K

Much more interesting than Blom's attempt, and much more significant, is a translation and working over of As You Like It which appeared in November of the same year. The circumstances under which this translation were made are interesting. Fru Johanne Dybwad, one of the "stars" at the National Theater was completing her twenty-fifth year of service on the stage, and the theater wished to commemorate the event in a manner worthy of the actress. For the gala performance, Herman Wildenvey, a poet of the young Norway, made a new translation and adaptation of As You Like It.[I.38] And no choice could have been more felicitous. Fru Dybwad had scored her greatest success as Puck; the life and sparkle and jollity of that mischievous wight seemed like a poetic glorification of her own character. It might be expected, then, that she would triumph in the rôle of Rosalind.

Then came the problem of a stage version. A simple cutting of Lembcke seemed inappropriate to this intensely modern woman. There was danger, too, that Lembcke's faithful Danish would hang heavy on the light and sparkling Norwegian. Herman Wildenvey undertook to prepare an acting version that should fit the actress and the occasion. The result is the text before us. For the songs and intermissions, Johan Halvorsen, Kapelmester of the theater, composed new music and the theater provided a magnificent staging. The tremendous stage-success of Wildenvey's As You Like It belongs rather to stage history, and for the present we shall confine ourselves to the translation itself.

First, what of the cutting? In a short introduction the translator has given an apologia for his procedure. It is worth quoting at some length. "To adapt a piece of literature is, as a rule, not especially commendable. And now, I who should be the last to do it, have become the first in this country to attempt anything of the sort with Shakespeare.

"I will not defend myself by saying that most of Shakespeare's plays require some sort of adaptation to the modern stage if they are to be played at all. But, as a matter of fact, I have done little adapting. I have dusted some of the speeches, maltreated others, and finally cut out a few which would have sputtered out of the mouths of the actors like fringes of an old tapestry. But, above all, I have tried to reproduce the imperishable woodland spirit, the fresh breath of out-of-doors which permeates this play."

Wildenvey then states that in his cuttings he has followed the edition of the British Empire Shakespeare Society. But the performance in Kristiania has demanded more, "and my adaptation could not be so wonderfully ideal. As You Like It is, probably more than any other of Shakespeare's plays, a jest and only in part a play. Through the title he has given his work, he has given me the right to make my own arrangement which is accordingly, yours truly As You Like It."

But the most cursory examination will show that this is more than a mere "cutting." In the first place, the five acts have been cut to four and scenes widely separated, have often been brought together. In this way unnecessary scene-shifts have been avoided. But the action has been kept intact and only two characters have been eliminated: Jacques de Bois, whose speeches have been given to Le Beau, and Hymen, whose rôle has been given to Celia. Two or three speeches have been shifted. But to a reader unacquainted with Shakespeare all this would pass unnoticed, as would also, doubtless, the serious cutting and the free translation.

A brief sketch of Wildenvey's arrangement will be of service.

Transcriber's note:
The summary is given here exactly as it appears in the Ruud text. Note in particular Wildenvey's I, 2, and Shakespeare's II, 1.

Act I, Sc. 1. An open place on the road to Sir Oliver's house.
The scene opens with a short, exceedingly free rendering of Orlando's speech and runs on to the end of Scene 1 in Shakespeare.
Act I, Sc. 2. Outside of Duke Frederik's Palace.
Begins with I, 2 and goes to I, 3. Then follows without change of scene, I, 3. and, following that, 1, 3.
Act II In Wildenvey this is all one scene.
Opens with a rhapsodical conversation between the banished duke and Amiens on the glories of nature and the joys of out-door life. It is fully in Shakespeare's tone, but Wildenvey's own invention. After this the scene continues with II, 1. The first lord's speech in Wildenvey, however, is merely a free adaptation of the original, and the later speech of the first lord, describing Jacques' reveries on the hunt, is put into the mouth of Jacques himself. A few entirely new speeches follow and the company goes out upon the hunt.
There is then a slight pause, but no scene division, and Shakespeare's II, 4 follows. This is succeeded again without a break, by II, 5, II, 6, and II, 7 (the opening of II, 7 to the entrance of Jacques, is omitted altogether) to the end of the act.
Act III. This act has two scenes.
Sc. 1. In Duke Frederik's palace. It opens with II, I and then follows III, 1.
Sc. 2. In the Forest of Arden. Evening.
Begins with III, 2. Then follows III, 4, III, 5, IV, 1.
Act IV. Wildenvey's last act (IV) opens with Shakespeare's IV, 2 and continues: IV, 3, V, 1, V, 2, V, 3, V, 4.

A study of this scheme shows that Wildenvey has done no great violence to the fable nor to the characters. His shifts and changes are sensible enough. In the treatment of the text, however, he has had no scruples. Shakespeare is mercilessly cut and mangled.

The ways in which this is done are many. A favorite device is to break up long speeches into dialogue. To make this possible he has to put speeches of his own invention into the mouths of other characters. The opening of the play gives an excellent illustration. In Wildenvey we read:

Orlando: (kommer ind med tjeneren Adam)
Nu kan du likesaa godt faa vite hvordan alle mine bedrøveligheter begynder, Adam! Min salig far testamenterte mig nogen fattige tusen kroner og paala uttrykkelig min bror at gi mig en standsmæssig opdragelse. Men se hvordan han opfylder sin broderpligt mot mig! Han lar min bror Jacques studere, og rygtet melder om hans store fremgang. Men mig underholder han hjemme, det vil si, han holder mig hjemme uten at underholde mig. For man kan da vel ikke kalde det at underholde en adelsmand som ellers regnes for at staldfore en okse!

Adam: Det er synd om Eder, herre, I som er min gamle herres bedste søn! Men jeg tjener Eders bror, og er alene tjener...

Orl: Her hos ham har jeg ikke kunnet lægge mig til noget andet end vækst, og det kan jeg være ham likesaa forbunden for som hans husdyr hist og her. Formodentlig er det det jeg har arvet av min fars aand som gjør oprør mot denne behandling. Jeg har ingen utsigt til nogen forandring til det bedre, men hvad der end hænder, vil jeg ikke taale det længer.

Orlando's speech, we see, has been broken up into two, and between the two new speeches has been interpolated a speech by Adam which does not occur in the original. The same trick is resorted to repeatedly. Note, for instance, Jacques first speech on the deer (Act II, 7) and Oliver's long speech in IV, 3. The purpose of this is plain enough—to enliven the dialogue and speed up the action. Whether or not it is a legitimate way of handling Shakespeare is another matter.

More serious than this is Wildenvey's trick of adding whole series of speeches. We have noted in our survey of the "bearbeidelse" that the second act opens with a dialogue between the Duke and Amiens which is a gratuitous addition of Wildenvey's. It is suggested by the original, but departs from it radically both in form and content.

Den Landflygtige Hertug (kommer ut fra en grotte i skogen)
Vær hilset, dag, som lægges til de andre
av mine mange motgangs dage.
Vær hilset nu, naar solen atter stempler
sit gyldne segl paa jordens stolte pande.
Vær hilset, morgen, med din nye rigdom,
med dug og duft fra alle trær og blomster.
Glade, blanke fugleøines perler
blinker alt av sol som duggens draaper,
hilser mig som herre og som ven. (En fugl flyver op over hans hode.)
Ei, lille sangerskjelm, godt ord igjen?

Amiens:

(hertugens ven, kommer likeledes ut av hulen).
Godmorgen, ven og broder i eksilet.

Hertugen:

Godmorgen, Amiens, du glade sanger!
Du er vel enig i at slik en morgen
i skogen her med al dens liv og lek
er fuld erstatning for den pragt vi tapte,
ja mer end hoffets smigergyldne falskhet?

Amiens:

Det ligner litt paa selve Edens have,
og trær og dyr og andre forekomster
betragter os som Adamer, kanhænde.

Hertugen:

Din spøg er vel en saadan sanger værd.
Du mener med at her er alting herlig,
sommer, vinter, vaar og høsttid veksler.
Solen skinner, vind og veiret driver.
Vinterblaasten blaaser op og biter
og fortæller uden sminket smiger
hvem vi er, og hvor vi os befinder.
Ja, livet her er ei ly for verdens ondskap,
er stolt og frit og fuldt av rike glæder:
hver graasten synes god og kirkeklok,
hvert redetræ er jo en sangers slot,
og alt er skjønt, og alt er saare godt.

Amiens:

Du er en godt benaadet oversætter,
naar du kan tolke skjæbnens harske talesæt
i slike sterke, stemningsfulde ord...

(En hofmand, derefter Jacques og tjenere kommer.)

Hertugen:

Godmorgen, venner—vel, saa skal vi jage
paa vildtet her, de vakre, dumme borgere
av denne øde og forlate stad...

Jacques:

Det er synd at søndre deres vakre lemmer
med pile-odd.

Amiens:

Det samme sier du altid,

du er for melankolsk og bitter, Jacques.

A careful comparison of the translation with the original will reveal certain verbal resemblances, notably in the duke's speech:

Din spøk er vel en saadan sanger værd, etc.

But, even allowing for that, it is a rephrasing rather than a translation. The stage action, too, is changed. Notice that Jacques appears in the scene, and that in the episode immediately following, the second part of the first lord's speech is put into Jacques' mouth. In other words, he is made to caricature himself!

This is Wildenvey's attitude throughout. To take still another example. Act IV, 2 begins in the English with a brief dialogue in prose between Jacques and the two lords. In Wildenvey this is changed to a rhymed dialogue in iambic tetrameters between Jacques and Amiens. In like manner, the blank verse dialogue between Silvius and Phebe (Silvius and Pippa) is in Norwegian rendered, or rather paraphrased, in iambic verse rhyming regularly abab.

Occasionally meanings are read into the play which not only do not belong in Shakespeare but which are ridiculously out of place. As an illustration, note the dialogue between Orlando and Rosalind in II, 2 (Original, III, 2). Orlando remarks: "Your accent is something finer than could be purchased in so remote a dwelling." Wildenvey renders this: "Eders sprog er mer elevert end man skulde vente i disse vilde trakter. De taler ikke Landsmaal." Probably no one would be deceived by this gratuitous satire on the Landsmaal, but, obviously, it has no place in what pretends to be a translation. The one justification for it is that Shakespeare himself could not have resisted so neat a word-play.

Wildenvey's version, therefore, can only be characterized as needlessly free. For the text as such he has absolutely no regard. But for the fact that he has kept the fable and, for the most part, the characters, intact, we should characterize it as a belated specimen of Sille Beyer's notorious Shakespeare "bearbeidelser" in Denmark. But Wildenvey does not take Sille Beyer's liberties with the dramatis personae and he has, moreover, what she utterly lacked—poetic genius.

For that is the redeeming feature of Livet i Skogen—it does not translate Shakespeare but it makes him live. The delighted audience which sat night after night in Christiania and Copenhagen and drank in the loveliness of Wildenvey's verse and Halvorsen's music cared little whether the lines that came over the footlights were philologically an accurate translation or not. They were enchanted by Norwegian verse and moved to unfeigned delight by the cleverness of the prose. If Wildenvey did not succeed in translating As You Like It—one cannot believe that he ever intended to,—he did succeed in reproducing something of "its imperishable woodland spirit, its fresh breath of out-of-doors."

We have already quoted the opening of Act II. It is not Shakespeare but it is good poetry in itself. And the immortal scene between Touchstone and Corin in III, 2 (Shak. III, 2), in which Touchstone clearly proves that the shepherd is damned, is a capital piece of work. The following fragment must serve as an example:

Touchstone: Har du været ved hoffet, hyrde?

Korin: Visselig ikke.

Touch: Da er du evig fordømt.

Korin: Det haaber jeg da ikke.

Touch: Visselig, da er du fordømt som en sviske.

Korin: Fordi jeg ikke har været ved hoffet? Hvad mener I?

Touch: Hvis du ikke har været ved hoffet, saa har du aldrig set gode seder, og hvis du ikke har set gode seder, saa maa dine seder være slette, og slette seder er synd, og syndens sold er død og fordømmelse. Du er i en betænkelig tilstand, hyrde!

And the mocking verses all rhyming in in-ind in III, 3 (Shak. III, 2): "From the East to western Ind," etc., are given with marvelous cleverness:

Fra øst til vest er ei at finde
en ædelsten som Rosalinde.
Al verden om paa alle vinde
skal rygtet gaa om Rosalinde.
Hvor har en maler nogensinde
et kunstverk skapt som Rosalinde?
Al anden deilighet maa svinde
av tanken bort—for Rosalinde.

Or Touchstone's parody:

Hjorten skriker efter hinde,
skrik da efter Rosalinde,
kat vil katte gjerne finde,
hvem vil finde Rosalinde.
Vinterklær er tit for tynde,
det er ogsaa Rosalinde.
Nøtten søt har surhamshinde,
slik en nøtt er Rosalinde.
Den som ros' med torn vil finde,
finder den—og Rosalinde.

With even greater felicity Wildenvey has rendered the songs of the play. His verses are not, in any strict sense, translations, but they have a life and movement which, perhaps, interpret the original more fully than any translation could interpret it. What freshness and sparkle in "Under the Greenwood Tree!" I give only the first stanza:

Under de grønne trær
hvem vil mig møte der?
Hvem vil en tone slaa
frit mot det blide blaa?
Kom hit og herhen, hit og herhen,
kom, kjære ven,

her skal du se,
trær skal du se,

sommer og herlig veir skal du se.

Or what could be better than the exhilirating text of "Blow, blow, thou winter wind," as Wildenvey has given it? Again only the first stanza:

Blaas, blaas du barske vind,
troløse venners sind
synes os mere raa.
Bar du dig end saa sint,
bet du dog ei saa blindt,
pustet du ogsaa paa.

Heiho! Syng heiho! i vor skog under løvet.
Alt venskap er vammelt, al elskov er tøvet,

men her under løvet
er ingen bedrøvet.

Livet i Skogen, then, must not be read as a translation of As You Like It, but is immensely worth reading for its own sake. Schiller recast and rewrote Macbeth in somewhat the same way, but Schiller's Macbeth, condemned by its absurd porter-scene, is today nothing more than a literary curiosity. I firmly believe that Wildenvey's "bearbeidelse" deserves a better fate. It gave new life to the Shakespeare tradition on the Norwegian stage, and is in itself, a genuine contribution to the literature of Norway.

SUMMARY

If we look over the field of Norwegian translation of Shakespeare, the impression we get is not one to inspire awe. The translations are neither numerous nor important. There is nothing to be compared with the German of Tieck and Schlegel the Danish of Foersom, or the Swedish of Hagberg.

But the reason is obvious. Down to 1814 Norway was politically and culturally a dependency of Denmark. Copenhagen was the seat of government, of literature, and of polite life. To Copenhagen cultivated Norwegians looked for their models and their ideals. When Shakespeare made his first appearance in the Danish literary world—Denmark and Norway—it was, of course, in pure Danish garb. Boye, Rosenfeldt, and Foersom gave to their contemporaries more or less satisfactory translations of Shakespeare, and Norwegians were content to accept the Danish versions. In one or two instances they made experiments of their own. An unknown man of letters translated a scene from Julius Caesar in 1782, and in 1818 appeared a translation of Coriolanus. But there is little that is typically Norwegian about either of these—a word or a phrase here and there. For the rest, they are written in pure Danish, and but for the title-page, no one could tell whether they were published in Copenhagen or Christiania and Trondhjem.

In the meantime Foersom had begun his admirable Danish translations, and the work stopped in Norway. The building of a nation and literary interests of another character absorbed the attention of the cultivated world. Hauge's translation of Macbeth is not significant, nor are those of Lassen thirty years later. A scholar could, of course, easily show that they are Norwegian, but that is all. They never succeeded in displacing Foersom-Lembcke.

More important are the Landsmaal translations beginning with Ivar Aasen's in 1853. They are interesting because they mark one of the most important events in modern Norwegian culture—the language struggle. Ivar Aasen set out to demonstrate that "maalet" could be used in literature of every sort, and the same purpose, though in greatly tempered form, is to be detected in every Landsmaal translation since. Certainly in their outward aim they have succeeded. And, despite the handicap of working in a language new, rough, and untried, they have given to their countrymen translations of parts of Shakespeare which are, at least, as good as those in "Riksmaal."

Herman Wildenvey stands alone. His work is neither a translation nor a mere paraphrase; it is a reformulating of Shakespeare into a new work of art. He has accomplished a feat worth performing, but it cannot be called translating Shakespeare. It must be judged as an independent work.

Whether Norway is always to go to Denmark for her standard Shakespeare, or whether she is to have one of her own is, as yet, a question impossible to answer. A pure Landsmaal translation cannot satisfy, and many Norwegians refuse to recognize the Riksmaal as Norwegian at all. In the far, impenetrable future the language question may settle itself, and when that happy day comes, but not before, we may look with some confidence for a "standard" Shakespeare in a literary garb which all Norwegians will recognize as their own.

[I.1.] It has been thought best to give such citations for the most part in translation.

[I.2.] Julius Caesar. III, 2. 268-70. Variorum Edition Furness. Phila. 1913.

[I.3.] Rønning—Rationalismens Tidsalder. 11-95.

[I.4.] Ewald—Levnet og meninger. Ed. Bobe. Kbhn. 1911, p. 166.

[I.5.] Ibid. II, 234-235.

[I.6.] William Shakespeares Tragiske Værker—Første Deel. Khbn. 1807. Notes at the back of the volume.

[I.7.]* By way of background, a bare enumeration of the early Danish translations of Shakespeare is here given.

1777. Hamlet. Translated by Johannes Boye.
1790. Macbeth. Translated by Nils Rosenfeldt.
Othello. Translated by Nils Rosenfeldt.
All's Well that Ends Well. Translated by Nils Rosenfeldt.
1792. King Lear. Translated by Nils Rosenfeldt.
Cymbeline. Translated by Nils Rosenfeldt.
The Merchant of Venice. Translated by Nils Rosenfeldt.
1794. King Lear. Nahum Tate's stage version. Translated by Hans Wilhelm Riber.
1796. Two Speeches.—To be or not to be—(Hamlet.)
Is this a dagger—(Macbeth.)
Translated by Malthe Conrad Brun in Svada.
1800. Act III, Sc. 2 of Julius Caesar. Translated by Knut Lyhne Rahbek in Minerva.
1801. Macbeth. Translated by Levin Sander and K.L. Rahbek. Not published till 1804.
1804. Act V of Julius Caesar. Translated by P.F. Foersom in Minerva.
1805. Act IV Sc. 3 of Love's Labour Lost. Translated by P.F. Foersom in Nytaarsgave for Skuespilyndere.
1807. Hamlet's speech to the players. Translated by P.F. Foersom in Nytaarsgave for Skuespilyndere.

[I.8.] Coriolanus, efter Shakespeare. Christiania. 1818.

[I.9.] The first Danish translation of Coriolanus by P.F. Wulff appeared in 1819.

[I.10.] Coriolanus—Malone's ed. London. 1790. Vol. 7, pp. 148 ff.

[I.11.] Illustreret Nyhedsblad—1865, p. 96.

[I.12.] Macbeth—Tragedie i fem Akter af William Shakespeare. Oversat og fortolket af N. Hauge. Christiania. 1855. Johan Dahl.

[I.13.] This is, of course, incorrect. Cf. Macbeth, Variorum Edition. Ed. Furness. Phila. 1903, p. 40. Note.

[I.14.] Ivar Aasen—Skrifter i Samling—Christiania. 1911, Vol. 11, p. 165. Reprinted from Prøver af Landsmaalet i Norge, Første Udgave. Kristiania. 1853, p. 114.

[I.15.] Ivar Aasen: Skrifter i Samling. Christiania. 1911, Vol. I, p. 166.

[I.16.] Skrifter i Samling, I, 168. Kristiania. 1911.

[I.17.] Cf. Alf Torp. Samtiden, XIX (1908), p. 483.

[I.18.] "Ein Sonett etter William Shakespeare." Fram—1872.

[I.19.] Kjøbmanden i Venedig—Et Skuespil af William Shakespeare. Oversat af Hartvig Lassen. Udgivet af Selskabet for Folkeoplysningens Fremme som andet Tillægshefte til Folkevennen for 1881. Kristiania, 1881.

[I.20.] Julius Caesar. Et Skuespil af William Shakespeare. Oversat af Hartvig Lassen. Udgivet af Selskabet for Folkeoplysningens Fremme som første Tillægshefte til Folkevennen for 1882. Kristiania, 1882. Grøndal og Søn.

[I.21.] Macbeth. Tragedie af William Shakespeare. Oversat af H. Lassen. Udgivet af Selskabet for Folkeoplysningens Fremme som andet Tillægshefte til Folkevennen for 1883. Kristiania. Grøndal og Søn.

[I.22.] The Merchant of Venice. Med Indledning og Anmærkninger ved Christen Collin. Kristiania. 1902. (This, of course, does not include the translations of the sonnets referred to below.)

[I.23.] I have seen these translations in the typewritten copies which Professor Collin distributed among his students.

[I.24.] Collin, op. cit., Indledning, XII.

[I.25.] Collin, op. cit., Indledning, XXVI. (M. of V., 1-3)

[I.26.] Collin, op. cit., Indledning, XXV. Macbeth II, 1.

[I.27.] William Shakespeare: Macbeth. I norsk Umskrift ved Olav Madhus. Kristiania. 1901. H. Aschehoug & Co.

[I.28.] William Shakespeare—Kaupmannen i Venetia. Paa Norsk ved Olav Madhus. Oslo. 1905.

[I.29.] Bjørnson: Vort Sprog.

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

[I.31.] Vor Literatur.

[I.32.] Soga um Kaupmannen i Venetia. Oslo, 1905.

[I.33.] Alveliv. Eller Shakespeare's Midsumarnatt Draum ved Erik Eggen. Syn og Segn, 1903. No. 3-6, pp. (105-114); 248-259.

[I.34.] The translator explains in a note the pun in the original.

[I.35.] Act II, Sc. 2.

[I.36.] William Shakespeare—Jonsok Draumen—Eit Gamenspel. Paa Norsk ved Erik Eggen. Oslo, 1912.

[I.37.] Act II, Sc. 2.

[I.38.] As You Like It, eller Livet i Skogen. Dramatisk Skuespil av William Shakespeare. Oversat og bearbeidet for Nationaltheatret av Herman Wildenvey. Kristiania og København. 1912.