STRANGE LINKS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 124, 21 November 1935, Page 26

STRANGE LINKS

| LITERARY PIRACY EFFECT UPON AUTHORS CASE OF "PINAFORE" (By "Solon.") The "New York Times" has revealed that the works of Charles Dickens made their American debut before his reputation was established by the publication of "Pickwick Papers," and years earlier than the date which had ■ previously been accepted. The quick appreciation of the merits of Dickens was due to the enterprise of a New York weekly, "The Albion," which began reprinting his stories and sketches from the "London Monthly Magazine" in 1833 and thus [gave to its readers some of the material which later was incorporated in ("Sketches by Boz." It may be taken as evidence of the critical acumen of the editor of "The Albion" at the time, but it can hardly have afforded much satisfaction to Dickens, for all these articles and stories were pirated. FELT STRONGLY. Dickens always felt strongly on the subject of the freedom with which American publishers used his work, and during his first visit to the United States in 1842 he caused alarm amongst his admirers by the manner in which he expressed himself on the question. But it was something which .he and all who came after him for many years would be powerless to alter. Another Englishman with a rough tongue, W. S. Gilbert, was-to say scathing things about the copyright situation 30 years later when he, Sullivan, and D'Oyley Carte came hurrying to the scene of unpocketed earnings and found that an unauthorised (and highly inaccurate) version of "Pinafore" had been running in New York for nine months. It is a curious episode in the history of the Gilbert and Sullivan collaboration and one little known to Savoyards. For the immense vogue of their productions in England was preceded by great success in the United States. England was far. from ready «:o accept her most typical opera when she found it. "Pinafore" showed

signs of failure in London which might have robbed us of the whole! series, but London, excited by the news j that the piece was running simultaneously at 100 American theatres, none of which made returns to the writers, revealed a revitalising interest in the operetta. And the necessity of carrying on the copyright war on the American front made. another G. and S. opera a peculiarly American work. This was "The Pirates of Penzance," which had its first presentation at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York, in December, 1879. It contained a part written especially for an American actress, Blanche Roosevelt, some of the music was written on that side of the Atlantic, and one song has become a favourite of hoodlums and politicians of the United States under the title "Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here." SAD RESULTS.

But if this habit of making free with the works of English authors held" out che prospect of easy profits to the publishers it also had a disastrous effect on American letters. A major reason for the delay in development of a native literature was the fact that piracy was safer and cheaper. In the mid-century Willis complained that he was forced to write short pieces instead of novels' because "we must either write books to give away or take some vein of literature where the competition is more equal—an alternative which makes almost all American authors mere contributors of short papers to periodicals." It will readily be understood that with the works of the established authors of Britain at hand without fee, American publishers were not disposed to risk capital in printing the productions of local unknowns. Piracy has been present in most countries and in all ages. An aid to the practice has been the chaotic state of the law. It is only twenty years since the copyright laws of England were given general form, and it is not yet fifty years since an international copyright agreement including the United States was arrived at. NOVEL AND PLAY. There were for years obvious gaps in the law.. The immense success of "East Lynne" as a play did not allow the lady who had written the novel to receive one penny of the dramatic earnings of the piece. She had not, according to the legislation of the time, any interest in the dramatic rights. It was this situation which forced Mr. Bernard Shaw to forestall an attempt to dramatise his novel "Cashel Byron's Profession" by hurriedly writing a play on the theme himself. The result was "The Admirable Bashville"

with passage of blank verse that includes the lines ■■•;■

Then call a cab and let a cab be called, And let the man tuat calls It be your footman.

And in our own aay the issue has been revived anew by the rise of the cinema and the growth of broadcasting which destroyed the length of life of a popular song by subjecting it to tedious repetition and did this without offering any recompense to the unfortunate author and composer. But if literary piracy has its mischievous side, it also has its dramas and its' triumphs. English scholarship is immensely . indebted to those pirates of Elizabethan times who dared the Lord Chamberlain and the theatrical shareholders and printed contemporary plays. Fines and dismissal were the fate of actors who were discovered yielding to, the bribes of the publishers and furnishing the text of plays. Even dramatists took the view that printing a work was likely to injure their interests. THE EARLY SHAKESPEARE. It was from these Tudor pirates that we had the early Shakespearean quartos, sold for fivepence and sixpence apiece and now commanding fat prices, and so anxious were the printers to obtain material that at least four of Shakespeare's plays, including "Romeo and > Juliet,'? "Henry V," and "The Merry Wives of Windsor," were printed not even from parts supplied by the actors but from crude shorthand reports taken down during performances. To these bopks Sir Sidney Lee confesses his great indebtedness. And. in the sphere of literary drama there is nothing more intriguing than the determined attempt to produce a pirated edition of the writings of Whistler, which developed into "a species of chase from press to press and from country to country." With extraordinary fatality the unfortunate fugitive was always allowed to come within sight of accomplishment before he was frustrated by Whistler's agents. An attempt in London failed, and the next effort was made in America whither the plates ""of the book were shipped. When this-plot also was discovered a final .essay was made in Antwerp where the plan. proceeded as far as completing the printing of 2000 copies of the book, only to have these seized by Whistler's lawyer on the very day of delivery. The plot had its uses, for it incited Whistler to bring out his own version of the writings and the result was "The Gentle Art of Making Enemies."