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Page 55

appropriate prospective bridegroom to meet his daughter. Though based in part on Miles’s interest in Shakespeare, his choice for his daughter proves sound.

Shakespeare-quoting characters like Lucinda and Walter Renwick seem, at first glance, caricatures or socially isolated cultural parasites, but their reasons for embracing Shakespeare prove to be complex negotiations with personal shyness (Lucinda’s difficulties speaking in society) or trying personal conditions (Renwick’s efforts to deal with the death of his spendthrift wife). In the process, Shakespeare serves both the characters’ isolation and their social reinstatement.

The most interesting Shakespeare-quoters establish both character and relationships by appropriating his words. In The Game of Love (1988), Edith Layton’s gigantic hero, Arden Lyons, embodies the sentiment expressed by the opening epigram from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, that “a lion among ladies is a most dreadful thing” (5; 3.1.28–29). An Earl’s bastard, he proves noble despite his illegitimacy in part through his use of Shakespeare, likening his lady to the pearl in the Ethiope’s ear from Romeo and Juliet (1.5.43) and challenging an army deserter with Falstaff’s words about honor from 1 Henry IV (5.1.127–39). His accurate reading of Falstaff’s speech reveals an innate nobility, especially in contrast to the well-born army deserter who mistakenly applauds Falstaff’s reading of honor. Arden, as it turns out, is the ‘‘true lion” who does not want to touch the “princess,” who in turn must convince him of his worth. For Layton’s hero and others, Shakespearean language affirms a character’s status (despite apparent degradation or illegitimacy) as well as his or her suitability for a comparably literate mate.

Shakespearean quotations also identify a particular kind of heroine, namely the intellectual or bluestocking. These characters—Joan Overfield’s Elinor Denning (The Spirited Bluestocking [1992]), Brenda Hiatt’s Deirdre Wheaton (The Ugly Ducking [1992]), Carla Kelly’s Ellen Grimsley (Miss Grimsley’s Oxford Career [1992]) —reveal unusual intellect for Regency heroines, in part through Shakespearean references. The same quotations establish their compatibility with heroes who often either quote Shakespeare first or quote back to their bluestocking beloveds. These references also ally the heroines with their 1990s readers, especially since the heroines often read Mary Wollstonecraft and advocate feminist changes in government, education, or science.

Beyond these effects in characterization, Shakespeare also contributes to structure both in isolated incidents and more globally

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