Shakespeare References in Eden Burning

Belva Plain’s novel Eden Burning contains a few Shakespeare references. The first is to Romeo And Juliet, with Plain writing: “‘I don’t intend to vote at all,’ he answered curtly. ‘What I’m thinking is, A plague on both your houses’” (p. 400). That is a reference to Mercutio’s lines in Act III Scene i when he is dying: “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I am peppered, I warrant, for this world. A plague o’ both your houses!” Then Plain writes: “What happened was, some of these fellows got angry at the lady’s lies about me and decided to do something. That’s the long and the short of the whole business” (p. 409). The phrase “the long and the short” is something Shakespeare used several times, though in his work the order is reversed to “the short and the long.” In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bottom tells the other Mechanicals, “For the short and the long is, our play is preferred.” In The Merchant Of Venice, Launcelot says, “Indeed, the short and the long is, I serve the Jew.” And in The Merry Wives Of Windsor, Nym says to Page, “He loves your wife; there’s the short and the long.” Later in that play, Mistress Quickly says, “Marry, this is the short and the long of it: you have brought her into such a canaries as ‘tis wonderful.” The phrase might be older than Shakespeare, but it seems he is the one who popularized it. The novel’s final reference is to Romeo And Juliet. Plain writes: “‘We’re early,’ Kate said. ‘Father Baker’s not here yet. I feel like Juliet eloping with Romeo to the friar’s cell’” (p. 472).

Eden Burning was published in 1982. The first Dell printing was in June 1983