The Evening standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1910-1913, 1910-12-26
SHAW IS ACCUSED
OF STEALING DOPE

The charge of plagiarism which
Frank Harris has brought against
George Bernard Shaw has created
quite a sensation, and interest In the
controversy which has been hotly
waged over the matter SURPRISES that
shown over any similar case in recent
years.
Mr. Shaw has been accused OF many
things but this is the first time he
has been cited as a cribbcr, and the
fact that Harris and C. B. S. were the
most Intimate friends fur many years
makes the otfense all the more heinous
If true.
Harris. who is one OF our foremost
Shakespearean scholars, claims that
Shaw in writing his Dark Lady OF the
Sonnets' had deliberately aupropri.
ated material concerning the life and
love affair OF Shakespeare with Mary
Fitton. which he (Harris) originally
discovered and impaired TO Shaw In
confidence and later used as the basis
of his new play Shakespeare and
His Love Up TO date c. b. S. has
ignored the charges of his old friend
and has not deigned TO make any re-
ply
Il assert" says Harris. that Shaw
has cribbed his Mary Fitton from me
! have shown that what Tyler took TO
be mere episode In Shakespeare
life was in fact the master passion Of
1t; that ShakespeaTc's love for Mary
Fitton lasted not the sonnet tlmo
merely. but throughout his maturity
that It turned him from a writer OF
comedies and histories into the author
OF the greatest tragedies which have
ever been conceived. and that Just as
he painted himself again and again as
the hero Of twenty plays so he painted
his love as the heroine of play after
play for a dozen years.
by proving that he was passionate
ly devoted to Mary Fitton for over a
dozen years ! have cleared him from
scandalous lmputation and given him
to the love and admiration OF men in
his manners as he lived. II lis unduly
modest OF me TO say that | have done
more for Shakespeare. for the true
knowledge OF the man and his charac-
ter, and for Mary F1tton, too, than a
hundred Tylers.
Now TO prove Mr. Shaws cribbIng
His Mary Fitton snters as a Jealous
woman, raging with anger she strikes
the queen and Shakespeare and slangs
them both When she finds out 1t Is
the queen she has struck she begs
pardon humbly, MIR. Shaw says that
this Mary F1tton OF his Is The Dark
Lady OF the Sonnets Where did he
get her? From my picture OF her
drawn from the plays chiefly. but not
wholly from her portrait as Cleopatra.
there Shakespeare painted his love
superbly, as | have shown. there he
poses her as jealous and arms her
with quick temper, quick tongue, and
quick hands (she strikes the servant
and hales him about by the hair). VIII
Mr.. Shaw In face OF this double proof
stil assert that his dark lady was
taken from the sonnets when she Was
maulfestly taken from me. cribbed
from my work?
"One word on Mr.. Shaw's Shakes
peare was the first to picture
Shakespeare as verbose and snob6ish :
Mr.. Shaw has cribbed both these
traits. But he presents Shakespeare
as going about with tablets making
notes OF all the great phrases and mu-
sical cadences he henrs. The greatest
| lord OF language of whom time has
/ any record stealing words; the great
est OF poets cribbing the dying fall
OF some pathetic phrase-that is MT
Shaw's own idea. his original contrl'
button TO our knowledge!"-NeN York
| Review.