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Plagiarism and Imitation During the English Renaissance
A Study in Critical Distinctions
Harold Ogden White
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Plagiarism and Imitation During the English Renaissance
A Study in Critical Distinctions
Harold Ogden White
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This book defines the attitude of English writers between 1500 and 1625 toward the question of literary property rights, of imitation, of what today is called plagiarism.
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CHAPTER I
Classical and Continental Renaissance Theories of Imitation
DOUBTLESS Horace wass correct in saying that a poem on the Trojan war should not begin as far back as Ledaâs egg. But a study of the theory of imitation in the English Renaissance must, comparatively, begin even farther back. For since sixteenth-century England avowedly derived its critical doctrines from the classics either directly or through the interpretations of Continental Renaissance writers, a brief summary of the Greek and Roman principles of imitation and of the adaptations of those principles by sixteenth-century Italy and France is essential to an understanding of the English point of view.
âIt is a universal rule of life that we should wish to copy what we approve in others,â writes Quintilian.1 It is likewise a universal rule of classical literature. To the author of On the Sublime, âzealous imitationâ of the great writers of the past is a âroad ⊠which leads to sublimityâ; it is âthe aim, ⊠and we must hold to it with all our might.â2 To be eloquent is to possess Attic eloquence, Cicero declares, and to imitate Demosthenes is to achieve an eloquence at once Attic and perfect.1 Quintilian devotes a chapter of his Institutes to imitation because, he says, âit comprises a great part of art.â2 A century later, Lucian attributes the decline of letters in his day chiefly to the attempted substitution of short-cuts to literary success for the painstaking imitation of the ancients.3 But classical writers were sent to their predecessors for more than inspiration: they were to get subjects and material as well. Isocrates, for example, strongly insists that âone must not shun the subjects upon which others have spoken before,â4 Pliny the Younger advises a correspondent to âwrite something on the same topicâ as that discussed by his model,5 and Horace even suggests turning the Iliad into a drama.6
That the practise of such a widely held theory should receive commendation is to be expected: there is scarcely a tribute to an author in classical times which does not praise his imitation of some other author. Horaceâs approval of Lucilius for âhanging whollyâ on Greek Old Comedy;7 the paean to Plato, âwho has irrigated his style with ten thousand runnels from the great Homeric spring,â in On the Sublime;8 and the pleasure of Pliny the Younger at being told that one of his orations resembled a speech of Demosthenes9 â these are but incidental manifestations, taken at random, of the general attitude. Of the numerous systematic studies, two are famous: Quintilian devotes a long section of his Institutes to the laudation of Roman imitations of Greek literature;1 and Macrobius devotes most of two books of his Saturnalia to the citation by parallel passages of hundreds of cases of Virgilâs indebtedness to Homer and others. Nowhere is there a hint of disapproval of Virgilâs borrowings. On the contrary, his method of using what he read is held up as a universal example: âthe fruit of reading is to emulate what one finds good in others, and by suitable adaptation to convert what one most admires in others to oneâs own useâ â which, Macrobius continues, is just what the best Greek and Roman poets had always done.2
Open avowal of imitation is likewise a cardinal point in classical literary theory. Five of Plautusâs prologues announce that the play to follow is a Latin rendering of a Greek original; four of these name the author. Terence makes a similar avowal in five of his prologues, naming the Greek author in three. He declares that âhe has combined many Greek playsâ into a âfew Latin onesâ and that he âwill do it again,â3 resting on the authority of Naevius, Plautus, and Ennius, âwhose freedom he is ⊠earnest to imitate.â4 Cicero, Lucretius, Horace, Propertius, Phaedrus â these are but a few of the many classical writers who make it a matter of pride to acknowledge their models and sources.5 The correct attitude of the literary debtor toward his creditor is summed up by Seneca the Elder:1 âOvid, ⊠as he had done with many other lines of Virgil, borrowed the idea, not desiring to deceive people, but to have it openly recognized as borrowed.â2
Independent fabrication, consequently, plays a far from leading rĂŽle in classical theory. Isocrates praises ânot those who seek to speak on subjects on which no one has spoken before,â but those who know how to treat the old subjects as no one else could.3 Lucian refuses to ârest content ⊠with the mere credit of innovation.â If his work âis not good as well as originalâ he will âbe ashamed of it,â and âits novelty shall not avail to save [it] from annihilation.â4 Because âit is hard to treat in your own way what is common,â that is, common among mankind â human nature, for example â Horace considers it daring to write on an untried theme or to fashion a new character. The poet will do better, he says, by âspinning into acts a song of Troyâ than by presenting âa theme unknown and unsung.â He advises following tradition, but admits that independent fabrication may succeed if the result is self-consistent.5
Underlying these two basic principles â imitation is essential, fabrication is dangerous â is a third which goes far to account for them: subject-matter is common property, the publica materies of Horace.1 âThe deeds of the past are ⊠an inheritance common to us all,â declares Isocrates.2 Cicero refers to the works of his predecessors as âthe common fund.â3 When one writes on topics already treated, Seneca insists, âhe is not pilfering them, as if they belonged to someone else, ⊠for they are common property.â âThe best ideas are common property,â he further maintains; therefore, since what is common to all belongs equally to each, he asserts that âany truth is my own property,â even that âwhatever is well said by anyone is mine.â4
Now these three principles concern only the unoriginal aspect of classical literature. But the ancients were as eager for originality in their way as writers of today are in theirs. Quintilianâs âfirst pointâ in regard to imitation is that it âalone is not sufficientâ; furthermore, he considers it âa positive disgrace to ⊠owe all our achievement to imitation,â and is certain that âno development is possible for those who restrict themselvesâ to such a method.5 Similarly, Seneca urges a friend to âmake ⊠not memorize,â to âput forth something from [his] own stock.â âTruth lies open for all,â he continues; âit has not yet been monopolized. And there is plenty of it left for posterity to discover.â6 The type of originality desired by classical writers is different, that is all. When Isocrates advises treating an old subject âas no one else couldâ instead of seeking âsubjects on which no one has spoken before,â he half defines classical originality as originality of expression. When he further demands that the writer find in previously used subjects âtopics which are nowise the same as those used by others,â1 he gives the other half of the definition: the supplementing of material. Supporting this second half-definition, Cicero wants it understood that he has added âcertain observations of his own to the common fund.â2 And Seneca insists that one âshould play the part of a careful householderâ in oneâs use of the treasure of earlier literature: âwe should increase what we have inherited. ⊠Much still remains to do ⊠and he who shall be born a thousand ages hence will not be barred from his opportunity of adding something.â3 To the ancients, then, combining old material with new and expressing the combination in an original manner constituted originality. This originality was achieved by a composite process which may for convenience be divided into three steps: selection, reinterpretation, and improvement.
Selection is a convenient title for the classical principle that one should imitate only the best features of the best writers. Opinions naturally vary about the number and identity of these models. Cicero, to be sure, recommends the faithful following of a single model,4 and he has already been cited as declaring that to imitate Demosthenes is to achieve perfect eloquence. The first statement may be ignored, as it is applied to boys in school. As for the second, Quintilian affirms that Cicero imitated Isocrates and Plato as well as Demosthenes;1 and Cicero himself says, in another connection, that, far from following a single model, he has collected all the authors who have discussed his subject and has chosen the best from each. For, he continues, of all the authors who deserve preservation, there is not one who does not offer something worth imitating.2 Seneca, less catholic, recommends âa limited number of master-thinkers,â3 and Lucian would exclude all but the ancients.4 Quintilian studies the question in detail, insisting that âthe nicest judgment is requiredâ in deciding âwhom to imitate,â and âwhat ⊠to imitate in the authors ⊠chosen.â The answers to both questions will depend, of course, on the ânatural giftsâ of the imitator and the genre he is working in, but Quintilian follows Cicero in holding that there is scarcely an author who has âstood the test of time who will not be of some use,â provided that the imitator...