The Jew of Malta - Cultural References

Cultural References

T. S. Eliot's poem "The Portrait of a Lady" has an excerpt from The Jew of Malta:

"Thou hast committed/ Fornication: but that was in another country,/ And besides, the wench is dead."

The same line is quoted by P.D. James in the first of her Adam Dalgleish mystery novels, Cover Her Face, and indirectly in more than one of her later novels, including The Lighthouse and Innocent Blood.

The same line is also quoted in Ernest Hemingway's 1950 novel Across the River and into the Trees, as well as referred to in his 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises. In the earlier text it is by the character Bill Gorton, who has a tendency to make obscure literary references in everyday speech. The narrator, Jake Barnes, introduces Bill as "a taxidermist" and he replies:

"'That was in another country,' Bill said. 'And besides all the animals were dead.'"

It is an often quoted line, also appearing in Nicholas Monsarrat's 1951 novel, The Cruel Sea, where it is used to underscore the blunt tragedies of war- the novel cuts off a side story of a romance, and the protagonist quotes the line, bitterly, as the main storyline resumes.

"But that was in another country, and besides, the wench is dead" is also spoken in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, Book 2, The Doll's House, Part 6, "Into the Night," by the character Gilbert to Dream's servant Matthew. They are talking about their lives in earlier incarnations.