The Indianapolis journal., 1902-11-09
in THE LITERARY FIELD
THE FREQUENCY OF LITERARY AND
MUSICAL PLAGIARISM.
Magazine Editors Theories About
Manuscripts-Hints to Authors
Books and Readers.

The verdict OF the Supreme Court in
awarding Mr. Victor Herbert $4,000 dam
ages will probably diminish the number
OF charges of plagiarism that have hereto
fore been brought in great numbers against
both composers and authors, says the New
York Post The man of letters has
great advantage over the musician. BY
the simple expedient of using quotation
marks he can honorably appropriate any
thing he likes In the whole range of litera-
ture. Blessed be the inverted commas"
he may often say to himself. Emerson
went so far as TO declare that next to
the originator of good sentence is the
first quoter of it," Yet despite this ad-
vantage, in thousands of cases authors
have preferred to pilfer the ideas of others
and to present them in the disguise of
different phraseology. When Macaulay
wrote 1.-The Puritans hated bear batting.
not because it gave pain TO the bear, but
because it gave pleasure to the spectators"
he may or may not have remembered that
Hume had written 'even bear batting was
esteemed heathcnish and unchristian; the
sport Of it, not the inhumanity, gave Of
fense." But his way of putting the same
thing is so much more felicitous than
Hume's that we pardon the plagiarism.
Lowell sums up the philosophy of the
subject in two lines:
Though old the thought and oft exprest.
'Tis his at last who says il best"
The footnotes In Bartletts Familiar
Quotations." showing how many of the best
things OF the greatest writers were said by
others before them, seem to argue that Mr..
Andrew Lang was right in declaring that
there are no new ideas" Virgil stole from
Homer, but Homer was not original. "AT
his incidents were Of primeval antiquity,
even in his time; he plasiarized them
from popular stories; he stole the Cyclops
almost ready made" Shakespeare hardly
ever invented a plot incident, but took
his material wherever he pleased; yet no
one esteems him the less therefor, probably
because, as Voltaire said, "Of all forms of
theft plagiarism is the least dangerous to
society" Poe's attack on "Longfellow and
other plagiarists" did not damage the Cam
bridge poet; nor was Tennyson injured by
those who cried stop. thiefr' in his case.
Mr.. Lang remarks that according to a
recent biographer of Byron, originality can
be expected from nobody except a lunatic,
hermit or a sensational novelist"
While musicians have no quotation
marks to legalize borrowings there is one
way in which they can honestly appro-
pirate melodies written by Others, namely,
by writing fantasies on operas or other
compositions In this line Liszt was a
supreme master; he could take piece by
almost any composer, however great and,
in paraphrasing 1t, or arranging il for
other instruments, usually improve on the
original Folk melodies are also considered
common property for anyone to appro-
pirate. But in original compositions no
musician can adopt the melodies or pecul-
lar harmonic combinations of another
without incurring the charge of plagiarism.
1t Is no wonder that most composers have
incurred il. Richard Wagner decried
at the same time as an icOnoclast and as
''plagiarist of Mendelssohn" and others.
Undoubtedly there are passages in his
works that do recall his predecessors and
ldols. his early operas suggest Weber and
motive of the dwarfs is rhythmicalIy like
the theme OF the scherZo In Schubert's ID
minor quartet. There also borrow
ings from Liszt, whose symphonic works
ne Was reading with enthusiasm at the
time he was writing his Tetrology When
it came to a rehearsal of Die Walkure,"
in 1876. Wagner suddenly exclaimed: Here
comes a theme which L got from YOU"
And Liszt took the matter very calmly.
Very WELL" he replied, that will at least
give ii chance to be heard"
Brahms was a great borrower of other
peoples melodies His appropriations from
Beethoven, in his first symphony, almost
amount TO unacknowledged quotation.
Brahms made no secret of his method;
when someone called his attention to some
thing he had taken from Mendelssohn he
replied ANY ass could tell that" In their
early works all the great masters copied
their models; Mozart wrote like Haydn,
Beethoven like Mozart, Schubert like
Beethoven. Chopin like Hummel, Grieg
like Schumann, and so on. Indeed, the
only meaning that can be attached to the
expression a school of music must refer
to imitation, which is kind of plagiarism.
The most unblushing and persistent of
/ musical plagiarists was the pious Handel.
So extensive We're his practices in this line
that one of his most ardent English admir-
ers dubbed him 1.-The grand old thief"
| composers from whom he had conveyed"
and there are others. There could have
been no objection to his borrowing fugue
| Italy, were at that time common property:
| but he appropriated by wholesale complete
pieces of music from the works of other
/ composers, In the most bare-faced way.
/ attempted to minimize his fragrant thefts,
/ but the most authoritative OF them, DR..
| Chryander, rises to the occasion. A IA
matte Handel enthusiast, he does not, as
| might have been expected, denOunce those
| who accuse his divinity of plagiarism; on
| the contrary, he savagely attacks those who
| deny the charge, and, with deep erudition,
/ shows up their ignorance. But-and here is
| the gist of matter-"he considers Mr..
| Shedlock writes, that Handel glorified any
| composer from whom he borrowed and
/ points triumphantly TO the honor which had
been paid to the Erba Magnifcat and the
! Uric TIE Deum-the latter he had himself
Enthusiastically on account of the use
/ Handel had made of them" In view of all
/ these facts, ii would seem that modern
composers. If accused of plagiarism. could
/ afford TO smile, and, if vain-as most mu-
| sicians are-retort: Yes. but see how
/ have improved On my predecessor" And
i the experience OF the past shows that when