Some Literary Links

See King Lear in Poul Anderson's works here.

In Shakespeare's King Lear, a character disguises himself as Tom O'Bedlam.

The Tom O'Bedlam poem includes the phrase, "...a knight of ghosts and shadows..." which became an Anderson title.

The character posing as Tom in King Lear speaks the line:

"Child Roland to the Dark Tower came..."

- which became the title and concluding line of a poem by Robert Browning.

A "Dark Tower" recurs in the titles of many other works, including The Dark Tower by CS Lewis which is Lewis' response to The Time Machine. Lewis' characters argue against the possibility of physical time travel as described by Wells, Anderson and others.

Tom O'Bedlam is not to be confused with Tom Fool.

Literary links run in every direction but let's stop there.