The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-03-21
Shakespeare and Sheridan as Piagiarists.


 Lewis Wingheld, in London atheneum.l
 As the question of plagiarism in dra- matic authorship frequently crops up = the question, that is, as to how far an author may or may not adopt and weave again an idea without being open to the accusation of having stolen it-l would like to relate to you tale. Shakespeare we know openly took scatfoldings of plays from any available source, aud, having remodelled the materials, issued the re- suit as his own work without condescend. ing to state whether the original scatfold- irg of story did or did not cmanate from his own brain. To some persons 1t has seemed unjust that "the bard," much as we venerate him, should have been per- mitted so freely to prance about on tall horse while others of less eminence have not been allowed to amhle without reproduction even on very tiny nag. MT. Burnand quite recently entered Into a curious discussion relative to the origin ality of his last drama, dust Ia Time" |" and propounded theories with which cer- tain erudite persons declined to agree.
 But to my tale, which is apposite. It is my lot in a dual capacity of novelist and producer of plays to have to study the manners and customs of many CD sehs. Second-han booksellers are constantly sending me odds and ends of interest. The other day received q novel tn five volumes of the dreary "Grandison !" class of high-pressure mawkishncss. and in due course plodded through 1t. The plot is extremely dull. My interest, how ever, was in course of time awakened by the following episode-vol. iii., p. no of "Memoirs of Mrs. Sydney Biddulph.n Mrs. Sidney and her brother ST George are the chief actors. The latter, wealthy and purse-proud, lives in St James square. The former, a painfully vituous widow (with famiIy). who is very poor, resides in a mean lodging of the Hay. market.
 Arrives distressed reiatlve-one Mir. Allen-u,terly impecunious, from the West Indies. He introduces himself first to his rich relation Sir George, who filings dish of chocolate over him and causes him to be ejected by the servants. Mir. Allen then seeks the other child of his dead sister, the impoverished but de- pressingly good Mrs. Sidney Biddulph, who, we need hardly chronicle, instantly tavors the wanderer with a chair, a cup of coffee, and her last five shillings Wandcrer bursts into tears. Iris but a plot. Wicked Sir George in St. James, square shall not have a cent; viYtuous but poor Mrs. Sidney B. shall have mil. lions forthwith Of course the new rela- tive is . nabob. This episode is told at length in some forty pages of the said novel. This novel bears date I76I. A cert ain masterpiece, entitled "The School for Scandal" was presented to the public in I777. The situation of the rich rela- tion's plot and of his trial of the char. acters of his two relatives--ihe generous and the sordid-cons stitutes the central motive of "The School for Scandal :" and yet here Is the main incident told, with parallel details, only sixteen years before its production, iH sn elaborate novel, with the unimportant difference of brother and sister being employed as actors instead of two brothers, and of nabob from the West Indies instead of eRe from Calcutta. Who is and what constitutes plagiarist2 ? Is Shakespeare ' Is Sheridan2 If they are dramatic Axt- olycuses, then arc other piaymongers in the best of company; if they are not, then let us openly pick each others pockets without fear.