The frequent use of anachronism sends ripples across the otherwise mirrorlike surface of the novel's illusory world.

'"Death takes what man would keep,' said the butterfly, 'and leaves what man would lose. Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks.

I warm my hands before the fire of life and get four-way relief.'" Although he is in the novel for only a few pages, the butterfly leaves a powerful impression on the reader that outweighs even the signifi cance of his oracular utterance about the Red Bull. The butterfly seems to flit through time itself, mingling scraps of Shakespeare with song lyrics and advertising catch phrases to produce a "heap of broken images" from a thousand years of popular culture. Time also seems to work backward for Captain Cully, outlaw and would-be folk hero, who mistakes Schmendrick for Mr. Child, a famous collector of ballads to whom...