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Abstract
Walter Scott’s translations of German plays are largely seen as expressing his interest in medieval themes and the historical individual, and as linguistically deficient works that aided the young man in his artistic development. But his translation of Götz von Berlichingen shows that Scott emphasizes the commonalities between German and British culture: in foregrounding the influence of Shakespeare on Goethe and drawing analogies between German and British historical customs, Scott points his readers towards the familiarity of the foreign culture. Following in Lessing’s footsteps, Scott uses cultural similarity in dramatic texts to encourage appreciation for another culture and promote the development of his own.
Notes on Contributor
Michael Wood is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. His research interests include German drama and theatre, Anglo-German literary exchange, and international processes of cultural development. He is the author of Heiner Müller’s Democratic Theater: The Politics of Making the Audience Work (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2017).
Notes
1 Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, ‘Siebzehnter Brief [Den 16. Februar 1759]’, in Gotthold Ephraim Lessings Sämtliche Schriften, ed. by Karl Lachmann, 3rd edn by Franz Muncker, 23 vols (Stuttgart: Göschen, 1886–1924), viii (1892), pp. 41–44 (p. 41).
2 Ibid., p. 43. Emphasis in the original.
3 Ibid., pp. 43–44.
4 See, for example, Günther Erken, ‘Deutschland’, in Shakespeare-Handbuch: Die Zeit — Der Mensch — Das Werk — Die Nachwelt, ed. by Ina Schabert, 4th edn. (Stuttgart: Kröner, 2000), pp. 635–60 (pp. 635–49); Roy Pascal, The German Sturm und Drang (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1953), pp. 233–95; Roger Paulin, The Critical Reception of Shakespeare in Germany 1682–1914: Native Literature and Foreign Genius (Hildesheim: Olms, 2003); and Shakespeare im 18. Jahrhundert, ed. by Roger Paulin (Göttingen: Wallenstein, 2007).
5 English-language works had already been making their way in to the German-speaking world, covering everything from philosophy to belles lettres. For some recent publications on this topic, see, for example, Martin Munke, ‘Philipp Erasmus Reich und die Verbreitung britischer Literatur in Deutschland. Import und Übersetzung’, in Britisch-deutscher Literaturtransfer 1756–1832, ed. by Lore Knapp and Eike Kronshage (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016), pp. 21–38; and Jennifer Willenberg, Distribution und Übersetzung englischen Schrifttums im Deutschland des 18. Jahrhunderts (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2008).
6 See, for example, Christopher Johnson, ‘Scott and the German Historical Drama’, Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, 233 (1996), 2–36; Georg Lukács, The Historical Novel, trans. by Hannah and Stanley Mitchell (London: Merlin, 1962), p. 22; William Macintosh, Scott and Goethe: German Influence on the Writings of Sir Walter Scott (Galashiels: Walker & Son, [1925]), p. 19; Duncan Mennie, ‘Walter Scott’s Unpublished Translations of German Plays’, Modern Language Review, 33 (1938), 234–39 (pp. 238–39); G. H. Needler, Goethe and Scott (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1950), p. 22; Paul M. Ochojski, ‘Sir Walter Scott's Continuous Interest in Germany’, Studies in Scottish Literature, 3 (1966), 164–73 (p. 166); Paul M. Ochojski, ‘Walter Scott and Germany: A Study in Literary Cross-Currents’ (PhD diss., Columbia University, 1960), pp. 39–62; Frauke Reitemeier, Deutsch-englische Literaturbeziehungen: Der historische Roman Sir Walter Scotts und seine deutschen Vorläufer (Paderborn: Schöningh, 2001), p. 240; and Frank W. Stokoe, German Influence in the English Romantic Period 1788–1818, with Special Reference to Scott, Coleridge, Shelley and Byron (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1926), p. 71.
7 Walter Scott to Mrs Hughes, Edinburgh, 13 December 1827, in The Letters of Sir Walter Scott, ed. by Herbert Grierson, 12 vols (London: Constable, 1932–1937), x (1936), pp. 330–34 (p. 331).
8 Compare, for example, Anon., ‘General Character of the Germans’, The Scots Magazine; or, Literary Miscellany, 57, December 1795, pp. 53–54; and Anon., ‘Remarks on the German Character and on Some Eminent German Authors’, The Scots Magazine; or, Literary Miscellany, 60, April 1798, pp. 247–49.
9 See, for example, Anon., ‘Remarkable Effect produced by the Representation of a Tragedy in Germany’, The Edinburgh Magazine; or, Literary Miscellany, 6, 34, October 1787, pp. 225–27; Hannah More, Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education, 2 vols (London: Cadell & Davies, 1799), I, 48; and William Preston, ‘Reflections on the Peculiarities of Style and Manner in the late German Writers whose Works have appeared in English, and on the Tendency of their Productions’, The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, 8 (1902), 15–79.
10 Theodore Grieder, ‘The German Drama in England, 1790–1800’, Restoration and 18th Century Theatre Research, 3 (1964), 39–50 (p. 39).
11 These anthologies are: Théâtre Allemand, ou recueil des meilleures pieces dramatiques, Tant anciennes que modernes, qui ont paru en langue Allemande; précédé d’une Dissertation sur l’Origine, les Progrés & l’état actuel de la Poésie Théâtrale en Allemagne, trans. and ed. by Georges Adam Junker and [?] Liebault, 4 vols (Paris: Junker, Durand, Coulturier, 1785), originally published in 1772; and Nouveau Théatre Allemand, ou Recueil des pieces qui ont paru avec succès sur les Théatres des Capitales de l’Allemagne, trans. and ed. by Adrien Chrétien Friedel and Nicolas de Bonneville, 12 vols (Paris: Caron, 1782–85).
12 Scott to Hughes, 13 December 1827, p. 331.
13 See Walter Scott to Messrs Cadell and Davies, Edinburgh 5 May 1798, printed in Ruth M. Adams, ‘A Letter by Sir Walter Scott’, Modern Philology, 54 (1956), 121–23 (p. 121).
14 See Henry Mackenzie, ‘Account of the German Theatre’, Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 2 (1790), 154–92 (pp. 163–66).
15 Ibid., p. 168. It is worth noting that while Mackenzie was a Scotsman and delivered his lecture to a primarily Scottish audience he consistently uses the term ‘English’ throughout his lecture when referring to the inhabitants of present-day Britain and Ireland. In trying to secure London-based publishers for his translations in the 1790s, it is clear that Scott seeks to transcend the boundaries of a purely Scottish or English readership, and further sources illustrate his use of the terms ‘Britons’ and ‘British’ at this time.
16 Ibid., p. 169.
17 Ibid.
18 Walter Scott, ‘Essay on Imitations of the Ancient Ballad’, in The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 4 vols (Edinburgh: Cadell, 1849), iv, 3–78 (p. 39).
19 See Wilman Brewer, Shakespeare's Influence on Sir Walter Scott (Boston, MA: Cornhill, 1925), pp. 20–24; Arthur Melville Clark, Sir Walter Scott: the Formative Years (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1969), pp. 259–60; and Christopher Worth, ‘“A very nice Theatre at Edinr.”: Sir Walter Scott and Control of the Theatre Royal’, Theatre Research International, 17 (1992), 86–95 (p. 86).
20 Andreas Huyssen, Drama des Sturm und Drang. Kommentar zu einer Epoche (Munich: Winter, 1980), p. 93.
21 See F. J. Lamport, German Classical Drama: Theatre, Humanity and Nation 1750–1870 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 40; F. J. Lamport, ‘The Charismatic Hero: Goethe, Schiller, and the Tragedy of Character’, Publications of the English Goethe Society, 58 (1989), 62–83; and Lesley Sharpe, ‘The Young Dramatist’, in Friedrich Schiller: Playwright, Poet, Philosopher, Historian, ed. by Paul E. Kerry (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2007), pp. 95–116 (p. 97).
22 Mackenzie, ‘Account’, p. 160.
23 See Frank M. Fowler, ‘Regularity Without Rules: The Formal Structure of Goethe's Götz von Berlichingen’, German Life and Letters, 41 (1987), 1–8; and Arlene Akiko Teraoka, ‘Submerged Symmetry and Surface Chaos: The Structure of Goethe’s Götz von Berlichingen’, Goethe Yearbook, 2 (1984), 13–41.
24 See Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, ‘Zum Shäkespears Tag’, in Sämtliche Werke nach Epochen seines Schaffens. Münchner Ausgabe, ed. by Karl Richter and others, 21 vols (Munich: Hanser, 1985–1999), i.2 (1987), 411–14.
25 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goetz of Berlichingen, with the Iron Hand: A tragedy, trans. by Walter Scott (London: Bell, 1799), p. xii, hereafter referred to in the body of the text in parentheses with the abbreviation ‘Goetz’.
26 Mackenzie, ‘Account’, p. 163.
27 Compare with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Götz von Berlichingen mit der eisernen Hand, in Goethe’s Schriften, 8 vols (Leipzig: Göschen, 1787–89), ii (1787), 1–240 (pp. 97–112), hereafter referred to in the body of the text in parentheses with the abbreviation ‘Götz’. There are a number of indicators in Scott's translation that it is based on the version of Götz published in this edition of Goethe's works. Moreover, this edition was acquired by the library of the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh in 1796 and can be found amongst Scott's collection in the library at Abbotsford. See Catalogue of the Library at Abbotsford (Edinburgh: Constable, 1838), p. 51. For an account of changes in editions of Götz von Berlichingen, see Steffan Davies, ‘Goethe, Theatre and Politics: Götz von Berlichingen from 1771 to 1804’, Publications of the English Goethe Society, 70 (2000), 29–45.
28 For an example of the use of the term in translation studies, see André Lefevre, ‘Mother Courage’s Cucumbers: Text, System and Refraction in a Theory of Literature’, Modern Language Studies, 12 (1982), 3–20.
29 See Needler, Goethe and Scott, pp. 26–28.
30 See John Koch, ‘Sir Walter Scotts Beziehungen zu Deutschland. II’, Germanisch-romanische Monatsschrift, 15 (1927), 117–41 (p. 121).
31 Peter Mortensen, British Romanticism and Continental Influences: Writing in an Age of Europhobia (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), pp. 143–50.
32 William Shakespeare, Theatralische Werke, trans. by Christoph Martin Wieland, 8 vols (Zurich: Orell, Geßner und Comp., 1762–1766), viii (1766), 85 (Act II, scene 6).
33 Alexander Fraser Tytler, Essay on the Principles of Translation (London: Dent, 1907). See also Lawrence Venuti, The Translator’s Invisibility. A History of Translation, 2nd edn (London: Routledge, 2008), p. 68.
34 Tytler, Essay on the Principles, p. 107.
35 Compare, for example, the reviews in the following: The Analytical Review; or, History of Literature, Domestic and Foreign, 1, June 1799, pp. 609–13; and The Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine; or, Monthly Political and Literary Censor, 3, July 1799, pp. 297–301.
36 For discussion of Götz in relation to the structural changes of its sixteenth-century setting, see, for example, Christa Fell, ‘Justus Möser’s Social Ideas as Mirrored in Goethe’s Götz von Berlichingen’, Germanic Review, 54 (1979), 98–103; Horst Lange, ‘Wolves, Sheep, and the Shepherd: Legality, Legitimacy, and Hobbesian Political Theory in Goethe’s Götz von Berlichingen’, Goethe Yearbook, 10 (2001), 1–30; and Kenneth D. Weisinger, ‘Götz von Berlichingen: History Writing Itself’, German Studies Review, 9 (1986), 211–32.
37 While there are similarities in the economic and social conditions surrounding the 1381 rebellion and the German Peasants’ War, the differences are greater than Scott acknowledges. The scale of neither English rebellion is comparable to that of the German conflict, whether in terms of economic or human costs or with regard to the severity of atrocities committed. Moreover, while a direct outcome of the 1381 revolt was some degree of positive legal reform to the status of the rural peasantry, the 1524–25 war resulted in further suppression of the same class. See, for example, Peter Blickle, Die Revolution von 1525 (Munich: Oldenbourg, 1975). On the English 1381 Peasants’ Revolt, see Rodney Hilton, Bond Men Made Free: Medieval Peasant Movements and the English Rising of 1381 (London: Routledge, 1973). František Graus, ‘From Resistance to Revolt: The Late Medieval Peasant Wars in the Context of Social Crisis’, The Journal of Peasant Studies, 3 (1975), 1–9; Ellwood E. Mather III, ‘Panicked Peasants, Pompous Prelates and Passing Gas: A Brief Survey of Tax Revolts in the Middle Ages’, The Social Science Journal, 33 (1996), 89–95; and David Sabean, ‘The Communal Basis of Pre-1800 Peasant Uprisings in Western Europe’, Comparative Politics, 8 (1976), 355–64 offer some comparative accounts.
38 Scott to Cadell and Davies, 5 May 1798, p. 121.
39 Jacob Maier, Fust von Stromberg. Ein Schauspiel in Fünf Aufzügen. Mit den Sitten Gebräuchen und Rechten sines Jahrhunderts (Mannheim: Schwann, 1782), pp. 11–12.
40 Walter Scott (trans.), Wolfred of Sromberg [sic]. A Drama of Chivalry from the German of Maier, MS Abbotsford Library — N.3.11, blank page facing p. 11.
41 Ibid., blank page facing p. 30.
42 Maier, Fust von Stromberg, p. 38.
43 Scott (trans.), Wolfred of Sromberg [sic], p. 30.
44 For a brief historical consideration of the practice of cruentation, see Robert P. Brittain, ‘Cruentation in Legal Medicine and Literature’, Medical History, 9 (1965), 82–88.
45 Scott, ‘Essay on Imitations’, p. 65, n. 1.
46 Ibid., p. 42. Fritz Sommerkamp questions the truth of Scott's claim, as the person from whom Scott learned Anglo-Saxon had only been born in 1779. See Fritz Sommerkamp, ‘Walter Scotts Kenntnis und Ansicht von deutscher Literatur’, Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, 148 (1925), 196–206 (p. 196). Scott's ‘Commonplace Book’ from the period between 1792 and 1803 shows, however, that he had been studying the relationships between the Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Moesogothic, and German scripts in the early 1790s. See National Library of Scotland MS.1568, pp. 8–9.
47 Walter Scott, ‘On “The Miseries of Human Life”’, in The Miscellaneous Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., 28 vols (Edinburgh: Cadell, 1834–1836), xix (1835), 139–59 (pp. 140–41).
48 Walter Scott, The Journal of Sir Walter Scott, From the Original Manuscript at Abbotsford, ed. by David Douglas, 2 vols (New York: Harper, 1891), ii, 256.
49 Walter Scott, ‘Essay on the Drama’, in Miscellaneous Prose, vi (1834), 217–395 (p. 383).
50 Ibid., p. 381. See also Scott, ‘Essay on Imitations’, pp. 35–41.
51 Peter Boerner, ‘National Images and Their Place in Literary Research: Germany as Seen by Eighteenth-Century French and English Reading Audiences’, Monatshefte, 67 (1975), 358–70 (p. 362).
52 See, for example, Pascale Casanova, The World Republic of Letters, trans. by M. B. Debevoise (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004); Itamar Even-Zohar, ‘Laws of Literary Interference’, Poetics Today, 11 (1990), 53–72; and Itamar Even-Zohar, ‘Translation Theory Today. A Call for Transfer Theory’, Poetics Today, 2 (1981), 1–7.
53 See, for example, David Damrosch, How to Read World Literature (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), p. 47; and Gershom Shaked, ‘The Play: Gateway to Cultural Dialogue’, in The Play Out of Context. Transferring Plays from Culture to Culture, ed. by Hanna Scolnicov and Peter Holland (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 7–24 (p. 18).