The New York herald., 1876-02-04
The Authorship OF ssPique.'

There has been considerable discussion of
late, not so much as to the authorship of the
play of ''Pique" as to whether the author has
taken his materials by wholesale from an
other writer without making proper acl1nowl-
edgment 1t is question of originality
Mr.. Augustin Daily, who claims the author
ship, is accused of taking the plot, the situa-
tions, the characters and the dialogue of the
first three acts of "Pique" from Florence
Marryats novel, ''Her Lord and Master"
and the charge has been boldly repelled by
Mr.. Stephen Fiske, one of the managers of
Mr.. Daly's own theatre. This question
would seem to be easy to decide, for the play
is now in the height of its success and the
novel is on every booksellers counter; yet
experience proves that disputes about
plagiarism are apt to remain long unsettled
After a careful comparison of the novel
and the play, however, we are compelled to
decide that the charges are true. No
one who has read the novel and seen
'Pique" can fail to observe their extraor-
dinary resemblance. Any defence founded
on the theory of coincidence, OF on the right
conceded to the dramatist of using sugges-
tive ideas in the works of other authors is
destroyed by the cumulative proofs Of
plagiarism. If O dramatist should claim
never to have heard of Shakespeare and yet
in his play we might wonder at the coinci-
dence and yet admit his claim. If he should
then reproduce the characters of Hamlet"
we should be incredulous as to his ignorance
of that work. If he should use the dialogue
in Hamlet" scene after scene, any further
argument as to his originality would beN
superfuous task. In "Pique" the plot of
the novel is bodily transferred to the first
three acts of tho play, the fourth act intro
ducing new element of interest The situa-
tions in the first three acts are exactly those
of the first half Of the book The characters
might step off the stage into the book
without changing their relations to
each other or anything more than
their names. Their identity is absolute.
Finally, the language of the play is in i'm
portant scene after scene, the language of
the story. We shall not undertake here to
give the evidence of this, for it would re-
quire the republication of half the book
We simply render verdict upon the facts,
and the reader who is at all sceptical of its
justice can obtain all the evidence he re-
quires by paying dollar and a half at the
theatre and expending fifty cents at a book
store.
Nor shall we pronounce upon the extent
of the guilt of the defendant in the case Of
Marryat VS.. DAILY. We are not discussing
ethics, but facts. Other questions which
may as well be left unconsidered are whether
Mr.. DAILY has been pursued maliciously by
some of his accusers and whether Rose Ray
land, who has been prominent in the debate,
is really q woman or a man. The press is in
terested in the matter only so far as the pub
lie is and it, we suppose, cares only for the
principal facts. Certainly it makes little
difference to the enjoyment of the play who
wrote it or whence it came. The ordinary
plEgoer wishes for entertainment and amuse-
ment, and will find both in "Pique." 1t is
also to be remembered that the question is
| not one of transcendent public inheritance.