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Where does a parody cross the line and become plagiarism? In polite company as long as reference is either made directly or alluded to, one can take a great deal of freedom with another's work.
Of course the original author's work must be recognized or else the parody doesn't work. Nevertheless, the parody fits one of the two most generally accepted definitions of what constitutes a parody. Either, it is a humorous or burlesque imitation or, an incompetent attempt. It remains for the reader/listener/viewer to determine which.
Thomas Bridges (Brydges), author of Homer's Travestie, refers to his poetry as a �Burlesque Translation"! An often quoted bit from his preface to the Iliad:
"Good people, would you know the reason
I write at this unlucky season,
When all the nation is so poor
That few can keep above one whore,
Except the Lawyers - (whose large fees
Maintain as many as they please) -"...
Parody is alive and well as a subspecies of satire that may include a serious attempt to twist an author's work to put it in another light, but when this, as an intellectual exercise is completed, it is often found to be dry and tasteless. What's needed is a strong touch of burlesque to make it enjoyable. Put the past author's work in a new environment; season it with a bit of profanity, add vulgar expressions, word play, personality attacks and political jingoism, then the stew is fit for serving It becomes a travesty of the work of the dead poet (or author) and both the base work and the parody enter the spectrum of writings a reader can come to appreciate. By refreshing the reader's acquaintance with history and dressing the Emperor in his new clothes the sight is either for the voyeurist amongst us or perhaps its time to cover your eyes.
In the current economic environment with trial lawyers carrying away wheelbarrow loads of cash from settlements and others can't even find jobs pushing wheelbarrows, Homer's Travestie has a new relevance. (It is well to remember that the author of this two volume work remains unknown and is sometimes stated to be Francis Grose. (equally unknown.) In this great parody with numerous rhymes that cry out for song, Bridges gives life to a Homer that begs comparison with the original.
Crossing the line from parody to plagiarism is easy as characterized in Washington Irving's Sketch Book � In Irving's essay, The Art of Book-Making, he is said to "whimsically" repudiate the notion of absolute artistic originality. Authors (meaning himself and others, but surely not John Strachan,) he declares, have a "pilfering disposition" and their creativity actually consists of rearranging heterogeneous elements from other writers: "authors beget authors, and having produced a numerous progeny, in a good old age they sleep with their fathers, that is to say, with the authors who preceded them � and from whom they had stolen."
Some hide-bound intellectuals can't seem to get it straight and try to make more of parodies than God intended. Such is the case by the old communist, John MacDonald, who wouldn't be given access to the public except for the soft-headed editors of Random House. MacDonald published an Anthology from Chaucer to Beerbohm - and After, which he entitled, Parodies. MacDonald attempts to separate parodies from two subclasses, travesty and burlesque. In so doing he takes the color and life out of writing and establishes for, in his view, parodies as a "form of literary criticism", "parodies are conservative and classical", "a peculiar combination of sophistication and provinciality is needed for good parody"; too bad that the editors of Random House didn't see the book as a "laughing stock" or parody on their own good senses. Don't waste you time or money on this book!
Travestie or Travesty is defined by MacDonald as the most primitive form of parody. "It raises laughs, from the belly rather than the head, by putting high, classic characters into prosaic situations, with a corresponding stepping-down of the language. Achilles becomes a football hero, Penelope a suburban housewife, Helen a beauty queen. Scarron did it in the seventeenth century with his enormously popular Virgile Travesti,"
Burlesque according to MacDonald is a "more advanced form since it as least imitates the style of the original. It differs from parody in that the writer is concerned with the original not in itself but merely as a device for topical humor... The instinct of filling a familiar form with a new content is old as history. The Iliad was burlesqued a few generations after it was composed.... "
Parody on the other hand, as MacDonald sees the world; "concentrates on the style and thought of the original. If burlesque is pouring new wine into old bottles, parody is making a new wine that taste like the old but has a slightly lethal effect. At its best, it is a form of literary criticism.... MacDonald attempts to be amusing in writing that Parody belongs to the family of para-words: parasite, parapsychology, paratyphoid, paranoia (against mind), paradox (against received opinion), paraphrase, paranymph (bridesmaid). It is not related to Paraguay, although that country is beside and against Uruguay."...
An old saying, "Those that can - do, those that can't - teach" is appropriate here as MacDonald is unmasked. Instead, The World Book Encyclopedia (1999) has one of the better discussions on what constitutes parody:
parody, noun, pl. -dies, verb, -died, -dying. noun 1. a humorous imitation of a serious writing. A parody follows the form of the original, but often changes its sense to nonsense, thus making fun of the writer's characteristics. Ex. Parodies and caricatures are the most penetrating of criticisms (Aldous Huxley). [Phyllis] McGinley does not disdain a single trick of the trade: parody, puns ... persiflage ... and epigrams (Atlantic). 2. (Figurative.) a poor imitation; travesty. Ex. its old pavilion, a little wooden parody of the temple of Vesta at Tibur (H. G. Wells). 3. a musical composition making fun of another. Ex. The songs are parodies, or parody-medleys if you're really lucky (Manchester Guardian Weekly). v.t. 1. to make fun of by imitating; make a parody on. Ex. All these peculiarities [of Johnson's style] have been imitated by his admirers and parodied by his assailants (Macaulay). 2. (Figurative.) to imitate poorly. Ex. Behind him ... the creature's shadow repeated and parodied his swift gesticulations (Robert Louis Stevenson). parody � The source, since we are on the subject of plagiarism as well as parody, is the1999 World Book Encyclopedia, which comes with many computers. ****
Homer's Travestie, (usually referenced as "A Burlesque Translation of Homer), Thomas Brydges, G. G. and J. Robinson, London, 1797. A great read!
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Warreniana in Parodies of the Romantic Age, ed. Graeme Stones and John Strachan, 5 vols. (London: Pickering, 1999) vol. IV, pp 17. The series is quite expensive, but well worth it! However, this particular selection may be found on the web site of the Romanticism on the Net (August 1999).
Parodies, An Anthology from Chaucer to Beerbohm - and After, Dwight MacDonald, Random House, 1960 A disappointment.