Shakespeare Reference in The Crucible

Arthur Miller's The Crucible contains a reference to Hamlet, which comes in the notes at the beginning of Act One. Miller writes, "The times, to their eyes, must have been out of joint, and to the common folk must have seemed as insoluble and complicated as do ours today" (p. 4). The phrase "time is out of joint" is spoken by Hamlet at the end of Act I Scene v. He says, "And still your fingers on your lips, I pray./The time is out of joint. O cursed spite/That ever I was born to set it right!"

My copy of The Crucible was the special book club edition, the Bantam Book edition, printed in 1981.