Monday, 23 May 2022

Shakespeare And Ecclesiastes In The Time Patrol

"Star of the Sea," 14.

Janne Floris has killed the Romans who were raping Edh and is holding her where she is still lying on the ground:

"'What do you want of me, Niaerdh?' [Edh] whispered. 'I am yours. As I always was?'
"'Slay the Romans, all the Romans!' Heidhin bawled.'" (p. 592)

Edh, in shock, asks the goddess what she should do and hears "Slay the Romans!" Of course, it is not the goddess who bawls that but Edh is confused and trying to understand. She asks whether Niaerdh is troubled that the Romans befoul her world.

Heidhin says that he will pay with his life. He will. Unable to accept peace with Rome, he will kill himself, thus moving events towards the Tacitus One timeline.

Everard tells Floris:

"'The time is out of joint and you can't set it right today. You can't. Meddle any more, and I swear there'll never be a Tacitus One book, maybe never a Tacitus Two. We don't belong in these events, and that's why the future is in danger. Leave them be!'" (p. 593)

He quotes Shakespeare:

"The time is out of joint. O cursed spite
"That ever I was born to set it right!"
-Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5, lines 189-190.

Wanda Tamberly and Aryuk quote Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5, lines 15-20 when they stage an apparition of a ghost in Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), PART FOUR, 13,211 B. C., XII, p, 244, whereas Janne Floris quotes Ecclesiates 3: 1-8, when she stages an apparition of the goddess in "Star of the Sea," 17.

Everard is a time traveller who knows that he does not belong in these events. The time is not out of joint. He is.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Yes, poor Edh was shocked and confused, and thought it was Janne who said "Slay the Romans."

Here, we see yet again Anderson's intimate knowledge of the Bible and Shakespeare, and of how easily he could use them. I would not be surprised if he quoted them from memory while writing STAR OF THE SEA (altho he might have checked the sources later for accuracy).

Actually, it was Janne's impulsive acts which caused the time to get out of joint.

Ad astra! Sean