The next reference comes not too long after that first,
and is to Hamlet. Flora writes: “They
didn’t need to hear this, and I risked my protests having the opposite effect –
the ‘methinks she doth protest too much’ problem” (p. 193). That is a reference
to the Queen’s line during the play within the play sequence, “The lady protests too
much, methinks.” Yet here the narrator doesn’t get the line quoted precisely,
so I’m still not convinced she has extensive knowledge of the plays. However,
the next reference is to Richard The
Third, and she quotes a longer passage: “Lord, Lord! methought, what pain
it was to drown:/What dreadful noise of waters in my ears!/What sights of ugly
death within my eyes!/Methoughts I saw a thousand fearful wracks;/A thousand
men that fishes gnawed upon’” (p. 224). Just before Thea quotes those lines,
Flora writes: “Long-forgotten words came tumbling out. College Shakespeare. The
most exciting teacher I’d ever had. Obviously, I’d carried the fear of drowning
with me then, as well” (p. 224). And following the quoted passage, she writes:
“That stopped her. ‘What on earth is that?’ she asked, turning to stare at me”
(p. 224). Thea responds, “‘Richard III,
I think.” The other character asks: “Shakespeare? At a time like this?” Then
Flora writes: “‘Seemed to fit at the moment.’ I didn’t bother to tell her that
it was always time for Shakespeare. Shakespeare and the Bible” (p. 224). Soon
after that, there is another reference to The
Tempest: “Without opening my eyes, I said, ‘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’” (p. 225). This time the other person recognizes the lines: “‘The Tempest,’ she said. ‘Have you gone
mad?’” (p. 225). The lines are sung by Ariel in Act I. Anyway, Thea responds,
“Suffered a sea-change.”
The next reference is to The Winter’s Tale. Flora writes: “Through some strange
correspondence in my brain, the thought called forth another bit of
Shakespeare. ‘Thou mettest with things dying, I with things newborn.’ A Winter’s Tale. Yet both were met in me”
(p. 258). The Shepherd speaks that line in Act III. There is then another
reference to Hamlet: “The
infuriatingly helpless feeling of being poked and prodded and questioned when I
was too weak to answer. Hamlet had it right with those musings about the
problems with sleep and the fear of dreams” (p. 270). The book’s final
Shakespeare reference is to The First
Part Of King Henry The Fourth. Flora writes, “Still, as they say,
discretion is the better part of valor” (p. 289). The “they” in this instance
is Falstaff, and Falstaff says “The better part of valor is discretion, in the
which better part I have saved my life.”
Death In Paradise
was published in 1998. The copy I read was a First Edition from October 1998.
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