scholarly journals François de Belleforest, Le Cinquiesme Tome des histoires tragiques, éd. Hervé-Thomas Campangne

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Méniel
Keyword(s):  
Histoires Tragiques

Le Cinquiesme Tome des 'Histoires tragiques'

2015 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 238-239
Author(s):  
J. Conroy
Keyword(s):  
Histoires Tragiques

Melancholy, Ambition, and Revenge in Belleforest's Hamlet

PMLA ◽  
1966 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-213
Author(s):  
A. P. Stabler
Keyword(s):  
The Subject ◽  
Histoires Tragiques ◽  
Definite Reference

In his What Happens in Hamlet, J. D. Wilson studies Hamlet's melancholy in the light of Renaissance beliefs, and especially those indicated in Bright's Treatise of Melancholie, to which Shakespeare seems to have been indebted for a number of ideas as well as turns of phrase. Significantly, as Wilson shows, the melancholy man was not only “prone to spectral visitations,” but was also aggravated in his condition by thwarted ambition; further, he “ponders and debates long, and does not act until his blood is up: then acts vigorously.” We can reasonably agree with this author that a knowledge of the contemporary corpus of doctrines and beliefs is important for an understanding of Hamlet's character and motivation, in which the thread of melancholy evidently connects several important elements. In the Introduction to his edition of Shakespeare's play, Wilson mentions another source for a melancholy Hamlet: the Histoires tragiques of François de Belleferest, which is recognized as the most immediate extant source of the play. Belleferest does, says Wilson, make a “definite reference to Amleth's [Hamlet's] over-great melancholy,” following a hint already to be found in the version of Saxo Grammaticus (Belleforest's source); but Wilson does no more than call attention to the reference, without noting Belleforest's additional remarks on the subject, and specifically denying to either source any other contributions to Hamlet's character. It will be the purpose of this article to show that not only the melancholy complex, but also other important facets of Hamlet's character have a probable basis in Saxo and Belleferest, and especially in the latter.

scholarly journals Translation as Violation: A Reading of Pierre Boaistuau's Histoires tragiques

1998 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 35-58
Author(s):  
Nancy E. Virtue
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Female Empowerment ◽  
Marguerite De Navarre ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Literary Response ◽  
Histoires Tragiques ◽  
One Year

This article examines Pierre Boaistuau's Histoires tragiques, a sixteenth-century translation and adaptation of six of Bandello's Novelle into French. Pierre Boaistuau is best known for the scandal surrounding his much-criticized edition of Marguerite de Navarre's Heptaméron, published in 1558. Presenting the novellas under the title of Histoires des amans fortunez, with only a veiled reference to the author herself, Boaistuau made liberal changes to the original text thus incurring the wrath and public reprimand of Jeanne d'Albret, Marguerite's daughter. This article argues that the Histoires tragiques, written within one year of the humiliation of this scandal, may be read as Boaistuau's literary response not only to Jeanne d'Albret's chastisement of him but also to the vision of female empowerment presented by Marguerite de Navarre in the Heptaméron.

scholarly journals Hamlet, Pirates, and Purgatory

2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-140
Author(s):  
Tom Rutter
Keyword(s):  
Martin Luther ◽  
Julius Caesar ◽  
Histoires Tragiques ◽  
The Relationship

Hamlet’s abduction by pirates during his voyage to England is an episode that does not appear in the main narrative source of Shakespeare’s play, Belleforest’s Histoires tragiques. This essay surveys the various sources that have been proposed, including the Ur-Hamlet, Plutarch’s “Life of Julius Caesar,” and an event in the biography of Martin Luther, before proposing a further possibility in the form of a sermon by the Swiss theologian Heinrich Bullinger where purgatory is compared to pirate capture. It discusses the likelihood of Shakespeare encountering this sermon directly or indirectly, and then argues that reading Hamlet in the light of it has important implications for our understanding of the relationship between the prince, his father, and Claudius. L’enlèvement d’Hamlet par des pirates durant son voyage vers l’Angleterre est un épisode n’apparaissant pas dans les Histoires tragiques de Belleforest, la principale source narrative de l’œuvre de Shakespeare. Dans cet article, on revoit les différentes sources possibles de cet épisode, incluant le Ur-Hamlet, la « Vie de Jules César » de Plutarque et un événement de la biographie de Martin Luther. On propose enfin une autre possibilité : un sermon du théologien suisse Heinrich Bullinger, dans lequel le purgatoire est comparé à un enlèvement par des pirates. On y discute de la possibilité que Shakespeare ait pu prendre connaissance de ce sermon, directement ou indirectement, et on y avance que la lecture de Hamlet à la lumière de cette source possible entraîne plusieurs conséquences quant à notre compréhension des liens entre le prince, son père, et Claude.

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