An Essay Toward a History of Shakespeare in Norway | Page 3

rush out with the cries:[2]
2. Pleb: Go fetch fire!
3. Pleb: Plucke down Benches!
2. Pleb: Plucke down Formes, Windowes, anything.
[2. Julius Caesar. III, 2. 268-70. Variorum Edition Furness. Phila.
1913.]

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 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.[3] 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.[4]
[3. Rønning--Rationalismens Tidsalder. 11-95.]
[4. Ewald--Levnet og meninger. Ed. Bobe. Kbhn. 1911, p. 166.]
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.[5] 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.
[5. _Ibid._ II, 234-235.]
are rendered in the thoroughly matter-of-fact words, appropriate for a
letter or a newspaper "story":
.... Nu ligger han der, endog den Usleste nægter ham Agtelse.
Again,

I have o'ershot myself to tell you of it,
is translated:
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.
which is both inaccurate and infelicitous. For the line
He was my friend, faithful and just to me.
our author has:
Han var min Ven, trofast og oprigtig mod mig!
Again:
Has he, Masters? I fear there will come a worse in his place.
Translation:
Mener I det, godt Folk?--etc.
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,[6]
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.[7]
[6. _William Shakespeares Tragiske Værker--Første Deel._ Khbn. 1807.
Notes at the back of the volume.]
[7. 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. _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. _Two Speeches._--To be or not to be--_(Hamlet.)_ Is this a
dagger--_(Macbeth.)_ Translated by Malthe Conrad Brun in Svada.
1800. Act III, Sc. 2 of Julius Caesar. Translated by Knut Lyhne
Rahbek in Minerva.
1801. 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_. Translated by P.F.
Foersom in _Nytaarsgave for Skuespilyndere._
1807. Hamlet's speech to