When authors refer to other great works, people, and events, it’s usually not accidental. Put on your super-sleuth hat and figure out why.
Literary and Philosophical References
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1.6)
- John Keats, " Lamia " (1.19)
- Moliere, Les Préciuses Ridicules (4.Epigraph)
- Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: The Clerk's Tale (4.1)
- William Shakespeare, Macbeth (4.5)
- William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (5.Epigraph)
- Goethe, Faust (5.11)
- William Shakespeare (5.17; 16.10)
- William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream (5.25)
- Alexander Pope (5.50)
- Fontenelle, Pluralité des Mondes (6.Epigraph)
- William Shakespeare, Othello (6.15; 29.64)
- William Browne, Brittania's Pastorals (6.23; 52.5)
- Jean Racine (6.28)
- Homer, The Iliad (6.32, 10.25)
- William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale (6.34; 31.Epigraph)
- Edmund Spenser, Shepheard's Calendar (7.Epigraph)
- Charles Lamb, Specimens of English Dramatic Poets (7.Epigraph)
- Calypso, from Homer, The Odyssey (10.6)
- Apollo, Greek god of light, sun, truth, archery, and more! (10.10)
- George Gordon, Lord Byron (11.48; 16.43)
- Sir Joshua Reynolds, Nineteenth-century British painter (11.56)
- Giacomo Meyerbeer, Opera Composer (11.81)
- Eugene Scribe, Opera Librettist (11.81)
- Robin Hood and Maid Marian (11.109)
- William Shakespeare, Henry IV (12.Epigraph)
- William Cowper, Seventeenth-century British poet (13.23)
- Theocritus, Idylls (14.1)
- William Shakespeare, As You Like It (14.33)
- Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica (15.Epigraph)
- Diana, Goddess of the hunt, the moon, and chastity (15.21)
- Peter Lely (16.8)
- Sir Godfrey Kneller (16.8)
- Leibnitz (16.40)
- Richard Porson (16.40)
- Percy Bysshe Shelley (16.57)
- Charles Lamb (16.60)
- Hans Holbein (16.60; 39.36)
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Locksley Hall (17.Epigraph)
- William Wordsworth, "Ode: Intimations of Immortality" (17.2)
- Titian (17.2)
- Friedrich Schiller (18.10)
- The Book of Revelations (18.10)
- Laurence Sterne, Sentimental Journey (19.Epigraph)
- Aeschylus, The Oresteia (19.2)
- William Shakespeare, Henry VIII (22.1)
- Homer, The Odyssey (22.7; 37.Epigraph)
- Felix Mendelssohn (22.8)
- Franz Schubert (22.19)
- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (23.67)
- William Wordsworth, " The Affliction of Margaret " (24.Epigraph)
- La Rochefoucauld, Maximes (28.Epigraph; 52.Epigraph)
- Walt Whitman, " Vocalism " (29.Epigraph)
- William Shakespeare, The Tempest (29.41)
- Samuel Richardson, Clarissa (32.8)
- Sophocles, Antigone (32.45)
- Ludwig von Beethoven (32.57)
- Heinrich Heine, "Prinzessin Sabbath" (34.Epigraph)
- La Fontaine, Fables (36.Epigraph)
- Homer (37.16)
- John Milton (37.35)
- William Shakespeare, King John (37.104)
- William Shakespeare, King Lear (37.104)
- Prometheus (38.Epigraph)
- Baruch de Spinoza (38.2)
- Jehuda ha-Levi, Hebrew poet (38.12)
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, " West-östlicher Divan "
- William Wordsworth, The Excursion (40.Epigraph)
- Titian, Tribute Money (40.18)
- Aristotle, Poetics (41.Epigraph)
- John Milton, Paradise Regained (41.3)
- Leopold Zunz, Die Synagogale Poesie des Mittelalters (42.Epigraph)
- Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Unbound (42.37)
- Sir Walter Scott (42.39)
- Voltaire (42.70)
- John Keats, "Sonnet on Seeing the Elgin Marbles" (43.Epigraph)
- Montaigne, On Friendship (46.Epigraph)
- William Wordsworth, "A Poet's Epitaph" (47.Epigraph)
- Medusa (48.93)
- Robert Browning, "Paracelsus" (50.Epigraph)
- Dante, Inferno (50.16; 55.Epigraph)
- George Eliot, "Erinna" (51.Epigraph)
- Rembrandt (52.3)
- Psalm 74 (52.3)
- Janus, Roman god of doorways (52.3)
- Gainsborough (52.6)
- Schiller, Don Carlos (52.57)
- William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (53.Epigraph)
- Percy Bysshe Shelley, "The Cenci" (54.Epigraph)
- Dante, Purgatorio (54.1; 64.Epigraph)
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, " Rime of the Ancient Mariner " (56.Epigraph)
- Marcus Aurelius (57.Epigraph)
- Nicholas Breton, "Phillida and Coridon" (58.Epigraph)
- William Shakespeare, Richard II (59.Epigraph)
- Jeremy Taylor, "Via intelligentiae: A Sermon Preached to the University of Dublin, shewing by what means the scholars shall become most learned and most useful." (60.Epigraph)
- John Milton, Areopagitica (60.6)
- Guido Guinicelli, Canzone (61.Epigraph)
- Heinrich Heine, " Lamentations " (62.Epigraph)
- Heinrich Heine, "Geständnisse" (63.Epigraph)
- John Milton, Comus (65.Epigraph)
- Robert Browning, The Ring and the Book (66.Epigraph)
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Love" (68.Epigraph)
- William Wordsworth, The Prelude (69.Epigraph)
- The Book of Ruth (70.13)
- John Milton, Samson Agonistes (70.15)
Historical References
- Saint Cecilia (3.18)
- Napoleon Bonaparte (6.12)
- Henry the Eighth (16.8)
- Christopher Columbus (16.12; 41.10)
- Pericles, Ancient Greek Statesman (16.12; 16.40)
- George Washington (16.40)
- Napoleon III (34.20)
- Nicolaus Copernicus (41.3)
- Galileo Galilei (4.3)
- Moses ben Maimon (43.7)
- Oliver Cromwell (46.1)
- St. Francis of Assisi (46.1)
- Maimonides (52.3)
Pop Culture References
- Jenny Lind (5.31)