Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1907-07-12
WAsHlNGroN STANDARD
THE GREAT WRITER'S,
Ideas and Inspiration Taken by
One Author From Another.
EUT GENIUS BORROWS MODIFY
The Crude Ore Is Refined and the Raw
Material Fashioned Into a Thing of
Beauty-Shakespea as a Most Bril-
liant Example.

The Crude Ore Is Refined and the Raw
Material Fashioned Into a Thing Of
Beauty-Shakespea as a Most Bril-
liant Example.
our great writers are not great rob
l"r>. literature j. not Il Repository of
stolen goods What seem like steal
lncS 10y the steel pen are rather the
output of III" laldary or Il REISSUE" Of
lt. mint or. better still. the borrow
in..> from bank repaid with interest.
1T is WONDERFUL says Charles
Ecadc. how genius can borrow" "All
ltcraturc.' remarks Oliver Wendell
Holmes. Lives by borrowing and lend
ing" AMI. he adds, a good image IS
Ike 4 diamond. which may he set
hundred times in as many generations
and gain new beauties with every
change" This IS not question OF
originality The lighting Il candle
nj Il ncighhor's fire" observes bean
Swift. does not affect our property In
the wick AMI flame" Genius hor-
rows nuhly." The transfcrcnce 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.
1t has been pointed out by Mr.. Huth
In his Life of Buckle" that there IS a
kind of pedigree in literature. Dante
avows his Indebtedness to Virgil, as
the latter himself was under obliga-
tons to Homer.
Ariosto owes much to Virgil, and
Spcnser borrOws frequently from
Ariosto Sponsors "Faerie Queene"
gave birth to Fletcher's purple Is
land and this to Demands Isle Of
Man," and this in turn to Defoais
Robinson Crusoe'' and Bunyan's
"Pilgrim's Progress"-all like so many
blossoms rising from the one stem.
Shakespeare has been called 1.-THE
great Warwickshire thief" so inveter-
nte Is his borrowing habit. He invaded
literature like 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 Gas 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 fame Of his genius and transmit
ed into airy beauty.
Milton, too, Is free borrower. 1t Is
this fact, indeed. that makes his verse
so rich In learned Renaissance and so
gorgeous with "barbaric pearl and
gold" He owes much to Shakespeare.
Some critics think AIiltOn1 Eve is bor-
rowed from Shakespeare's Miranda. In
the Tanning Of the Shrew" occurs the
line:
As morning roses newly washed In dew.
While Milton in "L'Allegro' speaks
Of
Fresh blown roses washed In dew.
Milton Is very mine to many. Pope
is his debtor. Millions Smoky SOr-
ceress"-a woman to the waist and
fair, but ending foul in many a scaly
fold voluminous and vast"-is made to
say, "They call me sin and for a sign
portentous hold me; but familiar
grown. l pleased and with attractive
graces won the most averse." Pope
sings:
Vice Is a monster of so frightful 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
Nilton's
Hanging in a golden chain
This pendent world
when he wrote:
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 his Eagle Feather" i'm
age In his English Bards and Scotch
Reviewers" from Aeschylus, who -four
ished in the fifth century before our
era.
Coleridge owes his "Ode to Mont
Blanc" to q German poem BY Friedrich
Brown.
Bishop Ken Is indebted for his
thought in 1.-The Evening Hymn" to
Sir Thomas Browne in his "Colloquy
With God"
In his own characteristic manner
Rudyard Kipling has met the CUES
ton Of unconscious thie-e-1 with a
bit Of verse which cOmmLces:
When 'Omer smote Is bloomin Tyre
Ed card men sing by land and sea,
And wot e thought Q might require
e went an took the same as me.
Let Shakespeare's lines close this
paper:
I'll example you with thievery:
The suns thief. and with his great at
traction
Robs the vast sea: the moons an arrant
thief.
And her pale fire she snatches from the
sun:
The seas thief. whose liquid surge re.
solves
The moon into salt tears: the earth's q
That feeds and breeds by composturs
stolen
From general excrement: each things q
thief.
s. B. Dunn in Circle Magazine.
The Perfect Servant.
The thoroughly trained English serv.
ant Is In his way the most perfect kind
Of servant to be found anywhere, and
In his station and for his duties he IL
not to be matched in the world. Where
will you find any men so competent In
their work, SO completely trained and
apparently emotionless in manner, &c
punctual. SO clean, SO smart, as ar
English butler, coachman, footman OF
valet? Certainly not ON the continent
OF Europe, in the United States. IN
Canada or In Australia. Country Life
Metals and Metaphors.
ut Is most amazing" said q metal
1urn{at shnNU tho vnrld vo1voc -, -,