Shakespeare References in Talking To Myself

Chris Jagger’s autobiography Talking To Myself has several Shakespeare references. The first is to The Tempest. Chris is talking about books that his older brother Mick brought home. He writes: “Mick also came back with The Tempest once, and I was impressed enough by the famous speech ‘Our revels now are ended…’ to learn it by heart. The curious thing is that verse committed to memory so young can still be remembered, while plays I later learned I cannot recall at all” (p. 56). The second reference is to The Second Part Of King Henry The Fourth, and it comes during one of the recent diary entries sprinkled throughout the book: “I went to Bristol Old Vic last night to see an old friend, the actor Gerard Murphy as Falstaff in Henry IV Part 2. He was his usual bumbling good self and stood out from a sea of mediocrity” (p. 65). In that same entry his mentions King Lear: “I first went to Bristol Old Vic in 1966 for a Tyrone Guthrie production of Lear” (p. 65). Another diary entry has a reference to Julius Caesar: “Stu originally played the piano with the band, only to be dismissed by Andrew Oldham because he looked too Neanderthal – perhaps the unkindest cut of all” (p. 74). There he refers to Antony’s line about Brutus stabbing Caesar, “This was the most unkindest cut of all.”

Within each chapter, different sections have their own titles. One such section is titled “The Play’s The Thing,” a reference to Hamlet’s famous line, “The play’s the thing/Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.” In that same section, Chris Jagger mentions Macbeth: “My participation in the standard school play was limited to playing First Murderer in Macbeth, who nonetheless delivers a nice line – ‘The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day, now spurs the ‘lated traveler apace to gain the timely inn’ – before helping in the bloody dispatch of Banquo” (p. 99). And on the previous page there is a photo of Chris Jagger in his role in Macbeth. He also talks about boys playing female parts: “That was the fate of some boys, Barnard vigorously defending the practice because it happened in the Bard’s day” (p. 99). The next chapter has a subheading that reads, “Murder Most Foul” (p. 106), which of course is a reference to the Ghost’s line in Hamlet.

The next reference is to Shakespeare himself, with Jagger writing, “did I really want to go to rainy Manchester, to read theatre studies and Shakespeare?” (p. 109). Then there is another reference to Julius Caesar: “Never an actor, he had, however, taken walk-on parts, being on the set of Julius Caesar with Marlon Brando in the title role – and that was love at first sight. Kenneth was an artist and collector, and later modelled a head of Brando as Caesar, which was much admired by the up-and-coming star James Dean” (p. 262). Julius Caesar is mentioned again a few pages later, along with Macbeth: “Stella knew little of Shakespeare – Tennessee Williams was more her bag. In one class a male student was reciting a passage from Julius Caesar, which left her cold. Waving her arms about and quoting ‘blow wind, come wrack’ from the Scottish play, Stella explained that Shakespeare was ‘big stuff’” (p. 267). Then we get a mention of the sonnets: “John was charming and loved me reciting Yeats, Wilde and Shakespeare sonnets to him” (p. 268). There is another reference to The Tempest, with Chris Jagger writing, “spoke his lines into thin air” (p 271), referring to Prospero’s lines “These our actors,/As I foretold you, were all spirits and/Are melted into air, into thin air.” That’s followed by another mention of the sonnets: “I recited a Shakespeare sonnet, which took a couple of minutes, and they liked it” (p. 282). And then there is another mention of Shakespeare: “The boundary walls were mounted with busts of Shakespeare, the actor Garrick and the playwright Massinger” (p. 289). That’s followed quickly by a reference to King Lear: “Apparently, Kean liked to be applauded if appearing in, say, a King Lear costume at his own party” (p. 289). And then a reference to Richard The Third: “He once treated his Bute housekeeper to a trip over to Glasgow, to see him play the hunchback Richard III. When later asked how she liked it, she replied, ‘Och, what a terrible man! I looked at everyone in the play, Mr. Kean, but I could’nae see yer!’” (pages 289-290). Jagger offers a little more about Kean: “I imagine that Kean brought a degree of ‘realism’ to the theatre as he astonished the audience by following the ghost while playing Hamlet, whereas others had drawn away” (p. 290). Chris Jagger includes another mention of Hamlet: “Unlike musicians – who are always hanging around with mates, jamming and writing songs – actors don’t pop over to rehearse a scene from Hamlet on a rainy Thursday” (p. 301).

One section of a chapter uses as its title a line from Romeo And Juliet: “Two houses, both alike in dignity” (p. 306). Jagger then writes: “These were the first lines I spoke from the Bard as I appeared in Romeo and Juliet, in Plymouth, over 200 miles west of London. The play was moved to the Fifties, with Citizens friend Garry Cooper cast as Romeo, so we had some fun together. I was both ‘the prince’ and Mercutio; and for the latter role I took my cue from Henry Winkler’s role as ‘The Fonz’, playing as Romeo’s hip sidekick, with a lot of chat and lines that I sometimes struggled to remember” (p. 306). Then Jagger mentions Antony And Cleopatra: “One ballad he had was ‘Blinded by Love’, which went on to appear on 1989’s Steel Wheels; remembering my English A-Levels, I thought of Mark Antony and his infatuation for Cleopatra, and stuck in a verse using that idea (after all, Shakespeare had borrowed a lot of stuff from Plutarch)” (p. 315). Jagger also plays on a famous phrase from Henry The Fifth, writing, regarding the question he sometimes receives about not being a member of the Rolling Stones: “Apart from the age gape making that unlikely, there have been many bands of brothers and it usually ends in tears” (p. 321). The book’s final Shakespeare reference is to Hamlet: “I could take you to the theatre where David Garrick played Hamlet, but not the clubs where Hendrix or the Stones performed” (pages 370-371).

Talking To Myself was published on September 10, 2021.

Shakespeare References in The Nanny Diaries

The novel The Nanny Diaries, written by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, contains a couple of Shakespeare references. The first is to Romeo And Juliet. Each chapter of this novel begins with a quoted passage from another work, and the second chapter begins with a speech from Romeo And Juliet: “Lord, how my head aches! What a head have I!/My back at t’ other side – ah, my back, my back!/Beshrew your heart for sending me about/To catch my death with jauncing up and down!” (p. 44). And below those lines, the book reads, “The Nurse, Romeo And Juliet.” The other reference is to Shakespeare, with McLaughlin and Kraus having their main character tell the child she takes care of, “Go get into bed and I’ll read you one verse from your Shakespeare reader and then it’s lights out” (p. 220).

The Nanny Diaries was published in 2002. The copy I read was a hardcover edition that the local library no longer wanted.

Shakespeare References in Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace, the first novel written by Judith Davis, contains a lot of Shakespeare references. The main character, Jane, is a theatre actor, so it makes sense that there were would be some Shakespeare references. The first is about another character: “She was working on a production of Twelfth Night” (p. 62). The next is to Romeo And Juliet: “On the other who pitched his seduction with: ‘You wanna play Juliet? You got it’” (p. 107). The next reference is to the end of King Lear: “For some hours Jane sat immobile, the photographs in each cold hand. Lear’s line came faintly to her mind. Never, never, never, never, never. Her heart, not her eyes, dripped tears” (p. 117). Then there is a mention of the bookstore Shakespeare And Company: “Books at Shakespeare and Company in Rue de la Bucherie” (p. 146). We have another mention of Shakespeare: “She’d not yet done Shakespeare, Chekhov, O’Neill” (p. 160).

The character Jane gets cast in a production of Antony And Cleopatra, so there are several references to that play. The first mention of it is in dialogue: “I want to direct for a change. You’ve never done Shakespeare. Think you can handle Cleopatra?” (p. 163). Judith Davis then writes, “He wanted Harold Channing for Antony” (p. 163). And then: “Shakespeare! And under Gurney’s direction!” (p. 163). She then quotes Cleopatra’s lines at Antony’s death: “Noblest of men, won’t die?/Hast thou no care of me? Shall I abide/In this dull world, which in thy absence is/No better than a sty?” (p. 163). A moment later she quotes another of Cleopatra’s speeches: “Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have/Immortal longings in me” (p. 164). That is how the book’s fourth chapter ends. And the fifth chapter begins: “Long before formal rehearsals, a flurry of publicity surrounded the mounting of Antony and Cleopatra” (p. 165). Jane gets nervous, Davis writing, “The audience would rise, en masse, throw vegetables as they had in Shakespeare’s day” (p. 167). Davis then describes Jane’s experience as Cleopatra: “The curtain rose. Demetrius and Philo met, center stage, to express their disgust with Antony. There sounded ‘the flourish within.’ As Philo spoke his next four lines, Harold led Jane forward onstage. The lights blinded her” (p. 167). And then: “As it died away, Jane gazed up at Antony. ‘If it be love, indeed, tell me how much’” (p. 167). A little later, Davis writes, “The demand for tickets to Antony and Cleopatra continued” (p. 169). Cleopatra’s speech is quoted: “His face was as the heavens; and therein stuck/A sun and moon, which kept their course, and lighted/The little O, the earth” (p. 172). Part of her next speech is then quoted: “His legs bestrid the ocean; his rear’d arm/Crested the world…/Think you there was or might be such a man/As this I dream’d of?” (p 173). There is a reference to Cleopatra’s method of death: “I’ll ‘bring you liberty’…and not in the form of an asp. Though that may be what you deserve” (p. 175). And another of Cleopatra’s speeches is quoted: “Eternity was in our lips and eyes,/Bliss in our brows’ bent; none our parts so poor/But was a race of heaven” (p. 176). And when Jane discovers she’s pregnant, one of the other characters says to her: “You’re really going to enjoy pushing a pram through the park, matinee days? How long will you do Cleopatra with a belly?” (p. 177). Then: “The ads for the last weeks of Antony and Cleopatra brought a groundswell of new demands for tickets” (p. 181). A little later, Davis writes, “She saw, when she returned, that others of her own crowd had arrived – Harold Channing, the cast of Antony and Cleopatra” (p. 192). And there is a reference to a line of Antony’s that I often say when the Los Angeles heat gets to me: “It was Danny’s voice that said, close to her ear: ‘I am dying, Egypt, dying’” (p. 200). Then, when Jane finds herself in the role of defendant, Davis writes, “The lines fighting to gain access to the courtroom resembled, Jane reflected dispassionately, those that had wrangled for tickets at the box office of Antony and Cleopatra” (p. 201). And later, Davis writes, “The excitement reminded her of Antony and Cleopatra” (p. 244). Cleopatra’s speech is again quoted: “‘I have immortal longings in me,’ she heard herself whisper through cracked dry lips” (p. 299). There is another mention of the play: “his reappearance at Antony and Cleopatra” (p. 334). There is one more mention of this play before the end: “Standing on the stage in Antony and Cleopatra” (p. 395), followed by Cleopatra’s speech again: “Give me my robe, put on my crown: I have/Immortal longings in me” (p. 395).

One of the book’s other characters, Nick, is part of a production of Romeo And Juliet, and so there are several references to that play. The first reference comes before that, however: “It was the way she used to throw a key into hopscotch boxes. ‘Parting is such sweet sorrow….’ he whispered, and was gone” (p. 276).Then Davis writes: “Nick had acceded to Jane’s insistence that he do Romeo. There hadn’t been a Broadway production for more than twenty years, not since the ill-fated Olivier-Leigh staging. The public, Jane insisted, deserved to see Nick as the archetypal lover” (p. 279). A moment later, Davis writes, “At the Guinea, in Bruton Place, where someone had mentioned they served the best steak, Nick – eating his raw – declared he was afraid, not ready to tackle Shakespeare” (p. 279). And then: “We’ll get Steve Hearn for Mercutio” (p. 279). And then: “Before Romeo and Juliet opened, Kennedy was elected president” (p. 280). And then: “Romeo and Juliet, despite all acclaim – there was a limited audience for Shakespeare – was closing” (p. 281). Just before the book ends, there is another mention of this play: “She walked on to stand before the theater of his final Broadway victory, Romeo and Juliet” (p. 402).

There are still other Shakespeare references. Judith Davis writes, “In the next weeks, Jane had to reprimand Bill for the influx of gifts – flowers, animals of porcelain, a jeweled watch, a gilded anthology of Shakespeare” (p. 180). There is also this Hamlet reference: “The drinks she’d had – both before coming and here – garbled her thoughts. What’s he to Hecuba? flashed through them” (p. 234). Hamlet’s line is “What’s Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba/That he should weep for her?” There is also a reference to The Two Gentlemen Of Verona: “A line throbbed in her head. How wayward is this foolish love… It obsessed her as she ordered Laura to pack Tommy’s things, had Ted Wilcox bear the three of them off to Greenwich” (pages 242-243). In the play, Julia says, “Fie, fie, how wayward is this foolish love/That like a testy babe will scratch the nurse.” The book then has a mention of Cymbeline: “An argument about Cymbeline turned into a scramble in which they tossed armfuls of leaves at one another” (p. 252). There is also a reference to The Tempest: “Meanwhile, what it was she made of her son – his capacity not merely to tolerate but to embrace diversity – this itself could presage that ‘brave new world,’ that had such people in it: those never ready to cast the first stone” (p. 303). It is interesting that Davis puts quotes only around “brave new world” and not “that had such people in it,” for Miranda’s line is “O brave new world/That has such people in ‘t.” Then, before quoting a speech from Love’s Labour’s Lost, Davis writes: “‘From Shakespeare. But we could keep that secret,’ Nick said” (p. 303). And these are the lines quoted from Love’s Labour’s Lost: “At Christmas I no more desire a rose/Than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled mirth;/But like of each thing that in season grows” (P. 303). There is another mention of Shakespeare several pages later: “With the Gurneys, she attended the opening of Hair at the New York Shakespeare Festival’s Public Theatre” (p. 316). We then have another Hamlet reference, with Davis writing: “He awoke after even less sleep than usual. ‘Come on, I’m eager to die. “The readiness is all…”’” (p. 327). Hamlet’s line is “If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all.” And then there is another mention of Shakespeare: “Nick mounted the Pyramid of the Sun, recited Shakespeare, soon disappeared from the Zona Rosa” (p. 356). That is followed by a reference to the opening lines of Richard The Third: “Jane was preparing for another winter of discontent – new rumblings of trouble in the Middle East, India at war with Pakistan, all charges against the National Guard at Kent State dropped” (p. 356). Richard’s first lines are: “Now is the winter of our discontent/Made glorious summer by this son of York.” That is followed by another mention of Shakespeare: “a leading actor of the Royal Shakespeare Company” (p. 384).

Amazing Grace was published in 1981. The copy I read was a hardcover first printing from April 1981.