Reading Shakespeare aloud

Dear friends in Shakespeare: I have just stumbled over what looks like a fascinating and useful website. Check it out at Lee Jamieson's site. How to Read Shakespeare Dialogue Aloud.

https://www.thoughtco.com/dialogue-how-to-read-shakespeare-aloud-2985078

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 16^th 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.

Marguerite de Valois

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 12^th 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

The English Project ‘HENRY AND THE FRENCH LANGUAGE’ http://www.englishproject.org/march-henry-v-and-french-language (accessed 15 Jan 2019)

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