Referencing Shakespeare

During the English Renaissance, theatre was one of the more popular forms of entertainment. As audiences began to frequent specific theatres, players and playwrights capitalized on this by planting lines in their plays that referenced other plays in a way that we now refer to as “Easter eggs” in films. For example, in Twelfth Night, Feste says “I might say ‘element,’ but the word is overworn.” It is thought that this line was a jab at playwright Ben Jonson and his overuse of the word “element” in one of his plays during the War of the Theatres (when numerous playwrights between 1599 and 1602 wrote and produced satirical plays that poked fun at the work of other playwrights). Thomas Dekker also made fun of Jonson for the same thing in his play, Satiromastix. These moments were thought to bring great joy to theatregoers who could understand the inside jokes. The jokes also have helped scholars pinpoint more precisely when some of the era’s plays were written, since they could use the back and forth between the playwrights to place the plays in chronological order. Shakespeare in Love continues this tradition in a tongue-in-cheek manner. Those familiar with the works of Shakespeare and some of his contemporaries will find numerous “Easter eggs” throughout the play. For example, the play contains some obvious allusions to Shakespeare’s work, such as Will crafting Sonnet 18 at the beginning of the play (“Shall I compare thee to a mummer’s play?”) and the players performing pieces of The Two Gentlemen of Verona. However, some allusions are more sneakily integrated into the play, such as songs recognizable from Twelfth Night, the talk of a dog being eaten by a bear (reminiscent of a famous moment in The Winter’s Tale), another dog (named Spot) being asked to leave the stage with the words “Out, damn Spot,” (reference to Macbeth) and more. How many can you find?—Martine Kei Green-Rogers, dramaturg

Reprinted from OSF’s 2017 Illuminations, a 64-page guide to the season’s plays. For more information on the play, click here. To buy the full Illuminations, click here. Members at the Donor level and above and teachers who bring school groups to OSF receive a free copy of Illuminations.