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Untitled Article
unless it is held that the crucible of the poet possesses , like that of the goldsmith , the faculty of cancelling , as it were , the original character of the metal , in order that the hand of the artist may afterwards give it those elegant and graceful forms which increase
its value an hundred fold . In a certain sense , Tasso is a plagiarist of Virgil , and Virgil of Homer ; Monti of Dante , and Dante of the Prophets : in snort , one age is a copyist of a preceding one ; and one nation plagiarizes its neighbour if the latter happen to be a little advanced in civilization . Manzoni has remarked ,
that amongst the various expedients invented by men to perplex one another , the most ingenious of all is that of having , on almost every subject , two maxims diametrically opposed to each other , and yet held as equally infallible . " You must be original "and " you must do nothing for which the great masters have not left you an example . " This is a precept enforced most rigorously , as applied to poetry and the fine arts . And every one must perceive it is a recommendation very difficult to follow . But I would ask , did Generali , Cimarosa , Krommer , and others ( from
whom it is said Rossini has borrowed the materials of many of his compositions ) , ever succeed in awakening an enthusiasm almost amounting to madness or idolatry ? Had those airs of theirs ( supposed to form the foundation * of many well-known songs of Rossini ) , ever a universal popular celebrity ? There was
something wanting in them , then , to complete their character as firstrate geniuses . Who will deny the exquisite originality of Ariosto ? Yet Morgante Maggiore , Orlando Innamorato ^ and other poems , furnished him with the idea of his Furioso . f We may conclude then , that true originality does not consist entirely in the creation of a certain sort of things , or in a beautiful conception of them ; but this creation and conception must have their elements of originality disposed so as to produce a grand effect , even though it be by a fortuitous , if inevitable , combination . ;); Unless this were the case , we should pronounce many a work and author original , by no means entitled to the distinction . A block of Carrara marble contained within it the elements of
the Venus of the Pitti Palace ;§ yet , without Canova ' s chisel , that block would not have been worth three livres . Having thus determined the idea of originality and plagiarism , I must give it as my opinion that Walter Scott is original and a plagiarist , precisely in the same sense in which Rossini is also . And , if 1 am not mistaken , the works of Shaknpcare are the very
• Answerable to the notes appended to each chapter of the latter edition of Scott ' s works . — Ed . f But he did not Jill it \ ip with their ideas . —Ed . \ This is not very clearly expressed , and moreover , rather blinks the question . The writer forgets the force of the word *• entirely . " Invention and compilation are not convertible terms . — Ed . § No such thing ; its elements were contained in the imagination of the sculptor . — Ed ,
Untitled Article
568 Rossini and Walter ScolL
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1836, page 568, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2661/page/44/
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