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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Few problems of literary history have tempted the scrutiny of historians more than the earliest influence of Shakespeare in seventeenth century France. In the works of two or three French playwrights of the period, they have caught a few dubious traces of possible inspiration from the great English dramatist; but the similitudes they cite are so vague and general that recent criticism has denied them any significance. Cyrano de Bergerac's Agrippine, for example, contains some philosophical reflexions that are reminiscent of Hamlet and of the Merchant of Venice. Recently, however, M. Jusserand has proved that the similarity between a few expressions in these plays is due to mere verbal coincidence, derived from their common ultimate source, Seneca. On the other hand, as against M. Jusserand's views, the probability of an influence of Shakespeare upon de Schélandre's Tyr et Sidon (1628) has been defended by M. Hankiss. (Mod. Lang. Notes XXXVI, p. 464.)
1 Lacroix, L'influence de Shakespeare en France, 1856.—Karl Elze. Hamlet in Frankreich. Jahrbuch der Deutschen Shakespeare Gesellschaft. 1865.
2 Cf. J. Darmesteter, Essais de Littérature Anglaise, p. 43; Jusserand, Revue d' Hisloire littéraire, 1899, p. 343.
3 For a discussion of the date of Trasibule see W. Rohr.—Leben und dramatische Werke des älteren und des jüngeren Montfleury.—Leipzig. 1911.
4 Op. cit. p. 147.
5 This play was reprinted as Philoclée et Téléphonte in Théâtre François, VII, 1737.—Cf. Frères Parfaict, VI, p. 221.
For a treatment of stage adaptations of the Merope theme, see Gottfried Hartmann—Merope im Italienischen und Französischen Drama. 1892.
6 Fengo, ein Fürst in Itlandt, erwürget sein Bruder Horwendillum. 1558.
7 The booklet History of Hamblet had too limited a circulation to be a probable source for this French play.
8 Books II and IV. Written about 1185. Printed 1514, 1534, 1576.
9 The resemblance between Montfleury's Trasibule and the Hamlet play is not of such a nature as to warrant an inquiry into the problem: Does it resemble more the Ur-Hamlet than Shakespeare's play, or is the opposite the case?
10 Act III, Sc. III. Sosthesnes “Se couvre d'un des pans de la tapisserie.”
11 Cf. M. Blakemore Evans. Der bestrafte Brudermord, sein Verhältnis zu Shakespeare's Hamlet. Theatergeschichtliche Forschungen. 1903. With a reprint of Belleforest's version of the Hamlet story.
12 Aristotle, Poeics, VII, X, XII.
13 Yet, with all his submission to custom, Montfleury did not find any sympathy for the pretended madness of Trasibule with classical critics. The abbé de la Porte concluded, in 1776, a résumé of his play as follows: “Cette tragédie, si c'en est une, est foible de style et d' invention. Il est certain d' ailleurs que la folie supposée de Trasibule déroge à la dignité du tragique” (Dict. dramatique, III, Trasibule).
14 La Pratique du Théâtre, p. 230.
15 Jusserand. Shakespeare in France, p. 170-173.
16 Cf. an article of J. Texte. Revue d'Hist. litt. I, 463.
17 His Les Bestes raisonnables is based on G. B. Gelli's La Circe, and his La Femme Juge et Partie on La Dama Corregidor by Zabaleta and Villavicioso. For the extent of his borrowing see Rohr, Leben und dramatische Werke des älteren und des jüngeren Montfleury. Leipzig. 1911. Puibusque's Histoire comparée de la litt. fr. et esp. is unreliable.