The First Dutch Translation of (A Selection of) Shakespeare's Works (1778–1782) (original) (raw)

After a strong native tradition in the seventeenth century with major playwrights like Bredero and Vondel, Dutch drama towards the end of the seventeenth and throughout the eighteenth century underwent the influence of Neo-classical theory and practice as developed in France. English drama was virtually unkown in Holland, as was, generally speaking, the .English language itself. In 1716 the Dutch journalist Justus van Effen, writing in a French-language periodical published in Holland, the Journal Literaire, felt the need, on mentioning Shakespeare in his text, to explain in a footnote that he was "un poete Anglais [qui] a excelle dans le Dramatique".l In a subsequent issue a year later, he compares English drama to French drama, and dismisses the former for its vulgarity, its complexity, stealing French plots and mixing them together, and ignoring the dramatic rules. He admits that Shakespeare could not have applied these rules, since he did not know them, but then proceeds to enlist these very rules to condemn Hamlet and Othello.2