‘All Are Punish’d!’ The history and import of ‘Romeo and Juliet’
The word “plagiarism” comes from the Latin plagiarius, meaning “kidnapper.” I’ve known writers who’ve referred to a book or a poem or a play they’ve written as their “baby.” And if somebody had pilfered their text, they’d have considered it tantamount to child abduction.
The word, rendered as plagiary, didn’t find its way into English until the beginning of the 17th century, specifically in 1601, when dramatist Ben Jonson (author of The Alchemist and Shakespeare’s acquaintance and rival) first used it.
It’s rather like this exchange in Lewis Carroll:
Alice: Well, I must say I’ve never heard it that way before. . .
Caterpillar: I know, I have improved it.
And it captures the attitude of writers in the 17th and earlier centuries. It wasn’t so much that, say, William Shakespeare stole from Luigi da Porto (1485-1529), or Matteo Bandello (c. 1480–1562), or Arthur Brooke (d. 1563) – all of whom had written earlier versions of a tale of star-crossed lovers. It’s that the Bard of Avon improved them all in his Romeo and Juliet.
