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This book is a translation of German versions of both
Hamlet and
Romeo and Juliet. The introductions to each play place these versions of Shakespeare's plays in the German context, and offer insights into what we can learn about the original texts from these translations.
English itinerant players toured in northern continental Europe from the 1580s. Their repertories initially consisted of plays from the London theatre, but over time the players learnt German, and German players joined the companies, as a result of which the dramatic texts were adapted and translated into German. A number of German plays now extant have a direct connection to Shakespeare. Four of them are so close in plot, character constellation and at times even language to their English originals that they can legitimately be considered
versions of Shakespeare's plays. This volume offers fully edited translations of two such texts:
Der Bestrafte Brudermord /
Fratricide Punished (
Hamlet) and
Romio und Julieta (
Romeo and Juliet). With full scholarly apparatus, these texts are of seminal interest to all scholars of Shakespeare's texts, and their transmission over time in print, translation and performance.
List of contents
List of Illustrations
Prefatory Note
Introduction
The Relationship of Der Bestrafte Brudermord to Hamlet
Origins: The Early Seventeenth Century
The Ur-Hamlet, the First Quarto, the Second Quarto, and the Textual Origins of Der Bestrafte Brudermord
Origins: The Later Seventeenth and the Eighteenth Century
Stage History, Early Modern and Modern
Modern Editorial History
A Note on the Translation
Translation
A Note on the Annotation and Collation
Annotation
Collation
Appendix 1: Plot Correspondences between Der Bestrafte Brudermord and Hamlet
Appendix 2: The Relationship of Der Bestrafte Brudermord to the Texts of Hamlet
References
About the author
Lukas Erne is Professor of English Literature at the University of Geneva. He is author of Shakespeare as Literary Dramatist (Cambridge, 2003). He has taught at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, at the University of Neuchâtel and, as Visiting Professor, at Yale University.
Summary
This book is a translation of German versions of both Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. The introductions to each play place these versions of Shakespeare's plays in the German context, and offer insights into what we can learn about the original texts from these translations.
English itinerant players toured in northern continental Europe from the 1580s. Their repertories initially consisted of plays from the London theatre, but over time the players learnt German, and German players joined the companies, as a result of which the dramatic texts were adapted and translated into German. A number of German plays now extant have a direct connection to Shakespeare. Four of them are so close in plot, character constellation and at times even language to their English originals that they can legitimately be considered versions of Shakespeare’s plays. This volume offers fully edited translations of two such texts: Der Bestrafte Brudermord / Fratricide Punished (Hamlet) and Romio und Julieta (Romeo and Juliet). With full scholarly apparatus, these texts are of seminal interest to all scholars of Shakespeare's texts, and their transmission over time in print, translation and performance.
Additional text
Exquisite translations … An excellent edition of two remarkable early modern German plays in modern English translation that warrant tight-knit theatrical action.
