An Essay Toward a History of Shakespeare in Norway Part 6

Not quite so successful is Macbeth's soliloquy when the death of Lady Macbeth is announced to him:

Det skuld'ho drygt med.

Aat slikt eit ord var komi betre stund.-- "I morgo" og "i morgo" og "i morgo,"

slik sig det smaatt fram etter, dag for dag, til siste ord i livsens sogubok; og kvart "i gaar" hev daarer vegen lyst til dust og daude.

It is difficult to say just where the fault lies, but the thing seems uncouth, a trifle too colloquial and peasant-like. The fault may be the translator's, but something must also be charged to his medium. The pa.s.sage in Shakespeare is simple but it breathes distinction. The Landsmaal version is merely colloquial, even ba.n.a.l. One fine line there is:

"til siste ord i livsens sogubok."

But the rest suggests too plainly the limitations of an uncultivated speech.

In 1905 came a translation of _The Merchant of Venice_ by Madhus,[28]

and, uniform with it, a little book--_Soga um Kaupmannen i Venetia_ (The Story of The Merchant of Venice) in which the action of the play is told in simple prose. In the appendatory notes the translator acknowledges his obligation to Arne Garborg--"Arne Garborg hev gjort mig framifraa G.o.d hjelp, her som med _Macbeth_. Takk og aere hev han."

[28. William Shakespeare--_Kaupmannen i Venetia_. Paa Norsk ved Olav Madhus. Oslo. 1905.]

What we have said of _Macbeth_ applies with no less force here. The translation is more than merely creditable--it is distinctly good. And certainly it is no small feat to have translated Shakespeare in all his richness and fulness into what was only fifty years ago a rustic and untrained dialect. It is the best answer possible to the charge often made against Landsmaal that it is utterly unable to convey the subtle thought of high and cosmopolitan culture. This was the indictment of Bjrnson,[29] of philologists like Torp,[30] and of a literary critic like Hjalmar Christensen.[31] The last named speaks repeatedly of the feebleness of Landsmaal when it swerves from its task of depicting peasant life. His criticism of the poetry of Ivar Mortensen is one long variation of this theme--the immaturity of Landsmaal. All of this is true. A finished literary language, even when its roots go deep into a spoken language, cannot be created in a day. It must be enriched and elaborated, and it must gain flexibility from constant and varied use.

It is precisely this apprentice stage that Landsmaal is now in. The finished "Kultursprache" will come in good time. No one who has read Garborg will deny that it can convey the subtlest emotions; and Madhus'

translations of Shakespeare are further evidence of its possibilities.

[29. Bjrnson: _Vort Sprog_.]

[30. Torp. _Samtiden_, Vol. XIX (1908), p. 408.]

[31. _Vor Literatur_.]

That Madhus does not measure up to his original will astonish no one who knows Shakespeare translations in other languages. Even Tieck's and Schlegel's German, or Hagberg's Swedish, or Foersom's Danish is no subst.i.tute for Shakespeare. Whether or not Madhus measures up to these is not for me to decide, but I feel very certain that he will not suffer by comparison with the Danish versions by Wolff, Meisling, Wosemose, or even Lembcke, or with the Norwegian versions of Hauge and La.s.sen. The feeling that one gets in reading Madhus is not that he is uncouth, still less inaccurate, but that in the presence of great imaginative richness he becomes cold and barren. We felt it less in the tragedy of _Macbeth_, where romantic color is absent; we feel it strongly in _The Merchant of Venice_, where the richness of romance is instinct in every line. The opening of the play offers a perfect ill.u.s.tration. In answer to Antonio's complaint "In sooth I know not why I am so sad," etc, Salarino replies in these stately and sounding lines:

Your mind is tossing on the ocean; There, where your argosies, with portly sail,-- Like signiors and rich burghers of the flood, Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea,-- Do overpeer the petty traffickers That curt'sy to them, do them reverence, As they fly by them with their woven wings.

The picture becomes very much less stately in Norwegian folk-speech:

Paa storehave huskar hugen din, der dine langferd-skip med staute segl som hovdingar og herremenn paa sj i drusteferd, aa kalle, gagar seg paa baara millom kraemarskutur smaa', som nigjer aat deim og som helsar audmjukt naar dei med vovne vengir framum stryk.

The last two lines are adequate, but the rest has too much the flavor of Ole and Peer discussing the fate of their fishing-smacks. Somewhat more successful is the translation of the opening of Act V, doubtless because it is simpler, less full of remote and sophisticated imagery. By way of comparison with La.s.sen and Collin, it may be interesting to have it at hand.

_Lor_: Ovf.a.gert lyser maanen. Slik ei natt, daa milde vindar kysste ljuve tre so lindt at knapt dei susa, slik ei natt steig Troilus upp paa Troja-murane og sukka saali si til Greklands telt, der Kressida laag den natti.

_Jes_: Slik ei natt gjekk Thisbe hugraedd yvi doggvaat voll og lveskuggen saag fyrr lva kom; og raedd ho der-fraa rmde.

_Lor_: Slik ei natt stod Dido med ein siljutein i hand paa villan strand og vinka venen sin tilbake til Kartago.

_Jes_: Slik ei natt Medea trolldoms-urtir fann, til upp aa yngje gamle aeson.

_Lor_: Slik ei natt stal Jessika seg ut fraa judens hus og med ein fark til festarmann for av so langt som hit til Belmont.

_Jes_: Slik ei natt svor ung Lorenso henne elskhugs eid og hjarta hennar stal med f.a.gre ord som ikkje aatte sanning.

_Lor_: Slik ei natt leksa ven' Jessika som eit lite troll upp for sin kjaerst, og han tilgav ho.

_Jes_: I natteleik eg heldt nok ut med deg, um ingin kom; men hyss, eg hyrer stig.

But when Madhus turns from such flights of high poetry to low comedy, his success is complete. It may be a long time before Landsmaal can successfully render the mighty line of Marlowe, or the manifold music of Shakespeare, but we should expect it to give with perfect verity the language of the people. And when we read the scenes in which Lancelot Gobbo figures, there is no doubt that here Landsmaal is at home. Note, for example, Act II, Sc. 1:

"Samvite mitt vil visst ikkje hjelpe meg med aa rme fraa denne juden, husbond min. Fenden stend her attum lbogen min og segjer til meg: "Gobbo, Lanselot Gobbo; G.o.de Lanselot, eller G.o.de Gobbo, bruka leggine; tak hyven; drag din veg." Samvite segjer: "nei, agta deg, aerlige Gobbo," eller som fyr sagt: "aerlige Lanselot Gobbo, rm ikkje; set deg mot rming med hael og taa!" Men fenden, den stormodige, bed meg pakka meg; "fremad mars!" segjer fenden; "legg i veg!" segjer fenden; "for alt som heilagt er," segjer fenden; "vaaga paa; drag i veg!" Men samvite heng un halsen paa hjarta mitt og talar visdom til meg; "min aerlige ven Lanselot, som er son av ein aerlig mann, eller rettare: av eit aerligt kvende; for skal eg segja sant, so teva det eit grand svidt av far min; han hadde som ein attaat-snev; naah; samvite segjer: "du skal ikkje fantegaa." "Du skal fantegaa," segjer fenden; "nei; ikkje fantegaa," segjer samvite. "Du samvit," segjer eg, "du raader meg G.o.dt." "Du fenden,"

segjer eg, "du raader meg G.o.dt." Fylgde eg no samvite, so vart eg verande hjaa juden, som--forlate mi synd--er noko som ein devel; og rmer eg fraa juden, so lyder eg fenden, som--beintfram sagt--er develen sjlv. Visst og sannt: juden er sjlve develen i karnition; men etter mitt vit er samvite mit vitlaust, som vil raade meg til aa verta verande hjaa juden. Fenden gjev meg den venlegaste raadi; eg tek kuten, fenden; haelane mine stend til din kommando; eg tek kuten."

This has the genuine ring. The brisk colloquial vocabulary fits admirably the brilliant sophistry of the argument. And both could come only from Launcelot Gobbo. For "the simplicity of the folk" is one of those fictions which romantic closet study has woven around the study of "the people."

Of the little re-telling of _The Merchant of Venice_, "Soga um Kaupmannen i Venetia"[32] which appeared in the same year, nothing need be said. It is a simple, unpretentious summary of the story with a certain charm which simplicity and navete always give. No name appears on the t.i.tle-page, but we are probably safe in attributing it to Madhus, for in the note to _Kaupmannen i Venetia_ we read: "I _Soga um Kaupmannen i Venetia_ hev ein sjlve forteljingi som stykkji er bygt paa."

[32. _Soga um Kaupmannen i Venetia_. Oslo, 1905.]

I

In the year 1903, midway between the publication of Madhus' _Macbeth_ and the appearance of his _Kaupmannen i Venetia_, there appeared in the chief literary magazine of the Landsmaal movement, "Syn og Segn," a translation of the fairy scenes of _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ by Erik Eggen.[33] This is the sort of material which we should expect Landsmaal to render well. Oberon and t.i.tania are not greatly different from Nissen and Alverne in Norwegian fairy tales, and the translator had but to fancy himself in Alveland to be in the enchanted wood near Athens. The spirit of the fairy scenes in Shakespeare is akin to the spirit of Asbjrnson's "Huldre-Eventyr." There is in them a community of feeling, of fancy, of ideas. And whereas Madhus had difficulty with the sunny romance of Italy, Eggen in the story of Puck found material ready to hand. The pa.s.sage translated begins Act II, Sc. 1, and runs through Act II to Oberon's words immediately before the entrance of Helen and Demetrius:

But who comes here? I am invisible; And I will overhear their conference.

[33. _Alveliv. Eller Shakespeare's Midsumarnatt Draum_ ved Erik Eggen. _Syn og Segn_, 1903. No. 3-6, pp. (105-114); 248-259.]

Then the translator omits everything until Puck re-enters and Oberon greets him with the words:

Velkomen, vandrar; hev du blomen der?

(Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.)

Here the translation begins again and goes to the exit of Oberon and the entrance of Lysander and Hermia. This is all in the first selection in _Syn og Segn_, No. 3.

In the sixth number of the same year (1903) the work is continued. The translation here begins with Puck's words (Act III):

What hempen homespuns have we swaggering here?

So near the cradle of the fairy queen?

What, a play toward! I'll be an auditor; An actor, too, if I see cause.

Then it breaks off again and resumes with the entrance of Puck and Bottom adorned with an a.s.s's head. Quince's words: "O monstrous! O strange!" are given and then Puck's speech: "I'll follow you: I'll lead you about a round." After this there is a break till Bottom's song:

"The ousel c.o.c.k, so black of hue," etc.

And now all proceeds without break to the _Hail_ of the last elf called in to serve Bottom, but the following speeches between Bottom and the fairies, Cobweb, Mustardseed and Peaseblossom, are all cut, and the scene ends with t.i.tania's speech:

"Come, wait upon him, lead him to my bower," etc.

Act III, Sc. 2, follows immediately, but the translation ends with the first line of Oberon's speech to Puck before the entrance of Demetrius and Hermia:

"This falls out better than I could devise."

and resumes with Oberon's words: