Early Modern German Shakespeare: Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet

Der Bestrafte Brudermord and Romio und Julieta in Translation

Lukas Erne, Kareen Seidler

• Publisher: The Arden Shakespeare
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781350084025
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Shakespeare Drama
• Index: Literature

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.

APPENDIX 1

The relationship of Der Bestrafte
Brudermord to the texts of Hamlet

In the present appendix, we list what we consider the most significant instances of agreement between Brudermord and the various texts of Hamlet: first, thirty-three parallels between Brudermord and Q2 and F but not Q1; secondly, three parallels between Brudermord and Q2 but not F and Q1; and thirdly, seventeen parallels between Brudermord and Q1 but not Q2 and F. Bold emphasis is ours. Since the exact relationship of the German play to Shakespeare’s texts is of the essence here, we quote the passages from Brudermord not only in translation but also in the original German, and the Hamlet passages directly from Q1, Q2 and F (although, for ease of reference, we provide act, scene and line references from Ard³). When passages from Q2 and F are substantively identical, references are keyed to the Q2 edition of Ard³. When individual words are of particular importance for the relationship between the texts, we highlight them by means of bold typeface. For a discussion of the relationship between Brudermord and the texts of Hamlet, see above, pp. 52–60.

BB AND Q2/F: THIRTY-THREE INSTANCES THAT ARE FOUND IN BB AND Q2/F, BUT NOT IN Q1

1.The name Francisco appears in BB and Q2/F, but not in Q1.

2.1 SENTINEL Although it is cold, I have endured a hellish sweat here. (BB 1.1.9–10, 1. SCHILDWACHT Ob es gleich kalt ist, so hab ich doch hier einen Höllenschweiß ausgehalten.) – Fran. … tis bitter cold, / And I am sick at hart. (Q2/F 1.1.6–7)

3.HAMLET Quite so, for this is the very time when ghosts usually walk and show themselves. (BB 1.4.28–9, HAMLET Eben recht, denn um dieselbe Zeit pflegen sich die Geister sehn zu lassen, wenn sie wandeln.) – Hora. … it then drawes neere the season, / Wherein the spirit held his wont to walke (Q2/F 1.4.5–6)

4.The Ghost … beckons to Hamlet. (BB 1.5.3 SD, Der GEIST … winket HAMLET.) – Beckins. (Q2 1.4.57 SD); Ghost beckens Hamlet. (F 1.4.36 SD)

5.HAMLET Say who you are and what is your wish. (BB 1.5.9, HAMLET Rede, wer du bist, und sage, was du begehrest.) – Ham. Whether wilt [F: Where wilt] thou leade me, speake, Ile goe no further. (Q2/F 1.5.1)
Q1: Ham. Ile go no farther, whither wilt thou leade me? (5.1)

6.GHOST … for it will soon be the time when I must return to where I came from. (BB 1.5.14–15, GEIST … denn die Zeit kommt bald, da ich mich wieder an denselben Ort begeben muß, wo ich hergekommen) – Ghost. My houre is almost come / When I to sulphrus and tormenting flames / Must render vp my selfe. (Q2/F 1.5.2–4)

7.GHOST Then hear, my son Hamlet (BB 1.5.18, GEIST So höre, mein Sohn Hamlet) – Ghost. … list, list, ô list (Q2 1.5.22); Gho. … list Hamlet, oh list (F 1.5.22)

8.KING Although our brother’s death is still fresh in the memory of all and requires us to suspend all festivities, … since my blessed brother’s bereaved widow has now become our dearest spouse. (BB 1.7.1–6, KÖNIG Obschon unsers Herrn Bruders [Tod] noch in frischem Gedächtniß bey jedermann ist, und uns gebietet, alle Solennitäten einzustellen … weil nunmehro meines seeligen Herrn Bruders hinterbliebene Wittwe unsere liebste Gemahlin worden) – Claud. Though yet of Hamlet our deare brothers death / The memorie be greene, and that it vs befitted / To beare our harts in griefe … Therefore our sometime Sister, now our Queene / Th’imperiall ioyntresse to this warlike state / Haue we … Taken to wife (Q2/F 1.2.1–14)

9.KING … Stay here, for we love you and desire to have you near us (BB 1.7.12–13, KÖNIG … bleibt hier, denn wir Euch lieben und gerne sehen) – King. … And we beseech you bend you to remaine / Heere in the cheare and comfort of our eye (Q2/F 1.2.115–16)
BB’s previous line is Q1 only (BB and Q1, agreement, nr. 3).

10.KING … We must contrive to have him removed from here, if not from life, otherwise some harm may come of it. (BB 2.4.27–9, KÖNIG … wir müssen verschaffen, daß er an die Seite oder gar ums Leben gebracht werde, es möchte sonst was Uebels daraus entstehen) – King. … And I doe doubt, the hatch and the disclose / VVill be some danger; which for to preuent, / I haue in quick determination / Thus set it downe: he shall with speede to England … Madnes in great ones must not vnmatcht goe. [F: not vnwatch’d go] (Q2/F 3.1.165–8, 187)

11.HAMLET … I once saw a tragedy where one brother murders the other in the garden; this shall they act. If the King turns pale, then he has done what the ghost told me. (BB 2.6.15–18, HAMLET … Ich habe vor diesem eine Tragödie gesehn, daß ein Bruder den andern im Garten ermordet, diese sollen sie agiren; wird sich der König nun entfärben, so hat er gethan, was mir der Geist gesagt hat) – Ham. … Ile haue these Players / Play something like the murther of my father / Before mine Vncle … if a doe blench (Q2/F 2.2.529–32)

12.HAMLET … for in a mirror one can see one’s own spots. (BB 2.7.52, HAMLET … denn man kann in einem Spiegel seine Flecken sehen) – Hamlet. … to holde as twere the Mirrour vp to nature, to shew vertue her feature; scorne her own Image (Q2/F 3.2.21–3); Ger. [F: Qu.] … Thou turnst my very eyes into my soule, / And there I see such blacke and greeued spots (Q2/F 3.4.87–8)

13.HAMLET … for I will dissemble (BB 2.7.100, HAMLET … denn ich werde simuliren) – Ham. … I must be idle (Q2/F 3.2.86–7)

14.CORAMBUS … Quick, light up...