Shakespeare Reference in Joyland

Stephen King's Joyland contains one Shakespeare reference, and it is to Romeo And Juliet. The character Rozzie says: "I'm not talking about psychic sight, kiddo, I'm talking about ordinary woman-sight. You think I don't know a lovestruck Romeo when I see one?" (p. 104). This book was published in 2013.

Shakespeare References in The Teachers' Book Of Wisdom

The Teachers' Book Of Wisdom, a book of quotations compiled and edited by Criswell Freeman, contains a few Shakespeare references (no surprise there). The first is a reference to Hamlet, coming in a quotation from A. Whitney Griswold: "Could Hamlet have been written by a committee, or the Mona Lisa painted by a club? Could the New Testament have been composed as a conference report? Creative ideas do not spring from groups. They spring from individuals" (p. 69). This is a strange quotation, as we know that playwrights often worked together. And has A. Whitney Griswold never seen a film? The next references comes in the introduction to a chapter: "Pupils are advised to contemplate the words of Shakespeare's Cassius, who admitted, 'The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves...'" (p. 103). The introduction to the next chapter likewise contains a reference to Shakespeare: "If classroom discipline were solely dependent upon subject matter, teachers everywhere could quiet their students with a few verses from Shakespeare" (p. 111). Actually, it contains a second mention of Shakespeare: "The ideas contained in this chapter will not resolve all classroom difficulties, but they will help. And, if all else fails, try Shakespeare" (p. 111). The final reference comes in a quotation from Laurence Olivier: "I think a poet is a workman. I think Shakespeare was a workman. And God's a workman. I don't think there's anything better than a workman" (p. 143). 

This book was published in 1998.

Shakespeare References in Becoming Manny

Becoming Manny, a book about Manny Ramirez written by Jean Rhodes and Shawn Boburg, contains a few Shakespeare references. The first is a reference to Hamlet: "The basic premise behind cognitive psychology is, to quote Hamlet, 'There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so'" (p. 186). That is a line, by the way, that I return to often, for I believe that there is nothing that is inherently good or bad. It is all perception and opinion. The next reference is both to Shakespeare and The Comedy Of Errors: "The fans may indulge in a few refrains of 'Sweet Caroline,' but as anyone who has ever soaked up the Fenway ambience knows, it's back to business when the music stops. Boston Herald sportswriter Mike Barnicle once quipped, 'Baseball isn't a life-and-death matter, but the Red Sox are,' and Manny's first few seasons in Boston played out like a Shakespearean tragedy cum comedy of errors" (p. 196). There is also a reference to Much Ado About Nothing: "So the deal died, much ado about little, just like all the others before it" (p. 248). The final reference is to The Tempest, and specifically a phrase from Ariel's song: "Then Globe columnist Gordon Edes noticed the sea change" (p. 275). Ariel sings, "Nothing of him that doth fade/But doth suffer a sea change."

Becoming Manny was published in 2009. The copy I read was the First Scribner hardcover edition from March 2009.

Shakespeare References in Mind Game

Mind Game: How The Boston Red Sox Got Smart, Won A World Series, And Created A New Blueprint For Winning contains a few Shakespeare references. The first comes on the first page of the acknowledgments. Editor Steven Goldman writes, "Not only did Jonah Keri contribute three chapters, despite having just finished his own grueling work as co-editor of Baseball Prospectus 2005, but he acted as Horatio to my Hamlet (or maybe that's Jester to my Lear), offering assistance, guidance, sagacity, and even some tough love at key moments" (p. vii). Then on the first page of the first chapter there is another Shakespeare reference: "The White Sox have not only waited longer, but carry a burden of a tragedy worthy of Shakespeare, that of the manipulated, manipulating Black Sox of 1919" (p. 1). There is also a reference to The Tempest: "Since 2000, however, there has been a sea change in pitchers' workloads" (p. 86). The phrase "sea change" comes from Ariel's song, in which he sings, "Nothing of him that doth fade/But doth suffer a sea change." The final reference is to Falstaff's famous line from The First Part Of King Henry The Fourth: "On a rational basis, though, with millions and millions of dollars at stake, another eighty-six games to run in the schedule, and the Yankees nearly certain of a return to the postseason, a little discretion can buy a lot of later valor" (p. 156). Falstaff says, "The better part of valor is discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life."

This book was published in 2005.

Shakespeare Reference in Summer Of '49

David Halberstam's book about the 1949 baseball season focusing on the Red Sox and Yankees, Summer Of '49, contains a Shakespeare reference. It comes in a passage quoted from Red Smith, regarding the change television brought to the game: "Today, conscious of the great unseen audience, they [the umpires] play every decision out like the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. On a strike they gesticulate, they brandish a fist aloft, they spin almost as shot through the heart, they bellow all four parts of the quartette from Rigoletto" (p. 229).

This book was published in 1989. The first Perennial Classics edition was published in 2002, and the copy I read was from reissue in Harper Perennial Modern Classics in 2006.

Shakespeare Reference in Here Beside The Rising Tide

Jim Newton's Here Beside The Rising Tide: Jerry Garcia, The Grateful Dead, And An American Wakening contains a reference to Macbeth. In the chapter that tackles 1967 and the band's first album, Newton writes: "To Lesh, the album felt like 'sound and fury buried in a cavern'" (p. 130). So, yeah, the Macbeth reference actually comes from Phil Lesh's Searching For The Sound, quoted here. Anyway, "sound and fury" is a phrase used in what is probably my favorite speech in all of Shakespeare's work. The speech ends with these lines: "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." In the Notes section at the back of the book, Jim Newton says where the quote comes from : "'sound and fury buried in a cavern': Phil Lesh, Searching for the Sound, p. 99" (p. 465).

Here Beside The Rsing Tide: Jerry Garcia, The Grateful Dead, And An American Wakening was published in 2025. The copy I read was an advanced uncorrected proofs edition, in paperback.

Shakespeare References in Season Of The Witch

David Talbot's book about San Francisco, Season Of The Witch: Enchantment, Terror, And Deliverance In The City Of Love, contains a few Shakespeare references. The first is a reference to A Midsummer Night's Dream. Talbot writes, "Coquettish in dark eyeliner, bare feet, and a white muslin caftan, he looked like a cross between Marlene Dietrich and Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream" (p. 99). The second is a reference to Hamlet: "A lifetime later, Fayette Hauser could still see method in her friend Nancy's madness" (p. 117). That is a reference to Polonius's line "Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't." The book also contains a reference to Macbeth. Talbot writes, "But Moscone shrugged off the sound and fury" (p. 260). He is referring to my favorite speech from Macbeth (and perhaps all of Shakespeare), which ends with this line: "It is a tale/Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/Signifying nothing." A little later there is a paragraph that mentions Shakespeare as well as a line from Julius Caesar: "The son of a dairy farmworker, Dean was raised to appreciate the rich language of the Bible and Shakespeare. 'My parents always read us stories,' he explained. 'Finding the true meaning of Shakespeare under all those flowery words was always a mind twister for me.' Dean was fond of quoting inspirational lines from Shakespeare in the 49ers locker room. One of his favorites was, 'Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once'" (p. 369). That is a line that Caesar speaks to Calpurnia.

Season Of The Witch: Enchantment, Terror, And Deliverance In The City Of Love was published in 2012. The copy I read, from the library, was the First Free Press hardcover edition of May 2012.