“Now for the blunder. That will be best corrected by putting examples of jewel-setting and examples of plagiarism cheek by jowl.
“Corneille’s ‘Horace,’ a tragedy founded on a heterogeneous work,—viz., an historical narrative by Livy,—is not a plagiarism. His ‘Cid,’ taken from a Spanish play, is plagiarism. Shakespeare’s ‘Comedy of Errors’ and Molière’s ‘Avare’ are plagiarisms, both from Plautus. Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth,’ taken from a heterogeneous work, a chronicle, is no plagiarism, though he uses a much larger slice of Holinshed’s dialogue than I have taken from Swift, and follows his original more closely. The same applies to his ‘Coriolanus.’ This tragedy is not a plagiarism; for Plutarch’s Life of Coriolanus is a heterogeneous work, and the art with which the great master uses and versifies Volumnia’s speech, as he got it from North’s translation of Plutarch, is jewel-setting, not plagiarism. By the same rule, ‘Robinson Crusoe,’ though Defoe sticks close to Woodes, Rogers, and Dampier in many particulars of incident and reflection, is not a plagiarism, being romance founded on books of fact. The distinction holds good as to single incidents or short and telling speeches. Scott’s works are literally crammed with diamonds of incident and rubies of dialogue culled from heterogeneous works, histories, chronicles, ballads, and oral traditions. But this is not plagiarism; it is jewel-setting. Byron’s famous line—
‘The graves of those who cannot die,’
is a plagiarism from another poet, Crabbe; but Wolsey’s famous distich in Shakespeare’s ‘Henry the Eighth’ is not a plagiarism from Wolsey; it is an historical jewel set in a heterogeneous work, and set as none but a great inventor ever yet set a fact-jewel....”
“FOR THE DEFENDANT.”
Examination of Belasco’s plays will reveal that they are, for the greater part, founded on what Reade designates “heterogeneous works,”—that is, while he has in some instances borrowed or utilized material long generally regarded as common property, he has gone, far more, to history and record,—and that his plays contain more original writing than ninety per cent. of the plays which are customarily acted on the English-speaking Stage.
Turning from the question of what Belasco may or may not have derived from elder dramatists, we come to a field in which it is easy to move with definite, assured steps. The first accusation against him of plagiarism from a contemporary, as far as I have been able to ascertain, was made by Albert M. Palmer, on information and belief, in regard to the play of “The Millionaire’s Daughter,” first produced at the Baldwin Theatre, San Francisco, May 19, 1879. Palmer had been given to understand that Belasco, in this play, had infringed Bronson Howard’s play of “The Banker’s Daughter,” first produced at the Union Square Theatre, November 30, 1878, and which Maguire had endeavored to secure for Baldwin’s. He sent his attorney, W. Barnes, to see Belasco’s play of “The Millionaire’s Daughter,” accompanied by assistants, who took down as much as possible of the dialogue. After the performance Belasco said to Maguire: “It is not necessary for Mr. Barnes to try to take down my dialogue: he has seen the play: tell him he can have a copy of the manuscript, if he wishes.” Barnes advised Palmer that there was no plagiarism by Belasco, and there the matter ended.
The second accusation was that of Howard P. Taylor, alleging that Belasco took material portions of “May Blossom” from “Caprice”: Taylor would not bring that charge into court, though Belasco invited him to do so; and Harrison Grey Fiske, the editor of “The Dramatic Mirror,” the publication in which the false accusation had been repeatedly made, publicly declared it to be unwarranted.
Beyond these, I have been furnished by my friend Judge A. G. Dittenhoefer (acting with Belasco’s permission) with a list showing that six distinct, formal charges of plagiarism have been made against Belasco and redress sought by legal action for injury thus alleged to have been done by him. The plays as to which these charges have been made are (1) “The Wife”; (2) “Du Barry”; (3) “Sweet Kitty Bellairs”; (4) “The Woman”; (5) “The Case of Becky”; (6) “The Boomerang.”
In the first of these cases suit was instituted, in 1888, by Fannie Aymar Matthews, against David Belasco and Henry C. De Mille, praying for an