Early Modern German Shakespeare: Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet: Der Bestrafte Brudermord and Romio und Julieta in Translation

by Lukas Erne (Editor), Kareen Seidler (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350084025
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	03/19/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	392
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Kareen Seidler holds a PhD from the University of Geneva, Switzerland and an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, UK. Her MPhil thesis on Romio und Julieta was awarded the Martin-Lehnert-Award of the German Shakespeare Society.

Lukas Erne is Professor of English Literature at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He is author of Shakespeare as Literary Dramatist (2003). He has taught at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, at the University of Neuchâtel and, as Visiting Professor, at Yale University.
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.

Table 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

Editorial Reviews

The two plays make for fascinating and entertaining reading, and they merit consideration in their own right, but they will also be valuable to anyone with an interest in Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, the reception and alteration of Shakespeare's plays and characters, and the relationship between English and continental European theatre traditions more generally … The plays' presentation in the Arden house style provides Brudermord and Romio und Julieta with a platform for further serious scholarly enquiry, whilst the quality of the translations and the appeal of the playtexts promise to establish them as firm favourites in the extended Shakespeare canon.” —Shakespeare Survey

From the Publisher