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Welcome to Episode #120 of That Shakespeare Life, the podcast that takes you behind the curtain and into the life of William Shakespeare.
One of the most romantic moments from Shakespeare’s plays is when he writes Henry V stumbling his way through a French declaration of love and wedding proposal to Catherine of Valois in Shakespeare’s Henry V. It is gorgeous scene and one of my favorites, but it presents a few questions since England was strongly pro-England at this point in history, even leaning anti-French (having taken measures like banning the import of French playing cards at this time for example) so what was Shakespeare doing when he had one of England’s biggest heroes speaking French on stage? Where did Shakespeare learn French in the first place–and does he get the language right? Here to help us explore the use of French in Shakespeare’s plays, how the language fit into the life of William Shakespeare, as well as the French language history behind not only Henry V, but also the French that shows up in Hamlet as well, is our guest, Jennifer Nicholson.
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Jennifer E. Nicholson is a sessional academic in literary and interdisciplinary studies at the University of Sydney, teaching film, genre, and early modern literature. She researches from the early modern period into the twenty-first century, with a focus on the various “edges” of the English language in a range of literary forms. Her projects currently span Shakespeare studies (particularly Hamlet), Montaigne, early modern drama, Renaissance books, world literature, untranslatability, and comparative translation. Primarily an early modernist, Jennifer’s primary area of interest is currently the presence of French and French English in early modern English play texts. She is currently working on a longer project concerning English language versions of film produced by Japanese animation company Studio Ghibli. Jennifer has work forthcoming and recently published in edited collections spanning from early modern drama to Anglophone translations of Japanese film. She tweets about her work, her cat, and other general interests at @justjenerally
In this episode, I’ll be asking Jennifer Nicholson about :
Today, English is the international trade language that is often taught in multiple schools around the world as part of a necessary education. But for the 16th century, Jennifer, what was the reigning international trade language? Was it French?
Was there a huge market in 16th century England for French texts?
Henry V is the obvious choice when examining Shakespeare’s understanding of French since this play (while not the only one to feature French language) does contain entire scenes conducted in French. Students of French will notice that many of the French phrases in that play, however, are considered incorrect by today’s standards. Jennifer, are the phrases in Shakespeare’s Henry V considered incorrect by 16th century standards?
… and more!
Books and Resources Jennifer Nicholson Recommends:
Bourus, Terri. “Enter Shakespeare’s Young Hamlet, 1589.” Actes des Congrès de la Société française Shakespeare 34 (2016): 1-14, doi: 10.4000/Shakespeare.3736. Hamlin, William M. Montaigne’s English Journey: Reading the Essays in Shakespeare’s Day. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199684113.001.0001.
Déprats, Jean-Michel. ““I Cannot Speak Your England”: Sur Quelques Problmèmes de Traduction d’Henry V.” Actes des Congrès de la Société française Shakespeare 18 (2000): 69-83. Doi: 10.4000/shakespeare.545. Rubright, Marjorie. “Incorporating Kate: The Myth of Monolingualism in Shakespeare’s Henry the Fifth.” In The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Embodiment: Gender, Sexuality, and Race, edited by Valerie Traub, 468-490. Oxford New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2016.
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Ep 121: Shakespeare’s French with Jennifer Nicholson
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Shakespeare's Henry V stumbles his way through a French marriage proposal but does he get it right? Explore Shakespeare's French with Jennifer Nicholson.
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Hi, I love your podcast! The topic of Shakespeare and foreign languages is a really interesting one! I’m wondering if you or your guest could clarify the source for the assertion of there having been a Hamlet play as early as 1584. As far as I recall, there is Nashe’s rant about “whole hamlets” from 1589 and then Henslowe mentions a Hamlet play in the early 1590s, which is reported to have been performed at the universities. If there is indeed evidence of Shakespeare having been attached to a company of players and had one of his plays performed as early as 1584, wouldn’t that be a rather spectacular discovery that goes beyond just the dating of Hamlet, as these years are considered his “lost years”? Thanks!
Hello Liz! I’m so glad you are enjoying the show (I remember you and am very happy to see you here!) The earliest known performance of Shakespeare’s Hamlet happened in 1607 aboard the Red Dragon off the coast of Sierra Leone. But Shakespeare’s Hamlet was far from the only one! There were many Hamlet plays performed in the 16th century, and Ur-Hamlet, known as “original Hamlet” on which the later ones (including Shakespeare’s!) were based, is thought to have been written around 1584. Jennifer is siding with contemporary research to make that statement, but the date is (as everything) debated. Here are some resources that may help you.
1. “The earliest version of Hamlet was probably written shortly before the Parliament session of 1584-85.” – Stephanie at PoliticWorm | https://politicworm.com/background/birth-of-the-london-stage/overview-of-the-1580s/plays-of-the-1580s/hamlet-and-the-spanish-tragedy/
2. “The Ur-Hamlet, or “original Hamlet,” is a lost play that scholars believe was written about a decade before Shakespeare’s Hamlet, providing the basis for the later tragedy. Numerous sixteenth-century records attest to the existence of the Ur-Hamlet, with some references linking its composition to Kyd, the author of The Spanish Tragedy. The scholar Harold Bloom, on the other hand, drawing on internal and thematic elements in Hamlet and also on events in Shakespeare’s life, asserts that the Ur-Hamlet was actually a first draft of Hamlet written by Shakespeare himself in his youth.” – Encyclopedia.com This source also talks about the Bond Association of 1584, making it a legal act to commit revenge against anyone attacking the monarch — a theme of Hamlet. | https://www.encyclopedia.com/literature-and-arts/classical-literature-mythology-and-folklore/folklore-and-mythology/hamlet
3. This source is very dense, but it looks at the sources of Hamlet: http://triggs.djvu.org/global-language.com/ENFOLDED/ABOUT/HamletSource-12-11-09.html
4. This last one is from the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship. I point that out upfront because I categorically reject the overall suggestion of their society that Shakespeare was anything other than William Shakespeare, but their research cannot be totally dismissed, either. This article does point out, usefully, some information on law that appears in Hamlet. https://shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org/law-hamlet-death-property-pursuit-justice/
All that to say, I will call Jennifer’s attention to your comment and while I cannot guarantee she will be able to answer you here, hopefully so!
Hi! Thank you so much for your quick reply! I agree with Bloom and others that a good case can be made for Shakespeare at least having had a hand in the Ur-Hamlet; it was just the specific dating of 1584, rather than late 1580s or 1580s generally, that surprised me. I’ll have a closer look at your third link, thanks for that!
I love Jonathan Bate’s work, especially on Shakespeare and the classics, and that was a great interview in ep 43. I don’t see how anyone who heard that rebuttal of the anti-stratfordians can be in any doubt about the ridiculousness of their “theories”! The only one who possibly put it even better than professor Bate was Ben Elton in that season 3 episode of Upstart Crow 🙂
You may also like this episode with Sir Jonathan Bate, where we discuss Ur-Hamlet. https://www.cassidycash.com/episode-43-jonathan-bate-the-genius-of-shakespeare/
Hi Liz, it’s great to see your interest in this! As Cassidy mentions, it’s a bit of a guess. 1589 only gives us Nashe, but no doubt the play would have to have been around sometime before then to have any currency as a reference. In my project I’m suggesting a correlation with Christophe Marlowe’s Tamburlaine I, which would play the play at least around 1587. My suspicion is the mid 1580s, but I’m yet to pin a precise/singular year! Gary Taylor and Rory Loughnane have also suggested at least 1588 in the New Oxford Shakespeare project. Indeed it would be something to find a more specific timing for the play! Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy was around perhaps as early as 1582; if this is a source for Shakespeare’s characterisation of Hamlet as melancholic, then it would make some sense to me that their dates of origin were somewhat close together. More conjecture… Thanks again for your interest, and glad that you enjoyed the episode!
Hi Jennifer, thanks for your reply! A connection with Tamburlaine I sounds interesting! I like the idea of the story of young Hamlet appealing to a very young Shakespeare (unless of course one takes the view that he was primarily interested in what was commercially viable, and revenge tragedies were en vogue after The Spanish Tragedy…).