Shakespeare References in Lady Chatterley’s Lover

D.H. Lawrence wrote three versions of Lady Chatterley’s Lover. The version I read is the third version, originally published in 1928, and this edition includes “Apropos of ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’,” as well as an introduction by Doris Lessing. And it contains few Shakespeare reference. The first is to The Winter’s Tale. D.H Lawrence writes, “‘Sweeter than the lids of Juno’s eyes,’ he quoted” (p. 91). Indeed, the character is quoting Perdita’s lines from the fourth scene of Act IV: “Daffodils,/That come before the swallow dares, and take/The winds of March with beauty; violets dim,/But sweeter than the lids of Juno’s eyes/Or Cytherea’s breath.” The book contains a series of notes at the end, and the note on that line reads, “Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale, IV.iv.121” (p. 353). The next reference is to Shakespeare himself, with Lawrence writing: “Tevershall! That was Tevershall! Merrie England! Shakespeare’s England!” (p. 153). Then we get a reference to Cassius’ great speech from Act I Scene ii of Julius Caesar. Lawrence writes: “He had a natural sort of quiet distinction, an aloof pride, and also, a certain look of frailty. A hireling! One of Clifford’s hirelings! ‘The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings’” (p. 161). This is the speech in which Cassius works to convince Brutus to take part in the opposition to Caesar. A note at the back identifies the passage: “Julius Caesar, I. ii. 140-141” (p. 355). There is also a reference to Hamlet: “Duncan was a rather short, broad, dark-skinned, taciturn Hamlet of a fellow with straight black hair and a weird celtic conceit of himself” (p. 286).

This edition of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, was published in 2006.