The last pre-romantic French translation of Lope's theatre: Linguet's «Théâtre Espagnol»

Abstract

The Theâtre Espagnol by Simon-Nicolas-Henri Linguet, published in Paris in 1770, provides the French public with a wide recollection of entire plays of the seventeenth century Spanish theatre, translated into French, from Lope de Vega to Bances Candamo. It is an influential translation because of its dissemination among the Romantic theorists, as it is the last and main pre-romantic French translation of Lope de Vega’s theatre. The translation strategy of Linguet is described from three vantage points: ideology, poetics, and translation theories. Linguet's ideological interest for the Spanish leyenda negra emerges in the choice of the corpus of Lope de Vega’s plays, and can be also observed analysing some samples of Linguet’s translations. Linguet's poetics, especially his ideas about the Spanish theatre, is explained through some quotes from his own essays about the European theatre (two prologues and a commentary on Voltaire’s theatre). Throughout his life, Linguet changed his ideas concerning the Spanish theatre, in a progressiveley positive evaluation. At the same time, he changed his ideas about translation: the Theâtre Espagnol is prepared following a target-oriented approach, which tends to adapt the source-text to French classical taste; ten years later, Linguet criticises his own translations and supports a source-oriented translation strategy.