Shakespeare Goes to Paris

Front Cover
A&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

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Contents

1 Farewell the Tranquil Mind
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
Copyright

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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.

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About the author (2005)

John Pemble is Senior Research Fellow in History at the University of Bristol, UK and author of The Mediterranean Passion, for which he won the Wolfson Prize, and Venice Rediscovered.

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