Shakespeare Goes to ParisA&C Black, 2005 M02 1 - 270 pages It has sometimes been assumed that the difficulty of translating Shakespeare into French has meant that he has had little influence in France. Shakespeare Goes to Paris proves the opposite. Virtually unknown in France in his lifetime, and for well over a hundred years after his death, Shakespeare was discovered in the first half of the eighteenth century, as part of a growing French interest in England. Since then, Shakespeare's impact in France has been enormous. Writers, from Voltaire to Gide, found themsleves baffled, frustrated, mesmerised but overawed by a playwright who broke all the rules of French classical theatre and challenged the primacy of French culture. Attempts to tame and translate him alternated with uncritical idolisation, such as that of Berlioz and Hugo. Changing attitudes to Shakespeare have also been an index of French self-esteem, as John Pemble shows in his sparkingly written book |
From inside the book
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Page xiv
... dramatist had been dead for more than a century when he became known across the Channel , and his sudden appearance in France was associated with revaluations and reversals immeasurably more significant than any quirk of fashion or ...
... dramatist had been dead for more than a century when he became known across the Channel , and his sudden appearance in France was associated with revaluations and reversals immeasurably more significant than any quirk of fashion or ...
Page 2
... dramatist , historian , philanthropist , scourge of the Church , and sage and counsellor to the mighty of Europe , always regarded himself , and was regarded , as an authority on England and things English . It was the English at home ...
... dramatist , historian , philanthropist , scourge of the Church , and sage and counsellor to the mighty of Europe , always regarded himself , and was regarded , as an authority on England and things English . It was the English at home ...
Page 3
... dramatist was Addison , whose compositions were refined but frigid . The most popular was William Shakespeare , who had come too soon into a world too young . Since he had died as long ago as 1616 , Shakespeare had , inevitably , been ...
... dramatist was Addison , whose compositions were refined but frigid . The most popular was William Shakespeare , who had come too soon into a world too young . Since he had died as long ago as 1616 , Shakespeare had , inevitably , been ...
Page 4
... dramatists , could never have an international appeal . ' French masterpieces ' , Voltaire told the Academie Franchise in 1777 , have been performed before every court and in every academy of Italy . They are played everywhere from the ...
... dramatists , could never have an international appeal . ' French masterpieces ' , Voltaire told the Academie Franchise in 1777 , have been performed before every court and in every academy of Italy . They are played everywhere from the ...
Page 6
... dramatist who began a tragedy with a common soldier say- ing that his guard had not been disturbed by a mouse ? 15 And yet - those beauties ! That sublimity ! Often , when he was reading Shakespeare , his desiccated eye would moisten ...
... dramatist who began a tragedy with a common soldier say- ing that his guard had not been disturbed by a mouse ? 15 And yet - those beauties ! That sublimity ! Often , when he was reading Shakespeare , his desiccated eye would moisten ...
Contents
1 | |
2 A Genius in the Kingdom of Taste | 17 |
3 Stranger within the Gates | 43 |
4 A Story without an Ending | 69 |
5 Desdemonas Handkerchief | 93 |
6 His Hour upon the Stage | 119 |
7 The Trumpets of Fortinbras | 141 |
8 Waiting for Shakespeare | 165 |
9 The Metamorphosis of Envy | 185 |
Notes | 209 |
Index | 231 |
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Common terms and phrases
Académie Française actors ancien régime André Gide anglaise Antoine artistic audience Barrault Baty beauty became Bourget British Chasles civilisation classical Comédie-Française comedy Copeau Corneille critical cultural décor Delacroix Deschamps drama dramatique dramatist Ducis Dumas eighteenth century Encyclopédie English essay Etudes Fortinbras française France François-Victor Hugo French stage French theatre Gémier genius Gide's goût Hamlet Harriet Smithson Histoire Hugo Hugo's human Ibid idea intellectual Jean Jean-Louis Barrault King language Le Tourneur Lear less Lettres literary Littéraire littérature London Macbeth Marmontel mind modern Molière never nineteenth century nouvelle édn Odéon Œuvres complètes Othello Paris Parisian performance Philarète Chasles Pierre Le Tourneur Pitoëff play poet poetry prose race Racine recognised Renaissance Revue Romantic Roméo et Juliette Sarah Bernhardt sense Shake Shakespeare in France speare Staël Taine Taine's taste théâtre theatrical tion tragedy tragic trans translation verse Vigny Voltaire Voltaire's word writing wrote
Popular passages
Page 83 - Never, lago. Like to the Pontic sea, Whose icy current and compulsive course Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on To the Propontic and the Hellespont ; Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace, Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love. Till that a capable and wide revenge Swallow them up. — Now, by yond marble heaven, In the due reverence of a sacred vow {Kneels, I here engage my words.
Page 107 - Yet could I bear that too ; well, very well : — But there, where I have garner'd up my heart, Where either I must live or bear no life, The fountain from the which my current runs, Or else dries up...
Page 113 - tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream; ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life...
Page 107 - O now, for ever, Farewell the tranquil mind ! Farewell content ! Farewell the plumed troop, and the big wars, That make ambition virtue ! O, farewell ! Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump, The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife, The royal banner ; and all quality. Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war...
Page 189 - Mock on, Mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau: Mock on, mock on: 'tis all in vain! You throw the sand against the wind, And the wind blows it back again.
Page 188 - It is unworthy of you," said he to Sir Joshua. " to debase so high a genius as Voltaire before so mean a writer as Beattie. Beattie and his book will be forgotten in ten years, while Voltaire's fame will last for ever. Take care it does not perpetuate this picture to the shame of such a man as you.
Page 113 - The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin?
Page 106 - These Moors are changeable in their wills : — fill thy purse with money : — the food that to him now is as luscious as locusts, shall be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida.
Page 202 - Suffering had struck that stage empress; and she stood before her audience neither yielding to, nor enduring, nor in finite measure, resenting it: she stood locked in struggle, rigid in resistance. She stood, not dressed, but draped in pale antique folds, long and regular like sculpture. A background and entourage and flooring of deepest crimson threw her out, white like alabaster - like silver: rather be it said, like Death.