Emma Donoghue’s novel Slammerkin, about a young woman in 18th century London, contains a Shakespeare reference. Donoghue writes: “‘Madam!’ protested the dressmaker. ‘Hers is nothing like. Not half so dainty. This is the very pattern of the one Mrs. Cibber wears as Juliet on the Drury Lane stage, Mary tells me’” (p. 194). The reference is to the production of Romeo And Juliet by David Garrick starring Susannah Cibber.
And actually, there is a phrase, “no rhyme or reason,” that is used twice in the novel, once at the very beginning and once at the end (at the end it is “no rhyme nor reason”). Though apparently Shakespeare did not coin this phrase, he is known for it. He used it in the second act of his early play The Comedy Of Errors, with Dromio of Syracuse saying, “When in the ‘why’ and the ‘wherefore’ is neither rhyme nor reason.” He used it again in the third act of As You Like It, with Orlando saying, “Neither rhyme nor reason can express how much.” In this novel, Donoghue writes, “Some were chained up after sunset, but not necessarily the murderers; there was no rhyme or reason to it that Mary could see” (p. 2). Then just before the end of the book, Donoghue writes: “Killing was killing, when you came down to it. Punishment had no rhyme nor reason; it fell like hail” (p. 380).
Slammerkin was published in 2000. The First Harvest Edition was published in 2002.
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