Wyrd Sisters - Страница 56

31

Lady Macbeth says this in Macbeth, act 2, scene 2.

32

Macbeth, act 1, scene 7: “If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly.”

33

“Granny glanced…” This is another misprint: it should be Nanny, not Granny. Terry says the error is not present in his own version of the text, but both the UK and USA paperbacks have it. Fixed.

34

A concept straight out of the Arthurian legends.

35

Venus Anadyomene is the classical image of Venus rising from the sea (from which she was born), accompanied by dolphins. The name is given to the famous lost painting by Apelles, as well as to the one by Botticelli in the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Florence.

36

Duke Felmet is echoing the words of Richard Nixon’s subordinates under questioning by the Senate Committee during the Watergate affair.

37

A Wizard of Oz reference.

38

My sources tell me that Black Annis is the name of a fearsome witch from Celtic/Saxon mythology.

39

Refers to the Cheshire cat in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a beast famous for slowly vanishing until only its grin remains.

40

Herne the Hunter is a spectral hunter of medieval legend, said to originally have been a keeper in Windsor Forest. Herne appears in many stories, varying from Shakespeare (who else) to the fairly recent ITV television series “Robin of Sherwood” (starring Jason “son of” Connery).

When alt.fan.pratchett readers mistakenly assumed that the reference originated from this series, Terry cautioned: “Be careful when reference spotting … Herne the Hunter certainly did turn up in the Robin of Sherwood series and on an album by “Let’s breathe romantically to music” group Clannad, but any passing pagan will tell you he goes back a lot, lot further than that.”

Herne the Hunter also appears himself in Lords and Ladies. Here is some relevant information condensed from the book The Western Way by John and Caitlin Matthews:

“Herne the Hunter / Cernunnos is God of green and growing things; huntsman, spirit of earth, birth and masculinity. Often pictured seated cross-legged with antlers on his brow, he is […] tutelary deity of many modern witch covens.”

41

This refers to the 1960 movie version of H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine, where the director uses the effect described to indicate the rapid passing of time.

42

Describes The Phantom of the Opera, another musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber. See also the annotations for Maskerade.

43

The protagonist in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest was found, as a baby, in a handbag.

44

The clowns are the Marx Brothers. The third clown is Harpo, who never speaks, only honks (“business with bladder on a stick”). The short speech that follows, “This iss My Little Study …” is typical Groucho, and the “Atsa right, Boss” is Chico.

45

Laurel & Hardy. Laurel’s first name was Stan. See also the annotation for p. 73/65 of The Colour of Magic.

46

The famous Globe Theatre (which was octagonal in form!) was built by Cuthbert Barbage on the Bankside in Southwark (London) in 1599. Shakespeare had a share in the theatre and acted there.

The Globe was destroyed by fire, rebuilt, and eventually completely demolished in 1644. Currently, The Globe is being rebuilt again by an American entrepreneur on the South Bank, a few hundred yards from its original site.

47

As You Like It, act 2, scene 7: “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; […]”

48

I have resisted annotating this for 7 editions of the APF, but oh what the heck: Hwel is dreaming of Charlie Chaplin.

49

Dopey is one of the seven dwarfs in Walt Disney’s animated Snow White. Terry likes toying with Disney’s dwarf names. See for instance the annotation for p. 324/271 of Moving Pictures.

50

This is (in spirit) the St Crispin’s Day speech from King Henry V. See the annotation for p. 239/238

51

This is a sarcastic comment on the behaviour of most generic fantasy dwarfs, but of course the main image it invokes is of classic Tolkien characters like Thorin Oakenshield, etc.

52

The abbreviation GBH stands for Grievous Bodily Harm.

53

Puns on a well-known Shakespeare quote from Hamlet (act 2, scene 2):

The play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king

If you have access to the Internet, you can find online versions of all of Shakespeare’s plays at the URL:

54

This can of course refer to a thousand different movies or plays. In view of the general influences for this book, however, I’d bet my money on Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

55

What follows is a parody on Macbeth, act 4, scene 1, in which three witches boil up some pretty disgusting things in their cauldron. Try reading both versions side by side.

56

The witches in Macbeth, act 4, scene 1: “Double, double toil and trouble; Fire, burn; and, cauldron, bubble.”

57

Taken from the famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy in Hamlet.

58

Hwel’s script is Richard III done as a Punch-and-Judy show.

59

Macbeth, act 2, scene 1 again.

60

Refers to Leonardo da Vinci, who also worked on (but didn’t succeed in building) a flying machine.

61

Shakespeare again: King Henry IV, part 2, act 3, scene 2:

“FALSTAFF: Old, old, Master Shallow. […] We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow.”

62

A Nanny Ogg variant on the saying “There’s many a slip ’tween the cup and the lip” (‘slip’ here meaning ‘petticoat’).

63

Sir Harold Wilson: “A week is a long time in politics”.

64

Parodies Samuel Beckett’s classic play Waiting for Godot, where similar dialogue occurs.

65

Stereotypical (but basically true) propaganda that radical vegetarians like to quote in order to gross people out and get them to stop eating meat (of course, the average vegetarian has about five pounds of undigested vegetable matter in his intestines). The cliché is used fairly often, amongst other places in the movie Beverly Hills Cop.

Terry had this to say on the subject: “Yep. That one I got from some way out vegetarian stuff I read years ago, and went round feeling ill about for days. And two years ago I saw Beverly Hills Cop on TV and rejoiced when I heard the line. God, I wish I’d seen the film before I’d written Guards! Guards! … I’d have had someone out on stake-duty on horseback, and someone creep up behind them with a banana …”

Note that in Men at Arms, the second City Watch book, Terry does manage to work in a Beverly Hills Cop joke. See the annotation for p. 251/190 of Men At Arms.

66

Macbeth, act 1, scene 2: “All hail, Macbeth; that shalt be king hereafter!”

67

Macbeth, act 3, scene 4:

...

Macbeth: ‘The table’s full.’

Lennox: ‘Here is a place reserv’d, sir.’

Macbeth: ‘Where?’

Visible only to Macbeth the ghost of Banquo is sitting in his chair.

68

Macbeth, act 4, scene 1: “How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!”

69

Neither did the three witches from Macbeth, if you read carefully, but I nevertheless think there is a reference here: act 1, scene 3.

70

One of Shakespeare’s more famous sonnets (Sonnet XVIII, to be precise) starts out:

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

71

A reference to Richard the Third. A rather appropriate reference: in Shakespeare’s Richard III, he is presented as an evil, lame, hunchbacked king, whom Henry must kill to save England. This is not historically correct—rather it is how Henry would have liked people to remember it. Had Shakespeare strayed from the ‘official’ version he would have found himself in deep trouble with Henry’s heirs—royalty was taken seriously in those days.

72

Hamlet, act 3, scene 2: “To hold, as ‘twere, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.”

73

One of the ingredients in Macbeth, act 4, scene 1 is a “finger of birth-strangled babe, ditch-delivered by a drabe”.