Hamlet at the Comédie Française: 1769–1896

Summary

The fact that Hamlet is quite alien to the classical idea of tragedy need not be emphasized. Until recently the Comédie Française was the keep, the inner defence, of Aristotelian theory. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that whenever the play was performed there, it had to undergo many a change both in form and substance so as to be brought nearer the classical models. Between 1769 and 1932 the Comédie Française staged only two versions of the play—one by Ducis and the other by Dumas and Meurice—but as public taste evolved, these versions were gradually altered until they came to be not too unfaithful to the original. Unfortunately, progress was very slow and it was a good many years before it became evident which way the battle—waged both on and off the stage—was turning.

In 1745 was published the first partial translation of the play by P. A. de La Place. Because of Voltaire's numerous attacks on this drama, the French public was already acquainted with it but had had no opportunity as yet of reading it. Actually, La Place translated only those passages which he deemed acceptable to the French taste and gave a summary analysis of all scenes not directly concerned with the main action. After having thus been able to read the play the French theatre-goers had to wait for no less than twenty-four years before they could see it performed. The first stage adaptation was the work of J. F. Ducis, whose admiration for Shakespeare could be matched only by his ignorance of the English language: he read La Place's rendering and let his imagination fly.