Shakespeare References in The Boy Who Picked The Bullets Up

Charles Nelson’s novel The Boy Who Picked The Bullets Up contains a lot of Shakespeare references. The first is a reference to The Tempest. About military training, Nelson writes: “A tyranny of shaven heads, extracted teeth, and bloody inoculations followed. I had entered a brave new world” (p. 4). That’s a reference to Miranda’s line, “O brave new world/That has such people in ‘t.” The second is a reference to King Lear, with Nelson writing, “Viler than a serpent’s tooth is an ungrateful child” (p. 20), a variation on Lear’s line “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is/To have a thankless child.” Nelson then dips into the histories, with a reference to The First Part Of King Henry The Fourth. He writes, “Babich’s rule: Discretion is the better part of valor” (p. 35). That of course is slight variation of Falstaff’s line “The better part of valor is discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life.” That’s followed by a Hamlet reference: “I was good at that. But in ‘Backpack II’ you must put all that stuff back inside the canvas sack and close it up. There’s the rub.” And soon after that, we get a reference to Twelfth Night: “What fool said, ‘Youth’s a stuff will not endure’?” (p. 39). The answer is Feste.

Nelson includes a reference to Shakespeare himself as well, writing: “Thurber for mirth? For drama and poetry, Shakespeare’s plays?” (p. 51). Soon after that there is a reference to Julius Caesar, with the character Kurt ending one of his letters with the line “Yet Caesar shall go forth,” a line from Act II scene ii. We then have another reference to Twelfth Night, and this one too is the last one of one of Kurt’s letters: “And what should I do in Illyria?” (p. 60). In the play, Viola speaks that line. That is followed by a reference to Henry The Fifth, with Kurt writing in a letter to Chloe, “And for every meal, it’s thrice more into the breach, dear cousin” (p. 64). That is obviously a play on Henry’s line “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.” Kurt ends another of his letters with a play on a line from Love’s Labour’s Lost: “To each his own. Greasy Joan doth keel those pots” (p. 77). The original line is “While greasy Joan doth keel the pot,” from Act V scene ii. There is another reference to Shakespeare, with Nelson writing, “Randall is getting good, and we may expand into Shakespeare, Chekhov, and Wilde” (p. 86). Kurt ends one of his letters with a reference to Hamlet: “We are but caviar to the general” (p. 86). When Hamlet speaks to the players, he says “for the play, I remember, pleased not the million. ‘Twas caviar to the general.” There is then another Hamlet reference, and again it comes at the end of one of Kurt’s letters: “Then we trundle off to bed for a pleasant night’s sleep. Perchance to dream” (p. 128). And yet another letter ends with a reference to The Second Part Of King Henry The Fourth: “We have heard the chimes at midnight” (p. 144). In the play, Falstaff speaks that line to Shallow. There is what is likely another reference to The Second Part Of King Henry The Fourth, with Charles Nelson writing, “At least I’ve heard nothing more about it, and Rumor with his cloak of tongues finds eager ears at First Med” (p. 217). This may be a reference to the prologue, spoken by Rumor, which more than once mentions tongues: “Upon my tongues continual slanders ride” and “From Rumor’s tongues/They bring smooth comforts false.”

Charles Nelson writes, “And thereby hangs a sad tale” (p. 259). Is this a reference to As You Like It, in which Jacques says “And then from hour to hour we rot and rot,/And thereby hangs a tale”? Or it is a reference to The Taming Of The Shrew, in which Grumio says “Out of their saddles into the dirt, and thereby hangs a tale”? Or could it possibly be a reference to Othello, where the Clown says “Oh, thereby hangs a tail” and the Musician says “Whereby hangs a tale, sir”? My guess is that Charles Nelson was thinking of As You Like It when he wrote that line. He quotes As You Like It again a little later: “I told her I’d rather have a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad” (p. 315). Rosalind speaks the line in Act IV scene i. This book also contains a reference to Cymbeline, with Kurt ending a letter with the line “He’ll fear no more the heat o’ the sun” (p. 319). That line comes from a song from Act IV Scene ii: “Fear no more the heat o’ the sun,/Nor the furious winter’s rages.” The book’s final Shakespeare reference is to Hamlet. Nelson writes, “And may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest” (p. 335). That is a slight variation on Horatio’s famous line, “And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”

The Boy Who Picked The Bullets Up was published in 1981. The First Avon Printing was in August of 1982.