“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.