New-York tribune., 1875-08-07
STAGE-RIGHT.
A FOURTH LETTER FROM Mr.. CHARL1D
READE.

fOUkIH khOM 11Rs CuAAk<n0
READE.
ORIGIN or THs TBRM sTAGE-RIGHr-COMPARATIvD
VALUE OF sFAGK-RIGHT AND COPYRIGHT 10
AUTHORs-DRAMATC PIRACY-sTAGE-RiGHr At
LAw-PARLiAMEST SECURES TIE RIGHTS o.
AUTIIOKs-A FAVOR ASKED OF Tux UNITED
STATES
TO TIA Rditor Of The TrtbNns.
SIR: Stage-right is q term invented by me in 1850.
and first printed in book called The Eighth Com
mandmentD Soon afterward I laid it before the
Judges of the Common Pleas, when argued In per.
SON the question Of law, thar out of the INST
count In Reade agt. Conquest. The term was
necessary Truth and legal science had not .
fair chance, 70 long as the fallacious phrase
Dramatic Copyright" infested the courts and
the books: its uBe, by counsel. and Judgea
had created many Observation-Disclosures, and one
judicial error Cumberland agt. Planche. Language
has its laws, which the leaned cannot violate
with nnpunty: adJeetives qualify substantive.
but cannot change its substance. dramatic Copy.
right either means the exclusive right OF printing
play book, or it means nothing at all but, since
the word "COpyright covers the exclusive right Of
printing a play-book, dramatic Copyright" docs
really mean nothing at all II is an illogical, per-
ncious phrase, and il any lawyer wllju substitute
the word Stage-right," he will be amazed at the
will pour upon the fog that at present envelopes bis
tory and old decisions, especially Coleman agt
Wathen, Murray agt Elliston, and Morris agt. Kelly
leading cases. The word also gives the true key 70
both the judgments in Reade agt. Conquest. They
are puye statutory decisions and just ones; on
the second count, novelist creates copyright, bus
no stage-right. On the first count dramatnt
creates both rights, and il he POUNDS novel on hs
drama that does not forfeit his precedent stagerght
for law abhors divestiure, whatever mad Yates, and
the poor parrots who cite him, may fancy.
sTAGE-RIGHr IN sHAKEsPEARE's TINE.
Stage-rght or the sole light Of an author to pro-
duee and reproduce his imprinted dramas on the stage
is allowed by lawyers TO have been common Law
right up to the date of3 WILL, 4. This universal ad-
mission is caprice Of the intellect for really 1t 10
impossible to prove Stagerght IN represented plays
az palpable an antiquity, a. Copyright in printed
books Ancient preceden:s there are none; aneiene
word or phrase there is none nor any public recos-
milton of the right in acts of State; whereas Copy
right stands not only on the law of unsalaried and
productive labor, but fO0r old witnesses the
Word statutory reeognitOns, cases, and dicta How
ever Stage-raht in imprinted dramas is nbdispufed,
and that less in historical evidence from literary
sources as to whether printing drama forfeited the
right.
Henslowe's Theater was exceptional; in his days
and Shakespeare most theaters were managed
thus: established actors the shareholders, and
paid Young actors salaries these the Dovces in-
proved, were COMMITTED for half shares. and finally
for shares. The shareholders obtained plays on vari-
ous terms; il an author was member OF the sharing
company he paid by his share of the profits and
As each theater produced full eight times as many
new plays as now, the sharing authors were
always busy. The Bon-sharing author received
fha Of
or both. See Henslowe's diary. The Stage
right of the paid author vested in the com
pany npon the eommon-law principle that the pay
master of production il its proprietor and they ex-
tended this by custom to the works Of the sharing
author. To this equity we owe literary mis-
fortune; several hundred plays. many OF them
masterpieces, kept ont Of print and have been
lost The plays of JOnson Fletcher, Shakespeare.
and Others were confined TO the theater until well
worn. Messrs. Pope, WarbnrtoD and Johnson bad
not the key to shakespeare's business and
wrote wildfy-tbat he neglected his repata-
ton, did not think his works worth print
ing, and, thanks TO his fightiness, his lines
come down TO us more corrupt than the text of Vel
eius Patercuus but the truth is, other plays were
kept out of print as long his were and his text 10
BY no means the only cOrrupt one Of that day and
what those fine fellows call his fightiness was good
sense and probty. He valued reputation as all
writer's do But he valued it at its value. The man
wrote poems as well plays, AMI did the best thing
possible with botL-Of a poem, the road to q little
fame and profit was the printing press; OF play, the
way TO great fame and profit the theaer; readers
were very few play-goers numerous beyond belief;
observe then his good sense. He prints his poems in
1894, almost soon AS he can afford to do 1t: OK
his pays he prints few, one at a time and never
till each play has been well worn in the theater.
Observe his prObiv; he was sharing author, ana
his fellow shareholders had an equitable lien on his
plays. To crafty his vanity by wholesale pubhca-
ton of his plays would have been arfair to them.
This rs connected with my subject thus-ln his VIII.
particular as it u.s. he did not bequeath his plays to
any one. Therefore, prima faeie, they would 60 70
his residuary legatee But they did notlgo to her.
Created BY q shareholder in the Globe, and hand
somely paid for year by year long after their erear
tion they remained by current equity, the property
of the theater The shareholders kept them to the
boards for seven years after his DEATH and then
printed them. His first editors, Hemming and Con-
dell had been his Joint shareholders in the Globe.
Now observe how the men of that day commented
by anticipation on the rOmantn cant OF reeens
pettifOggers, that centuries ago II any one
printed a MS, he resigned ali the rights
he held wlrile it was in Ms! The copy
right in Shakcspeare's plays-it was not v'o-
lated at all. The Stsge-right-it was not violated
for some years after the plays were printed; but ~
printing and publishing plays facilitate dramatic
Piracy, though they do not make it honest, some
companies plucked up courage IN 1927 and begante
perform Shakespeare's dramas from the printed
book. Did the holders of the Staee-reht aequiesses
Not bit of 10; they went the Lieenser N plays,
and he stopped the company Of the Red Bull Thea'es
in that act of Piracy. See Golfers Annals OF the
Stage vol 9, pages The Chamberlain's decision
in this matter is Of legal value, but it shows his
torcaly that the moral sense and equity which
in she present day govern stageright and
Conyright were rot invented BY recent