Diane (1594) by Nicolas de Montreux.Richard Hillman

Abstract

 Reviews Hill takes this to the point of comedy, as in his description of Hopkins in Poem  as ‘a Parnassian and a sassy man’, helped by the metre’s syncopated verve, which lands hard on the ‘sass’ in ‘sassy’ (p. ). Like juxtapositions and rhymes, keys and codes become particularly important in the book’s retrospective meditation on difficulty. roughout his career, Hill used a personalized and oen idiosyncratic shorthand. Sometimes this takes the form of metaphysically resonant keywords (‘gravity’, ‘plutocracy’, ‘instrinsic’, ‘eccentric’, ‘marginal’); sometimes this involves exemplary figures—Southwell for the recusant, Weil for the ascetic, Bacon for the culpably decorous apologist for inequality. In, most obviously, Clavics, this individuated synecdoche took the form of a reflection on keys. is preoccupation emerges in the final collection in the form of playfully direct references, as in this line from Poem : ‘Where I last saw Berkeley’s spare keys to the code’ (p. ). Sometimes these direct references even have him self-reflexively alluding to his own use of codes in the given line, as in Poem . Here, radio-style confirmation heightens the lines’ contrast between claimed clarity and the open-ended denotation of code: ‘e secret of the thing—I repeat—is codified by the unnamed armed duo | in e Magic Flute’ (p. ). What the collection ultimately leaves us with, then, is an illuminating census both on Hillian difficulty (and the political and ethical significance of parsing it) and on the forms interpretation can take in the difficult poem more broadly. U  N B V Diane (). By N  M. Ed., trans., intro., and notes by R H. (Scène européenne) Tours: Presses Universitaires François-Rabelais. .  pp. €. ISBN ––––. Aer his translation of Alexandre Hardy’s Coriolan (reviewed below), Richard Hillman has produced a translation and edition of a relatively unknown play by Nicolas de Montreux, Diane (). Hillman starts his edition with an introduction to the play, contextualizing it within Montreux’s œuvre. is is not only the first translation of the play in English; it is also the first edition of the play in French since the seventeenth century. Aer explaining the origins of the text as an annexe of the third book of the Bergeries, Montreux’s magnum opus, in , Hillman provides information on the theatricality of the play. He explains how it was written with the stage in mind, analyses the construction of the play, and gives a summary of its plot and the relations between the characters. e core of his work follows, namely the translation and edition, preceded by a short notice on editorial choices. Hillman has chosen not to have his translation facing the original French text: the translation comes first, and the edition of the original text in French comes aer. Readers who want to immerse themselves fully in the plot of the text will find this approach useful, as there are no distractions from the continuity of the narration, whereas scholars who want to focus on the original text and its translation might be frustrated to have to turn pages to find the corresponding passages. MLR, .,   Hillman’s edition of the play is clear and logical, and supported throughout by helpful notes. Particularly interesting is the reference to the original folios of the text, which helps the reader understand how the work was originally written and published. e translation itself is the main strength of this edition: Hillman transcribes the play, its rhythm, and its theatricality marvellously. Far from being a reinterpretation or a reading of the play, his translation is faithful in both form and substance. Hillman’s edition will be important and helpful for both Francophones and Anglophones, and is bound to become a core reference work for this play as well as for early modern French theatre. U  V C-L M-M Coriolan. By A H. Ed. and intro. by F C; trans. and intro. by R H. (Scène européenne) Tours: Presses Universitaires François-Rabelais. .  pp. €. ISBN ––––. In their edition and translation of Alexander Hardy’s Coriolan, Fabien Cavaillé and Richard Hillman each provide a separate analysis of the play. First, Cavaillé presents the life...