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

Macbeth: Tragedie en 5 Actes, de W. Shake-
speare. Tratiuite en Vets Frauc tis. Par le
Chevalier de Chatelain. tivo. pp. 108. William
Allen & Cie. Londres.
We know not whether the author of this daring
and elegant translation of Shakspere's magnificent
fragedy 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 fecile " traduction" the
,ovely " Floure 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 bis range
as a Translator from English into French
has baen 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
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 fEschylus, 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 student in 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 t as 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 hers in these five mar-
vellous acts of the Shaksperian Tragedy of " Mac-
beth" is such, that we commend the artist-labourer to
persevere iu the same grand direction in which he is
already so far advanced—not to rest c uttented 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
hero 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, Faiconer, and Co.,
otherwise than as a " rnaison fameuse qui travaille
daub les eau x de Robert Macaire of Compagnie." Ask-
ing at p. viii. of his Introduction, "-Where nowadays
can be found nay worthy representative of the cha-
racter of Hamlet P He inquires with scorn " Serait-
ce Charles Kean que nous aeons eu le malheur de
voir belas! le 24 fevriar 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
pard, la caricature en un mot d'un 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
us a translator of Shakspere, we will here content
ourselves with giving his version of Macbeth's
Soliloquy—

MACBETH (seul).
L Est-ce bien un poignard que la, dans le silence
J'apercois devant moi. le manche vers ma main
[. Tourne ; viens que Vetreigne et te happe soudain;
Je ne t'ai pas : pourtant je to vois la sans ce,se;
' N'es-tu point vision qui contre moi se dresse,
Aussi bien qua la vue.accessible au toucher,
Ou n'es-tu qu'un peigiiard qu'on ne puisse approcher;
oci
egmeirnuveaeordadliiiitadidice4earti
irtiet.aiusqqSruatlx4iet:ar —creation
i) cui
eri
st
dtnoi impureotin,oauirtro
ra
esu r e F . .
DlT'nunP
Je to vois cependant aussi vial qui celui
Quo tire en ce moment do son prolond etui.
Tu me sers d'eclatreur et me montre la voie
Qu'allais suivre moi-theme, oil le destin neenvoie.
Ou mes yeux clairvoyants sor.t dupes de mes sena,
Ou stir mes sena ils out grand pouvoir, je le sens,
Car je te vois toujours, poignard, et stir ta lame
Je vois aussi de sang un recent amalg•mer
De sang qui fume encor, de sang luisaat, vermeil,
Et ma raison me dit qu'il West rien de pareil.
C'est l'horrible penser de I,'affaire sangiante
Qui dans coon coil ainsi fart panic l'epoutvante.
Dans la moitie du monde oh rnaintenant tout dort
La nature parait reposer dans la. mort.
Maintenant, la sorciere aux doigts crochus de chatte
tee: et
ibarieburxe .
ra, y
FaitE t e mmoenut
terre seohnoennt 7,inusi
,m terriblear eb
be,
iv:
aepr:stsliedneetcriaeot,!,up:
Se glisse, affreux Tarquin, pour ne man p'
son coup.
Solids stir ta base, et fermement plantee,
Terre, n'entEndsmim:ecisierpia,asasso,aisdtsai:s cette nuitee,
en
assassin
(Un timbre est frappd)
J'y vais I ....Oui, c'en eat faililt, convie ;
Ne l'entends pas, Duncan ,
n, c est le glas de ta vie 1..
bis 'vers l'enfer.
(Il sort, on entend p onder au loin le tonnerre.)
Enough : it is,ofeour
ISNl:oeeittepBrioagnunMhratilUent tV
en
nrs
brick from
se, but as a the house
of the Schol asti -t,
os of Hierocles, that we give this one
insulated quotation.
Yet will it be sufficient for
our purpose, for inasmuch it
as shows at a glance
the
material out of which this solemn andgloomy
and blood-stained
castellatfd-palace of " Macbeth"
has been built up anew (under French rules of
art) 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. Renen, the parish schoolmaster at St. Cesaire, who
drew up these resolutions for his pupils, but it is expected
that on consideration he will strike out 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 dos
injury to fruit troll.