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Page 56 in broad plot revisions. In many Regencies and historical romances, Shakespeare encodes and potentially revises plot situations in ways that relate to the reader’s cultural context. Some such references function as “incidental Shakespeare,” non-quoted allusions that are typically tied only to specific incidents. For example, characters often draw on Hamlet to persuade someone to action, either romantic or political. In Loretta Chase’s The Vagabond Viscount (1988), Max (Lord Rand) reinterprets Hamlet to persuade his friend to propose: “Can’t think about those things or you end up thinking and hesitating forever.” “Like Hamlet, you mean.” ‘‘Exactly. There he was meditating, waiting, and watching— and where does it get him? His sweetheart kills herself. Don’t blame her. The chap wore out her patience.” Mr. Langdon considered this startling theory briefly, then objected to it on grounds that Hamlet was not first and foremost a love story. There was, after all, the matter of the father’s murder to be avenged. “On whose say-so?” Max argued. “A ghost. He had no business seeing ghosts. If he’d attended to the girl properly, he wouldn’t have had time to see ghosts.” (149–50) Max relocates the significance of Hamlet squarely in the love plot. Thus, Chase simultaneously uses and interrogates Shakespeare as a kind of cultural shorthand. Comparable incidental references appear in: Joan Wolf’s The Counterfeit Marriage (1980)/Hamlet; Elizabeth Mansfield’s Matched Pairs (1996)/Romeo and Juliet; Jo Beverley’s The Stanforth Secrets (1989)/Othello; Rita Boucher’s The Would-Be Witch (1997)/The Tempest; and a host of other romance novels.3 Hamlet invokes paralyzing indecisiveness; Romeo and Juliet, reckless or thwarted love; Othello, destructive jealousy; The Tempest’s Caliban, lust, and so forth. Incidental Shakespeare relies on Shakespeare to connote emotional states; however, such references frequently interrogate the plays as well. Once again Shakespeare both articulates the romantic obstacle and enables its resolution, but in these cases is more often tied to actions or situations than to character development. More widespread appropriations occur in romance novels that take the Regency stage as their context; these actress-novels use |
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