Shakespeare References in Interview With The Vampire

Anne Rice’s novel Interview With The Vampire contains a few Shakespeare references. The first reference is to Hamlet’s most famous soliloquy. In the section where Louis describes his limited training as a vampire, Rice writes, “I was reacting too much as if the ‘mortal coil’ had not been shaken off” (p. 30). The next reference is also to Hamlet, this time to Horatio’s speech after Hamlet dies: “‘Good night, sweet prince,’ said Lestat ‘and here’s your fifty dollars’” (p. 71), a humorous variation on “Good night, sweet prince/And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”

This book also contains a reference to Othello, and specifically to the moment when Othello is about to kill Desdemona. Rice writes: “‘Put out the light…and then put out the light,’ Lestat said softly. And then he took her into his arms like a struggling moth and sank his teeth into her” (p. 79). Clearly Lestat is a fan of Shakespeare’s works, which surprises Louis. Rice writes, “He loved the great figure we cut, the three of us in our box at the new French Opera House or the Theatre d’Orleans, to which we went as often as possible, Lestat having a passion for Shakespeare which surprised me” (p. 100). There is also a reference to King Lear, with Rice writing, “And suppose the vampire who made you knew nothing, and the vampire who made that vampire knew nothing, and the vampire before him knew nothing, and so it goes back and back, nothing proceeding from nothing, until there is nothing!” (p. 121). In Act I, after Cordelia answers, “Nothing,” Lear says, “Nothing will come of nothing.”

Annie Rice also refers to Macbeth. She writes: “He always wanted me along. I think I must have seen Macbeth with him fifteen times. We went to every performance, even those by amateurs, and Lestat would stride home afterwards, repeating the lines to me and even shouting out to passers-by with an outstretched finger, ‘Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow!’ until they skirted him as if he were drunk” (p. 129). The “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” line comes from my favorite speech of that play.

Interview With The Vampire was published in 1976. The copy I read was the Ballantine Books edition, which was first published in May of 1977. The copy I read was the thirtieth printing, from October of 1989.