EESE 8/98


Graham Swift, Ever After: a Study in Intertextuality - Appendix

Hannah Jacobmeyer (Münster)


A list of hypotexts in Ever After

The texts given in the list below have been put into chronological order vis-à-vis the novel. The list only notes the first occurence of a pre-text, not any possible repetitions of single passages. The intertextual references given here all point to a concrete text other than the hypertext, including the notebooks of Matthew Pierce (although the notebooks are, strictly speaking, different from the hypertext). They are all so-called hetero-intertextual references. The list does not include proverbs, or any texts whose presence in the hypertext is subject to discussion ('aleatory pre-texts'). It claims to give all those pre-texts which are very clearly integrated into Ever After and which are marked in some form or other (quotation marks, italics, separate paragraphs etc.). However, for the reasons given above, the list can only be understood as a help towards estimating the kind and dimensions of intertextuality in this novel. Every new reading process will allow for a new intertextual reading.

The pagination refers to Graham Swift, Ever After (London: Picador, 1992).

Ever After
pageTextSource
motto... et mentem mortalia tanguntVergil, Aeneid: I, 462
3I feel like the ghost of Troilus at the end of Chaucer's poemGeoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde
4I have imagined myself (...) as Hamlet Shakespeare, Hamlet
13(mentioned)Giaccomo Puccini, La Bohème
18/19Dove so-ono i bei momenti ... di dolce-ezza e di piacer...? Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Le Nozze di Figaro (Rosina's aria at the beginning of act III)
32Who is Sil-via? What is she-e...? Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona: IV.2.38
46Amor Vincit OmniaVergil, Eclogues: 10, 69
57Let... the wide arch of the ranged empire fall Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost: I.1.1
(at the same time: Antony and Cleopatra: I.1.33 f.)
57(mentioned)John Dryden, All for Love, or The World Well Lost
64Now might I do it pat...Shakespeare, Hamlet: III.3.73
71My true love hath my heart and I have his.Sir Philip Sidney, Song no. 45 (sonnet) from The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (The Old Arcadia), "Third Book or Act"
71Even such is time (etc.)Sir Walter Raleigh, lines which he supposedly wrote on the eve of his execution (1618); they are, with little changes, from a stanza of his love poem, "Nature that washt her hands in milk"
72You would pluck out the heart of my mystery... Shakespeare, Hamlet: III.2.356 f.
77I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I did, till we lov'd...? John Donne, "The Good-Morrow"
78Jack shall have Jill; nought shall go ill.Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream: III.2.461 f.
81Like Paolo and Francesca over the story of LancelotDante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: Hell, 5th song
85springes to catch woodcocks Shakespeare, Hamlet: I.3.115
86(mentioned)Edouard Manet, "Déjeuner sur l'herbe"
88Under the Indian bean tree, who loves to lie with me.Shakespeare, As You Like It: II.5.1 f.
93And the little hills rejoice on every side... Bible, psalm 65,12
111I am again for Cydnus to meet Mark Antony. Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra: V.2.227 f.
115Finish, good lady, the bright day is done, and we are for the dark.Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra: V.2.192 f.
116Men have died from time to time and worms have eaten them, but not for love. Shakespeare, As You Like It: IV.1.101ff.
117Give me my robe, put on my crown... Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra: V.2.279
119I have immortal longings... Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra: V.2.279 f.
120Our wooing doth not end like an old play; Jack hath not Jill. Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost: V.2.864 f.
121Now boast thee, death, in thy possession lies a lass unparallel'd.Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra: V.2.314 f.
131Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.Vergil, Georgics: 2, 490
133And the firmament sheweth his handywork.Psalm 19, 1
133Heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.Psalm 30, 5
136sub specie aeternitatisSpinoza, Ethica: 5, 29 ff. passim.
138Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be removed; and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.Psalm 46, 2
138And herb for the service of man Psalm 104, 14
141O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.Psalm 104, 24
143For there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. Shakespeare, Hamlet: II.2.249 f.
143What's Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba? Shakespeare, Hamlet: II.2.553
148Fie, 'tis a fault to heaven, a fault against the dead... Shakespeare, Hamlet: I.2.101 f.
156the funeral baked meats... Shakespeare, Hamlet: I.2.180
170We are prepared, therefore, to find (etc.)Charles Lyell, Elements of Geology (1855)
175Qui quaerit, invenit.St. Luke 11, 10
188At genus immortale manet, multosque per annos/ Stat fortuna domus... Vergil, Georgics: 4, 208 f.
194Who's there?Shakespeare, Hamlet: I.1.1
194Angels and ministers of grace defend us! Shakespeare, Hamlet: I.4.39
194'Armed, say you?' - 'Armed, my lord.' - 'From top to toe?' - 'My lord, from head to foot...'Shakespeare, Hamlet: I.2.226 f.
195''Tis here.' - ''Tis here.' - ''Tis gone...' Shakespeare, Hamlet: I.1.145 ff.
198Millais' famous painting (...) There he sits, hands clasping his drawn-up velveteen knees (etc.)John Everett Millais, "The Boyhood of Raleigh"
203Si monumentum requiris... Christopher Wren, epitaph for his father, Sir Christopher Wren, in St. Paul's Cathedral
205To be or - Shakespeare, Hamlet: III.1.56
212Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost: V.2.891
212(mentioned)Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Cosi fan tutte
225 f.The weather is quite delicious. (etc.)Charles Darwin, Letters
231Berowne and Longaville and Dumaine: 'a little academe, still and contemplative in living art... Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost: [names of characters (and quotation)] I.1.13 f.
231Worthies, away!... Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost: V.2.712
232O brave new world! Shakespeare, The Tempest: V.1.183
232(mentioned)Sir Walter Raleigh, History of the World
232Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives,/ Live regist'red... Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost: I.1.1f.
232Exposing what is mortal and unsure to all that fortune, death, and danger dare... Shakespeare, Hamlet: IV.4.51 f.
232Who am I? Shakespeare, King Lear: I.4.83
233Our mothers' wombes the tiring houses be (etc.)Sir Walter Raleigh, "On the Life of Man"
234Full many a glorious morning have I seen (etc.)Shakespeare, from sonnet no. 18
234Timor mortis conturbat me. Psalm 55, 5
240(mentioned)Alfred Tennyson, "Idylls of the King"
246the true, chaste knight, a true Sir Galahad! (...)
The wizard Merlin
King Arthur legends
(particularly in the version of Chrétien de Troyes)
249Why seems it so particular with thee? Shakespeare, Hamlet: I.2.75
249Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life, and thou no breath at all...? Shakespeare, King Lear: V.3.306 f.

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