THE KNOWLEDGE OF SHAKESPEARE ON THE CONTINENT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE THE question of continental interest in Shakespeare during the period immediately preceding the publication of Voltaire's Lettres philosophiques, was discussed, for Germany, by R. Genée in his valuable Shakespeare in Deutschland more than thirty years ago; for France more recently by J. J. Jusserand'. My object in the following notes is to add some facts to the evidence already collected, and to indicate the relations in which several of the items stand to their English sources and to each other. The earliest mention of the name Shakespeare in a book printed on the continent, is to be found in the Unterricht von der Teutschen Sprache und Poesie, published at Kiel in 1682 by the famous 'Polyhistor,' Daniel Georg Morhof: Der John Dryden hat gar woll gelahrt von der Dramaticâ Poesi geschrieben. Die Engelländer die er hierin anführt, sein Shakespeare, Fletcher, Beaumont, von welchen ich nichts gesehen habe 2. And in Adrien Baillet's Jugemens des Savans, printed at Paris in 168586, the name Shakespeare appears for the first time in a French book, it being included in a list of the principal poets of the British islands3. But for both France and Germany the first knowledge of the English poet which went beyond the mere name, was drawn from Sir 1 R. Genée, Geschichte der Shakespeare'schen Dramen in Deutschland, Leipzig, 1870, and J. J. Jusserand, Shakespeare en France sous l'ancien régime, Paris, 1898 (English translation, London, 1899), where references to other literature on the subject will be found. 2 In the chapter Von der Engelländer Poeterey, p. 250 (the passage is quoted by A. Koberstein, Vermischte Aufsätze, Leipzig, 1858, pp. 163 ff., and by Genée, p. 60). The name Shakespeare' also occurs in the summary of Morhof's chapter (p. 227) and in a quotation from Camden's Remains (p. 232). In a subsequent chapter Von den Schauspielen, Jonson and Milton are mentioned, not Shakespeare. Later editions of the Unterricht appeared in 1700 and 1718. 3 Jusserand, p. 141 (English translation, p. 176). On a still earlier мs. notice of Shakespeare in France, see p. 137 (170). William Temple's widely-read Essay on Poetry. A French translation. of this essay appeared in the Euvres melées of Temple, published at Utrecht in 1693 and frequently in subsequent years. Here (p. 366) occurs the statement: 'Je ne suis point étonné de voir jetter des cris & répandre des larmes à beaucoup de Gens, lors qu'ils lisent certaines Tragédies de Schake-spear.' Here, too, was to be read that claim for the superiority of the English dramatist to all others ancient or modern, in the quality of 'humeur,' Shakespeare having been the first to introduce it on the English stage. The second reference to Shakespeare in a book written by a German is based on Temple. It occurs in a tract, Vindiciae nominis Germanici, contra quosdam obtrectatores Gallos (Amsterdam, 1694), one of the many replies to the famous charge brought against the Germans by Bouhours, that they were deficient in 'esprit.' The tract takes the form of a letter by J. F. C. (i.e. J. F. Cramer1) to F. B. Carpzow. On p. 35 is to be found the following: Quantam autem poetices vernaculae facultatem habeant Angli, non ita pridem demonstravit Templeus Eques... Sidnejum, Equitem Anglum, omnibus & Anglis & exteris Poetis, qui aut nostra aut majorum nostrorum aetate ingenii laude praestiterunt, anteponere longo intervallo; Spencerum comparare cum Petrarcha & Ronsardo? Shakespearium cum Molierio, in genere comico; & in ludicra dictione, Joannem Minceum, Equitem, praeferre etiam Tasso & Scarroni, vir complurium linguarum & omnium hujus generis elegantiarum callentissimus non dubitat2. In January, 1702, the Acta Eruditorum, that magnificent monument of German learning, industry and cosmopolitan literary interests, had a little more information to offer on the subject of Shakespeare. In a review of Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poetry, the critic, in summarising the work, quotes (p. 38) the following passage, which could hardly have failed to impress the German mind: Tantis enim eum laudibus effert, ut si non ingenio, certe arte superatum ab eo putet ipsum Shakespearium, qui ut eruditus minus fuit, ita ingenio modernos omnes Poëtas & tantum non veteres quoque superasse fertur, ut Halesius nihil uspiam apud Poëtas pulcrum exstare judicaverit, quod non multo elegantius aliquo in dramate expresserit Shakespearius. Ne vero solus sapere videretur Johnson, cuncta Beaumontii censurae subjecit, qui ut post Shakespearium inclaruit, ita dotes insitas magis studio percoluit... 1 See Recueil de Littérature, de Philosophie et d'Histoire, Amsterdam, 1730, p. 14, also the article on Cramer in the Allgem. deutsche Biographie. 2 I am indebted to the Staatsbibliothek in Munich for helping me to trace this interesting pamphlet; but there is also a copy in the British Museum. It was reviewed in the Acta Eruditorum for 1895, p. 39 (cp. Hettner, Literaturgesch. d. 18. Jahrh. 4, ш. i, p. 163), where the statement with reference to the English poets is repeated: ...et inter Anglos quidem eminere Sidneium, Spencerum, Shakesparium, Minceum, teste Equite de Temple.' Minceus' is the once famous Sir John Mennes (in the French translation of Temple, le chevalier Jean Mince '). In the course of the next few years the continent seems to have made little progress in its knowledge of Shakespeare. In 1708 the Journal des Sçavans, in a preliminary announcement of Rowe's edition of Shakespeare, mentioned that this was 'le plus fameux des Poëtes Anglois pour le tragique1,' and, about the same time, a Hamburg poet, Barthold Feind, again falling back on Temple as his authority, wrote in his Gedancken von der Opera: Mr. le Chevalier Temple in feinem mehrmahls angeführten Essai de la Poësie erzehlet p. 374, daß etliche, wenn sie des renommirten Englischen Tragici Shakespear Trauer-Spiele verlesen hören, offt lautes Halses an zu schreven gefangen, und häuffige Thränen vergossen 2. As far as the general public was concerned, a more important word in praise of Shakespeare was that in A. Boyer's Dialogues familiers (in English and French) appended to various widely-used grammars for the use of French and English learners of the respective languages, by Boyer himself and by G. Miège. The statement is (I quote only the French version): Pour ce qui est des Poëtes, il n'y a point de Nation qui puisse entrer en comparison avec la nôtre. Il est vray; car nous avons un Pindare & un Horace, en Cowley, & en Oldham; un Terence en Ben. Johnson; un Sophocle, & un Euripide en Shakespear; un Homere & un Virgile en Milton; & presque tous ces Poëtes ensemble en Dryden seul3. The biographical lexicons published on the continent in the closing years of the seventeenth century had completely ignored the existence of Shakespeare, even when they devoted comparatively long notices to Milton. The first compiler to repair the omission was J. F. Buddeus, who in his Allgemeines historisches Lexicon, published at Leipzig in four volumes in 1709, inserted (vol. IV. p. 428) the following notice of Shakespeare: Shakespear, (William) gebohren in Stratton an der Avon, in der Engeländischen proving Warwickshire, war ein berühmter poet, ob er wohl keine sonderbare gelehrsamkeit hatte, weßwegen 1 Supplément du Journal des Sçavans (Oct. 1708), p. 396. Two years later the same periodical announced the appearance of the edition: Le Sieur Tonson Libraire de cette Ville, commence à vendre la nouvelle édition des Oeuvres de Shakees Pear en six vol. in 8°. M. Row l'a revûe & corrigée, & il y a joint une Dissertation tres-curieuse sur la Vie & les Ouvrages de ce Poëte' (1710, p. 110). Both passages are quoted by M. Jusserand. 2 Quoted by both Koberstein and Genée. It is to be found in B. Feind's Deutsche Gedichte, 1. Stade, 1708, p. 109. 3 It is doubtful when this dialogue, which is not to be found in the older editions of the grammars, was first published; it would appear not to have been written until 1705. See A. Boyer, The Compleat French-Master, 5th ed., 1710 (Brit. Mus.), p. 377. Jusserand quotes it from a Grammar of 1715. 4 Shakespeare's name is, for instance, not to be found in Bayle's Dictionnaire, in Moréri's Supplément (1716), nor even in the German translation of Bayle, published by Gottsched and his circle at Leipzig as late as 1741–44. man sich desto mehr über ihn verwundern mußte. Er hatte ein scherzhafftes gemüthe, kunte aber doch auch sehr ernsthafft seyn, und vortreffliche tragödien und comödien schreiben. Er hatte viel sinnreiche und subtile streitigkeiten mit Ben-Johnson, wiewohl keiner von beyden viel damit gewann. It is strange that this interesting notice should have hitherto escaped attention, as the Lexicon, which was subsequently revised by J. C. Iselin, father of the better-known historical writer, Isaak Iselin, reached a third edition in 1730. The source of the notice, it should be added, is Thomas Fuller's History of the Worthies of England (1662). In 1715 the Leipzig scholar, J. B. Mencke (or rather, Ch. G. Jöcher, who was the real compiler), with the unscrupulousness which appears to be the right of all dictionary-makers, appropriated almost literally Buddeus's notice for his Compendiöses Gelehrten-Lexicon (Leipzig, 1715). But for the first sentence he substituted: 'Shakespear (Wilh.) ein Engl. Dramaticus, geb. zu Stratford 1564. war schlecht auferzogen, und verstund kein Latein, jedoch brachte ers in der Poesie sehr hoch.' And he added the further information: Er st. zu Stratford 1616. 23 Apr. im 53. Jahre. Seine Schau- und Trauer-Spiele, deren er sehr viel geschrieben, sind in VI. Theilen 1709, zu Londen zusammen gedruckt, und werden sehr hoch gehalten1. This notice was reprinted without alteration in the subsequent editions of the Lexicon of 1725 and 1733; and when, in the years 1750—53, Jöcher published as a fourth and much enlarged edition of Mencke, his Allgemeines Gelehrten-Lexicon, the only addition to this naive account of Shakespeare was a mention of the fact that: Seine Wercke sind auch zu Londen An. 1733 in sieben Voll. von Lud. Theobald mit viel critischen und andern Anmerckungen von neuen an das Licht gestellet worden, allwo auch von ihm mehrere Nachricht anzutreffen.' The fifth edition of Jöcher's work (1784-1822), for which Adelung and Rotermund were responsible, did not reach the letter S. Between Mencke's Lexicon of 1715, and the next reference to Shakespeare in a German book-omitting the repetitions in the later editions of Buddeus-Iselin and Mencke and of Morhof's Unterrichtthere is a gap of seventeen years, which, notwithstanding diligent search, I have been unable to fill up. The silence in Germany is remarkable, for there is no doubt that, in these years, through the medium of French sources of information, Shakespeare's name was becoming increasingly familiar to the continent. Of these French 1 Mencke himself possessed the edition of 1709 (Biblioteca Menckeniana, Leipzig, 1723, p. 562). His notice is quoted both by Koberstein and Genée. sources', three were of paramount importance for the spread of a knowledge of English literature: the French translation of the Spectator (1714), the Dissertation on English poetry in the Journal littéraire (1717), and Muralt's Lettres sur les Anglois (1725). In its French garb the Spectator had an extraordinary vogue on the continent. The first edition appeared at Amsterdam in 1714 under the title: Le Spectateur ou le Socrate moderne, où l'on voit un portrait naïf des moeurs de ce siècle. Traduit de l'Anglois-and forty years later, it seemed still to be as popular as ever. Even, however, under the most favourable circumstances, the Spectator was not a work which could have materially helped to familiarise a foreign people with Shakespeare, and its value in this respect was still further diminished by the fact that all the early French editions were much abbreviated. More than half the references to Shakespeare in the Spectator do not appear in French at all, and of the remainder, the majority are mere passing allusions or quotations. The most definite pronouncement, and one that was likely to arrest attention, is in the paper of July 1, 1712, in which Addison discusses the fairy way of writing': Entre les Anglois, SHAKESPEAR l'emporte infiniment au-dessus de tous les autres. Cette noble extravagance de l'Esprit, qu'il possèdoit au suprême degré, le rendoit capable de toucher ce foible superstitieux de l'Imagination de ses Lecteurs, & de réussir en de certains endroits, où il n'étoit soutenu que par la seule force de son propre Génie. Il y a quelque chose de si bizarre, & avec tout cela de si grave, dans les Discours de ses Phantômes, de ses Fées, de ses Sorciers & de ses autres Personnages chimériques, qu'on ne sauroit s'empêcher de les croire naturels, quoique nous n'ayons aucune Regle fixe pour en bien juger; & qu'on est contraint d'avouer, que, s'il y a tels Etres au Monde, il est fort probable qu'ils parleroient & agiroient de la manière dont il les a représentez. On the first occasion when the name Shakespeare occurs ('notre fameux Shakespeare,' No. 17), the translator, who shows throughout an intimate familiarity with English conditions and affairs, adds a footnote explaining: Il a écrit des Tragédies, dont la plupart des Scènes sont admirables; mais il n'étoit pas tout-à-fait exact dans ses Plans, ni dans la justesse de la Composition". ་ Much better adapted for spreading a knowledge of Shakespeare 1 I omit the minor notices, as I have few to add to those mentioned by M. Jusserand. See an instructive note by F. Baldensperger on La prononciation française du nom de Shakespeare in the Archiv für neuere Sprachen und Litteraturen, cxv. (1905), pp. 399 ff. 2 According to L. P. Betz (Bodmer-Denkschrift, Zürich, 1900, p. 238), editions were published at Amsterdam in 1714, 1716-18, 1722-30, 1731-36, 1744, 1754–55; at Paris, in 1716-26, 1754 ('corrigée et augmentée') and 1754-55. The British Museum possesses an edition dated Amsterdam, 1746-50. The German translation (by Frau Gottsched), Der Zuschauer, dates only from 1739-43. 3 Quoted by Jusserand, p. 142 (178). |