John Logie Baird?

[David Whiteley]

I, for one, am curious:  is the attribution of "But soft..." to John Logie
Baird a cryptic reply to the question of Kean?  I assume not.  But...am I
the only one not to know the relationship of JLB to the familiar phrase?

A few guesses:

1) He was the editor who fixed the definitive punctuation and spelling of
the corrupted/inconsistent text(s) of R&J.

2) He supplied this whole new replacement text where there was an ellipsis
in extant versions.

3) He quoted the text in some other context in a particularly clever way
that I should have heard about but haven't.

4) Dennis isn't nearly as well-informed about authorship as we might assume
he is.

5) There is a difference, so subtle as to be almost impossible to perceive,
between the Shakespeare text and the JLB text, but the adjustment is so
elegant that it demonstrates the supremacy of JLB's genius over even
Shakespeare.

6)  The attribution of "But soft..." to JLB is a provocation intended to
sollicit an e-mail responce exactly along the lines of what you are reading
right now.


Original
Message-------------------------------------------------------------------

To: CANDRAMA at listserv.unb.ca
Subject: Edmund Kean


Dear Colleagues:

Who is *the* scholar, worldwide, who is an expert on Edmund
Kean?


DWS

"But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon."
--John Logie Baird (1925)

Denis Salter
4965, avenue Connaught
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cyws at musica.mcgill.ca