The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1907-12-14
THE GREAT Writers.
Ideas and Inspiration Taken by
One Author From another
BUT GENIUS BORROWs NOBLY

AA q FiaatNaA@ - "0Ntlta aaA - laWAAat
Tbs Crude ore ls Refined and the Raw
Material Fashioned Into 1 Thing ~
Bsauty-shaksspeare as q Most Bril-.
liant Example.
Our great writer's are not great rob
berH. Literature II not a repository og
stolen goods. What seem like steal
lngs by the steel pen are rather ths
output Of the lapldary or a reissue Of
the mint or, better stlll, the borrow.
lngs from d bank repaid with interest
1T Is wonderful says Charles
Reade, how genius can borrow" "All
IiteFature,' remarks Oliver Wendell
Holmes, Hives BY borrowing and lend.
ing" and, be adds, "a good image Ii
like a diamond. which may Be set
hundred times In as many generations
and gain new beauties with every
change" This Is not a question Of
originality 'The lighting a candle
at q nelghbor's fire." observes Dean
Swift, docs not affect our property In
the wick and fame" Genius Dor
rows nobly" The transference is
often transmutation. For brass, the
borrower brings gold, and for iron,
silver, and for wood, brass, and for
stones, iron. The crude ore is refined
and the raw material fashioned into
thing of beauty.
It has been pointed out By Mr. Huth
IN his Life Of Buckle" that there Is a
kind Of pedigree in literature. Dante
aYows his Indebtedness to Virgil, as
the latter himself was under obliga-
tions to Homer.
Ariosto owes much to Virgil and
Epenser borows frequently from
Arlosto. Sponsors "FaerIe Queene"
gave birth to Fletcher's Purple Is
land" and this to Bernard's isle Of
Man." and this III turn to Defoe's
Robinson Crusoe" and Bunyan's
Pilgrims Progress" all like 30 many
blossoms rising from the one stem
Shakespeare has been called ''tEe
great Warwickshire thief, SO lnvetcr-
ate is his borrowing habit He invaded
literature like a Napoleon and brought
back the rarest art treasures to enrich
and beautify his verse. One Is sur
prised to learn that our dramatist has
no original plots, that he has given to
poetry no new rhythm or stanza and
that ''he ran not only In the old road,
but in the old ruts." His "As You
Like IT. Is taken from an old romance
The characters Of his Julius Caesar
are old Romans taken from Plutarch
But what borrowing Dry bones are
turned into living men. The common
est materials are taken into the lam
bent flame Of bis genius and transmit
ed into airy beauty.
Milton. too, is a free borrower. It Is
this fact, indeed. that makes his verse
SO rich IN learned reminiscence and 50
gorgeous with "barbaric pearl and
gold" he owes much to Shakespeare.
Some critics think Milton's Eve is bor-
rowed from ShaRespeare's Miranda In
the Tanning Of the Shrew" occurs the
line:
As morning roses newly washed in dew.
While Milton in "BAllegro" speaks
Of
Fresh blown roses washed IN dew.
Milton is a very mine to many. Pope
is his debtor. Milton's Smoky Sor
ceress"-a woman to the waist and
fair but lending foul III many scaly
fold yoluminous and yast'-is made 70
say, ''They call me sin and for a sign
portentous hold me; but, familiar
grown, ! pleased and with attractive
graces won the most ayerse." Pone
sings:
Vice is monster Of so frlghtful mIen
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
But seen too oft. familiar with her face
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
Tennyson must have had in mind
MiIton's
Hanging in a golden chain
This pendent world
when be wrote:
The whole round world Is every way
Bound by gold chains about the feet OF
God.
Tennyson, indeed, derives much of his
exquisite imagery and felIcitous phras-
Ing from authors whose names. even,
many literary men do not know.
Pope borrows his "vital Spark" idea
from an old poem by Thomas Flatman.
Byron gets bis Eagle Feather" I'M
age in his English Bards and Scotch
Reviewers" from Aeschylus, who four.
iahed in the fifth century before our
era.
CoIerIdge owes his "Ode to Mont