Shakespeare References in The Right Stuff

The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe’s book about the first American astronauts, contains a couple of Shakespeare references. The first is to The First Part Of King Henry The Fourth. In a section about the training of chimpanzees using electric shocks and banana-flavored pellets, Tom Wolfe writes, “A life of avoiding the blue bolts and gratefully accepting the attaboys and pellets had become the better part of valor” (p. 165). That of course is a reference to Falstaff’s famous line, “The better part of valor is discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life.” The second is a reference to Hamlet. Wolfe writes, “The only rub – the only rub, to Johnson’s way of thinking – is that he wants the Life reporter, Wainwright, to get out of the house, because his presence will antagonize the rest of the print reporters who can’t get in, and they will not think kindly of the Vice-President” (p. 261). William Shakespeare was not the first person to use the word rub in this way, but in general when someone uses the word like that, he or she is probably thinking of Hamlet’s famous soliloquy.

The Right Stuff was published in 1979. The copy I read is a fourth printing of the Bantam edition, from November 1981.