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

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. R?nning--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 D?d_ 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 n?gter 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 gj?r _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 V?rker--F?rste 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 the players. Translated by P.F. Foersom in Nytaarsgave for Skuespilyndere.
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 Denmark is more complicated. With these matters I shall deal at length in another study.]
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