The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-04 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Macbeth: 'Pragedie en 5 Actes. de W. Shake-
speare. Traduite en Vers Fraec iis. Par le
Chevalier de Chatelain. dvo. pp. luB. William
Allen & Cie. Londres.
We know not whether the author of this daring
and elegant translation of Shakspere's magnificent
Tragedy of Macbeth into French Verse has fully
realised the magnitude of the task he has now (un-
consciously) commenced. A dozen years ago, when
he put forth, in 1850, under the sunlight of just
such another graceful and facile " traduction" the
Lovely " Flouro and Leafe" of old Geoffrey Chaucer,
he had no knowledge Whatever that he was fairly
committing himself to the herculean literary en-
terprize of giving to the world a version in French
of the whole of the " Canterbury Tales"—an enter-
prise that nevertheless the Chevalier de Chate-
lain eventually accomplished. It may perchance
turn out precisely in the same way that the present
felicitous translation of " Macbeth" may lead him
gradually, play by play, to the production of a new
version in French of the whole wonderful series
of the dramas of Shakspere. At any rate we
" take the goods the gods have given us" already
—and accept them thankfully. Here in these five
acts of "Macbeth," we have ample evidence of the
Chevalier de Chatelain's qualifications as a
translator of Shakspere. Already his range
as a Translator from English into French
has been wide enough in all conscience—
extending as his labours in that way have done
over the poetical works of writers as various as
Chaucer, and Gay, and Longfellow. It breaths of a
vaulting ambition—a diversity of enterprise in this
way so very remarkable in its comprehensiveness !
That one and the same man of letters should, within
a comparatively brief interval, contrive to issue
from the press in rapid succession translations into
French verse of masterpieces of English poetry, so
conspicuously diverse as the " Canterbury Tales," as
Gay " Fables," and as the charming " Evangeline"
of the America poet Longfellow, appears, at the
first blush, almost inconceivable. The Chevalier de
Chatelain has, in truth, however, performed these
skilful feats of the pen, within the compass of the
last few years, and performed them, moreover, with
infinite dexterity. And now, not contented with
the laurels he has gathered—by the wayside, while
following the Canterbury Pilgrims—from the little
prim flower-beds and close cut quincunxes of the
Fableland, cultivated by the Author of Trivia—and
from the wild luxuriance of the transatlantic
prairies traversed by the faltering and errant foot-
steps of the love-lorn and way-worn Evangeline—
the Chevalier de Chatelain gathers his handful of
bay-leaves (blackened by the thunders, torn by the
winds, and drenched by the rains) from the' blasted
heath," where the Weird Sisters hailed with their
fatal greeting Macbeth—as Thane of Cawdor as
T
'Thane of Glamis, as King of Scotland. It is a
noble and heroic enterprise, in its way, this daring
foray of an accomplished Frenchman beyond the
borderland of English Poetry—into that awful realm
of tragedy, in which the genius of Shakspere moves
with a power as sublime as that of 26schylus, and as
pathetic as that of Sophocles. Macbeth is, perhaps,
the most potent test that could be applied to the capa-
city of any French scholar as a Translator of
the dramas of Shakspere. It is as a test in that way
—the experimentum crucis—:what that early prob-
lem of Euclid, so dreaded by the dunce, is to the as-
piring studentin mathematics. Once past that Rubi-
con in safety, and the region of conquest spreads
forth comparatively smooth and fair before the ad-
venturous translator. Upon the manner in which
the Chevalier de Chatelain tits traversed this peril-
lous pass we may very reasonably offer him what
we hereby freely do venture to offer him, our
earnest and cordial felicitations. It is another and
a very graceful peace-offering between the two
allied nations—another means of amicably bridging
across the channel, and bringing the two races
closer and more intimately together in their sym-
pathies. The work undertaken here in these five mar-
vellous acts of the Shaksperian Tragedy of " Mac-
beth" is such, that we commend the artist-labourer to
persevere ia the same grand direction in which he is
already so far advanced—not to rest contented with.
the dignity of being translator of Macbeth, but
daringly to aspire to the greater glory yet of being
the translator of Shakspere. More than one French
version of England's, the world's greatest Dramatist
has of course already appeared. Yet may we assert
with tolerable confidence that the way is still open
to the Chevalier de Chatelain; for not one of his
predecessors in this particular has achieved a success
that need cause him any anxiety in assuming to
himself the rank of a rival and competitor. What,
we like the least about the work now immediately
under notice is, beyond any doubt of it, a mere
accessory or preliminary to the translation, meaning
the very sparkling but (as it certainly appears to us
here and there) the unnecessarily acrimonious "In-
troduction." In many respects the Chevalier de
Chatelain holds his pen not less freely, moves it not
less glibly, but certainly employs it always less
agreeably, less gracefully, less delightfully in all
essential respects as a Critic than as a Translator.
As a critic he would apparently find it an
almost an impossibility, to speak in the language
of moderation. Reviewing some of our English
playwrights in a slashing note at p. 104, he cannot
speak of Messrs. Tom Taylor, Falconer, and Co.,
otherwise than as a " maison fameuse qui travaille
dans les eau x de Robert Macaire et Compagnie." Ask-
ing at p. viii. of his Introduction, "Where nowadays
can be found any worthy representative of the cha-
racter of Hamlet ? He inquires with scorn " Serait-
et) Charles Kean que nous aeons en le malheur de
voir betas! le 24 fevrier dernier dans ce role ?"
M, Fechter—whose exquisite impersonation of the
Danish Prince has often blotted the stage from our
sight (as we looked and listened) by the sudden
tears brimming into our eyes : M. Fechter—whose
pathetic genius as an Actor in that most difficult of
all tragic portraitures has extorted the panegyrics
(through the pages of Blackwood's Magazine) of
one of the greatest dramatic critics living, a critic
himself one of the most popular of living dramatists
--M. Fechter is only spoken of here by the Che-
valier de Chatelain as " un gros baby, un lourd peu-
pard, la caricature en un mot d'uu reel Hamlet !"
We turn willingly from the introductory pages
from which we have here quoted, we turn gladly
from the caustic notes closing this otherwise
alluring publication—to the body of the
work itself, to the text of the " Acting
Drama" of Macbeth, as it has here been very
cleverly, nay with the hand of an accomplished
master of both literatures, translated from the
language of Shakspere into the language of Cor-
neille, by that living disciple seated at the feet of
each—the Translator of Chaucer, the Translator of
Gay, the Translator of Longfellow, the Che-
valier de Chatelain ! As one brief but suffi-
cient exemplar of the Chevalier's powers
as a translator of Shakspere, we will here content
ourselves with giving his version of Macbeth's
Soliloquy

MACBET).
Es`-ce bien un poignard quo la ,(dans (
danseuls le silence
J'apercois devant moi, le manche vers ma main
Towne; vieca que t'etreigne et to happe soudain ;
Jo no t'ai pas : pourtant je te vois ia sans cease;
N'es-tu point vision qui contre moi se dresse,
Aussi bien qu'a la vile, accessible au toucher,
Ou n'es-tu qu'un poignard qu'on ne puisse approcher ;
Un poignard de l'esprit,—creation impure
D'un cerveau detraque, bouillant outro mesuro
Je te vois cependant aussi vz ai qui celui
Que tire en ce moment de son prolond etui.
Tu me sers d'eclaireur et me montre la voie
Qu'allaia suivre moi-inerne, oil le destin m'envoie.
Ou mes yeux clairvoyants soot dupes de mes seas,
Ou sur mes sena ils out grand pouvoir, je le seas,
Car je to vois toujours, poignard, et sur ta lame
Je vois aussi de sang un recent amalg, me,
De sang qui fume encor, de sang luisant, vermeil,
Et ma raison me dit qu'il n'est rien de pareil.
C'est l'horrible penser de l'affaire sanglante
Qui dans mon coil ainsi fait jaillir l'epoutvante,
Dans la moitie du monde oil maintenant Ott dort
La nature parait reposer dans la mort.
Maintenant, la sorciere aux doigts crochus 'le chatte
Fait monter son encens terrible vers Hecate,
Et le meutre ehonte qui marche a pas de loup,
Se glisse, affreux Tarquin, pour ne manquer son coup.
Solide sur ta base, et fermernent plantee,
TNeerrseig,
De pear que los cailloux, en babillant entre'eux,
min: I I::: dssatceentetebit.de,
Duncan, c'est glas de ta vie 1....
nna'einentetnedns
Il
( timbre eat frappe')
J'y vain 1....0ui, e'en eat fait, ce timbre m'y convie ;
No l'entends pas,
te somme d'aller Sur les ailes de fair
Soit la haul vers le ciel, soft la bas vers renter.
(Il sort, on entend gyonder au loin le tonnerre.)
Enough : it is; of course,teroces but R 8 „ brick from the house
i
of the Scbolastikos of H• I , that we give this one asnlated quotation. Yet will it be sufficient for
our purpose, for inasmuch as it shows at a glance
the material out of which this solemn and gloomy
and blood-stained castellated-palace of " Macbeth"
has been built up anew (under French rules of
`lc') by the practised hand of the Chevalier
Chatelain.

THE PRESERVATION OF SMALL BlRDS.—Mea-
sures are being adopted throughout France, not only by the
authorities, but likewise by the chief landowners, to pre-
vent the destruction of small birds. An association formed
for that purpose at St. Cesaire, in the Charente Inferieure,
has adopted the following resolutions :—" 1. None of us
during the year 1862 will either seek to discover birds' nests
or to destroy the young birds in whatever place soever they
may be, and under no matter what pretext. 2. None of us
will pursue any birds after quitting their nests. 3. The
nests of sparrows, chaffinches, and linnets may alone be
destroyed, these birds being considered mischievous." It
was M. Renon, the parish schoolmaster at St. Cesaire, who
drew up these resolutions for his pupils, but it is expected
that on consideration he will strike nut the third resolution,
which declares war against sparrows, chaffinches, and lin-
nets, as it is very well known to farmers that they do more
service to the crops by destroying the worms than they deb
injury to fruit trees,