Well, we know about her fascination with the commedia dell' arte ... and there's an (otherwise very lovely) "Italian Masque" featuring the traditional characters -- Arlecchino, Columbine, Pulcinello, Pulcinella, etc. -- which has decided overtones of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" ... down to Pulcinello's epilogue, which is a pretty blatant mix of "If we shadows have offended" and Rosalind's epilogue from "As You Like It".
Well, we are after all talking about the author who blatantly recycled Will's other phrases including "taken at the flood" and "by the pricking of my thumbs"... ;)
I rather like when she does this actually. It makes me want to read the originals closer. Much like Sayers has caused me to pick up some Donne...which I am hoping to get to next year.
Excellent! I read quite a bit of his poetry -- and bought Stubbs's biography of him -- while reading and after having read Mary Novik's "Conceit" (which is straight fiction insofar as it largely focuses on his daughter, but also has a fair bit of Donne himself -- and his and his wife's love story --, chiefly based on his bio by his disciple Izaak Walton).
I rather like when she does this actually. It makes me want to read the originals closer. Much like Sayers has caused me to pick up some Donne...which I am hoping to get to next year.