1.
The transmission of Shakespeare’s plays in Continental Europe through JeanFrançois Ducis’s “imitations”.
Convener: Michèle Willems, University of Rouen, France, [email protected]
Panellists:
Paul Franssen, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Keith Gregor, University of Murcia, Spain
Mariangela Tempera, University of Ferrara, Italy
Michèle Willems, University of Rouen, France
Voltaire, who liked to repeat that he had been the first to introduce Shakespeare to French
readers, asserted in his 1776 Letter to the French Academy that the dramatist’s plays had
never been, and could never be, performed on any foreign stage. Yet by 1772, J. F. Ducis‘s
Hamlet, first performed at the Comédie-française in 1769, had already been translated and
staged in Spain by Ramon de la Cruz, then two years later in Italy by Francesco Gritti. In the
following years, Ducis’s 1772 Roméo et Juliette became a success in Italy as Giuletta e
Romeo, his 1784 Macbeth was translated into Dutch in 1800, then into Spanish from 1803,
and his 1792 Othello was transposed into Dutch from 1800, then into Spanish in 1802. This
list, which is not exhaustive, should also include various translations into Portuguese or
Polish, as well as a translation of Ducis’s 1783 Léar into Russian. In effect, until the 1820s,
the main, and sometimes preferred, contact of European spectators with Shakespeare-onthe-stage was through Ducis’s imitations, the more so as during this period when French
remained the language of European culture, famous French actors like Monvel and later
Talma travelled Europe to perform Ducis’s versions in their original language. Ducis’s rewritings in French and their translations into various European languages thus appear to
offer an ideal topic for the exploration of the construction of a European Shakespeare
through adaptation, translation, and performance.
The introductory papers propose to address the following questions:
• Ducis’s production in France; intertextual and other influences;
• the plays in translation and their reception in the different countries;
• appropriating and re-writing Shakespeare’s plays for eighteenth-century audiences:
neo-classical revisions and personal invention;
• stage-texts and printed versions;
• the plays in performance; the actors’ part in the transmission of Shakespeare’s text.
The panellists come from the four countries where Ducis’s plays were most often performed
and translated. They hope that their short introductory papers will trigger off a discussion
involving delegates from other European countries where Ducis’s adaptations preceded
translations of the original plays.
The delegates who wish to make a significant (but brief) contribution to the discussion may
contact Michèle Willems, before 15 April 2015.