The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.0564  Friday, 25 March 2005

[1]     From:   Tony Burton <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 24 Mar 2005 14:52:03 -0500
        Subj:   Re: SHK 16.0554 Lear: Macready or Kean?

[2]     From:   Christopher Baker <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 24 Mar 2005 15:24:24 -0500
        Subj:   Thanks


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Tony Burton <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 24 Mar 2005 14:52:03 -0500
Subject: 16.0554 Lear: Macready or Kean?
Comment:        Re: SHK 16.0554 Lear: Macready or Kean?

I'm not wildly committed to discovery and study of Jewish "greats" in
this and that occupation, but William Sutton's correspondent, who seems
to believe (and I take him at his word for lack of any insight into the
matter) that an Irish ear would take the names "Moses," "Eamon," and
"Edmund" as all likely to have a Jewish association, certainly comes up
lame in suggesting that Kean might have been pronounced like Abel's
homicidal brother "Cain" and, as such, a further indication of possible
Jewish origins.

If we're interested in going that way, let's at least give the argument
a chance. The Biblical Cain was an outcast, accused by the earth itself,
and not the sort whose name a Jewish family is likely to adopt, any more
than Judas or Pontius among Christians.  On the other hand (I have six
of them, always ready for a free-ranging discussion) Kean/Kane makes a
pretty good Celticized equivalent for "Cohen," (Heb. "Priest") normally
pronounced " Co-ain," of "Coy-ain."  Since my mother got the name "Ida"
because the American doctor who delivered her didn't know what to make
of my grandmother's instruction to name her "Nechamita," I sense room
for a good deal of creativity in that direction.

But I have bigger fish to fry.  I'm still looking for early copies of
Shakespeare's foul papers, in the original Hebrew.  With the invaluable
help of this list, the clues are piling up and I think I'm getting
close.  Nil desperandum.

Tony Burton

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Christopher Baker <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 24 Mar 2005 15:24:24 -0500
Subject:        Thanks

My thanks to those who responded to my query concerning Kean, Macready,
and Tate's King Lear; the details were helpful.

Chris Baker

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