[33] De Orat., lib. ii., ca. 1.
[34] Brutus, ca. lxxxix.
[35] It should be remembered that in Latin literature it was the recognized practice of authors to borrow wholesale from the Greek, and that no charge of plagiarism attended such borrowing. Virgil, in taking thoughts and language from Homer, was simply supposed to have shown his judgment in accommodating Greek delights to Roman ears and Roman intellects.
The idea as to literary larceny is of later date, and has grown up with personal claims for originality and with copyright. Shakspeare did not acknowledge whence he took his plots, because it was unnecessary. Now, if a writer borrow a tale from the French, it is held that he ought at least to owe the obligation, or perhaps even pay for it.
[36] Juvenal, Sat. x., 122,
"O fortunatam natam me Consule Romam! Antoni gladios potuit contemnere, si sic Omnia dixisset."
[37] De Leg., lib. i., ca. 1.
[38] Life and Times of Henry Lord Brougham, written by himself, vol. i., p. 58.
[39] I give the nine versions to which I allude in an Appendix A, at the end of this volume, so that those curious in such matters may compare the words in which the same picture has been drawn by various hands.
[40] Pro Archia, ca. vii.