Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-09-02

| Our great writer's are not great rob-
bcrs. Literature is not Il repository OF
stolen goods. What seem like steal
| ings by the steel pen are rather the
output Of the lapidary or a reissue of
the mint or, better still, the borrow
inGs from bank repaid with interest.
1T is WONDERFUL" says Charles
| Reade, how genius can borrow" "All
| literature" remarks Oliver Wendell
Holmes, Lives by borrowing and lend
ing and, he adds, "A good image is
| like a diamond, which may be set a
| hundred times in as many generations
and gain new beauties with every
| change This is not question Of
| originality. The lighting a candle
at ncishbOr's fire." observes Dean
| Swift, does not affect our property in
| the wick ana flame" Genius boz
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 a
| thing Of beauty.
1t has been pointed out by Mr.. HUH
in his Life of Buckle that there is
| kind of pedigree in literature. Dante
| avows his Indebtedness to Virgil, as
the latter himself was under obliga-
tions to Homer.
Ariosto owes much to Virgil. and
| Spenser borrows frequently from
| Ariosto. Sponsors ''Facrie Queenc"
gave birth to Fletcher's Purple Is
land" ana this to Bernard's Isle of
| Man" ard this in turn to Defoe's
Robinson Crusoe" and Bunyan's Pill
gfims Progress'-all like so many
| blossoms rising from one stem.
Shakespeare has been called the
great Warwickshire thief" SO inveter-
| ate is his borrowing ha bit. He invad
ed literature like Napoleon and
brought back the rarest art treasures
| to enrich and beautify his verse. One
| is surprised to learn that our dramat-
| list 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 Ii" is taken from an ord
| romance. The characters of his Julius
| Caesar are old Romans taken from
| Plutarch But what borrowing. Dry
| bones are turned into living men. The
commoncst materials are taken into
| the, lambert flame of his genius and
Transmitted into airy beauty.
| Milton, too. is a free borrower. 1t is
this fact. indeed. that makes his verse
50 rich III learned "Reminiscences and 50
gorgeous with "barbaric pearl and
gold" He owes much to Shakespeare.
| Some critics think Millions Eve is Dor
rowed from Shakcspcarc's Miranda. In
| Z I, 49, l,. hn
| line:
| A. morning roses newly washed in dew.
While Milton in "L'Allegro" speaks
Fresh blown roses washed in dew.
Milton is a very mine to many. Pope
is his debtor Millions Smoky Sor-
ceresS"-a woman to the waist and
fair. but ending foul in many scaly
fold voluminouS ANA vast'-is made 20
say. They call me sin and for sign
portcntouS bold me; but. familiar
grown. ! pleased and with attractive
| 2rac"s won the most avtrsc." Pope
sings:
| y ice is Il monster Of 50 frightfu micn
AZ to 10 Lated needs hut to he seen
| Eat seen TOO oft. familiar with her face,
We first endure. then pity. then embrace
Milton's
| Hanging i'll a golden chain
This pendant world
! whom he wrote.
The whole round world is every way
| Found hH gold chains about the feet OF
| Cod
Tennyson. indeed. derives much OF
his exquisite imagery and felicitous
phrasng from authors whose names
Is a., i'm
Pope borrrws his ''Nital Spark idea
from an old poer1 bv Thomas Flatman
Byron gets his Eagle Feather" i'm
age in his ''English Rards and Scotch
Reviewers from AcSchylus. who flour
ished in the fifth century before our
era.
| ColcridEo owes his "Ode to Mont
Blanc" to a German poem by Friedrich
Brown.
Bishop Ken is indebted for his
thought i'll ''The Evening Hymn To
Sir Thomas Browne in his "Colloquy
With God"
| In his own characteristic manner
Eudyard kipling has met the question
of unconscious thievery with DIT Of
: verse which commences:
: When 'Oner sr,ote is bloomin' Tyre
'E d card men sing by lana ana sea,
Ard wot p thought e might require
r; went an took the same as me.
Let Shakespeare's lines close this
paper:
I'll example you with thievery:
The suns a THE. and with his great at
| traction
Robs TIC vast sea: the moons an arran
| thief
And her pale fire she snatches from th'
sun.
The seas Q thief. whose liquid surge re
selves
The moon into salt tears: the earth's
thief
That feeds and breeds hy compostur
stolen
From general excrement: each things :
thief.
s.. p. Dunn in Circle Magazine