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.