Daily Inspiration Quote by Edward Hall

A lawyer’s reassurance rarely lands as poetry, yet Edward Hall’s line pulls off a small rhetorical magic trick: it admits to vandalism while claiming fidelity. “We have cut the text” is blunt, almost bureaucratic, the kind of concession that anticipates a hostile question (What did you remove? Why?). The pivot - “but what remains” - is the legal move: narrow the frame, redefine the standard of harm, and steer the listener toward what’s supposedly indisputable. He’s not defending the whole Shakespeare; he’s defending an authorized remainder.

The subtext is anxiety about legitimacy. Shakespeare carries cultural capital so heavy it can crush any modern intervention, especially in spaces where edits are suspect: courtrooms (evidence must be intact), contracts (words bind), reputations (tampering reads as deceit). Hall borrows the aura of authorship as a shield: if the words are still Shakespeare’s, then the production, adaptation, or citation can’t be accused of betrayal. It’s an argument built on provenance, not completeness.

Contextually, it speaks to how institutions sanitize classics to keep them usable. Cuts are often made for length, pace, ratings, decorum, or sensitivity; the line tries to preempt the purist’s charge that editing is ideological. The irony is that cutting is itself interpretation. What “remains” is a curated Shakespeare, shaped by contemporary priorities while insisting on timeless authority. That’s why it works: it performs transparency (“we cut”) and innocence (“still Shakespeare”) in the same breath, a neat little plea bargain between art and accountability.