The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-11-17
THE MAGAZINES.
"THR GALAxY.o

by Justin Mccarthy, chapters TX and X
Glove and Friendship" by l.. F.. my
Friend the Feudal Baron" by T. A. Dodge;
IA New Phase of Druidism, by J. jackson
Jarves; Katrina on the Porch-A Bit OF
Turner put intoWords, by Alice Cary; cover
land, chapters XVIII, XIX, Xxx, and XXI;
''Some of my Experiences-Ext from
the Autobiography of Mr.. Thurlow Weed,
by Thurlow Weed "a Happy Woman" by
M. II. W.; international Copyright by
Charles Astor Bristed; "An Afternoon at
wilhelmshohe," by Alice Gray; ''Loss, by
Mary L. Ritter; "Told by an Octoroon, by
Maria Louise Pool; David, King of Israel,
in Two Parts-Part by A. H. Guernsey;
Shakespeare as a Plagiarist, by Abby Sage
Richardson; ''Drft Wood" by Philip Quill
bet: Current Literature;" Memoranda" by
Mark Twain; 'Nebul@, by the Editor.
We make the following extract from Mrs.
Abby Sage Mcfarland Richardson's paper on
Shakespeare as Plagiarist"-
At the time Shakespeare was manager of q
theatre, there was large stock of imprinted
plays, many of them the usual ephemersl
ornaments Of the stage which were the prop
erty of the players or managers-sometimes
also of the nobleman whose servants the
company styled themselves. These plays
were forbidden to be printed, lest they should
become common and so pail on popular taste
Even the plays of Shakespeare we're thus
stayed from publication and it is probable
that to his own managerial thrift we owe this
delay in preparing his works for the press
before his premature death made such labor
impossible. OF the MSS. which formed
such a theatrical stock, Shakespeare
became part owner when he
purchased his share of the theatre; and it can
never be ascertained how many such plays
might have been indebted to q Few rapid
touches from his pen to keep the theatre
running for brief season, before they went
into obacurity. Many of these have met the
fate of waste paper long ago. Many were
burned, perhaps in the fire in which perished
so many plays of Haywood, Chapman, and
numberless other writers (what treasures may
have gone to ashes there, it makes the heart sick
to think Of. A few, in which here and there
the lines glow with the familiar fire which has
made them immortal, are still found in edi-
ITEMS Of Shakespeare's works, and those of
other poets of his age.
Take the old play of The Tanning Of the
Shreco, for instance, of which we have an
ancient original, and compare it with Shake
speare's own play. The two are exactly alike
in conception, plot, and character. We can
hardly tell, taking them scene by scene and
line by line, where they differ, yet the differ
ence is immeasurable. 1t is the miracle of
TRANSMISSION from glowing life channels into
dry and witbered veins.
was wholly or partially the work of Marlowe;
but do not find any proof, except that in it
occurs some lines found in Marlowe's Faust.
There is no internal evidence to support the
hypothesis. Marlowe is purely tragic poet.
His attempts at comedy are weak and forced,
generally coarse, while Tile Tanning of tie
Shreao, although a comedy of broad fun is
witty without grossness. Marlowe's verses,
too, are more flowing and graceful than those
of the old play. l should think it much
more probable that Robert Greene might
have written the whole of it. In it may be
detected the frequency of foreign illusions,
the singular, somewhat cramped style of ver-
sifcation, and the same type of characters
which distinguish Greenes plays.
Whether or no this play was first written
by some of the less fortunate group of play
wrights to which Greene belonged, it is very
likely that among those which Shakespeare
had rewritten and brought out as his own,
there may have been some pieces of his rivals.
With what bitterness then would they behold
their own bantlings baskiDg in the sunlight
Of public favor, while they stood unrecognised
out in the cold What to them was the trick
of genius by which the line SO dead had been
made to live? To them it was nothing but a
line marred 1t is said that Greene was the
very first English poet who ever wrote for
bread If, in addition to his other miseries,
he was obliged to sell his tragedy or comedy
for the few shillings to pay for his dinner
and then see it adapted to the stage and
brought out as the latest by Will Shakes
peare, how his picked herring must have
shoked him, and his Rhenish tasted bitter as
gall, even while he tried to laugh it off in
the brightest corner of the dingy tavern
where his revels are held. Peele may have
been a ragged philosopher, Indifferent to
fame or fortune if he could gull somebody
out of supper or a coat; but Greene and
Marlowe suffered from other causes than
empty cups and empty pockets.
There are one or two mentions Of an old
play of Hamlet, which was written as early
as 1897. Very likely it had been performed
before Shakespeare came up to London. OF
all our losses in English literature, ! most
regret the loss of this old play. We have
still the story of Hamlet on which both plays
are founded; but to have been able to follow
the construction of Hamlet step by step,
the older play, and seeing it in its full sym
to me the richest of lost pleasures
Malone, / believe, has supposed tha
Thomas Kyd was the author of this old play
Of Hamlet That cannot now be truly
known, but certainly Shakespeare shows
familiarity with Kyd's plays, especially tn,
Spanish Tragedy, in which Burbage won hi
earlier laurels. In the last-named play oe
ours the situation similar to that presented il
Hamlet, of performing a play before tbs
king, in which "Jeronimo" plots to kill some
of the courtiers who take part in the play
that he may avenge his sons murder. Tn,
piece ends with a general slaughter, which
sweeps off as many characters as the las
scene in Hamlet