Shakespeare References in The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare

As you might guess from the title of Lilian Jackson Braun’s novel The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare, there are plenty of Shakespeare references. The cover’s artwork includes a copy of Hamlet. And the description on in the inside flap of the dust jacket includes some references: “There’s something rotten in the small town of Pickax” and “Koko’s snooping into an unusual edition of Shakespeare may prove CATastophic…because somewhere in Pickax a lady loves not wisely but too well, a widow is scandalously merry and a stranger has a lean and hungry look” and “the second act of murder most meow.” The first reference in the story itself is to The Tempest: “It was a slender leather-bound copy of The Tempest – one of a thirty-seven-volume set of Shakespeare’s plays that had come with the house” (p. 6). In the story, Qwilleran has two cats, one of whom likes to knock books from the shelf. Qwilleran is a little nutty, and believes the cat is communicating with him through his choice of books. And later he tells someone: “He’s particularly attracted to those small volumes of Shakespeare in pigskin bindings. Yesterday I found Hamlet on the floor” (p. 31). Lilian Jackson Braun writes: “And then he quoted one of his favorite lines from Shakespeare. ‘Her voice was ever soft, gentle and low – an excellent thing in woman’” (pages 33-34). Polly responds to Qwilleran, “That’s from King Lear, act five, scene three” (p. 34). That in turn leads Qwilleran to say, “I am amazed and know not what to say” (p. 34). Polly then responds: “That’s Hermia’s line in act three, scene two, of A Midsummer Night’s Dream… Don’t look so surprised, Qwill. I told you my father was a Shakespeare scholar. We children knew the plays as well as our peers knew the big-league batting averages” (p. 34). The book’s next two references are to Shakespeare: “The four walls of books were accented by marble busts of Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare” (p. 38) and “It was ever soft, gentle, and low, and she knew Shakespeare forward and backward” (p. 39).

A little later, while Qwilleran is again talking with Polly, Jackson Braun writes: “‘He’s on a Shakespeare kick,’ Qwilleran said. ‘It may have something to do with the pigskin bindings. Just before you arrived, he pushed A Midsummer Night’s Dream off the shelf’” (p. 43). Polly then tells him she is named after one of that play’s characters. Qwilleran guesses, “Hippolyta?” (p. 43). Polly tells him her father named all her siblings after characters in the plays. “My brothers are Marc Antony and Brutus, and my poor sister Ophelia has had to endure bawdy remarks ever since the fifth grade” (p. 43). Odd characters to name your children after, I think. Anyway, the cat is soon knocking more books off the shelf. “On the floor lay the thin volume of King Henry VIII” (p. 44). Qwilleran then says, “There’s a gripping scene for a woman in the play – where the queen confronts the two cardinals” (p. 44). Jackson Braun writes: “‘It’s tremendous!’ Polly said. ‘Katherine claims to be a poor weak woman but she blasts the two learned men. “Ye have angels’ faces, but heaven knows your hearts!’” Do you ever wonder about the true identity of Shakespeare, Qwill?’” Polly then goes on to say she believes that Shakespeare was a woman. Nonsense, of course, all that garbage about someone else having written Shakespeare’s plays. The next reference is to Hamlet: “It was Hamlet again, and a line in the first scene caught his eye: ‘‘Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed’” (p. 48). There is a nod to Hamlet when Junior tells Qwilleran: “Yeah, I’ve been dreaming about my father every night. He’s just standing there in his leather apron and square paper hat, all covered with blood, and he’s telling me something, but I can’t hear it” (pages 57-58). His father’s death is believed to be an accident, but as it turns out, it was no such thing.

The cat continues knocking books from the shelf: “But whatever the explanation for Koko’s special interest in these books, two of them were now on the floor, and they happened to be Qwilleran’s favorite plays: Macbeth and Julius Caesar” (p. 82). Jackson Braun then writes: “He leafed through the latter until he found a passage he liked: the conspiracy scene, in which men plotting to assassinate Caesar meet under cover of darkness, shadowing their faces with their cloaks. ‘And let us bathe our hands in Caesar’s blood up to the elbows, and besmear our swords’” (pages 82-83). Jackson Braun then mentions Macbeth again: “Conspiracy, Qwilleran reflected, was Shakespeare’s favorite device for establishing conflict, creating suspense, and grabbing the emotions of the audience. In Macbeth there was the conspiracy to murder the old king. ‘Who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?’” (p. 83). There is another nod to Hamlet during an interview, when Amos says of a girl, “Throwed herself in the river one dark night” (p. 102), and another character mentions the poor girl had no mother. Soon Polly says to Qwilleran, “That’s not Shakespeare, Qwill” (P. 103). There is then a reference to Romeo And Juliet: “He seemed to have no friends, except Mrs. Cobb, and this inept Romeo now wanted to give her a .22 rifle!” (p. 107). And the cat continues its work, knocking books to the floor: “On this occasion Koko’s selection was The Life of Henry V, a good choice, Qwilleran thought. He thumbed through the pages for a passage he liked: the king’s pep talk to his troops. ‘Once more unto the breach, dear friend; once more!’” (p. 117). (By the way, there is a mistake there; it should be “dear friends.”) Lilian Jackson Braun continues: “It was a powerful speech, filled with graphic detail. ‘But when the blast of war blows in our ears, then imitate the action of the tiger!’” (p. 117). And then: “Bellowing at full volume, Qwilleran delivered the last line: ‘Cry God for Henry! England and Saint George!’” (p. 118). But the cat is not done: “This time it was All’s Well That Ends Well” (p. 120).

Qwilleran at times tries to figure it out what it is about these particular books that interests the cat. Lilian Jackson Braun writes: “He wrested the book away from Koko. It was Hamlet again. Before returning it to the shelf he sniffed it. Qwilleran had a keen sense of smell, but all he could detect was the odor of old book. He sniffed Macbeth and the other titles Koko had dislodged. They all smelled like old book. Then he compared the odor with titles that Koko had so far ignored: Othello, As You Like It, and Antony and Cleopatra. He had to admit they all smelled exactly the same – like old book” (p. 136). Passages like this prove again that people who own cats are insane. Anyway, Qwilleran interviews various people, and in one of those interviews, Homer Tibbitt says: “I used to have a Falstaff in one of my classes, and a Scroop. Straight out of Shakespeare, eh?” (p. 145). There is another reference to Hamlet: “‘No readings tonight,’ he told Koko. ‘I’ve had enough stimulation for one day. “The rest is silence.” That’s from Hamlet, in case you didn’t know’” (p. 186). Again, he’s insane. That cat later knocks another book from the shelf. “The cats were not in the library, but a copy of The Tempest lay on the floor beneath the bust of Shakespeare” (p. 194). Maybe he could close the door to the library, so the damn cat wouldn’t disturb his books. Just a thought.

The book contains another reference to Hamlet, with Qwilleran saying, “For this relief, much thanks, for it is bitter cold” (p. 202). In the first scene of the play, Francisco says, “For this relief, much thanks. ‘Tis bitter cold,/And I am sick at heart.” Polly then replies, “When you quote Shakespeare, I know you’re all right” (p. 202). Later Qwilleran says to Mrs. Hobbs, “All’s well that ends well” (p. 207). And later than that, Qwilleran says to Susan, about his cat: “He’s an insufferable snob. He’d rather play the title role in Richard the Third, I’m afraid” (p. 223). That insufferable snob knocks another book to the floor. “It was a copy of Othello, and the best-known quotation came to Qwilleran’s mind: ‘Then must you speak of one who loved not wisely but too well’” (p. 223). Is that the best-known quotation from that play? I’m not sure. Anyway, Lilian Jackson Braun continues: “As he carried the Siamese across the yard in the wicker hamper, he remembered another line, and his moustache bristled. ‘Kill me tomorrow; let me live tonight’” (p. 223). At the end of the book, Qwilleran is still trying to learn why the cat had been knocking those books from the shelf. “If so, why did he concentrate on Hamlet?” (p. 247). And then: “What was the plot of the play? Hamlet’s father had died suddenly; his mother remarried too soon; the father’s ghost revealed that he had been murdered; the mother’s name was Gertrude” (p. 247). And then: “The similarity to the Goodwinter tragedy was too fantastic; one could go mad pondering such a possibility. Koko’s predilection for Hamlet was strictly a coincidence” (p. 247). But of course it has already been established that Qwilleran is mad. At the end of the book, he is talking to the cat: “You probably don’t understand the fire and all its ramifications. Will you miss your Shakespeare game? Thirty-seven priceless little books went up in flame” (p. 248). Priceless little books that this nut let his cat damage over and over. Then he tells his cat his new plan: “Pickax needs a theater. ‘The play’s the thing,’ as Hamlet said. We’ll have a playhouse, Koko, and you can play Richard the Third” (p. 248). Again, insane.

The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare was published in 1988.