Plagiarism/Attribution

[Amy Z]

Julie a.k.a. Viola wrote:

 Where is clear 
> attribution called for (and how does that work within the context of 
> a play)? Or is it usually safe to assume that your audience will 
> recognize the source material (which is what I've always thought was 
> going on in Sayers' case)?

Another thing in Sayers' case is that context signals that this is a 
quote, in a couple of ways.  One is that if you know the characters, 
you know they are highly literature folks who quote literature to each 
other all the time and delight in the fact that the other knows the 
attribution.  This is the woman who is to give this man a Donne 
manuscript for his wedding gift.  The other is that in spite of her 
quoting ways, this is not the way Harriet normally talks--the 
dramatic tone says, "this must be a quote."

Shakespeare and the Bible are special cases, I think--they're 
hard to plagiarize because everyone supposedly knows them, even though 
very few of us do.

It's an interesting problem.  I'm planning to put an unattributed 
quote in tomorrow's birthday message to this list, so watch for it! 
;-)

I thought the dog collar was from Have His Carcase?

Amy Z