Shakespeare References in Portrait Of A Marriage

Nigel Nicolson's book about his parents, Portrait Of A Marriage, contains a few Shakespeare references. The first reference, I assume, is to The Merchant Of Venice, though it could also be to Julius Caesar: "He was invited to Knole in June, as Lady Sackville's guest more than Vita's, and sat in the pouring rain to watch Vita's performance as Portia in an open-air Shakespearean masque" (p. 84). The more famous of Shakespeare's Portias is the one in The Merchant Of Venice, but Portia is also the wife of Brutus in Julius Caesar. There is also a Hamlet reference, with Nicolson writing, "That was the rub" (p. 192). While Shakespeare didn't invent that word, he popularized it, using it first in Hamlet, and then in two other plays. The book also contains a reference to Othello. This comes in a quoted passage from his brother's diary: "D. said she was like Iago, and that nobody would ever believe that such a person could exist" (p. 198).

Portrait Of A Marriage was published in 1973. The copy I read was the paperback Bantam edition from 1974.