There is a series of books on Edgar Cayce and the
readings he performed for people. Noel Langley’s
Edgar Cayce On Reincarnation obviously focuses on the concept of
reincarnation, which Edgar Cayce explicitly believed in. And, like almost every
book I read, it contains some Shakespeare references. The first is a reference
to
As You Like It, and specifically
to a famous line from Jacques’ speech. Langley writes, “ONE MAN IN HIS TIME
PLAYS MANY PARTS” (p. 36). In the section that follows that line, there are
several Shakespeare references. Langley writes: “Put yourself in the shoes of
the great Shakespearean actor, Sir Laurence Olivier, whose theatrical genius
has given us definitive portrayals of Henry V, Hamlet, Richard III and Othello.
Each one of these roles is a perfect and fully resolved creation in its own
right; none of them derivative of the others” (p. 36). He continues, “But the
difference becomes instantly apparent when he stands in the wings of the Old
Vic Theater, about to make his first entrance as Othello” (p. 36). And then: “Laurence
Olivier is fast becoming a vague dreamy blur in his memory. His sole
identification is with Othello. He concentrates only on the emotions he must
soon evoke. The canvas scenery disappears, and a real street in Venice takes
its place. The voices of the other actors continue, but are now emanating from
the throats of flesh-and-blood sixteenth-century Venetians” (pages. 36-37).
Langley continues with this analogy: “Now – imagine him passionately
declaiming, drawing on the last reserves of his emotional energy, yet
maintaining split-second discipline as he times each syllable – and tell me if
he would have time to dwell proudly on his press notices for his Hamlet, or
glow with nostalgia at the memory of the ovations he received for his Richard
III, or suddenly wish he had used a different accent and makeup in his film of
Henry V” (p. 37). He adds: “Let me assure you he would be incapable of
remembering anything beyond Othello’s immediate infatuation for Desdemona. Even
during the intermissions and offstage waits, he would still be Othello – an Othello
relaxing, perhaps; as the body does in sleep; but still Othello. Not until the
final curtain has fallen and the audience left the theater, not until his
costume and makeup are removed, can he be in any sort of condition to discuss
the critical pros and cons of his previous triumphs as Henry V, Hamlet and
Richard III” (p. 37). Interestingly, Langley mentions one performance that he
considers terrible, that in the film of
The
Beggar’s Opera. He then writes: “What kind of performance could his ‘Othello’
audience expect of him, if his mind were so obsessed by that one failure that
it impelled him to stop short in the middle of his performance as Othello to
whisper to Desdemona: ‘Ye Gods, old dear, what an absolute jackass I made of
myself as MacHeath!’” (pages 37-38). He then asks, “What would happen to the
rapport he had so carefully built up between his Othello and the audience?” (p.
38). This is all related to the question of why people don’t remember their
past lives.
A little later Langley writes, “and the other was
spiritually insulated against the ‘sea of sorrows’ to which man falls heir” (p.
41). This could be a combination of references to both Hamlet and The Tempest.
In Hamlet’s most famous soliloquy, he says “a sea of troubles” and then “the
thousand natural shocks/That flesh is heir to.” In The Tempest, Prospero says “Sit still, and hear the last of our
sea-sorrow.” So, maybe, maybe not. Then at the beginning of the book’s fourth
chapter, there is a subtitle: “THE WAGES OF VIRTUE, AND THE WAGES OF SIN” (p.
49). At the end of King Lear, Albany
says, “All friends shall taste/The wages of their virtue.” There is then
another reference to The Tempest: “These
humanoids or mutants feature extensively in the Atlantean records as a
primitive form of antediluvian life, the last faint echoes of which linger in
Shakespeare’s Caliban and in the fauns, centaurs and minotaurs of Greek
mythology” (p. 58). There is also another reference to King Lear: “and the ego depends for its self-preservation on the
illusion that it is more sinned against than sinning” (p. 126). Lear says, “I
am a man/More sinned against than sinning.” This book also contains a reference
to Macbeth, with Langley writing “an
incompatible mixture of dedicated zealotry and infirmity of purpose” (p. 180).
Lady Macbeth, upset when her husband suddenly balks at returning the daggers to
the scene of the crime, says, “Infirm of purpose!” There is another reference
to Othello, with Langley writing “In
brief, concealed beneath all the pomp and circumstance of the Fifth Council
there was a witchhunt in full cry” (p. 198). This is a reference to Othello’s
line “Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war!”
Edgar Cayce On
Reincarnation was published in 1967.
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