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.