Shakespeare’s French
The following
post by Rob Baxter comes from our recent newsletter
Shakespeare uses a surprising amount of French in his
plays, especially in Henry V. But
that use of the French language is not the only way in which French is part of
Shakespeare’s language. The vast majority of Shakespeare’s vocabulary comes
from French. More profoundly, much of the grammar and the syntax of
Shakespeare’s language comes from French. (The English Project ‘Henry and the
French Language n.d.’)
French began to be an influence on the English language
with the arrival of the French-speaking Norman kings in 1066. In the next five
hundred years, English was massively refashioned by French so that by the time
Shakespeare was born, English had become a fusion language. (Mulvey 2016)
Some scholars who have examined different aspects of the
plays have discovered borrowings from French sources, and apparent allusion to
French personages and events, and, of course, the plays include French phrases
and occasional exchanges in French. Let
us consider Shakespeare’s use of French in just three of his plays, Henry V, Love’s Labour’s Lost and Hamlet.
Henry V
Henry V is a play that rejoices in its hero king, Henry, warrior
and wooer. Henry V not only defeated the French; he went on to win the hand of
Katherine, the daughter of the King of France. Henry is powerful and kingly in
battle. He is playful and winning in courtship.
In Henry
V we find more than a dozen French lines for the soldiers including the
exchange:
Boy. Encore
qu'il est contre son jurement de pardonner
aucun prisonnier, neanmoins, pour les ecus que vous
l'avez promis, il est content de vous donner la
liberte, le franchisement.
[“Although it is against
his oath to pardon any prisoner, nevertheless, for the sake of the crowns you
have promised, he is willing to give you your liberty, your freedom”]
French Soldier. Sur mes genoux je vous donne mille
remercimens; et je m'estime heureux que je suis tombe entre les
mains d'un chevalier, je pense, le plus brave,
vaillant, et tres distingue seigneur d'Angleterre.
[“On my knees, I give you
a thousand thanks, and I consider myself happy that I have fallen into hands of
a knight, as I think, the bravest, most valiant, and very distinguished
gentleman in England”] [4.4.52-62]
This shows some, but not conclusive evidence, that
Shakespeare could write fluent French. In the next Act there is the rather
naughty scene between Katherine and her maid, Alice, where the latter teaches
the former some English translation of French words. Whilst Shakespeare shows that he is familiar
with French it can be seen that he is also boasting about the superiority of
English. (The English Project ‘Henry and the French Language n.d.’)
The subject is parts of the body, so Katherine learns
single words ‘de sin’, ‘de fingres’, ‘de mailes’ and ‘de bilbow’
which with a hint of a French accent is probably not so different from a French
vocabulary lesson even today.
The play demonstrates Shakespeare’s knowledge of conversational
French, with its sideways glance at the verb ‘baiser’, which, for unsuspecting English audiences means 'to kiss',
leaving its more sexual connotations for those French-speaking members of the
audience alone. Shakespeare playfully uses the ‘double entendre’ word as a verb
four times and is well aware that it was a word one had to be careful with.
(White 2015)
The untranslated ‘baiser’
presents a space into which the English translation cannot reach. For French-speaking
members of the audience, it denotes an extremely vulgar expression ‘to f**k’; French folk would assume use of the
dirty expression, unless it's in a very well-known phrase like "baiser la main" [‘to kiss the
hand’], a phrase Shakespeare actually uses in the dialogue. (Montgomery 2012)
History tells us that it was just at the time that Henry
was courting Kate – 1415 - that the English language was triumphing in England;
it was finally overcoming French as the language of authority and power.
Henry’s father had deposed Richard II by an order read in English and the
Henrys made English the language of their court. (The English Project)
There is more French spoken in Henry V than in any other Shakespeare play, more in fact, than in
any other English play of that period. From 1066 onwards, England had been
ruled in French and educated in Latin. English had been a despised tongue
though it never ceased to be a written language, as in William Langland's Piers Plowman and Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
Henry V is not only a play about the defeat of the French army;
it is also a play about the defeat of the French language. The English king is
triumphant. So is Shakespeare’s English!
Hamlet
Turning to Hamlet,
the Memoire’s of Queen Marguerite de
Valois, contain the tragic story of a young girl at court who dies for love and
grief.
A young lord, living in the same household, falls in love
with this young woman. Their love is
thwarted by the family objections; the young girl has a domineering
parent. Her lover then turns cruel and
rejects her.
She tries to hide her distress, but then breaks down, and
dies within days, mourned by a queen. Her lover returns, and comes across a
funeral procession. The coffin is strewn
with flowers. He wonders whose funeral it is, and then realises it is his
beloved’s. (Wikipedia: Margaret of
Valois)
Does the
story ring a bell with you? It sounds
familiar, though the participants are not Ophelia and Hamlet, but Hélène de
Tournon and the Marquis de Varenbon. Had Shakespeare read some of Marguerite’s Memoires as she had been born in 1553
and the letters seem to have been written in the latter part of the 16th
century?
Love’s
Labour’s Lost
And fascinatingly, Shakespeare found her a muse as well,
basing the events of his comedy Love’s
Labour’s Lost on Marguerite’s relationship with Navarre whom she married
unwillingly in 1572.
Marguerite describes how in 1578, separated from her
husband, she accompanied her mother, Catherine de Médici, as ambassadress of
France in negotiations with Henry of Navarre. On this occasion she attempted to
influence the outcome of the negotiations by employing the charms of the
ladies-in-waiting on Henry and his lords. Like the princess in the play,
Marguerite was witty and charming.
The Mémoires
contain many particulars of her life, together with anecdotes told with a saucy
vivacity which is charming, and an air vividly recalling the sprightly
demeanour and black, sparkling eyes of the fair Queen of Navarre. Marguerite
died in 1615, aged sixty-three. These letters contain the secret history of the
Court of France during the seventeen eventful years 1565-82.
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Marguerite de Valois
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Hélène de Tournon, daughter of one of Marguerite de Valois' ladies-in-waiting, died for the love of a young nobleman, the Marquis de Varenbon, an incident that is the source for the story of Katharine’s sister in Love’s Labour’s Lost. (Boyce, 2005)The tragic death of Hélène de Tournon was probably the
source for that of Ophelia in Hamlet
who dies broken-hearted, rejected by Hamlet (as mentioned earlier), the man she
loves who has also killed her father. The Marquis learned of the death of
Hélène de Tournon when, on returning to Liège (from where he had been absent at
the time Hélène died), he encountered the funeral procession, just as Hamlet
encounters the funeral procession of Ophelia on his return to Elsinore.
Shakespeare knew of this tragic incident, which was not
publicly known until Marguerite de Valois’ Mémoires
were published in 1628.
Shakespeare’s Library
The question arises as to how Shakespeare acquired his
knowledge of the French language. Concerning Shakespeare’s proficiency Kenneth
Muir (1977) writes:
‘Of modern languages Shakespeare acquired some knowledge
in French… He could certainly read
French…’
Stuart Gillespie (2001)
makes reference to John Eliot’s book written for “English Gentlemen”, published
in London in 1593 under the extended title
“Ortho-epia Gallica: Eliot’s fruits for
the French, Enterlaced with a double new Inuention, which teacheth to speake truely, speedily and
volubly the French-tongue.
Penned for the practise, pleasure, and
profit of all English Gentlemen, who will endevour by their owne paine, studie,
and dilligence, to attaine the naturall Accent, the true Pronounciation, the
swift and glib Grace of this Noble, Famous, and Courtly Language”
and describes the French
language manual as one Shakespeare might have had in his possession and seems
“exactly the type of
book Shakespeare could have used to teach himself French”.
Robert Miola (2000) goes further referring to the French
‘teach yourself’ books Shakespeare might have acquired to further his studies:
‘Shakespeare’s library certainly contained books in
French…including a French conversation manual, and perhaps works by Boaistuau
and Belleforest.’
Belleforest’s Les Histoires Tragiques is a 1514 translation
of the story of the 12th century Latin Amlethus into French (Amleth) and one of the sources
Shakespeare used for Hamlet. The play
makes more than fifty allusions to characters, events or words and phrases in
Belleforest’s Les Histoires Tragiques, published
(in French) in 1572.
These scholars—Muir,
Gillespie and Miola—and Shakespeare himself show that he was sufficiently fluent
in French to read and make use of French sources and was also familiar with a
French person’s vernacular.
Miola’s reference to
Shakespeare’s library has exercised the minds of many. Shakespeare’s will runs to three pages, over a
thousand words, with no mention of any book, whether a bible, texts of any
poems or plays, or any sources. The
absence of books is a marked feature of the will. No inventory of books to which a lawyer
would, as a matter of practice, make specific reference in the will (for it be
valid in law), is known to exist.
One of the few
biographical details we know for certain about Shakespeare is how much he read.
Over 200 books are quoted in his plays or serve as sources for them.
What did he read? Mostly
history, literature, plays, and poems, with some books on mathematics and
medicine. It would certainly seem to follow that Shakespeare either owned such
books or had access to these relatively scarce books.
Where did he read books?
There were no public libraries in England. The largest known library was Lord
Lumley’s (1533-1609); he was an English aristocrat whose library contained some
7000 volumes; this collection became the original British Library. There were
about 10 libraries of over 1000 volumes in England: the Queen’s, the
universities’, the Inns of Court’s, and several other private libraries,
including Sir William Cecil's.
Shakespeare was not a
student at a university or an Inn of Court, nor is he known to have been
patronized by any of the owners of large libraries. He must have been
self-taught.
Stuart Kells (2018) has
researched this enigma and writes
‘Over the span of four
hundred years, people sought [Shakespeare’s] library out….In all this time, the
search came to nought [sic]. Not a trace of his library was found. No books, no
manuscripts, no letters, no diaries….’
Kells suggests that one
reason the library has been lost is because Shakespeare wasn't really a
literary figure in his own time.
‘The idea of a literary
Shakespeare as this inspired author was really created in the 18th and 19th
centuries….In his time, he was a workaday dramatist, he had [many] other things
on the go, [including] investing in theatres."
It seems that there is
no satisfactory explanation of this puzzle; searches for any library, indeed
any books of any description, belonging to Shakespeare, have led nowhere.
References
Boyce, C (2005) ‘KATHARINE’ in William
Shakespeare: A Literary Reference to his Life and Work, Vol 1 Facts on File,
New York
Gillespie S (2001) SHAKESPEARE’S BOOKS:
The Athlone Press
Kells, S (2000) SHAKESPEARE’S LIBRARY
Text Publishing, Melbourne
Miola R (2000) SHAKESPEARE’S READING
Oxford, OUP
Montgomery M (2012) EUROPE’S LANGUAGES
ON ENGLAND’S STAGES 1590-1620: Ashgate, London
Muir K (1977) THE SOURCES OF
SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS Methuen & Co. Ltd., London
Mulvey C (2016) ‘WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: A
FRENCH POET?’ A Parisian Celebration of the 400th Anniversary of His Death: 25
May 2016, http://www.englishproject.org/william-shakespeare-french-poet
White R et al. (eds.) (2015)
SHAKESPEARE AND EMOTIONS, INHERITANCES, ENACTMENTS, LEGACIES Palgrave
Macmillan, London
Wikipedia contributors, "MARGARET
OF VALOIS," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Margaret_of_Valois&oldid=866275829
(accessed January 15, 2019
