Whose tragedy is this? Translating Arden of Faversham

This article considers the translation process of Arden of Faversham and the method that I have employed to translate collaborative plays, which is based on Matthew Reynolds's concept of prismatic translation, followed by examples of relevant textual variations found in the three earlier editions of Arden of Faversham, as well as in the modern editions. I argue that by preserving textual differences based on different resources, the translation highlights the history of the text. It opens up possibilities accorded by the play's material existence, considering different textual elements, such as the words of the title, playtext, characters, and authorship.

Early Modern Literature of Crime and Criminals

The literature of crime and criminals in early modern England takes several forms. The main form is the printed pamphlet, typically a short quarto publication of eight to sixteen pages, costing a few pence. Another form is the broadside ballad, usually anonymous, printed on one side of a single sheet and accompanied by an image and an indication of the music to be used. A selection of plays about real-life domestic crime, including the well-known Arden of Faversham, attributed variously in recent years to Shakespeare and Kyd, have also survived. While they are few in number, and less topical than the pamphlets, they have attracted more critical attention than the other forms. The crimes featured in this writing—often involving murder but also including witchcraft, and disproportionally focused on women—were chosen for their sensational value and were in no way representative of the reality of crime in the period. While some pamphlet writers made claims for the truth of their accounts, and rival accounts of the more notable crimes using differing details did appear, the aims and social functions of this writing had less to do with providing information than with reinforcing the authority of the state, its laws, and its Protestant religion. Hence, many accounts of crimes, particularly in the earlier part of the period, are shaped by the need to demonstrate the role of providence in bringing about the discovery of the perpetrators. Crime, conflated with sin, was conceptualized as a moral rather than a social problem; criminals were often regarded as acting under the irresistible compulsion of the devil and once found guilty of a single lapse proceeding inevitably toward actions that damned them to hell. The idea of crime as a secular problem in which social and economic forces had a role to play was beginning to develop and becomes more evident in writing of the later 17th century. Certain crimes emerged as iconic in the period, particularly involving women who killed, and featured in a number of different print forms, for example, the murders by their wives of Arden of Faversham, Page of Plymouth, and George Sanders. The law differentiated by gender in cases of spousal murder; husband-murder was categorized as petty treason, hence punishable by burning at the stake for the wife, while wife-killing (much commoner in actuality but less prominent in literature) was simply homicide. Early modern crime writing largely reflects the structures of power in the society that produced it; evidence of questioning or challenging accepted attitudes toward issues of criminal responsibility does exist, but the era of pioneering journalism was a long way ahead.

De quem é esta tragédia? Traduzindo Arden of Faversham

Este artigo traz considerações sobre a tradução de Arden of Faversham para o português e o método que estabeleci para trabalhar com peças colaborativas, a tradução prismática. A discussão recorre a exemplos de relevantes variações textuais encontradas nas três versões iniciais da obra e nas edições contemporâneas. Ao preservar as diferenças baseadas em diversas origens, o método de tradução permite que o resultado destaque a história do texto. O método empregado extrai possibilidades autorizadas pelas publicações do período. Variações apontam para a pergunta-título, cujas respostas podem ser buscadas na alternância existente entre palavras no título da peça, a composição dramática, os protagonistas e a autoria.

Shakespeare, Arden of Faversham, and Four Forgotten Playwrights

This essay attempts to identify the primary author of Arden of Faversham, a play published anonymously in 1592, widely regarded as the first, and perhaps the best, domestic tragedy in English. Although many scholars now believe that Shakespeare wrote a small part of this play, there is no consensus about the authorship of most of it. This essay focuses on four Elizabethan playwrights whose extant work does not contain any securely identified single-author plays: Thomas Achelley, Michael Drayton, Richard Hathwaye, and Thomas Watson. It surveys the documentary evidence of their careers and reputations, and closely examines the literary style, originality, and variety of their extant work. This survey decisively rules out the first three, and provides strong and consistent evidence for Watson’s authorship. It identifies a new source for the play (Ovid’s Remedia Amoris), demonstrates its close connections to the 1591 royal entertainment at Elvetham, links the ahistorical role of Protector Somerset to Watson’s relationship with the Earl of Hertford, and argues that the play combines the earliest extant domestic tragedy with the earliest extant city comedy.