the end-all”
I.7.21-28 “vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself”
I.7.39-45 “letting I dare not wait upon I would, like the poor cat i’th’adage”
I.7.59-61 “screw your courage to the sticking-place”
II.1.33-41 “Is this a dagger which I see before me?”
II.2.14-15 “I have done the deed”
II.2.38-39 “Macbeth does murder sleep”
II.2.40-43 “Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care”
II.2.53-56 “Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers”
II.2.60-66 “Whence is that knocking?”
III.1-4 First Murderer, Second Murderer, Third Murderer
III.2.22-23 “after life’s fitful fever, he sleeps well”
III.4.38-39 “Now good digestion wait on appetite”
III.4.119-120 “Stand not upon the order of your going”
IV.1.78-80 “Be bloody, bold, and resolute”
IV.3.218-221 “What, all my pretty chickens and their dam at one fell swoop?”
V.3.41-46 “the perilous stuff which weighs upon the heart”
V.5.18-22 “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow”
V.5.22-27 “full of sound and fury signifying nothing”
V.8.33-34 “Lay on, Macduff, and damned be he that first cries, ‘Hold, enough!’ ”
II.2.110-112 “Oh, it is excellent to have a giant’s strength . . .”
I.1.50-56 “Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time”
I.2.1-2 “my little body is aweary of this great world”
I.3.30-31 “What news on the Rialto?”
III.2.63-72 “Tell me where is fancy bred”
III.2.101-104 “I will none of thee”
IV.1.99-100 “The pound of flesh”
IV.1.180-185 “The quality of mercy . . .”
IV.1.219-220 “A Daniel come to judgement”
V.1.1-6 “In such a night as this . . .”
V.1.54 “How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!”
V.1.58-65 “Look how the floor of heaven is thick inlaid . . .”
V.1.79-88 “The man that hath no music in himself . . .”
V.1.89-91 “So shines a good deed in a naughty world”
II.2.2-4 “the world’s mine oyster”
III.5.97-99 “but mark the sequel”
I.1.132-134 “the course of true love”
II.1.60 “Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania!”
II.1.175-176 “I’ll put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes!”
II.1.249-252 “I know a bank where the wild thyme blows”
III.3.1-3 “Are you good men and true?”
III.3.19-26 “call the rest of the watch together”
I.3.133-167 “Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances . . .”
III.3.156-162 “Who steals my purse, steals trash”
III.3.168-170 “the green-eyed monster”
III.3.270-272 “O curse of marriage . . .”
III.3.331-334 “nor poppy nor mandragora . . .”
III.3.356-358 “Othello’s occupation’s gone”
IV.1.184-185 “the pity of it, Iago!”
V.2.335 “I have done the state some service”
V.2.336-347 “one that loved not wisely, but too well”
II.1.40-50 “this realm, this England”
I.1.1-4 “Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious”
I.4.143-145, 257-258 “the malmsey-butt”
I.1.35-43 “Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?”
I.1.54 “remember thy swashing blow”
I.1.95 “Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?”
I.5.29-30 “For you and I are past our dancing days”
II.2.43-44 “What’s in a name?”
III.1.88-89 “ ’tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door”
II.1.331-333 “ ’Tis deeds must win the prize”
I.2.376-377 “Come unto these yellow sands”
I.2.397-404 “doth suffer a sea-change into something rich, and strange”
II.2.36-39 “strange bedfellows”
IV.1.151-156 “leave not a (w)rack behind”
IV.1.156-158 “our little life is rounded with a sleep”
V.1.64-68 “The charm dissolves apace”
V.1.181-184 “O brave new world”
III.3.175-179 “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin”
II.3.33-38 “Journeys end in lovers meeting”
II.4.106-108 “let concealment like a worm i’th’bud feed on her damask cheek”
II.4.108-111 “like Patience on a monument”
II.5.119-121 “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em”
IV.2.40-41 “the soul of our grandam might haply inhabit a bird”
III.3.53-58 “Exit pursued by a bear”
IV.3.24-26 “a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles”
XII.1-4 “Youth is full of pleasure, age is full of care”
Sonnet 33 “Full many a glorious morning . . .”
Sonnet 38, 13-14 “these curious days”
Sonnet 116, 1-4 “the marriage of true minds”
Appendix II: “The Retort Obvious”
GENERAL
References to Shakespeare not associated with a particular play or phrase.
William Shakespeare, the man
William Shakespeare’s personality and genius, images of him, resemblance to him, legends and traditions associated with his name, things named after him.
- PU03A Prefect’s Uncle (1903), 4“I say, about this poem,” said Lorimer, dismissing a subject which manifestly bored him, and returning to one which was of vital interest, “You’re sure you can write fairly decent stuff? It’s no good sending in stuff that’ll turn the examiner’s hair grey. Can you turn out something really decent?”
Pringle said nothing. He smiled gently as who should observe, “I and Shakespeare.” - NG07Not George Washington (1907), II.1I lunched at the Shakespeare Hotel, smoked a pipe, and went out into the sunlight again.
- SW09The Swoop! (1909), II.9There he lost his bearings, and seems to have walked round and round Shakespeare’s statue, under the impression that he was going straight to Tottenham.
- 16-AAS“All About Shakespeare”
in Vanity Fair (US), 1916/04[Passim.] - TM22Three Men and a Maid (The Girl on the Boat) (1922), 6Many of these people were old travellers and their minds went back wincingly, as one recalls forgotten wounds, to occasions when performers at ships’ concerts had imitated whole strings of Dickens’ characters or, with the assistance of a few hats and a little false hair, had endeavoured to portray Napoleon, Bismarck, Shakespeare, and other of the famous dead.
- 25FF“Fixing It for Freddie” (1925)
COJI doubt if the idea that came to me at this juncture would have occurred to a single one of any dozen of the largest-brained blokes in history. Napoleon might have got it, but I’ll bet Darwin and Shakespeare and Thomas Hardy wouldn’t have thought of it in a thousand years. - SB27The Small Bachelor (1927), 4.4“You remind me of Julius Cæsar, Shakespeare and Napoleon Bonaparte.”
- 27PD“Portrait of a Disciplinarian” (1927)
Lib Str MMM“Shakespeare would have cringed before his old nurse. So would Herbert Spencer, Attila the Hun, and the Emperor Nero.” - LB35The Luck of the Bodkins (1935), 14“Where’s the sense in ditching Mr. Tennyson like this? He may not be Shakespeare, but I’ll bet he writes well enough for the Superba-Llewellyn.”
[=LB35AThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version, Little, Brown, 1936, 13.] - LB35The Luck of the Bodkins (1935), 16His was not an extensive vocabulary, and he found it impossible to think of anything which would really do justice to his feelings regarding Albert. Shakespeare might have managed it. So might Rabelais. Monty could not.
[Not in LB35aThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version in Redbook, 1935/08–1936/01.] - MB42Money in the Bank (1942), 10The sweeping removal of Mr. Molloy’s hat had revealed a fine, high forehead, rather like Shakespeare’s.
- MB42Money in the Bank (1942), 12The cloud cleared from Mr. Molloy’s Shakespearian brow.
- 450205-AALetter to W. Townend, 1945/02/05 in Author! Author! (1962),
dated 1944/12/30 in Performing Flea (1953)Had it ever occurred to you that that is how authors are regarded in England? You, me, Shakespeare, all of us, just parasites. - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 7One has, of course, to make allowances for writers, all of them being more or less loony. Look at Shakespeare, for instance. Very unbalanced. Used to go about stealing ducks. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help feeling that in springing Joke Goods on the guardian of the girl he loved Boko had carried an author’s natural goofiness too far. Even Shakespeare might have hesitated to go to such lengths.
- 48FO“Freddie, Oofy and the Beef Trust” (1948)
FQO TDC (“Oofy, Freddie, and the Beef Trust”)To say that Oofy was all in a dither is really to give too feeble a picture of his emotions. They were such that only a top-notcher like Shakespeare could have slapped them down on paper, and he would have had to go all out. - 480605-WTRLetter to W. Townend, 1948/06/05
in A Life in Letters (ed. Ratcliffe, 2011)What a wretched thing failure in the theatre is. There isn’t a dramatist from Shakespeare downwards who hasn’t had the most ghastly flops, but one never gets over that feeling of pollution you get when you are associated with a bad failure. - 510618-DMDLetter to Denis Mackail, 1951/06/18
in Yours, Plum (ed. Donaldson, 1990), p. 197By the way, do you ever find that you have spells of loathing all poetry and thinking all poets, including Shakespeare, affected fools? I am passing through one now. Prose is the stuff. . . . - OR51The Old Reliable (1951), 10“Imagine how Shakespeare would have felt if, after he had retired to Stratford, somebody had come along and congratulated him on having got out of the theatre game just in time, because it was obvious to everyone that he had been slipping.”
- 56-KWS“Kind Words for Shakespeare”
in Punch, 1956/03/21One of the things people should remember when they compare Shakespeare with me and hand him the short straw is that he did not have my advantages. He came along too early to get the benefit of the guidance of the critics who today are wriggling all over the place as if one had turned over a flat stone. There was nobody then to tell him he was writing all wrong. Occasionally someone would call him Shakescene or Johannes Factotum and say he had a tiger’s heart wrapped in a player’s hide, but that really got him nowhere. - IB61[The] Ice in the Bedroom (1961), 5He had a frank, open face, fine candid eyes and a lofty brow rather resembling Shakespeare’s.
- IB61[The] Ice in the Bedroom (1961), 6Beads of excitement stood out on his Shakespearean brow, and he upset a coffee cup in his emotion.
- IB61[The] Ice in the Bedroom (1961), 8It was a snappily dressed man of middle age with a frank, open face, and a lofty brow resembling Shakespeare’s, who gazed at her with fine, candid eyes as if the sight of her had just made his day.
- IB61[The] Ice in the Bedroom (1961), 16Soapy scratched his Shakespearean forehead.
- BG65The Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood (Galahad at Blandings) (1965), 4.2“Of course I’m not making it up. Why would I make it up? And how could I if I wanted to? Dash it, do you think I’m capable of making up a story like that? I’m not Shakespeare.”
- DB68Do Butlers Burgle Banks? (1968), 9.2Gifted men are notoriously unfortunate in their love lives. Look at Napoleon . . . Shakespeare . . . Doctor Crippen.
- GB70The Girl in Blue (1970), 11.5“This needs attending to promptly, she said, and she pops into the other room and comes back with a statuette that had been on the mantelpiece, a thing about a foot long with no clothes on, Shakespeare it may have been or Queen Victoria, and she whispers to me to open the cupboard door quick, which I done, revealing a bloke in a crouching posture, and she reaches in and lets him have it on the topknot with the statuette, using a good deal of follow-through, and he tumbles out, and it’s that gingerheaded young fellow that blew in a couple of days ago, your nephew somebody told me he was, Best or West or something like that.”
- MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 15But as I stood shuffling the feet and twiddling the fingers I caught sight of that camera of his standing on an adjacent table, and I got one of those inspirations you get occasionally. Shakespeare and Burns and even Oliver Wendell Holmes probably used to have them all the time, but self not so often.
- PG72Pearls, Girls, and Monty Bodkin (The Plot That Thickened) (1972), 8.2He seemed distrait, and on his Shakespearian forehead—his hair, as Chimp Twist had told him, was beginning to recede a good deal in spite of patent remedies supplied to his wife free of charge by some of the best shops in London, Paris and New York—a frown had appeared.
Shakespeare’s works
William Shakespeare’s work as a whole, his style, dramatic technique, characters, and actors of his works.
- GB04The Gold Bat (1904), 7His bookshelf was empty. The books had gone to swell the contents of the floor. There was a Shakespeare with its cover off.
- 04-PFH“A Protest from Hoxton” in “From My Tub” (column)
in Vanity Fair (UK), 1904/06/30[Passim.] - WF07The White Feather (1907), 10The more he saw of Joe Bevan the more he liked him, and appreciated his strong, simple outlook on life. Shakespeare was a great bond between them. Sheen had always been a student of the Bard, and he and Joe would sit on the little verandah of the inn, looking over the river, until it was time for him to row back to the town, quoting passages at one another. Joe Bevan’s knowledge, of the plays, especially the tragedies, was wide, and at first inexplicable to Sheen. It was strange to hear him declaiming long speeches from Macbeth or Hamlet, and to think that he was by profession a pugilist. One evening he explained his curious erudition. In his youth, before he took to the ring in earnest, he had travelled with a Shakespearean repertory company. “I never played a star part,” he confessed, “but I used to come on in the Battle of Bosworth and in Macbeth’s castle and what not. I’ve been First Citizen sometimes. I was the carpenter in Julius Cæsar. That was my biggest part. ‘Truly sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but, as you would say, a cobbler.’ But somehow the stage—well . . . you know what it is, sir. Leeds one week, Manchester the next, Brighton the week after, and travelling all Sunday. It wasn’t quiet enough for me.”
- WF07The White Feather (1907), 16Joe Bevan was delighted with his progress, and quoted Shakespeare volubly in his admiration.
- NG07Not George Washington (1907), II.4The morning paper informed me that there were eleven musical comedies, three Shakespeare plays, a blank verse drama, and two comedies (“last weeks”) for me to choose from.
- 16-DMT“Drama, Melodrama and Tragedy” (1916)
in Vanity Fair (US), 1916/06[Passim.] - 16-SSO“The Somber Sadness of Our Summer Shows”
in Vanity Fair (US), 1916/08This Year’s Crop Is Badly Affected by Rust, Mould, and Shakespeare Blight
[Subtitle]
Both productions suffer severely from the Shakespeare virus with which the theater has been so afflicted of late. Shakespeare has been to the New York stage of 1916 what the boll weevil and the potato bug are in their own spheres of activity. It has been impossible to get away from the man. Practically the whole of the first part of the Follies is given up to travesties of those immortal works of which we are all so thoroughly sick. It was an ingenious idea to graft the Great Lover onto Romeo, and Antony’s speech to the mob is excellent, but these are the only bright spots in a painful hour and a half, except the duet “Have a Heart” and the Sparking Girls’ dance, which is very nearly the best thing in the evening’s entertainment. The burlesque of Othello is one of the dreariest and most puerile pieces of idiocy ever presented to the world, outside of the realm of amateur theatricals. [. . .]
In the second part, Shakespeare is dropped and Fannie Brice substituted, and it is amazing what a difference it makes. The superiority of the modern to the ancient brand of entertainment is at once apparent. It is all very well to extol Shakespeare as a genius, but every reasonable person must admit that Fannie Brice is an infinitely greater one. It is no good arguing that Miss Brice could not have written Hamlet. Shakespeare could not have done that Death of the Swan dance. And if Shakespeare was able to put a song across as Miss Brice does, history is silent on the point. - PJ17Piccadilly Jim (1917), 16On a table near at hand, handsomely bound in morocco to resemble a complete works of Shakespeare, was the telephone book.
- LW20The Little Warrior (Jill the Reckless) (1920), 14.2He had been compelled to read Shakespeare and all that sort of thing at school, but it had left him cold, and since growing to man’s estate he had rather handed the race of bards the mitten.
[Not in LW20bJill the Reckless
serial in Grand, 1920/09–1921/06.] - 27CD“Came the Dawn” (1927)
Lib Str MMM“Come, Angela, let us read together in a book more moving than the Koran, more eloquent than Shakespeare, the book of books, the crown of all literature—Bradshaw’s Railway Guide.” - 290903-AALetter to W. Townend, 1929/09/03
in Author! Author! (1962)My press clipping agency has sent me a letter from the correspondence column of an Indian paper about a cow that came into the bungalow of a Mr. Verrier Elwyn, who lives at Patengarth, Mandla District, and ate his copy of Carry On, Jeeves, “selecting it from a shelf which contained, among other works, books by Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy and Henry Fielding.” A pretty striking tribute I look on that as. - MB42Money in the Bank (1942), 1With a growing sense of being a good man snared in the toils of Fate, like somebody out of Shakespeare, he crossed Berkeley Square and arrived at Halsey Court.
- MB42Money in the Bank (1942), 21“I want to talk to you about this private education of yours. It strikes me as having been very spotty. You confess to being unfamiliar with Come into the garden, Maud, and yet you seem to have chased Shakespeare up a tree, where you can get him any time you want him.”
[Not in MB42aMoney in the Bank
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1941/11/08–1941/12/27.] - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 16“You can’t go by what a girl says, when she’s giving you the devil for making a chump of yourself. It’s like Shakespeare. Sounds well, but doesn’t mean anything.”
- SF48Spring Fever (1948), 16“It’s a tragedy,” said Terry.
“You’re right, ducky. It’s a tragedy.”
“You ought to have told it to Shakespeare,” said Mike. “He could have made a play out of it.” - OR51The Old Reliable (1951), 4“I once went to Valparaiso as a stewardess on a fruit boat, and the only book on board was The Plays of William Shakespeare, belonging to the chief engineer. By the time the voyage was over, I knew them by heart. I suppose that’s why I quote him a good deal.”
“No doubt, madam. A very admirable writer.”
“Yes, he wrote some good stuff.”
[Not in OR51aPhipps to the Rescue
serial in Collier’s, 1950/06/24–1950/07/22.] - 520107-ACPGW 1961 comment after
letter to W. Townend, 1952/01/07
in Author! Author! (1962)Let us forget this type of critic and turn to the rare souls who can spot a good thing when they see one—and, shining like a beacon among these, is the woman who said in her book column the other day that she considers Shakespeare “grossly materialistic and much overrated” and “greatly prefers P. G. Wodehouse.”
Well, it is not for me to say whether she is right or not. One cannot arbitrate in these matters of taste. Shakespeare’s stuff is different from mine, but that is not necessarily to say that it is inferior. There are passages in Shakespeare to which I would have been quite pleased to put my name. That “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” thing. That one gets over the plate all right. I doubt, too, if I have ever done anything much better than Falstaff.
[See Macbeth, V.5.18-22 and King Henry IV (1st Part), Other. Much of the quotation above is also in 56-KWS“Kind Words for Shakespeare”
in Punch, 1956/03/21.] - 53-HDD“Huy Day by Day”
in Performing Flea (1953)In this connection, I would point out the curious fact that from the German viewpoint there is something fishy about Tennyson’s poems but not about Shakespeare’s plays. They impounded my Tennyson, returning it to me some weeks later after it had presumably been gone through for subversive matter, but Shakespeare got by without a hitch. It just shows—I don’t know what, but something. - 53-HDD“Huy Day by Day”
in Performing Flea (1953)Getting the pillow just the right height was always a difficulty. Some men used suitcases for bolsters, but I found that I obtained the best results with a sweater, a cardigan, a pair of trousers, a Red Cross parcel and the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Shakespeare, who wrote not for an age but for all time, produced exactly the right amount of stuff to make him an ideal foundation on which to build. - 54-PMA“Put Me Among the Earls”
in Punch, 1954/06/09Our literature, lacking Earls, would have been a great deal poorer. Shakespeare would have been lost without them. [. . .]
Shakespeare had no such problem. With more Earls than he knew what to do with, he was on velvet. One need only quote those well-known lines from his Henry the Seventh, Part One:
My lord of Sydenham, bear our royal word
To Brixton’s Earl, the Earl of Wormwood Scrubs,
Our faithful liege, the Earl of Dulwich (East),
And those of Beckenham, Penge and Peckham Rye,
Together with the Earl of Hampton Wick:
Bid them to haste like cats when struck with brick,
For they are needed in our battle line,
And stitch in time doth ever save full nine.
[Exeunt Omnes. Trumpets and hautboys
“Pie!” Shakespeare used to say to Burbage as he slapped the stuff down, and Burbage would agree that Shakespeare earned his money easily.
[56-PMA“Put Me Among the Earls”
in America, I Like You (1956), 2 and 57-BOE“Bring On the Earls”
in Over Seventy (1957), 4: “English literature”, “Henry VII”, “to Burbage, and Burbage”. 57-BOE“Bring On the Earls”
in Over Seventy (1957), 4: “lacking them”, “Part Two”.] - 55-MWL“The Man We Love”
in Punch, 1955/04/06“Know anything good?” says John Bartlett, buttonholing an acquaintance.
“Shakespeare?” says the acquaintance.
“No, I’ve got Shakespeare.”
[56-HBA“Hi, Bartlett!”
in America, I Like You (1956), 1 omits “says the acquaintance.” 57-BOE“Bring On the Earls”
in Over Seventy (1957), 2: “he would say, button-holing”.] - 56-KWS“Kind Words for Shakespeare”
in Punch, 1956/03/21A playwright cannot give of his best under these conditions, and this, I think, accounts for a peculiarity in Shakespeare’s work which has escaped the notice of many critics—to wit, the fact that while his stuff sounds all right, it generally doesn’t mean anything. There can be little doubt that, when he was pushed for time, William Shakespeare just shoved down anything and trusted to the charity of the audience to pull him through. - IB61[The] Ice in the Bedroom (1961), 21Sally braced herself, feeling a little like one of those messengers in Shakespeare’s tragedies who bring bad tidings to the reigning monarch and are given cause to regret it.
- SS61Service with a Smile (1961), 11.3“These rugged sons of the soil don’t always watch their language. They tend at times to get a bit Shakespearian.”
- 66-ANH“A Note on Humour” in PPB
also as commentary to Letter to W. Townend, 1924/07/23
in Author! Author! (1962) There is an atmosphere of strain such as must have prevailed long ago when the king or prince or baron had one of those Shakespearian Fools around the castle, capering about and shaking a stick with a bladder and little bells attached to it. Tradition compelled him to employ the fellow, but nothing was going to make him like it.
“Never can understand a word that character says,” he would mutter peevishly to his wife as the Fool went bounding about the throne room jingling his bells. “Why on earth do you encourage him? It was you who started him off this morning. All that nonsense about crows!”
“I only asked him how many crows can nest in a grocer’s jerkin. Just making conversation.”
“And what was his reply? Tinkling like a xylophone, he gave that awful cackling laugh of his and said ‘A full dozen at cockcrow, and something less under the dog star, by reason of the dew, which lies heavy on men taken with the scurvy’. Was that sense?”
“It was humour.”
“Who says so?”
“Shakespeare says so.”
“Who’s Shakespeare?”
“All right, George.”
“I never heard of any Shakespeare.”
“I said all right, George. Skip it.”
“Well, anyway, you can tell him from now on to keep his humour to himself, and if he hits me on the head just once more with that bladder of his, he does it at his own risk. Every time he gets within arm’s reach of me—socko! And for that I pay him a penny a week, not deductible.” - GB70The Girl in Blue (1970), 13.5“You mean,” he said, speaking hoarsely, like a Shakespearian actor with tonsilitis, “that everything depends on Crispin pushing this policeman into a brook?”
- MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 7“You want me to recommend you a good book? Well, of course, it depends on what you like. Jeeves, for instance, is never happier than when curled up with his Spinoza or his Shakespeare.”
- PG72Pearls, Girls, and Monty Bodkin (The Plot That Thickened) (1972), 5.2“She said no contract until I’d got what she called a thorough grounding in English literature. That was the school marm in her coming out. English literature, you know what that means—Shakespeare, Milton and all those.”
- BA73Bachelors Anonymous (1973), 7“She refused to marry me until I had got a thorough grounding, as she called it, in English literature. Shakespeare, you know, and all those.”
- 74FL56,P1974 Preface to French Leave (1956)I have this feeling on re-reading French Leave. It seems to me that Nicolas Jules St Xavier Auguste, Marquis de Maufringneuse et Valerie-Moberanne is pretty good. I don’t say he doesn’t owe something to Georges Courteline, but even Shakespeare had his sources.
Matthew Arnold’s “Shakspeare”
Matthew Arnold’s sonnet “Shakspeare,” published in 1849 in The Strayed Reveller, and Other Poems, is an indication of the place Shakespeare had achieved by the 19th century as England’s greatest poet, whose genius was unquestionable.
Others abide our question. Thou art free.
We ask and ask: Thou smilest and art still,
Out-topping knowledge. For the loftiest hill
That to the stars uncrowns his majesty,
Planting his steadfast footsteps in the sea,
Making the Heaven of Heavens his dwelling-place,
Spares but the cloudy border of his base
To the foil’d searching of mortality:
And thou, who didst the stars and sunbeams know,
Self-school’d, self-scann’d, self-honour’d, self-secure,
Didst walk on Earth unguess’d at. Better so!
All pains the immortal spirit must endure,
All weakness that impairs, all griefs that bow,
Find their sole voice in that victorious brow.
- 28RW“The Reverent Wooing of Archibald” (1928)
Cos Str MMS“Others abide our question. Thou art free,” was the verdict of London’s gilded youth on Archibald Mulliner when considered purely in the light of a man who could imitate a hen laying an egg. - TY34Thank You, Jeeves (1934), 12“Jeeves,” I said, “as I have so often had occasion to say before, you stand alone.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Others abide our question. Thou art free.”
“I endeavour to give satisfaction, sir.” - CW38The Code of the Woosters (1938), 3“Well, of all the muddle-headed asses that ever stepped, you certainly are the worst. Others abide our question, thou art free.”
- 56-WSC“The Wodehouse-Shakespeare Controversy: Latest”
in Punch, 1956/05/23Dash it, I mean to say, I don’t want to stick on dog and slip in a plug for myself, but if my stuff isn’t pretty good, would Matthew Arnold have written that thing he wrote about me, which begins:
Others abide our question. Thou art free.
We ask and ask: Thou smilest and art still,
Out-topping knowledge . . .
When a level-headed man like Matthew Arnold lets himself go like that it means something. - 57-CRC“Critics and the Criticized”
in Over Seventy (1957), 2Dash it, I mean to say, I don’t want to stick on dog and throw bouquets at myself, but if I were not pretty good, would Matthew Arnold have written that sonnet he wrote about me, which begins:
Others abide our question. Thou art free.
We ask and ask. Thou smilest and art still,
Out-topping knowledge.
When a level-headed man of the Matthew Arnold type lets himself go like that, it means something. - SU63Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963), 24“Jeeves,” I said, and if my voice shook, what of it? We Woosters are but human, “you stand alone. Others abide our question, but you don’t, as the fellow said.”
[Not in SU63aStiff Upper Lip, Jeeves
condensed in Playboy, 1963/02–1963/03.]
Baconian Theory
References to theories on the authorship of Shakespeare’s works (see Wikipedia article).
- 05-TMH“Too Much Hamlet”
in The Books of To-Day and the Books of To-morrow (UK), 1905/05It’s ‘Hamlet’ this, and ‘Hamlet’ that,
And ‘Hamlet,’ day by day.
Shakespeare and Bacon must regret they ever wrote the play. - 16-AAS“All About Shakespeare”
in Vanity Fair (US), 1916/04This is no time to touch on the Baconian controversy, beyond saying that many people, quite sane in other respects, believe that the plays were written by Lord Bacon and that all Shakespeare did was to practise spelling his signature on the covers of the typed script. As there is no record of Bacon making any protest during his lifetime, this seems incredible. Nobody who had contributed even a line to a play could refrain from going about the place during its run, telling people that he really did all the work. - 28RW“The Reverent Wooing of Archibald” (1928)
Cos Str MMS[Passim.] - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 23If you analysed it, it was the old Bacon and Shakespeare gag. Bacon, as you no doubt remember, wrote Shakespeare’s stuff for him and then, possibly because he owed the latter money or it may be from sheer good nature, allowed him to take the credit for it.
- 55-DCR“Dumb Chums at Riverhead”
in Punch, 1955/09/07He had at this time learned nothing of armadillos except that nobody had ever claimed that they wrote the plays of Shakespeare, and he thought it would be a nice way of filling a gap in his education. - 56-IRT“My Iron Resolve to Take Ish”
in America, I Like You (1956), 1It is so terribly easy [. . .]
[See full quotation under Antony and Cleopatra, Other.] - 56-LAA“Life Among the Armadillos”
in America, I Like You (1956), 1He knew nothing of armadillos at this time except that nobody had ever claimed that they wrote the plays of Shakespeare, but he went out and bought a couple, and it so happened that they were of opposite sexes.
[57-AHW“Armadillos, Hurricanes and What Not”
in Over Seventy (1957), 1: “at that time”.] - 56-KWS“Kind Words for Shakespeare”
in Punch, 1956/03/21Another way in which I get the edge on Shakespeare is that I have privacy for my work. [. . .] But Shakespeare never had a moment to himself. If it wasn’t Bacon, Marlowe, the Earl of Oxford and the Countess of Pembroke bursting in and wanting to collaborate, it was Burbage. - CT58Cocktail Time (1958), 4“I suppose that’s what worried Bacon.”
“Bacon?”
“And made him, according to the Baconians, get hold of Shakespeare and slip him a little something to say he had written the plays. After knocking off a couple of them, he got cold feet. ‘Come, come, Francis,’ he said to himself, ‘this won’t do at all. Let it become known that you go in for this sort of thing, and they’ll be looking around for another Chancellor of the Exchequer before you can say What-ho. You must find some needy young fellow who for a consideration will consent to take the rap.’ And he went out and fixed it up with Shakespeare.”
Sir Raymond sat up with a convulsive jerk, spilling his glass. For the first time since breakfast that morning he seemed to see dimly, like the lights of a public-house shining through a London fog, a ray of hope.
“Don’t you know any needy young fellows, Beefy? Why, of course you do. One springs immediately to the mind. Your nephew Cosmo.”
“Good God!”
“You say he wants two hundred pounds. Give it him, and tell him he can stick to all the royalties on the book, and the thing’s in the bag. You’ll find him just as willing and eager to co-operate as Shakespeare was.” - BM64Biffen’s Millions (Frozen Assets) (1964), 3.2“They’ve nothing to occupy their time, and the next thing you know they’re going about in a cocked hat with a hand tucked into their waistcoat, saying they’re Napoleon. Or cutting out paper dolls or claiming that Queen Elizabeth wrote Shakespeare’s plays.”
- BG65The Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood (Galahad at Blandings) (1965), 8.3“There’s nothing low or degrading about an alias. Look at Lord Bacon. Went about calling himself Shakespeare.”
Misattributions
Quotations falsely attributed to Shakespeare, or somehow mentioned in connection with him.
- 15TC“The Test Case” (1915)
ISM PeK UW PS2 EJWasn’t it Shakespeare or somebody who said that the road to Hell—or words to that effect—was paved with good intentions? If it was Shakespeare, it just goes to prove what they are always saying about him,—that he knew a bit. Take it from one who knows, the old boy was absolutely right.
[Not in 15TCb“The Test Case”
in Pearson’s (UK), 1915/12.] - 16JU“Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest” (1916)
SEP Str MMJ EJ COJI’m not absolutely certain of my facts, but I rather fancy it’s Shakespeare—or, if not, it’s some equally brainy lad—who says that it’s always just when a chappie is feeling particularly top hole and more than usually braced with things in general that Fate sneaks up behind him with the bit of lead piping.
[16JUB2“Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest” (1916)
revised for COJ: “equally brainy bird”, “a fellow is feeling particularly braced”.] - 16AC“The Artistic Career of Corky” (1916)
(SEP Str MMJ EJ as “Leave It to Jeeves”) COJ“The older I get, the more I agree with Shakespeare and those poet Johnnies about it always being darkest before the dawn and there’s a silver lining and what you lose on the swings you make up on the roundabouts.” - 26IC“The Inferiority Complex of Old Sippy” (1926)
Lib Str VGJ“What is it Shakespeare calls sleep, Jeeves?”
“Tired Nature’s sweet restorer, sir.”
[Edward Young, Night Thoughts.] - LB35The Luck of the Bodkins (1935), 15“Shakespeare wrote ‘The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck’.”
“He did not any such thing. Tennyson did.” - CW38The Code of the Woosters (1938), 13“Yes, sir. But since then I have been giving the matter some thought, and am now in a position to say ‘Eureka!’ ”
“Say what?”
“Eureka, sir. Like Archimedes.”
“Did he say Eureka? I thought it was Shakespeare.”
“No, sir. Archimedes.” - FM47Full Moon (1947), 9.4“But you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs. Not Shakespeare,” said the Hon. Galahad. “One of my own. Unless I heard it somewhere.”
[Not in FM47aFull Moon
condensed in Liberty, 1947/11.] - BW52Barmy in Wonderland (Angel Cake) (1952), 12“Mr. Lehman is probably foaming at the mouth. ‘She cometh not,’ he said.”
“That’s Shakespeare, isn’t it?”
“One of those guys. I wouldn’t know. They stopped my education before I was full to the brim.”
[Cf. Tennyson, Mariana: “ ‘He cometh not,’ she said.”] - RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 18“Remember what Shakespeare said: ‘A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke.’ ”
Jeeves winced.
“Kipling, Sir Roderick.” - MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 8“Custom reconciles us to everything, a wise man once said.”
“Shakespeare?”
“Burke, sir. You will find the apothegm in his On the Sublime and Beautiful.”
[. . .]
“You didn’t make a speech of any sort before getting down to brass tacks? No mention of Burke or Shakespeare or the poet Burns?”
“No, sir. It might have caused exasperation.” - MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 12“How quiet everything seems now.”
“Yes, sir. Silence like a poultice comes to heal the blows of sound.”
“Shakespeare?”
“No, sir. The American author Oliver Wendell Holmes. His poem, ‘The Organ Grinders.’ An aunt of mine used to read it to me as a child.” - BA73Bachelors Anonymous (1973), 7“What does Shakespeare say about a friend in need?”
“Probably something good.”
“I ought to know. When I was under the spell of that school marm, I absorbed Shakespeare till my eyes bubbled, though not knowing what the hell he was talking about half the time. Odd way of expressing himself he had. Take that bit where . . .” - AA74Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (The Cat-Nappers) (1974), 4One of the first poems I ever learned—I don’t know who wrote it, probably Shakespeare—ran
I love little pussy; her coat is so warm;
And if I don’t hurt her, she’ll do me no harm;
and that is how I have been all my life. - AA74Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (The Cat-Nappers) (1974), 9“Yes, sir. The female of the species is more deadly than the male.”
Neatly put, I thought.
“Your own?” I said.
“No, sir. A quotation.”
“Well, carry on,” I said, thinking what a lot of good things Shakespeare had said in his time.
[Kipling, “The Female of the Species.”]
SHAKESPEARIAN LANGUAGE
Phrases quoted as in characteristic Shakespearian style, without a specific reference to one play.
“alar(u)ms and excursions”
A stage direction in Elizabethan drama, indicating martial sounds and the movement of soldiers across the stage. Shakespeare’s historical plays especially contain several examples, e.g. Henry V, IV.4 and Richard III, V.4.
- 05-WTA“A Winter’s Tale. King Arthur and His Court” (1905)
in Vanity Fair (UK), 1905/12/14Let us be careful not to emulate
Their rude alarms and indiscreet excursions,
I ask you then to fill your beakers up
And drink to this our Cause. - 05-WTA“A Winter’s Tale. King Arthur and His Court” (1905)
in Vanity Fair (UK), 1905/12/14(Shouts, alarums, and cheap excursions.) - HK05The Head of Kay’s (1905), 8 One of the things which make life on this planet more or less agreeable is the speed with which alarums, excursions, excitement, and rows generally, blow over.
- 06IA“The Intrepid Aeronauts” (1906)
Wor[Alarums and excursions heard through darkness, near at hand. - SN15Something New (Something Fresh) (1915), 3He was possibly as nearly contented as a human being can be in this century of alarms and excursions.
[=SN15BSomething Fresh
Methuen & Co., 1915, 3.1] - BC24Bill the Conqueror (1924), 5.4If there is one spot in the world free as a rule from alarms and excursions, it is the aristocratic quarter of Wimbledon, that row of large mansions along the edge of the Common where Wealth and Respectability dream and let the world go by.
[=BC24aBill the Conqueror
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1924/05/24–1924/07/12, 7.4] - 28EG“Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend” (1928)
Lib Str BCE VWGladys did not linger. She was a London child, trained from infancy to bear herself gallantly in the presence of alarms and excursions, but this excursion had been so sudden that it momentarily broke her nerve.
[Not in 28EGa“Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend”
in Liberty, 1928/10/06.] - HW33Heavy Weather (1933), 6He was not a nimble-minded man, but he could put two and two together, and it seemed to him that in some mysterious way, beyond the power of his intellect to grasp, all these alarms and excursions must be connected with the love-story of his old friend, Mr. Ronald, and his new—but very highly esteemed—friend, Sue Brown.
- LG36Laughing Gas (1936), 17Stirring things seemed to be in progress. Alarums, as the expression is, and excursions.
[=LG36bLaughing Gas
shortened serial in Pearson’s, 1935/08–1935/10/1. Not in LG36aLaughing Gas
shortened serial in This Week, 1935/03/24–1935/04/28.] - 601022-ACPGW 1961 comment after
letter to W. Townend, 1960/10/22
in Author! Author! (1962)My spies inform me that the butler is creeping back. Extinct, it seemed, only a few years ago, he is now repeatedly seen again in his old haunts like some shy bird which, driven from its native marshes by alarms and excursions, stiffens the sinews, summons up the blood, and decides to give the old home another try.
[See Henry V, III.1.3-14.]
“confused noise without”
A stage direction indicating voices, shouts, or commotion offstage. Different editions have varying stage directions; for instance, “(A confused noise within) ‘Mercy on us!’ — ‘We split, we split!’ ” in the Arden Shakespeare edition of The Tempest, I.1.60; the Dover Wilson edition reads “‘A confused noise’ below”. Given the construction of the Globe Theatre stage, with entrances from and exits to the “tiring house” (backstage area), “a noise within” appears more frequently in Shakespeare editions than “without,” which does not become common until the 19th century. In any case, the quotation from WF07The White Feather (1907) shows that Wodehouse associated the expression with Shakespearian theater.
- 05-WTA“A Winter’s Tale. King Arthur and His Court” (1905)
in Vanity Fair (UK), 1905/12/14(A confused noise without.) - 06IA“The Intrepid Aeronauts” (1906)
Wor[Confused noises without. - WF07The White Feather (1907), 4There was a “confused noise without,” as Shakespeare would put it, and into the shop came clattering Barry and McTodd, of Seymour’s, closely followed by Stanning and Attell.
- 09GC“The Gem Collector”
in Ainslee’s, 1909/12, 5“I believe there is some idea of my being a ‘confused noise without,’ or something.” - IJ10The Intrusion of Jimmy (A Gentleman of Leisure) (1910), 11“Put me down for what you like, from Emperor of Morocco to Confused Noise Without.”
- 17-PTS“The Past Theatrical Season”
in Vanity Fair (US), 1917/05I append a supplementary list of those entitled to honorable mention: [. . .] 5. The Confused Noise Without in “The Great Divide.” - 22PT“The Purity of the Turf” (1922)
Cos Str IJI waited, all of a twitter, for what seemed hours, and then suddenly there was a confused noise without and something round and blue and buttony shot through the back door and buzzed for the archway like a mustang. - 23US“Ukridge Sees Her Through” (1923)
Cos Str UI was pursuing this train of thought when the banging of the front door, followed by a pounding of footsteps on the stairs and a confused noise without, announced his arrival. - SS25Sam the Sudden (Sam in the Suburbs) (1925), 19.2It only required a little thought, felt Chimp; and he was still thinking when a confused noise without announced the arrival of Lord Tilbury.
[=SS25aSam in the Suburbs
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1925/06/13–1925/07/18, 23, SS25bSam the Sudden
serial in Sunny, 1925/07–1926/02/5.] - 26TA“The Truth About George” (1926)
Lib Str MMMA confused noise within seemed to indicate that the Emperor had become involved with some lamps. - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 28At this juncture there was a confused noise without, and Uncle Percy crossed the threshold, moving well.
- BW52Barmy in Wonderland (Angel Cake) (1952), 7He was still thinking loving thoughts of Lester Burdett, becoming more and more soothed the longer his mind dwelt on that square-shooting garment manufacturer, when there was a confused noise without.
“i’ faith”
Though not exclusive to Shakespeare or even to his time, this synonym for “truly” lends an archaism that will recall Elizabethan English for most readers.
- 01-UF08“Under the Flail”
in Public School Magazine, 1901/08A subtle thrust, i’ faith, but ill-received by the House Master. - WT04William Tell Told Again (1904)
18K, 7“To make obeisance to a hat! I’ faith, such a command is downright foolery!” - LB35The Luck of the Bodkins (1935), 2“Ha!” he exclaimed. “Monty, by Jove! Well met, i’ faith!”
[Not in LB35aThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version in Redbook, 1935/08–1936/01, LB35bThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version in The Passing Show, 1935/09/21–1935/11/23, LB35AThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version, Little, Brown, 1936.]
“many a time and oft”
The expression is used by Shylock in The Merchant of Venice I.3.98, by Falstaff in Henry IV (1st Part) I.2.50, and by Marullus in Julius Caesar, I.1.41. It is recorded as early as 1548, and was subsequently used by Byron, Wordsworth and Browning among others. Bertie Wooster is the speaker in all but three of the Wodehouse references; in LG36Laughing Gas (1936) Ann Bannister is talking about April June, in RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953) Bill Rowcester is talking about Bertie, and in SF57Something Fishy (The Butler Did It) (1957) Bill Hollister is speaking of leaving the Gish Galleries.
- 30JO“Jeeves and the Old School Chum” (1930)
Cos Str VGJ“I’ve picnicked with him before, many a time and oft, and his method of approach to the ordinary tongue or ham sandwich rather resembles that of the lion, the king of beasts, tucking into an antelope.” - RH34Right Ho, Jeeves (Brinkley Manor) (1934), 4I mean to say, I’ve stayed at her place many a time and oft, and she knows my habits. She is well aware that until I have had my cup of tea in the morning, I do not receive.
- LG36Laughing Gas (1936), 23“In my presence, you have many a time and oft alluded to her as a piece of cheese.”
[Not in LG36aLaughing Gas
shortened serial in This Week, 1935/03/24–1935/04/28 or LG36bLaughing Gas
shortened serial in Pearson’s, 1935/08–1935/10.] - RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 15“Many a time and oft, exchanging dry Martinis with Bertie Wooster in the bar of the Drones Club, I have listened to him, rapt, as he spoke of you and the psychology of the individual.”
- JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 5I wasn’t alarmed, of course. I had been through this sort of thing many a time and oft, as the expression is, and I knew what happened.
[Not in JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04.] - SF57Something Fishy (The Butler Did It) (1957), 18“That I had thought of it many a time and oft, but had always been deterred by the fear that, if I did, I might not be able to secure those three meals a day which are so essential to the man who wants to keep the roses in his cheeks.”
[Not in SF57aSomething Fishy
condensed serial in Collier’s, 1956/08/31–1956/09/14, SF57bSomething Fishy
condensed serial in John Bull, 1956/09/29–1956/10/13.] - MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 5This Spode, I must explain for the benefit of the newcomers who have not read the earlier chapters of my memoirs, was a character whose path had crossed mine many a time and oft, as the expression is, and always with the most disturbing results.
- MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 6“You have told me many a time and oft that you consider him one of Nature’s gravest blunders.”
Other
- PJ15Psmith, Journalist (1915, from 1909–10 serial), 20“Let me out.”
“Anon, gossip, anon.—Shakespeare.”
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
Text used: A. Quiller-Couch and J. Dover Wilson, All’s Well That Ends Well, C.U.P. 1968.
IV.4.35-36 “All’s well that ends well”
The title of the play (repeated in V.1.25) is a traditional proverb; it is first recorded in its current form in Richard Hill’s Commonplace-Book (1530).
Helena.
‘All’s well that ends well,’ still the fine’s the crown;
Whate’er the course, the end is the renown.
- PU03A Prefect’s Uncle (1903), 9After a victory a school feels that all’s well that ends well.
- 04-IS1027“In the Stocks” (column)
in Vanity Fair (UK), 1904/10/27However, as Jules said when he struck a match and viewed the prostrate figure, “All’s well that ends well.” - WF07The White Feather (1907), 5“Albert was making hay of us. Still, all’s well that ends well. We have smitten the Philistines this day.”
- LN13The Little Nugget (1913), II.17“However, all’s well that ends well, and this little game has surely had the happy ending.”
[=13EC“The Eighteen-Carat Kid” (1913)
Cap 18K, 15. LN13aThe Little Nugget
in Munsey’s, 1913/08: “a happy ending.”] - DD19A Damsel in Distress (1919), 2“All’s well that ends well.”
- RH34Right Ho, Jeeves (Brinkley Manor) (1934), 23“I suppose you might say that all’s well that ends well.”
- 35TD“Trouble Down at Tudsleigh” (1935)
Cos Str YMSB EBCA TDCAll’s well that ends well, felt Freddie. - LG36Laughing Gas (1936), 23“Still, all’s well that ends well.”
- CW38The Code of the Woosters (1938), 12“Still, all’s well that ends well.”
- 39BI“Bramley Is So Bracing” (1939)
SEP Str EBCA NS VW TDC“Still, all’s well that ends well.” - PW52Pigs Have Wings (1952), 4.1“All’s well that ends well. No good brooding over what might have been.”
[PW52aPigs Have Wings
serial in Collier’s, 1952/08/16–1952/09/20 has only first sentence.]
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Text used: J. Dover Wilson, Antony and Cleopatra, C.U.P. 1950.
I.5.73-75 “my salad days”
PGW need not have had in mind this passage as the expression entered common usage after Shakespeare.
Cleopatra.
My salad days,
When I was green in judgement, cold in blood,
To say as I said then.
- 04-BBH“Balm for the Broken Hearted” (1904)
in Punch, 1904/02/24King Solomon was in all probability jilted—perhaps frequently—in his salad days. - SF57Something Fishy (The Butler Did It) (1957), 5It has been well said—among others by Lord Uffenham, who in his salad days was always having trouble through getting engaged to the wrong girl—that there is no ecstasy so profound as that which comes to a young man who is unexpectedly given his freedom by a fiancée for whom he has never much cared, to whom he proposed in what, he feels, must have been one of those moments of madness, sheer madness, which people are always having on radio and in television.
- HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 20“I’ll bet he was swiping things as a small boy.”
“Only biscuits.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Or crackers you would call them, wouldn’t you? He was telling me he occasionally pinched a cracker or two in his salad days.”
II.2.191-197 “so perfumed that the winds were love-sick”
Enobarbus.
The barge she sat in, like a burnisht throne
Burned on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes.
- LP23Leave It to Psmith (1923), 10.3By the time Jno. Banks had released him from the spotted apron he was thoroughly pessimistic, and as he passed out of the door, “so perfumed that the winds were love-sick with him,” his estimate of his colleague’s abilities was reduced to a point where he began to doubt whether the stealing of a mere milk-can was not beyond his scope.
- BG53Bring On the Girls! (1953), 8“Think we might slip past ‘Shirley’?” asked Plum.
“The barge ahead?”
“That’s the one. It reminds me of Cleopatra’s. ‘Purple the sails and so perfumed that the winds were love-sick with them.’ ”
II.2.235-240 “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety”
Enobarbus.
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety: other women cloy
The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies: for vilest things
Become themselves in her, that the holy priests
Bless her when she is riggish.
- 05AH“The Autograph Hunter[s]” (1905)
PeK Met (“Mr. Watson’s Autograph”) BFr (“The Schemer!”) UW TWE “a work that speaks eloquently in every line of a genius that time cannot wither nor custom stale.” - 09OS“Out of School” (1909)
Ain Str MUBertie’s speciality was borrowing money. He was a man of almost eerie versatility in this direction. Time could not wither nor custom stale his infinite variety.
[Not in 09OSa“Out of School”
in Ainslee’s, 1909/09.] - FL56cFrench Leave
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1955/09/24, 18“Age cannot wither you nor custom stale your infinite variety.”
[Not in FL56bFrench Leave
serial in John Bull, 1955/11/12–1955/12/03 or book editions of FL56French Leave (1956).]
Other
- 56-IRT“My Iron Resolve to Take Ish”
in America, I Like You (1956), 1It is so terribly easy to compose the first two lines of a limerick and, that done, the subject finds it impossible to stop. [. . .] And the difficulty of finding a last line discourages these men from sticking to limericks, which would be fairly harmless. So they take the easier way and write serious poetry. It was after they had scribbled down on the back of a bill of fare at the Mermaid Tavern
There was a young lady (Egyptian)
Who merits a word of description
that Shakespeare, Bacon, Marlowe and the Earl of Oxford realized that the rhyme scheme was too tough.
“Bipshion?” suggested Bacon. (He would.)
“What do you mean, bipshion?” said Marlowe irritably. “There isn’t such a word.”
“Hips on?”
“Doesn’t rhyme.”
“I seem to have heard people talking of having conniption fits,” said Shakespeare diffidently. “How about ‘And she suffered from fits (viz., conniption)’? Just a suggestion.”
“And as rotten a one as I ever heard,” snapped Marlowe.
“Oh, hell,” said the Earl of Oxford. (These peers express themselves strongly.) “Let’s turn it into a play.”
And they wrote Antony and Cleopatra.
[55-PCO“Poet’s Corner”
in Punch, 1955/09/21: “tough and they were stuck”, “suggested Bacon diffidently”, “So they wrote”; omits “So they [. . .] serious poetry.”, “(He would.)”, “‘I seem [. . .] snapped Marlowe”. 57-HBP“How I Became a Poet”
in Over Seventy (1957), 2: “the bill of fare”, “tough and they were stuck”, “Oh, dash it all” (for “Oh, Hell”).]
[See Baconian Theory.] - PG72Pearls, Girls, and Monty Bodkin (The Plot That Thickened) (1972), 5.1Would Juliet have behaved so to Romeo, he asked himself, or for the matter of that Cleopatra to Mark Antony? Of course not. Each would have given her nose a dab with the powder puff and been off to the nearest registry office with the man she loved, and if Daddy didn’t like it, he could eat cake.
He smoked a pipe, and under the soothing influence of tobacco his thoughts became more charitable. Neither Juliet nor Cleopatra, he reminded himself, had had a father like J. B. Butterwick.
[See Romeo and Juliet, Other.]
“How different, how very different from the home life of our own dear Queen!”
This is supposed to be a comment overheard at a performance of Antony and Cleopatra with Sarah Bernhardt; reported by Irvin S. Cobb in A Laugh a Day Keeps the Doctor Away (1923), pp. 26–27. The text is worth quoting in full:
A Radical Difference Noted
A friend of mine has a friend who went abroad while Victoria the beloved, was still on the throne of Great Britain.
In London one night the traveler saw Madame Bernhardt play in “Anthony and Cleopatra.”
The scene came where Cleopatra receives news of Mark Antony’s defeat at Actium. Bernhardt was at her best as Egypt’s fiery queen that night. She stabbed the unfortunate slave who had borne the tidings to her, stormed, raved, frothed at the mouth, wrecked some of the scenery in her frenzy and finally, as the curtain fell, dropped in a shuddering, convulsive heap.
As the thunderous applause died down, the American heard a middle-aged British matron in the next seat remarking to her neighbor in tones of satisfaction:
“How different—how very different from the home life of our own dear queen!”
- LB35The Luck of the Bodkins (1935), 4“Looking back, I can see that I must have made the thing sound like something out of the home life of Antony and Cleopatra.”
[Only in LB35BThe Luck of the Bodkins
Jenkins, 1935 (full-length novel). Other versions, all shortened (LB35AThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version, Little, Brown, 1936, 7; LB35aThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version in Redbook, 1935/08–1936/01, 4; and LB35bThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version in The Passing Show, 1935/09/21–1935/11/23/2) have the following: “Unfortunately, in the enthusiasm of the moment, I drew a picture of our relations which must have sounded a bit like the home life of Antony and Cleopatra.”] - 35AM“Archibald and the Masses” (1935)
Cos Str YMS WM“All this dancing and so forth, I mean. I mean to say, so different from the home-life of Bottleton East.” - UF39Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939), 5“How different from the home life of the late Lord Tennyson.”
[=UF39aUncle Fred in the Springtime
shorter serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1939/04/22–1939/05/27, 4.] - 58-AD0604“America Day by Day”
in Punch, 1958/06/04Being the hero of a modern musical has come to be ranked as one of the dangerous trades, but the principal character in this one [Say, Darling] gets through to the final curtain without so much as a flesh wound. How different from the home life of the juvenile lead in such a divertissement as West Side Story.
AS YOU LIKE IT
Text used: J. Dusinberre, As You Like It (The Arden Shakespeare, Third Series), AS 2006.
II.1.15-17 “sermons in stones”
Duke Senior.
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
- RH34Right Ho, Jeeves (Brinkley Manor) (1934), 17“As Shakespeare says, there are sermons in books, stones in the running brooks, or, rather, the other way about, and there you have it in a nutshell.”
II.1.54-57 “fat and greasy citizens”
1 Lord.
‘Ay,’ quoth Jaques,
‘Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens!
’Tis just the fashion. Wherefore do you look
Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there?’
- LW20The Little Warrior (Jill the Reckless) (1920), 6.1“I wallowed in gross comfort. I was what Shakespeare calls a ‘fat and greasy citizen’!”
II.7.26-28 “and thereby hangs a tale”
Jaques.
And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe,
And then from hour to hour we rot and rot,
And thereby hangs a tale.
- MK09Mike (1909), 32“Have you seen Professor Radium yet? I should say Mr. Outwood. What do you think of him?”
“He doesn’t seem a bad sort of chap. Bit off his nut. Jawed about apses and things.”
“And thereby,” said Psmith, “hangs a tale.”
[=MK092bThe Lost Lambs
second part of Mike serialized in The Captain, 1908/04-09, 3.]
II.7.142-144 “one man in his time plays many parts”
Jaques.
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
- HW32Hot Water (1932), 10.1Gordon Carlisle was a man who in his time had played many parts.
[=HW32aHot Water
serial in Collier’s, 1932/05/21–1932/08/06/6.] - UF39Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939), 1He was a stout, round, bald, pursy little man of about fifty, who might have been taken for a Silver Ring bookie or a minor Shakespearian actor—and, oddly enough, in the course of a life in which he had played many parts, he had actually been both.
[Not in UF39aUncle Fred in the Springtime
shorter serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1939/04/22–1939/05/27.] - CT58Cocktail Time (1958), 10He was a man who in his time had played many parts, and he took a pride in playing them right.
II.7.144-145 “mewling and puking”
Jaques.
At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;
- JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 12Acquaintance with this woman dating from the days when I was an infant mewling and puking in my nurse’s arms, if you will excuse the expression, had left me with the feeling that her guiding motto in life was “Anything goes,” but this seemed pretty advanced stuff even for one to whom the sky had always been the limit.
[Not in JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04.] - 58WS“The Word in Season” [book version]
TW (“Bingo Little’s Wild Night Out”) FQO“We don’t want infants mewling and puking about the Drones.”
“Keep it clean,” urged a Pieface.
“Shakespeare,” explained the Bean.
“Oh, Shakespeare? Sorry. No,” said the Pieface, “we don’t want any bally babies here.”
II.7.146-148 “shining morning face”
Jaques.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school;
- 09OS“Out of School” (1909)
Ain Str MU“I have—ah—unfortunately been compelled to dismiss Adolf,” said Mr. Blatherwick.
“Yes?” said James. He had missed Adolf’s shining morning face.
[Not in 09OSa“Out of School”
in Ainslee’s, 1909/09: “I have, of course—er—dismissed Adolf.”] - 11AT“Absent Treatment” (1911)
Col Str M2LA MMJ EJNow and then he’d come into the club with a kind of cloud on his shining morning face, and I’d know that there had been doings in the home; but it wasn’t till well on in the spring that he got the thunderbolt just where he had been asking for it—in the thorax.
[11ATa“Absent Treatment”
in Collier’s, 1911/08/26: “blow into the club”, “something doing in the home”, “ ’way on in the spring”.] - 22EC“The [Delayed] Exit of Claude and Eustace” (1922)
Cos Str IJAnd, believe me or believe me not, the door had hardly closed behind him when in blew Eustace with a shining morning face that made me ill to look at.
[=IJ23The Inimitable Jeeves (Jeeves) (1923), 16.] - BC24Bill the Conqueror (1924), 8To him, shrinking quivering in his chair, there now entered young Pilbeam in person, striding into the room with shining morning face, all pep, ginger, efficiency and alertness.
- DS32Doctor Sally (1932), 13A slight but distinct cloud marred Lottie’s shining morning face.
- JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 9A cloud passed over her shining evening face.
[=JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04, 7.] - 56-FNO“Footnotes”
in Punch, 1956/09/05I wince away from it like a salted snail,7 knowing that in it lurks some ghastly Most Unforgettable Man I Ever Met.
————————————
7 Snails creep unwillingly to school. See Ibid’s As You Like It, Act Two, Scene Seven.
II.7.150-154 “full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard”
Jaques.
Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth.
- 03-WOE“A War Office Enquiry” (1903)
in Punch, 1903/04/15I tried to find him at the Foreign Office
Without success. And when a person there
Gave me instructions, which, I saw, would lead
Once more by devious routes to M.S. One,
I hailed a passing hansom, and returned,
Full of strange oaths, to my ancestral home. - MK09Mike (1909), 12Billy Burgess, captain of Wrykyn cricket, was a genial giant, who seldom allowed himself to be ruffled. The present was one of the rare occasions on which he permitted himself that luxury. Wyatt found him in his study, shortly before lock-up, full of strange oaths, like the soldier in Shakespeare.
- 20GF“The Golden Flaw” (1920)
(Gra & PS3 as “The Colour Line”) McCThere were, no doubt, in the American Expeditionary Force sergeants of the most winning amiability: but Lancelot’s was rather a violent and hasty sort of man, full of strange oaths and reluctant to make allowances. - LW20The Little Warrior (Jill the Reckless) (1920), 16.4To Mr. Goble, fermenting and full of strange oaths, entered Johnson Miller.
- 32CC“Cats Will Be Cats” (1932)
(Am & Str as “The Bishop’s Folly”) MN“Webster!” he called in a shaking voice.
And out of the hamper shot Webster, full of strange oaths. - CW38The Code of the Woosters (1938), 8Up till this moment he had shown himself a dog of strong reserves, content merely to sit and stare, but now he was full of strange oaths.
[Not in CW38bThe Code of the Woosters
serial in Daily Mail, 1938/09/08–1938/10/21.] - FL56French Leave (1956), 10.4Muttering strange oaths in French, to which language he always returned when stirred, he disappeared, and Terry came back and fixed M. Boissonade with a blazing eye.
[Not in FL56bFrench Leave
serial in John Bull, 1955/11/12–1955/12/03.] - SF57Something Fishy (The Butler Did It) (1957), 5He had learned from his late father that when the crash of 1929 had wiped out the Hollister fortune, it was Mortimer Bayliss who had come to the rescue, full of strange oaths but bearing a checkbook and fountain pen and offering to write a check for any amount his old friend might require to see him through the bad times.
- 59JM“Jeeves Makes an Omelette” (1959)
Arg EQ (“Jeeves and the Stolen Venus”) Lil TSW FQO WoJ“I would have made it snappier, but I was somewhat impeded in my movements by pards.”
“By what?”
“Bearded pards. Shakespeare. Right, Jeeves?”
“Perfectly correct, sir. Shakespeare speaks of the soldier as bearded like the pard.”
“And,” said Aunt Dahlia, “full of strange oaths. Some of which you will shortly hear, if you don’t tell us what you’re babbling about.”
[Not in 59JMb“Jeeves Makes an Omelette”
in Lilliput, 1959/02 .] - IB61[The] Ice in the Bedroom (1961), 7As she sat trying to relax, the front door bell rang. She went to answer it, and found on the step a venerable figure almost completely concealed behind a long white beard. [. . .]
“Good morning,” said this bearded pard. - SU63Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963), 17“She’s the daughter of a well-to-do American millionaire called Stoker, who, I imagine, will be full of strange oaths when he hears she’s married Gussie, the latter being, as you will concede, not everybody’s cup of tea.”
- MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 9There was a time when this worthy housewife, tackling the Observer crossword puzzle, would snort and tear her hair and fill the air with strange oaths picked up from cronies on the hunting field, but consistent inability to solve more than about an eighth of the clues has brought a sort of dull resignation and today she merely sits and stares at it, knowing that however much she licks the end of her pencil little or no business will result.
II.7.158-164 “slippered pantaloon, with spectacles on nose”
Jaques.
The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound.
- 36CW“The Crime Wave at Blandings” (1936)
SEP Str LEO CWB CrBaxter would grow into an old, white-haired, spectacled pantaloon, and always this thing would remain an insoluble mystery to him.
II.7.175-177 “Blow, blow, thou winter wind”
Amiens.
(Sings)
Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude.
- LC06Love Among the Chickens (1906–09), 18“But about father,” said she. “What are we to do?”
“He objects to me.”
“He’s perfectly furious with you.”
“Blow, blow,” I said, “thou winter wind. Thou are not so unkind——”
“He’ll never forgive you.”
“——As man’s ingratitude. I saved his life.”
[Same in LC21Love Among the Chickens
Jenkins, 1921. Not in LC06aLove Among the Chickens
serial in Circle, 1908/09–1909/03.] - SS25Sam the Sudden (Sam in the Suburbs) (1925), 5Shakespeare, who knew too much ever to be surprised at man’s ingratitude, would probably have accepted this latest evidence of it with stoicism.
- IW31If I Were You (1931), 16“Blow, blow, thou winter wind,” said Violet. “Thou art not so unkind as Man’s ingratitude.”
[Not in IW31aIf I Were You
in American, 1931/04-07.] - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 15“What did Shakespeare say about ingratitude?”
“ ‘Blow, blow, thou winter wind,’ sir, ‘thou art not so unkind as man’s ingratitude.’ He also alludes to the quality as ‘thou marble-hearted fiend.’ ”
“And he wasn’t so dashed far wrong!”
[See King Lear, I.4.214.]
III.5.58-59 “thank heaven fasting for a good man’s love”
Rosalind.
But, mistress, know yourself; down on your knees,
And thank heaven fasting for a good man’s love.
- OR51The Old Reliable (1951), 11“Instead of thanking heaven, fasting, for a good man’s love, you reply to his pleadings with the horse’s laugh and slip him the brusheroo.”
[Not in OR51aPhipps to the Rescue
serial in Collier’s, 1950/06/24–1950/07/22.] - PG72Pearls, Girls, and Monty Bodkin (The Plot That Thickened) (1972), 7.1It was his opinion that she ought to be thanking heaven fasting for a good man’s love instead of going about the place ticking fellows off for expressing themselves in the most temperate way on the subject of her father.
[PG72AThe Plot That Thickened
Simon & Schuster, 1973: “heaven for a good”. Not in PG72cPearls, Girls, and Monty Bodkin
condensed in Toronto Star Weekly, 1973/04/28.]
III.5.82-83 “Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?”
Line 83 is in fact a quotation from Ch. Marlowe’s 1598 poem Hero and Leander.
Phoebe.
Dead shepherd, now I find thy saw of might:
“Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?”
- RH34Right Ho, Jeeves (Brinkley Manor) (1934), 10“It’s odd that you should have asked me if I believed in love at first sight.” She half closed her eyes. “ ‘Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?’ ” she said in a rummy voice that brought back to me—I don’t know why—the picture of my Aunt Agatha, as Boadicea, reciting at that pageant I was speaking of.
V.4.69-81, 89-96 “the lie direct”
Touchstone.
I did dislike the cut of a certain courtier’s beard. He sent me word if I said his beard was not cut well, he was in the mind it was. This is called the ‘retort courteous’. If I sent him word again it was not well cut, he would send me word he cut it to please himself. This is called the ‘quip modest’. If again it was not well cut, he disabled my judgement. This is called the ‘reply churlish’. If again it was not well cut, he would answer I spake not true. This is called the ‘reproof valiant’. If again it was not well cut, he would say I lie. This is called the ‘countercheck quarrelsome’ – and so to the ‘lie circumstantial’ and the ‘lie direct’.
[. . .]
I will name you the degrees: the first, the retort courteous; the second, the quip modest; the third, the reply churlish; the fourth, the reproof valiant; the fifth, the counter-check quarrelsome; the sixth, the lie with circumstance; the seventh, the lie direct. All these you may avoid but the lie direct and you may avoid that too with an ‘if’.
- 00-UF12“Under the Flail”
in Public School Magazine, 1900/12Chestnuts being in season, I will spare him the retort obvious.
[See Appendix II.] - LC06Love Among the Chickens (1906–09), 15Yet in certain moods we are inclined to make mountains out of molehills, and I went on my way, puzzled and uneasy, with a distinct impression that I had received the cut direct.
[Same in LC21Love Among the Chickens
Jenkins, 1921.] - UM16Uneasy Money (1916), 14She had the feminine aversion from the lie deliberate. Her ethics on the suggestio falsi were weak.
- DD19A Damsel in Distress (1919), 6The monstrous unfairness of this method of attack pained Maud. From childhood up she had held the customary feminine views upon the Lie Direct. As long as it was a question of suppression of the true or suggestion of the false she had no scruples. But she had a distaste for deliberate falsehood.
- 53-HDD“Huy Day by Day”
in Performing Flea (1953)But here, I must confess, I wronged Spotty. He always avoided what Shakespeare would call the Spit Direct. The Spit Courteous, the Spit Modest, the Spit Churlish, the Spit Quarrelsome and the Spit with circumstance, yes, but never the Spit Direct.
HAMLET
Text used: B. Lott, Hamlet (New Swan Shakespeare), Longman 1991.
I.1.113-116 “A little ere the mightiest Julius fell . . .”
Horatio.
In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets:
- UF39Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939), 9Pongo, who might have been taken for one himself by a short-sighted man, found speech. For some moments he had been squeaking and gibbering like the sheeted dead in the Roman streets a little ere the mightiest Julius fell.
[=UF39aUncle Fred in the Springtime
shorter serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1939/04/22–1939/05/27, 6.] - UF39Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939), 9“Well, I’ll be sliding along and seeing about that luggage.”
He slid, and Pongo resumed his imitation of the sheeted dead.
[Not in UF39aUncle Fred in the Springtime
shorter serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1939/04/22–1939/05/27.] - OR51The Old Reliable (1951), 15His resemblance to the sheeted dead who squeaked and gibbered in the Roman streets a little ere the mightiest Julius fell was extraordinarily close, though to Lord Topham, who was unfamiliar with the play in which this powerful image occurs, he suggested more a cat about to have a fit.
[Not in OR51aPhipps to the Rescue
serial in Collier’s, 1950/06/24–1950/07/22.] - OR51The Old Reliable (1951), 15He stood there, squeaking and gibbering, completely at a loss as to how to deal with the appalling situation.
- SF57Something Fishy (The Butler Did It) (1957), 9One of the reasons why he preferred not to see too much of Stanhope Twine was that the latter, when he felt strongly on any subject, was inclined to squeal and gibber like the sheeted dead in the Roman streets a little ere the mightiest Julius fell.
- DB68Do Butlers Burgle Banks? (1968), 9.1Although Jill could not see Ada, it comforted her to know that she was there, for the natural trepidation which a girl feels when burgling for the first time had been greatly increased by the fact that a good many ghosts seemed to have got into the place. They were not squeaking and gibbering as had happened in Rome a little ere the mightiest Julius fell, but she could sense their presence, and they were hostile ghosts, ghosts of bygone Bonds, Bonds of Regency days in tight trousers and stiff cravats, Victorian Bonds with top hats and flowing whiskers, all justifiably resenting this intrusion on their sacred premises.
I.2.129-130 “this too too solid flesh”
Hamlet.
O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!
- PW52Pigs Have Wings (1952), 11.6’Twas freely whispered up and down that Fate would place the laurel crown this time on the capacious bean of Matchingham’s up-and-coming Queen. For though the Emp. is fat, the latter, they felt, would prove distinctly fatter. “Her too, too solid flesh,” they said, “ ’ll be sure to cop that silver medal.”
[PW52APigs Have Wings
Doubleday, 1952 omits quotation marks. PW52aPigs Have Wings
serial in Collier’s, 1952/08/16–1952/09/20 omits last couplet with Shakespeare allusion.] - CT58Cocktail Time (1958), 24“You plan to pare him down to the Beefy of thirty years ago?”
“Well, not quite that, perhaps, but some of that too, too solid flesh is certainly going to melt.”
I.2.143-145 “As if increase of appetite had grown by what it fed on”
Hamlet.
Why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on.
- LS08The Luck Stone (1908)
serial in Chums, 16Tommy’s appetite, however, was accustomed to grow by what it fed on. - SB27The Small Bachelor (1927), 14.5Besides, she had broken and entered one apartment already that night, and the appetite grows by what it feeds on.
- 32SS“Strychnine in the Soup” (1932)
Am (“The Missing Mystery”) EQ Str MN CrAnd, as the appetite grows by what it feeds on, he had become, at the time at which this narrative opens, a confirmed addict. - SF48Spring Fever (1948), 11“And after that you will go on and on, sinking deeper and deeper into the mire of crime. The appetite grows by what it feeds on, Spink.”
- UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 13.4The appetite grows by what it feeds on. So far from soothing him and restoring him to everyday placidity, his throwing off of the shackles had left Bill Oakshott in a mood for fresh encounters.
I.2.146 “Frailty, thy name is woman!”
The expression “X, thy name is Y” can be traced to Hamlet’s first soliloquy, and has had a long life of its own as documented in its Wikipedia page. The only example found so far in PGW subverts it by taking the tautological form “X, thy name is X!”
Hamlet.
Frailty, thy name is woman!
- 000000-EGRUndated [1900] letter to Eric George
in A Life in Letters (ed. Ratcliffe, 2011), p. 49Oh! money, money, thy name is money! (a most lucid remark).
I.2.179-180 “the funeral baked meats”
Hamlet.
Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked meats
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
- DD19A Damsel in Distress (1919), 26The mourner returned, bearing a laden tray, from which she removed the funeral bakemeats and placed them limply on the table.
I.2.186-187 “take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again”
Hamlet.
He was a man, take him for all in all;
I shall not look upon his like again.
- 23DB“The Début of Battling Billson” (1923)
Cos Str UTake him for all in all, I had never met a man so calculated to convert the most truculent swashbuckler to pacifism at a glance.… - DB68Do Butlers Burgle Banks? (1968), 5.6“Take him for all in all, we shall not look upon his like again, as some fellow said.”
I.2.197-200 “armed at all points”
The reading “at point” accepted by modern editions comes from the Second Quarto, the standard interpretation being “at the ready, in readiness (for battle)”. Wodehouse probably knew a text based on the First Folio, which reads “at all points exactly”, meaning that every detail of the ghost’s armor was authentic (which proved that it was really Hamlet’s father), although in common usage “armed at all points” is often taken as “prepared to meet every sort of attack”—clearly the sense intended in these passages.
Horatio.
A figure like your father,
Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe,
Appears before them, and with solemn march
Goes slow and stately by them.
- MK09Mike (1909), 35The enemy were disheartened; they had started with the idea that this was to be a surprise attack, and it was disconcerting to find the garrison armed at all points.
[=MK092bThe Lost Lambs (Mike and Psmith)
second part of Mike serialized in The Captain, 1908/04-09, 6.] - LB35The Luck of the Bodkins (1935), 15They fell into a moody silence again, musing on Ivor Llewellyn. The man seemed armed at all points.
[=LB35AThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version, Little, Brown, 1936, 14; LB35aThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version in Redbook, 1935/08–1936/01, 11; LB35bThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version in The Passing Show, 1935/09/21–1935/11/23/5.] - PW52Pigs Have Wings (1952), 10.1George Cyril Wellbeloved sighed. He seemed to be feeling that Jerry was armed at all points.
[Not in PW52aPigs Have Wings
serial in Collier’s, 1952/08/16–1952/09/20.] - SB77Sunset at Blandings (1977), 13Claude could play the piano, always a gift of maximum assistance to a wooer. And in addition to this he had only to fall in with his uncle’s wishes to have plenty of money at his disposal. It was ridiculous to hope to compete with a man so armed at every point.
I.2.227-230 “more in sorrow than in anger”
Hamlet.
Then saw you not his face?
Horatio.
O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up.
Hamlet.
What looked he? Frowningly?
Horatio.
A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.
- 01AU“Author!” (1901)
PSM TSAThen, just as he stepped into the open air, the chief inquisitor tapped him gently on the shoulder, and, more in sorrow than in anger, reminded him that it was customary for condemned men to remain inside their cells. - 02-TCR“Treating of Cribs”
in Public School Magazine, 1902/01“Then,” said the youth, bitterly but more in sorrow than in anger, “all I can say is that you don’t seem to know your own silly mind.” - 06-CGB“The Cooks and the Gaiety Broth”
in Punch, 1906/10/17Mr. Edwardes (more in sorrow than in anger). I never thought to hear those words from James Tanner! - NG07Not George Washington (1907), 14He made Liz fast to the circular foot of iron chimney projecting from the boards; then, jumping back to the land, he said, more in sorrow than in anger: “Lazy little brats! an’ they’ve ’ad their tea, too.”
- IJ10The Intrusion of Jimmy (A Gentleman of Leisure) (1910), 25“Pitt, old man,” said his lordship, shaking his head, more in sorrow than in anger, “it won’t do, old top. What’s the point of putting up any old yarn like that?”
- 13ML“Mike’s Little Brother” (1913)
PM“Ye want to watch for it comin’ up sudden when ye swing,” said Mike. “Ye never would trouble about your guard, Timmy,” he went on, more in sorrow than in anger. “If I told ye wance about it in the old day, I told ye a thousand times.” - 16-SDR“The Summer Drama”
in Vanity Fair (US), 1916/10Words Written More in Sorrow Than in Anger.
[Subtitle.] - IW31If I Were You (1931), 2His appearance drew censorious comment from his younger brother.
“Tony,” said the Hon. Freddie, more in sorrow than in anger, “you look foul.”
[First sentence omitted in IW31aIf I Were You
in American, 1931/04–07.] - MB42Money in the Bank (1942), 20“But you’ve only yourself to blame,” said Lord Uffenham, more in sorrow than anger.
[Not in MB42aMoney in the Bank
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1941/11/08–1941/12/27.] - BM64Biffen’s Millions (Frozen Assets) (1964), 6.2Biff clicked his tongue disapprovingly, but more in sorrow than in anger.
I.3.36-37 “The chariest maid . . .”
Laertes.
The chariest maid is prodigal enough,
If she unmask her beauty to the moon.
- LB35The Luck of the Bodkins (1935), 15“Look, if you don’t believe me,” said Miss Blossom, beginning to undrape a shapely leg.
This was precisely the note which Monty wanted to discourage. The chariest maid, he felt, is prodigal enough if she unmask her beauty to the moon.
[=LB35AThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version, Little, Brown, 1936, 11. Last sentence omitted in LB35aThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version in Redbook, 1935/08–1936/01. Not in LB35bThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version in The Passing Show, 1935/09/21–1935/11/23.]
I.3.46-51 “the primrose path”
See also Macbeth II.3.13-16 “the primrose way”.
Ophelia.
But, good my brother,
Do not as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
Whiles like a puff’d and reckless libertine
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own rede.
- 13KI“Keeping It from Harold” (1913)
ISM Str“Bill, which of the tracts was it that snatched you from the primrose path?”
[=26KC“Keeping It from Cuthbert”
in Liberty, 1926/02/27. 13KIa“Keeping It from Harold”
in Illustrated Sunday Magazine, 1914/04/26: “was it that awakened your conscience and snatched”.] - 14ST“A Sea of Troubles” (1914)
McC PeK M2LRemove the Vicar’s magic-lantern and the try-your-weight machine opposite the post office, and you practically eliminated the temptations to tread the primrose path.
[14STa“A Sea of Troubles”
in McClure’s, 1914/09: “Remove the soda fountain at the drug store and try-your-weight machine opposite the Walker House”.] -
15-MBD
“My Battle with Drink”
in Vanity Fair (US), 1915/12She had seen so many happy, healthy boys through that little hole in the wire netting, so many thoughtless boys all eagerness for their first soda, clamoring to set their foot on the primrose path that leads to destruction. - SS25Sam the Sudden (Sam in the Suburbs) (1925), 4Bates turned, and as he saw Sam, there spread itself over his face the startled look of one who, wandering gaily along some primrose path, sees gaping before him a frightful chasm or a fearful serpent or some menacing lion in the undergrowth.
- 33NO“The Nodder” (1933)
Am (“Love Birds”) Str BCE WMThe Face said “Well?” and you said “Service and Co-operation,” and then the door was unbarred and you saw before you the primrose path that led to perdition. - UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 2In the old days, when Pongo had been an impecunious young fellow reading for the Bar and attempting at intervals to get into an uncle’s ribs for an occasional much-needed fiver, nobody could have been a more sympathetic companion along the primrose path.
- MS49The Mating Season (1949), 20“From boyhood up, his whole policy, instilled into him, no doubt, at his mother’s knee, has been to give the primrose path a solid miss and sedulously avoid those rash acts which put wilder spirits in line for thirty days in the jug.”
- CT58Cocktail Time (1958), 11The thought of the good red gold which would soon be gushing like a geyser from the coffers of his Uncle Raymond had given wings to his feet as he started on his way along the primrose path.
I.3.62-63 “Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel”
Polonius.
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel;
- 15BL“Black for Luck” (1915)
Red (“A Black Cat for Luck”) Str M2L“My lad, grapple that cat to your soul with hoops of steel. He’s the greatest little luck-bringer in New York.” - UM16Uneasy Money (1916), 9Nature has decreed that there are certain things in life which shall act as hoops of steel, grappling the souls of the elect together. Golf is one of these; a mutual love of horseflesh another; but the greatest of all is bees. Between two beekeepers there can be no strife. Not even a tepid hostility can mar their perfect communion.
- 16TL“The Man with Two Left Feet” (1916)
SEP Str M2LThere was no doubt or hesitation about the date this time. It was grappled to his memory by hoops of steel owing to the singular coincidence of it being also his telephone number.
[16TLb“The Man with Two Left Feet”
in Strand, 1916/05 and M2L: “coincidence of being”. Not in 16TLa“The Man with Two Left Feet”
in Saturday Evening Post, 1916/03/18: “He always remembered it because it was his telephone number”.] - 26TA“The Truth About George” (1926)
Lib Str MMMIt was with a rather sickly smile that George now endeavoured to withdraw his arm from that of his companion, but the other would have none of this aloofness. He seemed to be in complete agreement with Shakespeare’s dictum that a friend, when found, should be grappled to you with hooks of steel.
[Not in 26TAa“The Truth About George”
in Liberty, 1926/07/03. Note misquotation hooks for hoops.] - 32CC“Cats Will Be Cats” (1932)
(Am & Str as “The Bishop’s Folly”) MN“How well I appreciate now that powerful image of Shakespeare’s—the one about grappling with hoops of steel. Every time I meet Lady Widdrington, I can feel those hoops drawing me ever closer to her.” - UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 3.1He looked forward with bright confidence to grappling them to his soul with hoops of steel.
It was consequently with some annoyance that he found on reaching his destination that there was going to be a slight delay before this desirable state of affairs could be consummated. The first essential preliminary to grappling a householder and his wife to your soul with hoops of steel is that you should be able to get into the house they are holding, and this, he discovered, presented unforeseen difficulties. - SF48Spring Fever (1948), 12He had no words to express his admiration for the splendid qualities which this beardless youth had displayed in circumstances which might well have proved too much for a veteran strategist, and more and more did it seem to him inexplicable that his daughter Terry, wooed by such a suitor, should not scoop him in with a cry of joy and grapple him to her soul with hoops of steel.
- OR51The Old Reliable (1951), 11“If I were a girl and Joe Davenport came along and wanted to marry me, I’d grapple him to my soul with hoops of steel.”
- FL56French Leave (1956), 4.5“Suffice it that you have been deprived of your trousers and are lurking on the dunes, earnestly hoping that somebody will arrive in a boat and simplify the situation. I arrive in a boat. I announce my presence by shouting. I row you to your yacht. In such circumstances, would you not take me to your bosom, would you not grapple me to your soul with hoops of steel? Of course you would.”
[Not in FL56bFrench Leave
serial in John Bull, 1955/11/12–1955/12/03.] - HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 11“A few civil words, and he will be grappling you . . . what’s that expression I’ve heard you use?”
“Grappling me to his soul with hoops of steel, sir?” - PP67The Purloined Paperweight (Company for Henry) (1967), 9.3His first encounter with Wendell Stickney had gone so like a breeze that it seemed to him that he needed only a few more of the same sort to enable him to grapple the man to his soul with hoops of steel, and it would be bitter if he got the bum’s rush before this could be accomplished.
I.3.65-67 “Beware of entrance to a quarrel . . .”
Polonius.
Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,
Bear’t, that th’ opposèd may beware of thee.
- 01-PPU“Pauline Pugilism” (1901)
in Public School Magazine, 1901/06 Squires and Wolff were fighters rather than boxers, pursuing the rushing style that makes things so peculiarly unpleasant for the other occupant of the ring. It is this style that Laertes advises his son to adopt in the well-known melodrama “Hamlet.” “My son, beware of entry to a quarrel, but, being in, go for the point of the jaw and see that you get it.” I quote from memory, so errors may have crept in. - WF07The White Feather (1907), 7“Beware,” said Mr. Bevan oracularly, “of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in, bear’t that th’ opposèd may beware of thee.”
- WF07The White Feather (1907), 9He was also fond of mentioning that extract from Polonius’ speech to Laertes, which he had quoted to Sheen on their first meeting.
- WF07The White Feather (1907), 10That sentence from Hamlet which Joe Bevan was so fond of quoting practically summed up the whole duty of man—and boy too. One should not seek quarrels, but, “being in,” one should do one’s best to ensure that one’s opponent thought twice in future before seeking them.
I.3.75-77 “Neither a borrower nor a lender be”
Polonius.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
- SB27The Small Bachelor (1927), 11He did not like the other, who had once refused to lend him money and—what was more—had gone to the mean length of quoting Shakespeare to support his refusal.
- UF39Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939), 6Beginning by quoting from Polonius’s speech to Laertes, which a surprising number of people whom you would not have suspected of familiarity with the writings of Shakespeare seem to know, Mr. Pott had gone on to say that lending money always made him feel as if he were rubbing velvet the wrong way, and that in any case he would not lend it to Pongo, because he valued his friendship too highly.
[Not in UF39aUncle Fred in the Springtime
shorter serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1939/04/22–1939/05/27.] - IB61[The] Ice in the Bedroom (1961), 24“You shouldn’t have let him have it. Neither a borrower nor a lender be. Shakespeare.”
I.3.78-80 “This above all: to thine own self be true”
Polonius.
This above all: to thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
- UF39Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939), 11“Baxter, it must follow as the night the day.”
[Not in UF39aUncle Fred in the Springtime
shorter serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1939/04/22–1939/05/27.]
I.4.1-2 “a nipping and an eager air”
Hamlet.
The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.
Horatio.
It is a nipping and an eager air.
- HW33Heavy Weather (1933), 7Yet even had the air been nipping and eager, it is probable that he would still have loitered, for his mind was heavy with care.
I.4.39 “Angels and ministers of grace defend us!”
Hamlet.
Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
- BM64Biffen’s Millions (Frozen Assets) (1964), 7.2“Golly!”
“Golly is correct.”
“Angels and ministers of grace defend us!” - AA74Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (The Cat-Nappers) (1974), 13“Hell’s bells! Ye gods! Angels and ministers of grace defend us!”
I.4.51-6 “Making night hideous”
Hamlet.
What may this mean,
That thou, dead corse, again in cómplete steel
Revisit’st thus the glimpses of the moon,
Making night hideous, and we fools of nature
So horridly to shake our disposition
With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
- LC06Love Among the Chickens (1906–09), 22The summer evening was made hideous with the noise of them.
[Same in LC21Love Among the Chickens
Jenkins, 1921.] - LS08The Luck Stone (1908)
serial in Chums, 6Upon which the outraged occupants of the other beds would arise in their wrath, and the night would be made hideous by the thudding of pillows upon the songsters’ heads. - MK09Mike (1909), 41Two minutes later the night was being made hideous by Jellicoe’s almost tearful protestations of gratitude, and the postal order had moved from one side of the dormitory to the other.
[=MK092The Lost Lambs (Mike and Psmith)
second part of Mike serialized in The Captain, 1908/04-09, 12.] - IJ10The Intrusion of Jimmy (A Gentleman of Leisure) (1910), 2“Dark, eh?” bawled Mifflin, making night hideous.
- 14EM“The [[Diverting] Episode of the] Exiled Monarch” (1914)
Pic Str MM For a moment he mistook them for a drove of exiled noblemen whom he had not had the pleasure of meeting at the supper-party; and he waited resignedly for them to make night hideous with the Royal anthem. - SS25Sam the Sudden (Sam in the Suburbs) (1925), 17Only a few hours before, Amy, in the grip of a dreadful depression caused by leaving the public house where she had spent her girlhood—for, in case the fact is of interest to anyone, Hash had bought her for five shillings from the proprietor of the Blue Anchor at Tulse Hill—had been making the night hideous with her lamentations.
[=SS25aSam in the Suburbs
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1925/06/13–1925/07/18, 20, SS25bSam the Sudden
serial in Sunny, 1925/07–1926/02/5.]
I.5.9-20 “like quills upon the fretful porpentine”
Ghost.
I am thy father’s spirit,
Doomed for a certain term to walk the night,
And for the day confined to fast in fires
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid
To tell the secrets of my prison-house,
I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
Thy knotted and combinèd locks to part,
And each particular hair to stand on end,
Like quills upon the fretful porpentine.
- PH02The Pothunters (1902), 9Barrett unfolded his tale concisely.
- PH02The Pothunters (1902), 12“James, my son, if you will postpone your suicide for two minutes, I will a tale unfold.”
[Not in PH02bThe Pothunters
serial in Public School Magazine, 1902/01-03.] - 03MC“The Manœuvres of Charteris” (1903)
Cap TSA, 2The plot of the story, as far as Charteris could follow it, dealt with a theatrical tour in Dublin, where some person or persons unknown had, with malice prepense, scattered several pounds of snuff on the stage previous to a performance of Hamlet; and, according to the “character,” when the ghost of Hamlet’s father sneezed steadily throughout his great scene, there was not a dry eye in the house.
[03MCb“The Manœuvres of Charteris”
in The Captain, 1903/08-09: “the company’s visit to Dublin”, “the ghost sneezed”.] - 16AS“The Aunt and the Sluggard” (1916)
SEP Str MMJ EJ COJHamlet must have felt much as I did when his father’s ghost bobbed up in the fairway. - HW32Hot Water (1932), 14.2Our eyes, like stars, do not start from their spheres, nor do our knotty and combined locks part and each particular hair stand on end like quills upon the fretful porpentine.
[HW32aHot Water
serial in Collier’s, 1932/05/21–1932/08/06: “knotted”.] - LB35The Luck of the Bodkins (1935), 9There was a sharp agony in Monty’s voice which caused the steward to look quickly at him. He observed that the young man’s knotted and combined locks had parted and that each particular hair now stood on end like quills upon the fretful porpentine.
[=LB35AThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version, Little, Brown, 1936, 8.] - SM37Summer Moonshine (1937), 11Sir Buckstone’s momentary relief gave way to the old horror and alarm. His manner became portentous. He looked like Hamlet’s father’s ghost about to impart a fearful tale.
- CW38The Code of the Woosters (1938), 7His face was flushed, his eyes were bulging, and one had the odd illusion that his hair was standing on end—like quills upon the fretful porpentine, as Jeeves once put it when describing to me the reactions of Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps on seeing a dead snip, on which he had invested largely, come in sixth in the procession at the Newmarket Spring Meeting.
[CW38bThe Code of the Woosters
serial in Daily Mail, 1938/09/08–1938/10/21 has the first part only, through “once put it.” Not in CW38aThe Code of the Woosters
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1938/07/16–1938/09/03.] - CW38The Code of the Woosters (1938), 12His spectacles were glittering in a hunted sort of way, and there was more than a touch of the fretful porpentine about his hair.
- JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 20“It’s no good saying ‘Sir?’ You know perfectly well what I mean. Entirely through your instrumentality, I shall shortly be telling Uncle Percy things about himself which will do something to his knotted and combined locks which at the moment has slipped my memory.”
“Make his knotted and combined locks to part and each particular hair to stand on end like quills upon the fretful porpentine, sir.”
“Porpentine?”
“Yes, sir.”
“That can’t be right. There isn’t such a thing.” - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 20“If I could show you that list Boko drafted out of the things he wants me to say—I unfortunately left it in my room, where it fell from my nerveless fingers—your knotted and combined locks would part all right, believe me. You’re sure it’s porpentine?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Very odd. But I suppose half the time Shakespeare just shoved down anything that came into his head.”
[. . .] I found Boko there, getting outside a breakfast egg. I asked him if he knew what a porpentine was, and he said to hell with all porpentines and had I got that sheet of instructions all right and, if so, what did I think of it.
To this, my reply was that I certainly had jolly well got it and that it had frozen me to the marrow.
[JM46AJoy in the Morning
Doubleday, 1946: “drafted of the things”.] - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 25“I am not a weak man, Jeeves, but when I think of what will happen if Stilton cops me while I am draped in that uniform, it makes my knotted and combined locks . . . what was that gag of yours?”
“Part, sir, and each particular hair——”
“Stand on end, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, sir. Like quills upon the fretful porpentine.”
“That’s right. And that brings me back to it. What the dickens is a porpentine?”
“A porcupine, sir.”
“Oh, a porcupine? Why didn’t you say that at first? It’s been worrying me all day.” - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 26It was not immediately that the tired eyelids closed in sleep, for some hidden hand had placed a hedgehog between the sheets—practically, you might say, a fretful porpentine. Assuming this to be Boko’s handiwork, I was strongly inclined to transfer it to his couch. Reflecting, however, that while this would teach him a much needed lesson it would be a bit tough on the porpentine, I took the latter out into the garden and loosed it into the grass.
- UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 7.2Lord Ickenham, unlike Sir Aylmer Bostock, was a man who believed in breaking things gently. With a tale to unfold whose lightest word would harrow up his nephew’s soul and make his two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, he decided to hold it in for the time being and to work round gradually and by easy stages to what Pongo would have called the nub.
[Not in UD48aUncle Dynamite
condensed in Liberty, 1949/04, UD48cUncle Dynamite
condensed in Toronto Star Weekly, 1949/04/30.] - UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 8.1His knotted and combined locks parted, each particular hair standing on end like quills upon the fretful porcupine: his heart broke from its moorings and crashed with a dull thud against his front teeth: and with a wordless cry he shot toward the ceiling.
[Not in UD48aUncle Dynamite
condensed in Liberty, 1949/04, UD48cUncle Dynamite
condensed in Toronto Star Weekly, 1949/04/30.] - MS49The Mating Season (1949), 20And I had hoofed perhaps a matter of two hundred yards, when I was jerked out of the reverie into which I had fallen by a sight which froze the blood and caused the two eyes, like stars, to start from their spheres.
- JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 7“Where were you last night, you blighted louse?” he said, and I noticed that the face was suffused, the cheek muscles twitching and the eyes, like stars, starting from their spheres.
[Not in JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04.] - CT58Cocktail Time (1958), 1Pongo, whose air now was that of a man who has had it drawn to his attention that there is a ticking bomb attached to his coat-tails, repeated his stricken-duck impersonation, putting this time even more feeling into it. Only the fact that he had brilliantined them while making his toilet that morning kept his knotted and combined locks from parting and each particular hair from standing on end like quills upon the fretful porpentine.
- HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 11“Do you recall telling me once about someone who told somebody he could tell him something which would make him think a bit? Knitted socks and porcupines entered into it, I remember.”
“I think you may be referring to the ghost of the father of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, sir. Addressing his son, he said ‘I could a tale unfold whose lightest word would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, thy knotted and combined locks to part and each particular hair to stand on end like quills upon the fretful porpentine.’ ”
“That’s right. Locks, of course, not socks. Odd that he should have said porpentine when he meant porcupine. Slip of the tongue, no doubt, as so often happens with ghosts. Well, he had nothing on me, Jeeves. It’s a tale of that precise nature that I am about to unfold. Are you listening?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then hold on to your hat and don’t miss a word.”
When I had finished unfolding, he said, “I can readily appreciate your concern, sir.” - HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 20“I have a story to relate which I think you will agree falls into the fretful porpentine class,” I said, and without further pourparlers I unshipped my tale.
- BG65The Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood (Galahad at Blandings) (1965), 3.4He was very fond of Lord Emsworth and hated to upset him, and he knew that what he was about to say would make his eyes, like stars, start from their spheres and also cause his knotted and combined locks, if you could call them that, to part and each particular hair—there were about twenty of them—to stand on end like quills upon the fretful porpentine.
- 66LF“Life with Freddie” (1966)
PPAB“Have you similarly sensational news to tell me of Judson Phipps? You hinted, if you remember, that you could a tale unfold about him whose lightest word would harrow up my soul, freeze my young—or, rather, elderly—blood and make my two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres.” - PP67The Purloined Paperweight (Company for Henry) (1967), 12.1Before long Henry was scheduled to get a shock which would jar him to his shoe soles and make his two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, but against this must be set the fact that the experience would be of the greatest spiritual value to him, making him a graver, deeper man resolved to be more careful in the future how he ran up accounts for wines, spirits and liqueurs with tough babies like Duff and Trotter.
- PB69A Pelican at Blandings (No Nudes Is Good Nudes) (1969), 7.5“We bring grave news, Dunstable, news which will make your knotted and combined locks to part and each particular hair to stand on end like quills upon the fretful porpentine.”
- MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 16And I had just put my feet up on the chaise longue and was starting to muse ecstatically on the astounding bit of luck which had removed the Bassett menace from my life, when my mood of what the French call bien être was given the sleeve across the windpipe by the entrance of L. P. Runkle, the mere sight of whom, circs being what they were, was enough to freeze the blood and make each particular hair stand on end like quills upon the fretful porpentine, as I have heard Jeeves put it.
- BA73Bachelors Anonymous (1973), 7If he had expected to freeze Mr. Llewellyn’s blood and make his eyes like stars start from their spheres, as the motion picture magnate’s school marm would have put it, he was disappointed.
- AA74Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (The Cat-Nappers) (1974), 7The idea of her calling at the cottage daily, with Orlo Porter, already heated to boiling point, watching its every move, froze my young blood and made my two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, as I have heard Jeeves put it.
- AA74Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (The Cat-Nappers) (1974), 19“And when you return, I shall a tale unfold which will make you jump as if you’d sat on a fretful porpentine.”
I was quite wrong, of course. I doubt if he would do much more than raise an eyebrow if, when entering his pantry, he found one of those peculiar fauna from the Book of Revelations in the sink. When he returned with the steaming pot and I unfolded my tale, he listened attentively, but gave no indication that he recognized that what he was listening to was front-page stuff.
I.5.106-109 “one may smile, and smile, and be a villain”
The change of tables (“writing slates”) to tablets was common in some 19th century editions, and was further popularized by Bram Stoker’s misquotation in Dracula (1897): “My tablets! quick, my tablets! / ’Tis meet that I put it down, &c.” (ch. 3).
Hamlet.
O villain, villain; smiling, damnèd villain!
My tables—meet it is I set it down
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;
At least I’m sure it may be so in Denmark.
- BC24Bill the Conqueror (1924), 17.2Bill beamed again. It seemed to him that he had been beaming through a dreadful eternity.
If it is true that a man may smile and smile, and be a villain, it is equally the case that he may beam and beam and yet be in an extremely acute state of discomfort.
[=BC24aBill the Conqueror
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1924/05/24–1924/07/12, 19.2. =BC24bBill the Conqueror
serial in Grand, 1924/09–1925/04, 21.] - SS61Service with a Smile (1961), 7.3At the moment when her guest entered the room she had just been thinking how agreeable it would be to skin him with a blunt knife, and the genial smile he gave her as he came in seemed to go through her nervous system like a red-hot bullet through butter. “My tablets—Meet it is I set it down that one may smile and smile and be a villain. At least, I’m sure it may be so in Blandings Castle,” she was saying to herself.
I.5.166-167 “There are more things in heaven and earth . . .”
Hamlet.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
- HK05The Head of Kay’s (1905), 21He walked to Kay’s through the rain with the cup under his mackintosh, and freely admitted to himself that there were things in heaven and earth—and particularly earth—which no fellow could understand.
- WF07The White Feather (1907), 12“There are more things in Heaven and Earth——” said Dunstable, wiping his hands.
- LS08The Luck Stone (1908)
serial in Chums, 8“Ach, vell,” said Herr Steingruber, philosophically, “more dings in heaven and earth dere are, as your boet Shakesbeare says.” - 15-CCL“The Charms of Country Life”
in Vanity Fair (US), 1915/01He has things to say about the kitchen-range which are undream’t of in my philosophy. - LG36Laughing Gas (1936), 7“The poet Shakespeare has well said that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy. One of these has just broken loose in this very room.”
II.1.101-105 “the very ecstasy of love”
Polonius.
This is the very ecstasy of love,
Whose violent property fordoes itself,
And leads the will to desperate undertakings,
As oft as any passion under heaven
That does afflict our natures.
- SB27The Small Bachelor (1927), 7Shakespeare speaks of the ecstasy of love, and Shakespeare knew what he was talking about.
II.2.205 “Though this be madness, yet there is method in ’t”
Polonius.
[Aside] Though this be madness, yet there is method in ’t.
- WH14The White Hope (Their Mutual Child/The Coming of Bill) (1914), I.2“There’s a method in my madness.”
- MB42Money in the Bank (1942), 6“Oh, there was a certain amount of method in your madness, I suppose.”
“What d’yer mean, madness?”
“There always is, bless him,” proceeded Anne, addressing Jeff with the air of an indulgent parent discussing the eccentricities of a favourite child.
II.2.242-248 “there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”
Hamlet.
Denmark’s a prison.
Rosencrantz.
Then is the world one.
Hamlet.
A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one o’ th’ worst.
Rosencrantz.
We think not so, my lord.
Hamlet.
Why, then, ’tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.
- UF39Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939), 9“You must always remember, however, that there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
[Not in UF39aUncle Fred in the Springtime
shorter serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1939/04/22–1939/05/27.] - UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 7.2“Of course, as Hamlet very sensibly remarked, there’s nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so; still, a rather sticky situation has unquestionably been precipitated.”
II.2.326-328 “an aery of children, little eyases”
An aery (also aerie, eyrie, eyry) is “the nest of any bird of prey; especially, in modern usage, of an eagle,” and an eyas is “a young hawk taken from the nest for the purpose of training, or one whose training is incomplete” (OED).
Rosencrantz.
Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace. But there is, sir, an aery of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top of question; and are most tyrannically clapped for ’t.
- 60-AD0120“America Day by Day”
in Punch, 1960/01/20Was it not Rosencrantz (Jeeves, my Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. Thank you, Jeeves). Was it not Rosencrantz who said to Hamlet “There is, sir, an aery of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top of question and are most tyrannically clap’t for ’t.” What America needs is fewer and better eyases.
II.2.352 “you are welcome to Elsinore”
Hamlet.
Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore.
(Repeated in 518-519.)
- NG07Not George Washington (1907), 25“Hullo, dear old boy,” he said. “Welcome to Elsmore.”
[N. Murphy in A Wodehouse Handbook suggests that “Elsmore” is only a misprint for “Elsinore”.]
II.2.412-417 “ ’twas caviare to the general”
Note that “general” here means “the general public, the multitude”.
Hamlet.
[. . .] the play, I remember, pleased not the million; ’twas caviare to the general. But it was—as I received it, and others, whose judgments in such matters cried in the top of mine—an excellent play, well digested in the scenes, set down with as much modesty as cunning.
- HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 7No accounting for tastes is the way one has to look at these things, one man’s caviar being another man’s major-general, as the old saw says.
II.2.532-533 “What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba?”
Hamlet.
What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
That he should weep for her?
- PU03A Prefect’s Uncle (1903), 4“What’s Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba?” murmured Pringle.
“Hecuba?” said Lorimer, looking puzzled, “What’s Hecuba got to do with it?”
“I was only quoting,” said Pringle, with gentle superiority.
“Well, I wish instead of quoting rot you’d devote your energies to helping me with these beastly verses. How on earth shall I begin?”
“You might adapt my quotation. ‘What’s Dido got to do with me, or I to do with Dido?’ ” - FP29Fish Preferred (Summer Lightning) (1929), 12.5Dripping in an unpleasant manner on the carpet, for he seemed somehow to have got himself extremely wet, stood the Efficient Baxter. Beach regarded him with a placid eye. What was Baxter to him or he to Baxter now?
II.2.579-580 “The play’s the thing”: The Mouse-trap
The Mouse-trap, also called The Murder of Gonzago, is the play-within-the-play which Hamlet uses to find out the truth about his father’s death. It is introduced at the end of Act II and enacted in Act III, Scene 2.
Hamlet.
The play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.
- PT26The Play’s the Thing (1926)
Wodehouse’s adaptation of a Molnár playThe Play’s the Thing.
[Title.] - SM37Summer Moonshine (1937), 5“I’m counting on it to have much the same effect as the one in Hamlet. There was a good dramatist, too, by the way—Shakespeare.”
- UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 9.4In the literature and drama which have come down to us through the ages there have been a number of powerful descriptions of men reacting to unpleasant surprises. That of King Claudius watching the unfolding of the play of “The Mouse Trap” is one of these, and writers of a later date than Shakespeare have treated vividly of the husband who discovers in an inner pocket the letter given to him by his wife to slip in the mail box two weeks previously.
- SU63Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963), 9“The setup was the same as the play in Hamlet. You know. With which to catch the conscience of the king and all that.”
III.1 Hamlet’s Soliloquy
General references to Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” monologue (and to Shakespeare’s monologues in general.) Quotations of specific passages are broken down in the following sections.
- MK09Mike (1909), 43Soliloquy is a knack. Hamlet had got it, but probably only after years of patient practice.
[=MK092bThe Lost Lambs
second part of Mike serialized in The Captain, 1908/04-09, 14; MK092BEnter Psmith
A. & C. Black, 1935, 14; MK092B2Mike and Psmith
Jenkins, 1953, 14.] - MN28Money for Nothing (1928), 7.3“In the good old days I could have done Hamlet’s Soliloquy, and the hall would have rung with hearty cheers.”
- MB42Money in the Bank (1942), 23“That mouth of yours. Does it shut? It does? Then shut it, blast yer. Lord-love-a-duck, anyone would think you were one of those ghastly fellers in Shakespeare that do soliloquies.”
[=MB42aMoney in the Bank
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1941/11/08–1941/12/27, 25.] - MB42Money in the Bank (1942), 25This was made evident by the fact that, almost from the moment he entered the room, he had started to speak to himself in an undertone, as if he had been one of those soliloquising characters in Shakespeare whom Lord Uffenham disliked so much, about low-down double-crossers and people with whom skunks would blush to associate.
[Not in MB42aMoney in the Bank
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1941/11/08–1941/12/27.] - MS49The Mating Season (1949), 5From start to finish of every meal she soliloquized. Shakespeare would have liked her.
- BW52Barmy in Wonderland (Angel Cake) (1952), 12“Oh, hullo. I didn’t know you were there. I—er—I was sort of soliloquizing. Like those blokes in Shakespeare.”
- 55-MWL“The Man We Love”
in Punch, 1955/04/06John Bartlett’s face lit up.
“I know one quotation already—‘To be or not to be, that is the question’—so I’m off to a running start.” - 56-HBA“Hi, Bartlett!”
in America, I Like You (1956), 1John Bartlett’s face lit up. He lost that sullen look.
“Mater,” he said, “I believe you’ve got something there. I’ll do just that little thing. I see what you mean. ‘To be or not to be,’ and all that guff.”
[57-BOE“Bring On the Earls”
in Over Seventy (1957), 2 omits “I’ll do just that little thing.”] - 67GA“George and Alfred” (1967)
Pla PP WMHe had never been fond of policemen since one of them, while giving him a parking ticket, had recited Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” speech to give him some idea of what he could do in a dramatic role. - 67GC“A Good Cigar Is a Smoke” (1967)
Pla PP“Someone was approaching, or rather I should have said that two persons were approaching, for if there had been only one person approaching, he would hardly have been talking to himself. Though, of course, you do get that sort of thing in Shakespeare. Hamlet, to take but one instance, frequently soliloquised.”
[67GCa“A Good Cigar Is a Smoke”
in Playboy, 1967/12: “persons were approaching, for whoever it was would hardly”.] - MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 9As I came in, I heard her mutter, soliloquizing like someone in Shakespeare, “Measured tread of saint round St. Paul’s, for God’s sake”, seeming to indicate that she had come up against a hot one, and I think it was a relief to her to become aware that her favourite nephew was at her side and that she could conscientiously abandon her distasteful task, for she looked up and greeted me cheerily.
III.1.57-60 “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”
Hamlet.
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?
- PU03A Prefect’s Uncle (1903), 3The cabman, apparently accepting the situation as one of those slings and arrows of outrageous fortune which no man can hope to escape, settled down on the box, clicked up his horse, and drove on towards the college.
- MK09Mike (1909), 51In all times of storm and tribulation there comes a breaking-point, a point where the spirit definitely refuses to battle any longer against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
[=MK092bThe Lost Lambs
second part of Mike serialized in The Captain, 1908/04-09, 22.] - PC10Psmith in the City (The New Fold) (1910), 3Psmith’s attitude towards the slings and arrows of outrageous Fortune was to regard them with a bland smile, as if they were part of an entertainment got up for his express benefit.
- 14ST“A Sea of Troubles” (1914)
McC PeK M2LA Sea of Troubles.
[Title.] - 14ST“A Sea of Troubles” (1914)
McC PeK M2LThere had been moments, in the interval which had elapsed between the first inception of the idea and his present state of fixed determination, when he had wavered. In these moments he had debated, with Hamlet, the question whether it was nobler in the mind to suffer, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them. But all that was over now. He was resolved.
Mr. Meggs’s point, the main plank, as it were, in his suicidal platform, was that with him it was beside the question whether or not it was nobler to suffer in the mind. The mind hardly entered into it at all. - SN15Something New (Something Fresh) (1915), 3Even in their schooldays she had always needed to be looked after and comforted. Her sweet temper had seemed to invite the minor slings and arrows of fortune.
- PJ17Piccadilly Jim (1917), 1Nature had made him out of office hours essentially a passive organism, and it was his tendency, when he found himself in a sea of troubles, to float plaintively, not to take arms against it. To pick up the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and fling them back was not a habit of his.
- 20GF“The Golden Flaw” (1920)
(Gra & PS3 as “The Colour Line”) McCAll his life Lancelot had bowed meekly before the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune; all his life he had accepted affronts as his birthright, the birthright of a mild man.
[20GFa“The Golden Flaw”
in McClure’s, 1920/03+04: “as his birthright.”] - LW20The Little Warrior (Jill the Reckless) (1920), 4.1This was how a man ought to take the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
- AS22The Adventures of Sally (Mostly Sally) (1922), 4His temperament had enabled him to bear the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune with a philosophic “Right ho!”
[Not in AS22bThe Adventures of Sally
serial in Grand, 1922/04-10.] - SF48Spring Fever (1948), 3It generally takes a man who likes to sleep till nine much more than four and a quarter hours to recover from the shock of having “Happy birthday” sung to him over the transatlantic telephone at seven, and in addition to this shattering experience there had been other slings and arrows of outrageous Fortune whistling about the fifth Earl’s ears this morning.
- MS49The Mating Season (1949), 5However tough the going, he will say, and however numerous what are called the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, you will still find Bertram in there swinging.
- OR51The Old Reliable (1951), 15It might be that matters had reached such a pass as to be beyond the power of human control, but if anyone could take arms against this sea of troubles and by opposing end them, it was good old Bill.
[Not in OR51aPhipps to the Rescue
serial in Collier’s, 1950/06/24–1950/07/22.] - PW52Pigs Have Wings (1952), 1.4It was an axiom of the old Pelican Club that, no matter what slings and arrows outrageous fortune might launch in his direction, Gally Threepwood could be counted upon to preserve the calm insouciance of a pig on ice.
[PW52aPigs Have Wings
serial in Collier’s, 1952/08/16–1952/09/20, PW52APigs Have Wings
Doubleday, 1952: “an axiom at the”.] - RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 9The fellow—Shakespeare, he rather thought, though he would have to check with Jeeves—who had spoken of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, had known what he was talking about. Slings and arrows described it to a nicety.
- JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 12“There is a method by means of which Mrs. Travers can be extricated from her sea of troubles. Shakespeare.”
I didn’t know why he was addressing me as Shakespeare, but I motioned him to continue.
[=JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04, 10.] - JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 21Beneath the thingummies of what-d’you-call-it his head, wind and weather permitting, is as a rule bloody but unbowed, and if the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune want to crush his proud spirit, they have to pull their socks up and make a special effort.
[Not in JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04.] - 55TC“A Tithe for Charity” (1955)
Pla FQOBAs he listened to the story I had to tell, his mobile features gradually lengthened. A lifetime of reeling beneath the slings and arrows of outrageous Fortune had left this man’s fibres toughened, but not so toughened that he was able to bear the latest of them with nonchalance. - FL56French Leave (1956), 6.4It was only then that he observed that his parent’s normally unruffled features were drawn and twisted and that he was breathing heavily like a man whom some sling or arrow of outrageous fortune has struck on a tender spot.
[=FL56cFrench Leave
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1955/09/24, 13; Not in FL56bFrench Leave
serial in John Bull, 1955/11/12–1955/12/03.] - 58RA“The Right Approach” [Mulliner version] (1958)
Lil FQO WM“I am relieved to hear it. He used to be troubled a good deal by clergyman’s sore throat, like my niece Hermione’s father, the late Bishop of Stortford,” said Mrs. Gudgeon, and it was at this moment that Augustus came to the decision which was to plunge him into what Shakespeare calls a sea of troubles. - HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 7In a matter of seconds by Shrewsbury clock, as Aunt Dahlia would have said, I could see that she was going to come out with one of those schemes or plans of hers that not only stagger humanity and turn the moon to blood but lead to some unfortunate male—who on the present occasion would, I strongly suspected, be me—getting immersed in what Shakespeare calls a sea of troubles, if it was Shakespeare.
[See King Henry IV (1st Part), V.4.144-147.] - SU63Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963), 4He and the young master may have had differences about Alpine hats with pink feathers in them, but when he sees the y. m. on the receiving end of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, he sinks his dudgeon and comes through with the feudal spirit at its best.
- PP67The Purloined Paperweight (Company for Henry) (1967), 7.4He was no stranger to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and as a rule was able to bear them stoically, but those frightful words that Jane had spoken as the train was drawing into Victoria had pierced his armour.
[PP67BCompany for Henry
Jenkins, 1967: “words which Jane”.] - PB69A Pelican at Blandings (No Nudes Is Good Nudes) (1969), 9.5He was a doughty warrior and never gave in readily when in receipt of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, but reviewing the position of affairs he was compelled to recognize that the outlook could not be called promising.
- PB69A Pelican at Blandings (No Nudes Is Good Nudes) (1969), 13.3Unlike the members of the Pelican Club, Lord Emsworth, when on the receiving end of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, always allowed his doubts and fears to be visible to the naked eye.
- MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 9I would be surprised to learn that in the whole W.1 postal section of London there is a man more capable than Bertram Wooster of bearing up with a stiff upper lip under what I have heard Jeeves call the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune; but at these frightful words I confess that I went into my old aspen routine even more wholeheartedly than I had done during my get-together with the relict of the late McCorkadale.
- BA73Bachelors Anonymous (1973), 5.1He was by nature an optimist, and the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune which up to the present had played such a large part in his life had not completely crushed the hope that, as his friend Mac had said, the sun would one of these days come smiling through.
- BA73Bachelors Anonymous (1973), 7There are limits to the staying powers of even the most enamoured, and he had eventually been compelled to recognize that this was just another of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune which had been so frequent recently in his life, and abandon his vigil.
[BA73BBachelors Anonymous
Barrie & Jenkins, 1973: “arrows and abandon”.] - AA74Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (The Cat-Nappers) (1974), 14It shows the state to which the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, as somebody called them, had reduced me that I didn’t laugh a hacking laugh at this.
- SB77Sunset at Blandings (1977), 16Somebody like Fruity Biffen, taken aback when his Assyrian beard fell off, might register momentary dismay, but most members beneath the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune were able to preserve the easy nonchalance of a Red Indian at the stake.
III.1.60-64 “a consummation devoutly to be wished”
Hamlet.
To die – to sleep –
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to; ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished.
- 01AU“Author!” (1901)
PSM TSATo be kept in on a half-holiday is annoying, but it is one of those ills which the flesh is heir to, and your true philosopher can always take his gruel like a man. - 03MC“The Manœuvres of Charteris” (1903)
Cap TSA, 6“And that is, on my part at least, a consummation—er—devoutly to be wished.”
[Not in 03MCb“The Manœuvres of Charteris”
in The Captain, 1903/08-09.] - 26SL“A Slice of Life” (1926)
Lib Str MMMThe result was that while still quite a young man he had won an established reputation as the inventor of … many other preparations, some designed exclusively for the toilet, others of a curative nature, intended to alleviate the many ills to which the flesh is heir. - 30IS“Indian Summer of an Uncle” (1930)
Cos Str VGJ“Then, if your scheme works and Uncle George edges out, it will do your pal a bit of good?”
“Yes, sir. Smethurst—his name is Smethurst—would consider it a consummation devoutly to be wished.”
“Rather well put, that, Jeeves. Your own?”
“No, sir. The Swan of Avon, sir.”
[30ISa“Indian Summer of an Uncle”
in Cosmopolitan, 1930/03, 30ISA“The Indian Summer of an Uncle”
in VGJA, 30ISb“Indian Summer of an Uncle”
in Strand, 1930/03: last two lines omitted.] - BM31Big Money (1931), 9.5“In fact,” said the Biscuit, now definitely perking up, “you might describe it as a consummation devoutly to be wished.”
- CW38The Code of the Woosters (1938), 10“A consummation devoutly to be wished, sir.”
“You said it, Jeeves.”
[Only first sentence in CW38bThe Code of the Woosters
serial in Daily Mail, 1938/09/08–1938/10/21. Not in CW38aThe Code of the Woosters
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1938/07/16–1938/09/03.] - UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 5And ever since the assignment of judging the bonny babies at the fête had been handed to his nephew William, Sir Aylmer had been in a mood which could almost be called rollicking, a consummation always devoutly to be wished by a wife whose life work it was to keep him in a good temper.
[Not in UD48aUncle Dynamite
condensed in Liberty, 1949/04, UD48cUncle Dynamite
condensed in Toronto Star Weekly, 1949/04/30.] - RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 8“Captain Biggar won three thousand quid on the Oaks.”
“Indeed, sir? A consummation devoutly to be wished.” - SF57Something Fishy (The Butler Did It) (1957), 26“A consummation devoutly to be wished, of course, for, as I have sometimes pointed out, it will make him more spiritual, and he is a man who needs all the spirituality he can get, but a state of affairs at which Bill Hollister, if I read him aright, would look askance.”
- BG65The Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood (Galahad at Blandings) (1965), 12.2“I shouldn’t have offended Daphne.”
“Why not? It was the consummation devoutly to be wished.” - 65BB“Bingo Bans the Bomb” (1965)
Arg Pla PP TDC“And don’t use a safety razor, use one of the old-fashioned kind, because then there’s a sporting chance that you may sever your carotid artery, which would be what some writer fellow whose name I can’t recall described as a consummation devoutly to be wished.”
[65BBa“Bingo Bans the Bomb”
in Playboy, 1965/01, 65BBb“Bingo Bans the Bomb”
in Argosy, 1965/08: “your blasted carotid artery”.] - PB69A Pelican at Blandings (No Nudes Is Good Nudes) (1969), 9.1If, said his guardian angel, he were to creep noiselessly up behind John and give him a push, John would infallibly fall down these stairs whose surface had so recently been tested and proved slippery and probably break a leg. A consummation devoutly to be wished, for he would be removed to hospital and there would be no necessity for him, Chesney, to leave the castle in order to avoid a meeting which could not but be fraught with embarrassment.
- BA73Bachelors Anonymous (1973), 7“What Shakespeare would call a consummation devoutly to be wished. Very satisfactory. Most satisfactory.”
III.1.64-68 “Ay, there’s the rub”
Hamlet.
To die – to sleep –
To sleep! Perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil
Must give us pause.
- LG36Laughing Gas (1936), 12That was the rub.
- JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 15There was what is called the rub.
[Not in JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04.]
III.1.76-82 “Who would fardels bear”
Hamlet.
Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death —
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveller returns — puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
- OS57, FForeword to Over Seventy
Jenkins, 1957 Which is intolerable.1
————————————
1 It is what Shakespeare would have called a fardel. See Hamlet, Act Three, Scene One—“Who would fardels bear?”
III.1.83-88 “the native hue of resolution”
In line 86 modern editions of the play generally prefer to read pitch. Lott observes: “pitch: height—a technical term used to indicate the height in the flight of a falcon. The early Folios have pith here, which also makes sense” (p. 98). Wodehouse almost always uses pith; the variant pitch in CW38AThe Code of the Woosters
Doubleday, Doran, 1938
and CW38BThe Code of the Woosters
Jenkins, 1938 (Jenkins 6th reprint) is probably a typist’s or printer’s error rather than a deliberate correction.
Hamlet.
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought;
And enterprises of great pitch and moment,
With this regard, their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.
- MK09Mike (1909), 37Mike on these occasions was silent and jumpy, his brow “sicklied o’er with the pale cast of care.”
[=MK092bThe Lost Lambs
second part of Mike serialized in The Captain, 1908/04-09, 8.] - IJ10The Intrusion of Jimmy (A Gentleman of Leisure) (1910), 24As he was moving off through the hall, a hand fell upon his shoulder. Conscience makes cowards of us all. Spennie bit his tongue and leaped three inches into the air.
- 12RR“Rallying Round Old George” (1912)
Col (“Brother Alfred”) Str M2LA MMJ EJWhat is it Shakespeare or somebody says about some fellow’s face being sicklied o’er with the pale cast of care? George’s was like that. He looked green.
[12RRa“Brother Alfred”
in Collier’s, 1913/09/27: “some Johnnie’s face”.] - HW32Hot Water (1932), 6.3And thus the native hue of resolution—Mr. Gedge’s resolution—was sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought (Mr. Gedge’s), and enterprises of great pith and moment—such as ringing the bell and telling the butler to show Packy the door—with this regard their currents turned awry and lost the name of action. Few men in alpaca coats and striped flannel trousers had ever so closely resembled Hamlet as did Mr. Gedge at this moment.
[Not in HW32aHot Water
serial in Collier’s, 1932/05/21–1932/08/06.] - RH34Right Ho, Jeeves (Brinkley Manor) (1934), 13“I’ve just been having a chat with young Tuppy, Jeeves. Did you happen to notice that he wasn’t looking very roguish this morning?”
“Yes, sir. It seemed to me that Mr. Glossop’s face was sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.” - CW38The Code of the Woosters (1938), 2“I quite understand, sir. And thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, and enterprises of great pitch and moment in this regard their currents turn awry and lose the name of action.”
“Exactly. You take the words out of my mouth.”
[CW38aThe Code of the Woosters
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1938/07/16–1938/09/03: “great pith”. CW38bThe Code of the Woosters
serial in Daily Mail, 1938/09/08–1938/10/21: “great pith and moment, with this regard, their”.] - CW38The Code of the Woosters (1938), 12Her chirpiness waned. I had expected it would. She had been beaming. She beamed no longer. Eyeing her steadily, I saw that the native hue of resolution had become sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.
[Not in CW38aThe Code of the Woosters
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1938/07/16–1938/09/03, CW38bThe Code of the Woosters
serial in Daily Mail, 1938/09/08–1938/10/21.] - MS49The Mating Season (1949), 2His brow was sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought and his air that of a man who, if he had said “Hullo, girls,” would have said it like someone in a Russian drama announcing that Grandpapa had hanged himself in the barn.
- OR51The Old Reliable (1951), 9Reason told him that it was improbable that his sister-in-law, a woman who was fond of her sleep, would take it into her head to roam the house at this hour, but the hideous possibility of such a disaster had not failed to present itself to his shrinking mind, and the native hue of resolution on his face was sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.
[OR51aPhipps to the Rescue
serial in Collier’s, 1950/06/24–1950/07/22: “his twin-chinned face”.] - BW52Barmy in Wonderland (Angel Cake) (1952), 10Barmy’s face, both men were distressed to observe, was still sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.
- RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 11“As Shakespeare says, we have an enterprise of great importance.”
Jeeves winced. “ ‘Enterprises of great pith and moment’ is the exact quotation, sir.” - RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 14“You can see from his lordship’s lacklustre eye that the native hue of his resolution is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.”
- JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 10However, it was only fleeting attention that I gave to this facet of the situation. My thoughts were concentrated on something of far greater pith and moment, as Jeeves would say.
[Not in JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04.] - HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 2I don’t know if Kipper, when I rejoined him, noticed that my brow was sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, as I have heard Jeeves put it.
- PP67The Purloined Paperweight (Company for Henry) (1967), 9.1As Algy sat in the Beetle and Wedge’s lounge, looking out on the High Street and sipping whisky and soda, it would perhaps be an exaggeration to say that his brow was sicklied o’er with the pale cast of care, but he was far from being his usual debonair self.
- PP67The Purloined Paperweight (Company for Henry) (1967), 10.3“He told me he froze from the soles of the feet upward.”
“One can see how he would, he having a conscience as sore as a sunburned neck. What is it Shakespeare says about a guilty conscience? It doth something, Shakespeare says, but just what eludes me at the moment.” - DB68Do Butlers Burgle Banks? (1968), 5.4Ever since he had taken in the early post and read the letter addressed to him in a round female hand, his brow had been sicklied o’er with the pale cast of care, his air that of a man who has received a painful blow.
- MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 12“Well, I don’t blame the aged relative for being jumpy,” I said. “She’s all tied up with an enterprise of pith and something.”
“Of great pith and moment, sir?”
“That’s right.”
“Let us hope that its current will not turn awry and lose the name of action.”
“Yes, let’s. Turn what?”
“Awry, sir.”
“Don’t you mean agley?”
“No, sir.”
“Then it isn’t the poet Burns?”
“No, sir. The words occur in Shakespeare’s drama Hamlet.”
“Oh, I know Hamlet. Aunt Agatha once made me take her son Thos to it at the Old Vic. Not a bad show, I thought, though a bit highbrow. You’re sure the poet Burns didn’t write it?”
“Yes, sir. The fact, I understand, is well established.” - MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 13It seemed to me that the snag which had raised its ugly head was one of formidable—you might say king-size—dimensions, well calculated to make the current of whatever he proposed to do about it turn awry and lose the name of action.
III.1.149 “O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!”
Ophelia.
O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!
- 57-MMS“My Methods, Such As They Are”
in Over Seventy (1957), 2There always comes a moment in the concoction of a scenario when I pause and say to myself, “Oh, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown.” - 75-TY34,P1975 Preface to Thank You, Jeeves (1934)It is my practice to make about 400 pages of notes before starting a novel, and during this process there always comes a moment when I say to myself “Oh, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown.”
- SB77Sunset at Blandings (1977), 14This completed Jeff’s illusion of having lost his reason. Oh, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown, he might have said to himself if he had remembered the quotation.
III.1.154-159 “like sweet bells jangled”
Ophelia.
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
That sucked the honey of his music vows,
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;
That unmatched form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstasy.
- AS22The Adventures of Sally (Mostly Sally) (1922), 16.3But Bruce Carmyle’s emotions, like sweet bells jangled, were out of tune, and he could not recapture the first fine careless rapture.
[AS22aThe Adventures of Sally
serial in Collier’s, 1921/10/18–1921/12/31, 12: “His emotions”.] - 36MT“The Masked Troubadour” (1936)
(SEP & PS9 as “Reggie and the Greasy Bird”) Str LEO CWB TDCIn order to make a song a smash, it is not enough for the singer to be on top of his form. The accompanist, also, must do his bit. And the primary thing a singer expects from his accompanist is that he shall play the accompaniment of the song he is singing.
This Jos. Waterbury was not doing, and it was this that was causing the sweet-bells-jangled effect which Freddie had observed.
[36MTa“Reggie and the Greasy Bird”
in Saturday Evening Post, 1936/11/28 and PS9: “This Sid Montrose was not”, “which Reggie had observed.”]
III.2.4-8 “Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand . . .”
Hamlet.
Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus [He makes gestures in the air with his hands]; but use all gently. For in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness.
- WF07The White Feather (1907), 9“You’ll do fine, sir. But remember what Shakespeare says.”
“About vaulting ambition?”
“No, sir, no. I meant what Hamlet says to the players. ‘Nor do not saw the air too much, with your hand, thus, but use all gently.’ That’s what you’ve got to remember in boxing, sir.”
[See Macbeth, I.7.21-28.] - PA12The Prince and Betty
Watt, 1912, 5Mr. Scobell sawed the air with his arms, but was powerless to dam the flood.
[=PB12B, 5The Prince and Betty
Mills & Boon, 1912/05/01
and UK reprints from Newnes, others; Not in PB12aThe Prince and Betty
in Ainslee’s, 1912/01, PB12bThe Prince and Betty
in Strand, 1912/02–1912/04.] - AS22The Adventures of Sally (Mostly Sally) (1922), 13.4On the rare occasions on which he had been knocked down in the past, it had been Bugs Butler’s canny practice to pause for a while and rest before rising and continuing the argument, but now he was up almost before he had touched the boards, and the satire of the second wise guy, who had begun to saw the air with his hand and count loudly, lost its point.
[Not in AS22bThe Adventures of Sally
serial in Grand, 1922/04-10, AS22cMostly Sally
serial in Maclean’s, 1921/10/15–1922/03/01.] - LB35BThe Luck of the Bodkins
Jenkins, 1935 (full-length novel), 16Monty began to fling his arms heavenwards [...] Monty sawed the air once more.
[Not in LB35aThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version in Redbook, 1935/08–1936/01, LB35bThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version in The Passing Show, 1935/09/21–1935/11/23, LB35AThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version, Little, Brown, 1936.] - LB35The Luck of the Bodkins (1935), 19Reggie sawed the air wildly.
III.2.362-364 “ ’Tis now the very witching time of night”
Hamlet.
’Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world.
- RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 15Except for the squeaking of mice behind the wainscoting and an occasional rustling sound as one of the bats in the chimney stirred uneasily in its sleep, Rowcester Abbey lay hushed and still. ’Twas now the very witching time of night, and in the Blue Room Rory and Monica, pleasantly fatigued after the activities of the day, slumbered peacefully.
[RJ53AThe Return of Jeeves
Simon & Schuster, 1954: “Towcester Abbey”. Not in RJ53aThe Return of Jeeves
condensed in Ladies’ Home Journal, 1954/04, RJ53cRing for Jeeves
condensed in Toronto Star Weekly, 1953/09/05.]
III.3.36-38 “O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven”
King.
O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven,
It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t,
A brother’s murder.
- 60-OM0420“Our Man in America”
in Punch, 1960/04/20Smells to heaven—N. Y. Times
A real stinker—N. Y. Herald-Tribune
Is there a skunk in the house?—N. Y. Daily Mirror - SS61Service with a Smile (1961), 4.3As Hamlet would have put it, their offence was rank and smelled to heaven.
[The line is spoken by King Claudius, not Hamlet.]
[=SS61cService with a Smile
condensed in Toronto Star Weekly, 1961/08/26–1961/09/02, 4.] - PB69A Pelican at Blandings (No Nudes Is Good Nudes) (1969), 7.3“Emsworth,” he said, “you smell to heaven.”
III.3.80-95 “full of bread, with all his crimes broad blown . . .”
Hamlet.
He took my father grossly, full of bread,
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;
And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?
But, in our circumstance and course of thought,
’Tis heavy with him. And am I then revenged,
To take him in the purging of his soul,
When he is fit and seasoned for his passage?
No!
Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent.
When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,
Or in th’ incestuous pleasure of his bed;
At gaming, swearing, or about some act
That has no relish of salvation in ’t –
Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,
And that his soul may be as damned and black
As hell, whereto it goes.
- LC06Love Among the Chickens (1906–09), 15I would arise, and be a man, and slay him: take him grossly, full of bread, with all his crimes broad-blown, as flush as May; at gaming, swearing, or about some act that had no relish of salvation in it.
[Same in LC21Love Among the Chickens
Jenkins, 1921. Not in LC06aLove Among the Chickens
serial in Circle, 1908/09–1909/03.] - 23FA“First Aid for Dora” (1923)
Cos Str ULike Hamlet on a less impressive occasion, I wanted to slay this man when he was full of bread, with all his crimes broad-blown, as flush as May, at drinking, swearing, or about some act that had no relish of salvation in it.
III.4.54-55 “Look here, upon this picture, and on this”
Hamlet.
Look here, upon this picture, and on this [He shows her pictures of his father and his uncle],
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
- 15BB“Bill the Bloodhound” (1915)
Cen Str M2L“Look here upon this picture, and on that.” - 29SA“Jeeves and the Spot of Art” (1929)
Cos Str VGJ“Am I not right in supposing that if Miss Pendlebury is in a position to go into the sick-room, take a long look at the interesting invalid, and then pop out, with the memory of that look fresh in her mind, and get a square sight of me lounging about in sponge-bag trousers, she will draw damaging comparisons? You see what I mean? Look on this picture and on that—the one romantic, the other not . . . Eh?” - IW31If I Were You (1931), 21“What good’s a lawyer going to do you when the Court sees me and ’im together?” He jerked a thumb at the portrait of Long-Sword. “Look ’ere,” he said, striking an attitude, “upon that picture and on this.”
[Not in IW31aIf I Were You
in American, 1931/04-07.] - UF39Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939), 15“Look here upon this picture and on this, as Shakespeare says. You a humble poet, him a splendid young fellow that’s rolling in riches and is going to be a duke any day now, if all goes well and his uncle kicks the bucket.”
[Not in UF39BUncle Fred in the Springtime
Jenkins, 1939.] - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 18It seemed to me that what she must be saying to herself was “Look here upon this picture and on this,” as it were. I mean to say, on the one hand, a suave, knightly donor of expensive brooches; on the other, an obstinate, mulish, pigheaded, overbearing, unimaginative, tyrannical jack in office.
- FM47Full Moon (1947), 7.1There were unshed tears in Tipton’s eyes as they stared down at this counterfeit presentment of the girl he loved.
[Not in FM47aFull Moon
condensed in Liberty, 1947/11.]
III.4.56-63 “an eye like Mars”
Hamlet.
See, what a grace was seated on this brow –
Hyperion’s curls, the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
A station like the herald Mercury
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;
A combination and a form indeed
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man.
- MS49The Mating Season (1949), 8“What’s that thing of Shakespeare’s about someone having an eye like Mother’s?”
“An eye like Mars, to threaten and command, is possibly the quotation for which you are groping, sir.”
“That’s right. Uncle Charlie has an eye like that.” - DB68Do Butlers Burgle Banks? (1968), 7.3There were two Horace Applebys—the one who breathed words of love into the ear of the girl he adored, giving the impression of being all sweetness and light, and the one with a face of stone, the voice of a sergeant major and an eye like Mars to threaten and command.
- PG72Pearls, Girls, and Monty Bodkin (The Plot That Thickened) (1972), 3.1It so happened that her impact had been rendered still more overwhelming by the fact that she reminded him of the proprietress of his first kindergarten, whose iron discipline had done so much to embitter his formative years. The same suggestion of volcanic forces lurking behind a placid face. The same eye like Mars to threaten and command. The same unspoken promise of a juicy one over the knuckles with a ruler, should his behaviour call for it.
[PG72AThe Plot That Thickened
Simon & Schuster, 1973: “reminded him of his kindergarten teacher, whose”.]
III.4.135-136 “in his habit as he lived”
Hamlet.
Why, look you there! Look, how it steals away!
My father, in his habit as he lived!
- SM37Summer Moonshine (1937), 25He was a man who talked a great deal about life in Poona, and he liked, when possible, to supplement the spoken word with a display of photographic snapshots illustrating conditions in those parts. He held, and rightly, that there is nothing like seeing the thing for driving home a description of a banyan tree and that an anecdote about old Boko Paunceford-Smith of the East Surreys gains in point if the auditor is enabled to see old Boko in his habit as he lived; the same thing applying, of course, to an anecdote about young Buffy Vokes of the Bengal Lancers.
IV.5.37-39 “Larded with sweet flowers”
Ophelia.
(Sings)
Larded with sweet flowers;
Which bewept to the grave did go
With true-love showers.
- SS61Service with a Smile (1961), 1.3Myra Schoonmaker appeared, looking, except that she was not larded with sweet flowers, like Ophelia in Act Four, Scene Five, of Shakespeare’s well-known play Hamlet.
IV.5.73-75 “not single spies but in battalions”
King.
O Gertrude, Gertrude,
When sorrows come, they come not single spies
But in battalions.”
- LC06Love Among the Chickens (1906–09), 16Little accounts came not in single spies but in battalions.
[Same in LC21Love Among the Chickens
Jenkins, 1921. Not in LC06aLove Among the Chickens
serial in Circle, 1908/09–1909/03.] - 09GC“The Gem Collector”
in Ainslee’s, 1909/12, 3Lady Jane, who had fallen in love with the abbey some years before, during a visit to the neighborhood, had prevailed upon her square-shouldered lord to turn his twinkling gray eye in that direction, and the captain of industry, with the remark that here, at last, was a real bully old sure-fire English stately home, had sent down builders and their like, not in single spies, but in battalions, with instructions to get busy. - IJ10The Intrusion of Jimmy (A Gentleman of Leisure) (1910), 3He had not disdained the dollars that came as single spies rather than in battalions.
[IJ10BA Gentleman of Leisure
A. Rivers, 1910: “dollars which came”.] - WH14The White Hope (Their Mutual Child/The Coming of Bill) (1914), II.4He liked his friends as single spies, not in battalions.
- 23US“Ukridge Sees Her Through” (1923)
Cos Str UWhere couples had moved as single spies, they were now in battalions.
IV.5.120-122 “There’s such divinity doth hedge a king . . .”
King.
There’s such divinity doth hedge a king
That treason can but peep to what it would,
Acts little of his will.
- PH02The Pothunters (1902), 18Mr. Roberts had gone to the Dingle in person, and, by adroit use of the divinity which hedges a detective, had persuaded a keeper to lead him to the tree where, as Mr. Stokes had said, the cups had been deposited.
[Not in PH02bThe Pothunters
serial in Public School Magazine, 1902/01-03.]
V.1 The First Grave-Digger
The two Clowns that appear in this scene are commonly referred to as “gravediggers”.
- 23CF“Chester Forgets Himself” (1923)
SEP Str HG F!Even in foursomes where fifty yards is reckoned a good shot somebody must be away, and the man whose turn it was to play was the one who had acquired from his brother-members of the club the nickname of the First Grave-Digger.
[And passim.] - 36LL“The Letter of the Law” (1936)
Red (“Not Out of Distance”) Str YMSA LEO GOMore recently, he had taken up golf and, being somewhat short-sighted and completely muscle-bound, had speedily won for himself in our little community the affectionate sobriquet of the First Grave Digger.
[And passim.]
V.1.166-173 “Alas, poor Yorick!”
Hamlet.
Let me see. [Takes the skull] – Alas, poor Yorick! – I knew him, Horatio. A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now to mock your own grinning? Quite chop-fallen?
- 00WO“Work” (1900)
PSM TSAAlas! poor slacker. I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. Where be his gibes now? - 01-UF06“Under the Flail”
in Public School Magazine, 1901/06Alas, poor wreck! He was a sprinter, was the late (or practically late) De Browne. His time for the hundred was infinitesimal. And now! If he ever sprints now, it is in obedience to the summons of the manager of his Bank, or to catch a ’bus. - 03LI“The Last Instance” (1903)
Pun“Alas, poor Smythe!” I sighed. - 03-SDA“Screech Day” (1903)
in Daily Express, 1903/12/18According to the owners, most of the birds, when in the home circle, confined their conversation exclusively to the fatal phrase; never stopped saying it; laughed loudly after each repetition of it; roused the family with it at daybreak; charmed them with it at breakfast; kept the table in a roar with it at lunch; and served up variations on the original theme at dinner. - LC06Love Among the Chickens (1906–09), 13Alas, poor Hawk!
[Same in LC21Love Among the Chickens
Jenkins, 1921. Not in LC06aLove Among the Chickens
serial in Circle, 1908/09–1909/03.] - MK09Mike (1909), 17Where were his drives now, his late cuts that were wont to set the pavilion in a roar!
- MK09Mike (1909), 43“Alas, poor Jellicoe!” said Psmith.
[=MK092bThe Lost Lambs
second part of Mike serialized in The Captain, 1908/04-09, 14.] - IJ10The Intrusion of Jimmy (A Gentleman of Leisure) (1910), 2“Something’s happened to you, Jimmy. There was a time when you were a bright little chap, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. Where be your gibes now; your gambols, your songs, your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table in a roar when you were paying for the dinner?”
- LN13The Little Nugget (1913), I.1Whatever Ogden might be, there was no doubt that Billy Stanborough, that fellow of infinite jest, was the ideal companion for a voyage.
- WH14The White Hope (Their Mutual Child/The Coming of Bill) (1914), I.4His latest, which he had counted on to set the table in a roar, produced from Kirk criticism so adverse and so crisply delivered that he refrained from telling his latest but one and spent the rest of the evening wondering, like his fellow visitors, what had happened to Kirk and whether he was sickening for something.
- UM16Uneasy Money (1916), 5Alas, poor Nutty! This was he whom but yesterday Broadway had known as the Speed Kid, on whom head-waiters had smiled and lesser waiters fawned; whose snake-like form had nestled in so many a front-row orchestra stall.
Where were his lobster Newburgs now, his cold quarts that were wont to set the table in a roar?
[UM16aUneasy Money
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1915/12/04–1916/01/15, UM16AUneasy Money
D. Appleton, 1916: “orchestra chair”.] - AS22The Adventures of Sally (Mostly Sally) (1922), 6.3Alas, poor Fillmore!
- JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 7“Joke Goods?”
“The things you see advertised in toy-shop catalogues as handy for breaking the ice and setting the table in a roar. You know. The Plate Lifter. The Dribble Glass. The Surprise Salt Shaker.” - FM47Full Moon (1947), 4.3Tipton Plimsoll was one of those young men who while capable, when well primed, of setting on a roar a table composed of males of their own age and mental outlook for whose refreshment they are paying, tend to lose their grip when alone with girls.
[Not in FM47aFull Moon
condensed in Liberty, 1947/11.] - OR51The Old Reliable (1951), 7“Alas, poor Phipps,” she said.
V.2.9-11 “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends . . .”
Hamlet.
And that should learn us
There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will –
- LC06Love Among the Chickens (1906–09), 16“It is Fate, Hawk,” I said, “simply Fate. There is a Divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will, and it’s no good grumbling.”
[Same in LC21Love Among the Chickens
Jenkins, 1921.] - 10RH“Rough-Hew Them How We Will” (1910)
Cos Str MU“Rough-Hew Them How We Will.”
[Title.] - 15BB“Bill the Bloodhound” (1915)
Cen Str M2LThere’s a divinity that shapes our ends. Consider the case of Henry Pifield Rice, detective.
[15BBa“Bill, the Bloodhound”
in Century, 1915/02 epigraph:
“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.”] - 27CD“Came the Dawn” (1927)
Lib Str MMM“Yes, gentlemen,” he said, “Shakespeare was right. There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.”
We nodded. He had been speaking of a favourite dog of his which, entered recently by some error in a local cat show, had taken first prize in the class for short-haired tortoiseshells; and we all thought the quotation well-chosen and apposite.
V.2.334-340 “The rest is silence”
Hamlet.
O, I die, Horatio;
The potent poison quite o’er-crows my spirit.
But I do prophesy th’ election lights
On Fortinbras. He has my dying voice;
So tell him, with the occurrents, more or less,
Which have solicited – The rest is silence. [Dies
- MB42Money in the Bank (1942), 21“You’ll be lucky if you’re able to say ‘The rest is silence.’ ”
“The rest is what?
“Silence.”
“But why should I want to?”
“I thought you might need a dying speech. That was Hamlet’s—a character in a play of that name by William Shakespeare,” said Anne, and was once more aware that this was becoming a light chat.
[Not in MB42aMoney in the Bank
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1941/11/08–1941/12/27.]
V.2.341-342 “Good night, sweet prince”
Horatio.
Now cracks a noble heart.—Good night, sweet prince;
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
- PB69A Pelican at Blandings (No Nudes Is Good Nudes) (1969), 7.5“No need,” he added, for he was a humane man and had no wish to see his brother’s adrenal glands stimulated beyond their capacity, “for you to come, Clarence. Dunstable and I can manage all right, and you ought to be in bed. Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”
Hamlet’s character
Allusions to the character of Hamlet, without obvious reference to a specific passage.
- 23HG“The Heart of a Goof” (1923)
Red Str HG F!He waggled as Hamlet might have waggled, moodily, irresolutely. - 24CP“The Custody of the Pumpkin” (1924)
SEP Str BCEHamlet’s society at Elsinore must have had much the same effect on his stepfather as did that of Freddie Threepwood at Blandings on Lord Emsworth.
[Not in 24CPa“The Custody of the Pumpkin”
in Saturday Evening Post, 1924/11/29, 24CPb“The Custody of the Pumpkin”
in Strand, 1924/12.] - 35CM“The Code of the Mulliners” (1935)
Cos Str YMS WMHis mood was Hamlet-like—wavering, irresolute. Reason told him that this thing had got to be done: but, as he told Reason, nobody was going to make him like it.
[35CMa“The Code of the Mulliners”
in Cosmopolitan, 1935/02: “Archibald’s mood”.] - UF39Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939), 7“When you get to know Pongo better,” said Lord Ickenham, “you will realize that he is always like this—moody, sombre, full of doubts and misgivings. Shakespeare drew Hamlet from him.”
[=UF39aUncle Fred in the Springtime
shorter serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1939/04/22–1939/05/27, 4.] - FM47Full Moon (1947), 5.1In a man who suddenly abstains from the alcoholic beverages which were once his principal form of nourishment a certain moodiness is to be expected, and all that this Hamlet-like despondency suggested to him was that his former playmate was still on the wagon, and he honoured him for it.
[Not in FM47aFull Moon
condensed in Liberty, 1947/11.] - UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 2“Sombre is the only word to describe your attitude as the cop’s fingers closed on your coat collar. You reminded me of Hamlet.”
- BW52Barmy in Wonderland (Angel Cake) (1952), 18Moody, wavering, irresolute, Oscar Fritchie was the sort of man who would have got on well with Hamlet.
[. . .]
“Oh?” said Oscar Fritchie, putting his hat down. “Well . . . then . . . I don’t know,” and you could see Hamlet patting him on the back and telling him he knew just how he felt. - JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 8“He moons broodingly to and fro, looking like Hamlet. I want you to come and divert him. Take him for walks, dance before him, tell him funny stories. Anything to bring a smile to that whiskered, tortoiseshell-rimmed face.”
I saw her point, of course. No hostess wants a Hamlet on the premises.
[JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04, 7 omits Bertie’s narration, second paragraph above.] - JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 10“I was forced to take her into my confidence soon after my arrival here, because she asked me why the devil I was going about looking like a dead codfish.”
“Or like Hamlet?”
“Hamlet or a dead codfish. The point is immaterial.”
[Not in JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04.] - 59BB“Big Business” [Mulliner version, as rewritten for FQO]
FQOAB WMToo little attention has been given by our greatest minds to the subject of Old Man River-singing, though such a subject is of absorbing interest. It has never, as far as one knows, been pointed out that this song is virtually impossible of proper rendition by a vocalist who is feeling boomps-a-daisy and on top of the world. The full flavour can be obtained and the last drop of juice squeezed out only by the man who is down among the wines and spirits and brooding gloomily on life in general. Hamlet would have sung it superbly. So would Schopenhauer and J. B. Priestley. - 59LA“Leave It to Algy” (1959)
FQO TDCIt was borne in upon Bingo that he was on what is generally called the horns of a dilemma. He stood there, like Hamlet, moody and irresolute, and while he hesitated the issue was taken out of his hands.
[Not in 59LAb“Leave It to Algy”
in John Bull, 1959/05/16.] - IB61[The] Ice in the Bedroom (1961), 20He brooded in silence for a moment. His aspect would have reminded a Shakespearean student, had one been present, of the less rollicking of the Hamlets he had seen on the stage at the Old Vic and Stratford.
- BG65The Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood (Galahad at Blandings) (1965), 1.2Tipton’s first enthusiasm had begun to wane. Like Hamlet, he had become irresolute.
- 66JG“Jeeves and the Greasy Bird” (1966) [book version]
PPAB WoJ“If somebody wanted me to play Hamlet, I would do my best to give satisfaction.” - PG72Pearls, Girls, and Monty Bodkin (The Plot That Thickened) (1972), 7.1He was conscious of a Hamlet-like moodiness.
Ophelia
Allusions to Ophelia, without obvious reference to a specific passage.
- FM47Full Moon (1947), 9.1Prudence, who, still toying with the idea of suicide by drowning, had just remembered the notable precedent of Ophelia and was asking what Ophelia had got that she hadn’t got, gave a startled jump and was silent.
[Not in FM47aFull Moon
condensed in Liberty, 1947/11.] - FM47Full Moon (1947), 9.2Prudence, forgetting Ophelia for the moment, said: “Golly!”
[Not in FM47aFull Moon
condensed in Liberty, 1947/11.] - PW52Pigs Have Wings (1952), 5.2Rising with a stifled sob, she had made a dive for the French windows and was now coming toward them, looking like Ophelia.
Other
Allusions to the play as a whole, without obvious reference to a specific passage.
- 04-PFH“A Protest from Hoxton” in “From My Tub” (column)
in Vanity Fair (UK), 1904/06/30If ’Oratio dropped his aitches and looked out for jobs of work,
If ’Amlet was conductor of a ’bus;
[. . .]
Then this Swan of Avon feller, wiv ’is ’Amlet and Otheller,
Will appeal to coves like Tolstoi, you, and me. - 07AL“The Americanisation of London” (1907)
Pun[Passim.] - WF07The White Feather (1907), 10Joe Bevan’s knowledge, of the plays, especially the tragedies, was wide, and at first inexplicable to Sheen. It was strange to hear him declaiming long speeches from Macbeth or Hamlet, and to think that he was by profession a pugilist.
- 15-WRH“What Really Happened to Hamlet” (1915)
in Vanity Fair (US), 1915/06[Passim. See Baconian Theory.] - 16-AAS“All About Shakespeare”
in Vanity Fair (US), 1916/04So Shakespeare would heave himself out of bed, dig down into the box where he kept other people’s plots, and by lunch-time he would hand Burbage the script of “Hamlet.”
“How do you like it?” he would ask.
“Rotten!” Burbage would reply. “But it’ll have to do.”
[Compare excerpt from 56-KWS“Kind Words for Shakespeare”
in Punch, 1956/03/21 under Othello, Other.] - 18JC“Jeeves and the Chump Cyril” (1918)
SEP Str IJ,9-10 EJThe part which old George had written for the chump Cyril took up about two pages of typescript; but it might have been Hamlet, the way that poor, misguided pinhead worked himself to the bone over it.
[=IJ23The Inimitable Jeeves (Jeeves) (1923), 10. 18JCa“Jeeves and the Chump Cyril”
in Saturday Evening Post, 1918/06/08: “The part Old George”.] - 320423-PFLetter to W. Townend, 1932/04/23
in Performing Flea (1953)Still, I’ll bet the plot of Hamlet seemed just as lousy when Shakespeare was trying to tell it to Ben Jonson in the Mermaid Tavern. (“Well, Ben, see what I mean, the central character is this guy, see, who’s in love with this girl, see, but her old man doesn’t think he’s on the level, see, so he tells her—wait a minute, I better start at the beginning. Well, so this guy’s in college, see, and he’s come home because his mother’s gone and married his uncle, see, and he sees a ghost, see. So this ghost turns out to be the guy’s father. . . .”) - 320306-AALetter to W. Townend, 1932/03/06
in Author! Author! (1962)Still, it really does work out all right, and I’ll bet the plot of Hamlet sounded just as crazy when Shakespeare tried to tell it to Ben Jonson at the Mermaid Tavern. (“Well, Ben, look, it’s like this: the lead character is this guy who’s in love with the girl, but her old man doesn’t think he’s leveling with her, so he tells her . . . no, wait a minute, I better start at the beginning. Well, so this guy’s in college, see, and he’s come home on account his mother’s married his uncle, see, and there’s a ghost horsing around and he runs into this ghost and it turns out it’s his father and it ells him to drop everything and murder his uncle, on account it was him that murdered him, if you see what I mean. So one thing leads to another and the guy murders the girl’s old man . . .”) - BG53Bring On the Girls! (1953), 8“The Colonel’s got a play of mine which he’s going to do as soon as he finds the right star. It’s called Ophelia. Hamlet from the woman’s angle. Meanwhile, he’s given me this job. He doesn’t pay me anything, of course. But I must be getting back to my galley. I’m doing you a bouillabaisse for lunch. An experiment, but I think it will have significant form.”
“Hold on a moment,” said Guy. “How long has the Colonel had this Ophelia of yours?” - 56-FBP“Francis Bacon and the Play Doctor”
in America, I Like You (1956)[Passim. See Baconian Theory.] - 57-THE“The Theatre”
in Over Seventy (1957)I would rather have written Oklahoma! than Hamlet. (Actually, as the records show, I wrote neither, but you get the idea.) - PP67The Purloined Paperweight (Company for Henry) (1967), 2.2“Which book of Dickens’s is it where there’s a woman who looked like Hamlet’s aunt? That’s Mrs. Simmons. On the somber side.”
[Mrs. Henry Spiker in David Copperfield, ch. 25.]
HENRY IV (1st Part)
Text used: J. Dover Wilson, The First Part of the History of Henry IV, C.U.P. 1946.
II.4.189-196 “Four rogues in buckram let drive at me”
Falstaff.
Two I am sure I have paid, two rogues in buckram suits . . . I tell thee what, Hal, if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face, call me horse. Thou knowest my old ward: here I lay, and thus I bore my point. Four rogues in buckram let drive at me –
Prince.
What, four? thou said’st but two even now.
Falstaff.
Four, Hal, I told thee four.
Poins.
Ay, ay, he said four.
- 26-HG,PPreface to The Heart of a Goof (1926)
and Divots (1927)Shakespeare himself, speaking querulously in the character of a weak player who held up an impatient foursome, said:
Four rogues in buckram let drive at me
III.1.52-54 “I can call spirits from the vasty deep”
Glendower.
I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
Hotspur.
Why, so can I, or so can any man,
But will they come when you do call for them?
- PJ17Piccadilly Jim (1917), 1“You can call Jimmy Crockers from the vasty deep, but will they come when you call for them?”
III.1.253-256 “a good mouth-filling oath”
Hotspur.
Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art,
A good mouth-filling oath, and leave ‘in sooth’,
And such protest of pepper-gingerbread,
To velvet-guards and Sunday-citizens.
- JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 14I suppose Uncle Percy was still feeling a bit edgy. Nothing else could have explained the crisp, mouth-filling expletive which now proceeded from him like a shot out of a gun.
V.4.110-121 “The better part of valour”
Falstaff.
The better part of valour is discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life.
- WF07The White Feather (1907), 4The Better Part of Valour.
[Chapter title.]
V.4.144-147 “by Shrewsbury clock”
Falstaff.
Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying! I grant you I was down and out of breath, and so was he, but we rose both at an instant, and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock.
- HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 6“Why the devil have you been such a time? I've been hanging on to this damned receiver a long hour by Shrewsbury clock.”
- HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 7In a matter of seconds by Shrewsbury clock, as Aunt Dahlia would have said, I could see that she was going to come out with one of those schemes or plans of hers that not only stagger humanity and turn the moon to blood but lead to some unfortunate male—who on the present occasion would, I strongly suspected, be me—getting immersed in what Shakespeare calls a sea of troubles, if it was Shakespeare.
[See Hamlet, III.1.57-60.] - HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 10“She spoke for perhaps five minutes——”
“By Shrewsbury clock.”
“What?”
“Nothing. What did she say?”
“I can’t repeat it all, and wouldn’t if I could.” - BM64Biffen’s Millions (Frozen Assets) (1964), 9.2But he could not have sold this piece of philosophy to Lord Tilbury at this point in his career if he had argued with him a full hour by Shrewsbury clock.
[Not in BM64aBiffen’s Millions
condensed in Playboy, 1964/02–03.]
Other
- 350123-PFLetter to W. Townend, 1935/01/23
in Performing Flea (1953)Reader’s report of Henry Fourth, Part One, by W. Shakespeare: “This is a story of life in London. The plot is improbable and does not carry conviction, as it deals with a Prince of Wales who apparently visits public houses. There is a fat man named Falstaff.” - 350123-WTDLetter to W. Townend, 1935/01/23
in Yours, Plum (ed. Donaldson, 1990), p. 140By the way, how does a publisher ever accept a novel on a reader’s report? If you told the story of any book as this man has done, it would sound awful.
Reader’s report of Henry Fourth, part one, by W. Shakespeare:— “This is the story of life in London, but it has no background. The plot is improbable and does not carry conviction, as it deals with a Prince of Wales who apparently visits public houses. There are literally dozens of characters in the story, but they are not living people set in a scene. There is a fat man named Falstaff.” - 460111-AALetter to W. Townend, 1946/01/11
in Author! Author! (1962)Typical reader’s report of Henry Fourth, Part One, by W. Shakespeare: “This is a story of life in London, with very little to recommend it. The plot is improbable and does not carry conviction, as it deals with a Prince of Wales who visits saloons. There is a fat man named Falstaff.” - 520107-ACPGW 1961 comment after
letter to W. Townend, 1952/01/07
in Author! Author! (1962)I doubt, too, if I have ever done anything much better than Falstaff.
HENRY IV (2nd Part)
Text used: J. Dover Wilson, The Second Part of the History of Henry IV, C.U.P. 1946.
I.1.67-75 “Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless . . .”
Northumberland.
How doth my son and brother?
Thou tremblest, and the whiteness in thy cheek
Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand.
Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless,
So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone,
Drew Priam’s curtain in the dead of night,
And would have told him half his Troy was burnt:
But Priam found the fire ere he his tongue,
And I my Percy’s death ere thou report’st it.
- LB35The Luck of the Bodkins (1935), 16As far as appearance went, Monty might have been one of the victims of that gas explosion in the London street. Even such a man so faint, so spiritless, so dead, so dull in look, so woebegone, drew Priam’s curtain in the dead of night and would have told him half his Troy was burnt—or so it seemed to Albert Peasemarch.
[Not in LB35aThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version in Redbook, 1935/08–1936/01, LB35bThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version in The Passing Show, 1935/09/21–1935/11/23.] - OR51The Old Reliable (1951), 18The face was drawn, the eyes haggard, the general appearance that of one who has searched for the leak in life’s gaspipe with a lighted candle. Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless, so dead, so dull in look, so woebegone, drew Priam’s curtain in the dead of night and would have told him half his Troy was burned.
- PW52Pigs Have Wings (1952), 2.5His moon-like face was twisted with mental agony, his gooseberry eyes bulging from their sockets. Even such a man so faint, so spiritless, so dead, so dull in look, so woebegone, drew Priam’s curtain in the dead of night and would have told him half his Troy was burned—or so it seemed to Penny, and she squeaked in amazement.
[Not in PW52aPigs Have Wings
serial in Collier’s, 1952/08/16–1952/09/20.]
III.2.215-216 “We have heard the chimes at midnight”
Falstaff.
We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow.
- FP29Fish Preferred (Summer Lightning) (1929), 1.2For Galahad in his day had been a notable lad about town. [. . .] Bookmakers had called him by his pet name, barmaids had simpered beneath his gallant chaff. He had heard the chimes at midnight. And when he had looked in at the old Gardenia, commissionaires had fought for the privilege of throwing him out.
[FP29aSummer Lightning
serial in Collier’s, 1929/04/06–1929/06/22 omits passage excised here.] - BG65The Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood (Galahad at Blandings) (1965), 3.1There was a world of sympathy in the eye behind Gally’s monocle. As many people did, he had taken an instant liking to this son of one with whom he had so often heard the chimes at midnight, and he longed to do something to lighten his gloom.
[BG65BGalahad at Blandings
Jenkins, 1965: “chimes of midnight”.]
HENRY V
Text used: J. Dover Wilson, King Henry V, C.U.P. 2nd ed. 1955.
III.1.1-2 “Once more unto the breach, dear friends . . .”
Instances of the more common phrase “step into the breach” (“to help someone, or to do someone’s job for them when they are unable to do it”) omitted.
King Henry.
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
- 05BB“How Kid Brady Broke Training” (1905)
PeS KBMMThe conversation turned on Peter’s ring exploits.
“Now about yourself,” said Mr. Garth. “Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more. What do you feed on? That’s what the public wants to know.” - JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 9“Then get going, laddie. Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more, or close the wall up with our English dead. Yoicks! Tally-ho! Hark for’ard!” she added, reverting to the argot of the hunting field.
[JF54ABertie Wooster Sees It Through
Simon & Schuster, 1955: “unto the breach”. Not in JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04.] - CT58Cocktail Time (1958), 1“When Henry the Fifth at Harfleur cried ‘Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, or close the wall up with our English dead’, was he damped by hearing the voice of a Twistleton in the background saying he didn’t think he would be able to manage it? No! The Twistleton in question, subsequently to do well at the battle of Agincourt, snapped into it with his hair in a braid and was the life and soul of the party.”
[Not in CT58aCocktail Time
condensed in Ladies’ Home Journal, 1958/04.] - 59JB“Joy Bells for Walter” (1959)
FQOABHe now turned to the child, swelling like a balloon, and once more I sprang into the breach.
[56JB“Keep Your Temper, Walter” (1956)
JB TW: “turned on the child”.]
III.1.3-14 “stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood”
King Henry.
In peace, there’s nothing so becomes a man,
As modest stillness, and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger:
Stiffen the sinews, conjure up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favoured rage:
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect:
Let it pry through the portage of the head,
Like the brass cannon: let the brow o’erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O’erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swilled with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Sources and editions differ on line 7. The First Folio has “Stiffen the ſinews, commune vp the blood” and most older editions (e.g. the Oxford Shakespeare from 1914 and the Cambridge Shakespeare from 1891) print “summon up,” which was a conjecture by early Shakespeare editor N. Rowe (1709). Wodehouse naturally learned his Shakespeare from one of those. Modern editions generally accept the more recent (1954) suggestion by J. H. Walter “conjure up.”
- UF39Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939), 8“Pull yourself together, my dear Pongo. Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood. Everything is going to be all right.”
[First sentence omitted in UF39aUncle Fred in the Springtime
shorter serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1939/04/22–1939/05/27, 5.] - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 13Finally, however, stiffening the sinews and summoning up all the splendid Wooster courage, I made a quick forward movement and was in the act of raising my fist, when it was as if a stick of dynamite had been touched off beneath me.
- JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 21“If it would assist you to stiffen the sinews and summon up the blood, sir, may I remind you that it is very nearly ten o’clock, and that only the promptest action along the lines I have indicated can enable you to avoid appearing in his lordship’s study at that hour.”
[. . .]
He flickered off upon his mission, while I, having summoned up the blood a bit and stiffened the sinews as far as was possible at such short notice, squared the shoulders and headed for where Edwin was squatting. - UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 6.2“Tush, Bill Oakshott,” said Lord Ickenham, prompt in the hour of peril to stimulate and encourage. “This is weakness. Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood. Let us stand our ground firmly, and give him a huge hello.”
- PW52Pigs Have Wings (1952), 8.1Lord Emsworth stiffened his sinews and summoned up the blood.
- RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 18“But don’t let it get you down, boy. You must . . . how would you put it, Jeeves?”
“Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, Sir Roderick.” - CT58Cocktail Time (1958), 5So now, having taken one more refreshing suck at the umbrella knob, he stiffened the sinews, summoned up the blood and said:
“Er—uncle.” - 59LA“Leave It to Algy” (1959)
JB FQO TDCHowever, with the vast issues at stake there was nothing to do but stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood and have a go at it, so proceeding to the platform he bowed to the applause of what looked to him like about three hundred and forty-seven mothers, all ferocious, raised a hand to check—if possible—the howling of their offspring, and embarked on the speech which he had been at pains to prepare in the watches of the night.
[59LAA“Leave It to Algy”
in FQOA: “and have at it”. 59LAb“Leave It to Algy”
in John Bull, 1959/05/16: “and have at it. So, proceeding to the platform, he bowed gracefully and embarked on his speech.”] - 601022-ACPGW 1961 comment after
letter to W. Townend, 1960/10/22
in Author! Author! (1962) My spies inform me that the butler is creeping back. Extinct, it seemed, only a few years ago, he is now repeatedly seen again in his old haunts like some shy bird which, driven from its native marshes by alarms and excursions, stiffens the sinews, summons up the blood, and decides to give the old home another try.
[See “alar(u)ms and excursions”.] - IB61[The] Ice in the Bedroom (1961), 19He wilted visibly, and was shrinking still further inside his well-cut flannel suit, when something occurred that stiffened his sinews, summoned up the blood and made him feel that it was about time he sat up and did a bit of talking back.
- PP67The Purloined Paperweight (Company for Henry) (1967), 12.4Stiffening the sinews and summoning up the blood, as recommended by Shakespeare, he contrived to say in a husky voice, “Jane.”
- PB69A Pelican at Blandings (No Nudes Is Good Nudes) (1969), 9.3“He was often to be seen in Hyde Park or Kensington Gardens plucking daisies and murmuring ‘She loves me, she loves me not’. And so it went on till some nights ago, stiffening the sinews and summoning up the blood, as the fellow said, he proposed to her in a taxi cab and they became betrothed.”
- PB69A Pelican at Blandings (No Nudes Is Good Nudes) (1969), 10.2It is possible that something of the spirit of his ancestors lingered in Lord Emsworth, or it may have been that a shock is always apt to stiffen the sinews of the mildest man.
- MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 11However, it had to be done, and, as I heard Jeeves say once, if it were done, then ’twere well ’twere done quickly. Stiffening the sinews and summoning up the blood, to quote another of his gags, I pressed the bell.
[See Macbeth, I.7.1-2.] - PG72Pearls, Girls, and Monty Bodkin (The Plot That Thickened) (1972), 3.1It was a moment for stiffening the sinews and summoning up the blood, as recommended by Shakespeare, and he was in the process of doing this, when a key clicked in the door, the door opened and Ivor Llewellyn lumbered in, paused on the threshold, mopped his forehead and stood gazing at him with something of the enthusiasm of one seeing the Taj Mahal by moonlight.
- SB77Sunset at Blandings (1977), 6“No chance of you stiffening the sinews, summoning up the blood and having a pop at it regardless of Murchison?”
III.1.31-32 “like greyhounds in the slips”
King Henry.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start.
- JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 26The words had scarcely left his lips before I was skimming barwards like a greyhound released from the slips.
- 57-REC“Raw Eggs, Cuckoos and Patrons”
in Over Seventy (1957), 2The cuckoo always wintered in Africa—lucky to be able to afford it—returning to the English scene around the second week in April, and you never saw such excitement as there was from April the ninth on, with all the cuckoo-hearers standing like greyhounds in the slips, one hand cupped to the right ear and the fountain-pen in the top left waistcoat pocket all ready for the letter to the editor at the first chirp.
III.7.145-153 “give them great meals of beef . . .”
Constable.
Just, just: and the men do sympathize with the mastiffs in robustious and rough coming on, leaving their wits with their wives: and then give them great meals of beef, and iron and steel; they will eat like wolves, and fight like devils.
Orleans.
Ay, but these English are shrewdly out of beef.
Constable.
Then shall we find to-morrow they have only stomachs to eat, and none to fight . . .
- 28PA“The Passing of Ambrose” (1928)
Cos Str MMSIt is at moments such as this that the best comes out in a man. You may impair it with a series of injudicious lunches, but you can never wholly destroy the spirit that has made Englishmen what they are. When the hour strikes, the old bull-dog strain will show itself. Shakespeare noticed the same thing. His back against the wall, an Englishman, no matter how well he has lunched, will always sell his life dearly.
[28PAa“The Passing of Ambrose”
in Cosmopolitan, 1928/08: “you never wholly can destroy”, “always will sell”.]
IV.3.41-43 “rouse him at the name of Crispian”
King Henry.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
- UF39Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939), 11Pongo brightened momentarily, as a veteran of Agincourt might have done at the mention of the name of Crispian.
[Not in UF39aUncle Fred in the Springtime
shorter serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1939/04/22–1939/05/27.]
IV.3.60-63 “we few, we happy few, we band of brothers”
King Henry.
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers:
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother: be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition.
- 05BI“Between the Innings” (1905)
NovThe Band of Brothers had headed us on the first innings, but failed in the next, and we had come through for the second time with half our wickets in hand. - 15-SST“Summer Stuff” (1915)
in Vanity Fair (US), 1915/09At the risk of sowing strife among a band of brothers such as one knows the comedians of a musical show always are, I must state that, in my opinion, Ed. Wynne plays all his humorous rivals right off the stage.
IV.8.35-37 “what an arrant, rascally, beggarly, lousy knave it is”
Fluellen.
Your majesty, hear now, saving your majesty’s manhood, what an arrant, rascally, beggarly, lousy knave it is
- RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 8“It makes one’s blood boil to think of this . . . this . . . what would Shakespeare have called him, Jeeves?”
“This arrant, rascally, beggarly, lousy knave, m’lord.”
“Ah, yes. Shakespeare put these things well.”
“A whoreson, beetle-headed, flap-eared knave, a knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a beggarly, filthy, worsted-stocking——”
“Yes, yes, Jeeves, quite so. One gets the idea.”
[See King Lear, II.2.11-21.]
HENRY VI (3rd Part)
Text used: J. Dover Wilson, The Third Part of King Henry VI, C.U.P. 1952.
II.1.64-67 “the saddest spectacle”
Messenger.
And after many scorns, many foul taunts,
They took his head, and on the gates of York
They set the same; and there it doth remain,
The saddest spectacle that e’er I viewed.
- SN15Something New (Something Fresh) (1915), 4It is the saddest spectacle in the world—that of the crowd collected by a Wanted advertisement.
II.2.17-18 “the smallest worm will turn”
Clifford.
The smallest worm will turn being trodden on,
And doves will peck in safeguard of their brood.
- 16JU“Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest” (1916)
SEP Str MMJ EJ COJAnd when he tried to tread on me like a worm in the matter of a hat, I jolly well put my foot down and showed him who was who.
[16JUB2“Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest” (1916)
revised for COJ: “And, finally, when”, “I put the Wooster foot down and showed him in no uncertain manner”.] - PJ17Piccadilly Jim (1917), 24Sensational Turning of a Worm.
[Chapter title. Not in PJ17BPiccadilly Jim
Herbert Jenkins, 1918, PJ17aPiccadilly Jim
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1916/09/16–1916/11/11.] - 24SS“Something Squishy” (1924)
SEP Str MMSThere are moods in which even the mildest man will turn to bay, and there gleamed in Roland Attwater’s eyes as he strode to the door and flung it open a baleful light. - JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 21The worm of yesterday—or you might say the worm of ten minutes ago—had become a worm in tiger’s clothing.
[Not in JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04.] - IB61[The] Ice in the Bedroom (1961), 4“And I’m fed to the teeth with all these smart alecks who do parodies of me, hoping to make me feel like a piece of cheese. The worm has turned, Widgeon.”
Other
- 16-AAS“All About Shakespeare”
in Vanity Fair (US), 1916/04Shakespeare’s first play, according to the authorities, was entitled “The Contention of York and Lancaster (2, 3 Henry VI).” One is forced to admit that as a title it could be improved, but the Encyclopaedia Britannica says that was it, so there can be no mistake. Of course, they had no electric light signs over the theaters in those days, so that it didn’t matter how long you made the name of your piece. But even so it would have had more of a punch without the numerals.
HENRY VIII
Text used: J. C. Maxwell, King Henry the Eighth, C.U.P. 1962.
III.2.350-358 “This is the state of man . . .”
Wolsey.
So farewell to the little good you bear me.
Farewell! a long farewell to all my greatness!
This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hopes; to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him;
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost,
And, when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a-ripening, nips his root,
And then he falls, as I do.
- 36CW“The Crime Wave at Blandings” (1936)
SEP Str LEO CWB CrSitting there in his pantry, that pantry which so soon would know him no more, Beach was in the depths. He mourned like some fallen monarch about to say good-bye to all his greatness and pass into exile. - RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 11“Farewell, a long farewell . . . to what, Jeeves?”
“To all your greatness, m’lord. This is the state of man: today he puts forth the tender leaves of hope; tomorrow blossoms, and bears his blushing honours thick upon him. The third day comes a frost, a killing frost, and when he thinks, good easy man, full surely his greatness is a-ripening, nips his roots.” - BG53Bring On the Girls! (1953), 6As Shakespeare, who often hits off a thing rather neatly, once said:
This is the state of man: today he puts forth
The tender leaves of hopes; tomorrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him;
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost;
And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a-ripening, nips his root . . .
JULIUS CAESAR
Text used: J. Dover Wilson, Julius Caesar, C.U.P. 1949.
I.1.10-11 “Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman . . .”
2 Commoner.
Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but as you would say a cobbler.
- WF07The White Feather (1907), 10“I’ve been First Citizen sometimes. I was the carpenter in Julius Cæsar. That was my biggest part. ‘Truly sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but, as you would say, a cobbler.’ ”
I.2.100-111 “accoutred as I was, I plunged in”
Cassius.
For once, upon a raw and gusty day,
The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores,
Caesar said to me ‘Dar’st thou, Cassius, now
Leap in with me into this angry flood,
And swim to yonder point?’ Upon the word,
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in
And bade him follow: so indeed he did.
The torrent roared, and we did buffet it
With lusty sinews, throwing it aside
And stemming it with hearts of controversy.
But ere we could arrive the point proposed,
Caesar cried ‘Help me, Cassius, or I sink!’
- CT58Cocktail Time (1958), 23“According to Shakespeare, Julius Caesar used to swim with all his clothes on.”
- SS61Service with a Smile (1961), 4.2“You say this gardener saw him jump into the water?”
“Yes, sir.”
“With his clothes on?”
“That’s right. Accoutred as he was, he plunged in,” said George, who in the preceding term at his school had had to write out a familiar passage from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar fifty times for bringing a white mouse into the classroom.
[. . .]
“With his clothes on?”
“Accoutred as he was.”
I.2.135-138 “he doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus”
Cassius.
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.
- SN15Something New (Something Fresh) (1915), 5He expanded his chest and spread his feet like a colossus.
- 15-SST“Summer Stuff” (1915)
in Vanity Fair (US), 1915/09She is about four foot nothing in high heels, and she bestrides the stage like a Colossus. - 21SE“Strange Experiences of an Artist’s Model” (1921)
Str IA CrThe words appeared to be more in the nature of an expletive than a practical comment on the situation. Having uttered them, he draped himself in the doorway like a colossus, and chewed gum.
[=IA21Indiscretions of Archie (1921), 6.] - MB42Money in the Bank (1942), 15He stood gaping pallidly at this large man, who seemed by some optical illusion to be expanding still further with every moment that went by, bestriding his narrow world like a Colossus.
[Not in MB42aMoney in the Bank
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1941/11/08–1941/12/27.] - UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 1“Pongo,” said Lord Ickenham, “is in terrific form. He bestrides the world like a Colossus.”
- PW52Pigs Have Wings (1952), 5.2“Isn’t Parsloe’s pig pretty big?”
“Enormous. It bestrides the narrow world like a Colossus.” - FL56cFrench Leave
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1955/09/24, 2“He bestrode their little world like a colossus and his strength was as the strength of 10.”
[Not in FL56bFrench Leave
serial in John Bull, 1955/11/12–1955/12/03 or book editions of FL56French Leave (1956).] - SF57Something Fishy (The Butler Did It) (1957), 23The fellow bestrode the narrow chair like a colossus.
- 59BB“Big Business” [Mulliner version, as rewritten for FQO]
FQOAB WMThe constable, coming up, bestrode him like a colossus.
I.2.148-150 “Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he is grown so great?”
Cassius.
Now, in the names of all the gods at once,
Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed,
That he is grown so great?
- AS22The Adventures of Sally (Mostly Sally) (1922), 12“Upon what meat doth this our Fillmore feed that he is grown so great?”
[Not in AS22bThe Adventures of Sally
serial in Grand, 1922/04-10.] - FL56French Leave (1956), 12The nine months which had passed since his notable display of tact at the Hotel Splendide in Roville-sur-Mer had enlarged the publisher’s waistline by several inches, and Terry as she came in regarded him with awe. She wondered how he did it. Shakespeare, had he been present, would have felt the same. “Upon what meat doth this our Clutterbuck feed that he is grown so great?” he would have asked himself.
[Not in FL56bFrench Leave
serial in John Bull, 1955/11/12–1955/12/03.] - 58FL“The Fat of the Land” (1958)
TW FQO TDCIt was the photograph of an elderly man in a bathing suit; an elderly man who, a glance was enough to tell, had been overdoing it on the starchy foods since early childhood; an elderly man so rotund, so obese, so bulging in every direction that Shakespeare, had he beheld him, would have muttered to himself “Upon what meat doth this our Horace feed that he is grown so great?”
[Not in 58FLa“The Fat of the Land”
in This Week, 1958/11/02.]
I.2.192-195 “Let me have men about me that are fat”
Caesar.
Let me have men about me that are fat,
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep a-nights:
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
- LC06Love Among the Chickens (1906–09), 20I knew that, if I scraped through by the smallest possible margin, his appetite would be destroyed, his sleep o’ nights broken.
[Same in LC21Love Among the Chickens
Jenkins, 1921. Not in LC06aLove Among the Chickens
serial in Circle, 1908/09–1909/03.] - SN15Something New (Something Fresh) (1915), 2On the theory, given to the world by William Shakespeare, that it is the lean and hungry-looking men who are dangerous, and that the “fat, sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o’ nights,” are harmless, R. Jones should have been above suspicion.
[SN15aSomething New
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1915/06/26–1915/08/14: “by my brother-pen, William Shakspere”. SN15BSomething Fresh
Methuen & Co., 1915: “by my brother-author, William Shakespeare”.] - MN28Money for Nothing (1928), 2He was the only one who went in instead of out at the waist-line. All the others were well up in the class of man whom Julius Cæsar once expressed a desire to have about him.
[Not in MN28bMoney for Nothing
serial in London Calling, 1928/03/03–1928/07/28.] - LB35The Luck of the Bodkins (1935), 14His views on congenial society at the moment were exactly opposite to those expressed by Julius Cæsar. He did not want men about him that were fat; sleek-headed men and such as sleep o’ nights. And while Reggie was not fat, he had plainly enjoyed an excellent night’s rest and was in capital spirits. [. . .] Yond Ambrose had a lean and hungry look, and that was the sort of thing Monty required this morning.
[Not in LB35aThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version in Redbook, 1935/08–1936/01, LB35bThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version in The Passing Show, 1935/09/21–1935/11/23, LB35AThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version, Little, Brown, 1936.] - MB42Money in the Bank (1942), 8She preferred those about her to be yes men in the fine old Hollywood tradition.
- FM47Full Moon (1947), 10.4“Let me have men about me that are fat,” thought Bill, as he worked his way cautiously downwards.
[Not in FM47aFull Moon
condensed in Liberty, 1947/11.] - BG65The Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood (Galahad at Blandings) (1965), 2.1As is so often the case with butlers, there was a good deal of Beach. Julius Caesar, who liked to have men about him that were fat, would have taken to him at once.
- PB69A Pelican at Blandings (No Nudes Is Good Nudes) (1969), 7.2Julius Caesar, who liked to have men—and presumably pigs—about him that were fat, would have welcomed her without hesitation to his personal entourage.
- BA73Bachelors Anonymous (1973), 3The young man said, “Mr. Pickering here tonight, Mac?”
To which Mac replied, “He’s round in front,” which would not have been a bad description of the visitor propped against the wall, who was noticeably stout. Julius Caesar would have liked him.
II.1.63-69 “Between the acting of a dreadful thing . . .”
Brutus.
Between the acting of a dreadful thing
And the first motion all the interim is
Like a phantasma or a hideous dream:
The Genius and the mortal instruments
Are then in council, and the state of man
Like to a little kingdom suffers then
The nature of an insurrection.
- JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 21“Your irresolution is quite understandable, sir. Between the acting of a dreadful thing and the first motion, all the interim is like a phantasma or a hideous dream. The genius and the mortal instruments are then in council; and that state of man, like to a little kingdom, suffers then the nature of an insurrection.”
“Absolutely,” I said. He puts these things well. - OR51The Old Reliable (1951), 13“On the morning after a binge like that, the state of man, as Shakespeare says, suffers the nature of an insurrection.”
- AA74Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (The Cat-Nappers) (1974), 17“Between the acting of a dreadful thing and the first motion,” he said, “all the interim is like a phantasma or a hideous dream. The genius and the mortal instruments are then in council and the state of man, like to a little kingdom, suffers the nature of an insurrection.”
I could have put it better myself, but I saw what he meant. At these times your feet are bound to get chilly, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
III.1.77 “Et tu, Brute?”
Caesar.
Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar! [dies
- MK09Mike (1909), 6Mr. Wain looked at the shrubbery, as who should say, “Et tu, Brute!”
- DD19A Damsel in Distress (1919), 6Cæsar, stabbed by Brutus, could scarcely have experienced a greater shock.
- 30JO“Jeeves and the Old School Chum” (1930)
Cos Str VGJ“You, Jeeves?” I said, and I should rather think Cæsar spoke in the same sort of voice on finding Brutus puncturing him with the sharp instrument.
[30JOa“Jeeves and the Old School Chum”
in Cosmopolitan, 1930/02, 30JOA“Jeeves and the Old School Chum”
in VGJA: “a sharp instrument”.] - IW31If I Were You (1931), 20He stared at Sir Herbert. He stared at Lady Lydia. Then, turning, he stared at Ma Price, and his eyes were the eyes of Cæsar gazing at Brutus.
- LG36Laughing Gas (1936), 22She was standing looking at me with her hands on her hips, grinding her teeth quietly, and I gazed back with reproach and amazement, like Julius Caesar at Brutus.
- OR51The Old Reliable (1951), 8Not even Julius Cæsar, receiving Brutus’s dagger thrust, could have packed more pain and disappointment into a glance.
- BA73Bachelors Anonymous (1973), 10The effect of this eloquence on Mr. Llewellyn was to add to the emotions of the Lady of Shalott those of Julius Caesar when stabbed by Brutus. We can put up with the knavish tricks of enemies—we may not like them, but we can endure them—but when we are betrayed by a friend we drain the bitter cup and no heel taps.
III.1.271-274 “the dogs of war”
Antony.
And Caesar’s spirit ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
Cry ‘Havoc,’ and let slip the dogs of war;
- SW09The Swoop! (1909), II.6Its motto is, “Cry havoc, and let loose the performing dogs of war.”
- MK09Mike (1909), 34“The preliminaries may now be considered over, the first shot has been fired. The dogs of war are now loose.”
[=MK092bThe Lost Lambs
second part of Mike serialized in The Captain, 1908/04-09, 5.]
III.2.74-75 “lend me your ears”
Antony.
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him;
- 10DW“Deep Waters” (1910)
Col Str MU SwO“Besides,” said Mr. Mifflin, “I have an idea which will make the show. Lend me your ear—both ears. You shall have them back.” - 20FA“First Aid for Looney Biddle” (1920)
Cos Str IA“I say, laddie,” he said, hurriedly. “Lend me your ear for half a jiffy!”
[=IA21Indiscretions of Archie (1921), 15.] - JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 12“Oh, Jeeves,” I said.
“Sir?”
“Lend me your ears.”
“Very good, sir.”
[JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04, 10 omits “Sir?”] - MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 7I decided to lend him an ear, as the expression is.
III.2.76-77 “The evil that men do lives after them”
Antony.
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones;
- 01PP“The Prize Poem” (1901)
PSM TSA 18KThen he died. But the evil that men do lives after them, and each year saw a fresh band of unwilling bards goaded to despair by his bequest. - 15-SGC“The Scourge of the Golf Child” (1915)
in Vanity Fair (US), 1915/11As Bacon finely puts it in his widely read Shakespeare, “the evil that men do lives after them.” It is thus with many parents. Papa is a business man. He can only afford to take week ends off, and Bellport only knows him on Saturdays and Sundays. But he insists on his wife and children enjoying our soothing air right along. So he pays his hundred bucks to the golf club, and passes away, like one of those unpleasant moths which lay a million eggs in a bee hive and then go away from that place. The evil that he has done lives after him.
[See Baconian Theory.]
III.2.78-100 “and Brutus is an honourable man”
Antony.
The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answered it. . . .
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest,
(For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all; all honourable men)
Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral. . . .
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man. . . .
He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
- 35CB“The Come-Back of Battling Billson” (1935)
Cos Str LEO EBCABut Oakshott thought him civil and respectful, and Oakshott was an honourable man. Or so I thought then. I little knew.
III.2.93 “made of sterner stuff”
Antony.
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff
- 13ST“Something to Worry About” (1913)
Met Str MU SwOAlbert, moreover, was made of sterner stuff than Ted. - 14LD“The [Episode of the] Landlady’s Daughter” (1914)
Pic Str MM But Brother Frank was made of sterner stuff. - WH14The White Hope (Their Mutual Child/The Coming of Bill) (1914), I.4But Lora Delane Porter was made of sterner stuff.
- 15RS“Rule Sixty-Three” (1915)
NovSpenser Jones, however, was made of sterner stuff. - SN15Something New (Something Fresh) (1915), 7The fact that it never even occurred to George Emerson he was being offensively patronizing shows the stern stuff of which these supermen are made.
[SN15BSomething Fresh
Methuen & Co., 1915, 7.1: “Supermen”.] - PJ17Piccadilly Jim (1917), 26You want some one made of sterner stuff.
- 19-RTA“Reviewing a Theatre Audience”
in Vanity Fair (US), 1919/11This particular vaudeville critic, however, was made of sterner stuff.
[Same in 32-FPA“Fair Play for Audiences” (1932)
LF.] - 20RH“A Room at the Hermitage” (1920)
Cos (“A Bit of All Right”) Str IASome men would have dismissed the unfortunate affairs of Mr. George Benham from their mind as having nothing to do with themselves, but Archie had never been made of this stern stuff.
[=IA21Indiscretions of Archie (1921), 13.] - TM22Three Men and a Maid (The Girl on the Boat) (1922), 16.1Mrs. Hignett was made of sterner stuff.
[=TM22BThe Girl on the Boat
Jenkins, 1922, 17.1. Not in TM22aThree Men and a Maid
serial in Woman’s Home Companion, 1921/10–1921/12, TM22bThree Men and a Maid
serial in Pan, 1921/02–1921/09.] - 23RB“The Return of Battling Billson” (1923)
Cos Str UThe barman, as becomes a man plying his trade in the Ratcliff Highway, was made of stern stuff. - LP23Leave It to Psmith (1923), 10.2Eve’s manner was excited, and her eyes as they met Baxter’s sparkled in a fashion that might have disturbed a man made of less stern stuff.
- LP23Leave It to Psmith (1923), 11.2But Rupert Baxter was made of sterner stuff.
- BC24Bill the Conqueror (1924), 3.2This new arrival was made of sterner stuff altogether, and Mr. Slingsby, seeming to recognize a kindred spirit, became more cordial.
- 25BD“Buttercup Day” (1925)
SEP Str EBCOn the stage and in motion-pictures one frequently sees victims of drink keel over in a state of complete unconsciousness after a single glass, but Ukridge was surely of sterner stuff. - SS25Sam the Sudden (Sam in the Suburbs) (1925), 13Mr. Molloy bowed his head meekly before the blast. His wife was made of sterner stuff.
- FP29Fish Preferred (Summer Lightning) (1929), 4.3But Waiter E., made of sterner stuff, hit Ronnie rather hard with a dish containing omelette aux champignons.
- HW32Hot Water (1932), 10.1But Mr. Carlisle was made of sterner stuff.
- HW33Heavy Weather (1933), 7Lord Tilbury was made of sterner stuff.
- 33RM“The Rise of Minna Nordstrom” (1933)
Am (“A Star Is Born”) Str BCE WMBut Mr. Schnellenhamer was made of sterner stuff. - LG36Laughing Gas (1936), 14What will cause one man to see pink rabbits will have no effect whatsoever on another who is made of sterner stuff.
- 37BP“Bingo and the Peke Crisis” (1937)
SEP Str EBC TDCBut Bingo was made of sterner stuff. - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 27One might have expected a cop to wilt beneath all this, but it speedily became plain that the Cheesewrights were made of sterner stuff.
- UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 6.3Lord Ickenham was made of sterner stuff.
- MS49The Mating Season (1949), 3But Corky was of sterner stuff.
- PW52Pigs Have Wings (1952), 11.2“You were made of sterner stuff when we three fought side by side at the battle of Agincourt.”
[Not in PW52aPigs Have Wings
serial in Collier’s, 1952/08/16–1952/09/20.] - 57-HHO“Healthward Ho!”
in Over Seventy (1957), 3But Poona and I are made of sterner stuff, and we trudge the two miles there and two miles back singing a gipsy song. - SS61Service with a Smile (1961), 7.2He, personally, would always prefer not to see the Duke, a preference shared by the latter’s many acquaintances in Wiltshire and elsewhere, but it did not disturb him unduly when he had to, and he found it strange that his companion should be of less stern stuff.
- PB69A Pelican at Blandings (No Nudes Is Good Nudes) (1969), 7.3Many men, made aware that their privacy had been invaded by nocturnal marauders, would have pulled the sheets over their heads and lain hoping that if they kept quiet the fellows would go away; but he was made of sterner stuff.
- BA73Bachelors Anonymous (1973), 9.2Many men would have felt at this point that the talks had reached a deadlock and that it would be impossible to find a formula agreeable to both parties, but Mr. Trout was made of sterner stuff.
III.2.170-174 “that day he overcame the Nervii”
Antony.
If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.
You all do know this mantle: I remember
The first time ever Caesar put it on;
’Twas on a summer’s evening, in his tent,
That day he overcame the Nervii
- 30JK“Jeeves and the Kid Clementina” (1930)
Cos Str VGJ“I met her once, Jeeves. ’Twas on a summer’s evening in my tent, the day I overcame the Nervii. Or, rather, at lunch at Aunt Agatha’s a year ago come Lammas Eve.”
[30JKa“Jeeves and the Kid Clementina”
in Cosmopolitan, 1930/03, 30JKA“Jeeves and the Kid Clementina”
in VGJA: “a summer evening”. See Romeo and Juliet, I.3.17-18.] - 34-CH,PPreface to A Century of Humour, ed. by Wodehouse (1934)Barry Pain’s The Refugees, for instance. I have not looked at that since it first appeared in Punch. Circ. 1900, it was. I read it on a winter evening in my tent, the day we overcame the Nervii (Haileybury, 3-nil), but I remembered it without an effort.
- TY34Thank You, Jeeves (1934), 14“If you have butter, prepare to shed it now.”
- RH34Right Ho, Jeeves (Brinkley Manor) (1934), 11This done, I retired to an arm-chair and put my feet up, sipping the mixture with carefree enjoyment, rather like Cæsar having one in his tent the day he overcame the Nervii.
- CW38The Code of the Woosters (1938), 12I helped myself to a spot of brandy, and sat rolling it round my tongue luxuriantly, like Caesar in his tent the day he overcame the Nervii.
[CW38bThe Code of the Woosters
serial in Daily Mail, 1938/09/08–1938/10/21: “luxuriously”. Not in CW38aThe Code of the Woosters
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1938/07/16–1938/09/03. CW38BThe Code of the Woosters
Jenkins, 1938 omits “like [. . .] Nervii.”] - UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 6.3“You find me enjoying a well-earned gargle, like Caesar in his tent the day he overcame the Nervii. I stress the adjective ‘well-earned,’ for I think you will admit that in the recent exchanges I put it across the Nervii properly.”
III.2.184 “the most unkindest cut of all”
Antony.
This was the most unkindest cut of all
- 26LE“Lord Emsworth Acts for the Best” (1926)
Lib Str BCEThis, felt Lord Emsworth, as he stared bleakly before him at the little groups of happy Senior Conservatives, was the most unkindest cut of all. - AA74Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (The Cat-Nappers) (1974), 14“At a pinch I could do without cocktails. It would be agony, but we Woosters can rough it. But she says I must give up smoking.”
“This was indeed the most unkindest cut of all, sir.”
III.2.210-220 “I am no orator, like Brutus is”
Antony.
I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts:
I am no orator, as Brutus is;
But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man,
That love my friend;
- SW09The Swoop! (1909), I.7Prince Otto flushed. He was a plain, blunt man, and he hated this beating about the bush.
- PJ17Piccadilly Jim (1917), 15“I’m no orator, as Brutus is; but, as you know me all, a plain, blunt man. And, speaking in the capacity of a plain, blunt man, I rise to reply—Nothing doing.”
- AS22The Adventures of Sally (Mostly Sally) (1922), 1.1“I have been asked,” proceeded Mr. Faucitt, “though I am aware that there are others here far worthier of such a task—Brutuses compared with whom I, like Marc Antony, am no orator—I have been asked to propose the health . . .”
- LP23Leave It to Psmith (1923), 4“I am a plain, blunt, rugged man, above the softer emotions as a general thing, but I frankly confess that she stirred a chord in me which is not often stirred.”
- BM31Big Money (1931), 4.2Ever since she had read in her paper that morning the plain, blunt statement that she was engaged to be married, she had been feeling oddly pensive.
- SF48Spring Fever (1948), 14“In these delicate negotiations,” explained Mike, “it often happens that where skilled masters of the spoken word fail to bring home the bacon, success is achieved by some plain, blunt, practical man who ignores the niceties of diplomacy and goes straight to the root of the matter.”
- 49RR“Rodney Has a Relapse” (1949)
NS VW GOWilliam’s frown deepened. A plain, blunt man, he dislikes evasions.
IV.2.32-36 “Stand ho!”
Cassius.
Stand, ho!
Brutus.
Stand, ho! Speak the word along.
1 Officer.
Stand!
2 Officer.
Stand!
3 Officer.
Stand!
- MN28Money for Nothing (1928), 7.4“Stand ho!” said Hugo jubilantly, falling at once into the vein of the Quarrel Scene.
[See next section.]
IV.3 The Quarrel Scene
This scene contains the famous quarrel between Brutus and Cassius, a performance of which by Hugo Carmody and Ronnie Fish forms part of the plot of MN28Money for Nothing (1928). For quotations of specific lines see below.
- MN28Money for Nothing (1928), 2“If Ronnie were on the spot, he and I could do the Quarrel Scene from Julius Cæsar and really give the customers something for their money. We used to do it at Smokers up at Cambridge and it went big.”
[Second sentence omitted in MN28aMoney for Nothing
serial in Liberty, 1928/06/16–1928/09/22, MN28AMoney for Nothing
Doubleday, Doran, 1928. Entire passage omitted in MN28bMoney for Nothing
serial in London Calling, 1928/03/03–1928/07/28.] - MN28Money for Nothing (1928), 4.3“They’re sure to rope you in. I thought you and I might do the Quarrel scene from Julius Cæsar again.”
“Excellent.”
“And this time,” said Hugo generously, “you can be Brutus.” - MN28Money for Nothing (1928), 7.3Hugo Carmody and his friend Mr. Fish would positively appear in person and render that noble example of Shakespeare’s genius, the Quarrel Scene from Julius Cæsar.
[. . .]
“But you’ve never tried them with the Quarrel Scene from Julius Cæsar before. Everybody has a breaking point.”
[. . .]
“Mark you, I’ll admit that Ronnie was perfectly rotten. He kept foozling his lines and saying ‘Oh, sorry!’ and going back and repeating them. You can’t get the best out of Shakespeare that way. [. . .] With a thing like that on his mind, he should never have attempted an exacting part like Brutus in the Quarrel Scene.”
[. . .]
“And I wasn’t going to stand out there doing the Quarrel Scene by myself, so I exited, too.”
[MN28BMoney for Nothing
Jenkins, 1928: “Ronnie was pretty bad.”]
IV.3.18-21 “Remember March, the ides of March remember!”
Brutus.
Remember March, the ides of March remember!
Did not great Julius bleed for justice’ sake?
What villain touched his body, that did stab,
And not for justice?
- MN28Money for Nothing (1928), 7.4“Well, well, well!” said Hugo. “Remember March, the Ides of March remember! Did not great Julius bleed for justice’s sake? What villain touched his body that did stab and not for justice? Answer me that, you blighter, yes or no.”
IV.3.37 “Away, slight man!”
Brutus.
Away, slight man!
- MN28Money for Nothing (1928), 7.4“Away, slight man!”
“You want me to go away?” said Mr. Twist, with a gleam of hope.
IV.3.38-40 “Must I give way and room to your rash choler?”
Brutus.
Hear me, for I will speak.
Must I give way and room to your rash choler?
Shall I be frighted when a madman stares?
- MN28Money for Nothing (1928), 7.4“Must I give way and room to your rash choler? Shall I be frighted when a madman stares?”
IV.3.46-50 “You shall digest the venom of your spleen...”
Brutus.
By the gods,
You shall digest the venom of your spleen,
Though it do split you; for, from this day forth,
I’ll use you for my mirth, yea, for my laughter,
When you are waspish.
- MN28Money for Nothing (1928), 7.3“What happened after that?”
“Well, we buzzed along as well as we could, and we had just got to that bit about digesting the venom of your spleen though it do split you, when the proletariat suddenly started bunging vegetables.” - MN28Money for Nothing (1928), 7.4“By the gods, you shall digest the venom of your spleen though it do split you. And what could be fairer than that?” said Hugo.
IV.3.58 “When Caesar lived, he durst not thus have moved me.”
Casius.
When Caesar lived, he durst not thus have moved me.
- MN28Money for Nothing (1928), 7.4“When Caesar lived,” said Hugo querulously, “he durst not thus have moved me.”
IV.3.66-69 “arm’d so strong in honesty”
Brutus.
There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats;
For I am armed so strong in honesty
That they pass by me as the idle wind
Which I respect not.
- MN28Money for Nothing (1928), 7.4“There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats, for I am armed so strong in honesty that they pass by me like the idle wind, which I respect not.”
- MB42Money in the Bank (1942), 9“But there is no terror, Stinker, in your threats, for I am armed so strong in honesty that they pass by me as the idle wind, which I respect not.”
- JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 28“You are armed so strong in honesty that his lordship’s displeasure will pass by you as the idle wind, which you respect not.”
- FM47Full Moon (1947), 9.4“My dear child, mine has been a long life, in the course of which I have frequently been bothered by experts. And always without effect. Bothering passes me by as the idle wind, which I respect not.”
“That’s Shakespeare, isn’t it?”
“I shouldn’t wonder. Most of the good gags are.”
[Not in FM47aFull Moon
condensed in Liberty, 1947/11.] - BW52Barmy in Wonderland (Angel Cake) (1952), 1“There is no terror, J. G. Anderson, in your threats, for Phipps is armed so strong in honesty that they pass by him like the idle wind, which he respects not.”
- 59JM“Jeeves Makes an Omelette” (1959)
Arg EQ (“Jeeves and the Stolen Venus”) Lil TSW FQO WoJ“There is no terror, Aunt Dahlia, in your threats, for . . . how does it go, Jeeves?”
“For you are armed so strong in honesty, sir, that they pass by you like the idle wind, which you respect not.” - SU63Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963), 12As it was, I was able to be nonchalant, insouciant and debonair. I was like the fellow I once heard Jeeves speak of who was armed so strong in honesty that somebody’s threats passed by him as the idle wind, which he respected not.
- DB68Do Butlers Burgle Banks? (1968), 7.3A lesser man would have quailed before it, but Basher was apparently armed so strong in honesty that it passed by him like the idle wind which he respected not.
- GB70The Girl in Blue (1970), 14.3He did not actually say “There is no terror, cocky, in your threats, for I am armed so strong in honesty that they pass by me like the idle wind which I respect not,” but he made it evident that that was what he was thinking.
- AA74Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (The Cat-Nappers) (1974), 3“His verdict was that the spots qua spots didn’t amount to a row of beans and could be disregarded. They will pass by me like the idle wind which I respect not.”
IV.3.98-99 “Oh, I could weep my spirit from my eyes!”
Cassius.
O, I could weep
My spirit from mine eyes!
- MN28Money for Nothing (1928), 7.4“Oh, I could weep my spirit from my eyes!” said Hugo.
Chimp could have done the same.
[Corrected in MN28aMoney for Nothing
serial in Liberty, 1928/06/16–1928/09/22 to “mine eyes”.]
IV.3.215-219 “there is a tide in the affairs of men”
Brutus.
There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
- LC06Love Among the Chickens (1906–09), 13There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood——. I served.
[LC21Love Among the Chickens
Jenkins, 1921: “taken by the flood”. Not in LC06aLove Among the Chickens
serial in Circle, 1908/09–1909/03.] - PC10Psmith in the City (The New Fold) (1910), 22It was one of Psmith’s theories of Life, which he was accustomed to propound to Mike in the small hours of the morning with his feet on the mantelpiece, that the secret of success lay in taking advantage of one’s occasional slices of luck, in seizing, as it were, the happy moment. When Mike, who had had the passage to write out ten times at Wrykyn on one occasion as an imposition, reminded him that Shakespeare had once said something about there being a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, &c., Psmith had acknowledged with an easy grace that possibly Shakespeare had got on to it first, and that it was but one more proof of how often great minds thought alike.
- 23RB“The Return of Battling Billson” (1923)
Cos Str UThere is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; and Alf Todd plainly realized this.
[23RBa“The Return of Battling Billson”
in Cosmopolitan, 1923/08: “fortune; Alf Todd”.] - BC24Bill the Conqueror (1924), 2.2There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. It seemed to Bill that the moment of his own flood-tide had arrived.
- MN28Money for Nothing (1928), 7.4There is, as Ronnie Fish would have observed in the village Hall an hour or so earlier if the audience had had the self-restraint to let him get as far as that, a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.
- FP29Fish Preferred (Summer Lightning) (1929), 15There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune: and that tide, he knew, would never rise higher than at the present moment.
- HW33Heavy Weather (1933), 7Monty, thinking swiftly, decided that that airy nonchalance of his had been a mistake. Well meant, but a blunder. The sounder policy here would be manly frankness. He believed in taking at the flood that tide in the affairs of men which, when so taken, leads on to fortune.
- JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 21“But do you really advise——”
“I do, sir.”
“What, now?”
“Yes, sir. There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.” - UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 10.1She was not without a normal girl’s curiosity, but she was also an ambitious young authoress who believed that there is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at the flood leads on to fortune, and there was awaiting her at Barribault’s Hotel a publisher who, judging from his letter, was evidently a live wire endowed with pep and ginger and all the other qualities which ambitious young authoresses like to see in those responsible for the marketing of their books.
- MS49The Mating Season (1949), 15There is, as Jeeves rather neatly put it once, a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune, and I could see clearly enough that this was it. What is known as the crucial moment had unquestionably arrived, and any knowledgeable adviser, had such a one been present, would have urged me to make it snappy and get moving while the going was good.
[. . .]
And a nice ass I should have looked if I had taken at the flood the tide which leads on to fortune, because it wouldn’t have led on to fortune or anything like it. - JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 12“There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.”
“Exactly,” I said.
I couldn’t have put it better myself.
[Not in JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04.] - JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 22I might be wrong, of course, but I didn’t think so, and it seemed to me that this was a good thing that wanted pushing along. There is, as Jeeves had so neatly put it, a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.
[JF54ABertie Wooster Sees It Through
Simon & Schuster, 1955 and JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04, 19 omit “but”.] - CT58Cocktail Time (1958), 17He had seen Lord Ickenham bring his boat to shore, step out of it and disappear in the direction of the house, and he was feeling, as did Brutus, that there is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.
- HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 15Her eyes met mine, and I read in them the message she was trying to convey—viz. that the time had come to act. There is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at the flood leads on to fortune. Not my own. Jeeves’s.
- IB61[The] Ice in the Bedroom (1961), 23There is, as a brother author of the present historian has pointed out, a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. It is doubtful if Chimp Twist was familiar with the passage, for he confined his reading mainly to paperback thrillers and what are known as scratch sheets, but he acted now as if the words had for years been his constant inspiration.
- 65BB“Bingo Bans the Bomb” (1965)
Arg Pla PP TDCThere was, so he had learned from a reliable source, a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.
[65BBa“Bingo Bans the Bomb”
in Playboy, 1965/01, 65BBb“Bingo Bans the Bomb”
in Argosy, 1965/08: “led on”.] - PP67The Purloined Paperweight (Company for Henry) (1967), 12.3“Then what would you suggest?”
“Five hundred pounds,” said Algy, who had another of his inspirations and felt that there is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.
[PP67BCompany for Henry
Jenkins, 1967: “had had another”.]
IV.3.223 “meet them at Philippi”
See the annotations to A Damsel in Distress.
Cassius.
We’ll along ourselves and meet them at Philippi.
- MK09Mike (1909), 25“We shall meet at Philippi.”
- LN13The Little Nugget (1913), II.1.3“Good-bye, Mr. Burns, good-bye,” he said. “We shall meet at—ah—Philippi.”
- PJ17Piccadilly Jim (1917), 11“We shall meet at Philippi.”
- DD19A Damsel in Distress (1919), 2“We shall meet at Philippi.”
- IW31If I Were You (1931), 10“We shall meet at Philippi.”
- TY34Thank You, Jeeves (1934), 2“We shall meet at Philippi, Jeeves.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Or am I thinking of some other spot?”
“No, sir, Philippi is correct.” - UF39Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939), 9“We shall meet at Philippi.”
- UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 6.3“We shall all meet then, at Philippi, and very jolly it will be, too.”
- UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 7.1“Where was it I told Mugsy that we would all meet? Ah, yes, at Philippi.”
- MS49The Mating Season (1949), 4“We shall meet at Philippi.”
- OR51The Old Reliable (1951), 8“Then we will meet at Philippi—or, rather, here—to-night.”
- BW52Barmy in Wonderland (Angel Cake) (1952), 3“We shall meet at Philippi.”
- PB69A Pelican at Blandings (No Nudes Is Good Nudes) (1969), 3.3“We shall meet at Philippi, if not sooner.”
V.5.73-75 “His life was gentle . . .”
Antony.
His life was gentle, and the elements
So mixed in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world ‘This was a man!’
- BM31Big Money (1931), 13.2“His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him that Nature might stand up and say to all the world ‘This was a man!’ I always remember that bit,” said the Biscuit. “Had to write it out a hundred times at school for bunging an orange at a contemporary and catching my form-master squarely in the eyeball, he happening to come unexpectedly into the room at the moment.”
[Not in BM31bBig Money
serial in Strand, 1930/10–1931/04.] - CT58ACocktail Time
Simon & Schuster, 1958, 23“I’ve just remembered what it was that Ecclesiastes said about him, only it wasn’t Ecclesiastes, it was Shakespeare. He said, ‘His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him that Nature might stand up and say to all the world, “This was a man!” ’ A pretty striking tribute, don’t you think, but thoroughly well deserved.”
[Not in CT58aCocktail Time
condensed in Ladies’ Home Journal, 1958/04, CT58BCocktail Time
Jenkins, 1958.] - AA74Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (The Cat-Nappers) (1974), 17“I can rely on the accuracy of your information about the dog?”
“Completely, Orlo. His life is gentle, and the elements mixed in him just right,” I said, remembering a gag of Jeeves’s.
KING JOHN
Text used: J. Dover Wilson, King John, C.U.P. 1969.
III.4.107-109 “as tedious as a twice-told tale”
Lewis.
There’s nothing in this world can make me joy;
Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man;
- SN15Something New (Something Fresh) (1915), 4Shakespeare and Pope have both emphasized the tediousness of a twice-told tale; so the Episode of the Stolen Scarab need not be repeated at this point, though it must be admitted that Mr. Peters’ version of it differed considerably from the calm, dispassionate description the author, in his capacity of official historian, has given earlier in the story.
- 15-SST“Summer Stuff” (1915)
in Vanity Fair (US), 1915/09What makes the Ziegfeld Follies at the New Amsterdam as superior to the other summer shows as champagne is to cold biscuit is the skill with which the management has avoided the “tediousness of a twice-told tale” atmosphere. - BC24Bill the Conqueror (1924), 1.2If Georgie had a fault, it was this tendency of his towards the twice-told tale.
- HW32Hot Water (1932), 7Nothing, as Shakespeare appreciated, is more tedious than a twice-told tale, but in Jane’s demeanour as Packy for the second time related the events which had led up to his being at the Château in another’s name there was no suggestion of boredom.
- SF57Something Fishy (The Butler Did It) (1957), 22Both Shakespeare (William) and Pope (Alexander) have stressed the tediousness of a twice-told tale, and a thrice-told tale is, of course, even worse.
- BG65The Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood (Galahad at Blandings) (1965), 8.3Gally listened attentively to the twice-told tale. He thought Beach got even more drama out of it than Sam had done.
IV.1.60 “this iron age”
Arthur.
Ah, none but in this iron age would do it!
- 50SP“The Shadow Passes” (1950)
NS TDCThis tenner would have to be coughed up in the course of the next few days, and tenners in this iron age are hard to come by.
IV.2.9-16 “To gild refined gold, to paint the lily”
Salisbury.
Therefore, to be possessed with double pomp,
To guard a title that was rich before,
To gild refinèd gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.
- PC10Psmith in the City (The New Fold) (1910), 18He seemed to be of opinion that Comrade Prebble’s was the master mind and that to add anything to his views would be in the nature of painting the lily and gilding the refined gold.
- 27TP“Those in Peril on the Tee” (1927)
Lib Str MMS GO“You are deliberately trying to foozle, which is not only painting the lily but very dishonest.”
V.7.112-118 “Come the three corners of the world in arms”
Bastard.
This England never did, nor never shall,
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror,
But when it first did help to wound itself . . . .
Now these her princes are come home again,
Come the three corners of the world in arms,
And we shall shock them: nought shall make us rue,
If England to itself do rest but true.
- PW52Pigs Have Wings (1952), 4.3He was a man who prided himself on his British fortitude. Come the three corners of the world in arms and we shall shock them, he had said in effect to Beach and Penny when speaking of the Binstead-Simmons threat, and he had been quite prepared to cope gallantly with a pig girl in the Parsloe pay and a Parsloe minion who went about buying bottles of anti-fat, the large economy size.
[Not in PW52aPigs Have Wings
serial in Collier’s, 1952/08/16–1952/09/20.] - 54-GNA“Grave News From America”
in Punch, 1954/08/18“As long as we have Texas oil millionaires, Hollywood film stars and Tommy Manville,” people told one another, “we’re all right. Come the three corners of the world in arms, and we shall shock them.” And, of course, at times they did, considerably.
[=57-CHD“Christmas and Divorce”
in Over Seventy (1957), 2. 56-SIR“Say It with Rattlesnakes”
in America, I Like You (1956): “we have Arline Judge, Hollywood”.]
KING LEAR
Text used: J. L. Halio, The Tragedy of King Lear. Updated edition (The New Cambridge Shakespeare), C.U.P. 2005.
I.2.138 “Some villain hath done me wrong”
Edgar.
Some villain hath done me wrong.
- 56-FNO“Footnotes”
in Punch, 1956/09/05I am not, I think,1 an irascible man, but after reading a number of recent biographies and volumes of essays I have begun to feel pretty sore and not in a mood to be put upon much longer.2
————————————
1 I do a lot of thinking.
2 Cp “Some villain hath done me wrong.”—King Lear, by Ibid, Act One, Scene Two. - OS57,FForeword to Over Seventy
Jenkins, 1957I am not, I think, an irascible man,3 but after reading a number of recent biographies and histories I have begun to feel pretty sore about these footnotes and not in the mood to be put upon much longer.4
————————————
3 Sunny Jim, many people call me.
4 See King Lear, Act One, Scene Two—“Some villain hath done me wrong”.
I.4.214 “thou marble-hearted fiend”
Lear.
Woe that too late repents!
Is it your will? Speak, sir. Prepare my horses.
Ingratitude! Thou marble-hearted fiend,
More hideous when thou show’st thee in a child
Than the sea-monster.
- JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 15“What did Shakespeare say about ingratitude?”
“ ‘Blow, blow, thou winter wind,’ sir, ‘thou art not so unkind as man’s ingratitude.’ He also alludes to the quality as ‘thou marble-hearted fiend.’ ”
“And he wasn’t so dashed far wrong!”
[See As You Like It, II.7.175-177.]
I.4.239-244 “sharper than a serpent’s tooth”
Lear.
Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth,
With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks,
Turn all her mother’s pains and benefits
To laughter and contempt, that she may feel
How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is
To have a thankless child.
- 11BS“The Best Sauce” (1911)
Pic (“The Dinner of Herbs”) Str UW “This is considerably sharper than a serpent’s tooth,” he said. “You should be fawning gratefully upon me, not laughing.”
[Second sentence omitted in 11BSa“The Dinner of Herbs”
in Pictorial Review, 1913/02.] - 22BL“Bingo and the Little Woman” (1922)
Cos Str IJ,17-18“You can’t have approached him properly. I might have known you would muck it up,” said young Bingo. Which, considering what I had been through for his sake, struck me as a good bit sharper than a serpent’s tooth.
[=IJ23The Inimitable Jeeves (Jeeves) (1923), 17.] - LG36Laughing Gas (1936), 16My thoughts were very bitter. Now that I was at leisure to devote myself to concentrating on it exclusively once more, I realized all that that pork pie had meant to me. My whole policy was wrapped up in it. And the reflection that April June would never know what I had given up for her sake stung like a serpent’s tooth.
- MS49The Mating Season (1949), 5How sharper than a serpent’s tooth, I remember Jeeves saying once, it is to have a thankless child, and it isn’t a dashed sight better having a thankless aunt.
I.4.250-254 “What’s the matter, sir? / I’ll tell thee.”
Note that the exchange “What’s the matter? / I’ll tell you what’s the matter” is frequent, but without explicit reference to King Lear as in the quotation below (31SW“The Smile That Wins” (1931)
Am Str EQ MN Cr, JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960) and others.)
Albany.
What’s the matter, sir?
Lear.
I’ll tell thee. [To Goneril] Life and death! I am ashamed
That thou hast power to shake my manhood thus,
That these hot tears, which break from me perforce,
Should make thee worth them. Blasts and fogs upon thee!
- 23RB“The Return of Battling Billson” (1923)
Cos Str U“What’s the matter?” I asked again.
“Matter? I’ll tell you what’s the matter,” moaned Ukridge. He splashed seltzer into his glass. He reminded me of King Lear.
II.2.11-21 “A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats . . .”
The epithet “lily-livered” coined by Shakespeare appears also in Macbeth V.3.15 “Thou lily-livered boy” (contemporary with King Lear); also “milk-livered” (Lear), “white-livered” (Henry V) and “pigeon-livered” (Hamlet). Wodehouse always uses “lily-livered poltroon,” which is recorded a few times in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Kent.
Fellow, I know thee.
Oswald.
What dost thou know me for?
Kent.
A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats, a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking, whoreson glass-gazing, superserviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch, one whom I will beat into clamorous whining if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition.
- JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 20His table talk then took on a rather acid tone, touching disparagingly on so-called friends who, supposed by him hitherto to be staunch and true, turned out to his disappointment to be lily-livered poltroons lacking even the meagre courage of a rabbit.
- UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 2“Just because I wouldn’t do something she wanted me to do, she called me a lily-livered poltroon.”
“She probably meant it as a compliment. A lily liver must be very pretty.”
[. . .]
“As a matter of fact, that lily-livered sequence was simply what put the lid on it.”
[UD48aUncle Dynamite
condensed in Liberty, 1949/04 has only first sentence. Not in UD48cUncle Dynamite
condensed in Toronto Star Weekly, 1949/04/30.] - RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 8“It makes one’s blood boil to think of this . . . this . . . what would Shakespeare have called him, Jeeves?”
“This arrant, rascally, beggarly, lousy knave, m’lord.”
“Ah, yes. Shakespeare put these things well.”
“A whoreson, beetle-headed, flap-eared knave, a knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a beggarly filthy, worsted-stocking——”
“Yes, yes, Jeeves, quite so. One gets the idea.”
[See King Henry V, IV.8.35-37.] - SU63Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963), 24“You won’t stay on?”
“I will not. I intend to put as many miles as possible in as short a time as possible between Totleigh-in-the-Wold and myself. And it’s no good your using that expression ‘lily-livered poltroon’, because I am adamant.” - AA74Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (The Cat-Nappers) (1974), 9“She accused Mr. Porter of being a lily-livered poltroon, and said that she never wished to speak to him again or hear from him by letter, telegram or carrier pigeon.”
- AA74Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (The Cat-Nappers) (1974), 14“How about that lily-livered poltroon?”
- AA74Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (The Cat-Nappers) (1974), 16“She called me a lily-livered poltroon.”
III.2.1-9 “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks!”
Lear.
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow,
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks!
You sulph’rous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head; and thou all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o’th’world,
Crack nature’s moulds, all germens spill at once
That makes ingrateful man.
- UF39Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939), 15The Ovens home-brewed is a liquid Pollyanna, for ever pointing out the bright side and indicating silver linings. It slips its little hand in yours, and whispers “Cheer up!” If King Lear had had a tankard of it handy, we should have had far less of that “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks!” stuff.
[Not in UF39aUncle Fred in the Springtime
shorter serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1939/04/22–1939/05/27.] - FM47Full Moon (1947), 7.1About the only spot into which the golden beams did not penetrate was the small smoking-room off the hall. It never got the sun till late in the afternoon, and it was for this reason that Tipton Plimsoll, having breakfasted frugally on a cup of coffee and his thoughts, had gone there to brood over the tragedy which had shattered his life. He was not in the market for sunshine. Given his choice, he would have scrapped this glorious morning, flattering the mountain tops with sovereign eye, and substituted for it something more nearly resembling the weather conditions of King Lear, Act Two.
[See Sonnet 33. The storm is prominent in Act III but it actually breaks at the end of Act II, so that the reference here is not inaccurate.]
[Not in FM47aFull Moon
condensed in Liberty, 1947/11.] - 54-CED“Carol and Edna”
in Punch, 1954/09/29I am sure all my little readers will want to know how I got on under conditions which would have brought a startled “Gorblimey” to the lips of King Lear.
[57-AHW“Armadillos, Hurricanes and What Not”
in Over Seventy (1957): “I am sure you will want to know, Winkler, how”. (This item and the next refer to Hurricanes Carol and Edna in 1954.)] - 56-TBD“Thin Blessings in Disguise”
in America, I Like You (1956)Conditions under Carol would have brought a startled “Gee whiz!” to the lips of King Lear, but Edna was a flop. - BA73Bachelors Anonymous (1973), 10Men who are stricken to the core react in one of two ways. They rave and curse—this was the method preferred by King Lear—all that Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks stuff—or a sort of frozen calm comes over them as if their circulation had been suspended.
III.2.57-58 “more sinned against than sinning”
Lear.
I am a man
More sinned against than sinning.
- 02SI“The Adventure of the Split Infinitive” (1902)
PSM PS1 TWE “Sir,” I said, “I acquit you of all blame. You are more sinned against than sinning. Run away and reform.” - 15-SGC“The Scourge of the Golf Child” (1915)
in Vanity Fair (US), 1915/11Some hold that the Golf Child is more sinned against than sinning. - 16-SSO“The Somber Sadness of Our Summer Shows”
in Vanity Fair (US), 1916/08Buck up, Harold. I, at any rate, know that you are more sinned against than sinning. - PJ17Piccadilly Jim (1917), 12“I was more sinned against than sinning.”
- DD19A Damsel in Distress (1919), 13Except for the barking of a distant dog, the faint wailing of a waltz, the rustle of a roosting bird, and the sound of Plummer saying that if her refusal was due to anything she might have heard about that breach-of-promise case of his a couple of years ago he would like to state that he was more sinned against than sinning and that the girl had absolutely misunderstood him, all was still.
- LW20The Little Warrior (Jill the Reckless) (1920), 5.2We, who have seen Henry in his calmer moments and know him for the good fellow he was, are aware that he was more sinned against than sinning.
- 32SW“The Story of Webster” (1932)
(Am & Str as “The Bishop’s Cat”) MN“Lancelot, to my mind, is more sinned against than sinning.” - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 25Nobby flung herself into his arms, cooing over him to a considerable extent, and even I was compelled to admit that he had been more sinned against than sinning.
III.4.166-168 “Childe Roland to the dark tower came”
This is listed here for the sake of completeness, but PGW most likely refers rather to Browning’s poem “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came” (1855).
Edgar.
Child Roland to the dark tower came.
His word was still ‘Fie, fo, and fum;
I smell the blood of a British man.’
- CW38The Code of the Woosters (1938), 2“Childe Roland to the dark tower came, sir,” said Jeeves, as we alighted, though what he meant I hadn’t an earthly.
- MS49The Mating Season (1949), 5I remember once when he and I arrived at a country house where the going threatened to be sticky, Jeeves, as we alighted, murmured in my ear the words “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came, sir,” and at the time I could make nothing of the crack. Subsequent inquiry, however, revealed that this Roland was one of those knights of the Middle Ages who spent their time wandering to and fro, and that on fetching up one evening at a dump known as the Dark Tower he had scratched the chin a bit dubiously, not liking the look of things.
[. . .]
He had a large, bald head and pale, protruding gooseberry eyes, and those eyes, resting on mine, heightened the Dark Tower felling considerably. The thought crossed my mind that if something like this had popped out at Childe Roland, he would have clapped spurs to his charger and been off like a jack-rabbit. - MS49The Mating Season (1949), 7Well, I suppose if I had been a Seigneur of the Middle Ages—somebody like Childe Roland, for instance—in the days when you couldn’t throw a brick without beaning a magician or a wizard or a sorcerer and people were always getting changed into something else, I wouldn’t have given the thing a second thought.
- MS49The Mating Season (1949), 8“In the days when knights were bold, as you probably know, girls used to hound fellows into going out and fighting dragons. I expect your old pal Childe Roland had it happen to him a dozen times. But dragons are one thing, and aunts are another.”
- MS49The Mating Season (1949), 27I squared the shoulders and strode to the door, like Childe Roland about to fight the paynim.
III.4.19-22 “that way madness lies”
Lear.
O Regan, Gonerill,
Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all –
O that way madness lies; let me shun that;
No more of that.
- LC06Love Among the Chickens (1906–09), 20The merciful laws of golf, framed by kindly men who do not wish to see the asylums of Great Britain overcrowded, enact that in such a case the player may take his ball, and throw it over his shoulder. The same to count as one stroke. But Vaulting Ambition is apt to try and drive out from the ditch, thinking thereby to win through without losing a stroke. This way madness lies.
[Not in LC21Love Among the Chickens
Jenkins, 1921. See Macbeth, I.7.21-28.] - BM64Biffen’s Millions (Frozen Assets) (1964), 2.1“Are you going in to see the Sergeant?” he asked hoarsely. “Don’t do it. That way madness lies.”
V.3.164 “The wheel is come full circle”
Edmond.
Th’hast spoken right; ’tis true.
The wheel is come full circle; I am here.
- 460911-GBDLetter to Guy Bolton, 1946/09/11
in Yours, Plum (ed. Donaldson, 1990), p. 108
in Performing Flea as if to W. TownendIncidentally, when I first went to America in 1903, I travelled second class with three other men in the cabin, so the wheel has come full circle, as you might say. - BG65The Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood (Galahad at Blandings) (1965), 8.1“Let me smell your breath,” said Huxley, coming full circle, as it were.
Other
- 04-PFH“A Protest from Hoxton” in “From My Tub” (column)
in Vanity Fair (UK), 1904/06/30If Cordelia took a relish wiv her tea; - HW33Heavy Weather (1933), 9“And he notified me subsequently that, thanks to my kindly advice, he had cleaned up to the extent of eleven shillings—in addition to a bag of bananas, two strawberry ice-creams, and a three-cornered Cape of Good Hope stamp at a hundred to sixteen from a schoolmate who was making a book. And this is how he repays me!” said the Hon. Galahad, looking like King Lear. “Isn’t there such a thing as gratitude in the world?”
- 28CG“Company for Gertrude” (1928)
Cos Str BCEBefore him stood the man who had inflicted Popjoy on him, and with something of King Lear in his demeanour Lord Emsworth rose slowly from the pillows. - SM37Summer Moonshine (1937), 2Sir Buckstone looked at her as King Lear might have looked at Cordelia—rather, in fact, as Mr. Chinnery had just looked at him.
- SF48Spring Fever (1948), 3His prominent eyes glowed dangerously, and he spoke in a voice the tones of which King Lear, had he been present, would have memorized for personal use.
- MS49The Mating Season (1949), 1“Someone waits without. If it’s young Thos, tell him that I shall expect him to be in readiness, all clean and rosy, at seven-forty-five to-night to accompany me to the performance of King Lear at the Old Vic, and it’s no good him trying to do a sneak.”
- RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 14Bill himself, crushed at last by the blows of Fate, appeared formally to have given up the struggle. He had slumped into a chair, and was sitting there looking boneless and despairing. All he needed was a long white beard, and the resemblance to King Lear on one of his bad mornings would have been complete.
- 56-TBD“Thin Blessings in Disguise”
in America, I Like You (1956)“Conditions under Carol would have brought a startled ‘Gee whiz!’ to the lips of King Lear, but Edna was a flop.” - SB77Sunset at Blandings (1977), 11“Jeff,” he said, “you look like the seven years of Famine we read of in Scripture. You could go on and play King Lear without make-up.”
MACBETH
Text used: A. R. Braunmuller, Macbeth (The New Cambridge Shakespeare), C.U.P. 1997.
I.2.1-3 “What bloody man is that?”
Duncan.
What bloody man is that? He can report,
As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt
The newest state.
- SF57Something Fishy (The Butler Did It) (1957), 6“What bloody man is this?” he asked, becoming Shakespearean.
“That is our host, Stanhope Twine.”
I.4.7-11 “nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it”
Malcolm.
Nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it. He died
As one that had been studied in his death,
To throw away the dearest thing he owed
As ’twere a careless trifle.
- DD19A Damsel in Distress (1919), 6It might be judicious to continue in that vein, though privately he held the opinion that nothing in Percy’s life so became him as this assault on the Force.
I.5.13-16 “the milk of human kindness”
Lady Macbeth.
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be
What thou art promised; yet do I fear thy nature,
It is too full o’th’milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way.
- MK09Mike (1909), 43But he reflected that he had only seen him in his leisure moments, when he might naturally be expected to unbend and be full of the milk of human kindness.
[=MK092bThe Lost Lambs
second part of Mike serialized in The Captain, 1908/04-09, 14.] - IJ10The Intrusion of Jimmy (A Gentleman of Leisure) (1910), 23One could almost hear the milk of human kindness gurgling and splashing within him.
[. . .]
Then the milk of human kindness swept over displeasure like a tidal wave. - 14PW“Parted Ways” (1914)
Pic StrThere are some speeches before which amiability wilts like a stricken flower, affection hits the resin with a thud, and the milk of human kindness is turned off as with a tap.
[14PWa“Parted Ways”
in Pictorial Review, 1915/06: “turned off with a spigot”.] - 14SL“The Sluggard” (1914)
Pun“The milk of human kindness comes surging back into me like a tidal wave.” - 16AC“The Artistic Career of Corky” (1916)
(SEP Str MMJ EJ as “Leave It to Jeeves”) COJThe uncle had written Muriel a letter so dripping with the milk of human kindness that if he hadn’t known Mr. Worple’s handwriting Corky would have refused to believe him the author of it. - 20DF“Doing Father a Bit of Good” (1920)
Cos Str IAArchie had visited his father-in-law’s suite one morning—not absolutely with the definite purpose of making a touch, but rather with the nebulous notion of getting into his relative’s ribs for a few dollars if the latter seemed to be sufficiently cheery and full of the milk of human kindness—and he had found the sitting-room occupied only by the valet, who was dusting the furniture and bric-à-brac with a feather broom rather in the style of a man-servant at the rise of the curtain of an old-fashioned farce.
[20DFa“Doing Father a Bit of Good”
in Cosmopolitan, 1920/08 ends with “and bric-à-brac.” Not in IA21Indiscretions of Archie (1921), 9.] - IA21Indiscretions of Archie (1921), 11Now was plainly the moment for the waiter to submit his grievance, before some ebb-tide caused the milk of human kindness to flow out of Daniel Brewster.
[Not in magazine versions.] - SS25Sam the Sudden (Sam in the Suburbs) (1925), 22.1Hash, full of the milk of human kindness, went out into the garden.
- MN28Money for Nothing (1928), 2However, he was a reasonable young man, and he quite understood that it would be foolish to expect the milk of human kindness instantly to come gushing like a geyser out of a two hundred and twenty pound uncle who had just been doing bending and stretching exercises.
[Not in MN28bMoney for Nothing
serial in London Calling, 1928/03/03–1928/07/28.] - 28UO“Ukridge and the Old Stepper” (1928)
Lib Str EBCHe comes down to the office and finds a sharp note from the President of Uruguay or someone on his desk, and it curdles the milk of human kindness within him.
[Not in 28UOa“Ukridge and the Old Stepper”
in Liberty, 1928/06/09.] - FP29Fish Preferred (Summer Lightning) (1929), 14.1But the milk of human kindness, of which the butler was so full, had not yet been delivered on Baxter’s doorstep.
-
29GU“The Man Who Gave Up Smoking” (1929)
Lib Str MMS And, as he did so, the milk of human kindness surged back into his soul like a vast tidal wave. - 30BS“Best Seller” (1930)
Cos Str MNThere are some speeches before which dignity melts like ice in August, resentment takes the full count, and the milk of human kindness surges back into the aching heart as if the dam had burst. - BM31Big Money (1931), 1.3It would be simple for a man of discernment to note the approach of one of these moments and put the necessary questions before the milk of human kindness ebbed again.
- HW32Hot Water (1932), 18“You know how it is about the milk of human kindness. Something starts a leak and out it goes with a hoosh.”
[Not in HW32aHot Water
serial in Collier’s, 1932/05/21–1932/08/06.] - HW33Heavy Weather (1933), 9He leaned farther out of the window, overflowing with the milk of human kindness.
- RH34Right Ho, Jeeves (Brinkley Manor) (1934), 6That I had not overrated my acumen was proved by her next in order, which, I was pleased to note, assayed a markedly larger percentage of the milk of human kindness.
- LB35The Luck of the Bodkins (1935), 22In all the swirl of recent events she had never forgotten that, however abruptly Ivor Llewellyn might turn off the milk of human kindness in his bosom, there was one man who could make him turn it on again.
[=LB35AThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version, Little, Brown, 1936, 25. Not in LB35aThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version in Redbook, 1935/08–1936/01, LB35bThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version in The Passing Show, 1935/09/21–1935/11/23.] - 31FA“Fate” (1931)
Cos (“Compromised!”) Str YMS TDCAnd he was still full of the milk of human kindness and longing to assist some less fortunate fellow-traveler along the road of Life, when he saw this girl in front of him, staggering under the weight of the suit-case.
[. . .] His sense of loyalty to Mavis was so great that he was right off pretty girls. They were the only persons he had excluded from his beaming operations. Towards them, in spite of all that milk of human kindness, he had been consistently aloof and austere. - 37-BWH“Back to Whiskers” (1937)
WWBThere is probably nothing which so soothes a man and puts him in a frame of mind to see only good in everything as a nice, clean shave. He feels his smooth, pink cheeks, and the milk of human kindness begins to gurgle within him. - 37AW“All’s Well with Bingo” (1937)
SEP Str EBCB CWB TDCIt seemed merely a question of time before the milk of human kindness would come gushing out of him as if the dam had burst. - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 11“If that merger comes off, the milk of human kindness will slosh about in him like the rising tide, swamping all animosity.”
- JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 26Our whole plan of strategy called for an Uncle Percy in whom the neap tide of the milk of human kindness was at its height.
- FM47Full Moon (1947), 7.7Filled to the brim with the milk of human kindness, Tipton regarded Freddie once more as a pal and a buddy.
[Not in FM47aFull Moon
condensed in Liberty, 1947/11.] - FM47Full Moon (1947), 9.1“What the old dosshouse needs is a splash of the milk of human kindness.”
[Not in FM47aFull Moon
condensed in Liberty, 1947/11.] - UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 6.2“Why after your recent experience of his dark malignity you should suppose young Mugsy to be a sort of vat or container for the milk of human kindness, I cannot imagine.”
- UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 8.1Pongo’s equanimity returned, and with it a warm gush of the milk of human kindness.
- 48FO“Freddie, Oofy and the Beef Trust” (1948)
FQO TDC (“Oofy, Freddie, and the Beef Trust”)They downed their soup as if in a roseate dream, and scarcely had the echoes died away when there was another sloshing sound as the milk of human kindness came surging back into them. - MS49The Mating Season (1949), 21“And with these sentiments fizzing about inside me, with the milk of human kindness sloshing up against my back teeth, I wandered into the servants’ hall and found Queenie there in tears.”
- OR51The Old Reliable (1951), 18“If such is the case, I don’t think I am wrong in assuming that the milk of human kindness will have come surging back into the Topham bosom like a tidal wave, sweetening his outlook and rendering him a good and easy prospect.”
- PW52Pigs Have Wings (1952), 1.3A pain in the neck to his sister Constance, his sister Julia, his sister Dora and all his other sisters, he was universally esteemed in less austere quarters, for his heart was of gold and his soul overflowing with the milk of human kindness.
[PW52aPigs Have Wings
serial in Collier’s, 1952/08/16–1952/09/20: only “his sister Constance” mentioned.] - PW52Pigs Have Wings (1952), 11.2“As the car drove in at the gate, we struck a bumpy patch, and I could hear the milk of human kindness sloshing about inside him.”
[Not in PW52aPigs Have Wings
serial in Collier’s, 1952/08/16–1952/09/20.] - HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 19No words had been exchanged between Upjohn and self on the journey out, but the glimpses I had caught of his face from the corner of the eye had told me that he was grim and resolute, his supply of the milk of human kindness plainly short by several gallons.
- IB61[The] Ice in the Bedroom (1961), 15Replacing the hair brush on the dressing-table, he went down, the milk of human kindness still surging within him, to play the host, and was interested to discover in the living-room the golden-haired young woman with whom he had had such a stimulating conversation on the previous day.
- SU63Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963), 16Filled with the milk of human kindness so nearly to the brim that you could almost hear it sloshing about inside him, he was in no shape to deny anyone anything.
- BG65The Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood (Galahad at Blandings) (1965), 1.3“You can hear the milk of human kindness sloshing about inside him.”
- PP67The Purloined Paperweight (Company for Henry) (1967), 9.3“If he eats chocolate bars, he can’t be the type of employer who chews broken glass and tenpenny nails and is ferocious with those on his payroll. Milk chocolate?”
“That’s the sort I bought for him.”
“So I shall find him full of the milk chocolate of human kindness.”
[PP67cThe Purloined Paperweight
condensed serial in Toronto Star Weekly, 1967/04/29–1967/05/06 has only last sentence.] - PB69A Pelican at Blandings (No Nudes Is Good Nudes) (1969), 11.1“You couldn’t expect him to be brimming over with the milk of human kindness right away.”
- GB70The Girl in Blue (1970), 7Full of tea, buns and the milk of human kindness, she might have patted him on the head, had it not been for the peculiarly repellent brand of hair oil which he affected.
- SB77Sunset at Blandings (1977), 3“What you need are a few quarts of the milk of human kindness.”
I.7.1-2 “if it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly”
Macbeth.
If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well
it were done quickly.
- IJ10The Intrusion of Jimmy (A Gentleman of Leisure) (1910), 6Business, however, was business. This was no time to stand admiring artistic effects in room-furnishing. There was that big J to be carved on the front door. If ’twere done, then ’twere well ’twere done quickly.
[IJ10bThe Intrusions of Jimmy
serial in Tit-Bits, 1910/06/11–1910/09/10, IJ10BA Gentleman of Leisure
A. Rivers, 1910: “artistic efforts”.] - 23NW“No Wedding Bells for Him” (1923)
Cos Str UThe traffic had begun to move on now, and as we moved with it, travelling with increasing speed, the man appeared to realize that if ’twere done ’twere well ’twere done quickly. - 24SS“Something Squishy” (1924)
SEP Str MMSIf there is one thing in this world that should be done quickly or not at all, it is the removal of one’s personal snake from the bed of a comparative stranger. - 27JY“Jeeves and the Yule-Tide Spirit” (1927)
Lib Str VGJ VWAs Shakespeare says, if you’re going to do a thing you might just as well pop right at it and get it over. - MN28Money for Nothing (1928), 10.2But if ’twere done, then ’twere well ’twere done quickly.
[=MN28AMoney for Nothing
Doubleday, Doran, 1928, 10.3.] - TY34Thank You, Jeeves (1934), 6But at this point I caught sight of Chuffy’s head over a shrub, and I felt that the moment had come to act. It was one of those things that want doing quickly or not at all.
[TY34aThank You, Jeeves!
serial in Cosmopolitan, 1934/01–1934/06: second sentence omitted.] - RH34Right Ho, Jeeves (Brinkley Manor) (1934), 13“You noticed that I said I was going to put this project through tomorrow, and no doubt you wondered why I said tomorrow. Why did I, Jeeves?”
“Because you feel that if it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly, sir?”
“Partly, Jeeves, but not altogether.” - QS40Quick Service (1940), 11He wrenched his gaze from that of the portrait, which he was beginning to find hypnotic, and opened his knife. If ’twere done, he felt, then ’twere well ’twere done quickly.
[QS40aQuick Service
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1940/05/04–1940/06/22 omits second sentence with Shakespeare quotation.] - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 13Feeling, therefore, that if the thing was to be smacked into, ’twere well ’twere smacked into quickly, as Shakespeare says, I treacled the paper and attached it to the window.
- RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 13“I think your lordship should be starting as soon as possible. If ’twere done, then ’twere well ’twere done quickly.”
- JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 12“If it were . . . what’s that expression of yours?”
“If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly, sir.”
“That’s right. No sense in standing humming and hawing.”
[Not in JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04.] - 59JM“Jeeves Makes an Omelette” (1959)
Arg EQ (“Jeeves and the Stolen Venus”) Lil TSW FQO WoJ“No sense in dillying or, for the matter of that, dallying.”
“No, sir. If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly,” he said, and I remember thinking how neatly he puts these things.
[59JMb“Jeeves Makes an Omelette”
in Lilliput, 1959/02 : “No sense in putting it off.” / “No, sir. If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly,” he said.] - SU63Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963), 22“Yes, sir. If it were done when ’twere done, then ’twere well it were done quickly,” he said, making for the door, and I thought, as I had so often thought before, how neatly he put these things.
[. . .]
I had no difficulty in recognizing the situation as what the French call an impasse, and as I stood pondering what to do for the best, footsteps sounded without, and feeling that ’twere well it were done quickly I made for the sofa once more, lowering my previous record by perhaps a split second. - MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 11However, it had to be done, and, as I heard Jeeves say once, if it were done, then ’twere well ’twere done quickly. Stiffening the sinews and summoning up the blood, to quote another his gags, I pressed the bell.
[See King Henry V, III.1.3-14.] - MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 13There was no sense in beating about bushes. It was another of those cases of if it were done, then ’twere well ’twere done quickly.
- PG72Pearls, Girls, and Monty Bodkin (The Plot That Thickened) (1972), 11.3If what she contemplated were done, and it had to be done, then ’twere well, as Shakespeare would have put it, ’twere done quickly.
I.7.2-5 “the be-all and the end-all”
Macbeth.
If th’assassination
Could trammel up the consequence and catch
With his surcease, success, that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all
- 00WO“Work” (1900)
PSM TSASome day, mayhap, I shall gather my great-great-grandsons round my knee, and tell them—as one tells tales of Faëry—that I can remember the time when Work was considered the be-all and the end-all of a school career. - 33AH“The Amazing Hat Mystery” (1933)
Cos Str YMS VW TDCOne moment, this girl was the be-all and the end-all, as you might say, of Percy Wimbolt’s life. The next, she was just a regrettable young blister with whom he wished to hold no further communication.
I.7.21-28 “vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself”
Macbeth.
And pity, like a naked newborn babe
Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself
And falls on th’other –
- 05LB“The Lost Bowlers” (1905)
StrThen our luck turned. Geake, who had had a rest and was now bowling again, sent down a miserable long hop wide of the off stump. It was a ball that cried out to be hit. A novice could have dispatched it to the boundary. The vaulting ambition of the Wykehamist did not stop short at a mere four. He wanted six. He hit out much too wildly. There was a click, and Gregory had him behind the wickets. - LC06Love Among the Chickens (1906–09), 20The merciful laws of golf, framed by kindly men who do not wish to see the asylums of Great Britain overcrowded, enact that in such a case the player may take his ball, and throw it over his shoulder. The same to count as one stroke. But Vaulting Ambition is apt to try and drive out from the ditch, thinking thereby to win through without losing a stroke. This way madness lies.
[Not in LC21Love Among the Chickens
Jenkins, 1921. See King Lear, III.4.19-22.] - WF07The White Feather (1907), 9“You’ll do fine, sir. But remember what Shakespeare says.”
“About vaulting ambition?”
“No, sir, no. I meant what Hamlet says to the players. ‘Nor do not saw the air too much, with your hand, thus, but use all gently.’ That’s what you’ve got to remember in boxing, sir.”
[See Hamlet, III.2.4-8.]
I.7.39-45 “letting I dare not wait upon I would, like the poor cat i’th’adage”
Lady Macbeth.
Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour,
As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting I dare not wait upon I would,
Like the poor cat i’th’adage?
- 03MC“The Manœuvres of Charteris” (1903)
Cap TSA, 5She was letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would,” like the late Macbeth, the cat i’ the adage, and numerous other celebrities.
[03MCb“The Manœuvres of Charteris”
in The Captain, 1903/08-09: “and other celebrities.”] - RH34Right Ho, Jeeves (Brinkley Manor) (1934), 1“Yes, I recall the Sipperley case. He couldn’t bring himself to the scratch. A marked coldness of the feet, was there not? I recollect you saying he was letting—what was it?—letting something do something. Cats entered into it, if I am not mistaken.”
“Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’ sir.”
“That’s right. But how about the cats?”
“Like the poor cat i’ the adage, sir.”
“Exactly. It beats me how you think up these things.” - RH34Right Ho, Jeeves (Brinkley Manor) (1934), 9Yet in his aspect now I could detect no indication whatsoever that he was about to round into mid-season form. He still looked like a cat in an adage, and it did not take me long to realise that my very first act on escaping from this morgue must be to draw him aside and give him a pep talk.
- TY34Thank You, Jeeves (1934), 17So I stayed where I was, letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would,” like the poor cat i’ th’ adage. That’s not my own, by the way. It’s Jeeves’s.
[. . .]
And when I told Jeeves about the poor chap’s doubts and hesitations and inward debates, he said that Pongo was letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would,” like the poor cat i’ th’ adage. And I remember thinking, as I have so often thought before, how well Jeeves puts these things.
[Not in TY34bThank You, Jeeves!
serial in Strand, 1933/08–1934/02, TY34BThank You, Jeeves
Jenkins, 1934. Slightly abridged in TY34aThank You, Jeeves!
serial in Cosmopolitan, 1934/01–1934/06.] - CW38The Code of the Woosters (1938), 2That is the problem which is torturing me, Jeeves. I can’t make up my mind. You remember that fellow you’ve mentioned to me once or twice, who let something wait upon something? You know who I mean—the cat chap.”
“Macbeth, sir, a character in a play of that name by the late William Shakespeare. He was described as letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’ like the poor cat i’ th’ adage.”
“Well, that’s how it is with me. I wobble, and I vacillate—if that’s the word?”
“Perfectly correct, sir.”
[CW38bThe Code of the Woosters
serial in Daily Mail, 1938/09/08–1938/10/21: “His wife described him as”. CW38aThe Code of the Woosters
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1938/07/16–1938/09/03, CW38AThe Code of the Woosters
Doubleday, Doran, 1938: “wabble” (a variant form often used by PGW, sometimes changed by his editors).] - CW38The Code of the Woosters (1938), 2My frame of mind was more or less that of a cat in an adage.
- CW38The Code of the Woosters (1938), 11He pottered about for a while, doing the old cat-in-an-adage stuff.
[Not in CW38aThe Code of the Woosters
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1938/07/16–1938/09/03, CW38bThe Code of the Woosters
serial in Daily Mail, 1938/09/08–1938/10/21.] - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 3A bloke of furtive aspect was shimmering to and fro on the threshold of the emporium, his demeanour rather like that of the cat in the adage, which, according to Jeeves, and I suppose he knows, let “I dare not” wait upon “I would.”
- JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 13And it was at this point that I suddenly came over all cat-in-the-adage-y.
- 50BS“Birth of a Salesman” (1950)
TW NS FQOpHe was still standing in the driveway, letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would”, as cats do in adages, when the air became full of tooting horns and grinding brakes and screaming voices. - BW52Barmy in Wonderland (Angel Cake) (1952), 17If Shakespeare had happened to enter the room at this moment with a friend, he would have said to the friend: “Don’t look now, but that fellow in the hom-rimmed spectacles over there will give you some idea of what I was driving at when I wrote that stuff about letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’ like the poor cat in the adage.”
- JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 14Halting abruptly, as if he had walked into a lamp post, he stood goggling like a cat in an adage. Cats in adages, Jeeves tells me, let “I dare not” wait upon “I would,” and I could see with the naked eye that this was what Stilton was doing.
[=JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04, 12.] - JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 15“However much his thoughts may drift in the direction of stuffing-hammering, he will have to continue to maintain the non-belligerent status of a mild cat in an adage.”
[Not in JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04.] - JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 22For a moment he stood there letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would’.
[=JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04, 20.] - CT58Cocktail Time (1958), 19His air was that of a man who lets “I dare not” wait upon “I would,” as so often happens with cats in adages.
- HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 7I stood outside the door for a space, letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would,” as Jeeves tells me cats do in adages, then turned the handle softly, pushed—also softly—and, carrying on into the interior, found myself confronted by a girl in housemaid’s costume who put a hand to her throat like somebody in a play and leaped several inches in the direction of the ceiling.
- HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 15However, there was good stuff in the lad, and though for a while the temperature of his feet had dropped sharply, threatening to reduce him to the status of a non-cooperative cat in an adage, at 3.30 Greenwich Mean Time he was at his post behind the selected tree, resolved to do his bit.
- SU63Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963), 3“I suppose Stiffy’s sore about this . . . what’s the word . . .? Not vaseline . . . Vacillation, that’s it. She chafes, I imagine, at this vacillation on Bassett’s part and resents him letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would’, like the poor cat in the adage. Not my own, that, by the way. Jeeves’s.”
- SU63Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963), 14“More letting-I-dare-not-wait-upon-I-would-ness on Pop Bassett’s part, he gave me to understand.”
- SU63Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963), 15He stood there passing a finger thoughtfully over his chin, like a cat in an adage.
- BM64Biffen’s Millions (Frozen Assets) (1964), 5.1Biff would have none of this cat-in-the-adage spirit. He was all enthusiasm.
- 65BB“Bingo Bans the Bomb” (1965)
Arg Pla PP TDCIf Shakespeare had happened to come by with Ben Jonson, he would have nudged the latter in the ribs and whispered “See that fellow, rare Ben? He illustrates exactly what I was driving at when I wrote that stuff about letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would’ like the poor cat in the adage.”
[65BBa“Bingo Bans the Bomb”
in Playboy, 1965/01, 65BBb“Bingo Bans the Bomb”
in Argosy, 1965/08: “See that chap”.] - GB70The Girl in Blue (1970), 3Eager though he was to discuss the main item on the agenda paper, at the same time he shrank from bringing it up. This, a familiar attitude with cats in adages, is also almost universal among diffident men trying to key themselves up to asking for large sums of money. One might put it that they let “I dare not” wait upon “I would.”
I.7.59-61 “screw your courage to the sticking-place”
Macbeth.
If we should fail?
Lady Macbeth.
We fail?
But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we’ll not fail.
- BM31Big Money (1931), 13.1What with the tumult of his thoughts and the necessity of drinking his courage to the sticking-point, Mr. Hoke tonight had for perhaps the first time in his life omitted to dine, preferring to concentrate his energies on the absorption of double whiskies.
- HW33Heavy Weather (1933), 7And it was perhaps fortunate, for sudden activity of the kind might have proved injurious to a man of his full habit, that before he could quite screw his courage to the sticking point his ear caught the sound of approaching footsteps.
- QS40Quick Service (1940), 10It is possible, however, that he might have been unable to screw his courage to the sticking point had there not come a long at this moment from the direction of the house a two-seater car, containing in addition to the very pretty girl at the wheel, in whom he recognized his visitor of yesterday, two passengers, one human, the other canine.
- JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 13“Then I’ll take a stroll for ten minutes. That will give you eight minutes to screw your courage to the sticking-point, one minute to break window and one to make getaway.”
- JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 23“I think that you should remain, in order to keep his lordship’s courage screwed to the sticking-place.”
- FM47Full Moon (1947), 3.2If Prudence had wanted a Hollywood wedding with brass bands, cameras, and full floodlighting effects, he would have screwed his courage to the sticking point and gone through with it.
[Not in FM47aFull Moon
condensed in Liberty, 1947/11.] - HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 7As I reached Wilbert’s door and paused outside doing a bit of screwing the courage to the sticking point, as I have heard Jeeves call it, I found the proceedings reminding me of something, and I suddenly remembered what.
- SS61Service with a Smile (1961), 12A shrewd judge of form, he had supposed that only infinite patience and a compelling series of pep talks would have been able to screw this man’s courage to the sticking point and turn him, as he appeared to have been turned, into a whirlwind wooer.
II.1.33-41 “Is this a dagger which I see before me?”
Macbeth.
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee:
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
- PJ15Psmith, Journalist (1915, from 1909–10 serial), 21“Is that a ladder that I see before me, its handle to my hand? It is!”
- BW52Barmy in Wonderland (Angel Cake) (1952), 17“Is that a bottle which I see before me, its handle toward my hand?” asked Mervyn Potter, interested. “Or is it but a bottle of the mind, a false creation proceeding from the heat oppressed brain?”
“Eh? Oh, yes. One bot as per memo. Champagne.”
“Come let me clutch thee,” said Mervyn Potter.
II.2.14-15 “I have done the deed”
Macbeth.
I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?
Lady Macbeth.
I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.
- MK09Mike (1909), 48Paint. Red paint. Obviously the same paint with which Sammy had been decorated. A foot-mark. Whose foot-mark? Plainly that of the criminal who had done the deed of decoration.
[=MK092bThe Lost Lambs
second part of Mike serialized in The Captain, 1908/04-09, 19.] - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 19“It’s not that I don’t trust you, Bertie. It’s not that I think that, having learned the Fittleworth secret, you would change your mind about carrying out your end of the contract. But it would be a temptation, and I don’t want your pure soul to be sullied by it.”
“But you’ll tell me without fail after I’ve done the deed?”
“Without fail.”
II.2.38-39 “Macbeth does murder sleep”
Macbeth.
Methought I heard a voice cry, ‘Sleep no more:
Macbeth does murder sleep’
- PA12The Prince and Betty
Watt, 1912, 20He had got as far as a preliminary “Say!” when speech was wiped from his lips as with a sponge, and he stood gaping and ashamed, for the murderer of sleep and untimely knocker on front doors was Betty.
[Not in PB12BThe Prince and Betty
Mills & Boon, 1912/05/01
and UK reprints from Newnes, others, PB12aThe Prince and Betty
in Ainslee’s, 1912/01, PB12bThe Prince and Betty
in Strand, 1912/02–1912/04.] - 14-THL“Thoughts on Home Life” (1914)
in Vanity Fair (US), 1914/12Macbeth alone is enough to keep one from stagnating. He is a small smoky-blue kitten who has adopted me, and I call him Macbeth because he murders sleep. - 56-OSE“Over Seventy”
in Punch, 1956/09/26This means that, unless caught and returned to store, she will hit the high spots till five in the morning, when she will come and mew at my bedroom window, murdering sleep as effectively as ever Macbeth did.
[=57-HHO“Healthward Ho!”
in Over Seventy (1957), 3.]
II.2.40-43 “Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care”
The correct reading and meaning of sleeve in line 40 is a moot point. The First Folio (1623, our only source for the play’s text) reads sleeve, but many modern editions emend this to sleave, which the OED defines as “A slender filament of silk obtained by separating a thicker thread; silk in the form of such filaments; floss-silk.” B. Lott in the New Swan Shakespeare edition defends sleave thus: “ ‘sleep, that straightens out into a pattern (knits up) the confused mass (ravelled sleave) of care’. Care is imagined as a mass of silk unworked into threads, each thread being a problem or worry. Sleep straightens out these threads of worries into a clear pattern, and they are worries no longer.” A. R. Braunmuller on the other hand argues in favor of sleeve in the New Cambridge Shakespeare: “An audience cannot hear the difference between ‘sleave’ and ‘sleeve’, and the play’s clothing imagery prompts us to understand ‘sleeve’.” See further in this blog post.
In his 1973 letter to S. Meredith below (730709-SMRLetter to S. Meredith, 1973/07/09
in A Life in Letters (ed. Ratcliffe, 2011)), answering to his editor’s comments on the text of Bachelors Anonymous, Wodehouse is sure that Shakespeare wrote sleave, although he apparently believes that sleeve is the intended meaning. All previous printed texts vary between the two spellings and it is not always clear whether this was Wodehouse’s or his editors’ choice.
Macbeth.
Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care,
The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast.
- 04-PPI“The Polite Pilferer” (1904)
in Punch, 1904/09/28“A thousand apologies, my dear Sir, for having broken in upon that sleep which, as the poet happily remarks, knits up the ravelled sleave of care.” - SS25Sam the Sudden (Sam in the Suburbs) (1925), 22.1Sleep, which knits up the ravelled sleeve of care, had done much to soothe the troubled spirit of Hash Todhunter.
[SS25aSam in the Suburbs
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1925/06/13–1925/07/18: “raveled sleave”.] - CW38The Code of the Woosters (1938), 14And presently the eyes closed, the muscles relaxed, the breathing became soft and regular, and sleep which does something which has slipped my mind to the something sleeve of care poured over me in a healing wave.
- PW52Pigs Have Wings (1952), 10.3A faint snore, followed by a series of louder ones, told him that his visitor was asleep.Worn out by his unaccustomed exertions in the saddle, Beach was knitting up the ravelled sleave of care.
[PW52APigs Have Wings
Doubleday, 1952: “sleeve”. PW52aPigs Have Wings
serial in Collier’s, 1952/08/16–1952/09/20: “told him that his visitor was knitting up the raveled sleave of care.”] - BW52Barmy in Wonderland (Angel Cake) (1952), 5“Nothing like a bit of sleep,” he said, reaching for the decanter and taking an aperitif. “Knits up the ravelled sleeve of care, I often say.”
- RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 15The specific recommended by Jeeves might be widely recognized but so far it had done nothing toward enabling him to knit up the ravelled sleave of care.
- JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 13“I say, I’m most frightfully sorry to pop in like this at a moment when you were doubtless knitting up the ravelled sleave of care, but I went for a breather in the garden and found I was locked out, so I thought my best plan was not to rouse the house but to nip in through the first open window.”
[JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04, 11: “sleeve of cure”.] - CT58Cocktail Time (1958), 12“Excuse me a moment,” murmured Mr. Saxby, applying himself to the sock again. “I’m just turning the heel. Do you knit?”
“No.”
“Sleep does. It knits up the ravelled sleave of care.” - HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 6I forget how the subject arose, but I remember Jeeves once saying that sleep knits up the ravelled sleave of care. Balm of hurt minds, he described it as.
[. . .]
Waking from this some little time later and running an eye over myself to see if the ravelled sleave of care had been knitted up—which it hadn’t—I was told that I was wanted on the telephone.
[HR60AHow Right You Are, Jeeves
Simon & Schuster, 1960: “sleeve” (both times).] - PB69A Pelican at Blandings (No Nudes Is Good Nudes) (1969), 7.2Sleep, so widely publicized as knitting up the ravelled sleeve of care, merely brought a nightmare of the most disturbing kind.
- BA73Bachelors Anonymous (1973), 8.1“Got to get your sleep. It knits up the ravelled sleeve of care, as Mr. Llewellyn’s school marm would say.”
- 730709-SMRLetter to S. Meredith, 1973/07/09
in A Life in Letters (ed. Ratcliffe, 2011)Shakespeare couldn’t even spell his own name, so I don’t think we need worry about “sleaves” and “sleeves”.
[Responding to editor Peter Schwed’s comment on Bachelors Anonymous: “I don’t know why Shakespeare spelled the ‘ravelled sleave of care’ as ‘sleave’ but I’m pretty sure he did.”]
II.2.53-56 “Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers”
Macbeth.
I’ll go no more.
I am afraid to think what I have done;
Look on’t again, I dare not.
Lady Macbeth.
Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers.
- SS25Sam the Sudden (Sam in the Suburbs) (1925), 20The words, “Infirm of purpose, give me the sandbag!” seemed to be trembling on her lips.
- 29UB“Unpleasantness at Bludleigh Court” (1929)
Lib Str MMSCharlotte’s eyes flashed scornfully.
“Infirm of purpose,” she said. “Give me the air-gun!” - PB69A Pelican at Blandings (No Nudes Is Good Nudes) (1969), 12Where she looked forward with bright anticipation to what lay before them, he, unless her senses deceived her, was what Lady Macbeth would have called infirm of purpose.
II.2.60-66 “Whence is that knocking?”
[Knock within
Macbeth.
Whence is that knocking?
How is’t with me, when every noise appals me?
What hands are here? Ha: they pluck out mine eyes.
Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No: this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
- 31UH“Ukridge and the Home from Home” (1931)
Cos Str LEO EBCASomebody rapped on my door. I sat up in bed, electrified. Except for Macbeth, I should imagine that few people have ever been quite so startled by a nightly knocking.
II.3.13-16 “the primrose way”
See also Hamlet, I.3.46-51 “the primrose path”.
Porter.
But this place is too cold for hell. I’ll devil-porter it no further: I had thought to have let in some of all professions that go the primrose way to th’everlasting bonfire.
- AS22The Adventures of Sally (Mostly Sally) (1922), 1.3“The one that’s going to be put on is ‘The Primrose Way.’ You remember? It’s got a big part for a girl in it.”
[And passim.]
III.1-4 First Murderer, Second Murderer, Third Murderer
The Three Murderers are hired by Macbeth to kill Banquo, but they fail to kill his son Fleance.
- LB35The Luck of the Bodkins (1935), 13“He wants you to go into the pictures,” said Ambrose, with the unlovable air of a First Murderer out of Shakespeare.
[Differently placed in LB35BThe Luck of the Bodkins
Jenkins, 1935 (full-length novel) (5 paragraphs above): “He approached the bed and stood for a moment glaring down at its occupant with the unlovable air of a First Murderer out of Shakespeare.”] - BW52Barmy in Wonderland (Angel Cake) (1952), 19At any rate, he softened. That is to say, instead of looking like a First Murderer, he looked like a rather kindlier Second Murderer.
III.2.22-23 “after life’s fitful fever, he sleeps well”
Macbeth.
Duncan is in his grave.
After life’s fitful fever, he sleeps well;
- UM16Uneasy Money (1916), 18Elizabeth gave another shiver as she glanced hurriedly at the deceased. After life’s fitful fever Eustace slept well, but he was not looking his best.
- 34GB“Good-Bye to All Cats” (1934)
Cos Str YMS TDCHe stared down, hoping against hope that the animal was merely in some sort of coma. But a glance told him that it had made the great change. He had never seen a deader cat. After life’s fitful fever it slept well.
[34GBa“Good-by to All Cats”
in Cosmopolitan, 1934/11: “But a glance told him that he had never seen”.]
III.4 Banquo’s Ghost
The Ghost of Banquo enters and exits twice during this scene. Some lines quoted are 49-50, 52, 93-96:
Macbeth.
Thou canst not say, I did it: never shake
Thy gory locks at me.
[. . .]
Ross.
Gentlemen, rise, his highness is not well.
[. . .]
Macbeth.
Avaunt and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee!
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
Which thou dost glare with.
- 10MM“The Man, the Maid, and the Miasma” (1910)
Cos Gra MUA sacked office-boy ought to stay sacked. He had no business to come popping up again like Banquo’s ghost.
[Not in 10MMa“The Man, the Maid, and the Miasma”
in Cosmopolitan, 1910/06: “A fired office-boy ought to stay fired.”] - 11IA“In Alcala” (1911)
Lon MUShe gazed at Rutherford dully. Like Banquo’s ghost, she had no speculation in her eyes. - LN13The Little Nugget (1913), II.8.3Glossop’s eyes gleamed agitatedly behind their spectacles. Macbeth’s deportment when confronted with Banquo’s ghost was stolid by comparison.
[LN13aThe Little Nugget
in Munsey’s, 1913/08: “gleamed with agitation”. 13EC“The Eighteen-Carat Kid” (1913)
Cap 18K, 6 omits “behind their spectacles”.] - WH14The White Hope (Their Mutual Child/The Coming of Bill) (1914), II.15Macbeth, confronted by the ghost of Banquo, may have been a little more taken aback, but not much.
- UM16Uneasy Money (1916), 14Nutty looked at the monkey rather like an elongated Macbeth inspecting the ghost of Banquo.
- LW20The Little Warrior (Jill the Reckless) (1920), 10.1The black-haired pianist shook his locks at her like Banquo.
- LW20The Little Warrior (Jill the Reckless) (1920), 17.2“Have you ever done a murder? If you haven’t, don’t! I know exactly what it feels like, and it feels rotten! After two minutes’ conversation with Pilkington, I could sympathize with Macbeth when he chatted with Banquo.”
- TM22Three Men and a Maid (The Girl on the Boat) (1922), 6He stared at it pallidly, like Macbeth at the ghost of Banquo.
[Not in TM22aThree Men and a Maid
serial in Woman’s Home Companion, 1921/10–1921/12.] - BM31Big Money (1931), 9.1This sudden apparition of a totally unwanted aunt affected him much as the ghost of Banquo on a memorable occasion affected Macbeth.
- LB35The Luck of the Bodkins (1935), 18He was gazing about him like Macbeth expecting the ghost of Banquo to appear.
[Not in LB35aThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version in Redbook, 1935/08–1936/01, LB35bThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version in The Passing Show, 1935/09/21–1935/11/23, LB35AThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version, Little, Brown, 1936.] - UF39Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939), 10It was as if he had been cast for the part of Macbeth and was starting to run through the Banquo’s ghost scene.
[Not in UF39aUncle Fred in the Springtime
shorter serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1939/04/22–1939/05/27.] - UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 9.4Of all the protagonists in these moving scenes it is perhaps to Macbeth seeing the ghost of Banquo that one may most aptly compare Pongo Twistleton as he heard this voice in the night. He stiffened from the ankles up, his eyes rolling, his hair stirring as if beneath a sudden breeze, his very collar seeming to wilt, and from his ashen lips there came a soft, wordless cry. It was not exactly the Potter-Bean “Coo!” and not precisely the “Gar!” of Sir Aylmer Bostock, but a sort of blend or composite of the two. That intelligent Scottish nobleman, Ross, whom very little escaped, said, as he looked at Macbeth, “His highness is not well,” and he would have said the same if he had been looking at Pongo.
[. . .] If Pongo said “Gar!” or it may have been “Coo!” and behaved as if an old friend whom he had recently caused to be murdered had dropped in to dinner with dagger wounds all over him, he cannot fairly be blamed.
[. . .]
Ross, or somebody like that who noticed things, would have said that Bill was embarrassed, and he would have been right.
[Not in UD48aUncle Dynamite
condensed in Liberty, 1949/04; only first sentence in UD48cUncle Dynamite
condensed in Toronto Star Weekly, 1949/04/30.] - 50SP“The Shadow Passes” (1950)
NS TDCI don’t know if you ever came across a play of Shakespeare’s called Macbeth? If you did, you may remember this bird Macbeth bumps off another bird named Banquo and gives a big dinner to celebrate, and picture his embarrassment when about the first of the gay throng to turn up is Banquo’s ghost, all merry and bright, covered in blood. It gave him a pretty nasty start, Shakespeare does not attempt to conceal. - OR51The Old Reliable (1951), 1“I am only sorry that I have occasioned you alarm and despondency. It must have given you a nasty jolt when you opened that front door yesterday and I walked in.”
“Yes, madam.”
“You must have felt like Macbeth seeing Banquo’s ghost.”
“My emotions were somewhat similar, madam.” - PW52Pigs Have Wings (1952), 7.2The historic instance, of course, of this sort of thing is the occasion when the ghost of Banquo dropped in to take pot luck with Macbeth. It gave Macbeth a start, and it was plain from Sir Gregory’s demeanour that he also had had one.
- BW52Barmy in Wonderland (Angel Cake) (1952), 8His face had paled. His eyes were staring. He might have been Macbeth watching the ghost of Banquo dropping in to take pot luck.
- RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 5Jeeves, had he been present, would have been reminded of Macbeth seeing the ghost of Banquo.
[=RJ53AThe Return of Jeeves
Simon & Schuster, 1954, 4.] - IB61[The] Ice in the Bedroom (1961), 15She finished washing her coffee cup and the knife with which she had cut herself a slice of seed cake, and came into the living-room, giving Freddie much the same feeling of having had a bomb touched off under him as the ghost of Banquo on a memorable occasion gave Macbeth.
- BM64Biffen’s Millions (Frozen Assets) (1964), 2.3His manner, consequently, when he opened the door to Kay’s ring, had nothing in it of the jolly innkeeper of old-fashioned comic opera. He looked more like Macbeth seeing a couple of Banquos.
- AA74Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (The Cat-Nappers) (1974), 12I remember my Aunt Agatha once making me take her revolting son, young Thos., to a play at the Old Vic by the name of Macbeth. Thos slept throughout, but I thought it rather good, and the reason I bring it up is because there was a scene in it where Macbeth is giving a big dinner party and the ghost of a fellow called Banquo, whom he has recently murdered, crashes the gate all covered with blood. Macbeth took it big, and the point I’m trying to make is that my feelings on seeing Plank were much the same as his on that occasion.
- AA74Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (The Cat-Nappers) (1974), 12“He is closely allied to Pop Cook, and I don’t mind telling you that when he blew in I was as badly rattled as Macbeth, if you know what I mean, that time he was sitting down to dinner and the ghost turned up.”
“I know the scene well, sir. ‘Never shake thy gory locks at me,’ he said.”
[. . .]
“I was taken aback at the moment, like Macbeth, but I kept my head.”
III.4.38-39 “Now good digestion wait on appetite”
Macbeth.
Now good digestion wait on appetite,
And health on both.
- SF57Something Fishy (The Butler Did It) (1957), 6“I’m having dinner at the pub.”
“May good digestion wait on appetite.”
“Hey? Oh, yerss. Yerss, I see what yer mean. Very well put. Good evening to yer, sir,” said Lord Uffenham, and lumbered off.
III.4.119-120 “Stand not upon the order of your going”
Lady Macbeth.
Stand not upon the order of your going,
But go at once.
- LC06Love Among the Chickens (1906–09), 19His face was turned in the opposite direction when I came up with him, and it was soon evident that he had not observed my approach. For when, treading water easily in his immediate rear, I wished him good morning in my most conciliatory tones, he stood not upon the order of his sinking but went under like so much pig-iron.
[LC21Love Among the Chickens
Jenkins, 1921: “when we came”, “our approach”, “conciliatory tone”.] - MK09Mike (1909), 45Mike stood not upon the order of his going.
[=MK092bThe Lost Lambs
second part of Mike serialized in The Captain, 1908/04-09, 16.] - 10PB“Providence and the Butler” (1910)
WHLTom stood not upon the order of his going. - SN15Something New (Something Fresh) (1915), 3R. Jones stood not on the order of his going.
[SN15BSomething Fresh
Methuen & Co., 1915: “upon”.] - 21SE“Strange Experiences of an Artist’s Model” (1921)
Str IA CrIf they were the bright, alert men he hoped they were, they would see all that junk in the bedroom and, deducing from it that their quarry had stood not upon the order of his going but had hopped it, would not waste time in searching a presumably empty apartment.
[=IA21Indiscretions of Archie (1921), 6.] - LP23Leave It to Psmith (1923), 11.3Confronted with a spot where buried treasure may lurk, men do not stand upon the order of their digging; they go at it with both hands.
- 23RB“The Return of Battling Billson” (1923)
Cos Str UGlasses ceased to break, voices were hushed, and a moment later out came Mr. Billson, standing not upon the order of his going. - SS25Sam the Sudden (Sam in the Suburbs) (1925), 21.2Hastily picking up his hat, which had fallen off, he stood not upon the order of his going, but ran.
- 50TH“Tangled Hearts” (1950)
NS F! GOActing upon this assumption, he stood not on the order of going but immediately soared over the rail and plunged into the water below.
[=48TH“I’ll Give You Some Advice” (1948)
Cos (cf. 50TH “Tangled Hearts”).] - BW52Barmy in Wonderland (Angel Cake) (1952), 1“I stood not upon the order of my going, but got out in my pink pyjamas.”
- HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 15Upon which, standing not on the order of his going, Upjohn was off as if propelled from a gun.
- SU63Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963), 14Standing not on the order of his going, as the fellow said, he dashed off as if shot from a gun, and was making excellent time when he was brought up short by colliding with Spode, who had at that moment entered left centre.
IV.1.78-80 “Be bloody, bold, and resolute”
Second Apparition.
Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn
The power of man, for none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth.
- AA74Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (The Cat-Nappers) (1974), 16“Tails up, Porter. Get cracking. Be bloody, bold and resolute,” I said, remembering a gag from that play Macbeth, which I was mentioning some while back.
IV.1.116 “th’crack of doom”
Macbeth.
What, will the line stretch out to th’crack of doom?
- PH02The Pothunters (1902), 6Having ascertained that there was no specific rule at St. Austin’s against the use of musical instruments, he had informed Charteris that if he saw fit to play the banjo before prep., only, and regarded the hours between seven and eleven as a close time, all should be forgiven, and he might play, if so disposed, till the crack of doom.
[Not in PH02bThe Pothunters
serial in Public School Magazine, 1902/01-03.]
IV.3.218-221 “What, all my pretty chickens and their dam at one fell swoop?”
Macduff.
He has no children. All my pretty ones?
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop?
- MK09Mike (1909), 10“Look at Shields,” said Mr. Spence. “He might be posing for a statue to be called ‘Despair!’ He reminds me of Macduff. Macbeth, Act iv., somewhere near the end. ‘What, all my pretty chickens, at one fell swoop?’ That’s what Shields is saying to himself.”
- UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 9.1“A clean sweep, Mugsy. What, all my pretty chickens at one fell swoop!”
V.1 The sleep-walking scene
Lady Macbeth walks in her sleep, talking about the murder of Banquo. She tries to wash imaginary blood from her hands, and at one point says (l. 30):
Lady Macbeth.
Out, damned spot! Out, I say!
- 28RW“The Reverent Wooing of Archibald” (1928)
Cos Str MMSArchibald’s imitation of a hen laying an egg was conceived on broad and sympathetic lines. Less violent than Salvini’s Othello, it had in it something of the poignant wistfulness of Mrs. Siddons in the sleep-walking scene of Macbeth.
[See Othello, Other.] - PB69A Pelican at Blandings (No Nudes Is Good Nudes) (1969), 5“He knows I won’t be able to stop myself buying it, no matter what he asks. And that,” said Wilbur moodily, “will be about double what he paid for it. I’m in a spot.”
“Then say ‘Out, damned spot.’ ”
V.3.41-46 “the perilous stuff which weighs upon the heart”
Macbeth.
Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?
- WH14The White Hope (Their Mutual Child/The Coming of Bill) (1914), II.3If Mamie had told Steve what had caused William to wake he would certainly have been so charmed by her presence of mind, exerted on his behalf to save him from the warm fate which Mrs. Porter’s unconscious hand had been about to bring down upon him, that he would have forgotten his diffidence then and there and, as the poet has it, have eased his bosom of much perilous stuff.
- LW20The Little Warrior (Jill the Reckless) (1920), 5.2And Henry, having cleansed his stuff’d bosom of that perilous stuff which weighs upon the heart, shoved the stick energetically once more through the railings.
[Not in LW20bJill the Reckless
serial in Grand, 1920/09–1921/06: “And Henry shoved the stick”.] - 23FA“First Aid for Dora” (1923)
Cos Str UI cleansed my bosom of a good deal of that perilous stuff that weighs upon the heart. - BC24Bill the Conqueror (1924), 11.2As it was, he contented himself with bounding out into the garden, his bosom seething with that perilous stuff that weighs upon the soul.
[Not in BC24bBill the Conqueror
serial in Grand, 1924/09–1925/04.] - MB42Money in the Bank (1942), 19And, if he had, the impression would have vanished when the former started to give utterance to his thoughts, cleansing his bosom of the perilous stuff that weighed upon his soul.
[=MB42aMoney in the Bank
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1941/11/08–1941/12/27, 21.] - UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 13.3Both Bill and his Uncle Aylmer had come to the tea table with their bosoms full of the perilous stuff that weighs upon the heart.
- RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 16He left the Chief Constable, though feeling a little better after having cleansed his bosom of the perilous stuff that weighs upon the soul, still definitely despondent.
- JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 15Fixing me with lack-luster eyes, if lack-luster is the word I want, and wasting no time on preliminary pip-pippings and pourparlers, he started straight off cleansing his bosom of the perilous stuff that weighs upon the heart.
[Not in JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04.] - 56-CTP“To the Critics, These Pearls”
in America, I Like You (1956), 1That cleanses the bosom of the perilous stuff that weighs upon the heart.
[=57-CRC“Critics and the Criticized”
in Over Seventy (1957), 3.] - SF57Something Fishy (The Butler Did It) (1957), 9Weighing these things, Mr. Gish decided not to cleanse his bosom of the perilous stuff that was weighing on his heart, and Bill proceeded.
- CT58Cocktail Time (1958), 19Gazing into his now unblemished face, Albert Peasemarch could see no possible objection to cleansing his bosom of the perilous stuff which was weighing on his heart.
- IB61[The] Ice in the Bedroom (1961), 19But even the weariest river winds somewhere safe to sea, and when after the serving of coffee his fair guest left the table, saying that she had a telephone call to make, he prepared to relieve what Shakespeare would have called his stuff’d bosom of its pent-up contents.
- SU63Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963), 3At least, he was, and more and more I became convinced that his bosom was full of the perilous stuff that weighs upon the heart, as I remember Jeeves putting it once.
[. . .]
There could be no question to my mind that I had been right about that perilous stuff. His bosom was obviously chock full of it. - PP67The Purloined Paperweight (Company for Henry) (1967), 2.2“I’ll tell you what went wrong,” cried Jane, glad of the opportunity to ease the stuffed bosom of the perilous stuff that weighs upon the heart.
- PB69A Pelican at Blandings (No Nudes Is Good Nudes) (1969), 6.1For an eternity, it seemed to him he had kept pent in what Shakespeare would have called his stuffed bosom a secret calculated to stagger humanity or at least that portion of humanity with the interests of the Bender gallery at heart, and it came out with the abruptness of a cork leaving a champagne bottle.
- GB70The Girl in Blue (1970), 13.3And yet everything urged him to confide in this angel of sympathy. He wanted to cleanse his stuffed bosom of the perilous stuff that weighs upon the heart, as Shakespeare would have put it.
- BA73Bachelors Anonymous (1973), 8.2“I’ll be there, I. L.,” he said, and in less than the specified time he was in a chair at 8 Enniston Gardens, and Mr. Llewellyn was saying “Listen,” preparatory to cleansing his stuffed bosom of the perilous stuff that weighs upon the heart, as Shakespeare and the Welsh school marm would have phrased it, though Shakespeare ought to have known better than to put “stuff” and “stuffed” in the same sentence like that.
V.5 The Forest at Dunsinane
In IV.1.91-3 the witches had prophesied that
Macbeth shall never vanquished be until
Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane hill
Shall come against him.
Then in V.5.32-45 Malcolm’s army arrives, camouflaged under boughs from the Wood of Birnam:
Messenger.
As I did stand my watch upon the hill
I looked toward Birnam and anon methought
The wood began to move.
Macbeth.
Liar and slave!
Messenger.
Let me endure your wrath if’t be not so;
Within this three mile may you see it coming.
I say, a moving grove.
Macbeth.
If thou speak’st false,
Upon the next tree shall thou hang alive
Till famine cling thee; if thy speech be sooth,
I care not if thou dost for me as much.
I pull in resolution and begin
To doubt th’equivocation of the fiend
That lies like truth. ‘Fear not, till Birnam Wood
Do come to Dunsinane’, and now a wood
Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out!
- 11AS“Ahead of Schedule” (1911)
Col Gra MUGrief, gnawing at his heart, had not sagged his ample waistcoat, which preceded him as he moved in much the same manner as Birnam Woods preceded the army of Macduff.
[11ASa“Ahead of Schedule”
in Collier’s, 1911/01/28: “ample vest”.] - LN13The Little Nugget (1913), II.2He was preceded by a Worried Look, Mr. Arnold Abney, a cabman bearing a large box, and the odd-job man carrying two suitcases. I have given precedence to the Worried Look, because it was a thing by itself. To say that Mr. Abney wore it would be to create a wrong impression. Mr. Abney simply followed in its wake. He was concealed behind it much as Macbeth’s army was concealed behind the woods of Dunsinane.
- LP23Leave It to Psmith (1923), 6.1Preoccupied with the rest of the communication, Psmith, when he had read the letter, had not given much thought to the decoration which it would be necessary for him to wear; and it was only when, in reply to his demand for a chrysanthemum, the florist came forward, almost hidden, like the army at Dunsinane, behind what looked like a small shrubbery, that he realised what he, a correct and fastidious dresser, was up against.
- QS40Quick Service (1940), 10Like so many heavily moustached men, Mr. Duff was unaware of the spiritual shock, akin to that experienced by Macbeth on witnessing the approach of the forest of Dunsinane, which the fungus had on nervous persons who saw it suddenly on its way towards them.
[QS40aQuick Service
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1940/05/04–1940/06/22: “forest of Birnam”.]
V.5.18-22 “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow”
Macbeth.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.
- 520107-ACPGW 1961 comment after
letter to W. Townend, 1952/01/07
in Author! Author! (1962)There are passages in Shakespeare to which I would have been quite pleased to put my name. That “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” thing. That one gets over the plate all right.
V.5.22-27 “full of sound and fury signifying nothing”
Macbeth.
Out, out, brief candle,
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.
- PJ17Piccadilly Jim (1917), 16Aida, whose outburst was mere sound and fury and who had no intention whatever of coming to blows, continued the demonstration from a safe distance, till Mrs. Pett, swooping down, picked her up and held her in her lap, where she consented to remain, growling subdued defiance.
[Not in PJ17aPiccadilly Jim
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1916/09/16–1916/11/11.] - HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 11“His belligerent attitude is simply——”
“Sound and fury signifying nothing, sir?”
“That’s it. Pure swank.” - BA73Bachelors Anonymous (1973), 7Mr. Llewellyn was simply one of those lovable characters who readily explode but whose explosions, owing to their hearts being in the right place, are sound and fury signifying nothing.
V.8.33-34 “Lay on, Macduff, and damned be he that first cries, ‘Hold, enough!’ ”
Macbeth.
Lay on, Macduff,
And damned be him that first cries, ‘Hold, enough!’
- PH02The Pothunters (1902), 17“Tony, you’re a philosopher. Lead on, Macduff.”
[Not in PH02bThe Pothunters
serial in Public School Magazine, 1902/01-03.] - WF07The White Feather (1907), 7“That’s the secret of fighting. Always keep going on. Never give in. You know what Shakespeare says about the one who first cries, ‘Hold, enough!’ Do you read Shakespeare, sir?”
“Yes,” said Sheen.
“Ah, now he knew his business,” said Mr. Bevan enthusiastically. “There was ring-craft, as you may say. He wasn’t a novice.”
Sheen agreed that Shakespeare had written some good things in his time.
Lady Macbeth
Allusions to the character of Lady Macbeth, without obvious reference to a specific passage. “Mrs. Siddons” is Sarah Siddons (1755–1831), a Welsh actress whose interpretation of Lady Macbeth went down in history.
- 15TC“The Test Case” (1915)
ISM PeK UW PS2 EJHe yanked it out, and flung the door open, and out came Ponsonby, looking like Lady Macbeth.
[15TCb“The Test Case”
in Pearson’s (UK), 1915/12: “Harold yanked”.] - 13DC“Doing Clarence a Bit of Good” (1913)
Pic (“Rallying Round Clarence”) Str M2LA MMJ EJ“Have you got him, Bill?” she said, which in my present frame of mind struck me as a jolly creepy way of putting it. The sort of thing Lady Macbeth might have said to Macbeth, don’t you know.
[13DCa“Rallying Round Clarence”
in Pictorial Review, 1914/04: “a darned creepy”.] - HW32Hot Water (1932), 17.3His bride-to-be had no leisure to listen to verbal tributes. She was as brisk as Lady Macbeth giving instructions on what to do with the guest in the spare bedroom.
[HW32aHot Water
serial in Collier’s, 1932/05/21–1932/08/06, HW32AHot Water
Doubleday, Doran, 1932: “instructions what”.] - LG36Laughing Gas (1936), 16And, as I did so, the door burst open, and there was Miss Brinkmeyer, looking like Lady Macbeth at her worst.
- 36BT“Buried Treasure” (1936)
Str TW (“Hidden Treasure”) LEO CWB WMThe butler was looking nervous, like Macbeth interviewing Lady Macbeth after one of her visits to the spare room.
[Not in 36BTa“Hidden Treasure”
in This Week, 1936/09/27.] - QS40Quick Service (1940), 12Mrs. Chavender’s appearance was always striking. It was now rendered additionally so by the circumstances that she, like himself, was armed to the teeth. There was a large knife in her hand. It made her look like Lady Macbeth.
[=QS40aQuick Service
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1940/05/04–1940/06/22, 13.] - QS40Quick Service (1940), 19Mrs. Chavender had risen, Peke in hand, and seldom in a long career of looking like Mrs. Siddons in Macbeth had she looked more like Mrs. Siddons in Macbeth than now. It is not given to many people to see an English butler cower, but that is what Chibnall did as her fine eyes scorched their way through him.
[=QS40aQuick Service
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1940/05/04–1940/06/22, 22.] - MB42Money in the Bank (1942), 13It seemed to him that, circumstances having brought him up against a woman endowed with the temperamental outlook and able executive abilities of Lady Macbeth, he was faced, unless he cared to go about in a crash helmet, by two alternatives—the first, which he declined to consider, to accept her suggestion of leaving the Hall; the second, to run up to London as soon as possible and take out accident insurance with some good company.
[=MB42aMoney in the Bank
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1941/11/08–1941/12/27, 14.] - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 23She came leaping towards me, like Lady Macbeth coming to get first-hand news from the guest-room.
- FL56French Leave (1956), 7.5It was at this moment that Kate came out of her room, looking like Mrs. Siddons as Lady Macbeth.
- BG65The Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood (Galahad at Blandings) (1965), 9.3The lengths to which she appeared prepared to go seemed to him infinite, and he had been feeling like Macbeth talking things over with Lady Macbeth.
- 67GC“A Good Cigar Is a Smoke” (1967)
Pla PPThere is nothing that so heartens a man in a crisis as the feeling that he has a woman of strong executive qualities at his side. Macbeth, it will be remembered, had this experience. - PP67The Purloined Paperweight (Company for Henry) (1967), 7.3“He ought to marry some nice girl with a private income and an iron will, who would get behind him with a spiked stick and make him do a job of work.”
“Somebody like Lady Macbeth.”
“Lady Macbeth would be just right.” - PG72Pearls, Girls, and Monty Bodkin (The Plot That Thickened) (1972), 3.2The occasion when Mrs. Molloy, who was rather the Lady Macbeth type, had hit him on the back of the head with the butt end of a pistol was still green in his memory.
- PG72Pearls, Girls, and Monty Bodkin (The Plot That Thickened) (1972), 10.2Opposition when money was at stake always brought to the fore the Lady Macbeth side of her character.
- BA73Bachelors Anonymous (1973), 9.1Very tall, very thin, and very stony about the eyes, she bore a distinct resemblance to Lady Macbeth, with a suggestion of one of those sinister housekeepers who figured so largely in the Gothic type of novel popular in Victorian days.
The Three Witches
The three witches deliver their prophecies at the beginning of the play and reappear in later Acts. The lines quoted in 39-IEH“I Explode the Haggis” (1939)
WWB are IV.1.12-19 and 47-48:
Second Witch.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake:
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth, boil and bubble.
[. . .]
Macbeth.
How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!
What is’t you do?
All the Witches.
A deed without a name.
- BC24Bill the Conqueror (1924), 14.1Waterloo Station is always in a seething and effervescent condition when a boat-train comes in, but to Bill as he heard these words it seemed to boil and bubble like a cauldron.
- SS25Sam the Sudden (Sam in the Suburbs) (1925), 2When Kay reached the kitchen she found that her faithful follower had stepped out of the pages of Romeo and Juliet into those of Macbeth. She was bending over a cauldron, dropping things into it.
[See Romeo and Juliet, II.1.] - 26SL“A Slice of Life” (1926)
Lib Str MMMAnd, as for the personnel of the domestic staff, that was less exhilarating than anything else about the place. It consisted of an aged cook who, as she bent over her cauldrons, looked like something out of a travelling company of “Macbeth,” touring the smaller towns of the North, and Murgatroyd, the butler, a huge, sinister man with a cast in one eye and an evil light in the other. - 39-IEH“I Explode the Haggis” (1939)
WWBThe fact that I am not a haggis addict is probably due to my having read Shakespeare. It is the same with many Englishmen. There is no doubt that Shakespeare put us off the stuff. We come across that bit in Macbeth in our formative years and it establishes a complex.
You remember the passage to which I refer? Macbeth happens upon the three witches while they are preparing the evening meal. They are dropping things into the cauldron and chanting “Eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog,” and so on, and he immediately recognises the recipe. “How now, you secret, black and midnight haggis,” he cries shuddering.
Other
- WF07The White Feather (1907), 10It was strange to hear him declaiming long speeches from Macbeth or Hamlet, and to think that he was by profession a pugilist. One evening he explained his curious erudition. In his youth, before he took to the ring in earnest, he had travelled with a Shakespearean repertory company. “I never played a star part,” he confessed, “but I used to come on in the Battle of Bosworth and in Macbeth’s castle and what not.”
[See Richard III, V.3-5.] - 56-KWS“Kind Words for Shakespeare”
in Punch, 1956/03/21In those days a good run for a play was two nights. Anything over this was sensational. Shakespeare, accordingly, would dash off Macbeth on Sunday night for production on Monday, and on Tuesday morning at six o’clock round would come Burbage in a great state of excitement and wake him with a wet sponge.
“Asleep!” Burbage would say, seeming to address an invisible friend on whose sympathy he knew he could rely. “Six o’clock and still wallowing in hoggish slumber! A dog’s life, that of the theatrical manager. Don’t I get no service and cooperation? Good heavens, Will, why aren’t you up and working?”
Shakespeare rubs his eyes.
“Oh, hullo, Burb. How are the notices?”
“Never mind the notices. Don’t you realise we’ve gotta give ’em something tonight?”
“What about Macbeth?”
“Macbeth finished its long and successful run last night, and if you haven’t something to follow we’ll have to close the theatre. What have you got?”
“I’ve not got anything.”
“Then what do you suggest?”
“Bring on the bears.”
“They don’t want bears, they want a play.” - SB77Sunset at Blandings (1977), 1“Why? What’s he supposed to be protecting me from? Is Blandings Castle the den of the Secret Nine? Is Emsworth a modern Macbeth? Is he going to creep into my room at night with a dagger? And if he does, how can that blasted Murchison protect me? How can he stop anyone assassinating me if he’s snoring his repulsive head off a quarter of a mile away? Or will he be sleeping on the mat outside my door? I don’t know what you’re laughing at,” said Sir James with hauteur, for Brenda’s face had softened into an amused smile.
“I was picturing Lord Emsworth as a modern Macbeth.”
MEASURE FOR MEASURE
Text used: B. Gibbons, Measure for Measure. Updated edition (The New Cambridge Shakespeare), C.U.P. 2006.
II.2.110-112 “Oh, it is excellent to have a giant’s strength . . .”
Isabella.
Oh, it is excellent
To have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.
- WT04William Tell Told Again (1904)
18K, 11“It is excellent, as an English poet will say in a few hundred years, to have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.”
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
Text used: M. M. Mahood, The Merchant of Venice (The New Cambridge Shakespeare), C.U.P. 2003.
I.1.50-56 “Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time”
Solanio.
Now by two-headed Janus,
Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time:
Some that will evermore peep through their eyes,
And laugh like parrots at a bagpiper;
And other of such vinegar aspèct,
That they’ll not show their teeth in way of smile
Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.
- 14LW“The [Episode of the] Live Weekly” (1914)
Pic Str MM Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time, and this was one of the strangest that Roland’s bulging eyes had ever rested upon. - UF39Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939), 4Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time, but few stranger than the one that now whizzed out of the telephone booth, whizzed down the corridor, whizzed past the little group at the desk and, bursting through the door of the club, whizzed down the steps and into a passing cab.
[Not in UF39aUncle Fred in the Springtime
shorter serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1939/04/22–1939/05/27.] - FM47Full Moon (1947), 6.1Nature has framed strange fellows in her time, and this was one of them, a gardener of vast physique and rendered more than ordinarily noticeable by the mustard-coloured beard of Assyrian cut which partially obscured his features.
[Not in FM47aFull Moon
condensed in Liberty, 1947/11.]
I.2.1-2 “my little body is aweary of this great world”
Portia.
By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of this great world.
- GB70The Girl in Blue (1970), 11.1Fortunately, before any great progress had been made by the wrinkles a latch key clicked in the door and Dame Flora came in, and having greeted her child sank into a chair with the announcement that her little body was a-weary of this great world.
I.3.30-31 “What news on the Rialto?”
Shylock.
What news on the Rialto?
- RH34Right Ho, Jeeves (Brinkley Manor) (1934), 1“Well, Jeeves, what news on the Rialto?”
- AA74Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (The Cat-Nappers) (1974), 13“Hullo, fathead,” she said. “What news on the Rialto?”
“What, what, where?” I responded, not getting it.
III.2.63-72 “Tell me where is fancy bred”
Song.
Tell me where is fancy bred,
Or in the heart, or in the head?
How begot, how nourished?
Reply, reply.
It is engend’red in the eyes,
With gazing fed, and fancy dies
In the cradle where it lies.
Let us all ring fancy’s knell.
I’ll begin it — Ding, dong, bell.
All.
Ding, dong, bell.
Cambridge editor Mahood follows the 1600 Quarto with singular “eye” but the rhyme scheme requires the plural as in the First Folio and above. It is unclear whether the song is to be sung by Portia, who has the speech preceding this, or by one of the musicians.
- 04-PPU“Poems for the Pushful” (1904)
in Daily Chronicle, 1904/01/27You ask me where is Fancy bread,
What shop most deftly bakes it,
Where customers on cake are fed,
The same as mother makes it.
Go seek that Heaven of your dreams
At Gorgbury, Pigglethwaite, and Creme’s.
III.2.101-104 “I will none of thee”
In the citation below from MK09Mike (1909), Psmith is not quoting a full passage but jumbling together bits of Shakespearian language, incorrectly at times (go thee for go thou).
Bassanio.
Therefore thou gaudy gold,
Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee,
Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge
’Tween man and man.
- MK09Mike (1909), 54“Leave us, Adair. We would brood. Oh, go thee, knave, I’ll none of thee. Shakespeare.”
[=MK092bThe Lost Lambs
second part of Mike serialized in The Captain, 1908/04-09, 25.]
IV.1.99-100 “The pound of flesh”
Shylock.
The pound of flesh which I demand of him
Is dearly bought; ’tis mine, and I will have it.
The phrase recurs throughout the play: I.3.142, 158, III.3.33, IV.1.23 etc.
- CW38The Code of the Woosters (1938), 4The way Oates went on about it, you would have thought Bartholomew had taken his pound of flesh.
[Not in CW38bThe Code of the Woosters
serial in Daily Mail, 1938/09/08–1938/10/21.] - BW52Barmy in Wonderland (Angel Cake) (1952), 20“I fear you will have to give him his pound of flesh.”
- RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 11“He wants his pound of flesh.”
“Yes, m’lord.”
“And we haven’t any flesh.”
IV.1.180-185 “The quality of mercy . . .”
Portia.
The quality of mercy is not strained,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.
’Tis mightiest in the mightiest, it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown.
- SW09The Swoop! (1909), II.7“Three eggs and a cat sail through the air. Falling short, they drop on to the orchestra. These eggs! This cat! They fall on the conductor and the second trombone. They fall like the gentle dew from Heaven upon the place beneath. That cat! Those eggs!”
- 20DO“Dear Old Squiffy” (1920)
Cos Str IAThere was no crowding, no excitement. Yet only a few moments before a long green snake with three hundred ribs, a distensible gullet, and gastrocentrous vertebræ must have descended on that street like the gentle rain from Heaven upon the place beneath.
[=IA21Indiscretions of Archie (1921), 8.] - TM22Three Men and a Maid (The Girl on the Boat) (1922), 10.2And then, first dropping like the gentle dew upon the place beneath, then swishing down in a steady flood, it began to rain again.
[TM22bThree Men and a Maid
serial in Pan, 1921/02–1921/09, 11: “A chill wind played about Mr. Bennett’s bare ankles; and finally, first dropping like the gentle dew upon the place beneath, then swishing down in a steady flood, the rain began to fall.” Not in TM22AThree Men and a Maid
Doran, 1922, TM22aThree Men and a Maid
serial in Woman’s Home Companion, 1921/10–1921/12.] - FP29Fish Preferred (Summer Lightning) (1929), 10.2It may seem puzzling at first sight when ex-secretaries start falling as the gentle rain from heaven upon the lobelias beneath, but there is always a reason for it.
- TY34Thank You, Jeeves (1934), 13With a regretful sigh I hopped hurriedly to the window, and the next moment I was dropping like the gentle dew upon the place beneath.
Or is it rain? I always forget.
Jeeves would know. - UF39Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939), 16“She then leaned across me and told Valerie that the quality of mercy was not strained but dropped like something or other on something I didn’t catch. I couldn’t quite follow it all, but the effects were excellent.”
[Not in UF39aUncle Fred in the Springtime
shorter serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1939/04/22–1939/05/27.] - UF39Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939), 19“The quality of mercy,” said Lord Ickenham, deciding that he could not do better than follow the tested methods of Horace’s Pekinese breeder, “is not strained——”
“The what isn’t?”
“The quality of mercy. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed——”
“How do you make that out?”
“It blesseth him that gives and him that takes,” explained Lord Ickenham.
“Never heard such rot in my life,” said the Duke.
[Not in UF39aUncle Fred in the Springtime
shorter serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1939/04/22–1939/05/27.] - UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 14.4“And how about the quality of mercy? It isn’t strained, you know. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.”
“Damn the quality of mercy.”
“You’d better not let Shakespeare hear you saying that.” - MS49The Mating Season (1949), 8“The magistrate decided on second thoughts to substitute a fine for the prison sentence, sir.”
“What made him do that?”
“Possibly the reflection that the quality of mercy is not strained, sir.”
“You mean it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven?”
“Precisely, sir. Upon the place beneath. His Worship would no doubt have taken into consideration the fact that it blesseth him that gives and him that takes and becomes the throned monarch better than his crown.”
I mused. Yes, there was something in that. - OR51The Old Reliable (1951), 7“But don’t forget about the quality of mercy. It isn’t strained, you know. No, sir! It droppeth as the gentle rain upon the place beneath. So they tell me.”
“Quality of mercy? Stuff and nonsense.”
“You’d better not let Shakespeare hear you saying that.”
[OR51aPhipps to the Rescue
serial in Collier’s, 1950/06/24–1950/07/22: “gentle damn’ rain”.] - RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 14“His lordship dances with Mrs. Spottsworth, and in due course the pendant droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.”
- JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 16At Deverill Hall one night, for the soundest of reasons but too long to go into here, Jeeves had had occasion to bean a policeman with it—Constable Dobbs, a zealous officer—and the smitten slop had dropped as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.
[Not in JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04.] - CT58Cocktail Time (1958), 10“You string along with the Bard of Avon about the quality of mercy not being strained? Very well. It’s up to you, of course.”
- HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 20“That’s life,” she said, and buzzed off to keep her vigil, leaving me kicking myself because I’d forgotten to say anything about the quality of mercy not being strained. It isn’t, as I dare say you know, and a mention of this might just have done the trick.
- HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 20“I told him that the quality of mercy . . . What’s the matter, Bertie?”
“Nothing. Just starting.”
“What do you want to start for?”
“I believe Brinkley Court is open for starting in at about this hour, is it not? The quality of mercy, you were saying?”
“Yes. It isn’t strained.”
“I believe not.”
“And in case you didn’t know, it’s twice bless’d and becomes the throned monarch better than his crown.” - SU63Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963), 22In another half jiffy I should have dropped on him as the gentle rain from heaven upon the spot beneath.
IV.1.219-220 “A Daniel come to judgement”
Shylock.
A Daniel come to judgement; yea a Daniel!
O wise young judge, how I do honour thee!
- 60-OM0518“Our Man in America”
in Punch, 1960/05/18You might have supposed that every policeman present would have said “A Daniel come to judgment!” and that Sam would have been dismissed without a fifty-eighth stain on his character, but no. - BM64Biffen’s Millions (Frozen Assets) (1964), 11.2“Bunting, you are on the beam. A Daniel come to judgment.”
- BG65The Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood (Galahad at Blandings) (1965), 1.2Tipton eyed him reverently. A Daniel come to judgment, he was feeling.
- GB70The Girl in Blue (1970), 2.1To say that he followed her reasoning would be an overstatement, but he agreed with every word of it. A Daniel come to judgement, he was saying to himself.
- MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 15“Thank you, Jeeves. You’ve straightened everything out in your customary masterly manner. You’re a . . . what were you saying the other day about Daniel somebody?
“A Daniel come to judgment, sir?”
“That was it. You’re a Daniel come to judgment.”
“It is very kind of you to say so, sir.”
[. . .]
“Then you may leave us, Jeeves. Much obliged for your Daniel come to judgmenting.”
V.1.1-6 “In such a night as this . . .”
Lorenzo.
The moon shines bright. In such a night as this,
When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees,
And they did make no noise, in such a night
Troilus methinks mounted the Troyan walls
And sighed his soul toward the Grecian tents,
Where Cressid lay that night.
- BC24Bill the Conqueror (1924), 15It was a night for lovers to stand beneath their lady’s window and.…
Bill stopped so abruptly that he was nearly run down by a taxi-cab. He wondered he had not thought of that before. Obviously there was but one place for him on such a night. - SS25Sam the Sudden (Sam in the Suburbs) (1925), 29.1Sam groaned in spirit. On such a night as this young Troilus had climbed the walls of Troy and stood gazing at the Grecian tents where lay his Cressida, and he himself had got to go into a stuffy house and listen to a bore with a white beard drooling on about the mouldy past of a London suburb.
- OR51The Old Reliable (1951), 9“What were you doing? Admiring the stars? A fine display. Glorious technicolour. Look how the floor of heaven is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold. In such a night as this, when the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees——”
“For God’s sake, Bill!”
[Not in OR51aPhipps to the Rescue
serial in Collier’s, 1950/06/24–1950/07/22. See The Merchant of Venice, V.1.58-65.]
V.1.54 “How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!”
Lorenzo.
How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
- PH02The Pothunters (1902), 17“How sweet the moonlight sleeps on yonder haystack,” observed Charteris poetically, as he and Tony, accompanied by Swift and Daintree, made their way across the fields to Parker’s Spinney.
[Not in PH02bThe Pothunters
serial in Public School Magazine, 1902/01-03.]
V.1.58-65 “Look how the floor of heaven is thick inlaid . . .”
The original plural is cherubim (from OT Heb. k’rūb, pl. k’rūbīm), but this was very early re-analyzed as a singular, and the plurals cherubins and cherubims were created. All three forms appear in the quotations below—sometimes in the same edition, as in JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946) (the three quotations, alternating between cherubims and cherubins, are from JM46BJoy in the Morning
Jenkins, 1947). JM46AJoy in the Morning
Doubleday, 1946 and MS49AThe Mating Season
Didier, 1949 use cherubins. Other such differences are not noted here. In Macbeth, I.7.21-28 above Shakespeare uses cherubin, apparently with plural meaning.
Lorenzo.
Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patens of bright gold.
There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still choiring to the young-eyed cherubins.
Such harmony is in immortal souls,
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.
- BC24Bill the Conqueror (1924), 10.1The pavement in front of Tilbury House was all inlaid with patines of bright gold, and sparrows, revelling in the warmth, chirped merrily as they lunched in the gutters.
[BC24aBill the Conqueror
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1924/05/24–1924/07/12, 12.1: “patinas”. Not in BC24bBill the Conqueror
serial in Grand, 1924/09–1925/04.] - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 14“The stars, sir.”
“Stars?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What about them?”
“I was merely directing your attention to them, sir. Look how the floor of heaven is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold.”
“Jeeves——”
“There’s not the smallest orb which thou beholdest, sir, but in his motion like an angel sings, still quiring to the young-eyed cherubims.”
“Jeeves——”
“Such harmony is in immortal souls. But whilst this muddy vesture of decay doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.”
“Jeeves——”
“Sir?”
“You couldn’t possibly switch it off, could you?”
“Certainly, sir, if you wish it.”
“I’m not in the mood.”
“Very good, sir.”
“You know how one isn’t, sometimes.”
“Yes, sir. I quite understand.” - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 14“Lovely evening, Uncle Percy,” I said, hoping by the exercise of suavity to keep the conversation on an amicable plane. “Jeeves and I were just talking about the stars. What was it you said about the stars, Jeeves?”
“I alluded to the fact that there was not the smallest orb which did not sing in its motion like an angel, still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins, sir.”
“That’s right. Worth knowing, that, eh, Uncle Percy?’ ” - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 16He faded away into the darkness, sighing reproachfully, leaving me alone with the stars.
And I was just examining them and wondering what had given Jeeves the idea that they were quiring to the young-eyed cherubims—I couldn’t see the slightest indication of such a thing myself—when they suddenly merged, as if they had been Uncle Percy and J. Chichester Clam, and became a jagged sheet of flame. - MS49The Mating Season (1949), 23And I had paused for a moment to look at the stars, wondering, as I always did when I saw stars, why Jeeves had once described them to me as quiring to the young-eyed Cherubim, when a tapping on my arm and a bleating voice saying “I say, Bertie” told me that some creature of the night was trying to arrest my attention.
- MS49The Mating Season (1949), 23The stars, ceasing for a moment to quire to the young-eyed Cherubim, did a quick buck-and-wing.
- MS49The Mating Season (1949), 24You get the picture. Above, in the serene sky, the stars quiring to the Cherubim. Onstage, in the public bar, the local toughies quiring to the potboy.
- MS49The Mating Season (1949), 24In addition to the stars quiring to the young-eyed Cherubim, there was now in the serene sky a fair-sized moon, and as always happens under these conditions the visibility was improved.
- OR51The Old Reliable (1951), 9“What were you doing? Admiring the stars? A fine display. Glorious technicolour. Look how the floor of heaven is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold. In such a night as this, when the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees——”
“For God’s sake, Bill!”
“Some other time, eh? Not in the mood, no? Just as you say. Still, you can’t deny that yonder stars are well worth looking at. Bright, twinkling and extremely neatly arranged. A credit to Southern California. I’ll tell you something about those stars, Smedley. There’s not the smallest orb which thou beholdest, but in his motion like an angel sings, still quiring to the young-eyed Cherubim. Worth knowing, that.”
[OR51aPhipps to the Rescue
serial in Collier’s, 1950/06/24–1950/07/22 omits “In such [. . .] California”. See The Merchant of Venice, V.1.1-6.]
V.1.79-88 “The man that hath no music in himself . . .”
Lorenzo.
Therefore the poet
Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and floods;
Since naught so stockish, hard, and full of rage,
But music for the time doth change his nature.
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night
And his affections dark as Erebus.
Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.
- PU03A Prefect’s Uncle (1903), 6Nowhere does character come out so clearly as in the decoration of one’s private den. Many a man, at present respected by his associates, would stand forth unmasked at his true worth, could the world but look into his room. For there they would see that he was so lost to every sense of shame as to cover his books with brown paper, or deck his walls with oleographs presented with the Christmas numbers, both of which habits argue a frame of mind fit for murders, stratagems, and spoils. Let no such man be trusted.
- LN13The Little Nugget (1913), IIOf stratagems, spoils, and alarms by night.
[Part II summary. Not in LN13aThe Little Nugget
in Munsey’s, 1913/08.] - SB27The Small Bachelor (1927), 2.3As Sigsbee Waddington stood on the pavement outside his house, drinking in the dust-and-gasolene mixture which passes for air in New York and scanning the weak imitation stars which are the best the East provides, he was grim and squiggle-eyed and ripe for murders, stratagems, and spoils.
- 32CC“Cats Will Be Cats” (1932)
(Am & Str as “The Bishop’s Folly”) MNPercy, on the other hand, for all his sleek exterior, was mean and bitter. He had no music in his soul, and was fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.
[32CCa“The Bishop’s Folly”
in American, 1932/03, 32CCb“The Bishop’s Folly”
in Strand, 1932/06, 32CCA“Cats Will Be Cats” (1932)
in MNA: “murders, stratagems, and spoils”.] - TY34Thank You, Jeeves (1934), 1“Oh? Well, let me tell you that the man that hath no music in his soul . . .” I stepped to the door. “Jeeves,” I called down the passage, “what was it Shakespeare said the man who hadn’t music in his soul was fit for?”
“Treasons, stratagems, and spoils, sir.”
“Thank you, Jeeves. Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils,” I said, returning.
[TY34BThank You, Jeeves
Jenkins, 1934: “music in himself” (twice).] - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 22From time to time, Boko would look around, as if about to say something, but whatever eloquence he may have been intending was checked by the expression on the face of the dog, which was that of one fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils, and the fact that the pitchfork to which I have alluded was almost touching the seat of his trousers.
- JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 7In his pre-special phase he had been all steamed up and fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils, as the fellow said, and he became a better, kindlier man beneath my very gaze.
- SU63Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963), 7You wouldn’t think it to look at him, because he’s small and shrimplike and never puts on weight, but Gussie loves food. Watching him tucking into his rations at the Drones, a tapeworm would raise its hat respectfully, knowing that it was in the presence of a master. Cut him off, therefore, from the roasts and boileds and particularly from cold steak and kidney pie, a dish of which he is inordinately fond, and you turned him into something fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils, as the fellow said—the sort of chap who would break an engagement as soon as look at you.
- MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 10I remember Jeeves speaking of someone who was fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils, and that was Bingley all over.
- MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 14“And meanwhile stay away from Ginger as much as possible, for he is in ugly mood.”
“I quite understand, sir. Stockish, hard and full of rage.”
“Shakespeare?”
“Yes, sir. His Merchant of Venice.”
I left him then, pleased at having got one right for a change, and headed for the drawing-room, hoping for another quiet go at the Rex Stout which the swirling rush of events had forced me to abandon.
V.1.89-91 “So shines a good deed in a naughty world”
Portia.
That light we see is burning in my hall.
How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
- PC10Psmith in the City (The New Fold) (1910), 7“I shall make it my business to be kind to our Departmental head. He deserves the utmost consideration. His action shone like a good deed in a wicked world. Which it was, of course.”
- 14LW“The [Episode of the] Live Weekly” (1914)
Pic Str MM As he stood cooling his indignation in the pleasant breeze which had sprung up, he was aware of a dense crowd proceeding toward him. It was headed by an individual who shone out against the drab background like a good deed in a naughty world. - 20PW“Paving the Way for Mabel” (1920)
Cos Str IAIn Reggie’s circle, therefore, the home-life of Archie and Lucille shone like a good deed in a naughty world.
[=IA21Indiscretions of Archie (1921), 19.] - AS22The Adventures of Sally (Mostly Sally) (1922), 5“Sally, you stand alone among womankind. You shine like a good deed in a naughty world.”
[AS22aThe Adventures of Sally
serial in Collier’s, 1921/10/18–1921/12/31 omits first sentence. Not in AS22bThe Adventures of Sally
serial in Grand, 1922/04-10, AS22cMostly Sally
serial in Maclean’s, 1921/10/15–1922/03/01.]
Shylock
Allusions to the character of Shylock, without obvious reference to a specific passage.
- MN28Money for Nothing (1928), 7.2“If a guy’s middle name is Shylock, where’s the use wasting time trying to do anything about it?”
- BM31Big Money (1931), 3“Those fellows are out for blood. Shylock was a beginner compared with them.”
- SM37Summer Moonshine (1937), 2Jane said that he must not be a Shylock. Sir Buckstone replied that it was impossible for a man situated as he was not to be a Shylock and that, anyway, Shylock’s was a character which he had come greatly to admire.
THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR
Text used: A. Quiller-Couch and J. Dover Wilson, The Merry Wives of Windsor, C.U.P. 1969.
I.2.2-4 “the world’s mine oyster”
Falstaff.
I will not lend thee a penny.
Pistol.
Why, then the world’s mine oyster,
Which I with sword will open.
- 19SF“The Spring Frock” (1919)
SEP (“The Spring Suit”) Str Have Courage, and the world is your oyster.
Rosie was impressed.
“Why should the world be an oyster?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” said George, frankly. “I didn’t understand that bit myself. But that’s not the point.” - 23US“Ukridge Sees Her Through” (1923)
Cos Str U“The world, laddie, is my oyster.” - SB27The Small Bachelor (1927), 1.1And this imposing figure with the square chin and the horn-rimmed spectacles which, as he comes out from the door leading to the stairs, flash like jewels in the sun, is no less a person than J. Hamilton Beamish, author of the famous Beamish Booklets (“Read Them and Make the World Your Oyster”) which have done so much to teach the populace of the United States observation, perception, judgment, initiative, will-power, decision, business acumen, resourcefulness, organization, directive ability, self-confidence, driving-power, originality—and, in fact, practically everything else from Poultry-Farming to Poetry.
[SB27aThe Small Bachelor
serial in Liberty, 1926/09/18–1926/12/25: “spectacles that flash”, “from poultry to poetry.”]
III.5.97-99 “but mark the sequel”
Falstaff.
Well, on went he for a search, and away went I for foul clothes: but mark the sequel, Master Brook.
- 03MC“The Manœuvres of Charteris” (1903)
Cap TSA, 2“I thought so.”
“Ah, but mark the sequel.” - 04-IS0728“In the Stocks” (column)
in Vanity Fair (UK), 1904/07/28Mark the sequel. - 05RI“The Rivals” (1905)
NovBut mark the sequel! Brummel-Brown, distraught, with riven heart,
Grew pale and melancholy, and preferred to mope apart. - 06BJ“How Kid Brady Joined the Press” (1906)
PeS KBMM“I hovered around to scoop it for my paper. But mark the sequel: I didn’t get the scoop I wanted, but I got another twice as good.” - 07-CDBCricket: Dulwich vs. Brighton College
in Alleynian, 1907/07With our entire troupe of bowlers bowling like cripples trying to do the Nashville Salute, the outlook seemed gloomy. But mark the sequel. - NG07Not George Washington (1907), I.5“Mark the sequel.”
- 08KH“The Kind-Hearted Editor” (1908)
ThC“But mark the sequel.” - 13DC“Doing Clarence a Bit of Good” (1913)
Pic (“Rallying Round Clarence”) Str M2LA MMJ EJAll right so far, what? But mark the sequel. - PJ17Piccadilly Jim (1917), 19“Now mark the sequel!”
- 17-NYD“All About New Year’s Day”
in Vanity Fair (US), 1917/01But mark the sequel. - 21HA“The Heel of Achilles” (1921)
ChT Str CC F!A safe man to have betted on, you would have said. But mark the sequel. - 22-FDHFootball: Dulwich vs. Haileybury
in Alleynian, 1922/02Good work? Yes, but mark the sequel. - 24UR“Ukridge Rounds a Nasty Corner” (1924)
Cos Str U“But mark the sequel, old horse!” - HW33Heavy Weather (1933), 4“Mark the sequel.”
- 33AH“The Amazing Hat Mystery” (1933)
Cos Str YMS VW TDCNow, you would say that that was rummy enough. A full-sized mystery in itself, you might call it. But wait. Mark the sequel. You haven’t heard anything yet. - TY34Thank You, Jeeves (1934), 1So far, so good. But mark the sequel.
- SM37Summer Moonshine (1937), 1“It was not an end, but a beginning. Mark the sequel.”
- UF39Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939), 10“Nothing so very remarkable about that, you are saying. Sort of thing that might happen to anyone. Quite. But mark the sequel.”
[Not in UF39aUncle Fred in the Springtime
shorter serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1939/04/22–1939/05/27.] - 470515-PFLetter to W. Townend, 1947/05/15
in Performing Flea (1953)The happy ending, you would say. But mark the sequel.
[=470714-AALetter to W. Townend, 1947/07/14
in Author! Author! (1962).] - UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 5.2Sir Aylmer waved an imperious hand.
“Wait, wait, wait, wait, WAIT. Mark the sequel.”
[Not in UD48aUncle Dynamite
condensed in Liberty, 1949/04.] - MS49The Mating Season (1949), 12“That’s Act One.”
“But mark the sequel?”
“You’re right, mark the sequel.”
[Not in MS49cThe Mating Season
condensed in Toronto Star Weekly, 1949/11/12.] - BW52Barmy in Wonderland (Angel Cake) (1952), 17“Life appeared to be at an end. But mark the sequel.”
- BG53Bring On the Girls! (1953), 18.2But mark the sequel.
[=BG53BBring On the Girls
Jenkins, 1954, 17.2.]
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
Text used: R. A. Foakes, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The New Cambridge Shakespeare), C.U.P. 2003.
I.1.132-134 “the course of true love”
Lysander.
Ay me! For aught that I could ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth;
- 01WP“When Papa Swore in Hindustani” (1901)
Ans UW An hour later he arrived in person, and the course of true love pulled itself together, and began to run smooth again. - 03CD“My Cricket Drama” (1903)
Punch, 1903/09/02Bowler.
I, too, am moved. I beg to waive my claims.
And, if the lady will but stand aside,
I’ll send thee down a slow long-hop to leg,
And true love’s course will once again run smooth. - 03-FSD“A Forthcoming Society Drama” (1903)
in Punch, 1903/04/22At the beginning of the play the course of true love appears to be running smooth. - LW20The Little Warrior (Jill the Reckless) (1920), 2.1“But do you suppose the path of true love is going to run smooth, for all that?”
- AS22The Adventures of Sally (Mostly Sally) (1922), 16.3The course of true love was running smooth again.
- LP23Leave It to Psmith (1923), 8.2“Yes, I should imagine that that would stick the gaff into the course of true love to no small extent.”
[LP23aLeave It to Psmith
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1923/02/03–1923/03/24, LP23bLeave It to Psmith
serial in Grand, 1923/06–1923/12: “I am a child in these matters, but I should imagine”.] - LP23Leave It to Psmith (magazine versions, 1923), 13.4Miss Peavey choked. Her acquaintance with Lady Constance had begun just previous to the culmination of the Phyllis-Jackson romance, and her warm heart had been deeply stirred by the raw deal which had been handed to True Love.
[Not in LP23ALeave It to Psmith
Doran, 1924, LP23BLeave It to Psmith
Jenkins, 1923.] - FP29Fish Preferred (Summer Lightning) (1929), 2The Course of True Love.
[Chapter title. Not in FP29AFish Preferred
Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1929, FP29aSummer Lightning
serial in Collier’s, 1929/04/06–1929/06/22, FP29bSummer Lightning
serial in Pall Mall, 1929/03–1929/09.] - FP29Fish Preferred (Summer Lightning) (1929), 12.2Like Sue, he had placed his trust in the thought that true love conquers all obstacles; that coldness melts; that sundered hearts may at long last be brought together again by a little judicious pleading and reasoning.
- FP29Fish Preferred (Summer Lightning) (1929), 19“And then I said that, if she gave up acting like a barbed-wire entanglement in the path of true love, I would undertake not to publish the Reminiscences.”
- HW33Heavy Weather (1933), 5“Because there’s a snag sticking up in the course of true love. A very sizeable, jagged snag.”
- JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 15The tender Wooster heart had been deeply touched by the non-smooth running of the course of the Boko-Nobby true love, and I had hoped that to-night’s rannygazoo would have culminated in a thorough sweetening of Uncle Percy and a consequent straightening out of the tangle.
- SF48Spring Fever (1948), 2Too bad, felt Stanwood, that the course of true love was not batting .400.
- PW52Pigs Have Wings (1952), 8.3“Penny has been giving me some of your stories to read, and a thing that struck me about them was that on every occasion, despite master criminals, pock-marked Mexicans, shots in the night and cobras down the chimney, true love triumphed in the end.”
[Not in PW52aPigs Have Wings
serial in Collier’s, 1952/08/16–1952/09/20.] - CT58Cocktail Time (1958), 14“The course of true love has not been running very smooth of late, I understand.”
- SU63Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963), 3“Pop Bassett has no right to keep gumming up the course of true love like this.”
- PB69A Pelican at Blandings (No Nudes Is Good Nudes) (1969), 9.3“But, as I need hardly tell an old campaigner like you, the course of true love seldom runs smooth.”
II.1.60 “Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania!”
Oberon.
Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania!
- UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 6.2“Well, well, well, well, well! Bill Oakshott in person. Well met by moonlight, proud Oakshott.”
“Eh?”
“Adaptation of Shakespearian quotation. It is not of the slightest importance.” - OR51The Old Reliable (1951), 10“Well met by moonlight, proud Phipps.”
- CT58Cocktail Time (1958), 19“Well met by moonlight, proud Wisdom,” it bleated, and spinning on his axis he perceived old Mr. Saxby.
II.1.175-176 “I’ll put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes!”
Puck.
I’ll put a girdle round about the earth
in forty minutes! [Exit]
- 10GA“The Good Angel” (1910)
Cos (“The Matrimonial Sweepstakes”) Str MU UW “I never ride in a motor-car without those words of Shakespeare’s ringing in my mind: ‘I’ll put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes.’ ”
[10GAa“The Matrimonial Sweepstakes”
in Cosmopolitan, 1910/02: “in an automobile”.]
II.1.249-252 “I know a bank where the wild thyme blows”
Oberon.
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows
Where oxlip and the nodding violet grows,
Quite overcanopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine;
- MK09Mike (1909), 54I know a bank whereon the wild thyme grows, only a few yards down the road, where you can scrap all night if you want to.
[=MK092BMike and Psmith
Jenkins, 1953, 25, MK092bThe Lost Lambs
second part of Mike serialized in The Captain, 1908/04-09/5. Note misquotation grows (from next line) for blows.]
V.1 Pyramus and Thisbe
Here the “rude mechanicals” (Bottom and the rest) put on a play telling the story of Pyramus and Thisbe. Shakespeare rather than Ovid (Metamorphoses book IV) is the principal text of reference, as shown by the passage from IJ10The Intrusion of Jimmy (A Gentleman of Leisure) (1910), which quotes III.1.48-50 (when the Clowns start rehearsing):
Quince.
Then there is another thing: we must have a wall in the great chamber; for Pyramus and Thisbe, says the story, did talk through the chink of a wall.
- IJ10The Intrusion of Jimmy (A Gentleman of Leisure) (1910), 2Pyramus and Thisbe.
[Chapter title. IJ10bThe Intrusions of Jimmy
serial in Tit-Bits, 1910/06/11–1910/09/10, IJ10BA Gentleman of Leisure
A. Rivers, 1910: “The New Pyramus and Thisbe.”] - IJ10The Intrusion of Jimmy (A Gentleman of Leisure) (1910), 2“This reminds me of something—something in Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet? No. I’ve got it—Pyramus and Thisbe.”
“I don’t see the slightest resemblance.”
“Read your Midsummer Night’s Dream. ‘Pyramus and Thisbe,’ says the story, ‘did talk through the chink of a wall,’ ” quoted Mifflin.
[See Romeo and Juliet, Other.] - 23NW“No Wedding Bells for Him” (1923)
Cos Str UI put my mouth to the slit, and we talked together like Pyramus and Thisbe. - SB27The Small Bachelor (1927), 17.3He advanced his mouth towards the hole in the wall, and repeated his remark.
“I said ‘Very good, madam,’ ” explained this modern Pyramus.
[. . .]
There was a pause. Then a male understudy took up Thisbe’s portion of the performance. - SM37Summer Moonshine (1937), 23He was out of bed with his lips to the panel in an instant, and a moment later the Pyramus and Thisbe interview had begun.
“Hello?”
“Is that you, Mr. Bulpott?”
“——pitt,’ corrected Pyramus. - BG65The Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood (Galahad at Blandings) (1965), 1.2So where to one of his ordinary clientele he would have replied with a brusque “Pipe down, youse,” he now said “Hi” in a not uncordial voice and joined Tipton at the bars, through which they proceeded to converse like a modern Pyramus and Thisbe.
V.1.12-17 “The poet’s eye”
The collocation “fine frenzy” most likely originated in this passage, even if the meaning has drifted considerably, e.g. in those quotes which mention the “first fine frenzy”. The standard interpretation of the phrase equates it to “elevated madness” and traces it to the Platonic notion of poetic composition as a divinely inspired activity, expressed in Ion 533d-534c and Phaedrus 245a, 249d-e.
Theseus.
The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
- HK05The Head of Kay’s (1905), 7Private Jones’ bewildered eye, rolling in a fine frenzy from heaven to earth, and from earth to heaven, in search of the missing edifice, found it at last in a tangled heap upon the ground.
- MK09Mike (1909), 26As he told the story to a group of sympathisers outside the school shop, Burgess came up, his eyes rolling in a fine frenzy.
- MK09Mike (1909), 51Mr. Downing’s eye, rolling in a fine frenzy from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven, also focussed itself on the pile of soot; and a thrill went through him.
[=MK092bThe Lost Lambs
second part of Mike serialized in The Captain, 1908/04-09, 22.] - IJ10The Intrusion of Jimmy (A Gentleman of Leisure) (1910), 6His eyes, like those of Shakespeare’s poet, rolling in a fine frenzy, did glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven.
- 14OT“One Touch of Nature” (1914)
McC (“Brother Fans”) M2LThe first fine frenzy in which Mr. Birdsey had issued his invitations had begun to ebb by the time the soup was served, and he was conscious of a feeling of embarrassment. - WH14The White Hope (Their Mutual Child/The Coming of Bill) (1914), I.12Bailey hesitated. The first fine frenzy had left him, and he was beginning to be a little ashamed of himself for having expressed his views in a manner which, though satisfying, was, he felt, less dignified than he could have wished.
- 15TC“The Test Case” (1915)
ISM PeK UW PS2 EJIn fact, but for circumstances over which I had no dashed control, I am inclined to think that we should have brought it off. I’m bound to say that, now that what the poet chappie calls the first fine frenzy has been on the ice for awhile and I am able to consider the thing calmly, I am deuced glad we didn’t. - BC24Bill the Conqueror (1924), 5.5The first fine frenzy that had carried Bill through the front door into the drawing-room and through the French windows of the drawing-room, out into the garden in pursuit of Roderick, had kept him going nicely for perhaps two minutes.
- 370307-ACPGW 1961 comment after
letter to W. Townend, 1937/03/07
in Author! Author! (1962)It occurs to me, reading over these letters, that there is a great deal about money in them, but I suppose that is unavoidable when an author is writing to another author. We pen-pushers, as a class, are businessmen. Shakespeare described the poet’s eye as rolling in a fine frenzy from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven, but you will generally find that one corner of that eye is glued on the royalty returns, and it is the same with novelists and short story writers. - UF39Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939), 13Poets, as a class, are business men. Shakespeare describes the poet’s eye as rolling in a fine frenzy from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven, and giving to airy nothing a local habitation and a name, but in practice you will find that one corner of that eye is generally glued on the royalty returns.
[Not in UF39aUncle Fred in the Springtime
shorter serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1939/04/22–1939/05/27.] - QS40Quick Service (1940), 13His eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, was caught by the window of the Gardenia Tea Shoppe across the way.
[=QS40aQuick Service
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1940/05/04–1940/06/22, 14.] - UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 3.2Lady Bostock’s eye, rolling in a fine frenzy from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven, picked on Pongo, now back on the leg he had started with, and she stared at him dazedly, like one seeing unpleasant things in a dream.
- 50BS“Birth of a Salesman” (1950)
TW NS FQOpThe first fine frenzy had abated. He was feeling like a nervous man who in an impulsive moment has volunteered to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. - PW52Pigs Have Wings (1952), 1.4“And she will bring your young man along?”
“Well, between us girls, Gally, she doesn’t really exist. I’m like the poet in Shakespeare, I’m giving to airy nothing a local habitation and a name.”
[Not in PW52aPigs Have Wings
serial in Collier’s, 1952/08/16–1952/09/20.] - JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 13I remember Jeeves saying something once about the poet’s eye in a fine frenzy rolling and glancing from Heaven to earth, from earth to Heaven. It was in much the same manner that Florence’s eye now rolled and glanced.
[=JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04, 12.] - JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 21My eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, met Aunt Dahlia’s, and I saw that hers was rolling, too.
[=JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04, 18. JF54BJeeves and the Feudal Spirit
Jenkins, 1954: “saw hers”.] - HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 11“His blood pressure was high, his eye rolled in what they call a fine frenzy, and he was death-where-is-thy-sting-ing like nobody’s business.”
Puck
Although Puck (or “Robin Goodfellow”) is not Shakespeare’s own invention but a character of English folklore, his appearance in MND is so memorable that any general mention of him probably brings to mind this play rather than e.g. Kipling’s Puck stories.
- MN28Money for Nothing (1928), 1.3In the eyes, a little slanting, there was a Puck-like look, and the curving lips hinted demurely at amusing secrets.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Text used: F. H. Mares, Much Ado About Nothing (The New Cambridge Shakespeare), C.U.P. 2003.
II.1.199-206 “a hair off the Great Cham’s beard”
Benedick.
Will your grace command me any service to the world’s end? I will go on the slightest errand now to the Antipodes that you can devise to send me on: I will fetch you a tooth-picker now from the furthest inch of Asia: bring you the length of Prester John’s foot: fetch you a hair off the Great Cham’s beard: do you any embassage to the Pygmies, rather than hold three words conference with this Harpy: you have no employment for me?
Don Pedro.
None, but to desire your good company.
- MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 3“She’s like one of those princesses in the fairy tales who used to set fellows some task to perform—it might be scaling a mountain of glass or bringing her a hair from the beard of the Great Cham of Tartary—and then gave them the brush-off when they couldn’t make the grade.”
[MO71BMuch Obliged, Jeeves
Barrie & Jenkins, 1971: “who set fellows”, “perform, as it might be”.]
III.3.1-3 “Are you good men and true?”
Dogberry.
Are you good men and true?
Verges.
Yea, or else it were pity but they should suffer salvation body and soul.
- MK09Mike (1909), 10“Here we are, fifteen of us, all good men and true, graduates of our Universities, and, as far as I can see, if we divide up the boys who have come to school this morning on fair share-and-share-alike lines, it will work out at about two-thirds of a boy each.”
- 29UB“Unpleasantness at Bludleigh Court” (1929)
Lib Str MMSThen is the time good men and true
With View Halloo pursue the gnu:
III.3.19-26 “call the rest of the watch together”
Dogberry.
You are thought here to be the most senseless and fit man for the constable of the watch: therefore bear you the lantern: this is your charge, you shall comprehend all vagrom men, you are to bid any man stand, in the prince’s name.
Seacoal.
How if a will not stand?
Dogberry.
Why then take no note of him, but let him go, and presently call the rest of the watch together, and thank God you are rid of a knave.
- CT58Cocktail Time (1958), 8“Have you ever had a faithful old nurse who stuck to you like a limpet?”
“Never. My personal attendants generally left at the end of the first month, glad to see the last of me. They let me go and presently called the rest of the watch together and thanked God they were rid of a knave.”
OTHELLO
Text used: N. Sanders, Othello (The New Cambridge Shakespeare), C.U.P. 2003.
I.3.133-167 “Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances . . .”
Othello.
Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field,
Of hair-breadth scapes i’th’imminent deadly breach,
Of being taken by the insolent foe
And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence,
And with it all my travels’ history:
Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,
Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven,
It was my hint to speak – such was the process:
And of the cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear
Would Desdemona seriously incline;
But still the house affairs would draw her thence,
Which ever as she could with haste dispatch
She’d come again, and with a greedy ear
Devour up my discourse; which I observing
Took once a pliant hour and found good means
To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart
That I would all my pilgrimage dilate
Whereof by parcels she had something heard,
But not intentively. I did consent,
And often did beguile her of her tears
When I did speak of some distressful stroke
That my youth suffered. My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:
She swore, in faith, ’twas strange, ’twas passing strange,
’Twas pitiful, ’twas wondrous pitiful;
She wished she had not heard it, yet she wished
That heaven had made her such a man. She thanked me,
And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story,
And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake:
She loved me for the dangers I had passed,
And I loved her that she did pity them.
- 05DE“The Deserter” (1905)
Roy PS11 TWE It set forth fully the difficulties and perils which must be encountered by flood and field, laid stress, however, on the fact that the master who acted as lieutenant in the school corps was astigmatic, and might be relied on not to notice a defection from the ranks, and strictly enjoined the recipient to render all possible help to the scheme. - 16FK“The Fatal Kink in Algernon” (1916)
LHJAlgie’s wooing proceeded on exactly opposite lines to that of the late Othello. The latter won the heart of Desdemona by speaking of most disastrous chances, of moving accidents by flood and field, of hairbreadth ’scapes i’ the imminent deadly breach, and similar events. Algernon produced almost equal results by sitting in a chair and letting his Desdemona relate her autobiography. When she paused for breath he said: “No, really?” When she seemed to expect some comment he said: “Extraordinary, what?” When she did not pause, but went straight on, he nodded. - TM22Three Men and a Maid (The Girl on the Boat) (1922), 17.2It has always been like this since Othello wooed Desdemona. For three days Jane Hubbard had been weaving her spell about Eustace Hignett, and now she monopolised his entire horizon. She had spoken, like Othello, of antres vast and deserts idle, rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touched heaven, and of the cannibals that each other eat, the Anthropophagi, and men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear would Eustace Hignett seriously incline, and swore, in faith, ’twas strange, ’twas passing strange, ’twas pitiful, ’twas wondrous pitiful. He loved her for the dangers she had passed, and she loved him that he did pity them.
[Not in TM22aThree Men and a Maid
serial in Woman’s Home Companion, 1921/10–1921/12, TM22bThree Men and a Maid
serial in Pan, 1921/02–1921/09, TM22AThree Men and a Maid
Doran, 1922.] - BC24Bill the Conqueror (1924), 7Their relations were those of a modified Desdemona and Othello. She liked him for the hardships he was undergoing, and he liked her that she did pity them.
- 27SW“The Story of William” (1927)
Lib (“It Was Only a Fire”) Str MMM“When I heard this story, like Desdemona, I loved him for the dangers he had passed, and he loved me that I did pity them.” - BM31Big Money (1931), 4.5“There’s a little white scar just in front of your ear. Was that caused by a bullet that grazed you?”
Berry swallowed painfully. Girls bring these things on themselves, he felt. Look at Othello and Desdemona. Othello hadn’t dreamed of saying all that stuff about moving accidents by flood and field, of hair-breadth ’scapes i’ the imminent deadly breach, until that girl dragged it out of him with her questions. Othello knew perfectly well that when he talked of the Cannibals that each other eat and the men whose heads grow beneath their shoulders he was piling it on. But what could he do? - RH34Right Ho, Jeeves (Brinkley Manor) (1934), 7I remember at school having to read that stuff where that chap, Othello, tells the girl what a hell of a time he’d been having among the cannibals and what not. Well, imagine his feelings if, after he had described some particularly sticky passage with a cannibal chief and was waiting for the awestruck “Oh-h! Not really?” she had said that the whole thing had no doubt been greatly exaggerated and that the man had probably really been a prominent local vegetarian.
- CW38The Code of the Woosters (1938), 10It would be a bit thick, I felt, while he was still quivering to the roots of the soul at the recollection of that hair’s-breadth escape, to tell him that I was about to become his son-in-law.
- QS40Quick Service (1940), 13Women love men for the dangers they have passed, but Sally could not help feeling that there was no need for him to show her the sore place on his leg three times.
[=QS40aQuick Service
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1940/05/04–1940/06/22, 14.] - FM47Full Moon (1947), 6.5She poured out her story in impassioned words, and it was not long before Freddie, who had a feeling heart, was placing a cousinly arm about her waist; and not long after that before he was bestowing on her a series of cousinly kisses. Her story being done, he gave her for her pains a world of sighs: he swore, in faith, ’twas strange, ’twas passing strange; ’twas pitiful, ’twas wondrous pitiful—at the same time kissing her a good deal more.
[Not in FM47aFull Moon
condensed in Liberty, 1947/11.] - PW52Pigs Have Wings (1952), 2.1His hostess was gazing at him wide-eyed, as if swearing, in faith, ’twas strange, ’twas passing strange, ’twas pitiful, ’twas wondrous pitiful, and there came upon him something of the easy fluency which had enabled Othello on a similar occasion to make such a good story of his misfortunes.
[Not in PW52aPigs Have Wings
serial in Collier’s, 1952/08/16–1952/09/20. PW52APigs Have Wings
Doubleday, 1952: quotation marks around Shakespeare quotation.] - RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 8She had stopped talking about the old Cannes days and had sat lingering in rapt silence as the White Hunter told of antres vast and deserts idle and of the cannibals that each other eat, the Anthropophagi, and men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders.
- RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 10To this mushiness Captain Biggar’s conversation at dinner had contributed largely. We have given some indication of its trend, showing it ranging freely from cannibal chiefs to dart-blowing head-hunters, from head-hunters to alligators, and its effect on Mrs. Spottsworth had been very similar to that of Othello’s reminiscences on Desdemona.
[RJ53AThe Return of Jeeves
Simon & Schuster, 1954: “African headhunters” (both times).] - RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 10He resembled Othello not only in his taste for antres vast and deserts idle but in his tendency, being wrought, to become perplexed in the extreme.
- SF57Something Fishy (The Butler Did It) (1957), 18From the opening slice of smoked salmon to the final demitasse he enchanted his audience, holding them spellbound with his tales of moving accidents by flood and field and hair-breadth ’scapes i’ the imminent deadly breach in company with old Jacks and Joes and Jimmies of his distant youth. Though not all of them were ’scapes, for one of his best stories told how he and someone called old Sammy on Boat Race night of the year 1911 had been taken by the insolent foe and on the following morning fined forty shillings at Bosher Street police station.
- CT58Cocktail Time (1958), 24“To tell you all about him—his career, his adventures by flood and field, his favourite breakfast food and so on—would take too long.”
- PG72Pearls, Girls, and Monty Bodkin (The Plot That Thickened) (1972), 9.1During his stay at the Superba-Llewellyn studio they had made a picture of Shakespeare’s Othello and he remembered the disturbing effect Othello’s recital of his misadventures had had on Desdemona. Were he to relate the story of what had happened to him on that night of terror, Sandy, already a victim to his fatal charms, could scarcely fail to be plunged even more deeply into hopeless love than she was at present, and he did not want to cause the poor child unnecessary pain.
III.3.156-162 “Who steals my purse, steals trash”
Iago.
Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls.
Who steals my purse, steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;
’Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands:
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed.
- 22AA“Aunt Agatha Takes the Count” (1922)
Cos (“Aunt Agatha Makes a Bloomer”) Str IJ,3-4 WoJ Cr“You have saved my good name. Good name in man or woman, dear my lord,’ he said, massaging the fin with some fervour, ‘is the immediate jewel of their souls. Who steals my purse steals trash. ’Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands. But he that filches my good name robs me of that which enriches not him and makes me poor indeed.”
[=IJ23The Inimitable Jeeves (Jeeves) (1923), 4. 22AAa“Aunt Agatha Makes a Bloomer”
in Cosmopolitan, 1922/10 and IJ,3-4 ends quotation after “souls.”] - RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 11“Who steals his lordship’s purse steals trash.”
- MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 5“But I know just how you feel, sir. Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing; ’twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands. But he who filches from me my good name robs me of that which not enriches him and makes me poor indeed.”
“Neat, that. Your own?”
“No, sir. Shakespeare’s.”
“Shakespeare said some rather good things.”
“I understand that he has given uniform satisfaction, sir.”
III.3.168-170 “the green-eyed monster”
Iago.
O beware, my lord, of jealousy:
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on;
- 06-GEM“The Green-Eyed Monster” (1906)
in Books of To-day and Books of To-morrow, 1906/10The Green-Eyed Monster.
[Title.] - 10WD“When Doctors Disagree” (1910)
Str Suc MU UW Jealousy, Arthur W., is not only the most wicked, but the most foolish of passions. Shakespeare says:——
It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock
The meat it feeds on. - FP29Fish Preferred (Summer Lightning) (1929), 4.3Jealousy, said Shakespeare, and he was about right, is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat he feeds on.
[FP29AFish Preferred
Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1929: “a green-eyed”. Not in FP29aSummer Lightning
serial in Collier’s, 1929/04/06–1929/06/22.] - HW33Heavy Weather (1933), 2“I regard jealousy as a mug’s game, my view being that where there is thingummy there should be what-d’you-call-it. Perfect love, ditto trust. But Ronnie belongs more to the Othello or green-eyed monster school of thought.”
- HW33Heavy Weather (1933), 6Poison was running through his veins, his world was rocking, green-eyed devils were shrieking mockery in his ears, and along came blasted aunts babbling of ties.
- JM46Joy in the Morning (1946), 12I could put up with a green-eyed Stilton, a Stilton who turns vermilion and gnashes the molars at the mention of my name.
- FM47Full Moon (1947), 4.2He was a man of strong passions, and the green-eyed monster ran up his leg and bit him to the bone.
[Not in FM47aFull Moon
condensed in Liberty, 1947/11.] - 48FO“Freddie, Oofy and the Beef Trust” (1948)
FQO TDC (“Oofy, Freddie, and the Beef Trust”)The green-eyed monster, running up their legs and biting them, had caused Porky Jupp and Plug Bosher to watch the expedition set out with smouldering eyes and grinding teeth; and scarcely had Myrtle Cootes’s patchouli faded away on the evening breeze before they were speaking to each other for the first time in days and, what is more, speaking in a friendly and cordial spirit. - MS49The Mating Season (1949), 19He, too, had obviously noted Gussie’s spotty work, and it was plain that what is technically known as the green-eyed monster had been slipping it across him properly.
- JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 2Ever since then the green-eyed monster has always been more or less round and about, ready to snap into action at the drop of the hat, and he has tended to docket me as a snake in the grass that can do with a lot of watching.
- HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 15The green-eyed monster had bitten him.
- MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 7Spode, in addition to being constructed on the lines of a rather oversized gorilla, has a disposition like that of a short-tempered tiger of the jungle and a nasty mind which leads him to fall a ready prey to what I have heard Jeeves call the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on—viz., jealousy.
- AA74Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (The Cat-Nappers) (1974), 2I saw that I would do well to watch my step, for it was evident that what I have heard Jeeves call the green-eyed monster that doth mock the meat it feeds on was beginning to feel the rush of life beneath its keel. You never know what may happen when the g.-e. m. takes over.
III.3.270-272 “O curse of marriage . . .”
Othello.
O curse of marriage,
That we can call these delicate creatures ours
And not their appetites!
- QS40Quick Service (1940), 9“And he was a good deal upset because he found her this morning straightening a commercial traveller’s tie. Oh curse of marriage, he said to himself, that we can call these delicate creatures ours, but not their appetites. His impulse was to write her a stinker.”
[QS40aQuick Service
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1940/05/04–1940/06/22: “and not their appetites” with quotation marks around Shakespeare quotation.] - BG53Bring On the Girls! (1953), 11.4“When this function is fulfilled, the lady has him for dinner.”
“Nothing formal, I suppose? Just a black tie?”
“I speak in a literal sense, sir.”
“You mean she eats him?”
“Precisely, sir. As Shakespeare so well put it, ‘Oh, curse of marriage, that we can call these delicate creatures ours, but not their appetites.’ ”
“Would you say ‘delicate’ was the——”
“Mot juste, sir? Possibly not, sir. One confesses that one is inclined to look askance at the female spider and to view her activities with concern.”
III.3.331-334 “nor poppy nor mandragora . . .”
Iago.
Not poppy nor mandragora,
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
Which thou owed’st yesterday.
- 01-NOT“Notes” (1901)
PSM TSANor poppy, nor mandragora, nor all the drowsy syrups of the world can ever medicine them to that sweet sleep that they have just been enjoying. - 05PP“The Politeness of Princes” (1905)
Cap SwO TWE Chapple pulled himself together. This must stop. He had said that several times previously, but now he meant it. Nor poppy, nor mandragora, nor all the drowsy syrups of the world should make him oversleep himself again. - SN15Something New (Something Fresh) (1915), 6From the moment he detected Mr. Peters in the act of rifling the museum and marked down Ashe as an accomplice, Baxter’s repose was doomed. Nor poppy nor mandragora, nor all the drowsy sirups of the world, could ever medicine him to that sweet sleep which he owed yesterday.
[SN15aSomething New
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1915/06/26–1915/08/14: “sirups of the East”, “owned yesterday”. SN15BSomething Fresh
Methuen & Co., 1915: “moment when he”.]
III.3.356-358 “Othello’s occupation’s gone”
Othello.
And, O you mortal engines, whose rude throats
Th’immortal Jove’s dead clamours counterfeit,
Farewell! Othello’s occupation’s gone!
- 57-CDP“Crime, Does It Pay?”
in Over Seventy (1957), 1It will probably be months before a group of citizens is again willing to pay out substantial money for the privilege of seeing custard pies thrown at Patrolman Kidwell. I shall be much surprised if a year from now he is not muttering to himself, as he walks his beat, “Othello’s occupation’s gone.”
IV.1.184-185 “the pity of it, Iago!”
Othello.
Nay, that’s certain; but yet the pity of it, Iago! O Iago, the pity of it, Iago!
- RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 11“Pity he didn’t do it sooner.”
“Yes, sir. Oh, Iago, the pity of it, Iago.”
“Eh?”
“I was quoting the Swan of Avon, sir.”
“Well, stop quoting the bally Swan of Avon.”
“Certainly, sir, if you wish it.”
V.2 The Pillow Scene
After some dilly-dallying Othello smothers Desdemona with a pillow.
- 25PR“The Purification of Rodney Spelvin” (1925)
SEP Str HG CrJane was too young to have seen Salvini in “Othello,” but, had she witnessed that great tragedian’s performance, she could not have failed to be struck by the resemblance between his manner in the pillow scene and William’s now. - HW33Heavy Weather (1933), 6It was as if somebody had touched Othello on the arm as he poised the pillow and criticized the cut of his doublet.
V.2.335 “I have done the state some service”
Othello.
I have done the state some service and they know’t:
- PA12The Prince and Betty
Watt, 1912, 16“With your very first contribution to the paper you have hit the bull’s-eye. You have done the state some service.”
[Not in PB12The Prince and Betty
Mills & Boon, 1912, PB12aThe Prince and Betty
in Ainslee’s, 1912/01, PB12bThe Prince and Betty
in Strand, 1912/02–1912/04.]
V.2.336-347 “one that loved not wisely, but too well”
Othello.
I pray you, in your letters
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice. Then must you speak
Of one that loved not wisely, but too well;
Of one not easily jealous but, being wrought,
Perplexed in the extreme; of one whose hand,
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdued eyes,
Albeit unusèd to the melting mood,
Drops tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their medicinable gum.
- LC06Love Among the Chickens (1906–09), 20It has been my aim in the course of this narrative to extenuate nothing, nor set down aught in malice.
[Same in LC21Love Among the Chickens
Jenkins, 1921.] - 21JS“Jeeves in the Springtime” (1921)
Cos Str IJ,1-2 EJ“Well, it looks to me as though our best plan would be to shoot young Bingo in on him after dinner one night. Melting mood, I mean to say, and all that.”
[=IJ23The Inimitable Jeeves (Jeeves) (1923), 1.] - 26LB“The Level Business Head” (1926)
Lib Str EBCA LEOI mean to say, even a bookie must have a melting mood occasionally; and if one came to Joe the Lawyer, I wanted to be on the spot.
[Not in 26LBa“The Level Business Head”
in Liberty, 1926/05/08.] - MN28Money for Nothing (1928), 7.6Mr. Carmody, like Othello, was perplexed in the extreme.
- FP29Fish Preferred (Summer Lightning) (1929), 3.3If there was one thing calculated to appeal to his Uncle Clarence, to induce in his Uncle Clarence a really melting mood, it was the announcement that somebody desired to return to the Land.
- FP29Fish Preferred (Summer Lightning) (1929), 4.3By the time Ronald Overbury Fish pushed through the swinging-door that guards the revelry at Mario’s from the gaze of the passer-by, he was, like the Othello he so much resembled, perplexed in the extreme.
- FP29Fish Preferred (Summer Lightning) (1929), 12.2If this melting mood was due to the fact that Millicent, while in the cottage, had seen a ghost, Hugo wanted to meet that ghost and shake its hand.
- HW33Heavy Weather (1933), 10Ronnie was staring, perplexed in the extreme.
- SM37Summer Moonshine (1937), 17Thinking of Tubby and Tubby’s tendency to love not wisely but too well had caused him to look at the spot beneath the cedar tree where the other should have been sitting, and, with a hideous shock to his nervous system, he saw that the spot was empty.
- SM37Summer Moonshine (1937), 18Not since the historic occasion when Lo, the poor Indian, threw the pearl away, richer than all his tribe, and suddenly found out what an ass he had made of himself, had anyone experienced such remorse as now seared Adrian Peake.
[Mixed with A. Pope, An Essay on Man; see Annotations. Not in SM37bSummer Moonshine
serial in Pearson’s (UK), 1937/09–1938/04.] - SM37Summer Moonshine (1937), 23He left Mr. Bulpitt perplexed in the extreme, and the latter was still between the sheets, trying to adjust his mind to these rather odd goings-on, when Sir Buckstone came bustling in, looking radiant.
- 39SB“Sonny Boy” (1939)
SEP EBC TDCThe conclusion Bingo drew was that love had at last found Oofy Prosser, and an Oofy in love, he reasoned, might—nay, must—be an Oofy in a melting mood which would lead him to scatter the stuff in heaping handfuls. - QS40Quick Service (1940), 1“You think he won’t be in melting mood after Mrs. Chavender’s visit?”
- QS40Quick Service (1940), 10In speaking of this butler, we must speak of one that loved not wisely but too well; of one not easily jealous, but being wrought perplexed in the extreme.
- JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 25“As soon as he is in melting mood, you give me the high sign, and I carry on from there, while you come home and turn in with an easy mind.”
- FM47Full Moon (1947), 4.1A kind-hearted man, he was always vaguely pained when one of his numerous nieces came to serve her sentence at Blandings for having loved not wisely but too well.
[Not in FM47aFull Moon
condensed in Liberty, 1947/11.] - SF48Spring Fever (1948), 7“Didn’t he like Stanwood?”
“That’s just the trouble. He loved him not wisely but too well.” - 50SP“The Shadow Passes” (1950)
NS TDC“I found her in melting mood.” - OR51The Old Reliable (1951), 5“You’re like the base Indian who threw a pearl away richer than all his tribe.”
- PW52Pigs Have Wings (1952), 10.3He stood staring, his lower jaw drooping on its hinge. Like Othello, he was perplexed in the extreme.
[Not in PW52aPigs Have Wings
serial in Collier’s, 1952/08/16–1952/09/20.] - BW52Barmy in Wonderland (Angel Cake) (1952), 13“I pray you, in your letters, Phipps, when you shall these unlucky deeds relate, speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice. Then must you speak of one who loved not wisely but too well . . .”
- RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 9“Ha! I have it now. I see it all. The rift between Bill and Biggar is due to the baby.”
“What on earth are you talking about? What baby?”
“Bill’s, working in close collaboration with Biggar’s daughter, the apple of Biggar’s eye, a poor, foolish little thing who loved not wisely but too well.” - RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 10He resembled Othello not only in his taste for antres vast and deserts idle but in his tendency, being wrought, to become perplexed in the extreme.
- RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 19“Then must I speak of one who loved not wisely but too well, of one whose subdued eyes, albeit unused to the melting mood, drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees their medicinal gum.”
- FL56French Leave (1956), 9.4There was a dazed look on Chester Todd’s pale face as he made his way back to the gambling salon. He had had a shock, and, like Othello, was perplexed in the extreme.
[Not in FL56bFrench Leave
serial in John Bull, 1955/11/12–1955/12/03.] - 57-GST“Getting Started”
in Over Seventy (1957)Now it so happens that there is a Montgomery Street in New York, down on the lower east side, and the driver—Jose Navarro of 20 Avenue D., not that it matters—took him there, and pretty soon Signor Bartholdi, like Othello, was perplexed in the extreme.
[Shakespeare reference omitted in parallel passages 55-TNY“This Is New York (or is it)?”
in Punch, 1955/11/16 and 56-OSW“An Old Sweetheart Who Has Put On Weight”
in America, I Like You (1956)] - SU63Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963), 21“I shall tell him that when he declined to avail himself of Harold’s services he was like the Indian.”
I did not get her drift.
“What Indian?”
“The base one my governesses used to make me read about, the poor simp whose hand . . . How does it go, Jeeves?”
“Threw a pearl away richer than all his tribe, miss.”
[Not in SU63aStiff Upper Lip, Jeeves
condensed in Playboy, 1963/02–1963/03.] - BM64Biffen’s Millions (Frozen Assets) (1964), 4.1He finished dictating the note, its acerbity causing Gwendoline to label it mentally as a stinker, and when the last harsh word had been spoken, returned to his melting mood.
- BM64Biffen’s Millions (Frozen Assets) (1964), 7.3Like Othello, Henry Blake-Somerset was perplexed in the extreme.
- BG65The Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood (Galahad at Blandings) (1965), 7.4They had, in short, goofed to precisely the same extent as the celebrated Indian who threw a pearl away richer than all his tribe.
- BG65The Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood (Galahad at Blandings) (1965), 7.4Where Othello, with much less on his mind, had allowed his subdu’d eyes to drop tears as fast as the Arabian tree their medicinable gum, he contrived to preserve an outward serenity.
[BG65AThe Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood
Simon & Schuster, 1965: “medicinal gum”.] - BG65The Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood (Galahad at Blandings) (1965), 8.3It was not an easy jigsaw puzzle to unravel, and he delivered the refreshments to the study in a sort of trance. He was still in the same condition when he returned to the pantry and took his boots off again. Shakespeare would have described him as perplexed in the extreme.
- DB68Do Butlers Burgle Banks? (1968), 12.1Mike, like Othello, was perplexed in the extreme.
- 70-SB27,P1970 Preface to The Small Bachelor (1927)There was a number for the heroine in the second act called “Bill,” but we all thought it was too slow, so it was cut out. It was not till it was done in Show Boat six years later that we realized that, like Othello’s base Indian, we had thrown away a pearl richer than all our tribe.
- GB70The Girl in Blue (1970), 6.1“Well, on Wednesday you make the round of the magazines with your little portfolio, and if you’re lucky, you sell a single cartoon after four or five unsuccessful shots, art editors as a class being incapable of recognizing a good thing when they see one.”
“Like the base Indian one used to hear about at school who threw the pearl away richer than all his tribe.” - GB70The Girl in Blue (1970), 12.1Any man who could behave as he had been behaving—to all intents and purposes like that base Indian who was such a poor judge of jewelry—could step straight into the most exclusive lunatic asylum and they would show him off to visitors as their star exhibit.
- PG72Pearls, Girls, and Monty Bodkin (The Plot That Thickened) (1972), 11.3Monty had been perplexed in the extreme, but all things were now made clear to him.
Other
Allusions to Othello’s character or to the play as a whole, without obvious reference to a specific passage.
- 04-PFH“A Protest from Hoxton” in “From My Tub” (column)
in Vanity Fair (UK), 1904/06/30Then this Swan of Avon feller, wiv ’is ’Amlet and Otheller,
Will appeal to coves like Tolstoi, you, and me. - 10WD“When Doctors Disagree” (1910)
Str Suc MU UW She knew girls—several girls—who gave the young men with whom they walked out ample excuse for being perfect Othellos.
[. . .]
Whatever discomfort she may have suffered from his spirited imitations of Othello, at any rate they had proved that he loved her.
[10WDa“When Doctors Disagree”
in Success, 1911/03: “suffered from his outbursts,” omitting second mention of Othello.] - 28RW“The Reverent Wooing of Archibald” (1928)
Cos Str MMSArchibald’s imitation of a hen laying an egg was conceived on broad and sympathetic lines. Less violent than Salvini’s Othello, it had in it something of the poignant wistfulness of Mrs. Siddons in the sleep-walking scene of Macbeth.
[See Macbeth, V.1.] - FP29Fish Preferred (Summer Lightning) (1929), 4.3The porter, for Eton and Cambridge train their sons well, found nothing in the way Mr. Fish spoke to cause a thrill. Totally unaware that he had been conversing with Othello’s younger brother, he went back to his den in the basement and sat down with a good appetite to steak and chips.
[Not in FP29aSummer Lightning
serial in Collier’s, 1929/04/06–1929/06/22.] - HW32Hot Water (1932), 8.5In the novelist’s manner, as he now gazed at Jane, there was a quite definite suggestion of Othello.
- LB35The Luck of the Bodkins (1935), 11“He’s as jealous as billy-o. Smear a bit of burnt cork on him, and he could step right on to any stage and play Othello without rehearsal.”
[LB35aThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version in Redbook, 1935/08–1936/01, LB35bThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version in The Passing Show, 1935/09/21–1935/11/23, LB35AThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version, Little, Brown, 1936, 9: “could step on”.] - 40SM“Scratch Man” (1940)
(SEP & Str as “Tee for Two”) EBCA FQO GO“And is he—er—at all inclined to be jealous?”
“Othello took his correspondence course.”
[40SMa“Tee for Two”
in Saturday Evening Post, 1940/01/20, 40SMb“Tee for Two”
in Strand, 1940/09: “He’s the man who taught Othello all he knew.”] - QS40Quick Service (1940), 16The comment was one which to some might have seemed lacking in fire and spirit. It was not the sort of thing Othello would have said in similar circumstances.
[=QS40aQuick Service
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1940/05/04–1940/06/22, 18.] - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 3I could see now what I had failed to spot before, that in thinking of him as a Romeo I had made an incorrect diagnosis. The bird whose name ought to have sprung to my mind was Othello.
[See Romeo and Juliet, Other.] - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 7All along, I had been far from comfortable when speculating as to what this Othello’s reactions would be on discovering me in the neighbourhood.
- FM47Full Moon (1947), 5.1Wondering how he could have been so remiss as not to have strained every nerve to push this good thing along earlier, he now addressed himself to repairing his negligence, beginning by observing that Veronica, in his opinion, was a ripper and a corker and a topper and didn’t Tipton agree with him?
To this, looking like Othello and speaking like a trapped wolf, Tipton replied: “Yup.”
[Not in FM47aFull Moon
condensed in Liberty, 1947/11.] - 50SP“The Shadow Passes” (1950)
NS TDCBesides, a chivalrous man always shrinks from bandying a woman’s name, and he was wondering what would happen if this loose talk were to come to the ears of Horace Davenport, the Drones Club’s leading Othello. - 50FC“Feet of Clay” (1950)
TW (“A Slightly Broken Romance”) NS GOI should now reveal that he was as fiercely jealous a man as ever swung an aluminium putter. Othello might have had a slight edge on him in that respect, but it would have been a very near thing. - BG53Bring On the Girls! (1953), 11.2“As he reached the landing, a door was suddenly thrown open and there was the Bart, looking like Othello.”
- JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 3And Stilton, of course, as I have already indicated, is a chap who could give Othello a couple of bisques and be dormy one at the eighteenth.
[Not in JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04.] - JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 8It cannot ever, of course, be agreeable to find yourself torn into a thousand pieces with a fourteen-stone Othello doing a ‘Shuffle Off To Buffalo’ on the scattered fragments, but if you are full at the time of Anatole’s Timbale de ris de veau Toulousiane, the discomfort unquestionably becomes modified.
[=JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04, 7.] - 56-KWS“Kind Words for Shakespeare”
in Punch, 1956/03/21So Shakespeare would heave himself out of bed, dig down into the box where he kept other people’s plots, and by lunchtime with Burbage popping in all the time with his eternal “How ya gettin’ on” he would somehow manage to dash off “Othello.” And Burbage would skim through it and say “There ain’t no doubt but what it’ll need a lot of work,” but he supposed that it would have to do.
[Compare excerpt from 16-AAS“All About Shakespeare”
in Vanity Fair (US), 1916/04 under Hamlet, Other.] - 66JG“Jeeves and the Greasy Bird” (1966) [book version]
PPAB WoJ“I saw Eggleston today, and when I mentioned what fun you and Honoria were having about together, he looked like a blond Othello.”
RICHARD II
Text used: A. B. Dawson and P. Yachnin, Richard II (The Oxford Shakespeare), O.U.P. 2011.
II.1.40-50 “this realm, this England”
Gaunt.
This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessèd plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
- 32-THR“Thrillers”
in Louder and Funnier (1932)The result is that this royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, this earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, this other Eden, demi-Paradise, this fortress built by Nature for herself against infection and the hand of war, this happy breed of men, this little world, this precious stone set in the silver sea, which serves it in the office of a wall or as the moat defensive of a house . . . well, to cut a long story short, England . . . has degenerated into an asylum full of patients reading each other’s mystery stories. And ninety-nine out of every hundred a dud. - 34-CH,PPreface to A Century of Humour, ed. by Wodehouse (1934)It is not, of course, for women and weaklings, who will be unable to lift it, but if here and there throughout this realm, this England, there is an occasional retired circus strong man who has not let his muscles get flabby and who has the price in his pocket and the will to buy, I feel convinced that he will not regret having planked down his three and a bender.
- 59LA“Leave It to Algy” (1959)
JB FQO TDCHe spoke of England’s future, which, he pointed out, must rest on these babies and others like them, adding that he scarcely need remind them that the England to which he alluded had been described by the poet Shakespeare as this royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, this earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, this other Eden, demi-Paradise, this fortress built by nature for herself against infection and the hand of war. Than which, he thought they would all agree with him, nothing could be fairer. - IB61[The] Ice in the Bedroom (1961), 14“This realm, this England!” said Miss Yorke bitterly.
- MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 8This was a line of talk that Jeeves had roughed out for my use. There was also some rather good stuff about this sceptred isle and this other Eden, demi-something, but I had forgotten it.
V.1.20-22 “grim necessity”
Richard.
I am sworn brother, sweet,
To grim necessity, and he and I
Will keep a league till death.
- LC06Love Among the Chickens (1906–09), 1“It’s a wrench to part with it. But grim necessity . . . I can hardly do it . . . Still, no, no, . . . you must take it, you must take it.”
[Not in LC06BLove Among the Chickens
Newnes, 1906, LC21Love Among the Chickens
Jenkins, 1921.]
RICHARD III
Text used: B. Raffel, William Shakespeare: Richard III (The Annotated Shakespeare), Yale University Press 2008.
I.1.1-4 “Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious”
Gloucester.
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this son of York,
And all the clouds that loured upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
- PG72Pearls, Girls, and Monty Bodkin (The Plot That Thickened) (1972), 6.2“Now is the winter of my discontent made glorious summer by this J. G. Butterwick. Odd how these things come back to you. I’ve remembered that bit since the time I was telling you about when I was getting a thorough grounding in English Literature in order to marry that schoolmarm.”
[PG72cPearls, Girls, and Monty Bodkin
condensed in Toronto Star Weekly, 1973/04/28, 3 has first sentence only.]
I.4.143-145, 257-258 “the malmsey-butt”
Murderer 1.
Take him on the costard with the hilts of thy sword, and then throw him in the malmsey-butt in the next room.
[. . .]
Murderer 1. (stabbing him)
Take that, and that. If all this will not do,
I’ll drown you in the malmsey-butt within.
- HW33Heavy Weather (1933), 10“There are moments, Julia,” said the Hon. Galahad meditatively, “when I should like to drown you in a bucket.”
“A butt of malmsey would have been more in your line, I should have thought.”
V.3-5 The Battle of Bosworth
The Battle of Bosworth Field (1485), at which Richard is defeated and killed, closes the play.
- WF07The White Feather (1907), 10It was strange to hear him declaiming long speeches from Macbeth or Hamlet, and to think that he was by profession a pugilist. One evening he explained his curious erudition. In his youth, before he took to the ring in earnest, he had travelled with a Shakespearean repertory company. “I never played a star part,” he confessed, “but I used to come on in the Battle of Bosworth and in Macbeth’s castle and what not.”
[See Macbeth, Other.]
ROMEO AND JULIET
Text used: G. B. Evans, Romeo and Juliet (The New Cambridge Shakespeare), C.U.P. 2003.
I.1.35-43 “Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?”
Sampson.
Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them, which is disgrace to them if they bear it.
Abram.
Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
Sampson.
I do bite my thumb, sir.
Abram.
Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
Sampson.
[Aside to Gregory] Is the law of our side if I say ay?
Gregory.
[Aside to Sampson] No.
Sampson.
No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I bite my thumb, sir.
- 13-FML“The Fascinating Mr. Lowe”
in Daily Mail, 1913/12/09As Shakespeare would put it, “Do you bite my thumb at me, sir?”
I.1.54 “remember thy swashing blow”
The variant “swashing” that Wodehouse uses is a correction from Q4; modern editions generally prefer “washing” from Q2. Evans notes: “washing slashing with great force (OED, which cites ‘washing blow’ in Arthur Golding’s translation (1567) of Ovid’s Metamorphoses V, 252).”
Sampson.
Draw, if you be men. Gregory, remember thy washing blow.
- SF48Spring Fever (1948), 5It then settled down for a brief breather on the back of Stanwood’s coat, and Lord Shortlands, feeling that this was an opportunity which might not occur again, remembered his swashing blow, like Gregory in Romeo and Juliet, and downed it in its tracks with a large, flat hand.
I.1.95 “Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?”
Montague.
Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?
- 16-AAS“All About Shakespeare”
in Vanity Fair (US), 1916/04As, for instance, in “Romeo and Juliet,” Act One, Scene One. “Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?” Of course he knew perfectly well that “abroach” meant nothing, but it sounded darned good, and Burbage was popping in and out every two minutes, asking him when the deuce he was going to get the thing finished: so down it went. - 56-KWS“Kind Words for Shakespeare”
in Punch, 1956/03/21“What on earth does ‘abroach’ mean?” Burbage would ask, halting the rehearsal of Romeo and Juliet.
“It’s something girls wear,” Shakespeare would say. “You know. Made of diamonds and fastened with a pin.”
“But you say, ‘Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?’ and it don’t seem to me to make sense.”
“Oh, it’s all in the acting,” Shakespeare would say. “Just speak the line quickly and nobody’ll notice anything.”
I.3.17-18 “come Lammas Eve”
Nurse.
Even or odd, of all days in the year,
Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen.
- 30JK“Jeeves and the Kid Clementina” (1930)
Cos Str VGJ“I met her once, Jeeves. ’Twas on a summer’s evening in my tent, the day I overcame the Nervii. Or, rather, at lunch at Aunt Agatha’s a year ago come Lammas Eve.”
[30JKa“Jeeves and the Kid Clementina”
in Cosmopolitan, 1930/03, 30JKA“Jeeves and the Kid Clementina”
in VGJA: “a summer evening”. See Julius Caesar, III.2.171-174.] - 35UF“Uncle Fred Flits By” (1935)
Red Str Pla YMS VW TDC“On this very spot, if I am not mistaken,” he said, heaving a bit of a sigh, “on this very spot, fifty years ago come Lammas Eve, I . . . Oh, blast it!” - UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 1“How long did you say it was since you had met him?”
“Forty-two years come Lammas Eve.”
[Not in UD48cUncle Dynamite
condensed in Toronto Star Weekly, 1949/04/30.] - MS49The Mating Season (1949), 12“She knows much more about it than I do, and I’ll have been moving in celluloid circles two years come Lammas Eve.”
[Not in MS49cThe Mating Season
condensed in Toronto Star Weekly, 1949/11/12.] - WJ67,IIntroduction to The World of Jeeves
Jenkins, 1967Since those words were written—thirty-five years ago come Lammas Eve—the Messrs. Herbert Jenkins Ltd. have published nine full-length Jeeves novels and at any moment I may be starting on another.
I.5.29-30 “For you and I are past our dancing days”
Capulet.
Nay, sit, nay, sit, good Cousin Capulet,
For you and I are past our dancing days.
- MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 16The ancestor drew a deep breath. Her eyes were glowing more like twin stars than anything. Had not her dancing days been long past, I think she might have gone into a brisk buck-and-wing. The lower limbs twitched just as if she were planning to.
II.2 The Balcony Scene
- 15RU“The Romance of an Ugly Policeman” (1915)
Ain Str M2LPointed dialogues about yesterday’s eggs and the toughness of Saturday’s meat are conducted fortissimo between cheerful youths in the road and satirical young women in print dresses, who come out of their kitchen doors on to little balconies. The whole thing has a pleasing Romeo and Juliet touch. Romeo rattles up in his cart. “Sixty-four!” he cries. “Sixty-fower, sixty-fower, sixty-fow——” The kitchen door opens, and Juliet emerges. She eyes Romeo without any great show of affection. “Are you Perkins and Blissett?” she inquires coldly. Romeo admits it. “Two of them yesterday’s eggs was bad.” Romeo protests. He defends his eggs. They were fresh from the hen; he stood over her while she laid them. Juliet listens frigidly. “I don’t think,” she says. “Well, half of sugar, one marmalade, and two of breakfast bacon,” she adds, and ends the argument. There is a rattling as of a steamer weighing anchor; the goods go up in the tradesman’s lift; Juliet collects them, and exits, banging the door. The little drama is over. - TM22Three Men and a Maid (The Girl on the Boat) (1922), 4.2How strange it is that the great emotional scenes of history, one of which is coming along almost immediately, always begin in this prosaic way. Shakespeare tries to conceal the fact, but there can be little doubt that Romeo and Juliet edged into their balcony scene with a few remarks on the pleasantness of the morning.
[Not in TM22AThree Men and a Maid
Doran, 1922, TM22aThree Men and a Maid
serial in Woman’s Home Companion, 1921/10–1921/12. On the reference to “the morning” see Annotations.] - SS25Sam the Sudden (Sam in the Suburbs) (1925), 2Mr. Braddock gazed austerely into the depths. Except that the positions of the characters were inverted and the tone of the dialogue somewhat different, it might have been the big scene out of Romeo and Juliet.
[Not in SS25bSam the Sudden
serial in Sunny, 1925/07–1926/02.] - SS25Sam the Sudden (Sam in the Suburbs) (1925), 2When Kay reached the kitchen she found that her faithful follower had stepped out of the pages of Romeo and Juliet into those of Macbeth.
[See Macbeth, The Three Witches.] - 35FL“Farewell to Legs” (1935)
Str TW YMSA LEO GOIt was Legs this and Legs that and Oh, Legs, and Yoo-hoo, Legs, till he began to feel like a super standing in the wings watching Romeo and Juliet play their balcony scene. - UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 3.2It was in order to enjoy a chat with Elsie Bean that he had come here, and until he turned the corner and was in view of the house his thoughts had been all of love. But at the sight of furtive forms slinking in through french windows Potter, the Romeo, became in a flash Potter, the sleepless guardian of the peace.
- UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 9.1In their recent Romeo and Juliet scene Elsie Bean had spoken hopefully of whisky in the drawing-room, but he quite realized that obstacles might arise to prevent her connecting with it.
- CT58Cocktail Time (1958), 14Romeo himself would have been discouraged, if early in the balcony scene Juliet had started talking about saucepans.
II.2.43-44 “What’s in a name?”
Juliet.
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet;
- 04-IS0714“In the Stocks” (column)
in Vanity Fair (UK), 1904/07/14In spite of the Bard there is sometimes something in a name. A Kentish Town gentleman has just been committed for trial for hitting his wife. His name is Bangs. - IJ10The Intrusion of Jimmy (A Gentleman of Leisure) (1910), 1“Why, you’d get your dinner in any case,” said Jimmy. “A dinner from any host would smell as sweet.”
- OS57, FForeword to Over Seventy
Jenkins, 1957Except in the Foreword,2 which will soon be over, it is entirely free from footnotes.
————————————
2 Sometimes called Preface. See Romeo and Juliet, Act Two, Scene One [sic]—“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”.
III.1.88-89 “ ’tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door”
Mercutio.
No, ’tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door, but ’tis enough, ’twill serve.
- WH14The White Hope (Their Mutual Child/The Coming of Bill) (1914), I.1“A large income?”
“ ’Tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door, but ’tis enough, ’twill serve. All told, about five thousand iron men per annum.” - 15BB“Bill the Bloodhound” (1915)
Cen Str M2LThe trap into which Henry fell was a raised board. It was not a very highly-raised board. It was not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door, but ’twas enough—it served.
[Not in 15BBa“Bill, the Bloodhound”
in Century, 1915/02.] - RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 4Jeeves took the coat and tie, and crossed the room to where a fine old oak dower chest stood, an heirloom long in the Rowcester family. “Yes,” he said, “ ’Tis not so deep as a well nor so wide as a church door, but ’tis enough, ’twill serve.”
[=RJ53AThe Return of Jeeves
Simon & Schuster, 1954, 3.] - FL56cFrench Leave
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1955/09/24, 2“It’s enough,” said Jo.
“ ’Twill serve,” said Terry.
[Not in FL56bFrench Leave
serial in John Bull, 1955/11/12–1955/12/03 or book editions of FL56French Leave (1956).]
Capulets and Montagues
References to the confrontation between the two noble families of Verona.
- 21LH“The Long Hole” (1921)
McC Str CC F!In the weeks that followed her arrival, being in the same room with the two men was like dropping in on a reunion of Capulets and Montagues. - MN28Money for Nothing (1928), 5.1After Mr. Carmody’s thug-like behaviour on that fatal day, she was given to understand, the Hall and its grounds were as much forbidden territory to her as the piazza of the townhouse of the Capulets would have been to a young Montague.
- FM47Full Moon (1947), 10.2“He climbed up to a bally balcony,” said Colonel Wedge, like some member of the Capulet family speaking of Romeo.
[Not in FM47aFull Moon
condensed in Liberty, 1947/11.]
Other
General references to the play as a whole, or to the two main characters.
- 03CP“Cupid and the Paint-Brush” (1903)
WinFrom constantly playing Juliet to my Romeo, Marjorie has developed a habit of reading my thoughts, which at times I find distinctly inconvenient. - 04-PFH“A Protest from Hoxton” in “From My Tub” (column)
in Vanity Fair (UK), 1904/06/30If Juliet was a barmaid, and her Romeo a clurk,
As earned ’is daily bread the same as us;
If Mercutio, each time he spoke, said “Crikey,” “Strite,” or “Blimey”; - IJ10The Intrusion of Jimmy (A Gentleman of Leisure) (1910), 2“This reminds me of something—something in Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet? No. I’ve got it—Pyramus and Thisbe.”
[See A Midsummer Night’s Dream, V.1.] - IJ10The Intrusion of Jimmy (A Gentleman of Leisure) (1910), 15Shove he never so wisely, Sir Thomas could never make a Romeo out of Spennie Dreever.
- IJ10The Intrusion of Jimmy (A Gentleman of Leisure) (1910), 18He must stake all on a single throw now. Young Lochinvar rather than Romeo must be his model.
- 10BA“By Advice of Counsel” (1910)
Pic Str MU“My, he was crisp! Enough to have given Romeo the jumps, you’d have thought.”
[10BAa“By Advice of Counsel”
in Pictorial Review, 1910/09: “My, he was cynical! Enough to have given Romeo cold feet, you’d have thought.”] - 15BB“Bill the Bloodhound” (1915)
Cen Str M2LHenry was discouraged. Romeo could not have made love under these conditions. - PJ17Piccadilly Jim (1917), 21Only the occasional drone of a passing automobile broke the silence, or the love-sick cry of some feline Romeo patrolling a wall-top.
- DD19A Damsel in Distress (1919), 16“You are causing a great deal of trouble and annoyance.”
“So did Romeo.”
“Eh?”
“I said—So did Romeo.”
“I don’t know anything about Romeo.”
“As far as love is concerned, I begin where he left off.” - DD19A Damsel in Distress (1919), 20“You see before you old Colonel Romeo, the Man who Knows!”
- 21JS“Jeeves in the Springtime” (1921)
Cos Str IJ,1-2 EJI’ve always thought that Romeo must have been a good deal like Bingo. He has come a bit too late, of course, to get into any of those books on Great Lovers of History, but a hundred years from now any writer who leaves him out will only be touching the fringe of his subject.
[Not in 21JSb“Jeeves in the Spring-Time”
in Strand, 1921/12 nor IJ23The Inimitable Jeeves (Jeeves) (1923), 1.] - BC24Bill the Conqueror (1924), 14.1Was not a man, he asked himself, who could so swiftly rebound from one love to another incapable of love in its deepest sense? Was not such a man incurably shallow and trivial and worthy of nothing but contempt? From twelve-thirty till a quarter to two he had been inclined to answer these questions in the affirmative: but at one-forty-five precisely there had slid into his fevered mind the consoling recollection of Romeo.
Now, there was a chap. Generations of lovers had taken him as the archetype of their kind: and yet on Shakespeare’s own showing the fellow had been a perfect byword among his friends up till—say—nine-thirty p.m. one night for his hopeless adoration of Rosaline, and it couldn’t have been much more than nine-forty-five the same night before he was worshipping Juliet. And certainly nobody had ever accused Romeo of shallowness and triviality.
[Not in BC24bBill the Conqueror
serial in Grand, 1924/09–1925/04.] - MN28Money for Nothing (1928), 7.3The heart finds it difficult to ache its hardest while the mind is busy with such items as Sixty-one pounds, eight shillings and fivepence, due to Messrs. Truby and Gaunt for Fixing Gas Engine, or the claim of the Country Gentlemen’s Association for eight pounds eight and fourpence for seeds. Add drains, manure, and feed of pigs, and you find yourself immediately in an atmosphere where Romeo himself would have let his mind wander.
- 30IS“Indian Summer of an Uncle” (1930)
Cos Str VGJI began to see that this Rhoda knew her business. If I’d been a girl with someone wanting to marry me and knew that there was an exhibit like this aunt hanging around the home, I, too, should have thought twice about inviting him to call until the ceremony was over and he had actually signed on the dotted line. I mean to say, a thoroughly good soul—heart of gold beyond a doubt—but not the sort of thing you wanted to spring on Romeo before the time was ripe. - RH34Right Ho, Jeeves (Brinkley Manor) (1934), 12The good old subconscious m. had delivered the goods, and I perceived exactly what steps must be taken in order to put Augustus Fink-Nottle among the practicing Romeos.
- 35TD“Trouble Down at Tudsleigh” (1935)
Cos Str YMSB EBCA TDCBut just as he was starting to direct at April a respectfully volcanic look which would give her some rough kind of preliminary intimation that here came old Colonel Romeo in person, his hostess went on to say something which sounded like “Captain Bradbury,” and he perceived with a nasty shock that he was not the only visitor. - 35TF“Tried in the Furnace” (1935)
Cos Str YMSB CWB VW TDC“When it comes to Love, a chap has got to look out for his own interests, hasn’t he? You didn’t find Romeo or any of those chaps easing away from the girl just to oblige a pal, did you? Certainly not.” - SM37Summer Moonshine (1937), 15All the sentiment in Mr. Bulpitt responded to the thought of the humble suitor braving fearful risks to contact his loved one. Adrian Peake reminded him of Romeo.
[SM37bSummer Moonshine
serial in Pearson’s (UK), 1937/09–1938/04 omits first sentence.] - 39ER“The Editor Regrets” (1939)
SEP Str EBC TDCThe Bingo ménage, as you are no doubt aware, is one that has been conducted from its inception on one hundred per cent Romeo and Juliet lines. - QS40Quick Service (1940), 9“There was some famous fellow who fell in love at first sight. Not Chibnall. Somebody else.”
[...]
“Romeo! That’s the name I was trying to think of.”
“What about him?”
“He fell in love at first sight, like Chibnall and——” - QS40Quick Service (1940), 12“I should have mentioned,” Joss explained, “that I love this young Fairmile. It hit me like the kick of a mule the instant I saw her. Romeo had the same experience. And Chibnall.”
[=QS40aQuick Service
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1940/05/04–1940/06/22, 13.] - QS40Quick Service (1940), 15“People do fall in love at first sight, don’t they? Look at Romeo. Look at Chibnall.”
[=QS40aQuick Service
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1940/05/04–1940/06/22, 17.] - QS40Quick Service (1940), 15Not even the fact that he had just wandered to Mrs. Steptoe’s dressing table and was absently drawing a face on the mirror with lipstick caused her to revise this opinion. Romeo and Chibnall might not have chosen this moment for drawing faces on mirrors, but this was Joss Weatherby, an incalculable being, for whom she was suddenly aware that she felt a very warm affection—of, she was careful to tell herself, a purely maternal nature.
[=QS40aQuick Service
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1940/05/04–1940/06/22, 17.] - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 3I suppose it always perplexes the young Romeo to some extent, when fellows begin yowling on being informed of the loved one’s identity.
- JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 3I could see now what I had failed to spot before, that in thinking of him as a Romeo I had made an incorrect diagnosis. The bird whose name ought to have sprung to my mind was Othello.
[See Othello, Other.] - FM47Full Moon (1947), 10.1That his mind should have turned so immediately in the direction of ladders is not really surprising. Romeo’s would have done the same, and so, if the Hon. Galahad’s diagnosis of his temperament had been a correct one, would that of Tipton Plimsoll’s Uncle Chet. Uncle Chet, like Romeo, had been a man who thought on his feet and did it now when there were girls around, and Bill was as full of ardour and impetuosity as either of them. The primary impulse of every lover, on seeing the adored object on a balcony, is to shin up and join her.
[Not in FM47aFull Moon
condensed in Liberty, 1947/11.] - 48EX“Excelsior” (1948)
Arg (“The Hazards of Horace Bewstridge”) NS F! GOAs a rule, the Romeos who live about here are not backward in confiding in me when they fall in love.
[Not in 48EXa“The Hazards of Horace Bewstridge”
in Argosy, 1948/07.] - 48EX“Excelsior” (1948)
Arg (“The Hazards of Horace Bewstridge”) NS F! GO“And I had always yearned for one of those engagements where my man, like Romeo, would run fearful risks to come near me, and I would have to communicate with him by means of notes in hollow trees.” - MS49The Mating Season (1949), 21“Why, you are quite a Romeo, Augustus.”
- PW52Pigs Have Wings (1952), 6.2When a man of Sir Gregory’s age and temperament is informed by his prospective bride shortly before the date fixed for their union that she has made other plans and that there will be no wedding bells for him, he is naturally annoyed, but his chagrin is never so deep or so enduring as would be that of someone like Romeo in similar circumstances. Passion, as it is understood by the Romeos, seldom touches the Sir Gregory Parsloes of this world.
- RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 16Jill did not intend to allow without protest what was probably the world’s greatest tragedy since the days of Romeo and Juliet to be described in this inadequate fashion.
- JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 10I am a pretty astute chap, and I could see that this was not the language of love. I mean, if you had heard Juliet saying a thing like that about Romeo, you would have raised the eyebrows in quick concern, wondering if all was well with the young couple.
[Not in JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04.] - FL56French Leave (1956), 7.2The whole thing would have reminded a Shakespearian scholar of the first meeting between Romeo and Juliet.
[Not in FL56bFrench Leave
serial in John Bull, 1955/11/12–1955/12/03.] - CT58Cocktail Time (1958), 9His personal feeling that loving Phoebe Wisdom was a thing beyond the scope of the most determined Romeo he concealed. It could, apparently, be done.
- IB61[The] Ice in the Bedroom (1961), 11Few things so brace up a young man in Springtime as a reconciliation with the girl he loves, and the thought that he and Sally, so recently a couple of sundered hearts, were once more on Romeo and Juliet terms would alone have been enough to raise him to the heights and, as we say, bring him to the very brink of bursting into song.
- 66LF“Life with Freddie” (1966)
PPAB“Obviously he must have fallen in love with you at first sight. Like Romeo.” - PB69A Pelican at Blandings (No Nudes Is Good Nudes) (1969), 4.4“What did she say about me?”
“Better, far better not to enquire. Suffice it that her obiter dicta differed substantially from the sort of thing Juliet used to say about Romeo.” - PB69A Pelican at Blandings (No Nudes Is Good Nudes) (1969), 13.2The whole of his dialogue could have been written into Romeo and Juliet without changing a word.
- PG72Pearls, Girls, and Monty Bodkin (The Plot That Thickened) (1972), 5.1Would Juliet have behaved so to Romeo, he asked himself, or for the matter of that Cleopatra to Mark Antony? Of course not. Each would have given her nose a dab with the powder puff and been off to the nearest registry office with the man she loved, and if Daddy didn’t like it, he could eat cake.
He smoked a pipe, and under the soothing influence of tobacco his thoughts became more charitable. Neither Juliet nor Cleopatra, he reminded himself, had had a father like J. B. Butterwick.
[See Antony and Cleopatra, Other.] - BA73Bachelors Anonymous (1973), 8.2“We’re used to these hot-headed young Romeos at Bachelors Anonymous.”
- BA73Bachelors Anonymous (1973), 9.2He had, in a word, like Romeo, Joe Pickering and other notabilities, fallen in love at first sight, and if any thought of Fred Basset, Johnny Runcible and G. J. Flannery came into his mind, he dismissed it without a qualm.
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
Text used: A. Thompson, The Taming of the Shrew (The New Cambridge Shakespeare), C.U.P. 2003.
II.1.331-333 “ ’Tis deeds must win the prize”
Baptista.
’Tis deeds must win the prize, and he of both
That can assure my daughter greatest dower
Shall have my Bianca’s love.
- RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 7“You see eye to eye with the Bard, Sir Roderick. ’Tis deeds must win the prize.”
Christopher Sly’s deception
In the Induction (before Act I) Christopher Sly the drunken tinker is made to believe he is a lord. The plot is introduced in Ind.1.30-37:
Lord.
O monstrous beast, how like a swine he lies!
Grim death, how foul and loathsome is thine image!
Sirs, I will practise on this drunken man.
What think you, if he were conveyed to bed,
Wrapped in sweet clothes, rings put upon his fingers,
A most delicious banquet by his bed,
And brave attendants near him when he wakes –
Would not the beggar then forget himself?
- DD19A Damsel in Distress (1919), 19“I have been made a fool of. I seem to be in the position of the tinker in the play whom everybody conspired to delude into the belief that he was a king.”
THE TEMPEST
Text used: B. Raffel, The Tempest (The Annotated Shakespeare), Yale University Press 2006.
I.2.376-377 “Come unto these yellow sands”
Ariel.
Come unto these yellow sands,
And then take hands.
- MS49The Mating Season (1949), 22This reluctance made itself manifest during the next item on the programme—Glee (Oh, come unto these yellow sands) by the Church Choir, conducted by the schoolmistress—in murmurs at the back and an occasional “Hullo,” but it was not until Miss Poppy Kegley-Bassington was performing her rhythmic dance that it found full expression.
[This actually refers to a choral composition based on Ariel’s song; see Annotations.]
I.2.397-404 “doth suffer a sea-change into something rich, and strange”
Ariel.
(Sings)
Full fathom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are coral made.
Those are pearls that were his eyes,
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich, and strange.
- 10DW“Deep Waters” (1910)
Col Str MU SwOSuch was George—on shore. But remove his clothes, drape him in a bathing-suit, and insert him in the water, and instantly, like the gentleman in The Tempest, he “suffered a sea-change into something rich and strange.” - RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 5“Mr. Wooster doth suffer a sea change into something rich and strange. I quote the Bard of Stratford.”
[=RJ53AThe Return of Jeeves
Simon & Schuster, 1954, 4.]
II.2.36-39 “strange bedfellows”
Thunder.
Alas, the storm is come again. My best way is to creep under his gabardine. There is no other shelter hereabout. Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. I will here shroud till the dregs of the storm be past.
- 05-WTA“A Winter’s Tale. King Arthur and His Court” (1905)
in Vanity Fair (UK), 1905/12/14“Strange bedfellows does Opposition bring.”
IV.1.151-156 “leave not a (w)rack behind”
The variant wrack (“That which remains after the operation of any destructive action or agency; a vestige or trace left by some subversive cause”, OED) instead of rack(e) (“Driving mist or fog”) was an emendation introduced by E. Malone in 1790 (The plays and poems of William Shakspeare, vol. X, p. 550) and adopted by many subsequent editions, leading to a long-drawn debate about the exact meaning of the passage and fixing wrack in the set phrase, though most modern editions of the text prefer rack.
Wodehouse generally uses wrack. From a quick check through later editions, LG36Laughing Gas (1936) is the only book where rack appears consistently throughout the different editions, at least those that I have been able to check (Penguin 1971, Overlook 2001, Arrow Books 2008). Among others, CW38BThe Code of the Woosters
Jenkins, 1938 (Jenkins 6th reprint) also has rack, but Jenkins Autograph Ed. (1962) changes to wrack. A more detailed search would probably produce other cases.
Prospero.
And like the baseless fabric of this vision
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And like this insubstantial pageant faded
Leave not a rack behind.
- TY34Thank You, Jeeves (1934), 9Pauline Stoker had absolutely disappeared. Leaving not a wrack behind, as I remember Jeeves saying once.
[Not in TY34aThank You, Jeeves!
serial in Cosmopolitan, 1934/01–1934/06: “Pauline Stoker had disappeared.”] - LG36Laughing Gas (1936), 15He had gone, leaving not a rack behind.
- 36BT“Buried Treasure” (1936)
Str TW (“Hidden Treasure”) LEO CWB WM“Shave off his lordship’s moustache?”
“This very night. Leaving not a wrack behind.”
[Not in 36BTa“Hidden Treasure”
in This Week, 1936/09/27.] - CW38The Code of the Woosters (1938), 5But he had gone, leaving not a rack behind.
- 39ER“The Editor Regrets” (1939)
SEP Str EBC TDC“She’s been and gone, leaving not a wrack behind.” - JM46Joy in the Morning (Jeeves in the Morning) (1946), 21There came the sound of a faint and distant “Coo!” and he was gone, leaving not a wrack behind.
- MS49The Mating Season (1949), 7He gave me a cold look, as if to remind me that he would prefer not to be drawn into conversation with the man responsible for introducing Sam Goldwyn into his life, and vanished, leaving not a wrack behind.
- MS49The Mating Season (1949), 18This certainly put a brighter aspect on the cloud wrack.
[MS49BThe Mating Season (first UK edition, Jenkins, 1949) has the misprint “wreck” here.] - JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 14At some point in the course of the recent conversations it had vanished, leaving not a wrack behind.
[Not in JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04.] - SF57Something Fishy (The Butler Did It) (1957), 21Pilbeam had gone, leaving not a wrack behind.
- CT58Cocktail Time (1958), 19On such occasions the customer has the feeling that the great globe itself has faded, leaving not a wrack behind, and that, as in the case of bad men interrupted in their activities by the United States Marines, all is darkness, disillusionment and despair.
[CT58ACocktail Time
Simon & Schuster, 1958: “rack”.] - HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 7However, be that as it may and whether you liked the bally thing or didn’t, the point was that it had vanished, leaving not a wrack behind, and I was about to apprise Pop Glossop of this and canvass his views, when we were joined by Bobbie Wickham.
- SU63Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963), 7“Well, it was about a lady who vanished, if you follow what I mean, and the reason I bring it up is that a female friend of mine has apparently disappeared into thin air, leaving not a wrack behind, as I once heard you put it.”
- MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 5He didn’t look the sort of crony Aunt Dahlia would have invited to stay, and still less Uncle Tom, who is so allergic to guests that when warned of their approach he generally makes a bolt for it and disappears, leaving not a wrack behind as I have heard Jeeves put it.
- AA74Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (The Cat-Nappers) (1974), 4They had completely disappeared, leaving not a wrack behind, and the skin on my chest was back to its normal alabaster.
[AA74AThe Cat-Nappers
Simon & Schuster, 1975: “not a trace”.]
IV.1.156-158 “our little life is rounded with a sleep”
Prospero.
We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
- PH02The Pothunters (1902), 6“Are we not as the beasts that perish, and is not our little life rounded by a sleep?”
[Not in PH02bThe Pothunters
serial in Public School Magazine, 1902/01-03.]
V.1.64-68 “The charm dissolves apace”
Prospero.
The charm dissolves apace,
And as the morning steals upon the night
(Melting the darkness) so their rising senses
Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle
Their clearer reason.
- BG53Bring On the Girls! (1953), 4.1Guy rose.
“The charm dissolves apace,” he said. “I quote Shakespeare.”
“That’s the trouble with you,” said Comstock. “You’ve been reading Shakespeare. You’ve gone highbrow on me.”
[BG53BBring On the Girls
Jenkins, 1954: “dissolves space” (misprint).]
V.1.181-184 “O brave new world”
Miranda.
O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world
That has such people in’t!
- HW33Heavy Weather (1933), 9“By Jove, you are wet!” said Ronnie. It hurt him to think that this brave new world could contain a fellow human being in such a soluble condition.
Caliban
- JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 10“It’s called ‘Caliban At Sunset.’ ”
“What at sunset?”
“Caliban.”
[=JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04, 8.] - JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 15“I confess frankly that I misjudged him, and, if I had not already returned the galley proofs, I would withdraw that ‘Caliban At Sunset’ thing of mine from Parnassus.”
[Not in JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04.] - JF54Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Bertie Wooster Sees It Through) (1954), 22“I only got fifteen shillings for that ‘Caliban At Sunset’ thing of mine in Parnassus, and I had to fight like a tiger to get that.”
[=JF54cDouble Jeopardy
in Toronto Star Weekly, 1954/12/04, 20.]
TIMON OF ATHENS
Other
- LB35The Luck of the Bodkins (1935), 2To do anything sweet would, indeed, in his present mood have been foreign to his policy. Timon of Athens could have picked up hints from a Drones Club supper-guest on the morning after.
[Not in LB35BThe Luck of the Bodkins
Jenkins, 1935 (full-length novel), the source text for most reprint editions.] - 450224-PFLetter to W. Townend, 1945/02/24
in Performing Flea (1953)I have become very interested in Shakespeare, and am reading books about him, having joined the American Library here. A thing I can never understand is why all the critics seem to assume that his plays are a reflection of his personal moods and dictated by the circumstances of his private life. You know the sort of thing I mean. They say Timon of Athens is a pretty gloomy piece of work, which means that Shakespeare must have been having a rotten time when he wrote it. I can’t see it. Do you find that your private life affects your work? I don’t.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA
Text used: A. Walker, Troilus and Cressida, C.U.P. 1968.
III.3.175-179 “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin”
Ulysses.
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin,
That all with one consent praise new-born gawds,
Though they are made and moulded of things past,
And give to dust that is a little gilt
More laud than gilt o’er-dusted.
- 14OT“One Touch of Nature” (1914)
McC (“Brother Fans”) M2LOne Touch of Nature.
[Title. Not in 14OTa“Brother Fans”
in McClure’s, 1914/08.] - OR51The Old Reliable (1951), 4“So true it is—so true—— Ha!” said Bill. “So true it is that one touch of nature makes the whole world kin and that courage, patience and perseverance will always find a way.”
[OR51aPhipps to the Rescue
serial in Collier’s, 1950/06/24–1950/07/22, 2: “said Jane.”] - BA73Bachelors Anonymous (1973), 3.1“One touch of Warner makes the whole world kin.”
TWELFTH NIGHT
Text used: E. S. Donno, Twelfth Night or What You Will (The New Cambridge Shakespeare), C.U.P. 2003.
II.3.33-38 “Journeys end in lovers meeting”
Clown [Feste].
(Sings)
O mistress mine, where are you roaming?
O stay and hear, your true love’s coming,
That can sing both high and low.
Trip no further, pretty sweeting;
Journeys end in lovers meeting,
Every wise man’s son doth know.
- IJ10The Intrusion of Jimmy (A Gentleman of Leisure) (1910), 13“Come in, Mr. McEachern,” he said, “come in. Journeys end in lovers meeting.”
- LN13The Little Nugget (1913), IIOf journeys ending in lovers’ meetings.
[Part II summary. Not in LN13aThe Little Nugget
in Munsey’s, 1913/08.] - LP23Leave It to Psmith (1923), 6.1He had the air of a man who has found a friend, and what is more, an old friend. He had a sort of journeys-end-in-lovers’-meeting look.
- FP29Fish Preferred (Summer Lightning) (1929), 16Lovers’ Meeting.
[Chapter title. Not in FP29AFish Preferred
Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1929, FP29aSummer Lightning
serial in Collier’s, 1929/04/06–1929/06/22, FP29bSummer Lightning
serial in Pall Mall, 1929/03–1929/09.] - HW32Hot Water (1932), 9It was as one visiting a historic monument that he came at length to the dark and narrow flight of stairs which seemed to lead to Journey’s End.
[HW32aHot Water
serial in Collier’s, 1932/05/21–1932/08/06: “came at length to Journey’s End.”] - HW32Hot Water (1932), 10.4It was plain that such icy aloofness at what should have been a lovers’ meeting wounded her companion.
[Not in HW32aHot Water
serial in Collier’s, 1932/05/21–1932/08/06: “It was plain that such icy aloofness wounded her companion.”] - TY34Thank You, Jeeves (1934), 9Lovers’ Meetings.
[Chapter title. Not in TY34aThank You, Jeeves!
serial in Cosmopolitan, 1934/01–1934/06, TY34bThank You, Jeeves!
serial in Strand, 1933/08–1934/02, TY34AThank You, Jeeves!
Little, Brown, 1934.] - TY34Thank You, Jeeves (1934), 9I mean, you know how it is. A sensitive and high-spirited girl goes through the deuce of an ordeal to win through to the bloke she loves, jumping off yachts, swimming through dashed cold water, climbing into cottages, and borrowing other people’s pyjamas, and then, when she has come to journey’s end, so to speak, and is expecting the tender smile and the whispered endearments, gets instead the lowering frown, the curled lip, the suspicious eye, and—in a word—the raspberry. Naturally, she’s a bit upset.
- TY34Thank You, Jeeves (1934), 16I remember once, when I was in New York, one of those sad-eyed Italian kids who whizz about Washington Square on roller skates suddenly projected himself with extraordinary violence at my waistcoat as I strolled to and fro, taking the air. He reached journey’s end right on the third button from the top, and I had much the same sensation now as I had had then.
[Not in TY34aThank You, Jeeves!
serial in Cosmopolitan, 1934/01–1934/06.] - LB35The Luck of the Bodkins (1935), 16A look of anxiety came into Gertrude’s shining eyes. In the dreams she had dreamed of this lovers’ meeting she had not budgeted for a rigid Monty, a smileless Monty, a Monty who looked as if he had been stuffed by some good taxidermist.
[Not in LB35aThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version in Redbook, 1935/08–1936/01, LB35bThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version in The Passing Show, 1935/09/21–1935/11/23, LB35AThe Luck of the Bodkins
shorter version, Little, Brown, 1936.] - MB42Money in the Bank (1942), 15If, as he stood at journey’s end, his heart beat a little faster, that was all.
[Not in MB42aMoney in the Bank
serial in Saturday Evening Post, 1941/11/08–1941/12/27.] - UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 7.3Lord Ickenham, in sharp contradistinction, merely beamed, like one of a pair of lovers who have met at journey’s end.
[Not in UD48aUncle Dynamite
condensed in Liberty, 1949/04, UD48cUncle Dynamite
condensed in Toronto Star Weekly, 1949/04/30.] - MS49The Mating Season (1949), 3The door opened. Sam Goldwyn came bounding in and flung himself on my chest as if we had been a couple of lovers meeting at journey’s end.
- HR60How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves in the Offing) (1960), 11On the present occasion, held up by the Arab steed getting taken with a fit of the vapours and having to be towed to a garage for medical treatment, I didn’t fetch up at journey’s end till well past midnight.
- SS61Service with a Smile (1961), 1.1At any other moment it would have interested Lord Emsworth to ascertain how far she could throw an elephant, and he would have been all eager questioning. But with the Empress awaiting him at journey’s end he was too preoccupied to go into the matter.
- BG65The Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood (Galahad at Blandings) (1965), 5.3Some quarter of a mile before journey’s end, accordingly, he propped the machine against a stile at the side of the road and was able to enter the premises of the Blue Boar in the guise of a blameless hiker.
- SB77Sunset at Blandings (1977), 9Jeff meanwhile, conducted by Beach, had come to journey’s end, but he was under no illusion that his pilgrimage was to terminate in lovers’ meeting.
II.4.106-108 “let concealment like a worm i’th’bud feed on her damask cheek”
Viola.
She never told her love,
But let concealment like a worm i’th’bud
Feed on her damask cheek.
- 01-SST“School Stories” (1901)
in Public School Magazine, 1901/08Mr. Pain permits four of his characters to fall in love with her, certainly, but there is none of the hero-and-doctor’s-daughter business about the story. The four do not tell their love. They let concealment like a worm i’ the bud feed on their respective damask cheeks. - PU03A Prefect’s Uncle (1903), 17Gethryn was distinctly surprised. That all this time remorse like a worm i’ the bud should have been feeding upon his uncle’s damask cheek, as it were, he had never suspected.
- 08LG“Ladies and Gentlemen v. Players” (1908)
WinI suppose he must have been fretting awfully all the time, really, only he wouldn’t write and tell Saunders so, but let concealment, like a worm i’ the bud, feed on his damask cheek. - LW20The Little Warrior (Jill the Reckless) (1920), 4.1“I never told my love, but let concealment like a worm i’ the bud . . .”
“Talking of worms, you once put one down my back!”
[LW20aThe Little Warrior
serial in Collier’s, 1920/04/10–1920/08/28: “worm in the bud”.] - HW32Hot Water (1932), 2.1“She has a book. What is it?”
“Blair Eggleston’s Worm i’ the Root.” - HW32Hot Water (1932), 14.3There were passages in some of his books, notably Worm i’ the Root and Offal, which simply made you shiver, so stark was their cynicism, so brutal the force with which they tore away the veils and revealed Woman as she is.
[Not in HW32aHot Water
serial in Collier’s, 1932/05/21–1932/08/06.] - TY34Thank You, Jeeves (1934), 5“And what is worrying her is that he does not tell his love, but lets concealment like . . . like what, Jeeves?”
“A worm i’ the bud, sir.”
“Feed on his something . . .”
“Damask cheek, sir.”
“Damask? You’re sure?”
“Quite sure, sir.’
[. . .]
‘In that case, I fear, sir . . .”
“The damask cheek will continue to do business at the old stand indefinitely?”
“Exactly, sir.”
“You really are sure it is ‘damask’?”
“Yes, sir.”
“But it doesn’t seem to mean anything.”
“An archaic adjective, sir. I fancy it is intended to signify a healthy complexion.”
[Last four lines omitted in TY34aThank You, Jeeves!
serial in Cosmopolitan, 1934/01–1934/06, TY34bThank You, Jeeves!
serial in Strand, 1933/08–1934/02.] - TY34Thank You, Jeeves (1934), 6“Well, if Stoker is not going to buy the Hall, aren’t you rather by way of being back in the position you were in before, when you would not tell your love, but let the thought of Wotwotleigh like a worm i’ the bud feed on your damask cheek?”
- FM47Full Moon (1947), 6.1“She reminds me of that girl in Shakespeare who . . . How does it go? I know there’s something about worms, and it ends up with something cheek. Of course, yes. ‘She never said a word about her love, but let concealment, like a worm i’ the bud, feed on her damned cheek.’ ”
[Not in FM47aFull Moon
condensed in Liberty, 1947/11.] - UD48Uncle Dynamite (1948), 11.1“But he’s too mild in his methods. He doesn’t tell his love, but lets concealment like a worm i’ the bud feed on his damask cheek. You can’t run a business that way.”
- OR51The Old Reliable (1951), 21“And, if you didn’t suspect it, what probably misled you was the fact that I never told my love, but let concealment like a worm i’ the bud feed on my damask cheek.”
- RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 1Naturally, being a white man, he had not told his love, but it had burned steadily within him ever since, a strong, silent passion of such a calibre that sometimes, as he sat listening to the hyaenas and gazing at the snows of Kilimanjaro, it had brought him within an ace of writing poetry.
[=RJ53AThe Return of Jeeves
Simon & Schuster, 1954, 5.] - RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 6Inasmuch as Captain Biggar, as we have seen, had not spoken his love but had let concealment like a worm i’ the bud feed on his tomato-coloured cheek, it may seem strange that Mrs. Spottsworth should have known anything about the way he felt. But a woman can always tell.
- RJ53Ring for Jeeves (The Return of Jeeves) (1953), 22“But it was imperative that I should lay my hands on a bit of the stuff so that I might feel myself in a position to speak my love.”
- SF57Something Fishy (The Butler Did It) (1957), 11“You might have mentioned it.”
“I was far too modest. I deemed it best not to tell my love, but to let concealment like a worm i’ the bud feed on my damask cheek. Not my own. Shakespeare.” - IB61[The] Ice in the Bedroom (1961), 14Owing to a too pronounced fondness for champagne, Oofy had always been redder than the rose, and Mr. Shoesmith preferred the male cheek to be more damask.
- 66JG“Jeeves and the Greasy Bird” (1966) [book version]
PPAB WoJ“You warn him in a motherly way that he’s a sap if he goes on not telling his love and letting concealment like a worm in the bud feed on his damask cheek—one of Jeeves’s gags. I thought he put it rather well—and stress the fact that he had better heat up his feet and grab the girl while the grabbing’s good, because you happen to know that your nephew Bertram is making a heavy play in her direction and may sew up the deal at any moment.” - GB70The Girl in Blue (1970), 11.1That was why he did not speak his love but let concealment like a worm i’ the bud feed on his damask cheek, with the result that Vera Upshaw was getting wrinkles in her forehead and Dame Flora Faye was liable at any moment to be knocked down with a lipstick.
II.4.108-111 “like Patience on a monument”
Viola.
She pined in thought,
And with a green and yellow melancholy
She sat like Patience on a monument
Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?
- PH02The Pothunters (1902), 5“I stood in the doorway like Patience on a monument for about a quarter of an hour.”
- LP23Leave It to Psmith (1923), 6.2“You wrong me,” said Psmith. “I arrived here precisely at twelve. Since when, I have been standing like Patience on a monument . . .”
“Like what?”
“Let it go,” said Psmith. “It is not important.” - 29JS“Jeeves and the Song of Songs” (1929)
Cos (“The Song of Songs”) Str VGJ“But apparently she loves the man—which shows it can be done, a thing I wouldn’t have believed myself—and is pining away like——”
“Patience on a monument, sir.”
“Like Patience, as you very shrewdly remark, on a monument.” - OR51The Old Reliable (1951), 21“I pined in thought, and with a green and yellow melancholy——”
“No, Bill, really!”
“——sat like Patience on a monument, smiling at grief.” - SU63Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963), 6“Though stunned, I kept——”
“A stiff upper lip?”
“——my feelings to myself. I sat——”
“Like Patience on a monument.”
“——tight, and said nothing that would give her a suspicion of how I felt.” - BG65The Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood (Galahad at Blandings) (1965), 6.2Wilfred, he had gathered from his observations in their mutual cell, had been conducting his wooing on remote control or Patience on a monument lines, and it was a policy of which he thoroughly disapproved.
II.5.119-121 “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em”
Malvolio.
In my stars I am above thee, but be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em.
- WF07The White Feather (1907), 23“Some are born with sprained wrists,” continued the speaker, “some achieve sprained wrists—like Stanning——”
- IJ10The Intrusion of Jimmy (A Gentleman of Leisure) (1910), 3Some policemen are born grafters, some achieve graft, and some have graft thrust upon them. Mr. McEachern had begun by being the first, had risen to the second, and for some years now had been a prominent member of the small and hugely prosperous third class, the class that does not go out seeking graft, but sits at home and lets graft come to it.
[IJ10bThe Intrusions of Jimmy
serial in Tit-Bits, 1910/06/11–1910/09/10, IJ10BA Gentleman of Leisure
A. Rivers, 1910: “the class which”, “come to them.”] - LN13The Little Nugget (1913), II.6.1I was too surprised to speak. Verily, some have greatness thrust upon them.
[=13EC“The Eighteen-Carat Kid” (1913)
Cap 18K, 4.] - 16-AAB“All About Butlers”
in Vanity Fair (US), 1916/02Some are born to butlers, others achieve butlers, and others have butlers thrust upon them. - PJ17Piccadilly Jim (1917), 8“Some are born Jimmy Crockers, others have Jimmy Crockers thrust upon them. I hope you’ll bear in mind that I belong to the latter class.”
- PP67The Purloined Paperweight (Company for Henry) (1967), 2.2Some men are born to country houses, some achieve country houses, others have country houses thrust upon them.
IV.2.40-41 “the soul of our grandam might haply inhabit a bird”
Feste.
What is the opinion of Pythagoras concerning wildfowl?
Malvolio.
That the soul of our grandam might haply inhabit a bird.
- LC06Love Among the Chickens (1906–09), 5“You know the opinion of Pythagoras respecting fowls. That ‘the soul of our granddam might haply inhabit a bird.’ ”
[Not in LC21Love Among the Chickens
Jenkins, 1921.]
V.1.355 “the whole pack”
Malvolio.
I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you!
- DD19A Damsel in Distress (1919), 16“There’s a whole crowd of silly, cackling fools—my sisters—my sons-in-law—all the whole pack of them!”
[DD19AA Damsel in Distress
George H. Doran Co., 1919: “my sisters, my cousins, all the whole pack of them!”. See Annotations.] - IW31If I Were You (1931), 18“Well, I’ll show them. I’ll show the whole pack of them.”
[IW31aIf I Were You
in American, 1931/04-07: “ ’em” (both places).] - BM31Big Money (1931), 4.6“I bought that beard to deceive my creditors,” he explained at length. “There’s a whole pack of them baying on my trail, and I thought that if I could assume some impenetrable disguise I could go about London undetected.”
THE WINTER’S TALE
Text used: A. Quiller-Couch and J. Dover Wilson, The Winter’s Tale, C.U.P. 1968.
III.3.53-58 “Exit pursued by a bear”
Antigonus.
Farewell!
The day frowns more and more; thou’rt like to have
A lullaby too rough; I never saw
The heavens so dim by day. [a noise of hunters] A savage clamour!
Well may I get aboard! This is the chase –
I am gone for ever! [‘Exit pursued by a bear ’
- 30IS“Indian Summer of an Uncle” (1930)
Cos Str VGJ“Remember what the poet Shakespeare said, Jeeves.”
“What was that, sir?”
“ ‘Exit hurriedly, pursued by a bear.’ You’ll find it in one of his plays. I remember drawing a picture of it on the side of the page, when I was at school.” - 520107-ACPGW 1961 comment after
letter to W. Townend, 1952/01/07
in Author! Author! (1962)I suppose the fundamental distinction between Shakespeare and myself is one of treatment. We get our effects differently. Take the familiar farcical situation of a man who suddenly discovers that something unpleasant is standing behind him. In The Winter’s Tale, Act Three, Scene Three, here is how Shakespeare handles it.
Farewell!
The day frowns more and more: I never saw
The heavens so dim by day. A savage clamour!
Well may I get aboard! This is the chase:
I am gone for ever.
(Exit, pursued by a bear.)
I should have adopted a somewhat different approach. Thus:
I gave the man one of my looks. “Touch of indigestion, Jeeves?”Who can say which method is the superior?
“No, sir.”
“Then why is your tummy rumbling?”
“Pardon me, sir, the noise to which you allude does not emanate from my interior but from that of that animal that has just joined us.”
“Animal? What animal?”
“A bear, Sir. If you will turn your head, you will observe that a bear is standing in your immediate rear inspecting you in a somewhat menacing manner.”
I pivoted the loaf. The honest fellow was perfectly correct. It was a bear. And not a small bear, either. One of the large economy size. Its eye was bleak, it gnashed a tooth or two, and I could see at a g. that it was going to be difficult for me to find a formula acceptable to all parties.
“Advise me, Jeeves,” I yipped. “What do I do for the best?”
“I fancy it might be judicious if you were to make an exit, Sir.”
No sooner s. than d. I streaked for the horizon, closely followed across country by the dumb chum. And that, boys and girls, is how your grandfather clipped six seconds off the world’s mile record.
IV.3.24-26 “a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles”
Autolycus.
My father named me Autolycus, who being, as I am, littered under Mercury, was likewise a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles . . .
- GB04The Gold Bat (1904), 12It was his custom to go about the house just before the holidays ended, snapping up unconsidered trifles which might or might not come in useful.
- 15BL“Black for Luck” (1915)
Red (“A Black Cat for Luck”) Str M2LHow she had misjudged him! She had taken him for an ordinary soulless purloiner of cats, a snapper-up of cats at random and without reason; and all the time he had been reluctantly compelled to the act by this deep and praiseworthy motive.
[Not in 15BLb“Black for Luck”
in Strand, 1915/06.] - SN15Something New (Something Fresh) (1915), 3That talk changed J. Preston Peters from a supercilious scooper-up of random scarabs to what might be called a genuine scarab fan.
[SN15BSomething Fresh
Methuen & Co., 1915, 3.2: “to a genuine scarab-maniac.”] - PJ17Piccadilly Jim (1917), 2Until the time of his second marriage Bingley Crocker had been an actor, a snapper-up of whatever small character parts the gods provided.
Other
- 05-WTA“A Winter’s Tale. King Arthur and His Court” (1905)
in Vanity Fair (UK), 1905/12/14A Winter’s Tale. King Arthur and His Court.
[Title.] - 06-GEM“The Green-Eyed Monster” (1906)
in Books of To-day and Books of To-morrow, 1906/10Early last week Mr. Bernard Shaw, hearing that The Winter’s Tale had been presented at His Majesty’s Theatre, delivered his ultimatum: “Shakespeare or myself,” he said, calmly but firmly. “Which you like. Please yourselves. But it must be one or the other. You cannot serve two masters.”
THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM
Text used: J. C. Maxwell, The Works of Shakespeare. The Poems, C.U.P. 1969.
XII.1-4 “Youth is full of pleasure, age is full of care”
Stanza 12 of The Passionate Pilgrim appears also in Thomas Deloney’s ‘A Maiden’s Choice twixt Age and Youth’ (from Garland of Good Will, 1593), so that its authorship is subject to discussion. Deloney’s text has “full of pleasure,” adopted by many older editions of Shakespeare’s poem.
Crabbèd age and youth cannot live together:
Youth is full of pleasance, age is full of care;
Youth like summer morn, age like winter weather;
Youth like summer brave, age like winter bare.
- CT58Cocktail Time (1958), 1Youth, said Shakespeare, is full of pleasure, Age is full of care, and perhaps as a general rule there is truth in the statement, but in this particular instance it was the senior of the two members of the Twistleton family who was all gaiety and animation, while the spirits of his junior were manifestly low.
[Not in CT58BCocktail Time
Jenkins, 1958.]
SONNETS
Text used: K. Duncan-Jones, Shakespeare’s Sonnets (The Arden Shakespeare), AS 1998.
Dedication:
TO. THE. ONLY. BEGETTER. OF.
THESE. ENSUING. SONNETS.
Mr. W.H. ALL. HAPPINESS.
AND. THAT. ETERNITY.
PROMISED.
BY.
OUR. EVER-LIVING. POET.
WISHETH.
THE. WELL-WISHING.
ADVENTURER. IN.
SETTING.
FORTH.
T.T.
- BW52Barmy in Wonderland (Angel Cake) (1952)To the onlie begetter of these insuing sonnets Mr. G. S. K.
[Dedication to George S. Kaufman, author of the play The Butter and Egg Man which is the source of the plot. Not in BW52BBarmy in Wonderland
Jenkins, 1952.]
Sonnet 33 “Full many a glorious morning . . .”
Full many a glorious morning have I seen
Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye,
Kissing with golden face the meadows green,
Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy;
Anon permit the basest clouds to ride
With ugly rack on his celestial face,
And from the forlorn world his visage hide,
Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace:
Even so my sun one early morn did shine
With all triumphant splendour on my brow;
But out alack, he was but one hour mine,
The region cloud hath masked him from me now.
Yet him for this, my love no whit disdaineth:
Suns of the world may stain, when heaven’s sun staineth.
- CW38The Code of the Woosters (1938), 4I remember Jeeves saying to me once, apropos of how you can never tell what the weather’s going to do, that full many a glorious morning had he seen flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye and then turn into a rather nasty afternoon. It was the same with Gussie now. He had been beaming like a searchlight until I mentioned this aspect of the matter, and the radiance suddenly disappeared as if it had been switched off at the main.
- FM47Full Moon (1947), 7.1About the only spot into which the golden beams did not penetrate was the small smoking-room off the hall. It never got the sun till late in the afternoon, and it was for this reason that Tipton Plimsoll, having breakfasted frugally on a cup of coffee and his thoughts, had gone there to brood over the tragedy which had shattered his life. He was not in the market for sunshine. Given his choice, he would have scrapped this glorious morning, flattering the mountain tops with sovereign eye, and substituted for it something more nearly resembling the weather conditions of King Lear, Act Two.
[See King Lear, III.2.1-9.]
[Not in FM47aFull Moon
condensed in Liberty, 1947/11.] - MO71Much Obliged, Jeeves (Jeeves and the Tie That Binds) (1971), 1“Too often it is when one feels fizziest that the storm clouds begin doing their stuff.”
“Very true, sir. Full many a glorious morning have I seen flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye, kissing with golden face the meadows green, gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy, Anon permit the basest clouds to ride with ugly rack on his celestial face and from the forlorn world his visage hide, stealing unseen to west with this disgrace.”
“Exactly,” I said. I couldn’t have put it better myself. “One always has to budget for a change in the weather.”
Sonnet 38, 13-14 “these curious days”
If my slight Muse do please these curious days,
The pain be mine, but thine shall be the praise.
- DD19A Damsel in Distress (1919), 9And yet—she felt—not for the first time—that it is not easy, to revive the Middle Ages in these curious days.
Sonnet 116, 1-4 “the marriage of true minds”
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments; love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
- SF57Something Fishy (The Butler Did It) (1957), 5Coming right down to it, then, practically all Bill Hollister had got out of his association with Miss Murphrey was the discovery that his personal appearance was that of a shaggy dog, expert at herding sheep, which had taken up mortician work in its spare time, and surely, he felt, a marriage of true minds should have produced something a little warmer.
- BA73Bachelors Anonymous (1973), 3Obviously an exchange of thought—what Shakespeare would have called the marriage of true minds—was not to be expected with one so far below the surface, and Mac’s meditations had turned to the prospects of a horse, shortly to run at Catterick Bridge, in whose prowess he had a financial interest, when there entered from the street someone younger and considerably more pleasing to the eye than his predecessor.
Appendix I: Statistics
Graph 1 shows the number of different quotations from each play/poem (red), and the total number (blue). This includes novels, stories and other shorter pieces.
Abbreviations used (from the MLA Handbook):
1H4 = The First Part of King Henry the Fourth |
JC = Julius Caesar |
R2 = King Richard the Second |
Graph 2 shows the number of quotations and allusions per novel (i.e. excluding short stories and other pieces, which may get a chart of their own at some point in the future).
Graph 3 shows the total number of individual quotations and the total count of all occurrences.
Appendix II: “The Retort Obvious”
“The retort obvious” in 00-UF12“Under the Flail”
in Public School Magazine, 1900/12 (from As You Like It, V.4.69-81, 89-96) is clearly inspired in Touchstone’s list, but it was also a usual title for comic panels. Here are a few examples.
Pick-Me-Up, June 2, 1894.
Lowell Sun (Lowell, Mass.) July 3, 1903.
The Sketch, August 2, 1905.
The Bulletin (Sydney), December 19, 1912.
© 2024 Diego Seguí
Wodehouse’s writings are copyright © Trustees of the Wodehouse Estate in most countries;
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