Shakespeare References in Have Space Suit – Will Travel

Robert A. Heinlein’s Have Space Suit – Will Travel contains several Shakespeare references. The first is to Macbeth. In this section, one of the characters strings together several well-known passages about sleep, including “Sleep, that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care” (p. 61). That line is spoken by Macbeth after the murder of Duncan. The next reference is also to Macbeth, but King Lear is also mentioned. Kip quotes, “Lay on, Macduff, and curs’d be him who first cries, ‘Hold, enough!’” (p. 96). Peewee then says, “King Lear,” and Kip corrects her: “Macbeth. Want to bet?” The next reference is to Hamlet. Kip quotes, “Neither a borrower nor a lender be” (p. 193). This time Peewee accurately identifies the line. She says: “Polonius. He was a stupid old bore.” There is then another Macbeth reference. When Kip learns that a world was destroyed as soon as judgment was passed, a line from Macbeth occurs to him. Heinlein writes, “I gulped and heard an echo in my mind: ‘– ‘twere well it were done quickly’” (p. 223). That line is spoken by Macbeth in the Act I Scene vii.

There are also a couple of references to The Tempest. The alien race is essentially putting humanity on trial, saying, in part, that humans have no art. In response Kip says: “Have you read our poetry? ‘Our revels now are ended: these our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits, and are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, the cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself. . . itself – yea – all which it. . . inherit – shall dissolve’” (pages 235-236). Heinlein continues: “I broke down. I heard Peewee sobbing beside me. I don’t know why I picked that one – but they say the subconscious mind never does things ‘accidentally.’ I guess it had to be that one” (p. 236). Soon after that, Heinlein writes: “I looked around at the hall. – the cloud-capped towers. . . the great globe itself – ‘Just this!’ I said savagely” (p. 237). The final reference is to The Merchant Of Venice. A character says, “Slow down; you won’t send anybody, unless I get my pound of flesh” (p. 248).

Have Space Suit – Will Travel was published in 1958. The First Ballentine Books Edition was published in December 1977. The copy I read was the fourth printing, from October 1978.

Shakespeare References in Metropolitan Life

Metropolitan Life, written by Fran Lebowitz, contains several Shakespeare references. The first is a play on As You Like It, with Lebowitz writing, “I jot down an idea I have for an all-black version of a Shakespearean comedy to be called As You Likes It” (pages 14-15). The next is a reference to Shakespeare himself, and comes in a playful sort of questionnaire: “If I were stranded alone on a desert island and could have only one book I would want… a. The Bible. b. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. c. The Wind In The Willows. d. Truman Capote’s address book” (p. 30). Obviously, the only choice there is B. That same questionnaire contains a reference to Romeo And Juliet: “As far as I am concerned, a rose by any other name is… a. Still the same. b. A flower c. A color. d. A scent. e. A Kennedy” (p. 31). Of course, it should be “ a rose by any other word.” This book also contains a reference to The Merchant Of Venice. Lebowitz writes: “Tricks have feelings too, as they will be the first to tell you. If you prick them they do indeed bleed – usually your good vodka” (pages 95-96). There she is playing on a line from Shylock’s famous speech from the first scene of Act III, “If you prick us, do we not bleed?”

In a chapter titled “Why I Love Sleep,” Fran Lebowitz talks about some historical figures who slept, one of whom is William Shakespeare. Lebowitz writes: “Known as the Bard among his colleagues in the word game, Shakespeare was undoubtedly one of literature’s more inspired and prolific sleepers. Proof of this exists in the form of a bed found in the house he occupied in Stratford-upon-Avon. Further references to sleeping have been discovered in his work, and although there is some question as to whether he actually did all his own sleeping (scholarly debate currently centers around the possibility that some of it was done by Sir Francis Bacon), we are nevertheless safe in assuming that William Shakespeare was indeed a sleeper of note” (pages 125-126). In that passage, she jokes about those morons who think someone else wrote the plays attributed to Shakespeare. There is another reference to Shakespeare: “As an aficionado of literature it might interest you to know that, in all of Shakespeare, the word assertive appears not a single time” (p. 181). The book’s final Shakespeare reference is to Hamlet, and it comes in a chapter title: “OR NOT CB: THAT IS THE ANSWER” (p. 198).

Metropolitan Life was published in 1978. The copy I read was the paperback edition.