comes upon the first, and for thirty-six years the only Norwegian translation of Shakespeare. We find it in Trondhjems Allehaande for October 23, 1782— the third and last volume. The translator has hit upon Antony's funeral oration and introduces it with a short note: "The following is taken from the famous English play Julius Caesar and may be regarded as a masterpiece. When Julius Caesar was killed, Antonius secured permission from Brutus and the other conspirators to speak at his funeral. The people, whose minds were full of the prosperity to come, were satisfied with Caesar's murder and regarded the murderers as benefactors. Antonius spoke so as to turn their minds from rejoicing to regret at a great man's untimely death and so as to justify himself and win the hearts of the populace. And in what a masterly way Antonius won them! We shall render, along with the oration, the interjected remarks of the crowd, inasmuch as they too are evidences of Shakespeare's understanding of the human soul and his realization of the manner in which the oration gradually brought about the purpose toward which he aimed:" Antonius: Venner, Medborgere, giver mig Gehør, jeg kommer for at jorde Cæsars Legeme, ikke for at rose ham. Det Onde man gjør lever endnu efter os; det Gode begraves ofte tilligemed vore Been. Saa Være det ogsaa med Cæsar. Den ædle Brutus har sagt Eder, Cæsar var herskesyg. Var han det saa var det en svær Forseelse: og Cæsar har ogsaa dyrt maattet bøde derfor. Efter Brutus og de Øvriges Tilladelse og Brutus er en hederlig Mand, og det er de alle, lutter hederlige Mænd, kommer jeg hid for at holde Cæsars Ligtale. Han var min Ven, trofast og oprigtig mod mig! dog, Brutus siger, han var herskesyg, og Brutus er en hederlig Mand. Han har bragt mange Fanger med til Rom, hvis Løsepenge formerede de offentlige Skatter; synes Eder det herskesygt af Cæsar-naar de Arme skreeg, saa græd Cæsar-Herskesyge maate dog vel væves af stærkere Stof.-Dog Brutus siger han var herskesyg; og Brutus er en hederlig Mand. I have alle seet at jeg paa Pans Fest tre Gange tilbød ham en kongelig Krone, og at han tre Gange afslog den. Var det herskesygt?-Dog Brutus siger han var herskesyg, og i Sandhed, han er en hederlig Mand. Jeg taler ikke for at gjendrive det, som Brutus har sagt; men jeg staar her, for at sige hvad jeg veed. I alle elskede ham engang, uden Aarsag; hvad for an Aarsag afholder Eder fra at sørge over ham? O! Fornuft! Du er flyed hen til de umælende Bæster, og Menneskene have tabt deres Forstand. Haver Taalmodighed med mig; mit Hjerte er hist i Kisten hos Cæsar, og jeg maa holde inde til det kommer tilbage til mig. Den Første af Folket: Meg synes der er megen Fornuft i hans Tale. Den Anden af Folket: Naar du ret overveier Sagen, saa er Cæsar skeet stor Uret. 'It has been thought best to give such citations for the most part in translation. Den Tredje: Mener I det, godt Folk? Jeg frygter der vil komme slemmere i hans Sted. Den Fjerde: Har I lagt Mærke til hvad han sagde? Han vilde ikke modtage Kronen, det er altsaa vist at han ikke var herskesyg. Den Første: Hvis saa er, vil det komme visse Folk dyrt at staae. Antonius: Endnu i Gaar havde et Ord af Cæsar gjældt imod hele Verden, nu ligger han der, endog den Usleste nægter ham Agtelse. O, I Folk! var jeg sindet, at ophidse Eders Gemytter til Raserie og Oprør, saa skulde jeg skade Brutus og Kassius, hvilke, som I alle veed, ere hederlige Mænd. Men jeg vil intet Ondt gjøre dem: hellere vil jeg gjøre den Døde, mig selv, og Eder Uret, end at jeg skulde volde slige hederlige Mænd Fortræd. Men her er et Pergament med Cæsars Segl: jeg fandt det i hans Kammer; det er hans sidste Villie. Lad Folket blot høre hans Testament, som jeg, tilgiv mig det, ikke tænker at oplæse, da skulde de alle gaa hen og kysse den døde Cæsars Saar; og dyppe deres Klæder i hans hellige Blod; skulde bede om et Haar af ham til Erindring, og paa deres Dødsdag i deres sidste Villie tænke paa dette Haar, og testamentere deres Efterkommere det som en rig Arvedel. Den Fjerde: Vi ville høre Testamentet! Læs det, Marcus Antonius. Antonius: Haver Taalmodighed, mine Venner: jeg tør ikke forelæse det; det er ikke raadeligt, at I erfare hvor kjær Cæsar havde Eder. I ere ikke Træe, I ere ikke Stene, I ere Mennesker; og da I ere Mennesker saa skulde Testamentet, om I hørte det, sætte Eder i Flamme, det skulde gjøre Eder rasende. Det er godt at I ikke vide, at I ere hans Arvinger; thi vidste I det, O, hvad vilde der da blive af? Den fjerde: Læs Testamentet; vi ville høre det, Antonius! Du maae læse Testamentet for os, Cæsars Testamment! Antonius: Ville i være rolige? Ville I bie lidt? Jeg er gaaen for vidt at jeg har sagt Eder noget derom-jeg frygter jeg fornærmer de hederlige Mænd, som have myrdet Cæsar—jeg befrygter det. Den Fjerde: De vare Forrædere!-ha, hederlige Mænd! The translation continues to the point where the plebeians, roused to fury by the cunning appeal of Antony, rush out with the cries:2 2. Pleb: Go fetch fire! 3. Pleb: Plucke down Benches! 2. Pleb: Plucke down Formes, Windowes, anything. But we have not space for a more extended quotation, and the passage given is sufficiently representative. The faults are obvious. The translator has not ventured to reproduce Shakespeare's blank verse, nor, indeed, could that 2 Julius Caesar. III, 2. 268-70. Variorum Edition Furness. Phila. 1913. be expected. The Alexandrine had long held sway in Danish poetry. In Rolf Krage (1770), Ewald had broken with the tradition and written an heroic tragedy in prose. Unquestionably he had been moved to take this step by the example of his great model Klopstock in Bardiete. It seems equally certain, however, that he was also inspired by the plays of Shakespeare, and the songs of Ossian, which came to him in the translations of Wieland. 5 A few years later, when he had learned English and read Shakespeare in the original, he wrote Balders Død in blank verse and naturalized Shakespeare's metre in Denmark. At any rate, it is not surprising that this unknown plodder far north in Trondhjem had not progressed beyond Klopstock and Ewald. But the result of turning Shakespeare's poetry into the journeyman prose of a foreign language is necessarily bad. The translation before us amounts to a paraphrase,-good, respectable Danish untouched by genius. Two examples will illustrate this. The lines: Now lies he there, And none so poor to do him reverence. are rendered in the thoroughly matter-of-fact words, appropriate for a letter or a newspaper "story": Again, is translated: Nu ligger han der, endog den Usleste nægter ham Agtelse. I have o'ershot myself to tell you of it, Jeg er gaaen for vidt at jeg sagde Eder noget derom. On the other hand, the translation presents no glaring errors; such slips as we do find are due rather to ineptitude, an inability to find the right word, with the result that the writer has contented himself with an accidental and approximate rendering. For example, the translator no doubt understood the lines: The evil that men do lives after them, The good is oft interred with their bones. but he could hit upon nothing better than: Det Onde man gjør lever endnu efter os; det Gode begraves ofte tilligemed vore Been. Rønning-Rationalismens Tidsalder. 11-95. Ewald-Levnet og meninger. Ed. Bobe. Kbhn. 1911, p. 166. 5 Ibid. II, 234-235. which is both inaccurate and infelicitous. For the line He was my friend, faithful and just to me. Despite these faults-and many others could be cited,-it is perfectly clear that this unknown student of Shakespeare understood his original and endeavored to reproduce it correctly in good Danish. His very blunders showed that he tried not to be slavish, and his style, while not remarkable, is easy and fluent. Apparently, however, his work attracted no attention. His name is unknown, as are his sources, and there is not, with one exception, a single reference to him in the later Shakespeare literature of Denmark and Norway. Not even Rahbek, who was remarkably well informed in this field, mentions him. Only Foersom, who let nothing referring to Shakespeare escape him, speaks (in the notes to Part I of his translation) of a part of Act III of Julius Caesar in Trondhjems Allehaande. That is all. It it not too much to emphasize, therefore, that we have here the first Danish version of any part of Julius Caesar as well as the first Norwegian translation of any part of Shakespeare into what was then the common literary language of Denmark and Norway." B It was many years before the anonymous contributor to Trondhjems Allehaande was to have a follower. From 1782 to 1807 Norwegians were engaged in accumulating wealth, an occupation, indeed, in which they were remarkably successful. There was no time to meddle with Shakespeare in a day when • William Shakespeares Tragiske Værker-Første Deel. Khbn. 1807. Notes at the back of the volume. 'By way of background, a bare enumeration of the early Danish translations of Shakespeare is here given. 1777. Hamlet. Translated by Johannes Boye. 1790. Macbeth. Translated by Nils Rosenfeldt. Othello. Translated by Nils Rosenfeldt. 6 Norwegian shipping and Norwegian products were profitable as never before. After 1807, when the blundering panic of the British plunged Denmark and Norway into war on the side of Napoleon, there were sterner things to think of. It was a sufficiently difficult matter to get daily bread. But in 1818, when the country had, as yet, scarcely begun to recover from the agony of the Napoleonic wars, the second Norwegian translation from Shakespeare appeared.8 The translator of this version of Coriolanus is unknown. Beyond the bare statement on the title page that the translation is made directly from Shakespeare and that it is printed and published in Christiania by Jacob Lehmann, there is no information to be had. Following the title there is a brief quotation from Dr. Johnson and one from the "Zeitung für die elegante Welt." Again Norway anticipates her sister nation; for not till the following year did Denmark get her first translation of the play.' Ewald, Oehlenschlæger, and Foersom had by this time made the blank verse of Shakespeare a commonplace in Dano-Nor All's Well that Ends Well. Translated by Nils Rosenfeldt. 1792. King Lear. Translated by Nils Rosenfeldt. Cymbeline. Translated by Nils Rosenfeldt. The Merchant of Venice. Translated by Nils Rosenfeldt. 1794. King Lear. Nahum Tate's stage version. Translated by Hans Wilhelm Riber. 1796. 1800. 1801. Two Speeches.-To be or not to be-(Hamlet.) Is this a dagger-(Macbeth.) Translated by Malthe Conrad Brun in Svada. Act III, Sc. 2 of Julius Caesar. Translated by Knut Lyhne Rahbek in Minerva. Macbeth. Translated by Levin Sander and K. L. Rahbek. Not published till 1804. 1804. Act V of Julius Caesar. Translated by P. F. Foersom in Minerva. 1805. Act IV Sc. 3 of Love's Labour Lost. 1807. Nylaarsgave for Skuespilyndere. Translated by P. F. Foersom in Hamlet's speech to the players. Translated by P. F. Foersom in It may be added that in 1807 appeared the first volume of Foersom's translation of Shakespeare's tragedies, and after 1807 the history of Shakespeare in Denkmark is more complicated. With these matters I shall deal at length in another study. Coriolanus, efter Shakespeare. Christiania. 1818. 'The first Danish translation of Coriolanus by P. F. Wulff appeared in 1819. |