Shakespeare References in A Woman Of Substance

Barbara Taylor Bradford’s novel A Woman Of Substance contains several Shakespeare references. The first is a reference to Hamlet. Barbara Taylor Bradford writes, “Now he faced it, recognizing that at times she had been like mad Ophelia, wandering dazedly around the upstairs corridors in bewilderment, a glazed expression on her face, her hair in disarray, the floating chiffon peignoir she favored enveloping her like a nimbus” (p. 156). The next is to The Second Part Of King Henry The Sixth, with Bradford writing, “‘Aye, dead as a doornail,’ Murgatroyd muttered tersely, his darkening face revealing his distress, which was most genuine” (p. 303). The phrase “dead as a doornail” was used by the character Jack Cade, who in the fourth act says, “Look on me well: I have eat no meat these five days, yet come thou and thy five men, and if I do not leave you all as dead as a doornail, I pray God I may never eat grass more.”

The book is divided into several sections, each one beginning with a quoted passage. The third part begins with these lines from Julius Caesar: “‘Tis a common proof,/That lowliness is young ambition’s ladder,/Whereto the climber-upward turns his face” (p. 373). Brutus speaks those word in the first scene of the second act. There is also a reference to The Merchant Of Venice: “The Fairleys had had their pound of flesh and the uniforms certainly wouldn’t fit the bovine Annie” (p. 421). The next is a reference to Shakespeare himself: “He ought to be exposed to literature, such as the plays of Shakespeare, the novels of Dickens, Trollope, and Thackeray, philosophical works and histories” (pages 480-481). The final reference is to The Third Part Of King Henry The Sixth. Barbara Taylor Bradford writes: “He grinned and touched the tip of her nose playfully. ‘O tiger’s heart wrapp’d in a woman’s hide!” (p. 633). That very line, “O, tiger’s heart wrapp’d in a woman’s hide,” was used in the earliest known criticism of Shakespeare, part of which reads, “an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his tiger’s heart wrapped in a player’s hide,” playing on Shakespeare’s line. The line is spoken by York to Queen Margaret. Barbara Taylor Bradford continues, having the character admit: “Stolen from Shakespeare, I must confess. Henry VI” (p. 633).

A Woman Of Substance was published in 1979. The First Avon Printing was in May, 1980. I think the copy I read was from 1984.