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Shakespeare is also charged with
having plagiarized from Thomas Hey
wood the opera stanza, "The Seven
Ages of Man" in GAS Y You Like It," In
1912, Haywood wrote:
"The worlds theatre, all the earth
stage, which God and nature do with
actors fill"
Even if we grant that Haywood is
the originator who would exchange
Shakespeare's conception of the
thought for Heywood's?
GAIL the worlds stage and all the
men and women merely players"
Why should any man plagiarize from
his own works? This is the position
in which we find Francis Bacon, pro-
vided however that he wrote the books
attributed to Shakespeare, as is main
tanned by a certain Minnesota sage.
Bacon in his Essay on Fortune" says:
eff man looks sharply, and attentive
ly, he shall see fortune. For though
blind she is not invisible"
In Shakespeare's Henry the v, we
find.
"Fortune is painted blind with a
muller before her eyes to signify to
you that fortune is blind"
HE who fights and runs away
May live to fight another day
But he who is in battle slain
Can never rise and fight again..
II 1rc1 ColJc,,;<l 1,,roto fho oLouo
Previous to that date Butler, Scarron,
Erasmus, Tertullian and Archilochus
each brought out the very same idea.
Which must we label plagiarist?
Even honest Robert Burns cannot
escape:
"Auld nature swearS the lovely dearS
Her nOblest work she classes, o.
Her prentice hand she tried on man
And then she made the lasses o.
Burns is held a plagiarist because
some unknown author gave the same
thought to the world one hundred and
fifty years before Burns did, in the
following:
"Man was made when nature was
but an apprentice, but woman when
she was skillful mistress of her art"
Thomas Fuller a writer of some note
in the seventeenth century is next.
From causual examination of Full
er's works l conceive that he must
have been very small man in height,
and that some person in his existence,
a very tall man, must have walked on
his feet. In "AndrOnius" he says:
"Often the cockloft is empty in those
whom nature hath built many stories
high"
Yet large or small must we stamp
Fuller as plagiarist, because some years
previous Bacon wrote:
"Nature did never put precious
jewels into garret four stories high,
and therefore exceedingly tall men
have very empty heads
This same charge of plagiarism has
been hurled at LOngfellOw, EmmersOn,
Poe, Doyle, Stevenson, and in fact all
authors who have ever succeeded.
Therefore, do not be afraid of the word
plagiarist. Take thought wherever
you find it and better it If you can.
1 close this paper with an example
taken from our own times. A dis
cussion is now being carried on over
the charge of plagiarism which is
brought against Kipling. One article
in question is taken from the poem
"Bill 'Awkins," and you can judge for
yourself on what frail foundation the
charge of plagiarism can be built:
GAS anybody seen Bill 'Awkns?
Now, 'Ow in the devil would know.
'E's taken my gal out walking
An I've got to tell him So
God bless i'm
I've got to tell i'm sO.'
The claim is that Kipling deliberate
ly kidnapped Bill 'Awkins from the
ditty, which for years has been chanted
by the roustabouts on the lower Mis-
sissippi:
"Have any of you seen my Lulu?
How in the debbl would you know her?
I'd know her by her aprOnstrings
AN her shOestrings hanging on the flo,
Col darn her!
M, her shoestrings hanging on the flO."
F. F.R.R.