Shakespeare References in Rock On Film

Fred Goodman’s Rock On Film: The Movies That Rocked The Big Screen contains a few Shakespeare references. The first is to Romeo And Juliet, with Goodman writing, “The story of Sex Pistols vocalist Sid Vicious and his partner Nancy Spungen would play liked a drugged rock and roll Romeo and Juliet – by turns toxic and romanticized – in Alex Cox’s Sid and Nancy” (p. 27). The next reference is to Julius Caesar. It comes in the section about This Is Spinal Tap. Goodman writes, “It’s rare that an in-the-know film comes to bury rather than praise rock” (p. 81). In the most famous speech of the play, Antony says, “I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.” In the section on Viva Las Vegas, Goodman mentions Kiss Me Kate (p. 100), which of course is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Taming Of The Shrew. And the final reference is to Romeo And Juliet. While talking about Cry-Baby, Goodman writes, “Think of it as the disrespectful Baltimore love child of Romeo and Juliet and Rebel Without a Cause pitting the drapes against the squares” (p. 179).

Rock On Film: The Movies That Rocked The Big Screen was published in 2022.

Shakespeare References in Nostromo

Joseph Conrad’s novel Nostromo itself doesn’t contain Shakespeare references, but the book’s introduction does. The edition I read was edited with an introduction and notes by Martin Seymour-Smith, and the book’s first page has a short biography of Seymour-Smith. In that short biography, it states, “His best-known works are Guide to Modern World Literature, Reminiscences of Norma (poems), Bluffers’ Guide to Literature (satire), the pioneer old-spelling edition of Shakespeare’s sonnets” (p. 1). Then there is a quoted line from Shakespeare’s King John: “‘so foul a sky clears not without a storm’ SHAKESPEARE” (p. 6). That line is spoken by King John in Act IV scene ii. And the introduction itself contains a reference to Shakespeare. Seymour-Smith writes, “But Conrad knew as well as Shakespeare that lilies that fester are worse than weeds” (p. 14). He is referring to Sonnet 94, in which Shakespeare wrote, “For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;/Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.”

Nostromo was first published in 1904. It was first published by Penguin Books in 1963. The edition I read was published in 1983.