Shakespeare References in The Vampire Armand

I’ve read four books from Anne Rice’s series about vampires, and each has contained Shakespeare references. The Vampire Armand contains several references, beginning with one to Macbeth. Rice writes, “Life was no longer a theatrical stage where Banquo’s ghost came again and again to seat himself at the grim table” (p. 5). Banquo is at first friend to Macbeth, but soon is killed at Macbeth’s behest. That, to Macbeth’s dismay, is not the last he sees of Banquo. The second reference is to Cymbeline, and specifically to a song from the fourth act. Rice writes: “‘“Fear no more the heat of the sun,”’ he whispered. ‘Nor the furious winter’s rages. Fear no more…”’” (p. 14). (And, yes, the book is missing one quotation mark before the word “Nor.”) Guiderius sings those lines in the play. There are also a couple of references to Hamlet. The first is to a phrase used by Hamlet in his most famous soliloquy, with Rice writing, “It’s a penance to kill, Amadeo, that’s the rub” (p. 108). The second is to a plot device, with Lord Harlech using a rapier with a poisoned blade to attack Amadeo, much as Laertes uses in his fight with Hamlet. There is also a reference to Romeo And Juliet, and specifically to a film adaptation. Rice writes, “Louis standing in the rain on a slick deserted downtown street watching through the store window the brilliant young actor Leonardo DiCaprio as Shakespeare’s Romeo kissing his tender and lovely Juliet (Claire Danes) on a television screen” (p. 277). The next reference is to Shakespeare himself. Rice writes: “It was winter, and I was contented in London, haunting the theatres to see the plays of Shakespeare, and reading the plays and the sonnets the whole night long. I had no other thoughts just now but Shakespeare. Lestat had given him to me. And when I’d had a bellyful of despair, I’d opened the books and begun to read” (p. 285). The final reference is to one of the sonnets, the first line of Sonnet 29. Rice writes, “If or when she wants to rise in ‘fortune and men’s eyes,’ I’ll clear the way for her” (pages 359 – 360). The first lines of the sonnet are “When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,/I all alone beweep my outcast state.”

The Vampire Armand was published in 1998. The copy I read was a First Trade Edition.