William Shakespeare

Sonnet 73

“From sprinkler splashes to fireplace ashes”

Uncle Jerry draws a parallel between the 'fireplace ashes' imagery in Taylor's pre-chorus and the third stanza of Shakespeare's Sonnet 73, which uses ashes as a mortality image: the logs of youth consumed, leaving only grey ashes. He notes both works use ashes to represent the passage from youth to old age and mortality, though he frames this as a thematic parallel rather than a direct Taylor allusion.

Antony and Cleopatra

“Shooting the messengers”

Angela & Uncle Jerry note that the 'shooting the messenger' motif also appears in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, when Cleopatra receives the news that Antony has gone off. Uncle Jerry identifies this as another possible echo in the first verse.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

“Saying goodbye is death by a thousand cuts”

Angela & Uncle Jerry discuss how the title 'Death by a Thousand Cuts' made Uncle Jerry think of Hippolyta and Theseus in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In one of the Amazonian legends from Greek mythology, Theseus challenges Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, to a fight and cuts her repeatedly until she collapses from blood loss. Uncle Jerry also notes that in Act Five of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare compares love to an addiction.

Romeo and Juliet

“That you were Romeo, you were throwing pebbles And my daddy said, "Stay away from Juliet"”

Angela & Uncle Jerry identify Romeo and Juliet as the central literary framework for Love Story. Uncle Jerry notes that Taylor likely read the play as a sophomore in high school shortly before writing this song, and imagines her sitting in English class reading the story. He discusses how the balcony scene, the father's disapproval at the party, the plan to escape to Mantua, and the Romeo/Juliet character names are all directly drawn from Shakespeare's play. He observes that Taylor rewrites the tragedy with a happy ending, something he notes was popular in the Restoration period from about 1660 onward, when people would rewrite Shakespearean tragedies with happy endings, and 'they always wind up getting married.' Uncle Jerry also notes that Shakespeare embeds sonnets into key speeches in the play, including when Romeo first meets Juliet at the party and in the balcony scene, calling the language 'stunningly beautiful.' He discusses how the father saying 'Stay away from Juliet' is 'an actual pull from the play' where Juliet's father sees Romeo at the party and says to leave him alone as long as he stays away from Juliet.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Uncle Jerry draws on A Midsummer Night's Dream as a work that tries to define the nature of love in all its forms, comparing Shakespeare's fifth-act speech (where love is called madness, foolishness, insanity) to what Taylor is doing across State of Grace. He sees the song as a similarly comprehensive attempt to catalogue what love does to people, how it arrives, what it costs, and what it creates. The connection is thematic rather than textual: both works hold love up to a light and turn it over, examining its contradictions.

Sonnet 116

Uncle Jerry quotes Sonnet 116's famous definition of unchangeable love as a counterpoint to what Taylor is actually saying in State of Grace. He argues that Taylor's version is more realistic: love is unpredictable, people are indecisive and changeable, and love fades in time. Shakespeare's idealised vision of permanent love becomes the foil against which Taylor's honest, grounded treatment stands out.

Sonnet 130

“So you were never a saint”

Uncle Jerry connects the pre-chorus line 'So you were never a saint' to Shakespeare's Sonnet 130, where the poet catalogues his beloved's imperfections before declaring his love all the more honestly. Both Taylor and Shakespeare refuse to idealise the beloved: imperfection is named directly, and the love is valued precisely because it does not depend on the partner being perfect. Uncle Jerry sees both writers arriving at the same conclusion, that expecting perfection leads to disappointment and that honest love embraces flaws.

Macbeth

“But love was a cold bed full of scorpions The venom stole her sanity”

Angela & Uncle Jerry note that the 'bed of scorpions' image in verse 2 is not from Hamlet but from Macbeth, where Macbeth says 'my mind is a bed of scorpions.' Uncle Jerry initially discusses the scorpion/venom imagery in relation to the poison motif in Hamlet (the king killed by poison in the ear) but then corrects himself, identifying Macbeth as the actual source. He observes that Taylor is pulling from multiple Shakespeare plays, not just Hamlet.

Romeo and Juliet

Angela & Uncle Jerry discuss Romeo and Juliet as a parallel example of Taylor rewriting Shakespeare for a happy ending. Angela notes that Taylor's 2008 song Love Story compares the speaker and a fictional boy to Romeo and Juliet and also gives them a happy ending. Uncle Jerry uses the Restoration-era rewriting of Romeo and Juliet (where the poison turns out to be a sleeping draught and the lovers survive) as precedent for Taylor's reinterpretation of Ophelia's fate.

Love's Labour's Lost

“'Cause love's never lost if perspective is earned”

Uncle Jerry connects the line 'love's never lost if perspective is earned' to Shakespeare's play Love's Labour's Lost, noting the double alliteration of L's and S's in the line. He identifies this as his favourite line in the song.

Romeo and Juliet

Angela & Uncle Jerry include Romeo and Juliet in their list of love-at-first-sight stories that parallel Enchanted's central theme. Uncle Jerry notes that the first time Romeo sees Juliet, they are instantly in love.

Sonnet 29

Angela & Uncle Jerry draw a parallel between Sonnet 29 and evermore. Uncle Jerry describes the sonnet as 'a sonnet poetic reworking of this song', in both works the speaker is deeply depressed, then thinks of someone else (or an inner voice), and that thought pulls them out of the depression. The sonnet's movement from despair to recovery through the thought of another mirrors the song's bridge where a second voice helps the speaker emerge from depression.

Romeo and Juliet

Friar Laurence is the priest in Romeo and Juliet who performs the lovers' secret marriage and engineers the apparent-death plan whose failed message produces the tragedy. Uncle Jerry's analysis treats him as part of the structural machinery of the play that Love Story rewrites: where the original requires a scheming priest figure to enable the secret union and then trigger the lethal misunderstanding, Love Story collapses that machinery into the father's straightforward consent. The character is invoked analytically rather than by direct lyric reference.

Hamlet

Uncle Jerry references Hamlet's 'words, words, words' exchange with Polonius as a parallel to the challenge of making repeated words interesting, connecting it to the 'they knew, they knew, they knew' repetition in the bridge. He discusses the Mel Gibson and Laurence Olivier Hamlet films as examples of how actors handle the challenge of triple repetition.

Macbeth

“Devils that you know Raise worse hell than a stranger”

Angela & Uncle Jerry note that the 'devil you know' proverb also has an echo in Shakespeare's Macbeth, making it a very famous saying with multiple literary sources.

Sonnet 12

“as the decade would play us for fools”

Uncle Jerry quotes Shakespeare's Sonnet 12 as part of a broader argument that Taylor's personification of time ('the decade would play us for fools') connects to Shakespeare's sustained treatment of time as a reaping, destroying force across the sonnets. He proposes 'William Taylor Swiftspear' as a potential thesis title comparing the two writers' treatments of time.

Twelfth Night

Uncle Jerry quotes the opening line of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night in response to Angela's observation that Taylor and John Mayer were both musicians who wrote songs about each other. The quote arrives as a wry observation about music as a medium for romantic exchange, then Uncle Jerry notes that Shakespeare 'got it wrong' since music is not always the food of love. This is a host-invoked cultural reference rather than a Taylor allusion, but the quote connects to the song's broader theme of music as both weapon and catharsis in a relationship between two songwriters.

Sonnet 73

“as the decade would play us for fools”

Uncle Jerry quotes Sonnet 73's opening as one of several Shakespeare sonnets demonstrating the same personified, destructive treatment of time that Taylor uses when she writes 'the decade would play us for fools'. He reads several lines aloud, emphasising how Shakespeare gives three different examples of time passing into old age.

Sonnet 116

“as the decade would play us for fools”

Uncle Jerry quotes Sonnet 116's famous line about love not being 'time's fool' as the capstone of his Shakespeare cluster. He calls it 'one of the most beautiful lines in poetry' and draws a direct parallel to Taylor's line about the decade playing them for fools. Both writers use 'fool' in connection with time's destructive power over love.

Sonnet 60

“As the decade would play us for fools”

Uncle Jerry reads Sonnet 60 at greater length than any of the others in his Shakespeare cluster, using it to show time working as an active agent that transfixes, feeds and mows. He sets that against Taylor's decade playing the lovers for fools, arguing that both writers give time a will of its own and both answer it the same way, with the poem itself as the only thing that outlasts the scythe.

All's Well That Ends Well

“They say all's well that ends well, but I'm in a new hell”

Uncle Jerry identifies the line 'they say all's well that ends well' as a reference to the Shakespeare play of the same name. He notes the irony, 'they say it, but she's in hell', and points out that it doesn't end well for the speaker despite the proverbial claim. He also identifies the internal rhyme between 'well' and 'hell.'

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Uncle Jerry references A Midsummer Night's Dream when discussing the theme of definitions of love in All Too Well. He notes that Shakespeare explores what a lover is in the play, 'a lover is a madman, a lover is a poet', and argues that Taylor is similarly exploring the meaning and depth of love through her definitions (oath, sacred prayer, rare, real, masterpiece, innocent).

Sonnet 116

“You said if we had been closer in age, maybe it would've been fine And that made me want to die”

Uncle Jerry quotes Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 ('Let me not to the marriage of true minds') when discussing the lyric about the age difference. He argues that if the age gap is an impediment to love, it's something she can't fix, and invokes Shakespeare's definition that true love should not be altered by circumstances. He explicitly says 'I'm quoting Shakespeare, impediment, love, no impediment to love, love is not love that alters when it alteration finds.' The implication is that Jake Gyllenhaal's excuse fails Shakespeare's definition of love.

Hamlet

“Now you mail back my things and I walk home alone But you keep my old scarf from that very first week 'Cause it reminds you of innocence and it smells like me”

Uncle Jerry draws a parallel between Taylor mailing back belongings and the scene in Hamlet where Ophelia tries to return Hamlet's gifts. He notes that Ophelia says the remembrances once had a wonderful smell but now that fragrance is gone and they don't mean anything to her, whereas in Taylor's version, the scarf's smell persists, and Jake keeps it rather than returning it. Uncle Jerry mentions he has discussed this Hamlet parallel in previous episodes.

Hamlet

“Saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia”

Angela & Uncle Jerry identify Hamlet as the central literary allusion governing the entire song. Uncle Jerry provides extensive background on Ophelia as a foil character to Hamlet, she truly goes insane while Hamlet feigns madness, she is systematically oppressed by the patriarchy (Laertes, Polonius, Hamlet, Claudius), and she ultimately drowns. The bridge directly quotes Ophelia's line from Act 1, Scene 3 ('Tis locked inside my memory / And only you possess the key') and her line from Act 3, Scene 1 ('no longer drowning and deceived' echoing 'I was the more deceived'). Taylor reinterprets Ophelia's fate by having the speaker rescued from that same trajectory of patriarchal oppression, madness, and death. Uncle Jerry notes that Taylor changes Shakespeare's tragic ending to a happy one, which he defends by citing the long tradition of Restoration-era rewrites of Shakespeare for happy endings. Angela points out that Taylor previously did this in Love Story (2008) with Romeo and Juliet.

Hamlet

“You'll be sleeping with the fishes before you know you're drowning”

Angela & Uncle Jerry identify the Ophelia subplot from Hamlet as an overarching metaphor running through Father Figure and the broader Showgirl album. Uncle Jerry describes how Ophelia is oppressed in a patriarchal world, Laertes, Polonius, Hamlet, and the king all tell her what to do, ultimately driving her into melancholy and despair. They connect 'my dick's bigger' to the oppressive masculine voice, 'they want to see you rise, they don't want you to reign' to Ophelia's constrained position, and the word 'drowning' in the final chorus to Ophelia's death by drowning. Uncle Jerry states he believes Ophelia is an overarching metaphor that runs through the songs on this album.

Lady Macbeth — the blood stain

“Still alive, killing time at the cemetery Never quite buried”

Uncle Jerry compares the inability to bury this relationship, 'never quite buried', to Lady Macbeth's blood stain that can't be washed off, saying 'It's like that blood stain you can't wash off Lady Macbeth. It's just there all the time.' He uses this to illustrate the omnipresent, indelible nature of the relationship's memory.

Romeo and Juliet

“A rose by any other name is a scandal”

Angela & Uncle Jerry identify this line as a direct reference to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, twisting the famous line 'A rose by any other name would smell as sweet', where Juliet argues that names don't matter because the two lovers come from opposing families (Capulets and Montagues). Taylor replaces 'would smell as sweet' with 'is a scandal,' applying the same question of identity and naming to her own public life.

Macbeth

“I guess a lesser woman would've lost hope A greater woman wouldn't beg”

Uncle Jerry mentions that the lesser/greater woman antithesis reminded him of Shakespeare's Macbeth, specifically the 'lesser than Macbeth and greater' line. He acknowledges this is probably not a direct reference for this song but notes it kept 'creeping into my head' as Taylor repeated the greater/lesser construction throughout the poem.

Romeo and Juliet

“I drew curtains closed, drank my poison all alone”

Uncle Jerry identifies the 'drank my poison' line as carrying a Shakespeare allusion, noting 'Romeo and Juliet, Cleopatra, Shakespeare, allusion', the poison-drinking as an echo of the poison/death imagery from Shakespeare's tragedies. He treats it as one layer in a line that also works as emotional retreat and self-destruction imagery.

Hamlet

“Protested too much”

Uncle Jerry identifies 'protested too much' as a direct allusion to Hamlet Act 3, where Queen Gertrude says 'the lady doth protest too much' in response to the play-within-the-play. He reads the saboteurs who 'protested too much' as carrying a level of duplicity and dishonesty, their excessive protest implying guilt, just as Gertrude's reaction implies her knowledge of the murder.

Antony and Cleopatra

“I drew curtains closed, drank my poison all alone”

Uncle Jerry names Cleopatra alongside Romeo and Juliet as the allusive background for Taylor's poison-drinking image. Cleopatra's death by poison (asp) is another iconic literary suicide that the line echoes.

The Tempest

Uncle Jerry notes that the name Ariel, the Little Mermaid character whose line the song title alludes to, also appears in Shakespeare's The Tempest (1610), his last play. This is a secondary literary layer beneath the primary Little Mermaid allusion.

Sonnet 116

“You should find another guiding light Guiding light But I shine so bright”

Angela & Uncle Jerry connect the 'guiding light' imagery in the outro to Shakespeare's Sonnet 116, where love is described as 'the ever-fixed mark', a star that sailors navigate by. Uncle Jerry recites the sonnet from memory and connects the North Star / guiding light imagery to the song's outro, where Taylor positions herself as a guiding light that listeners should find alternatives to, despite her brightness.