[237] Second day of the second Week, "Oeuvres," Paris, 1611, fol., p. 211. After Sidney, Du Bartas thus addresses the Queen:
"Claire perle du nort, guerrière domte-Mars,
Continue à chérir les muses et les arts,
Et si jamais ces vers peuvent, d'une aile agile,
Franchissant l'océan voler jusqu'à ton isle,
Et tomber, fortunez, entre ces blanches mains
Qui sous un juste frein régissent tant d'humains,
Voy les d'un œil bénin et, favorable, pense
Qu'il faut, pour te louer, avoir ton éloquence."
[238] "L'Arcadie de la Comtesse de Pembrok, mise en nostre langue," by J. Baudoin; Paris, 1624, three vol. 8vo. It contains fancy portraits of Sidney and of his sister. The second translation appeared at the bookseller's, Robert Fouet, in 1625, in the same size; it is ornamented with pretty engravings. Of its three parts the first was the work of "un brave gentilhomme," and the two others of Mdlle. Geneviève Chappelain. It is needless to observe that the great success of D'Urfé's "Astrée" had much to do with this zeal for translating Sidney's pastoral novel.
Baudoin, who died in 1650, was the translator of various other foreign works, among which part of the works of Bacon. Sir Kenelm Digby, whose fondness for romances was great, had in his library a copy of the "Arcadia" in French; this was Baudoin's translation, and it is one of the items of the catalogue drawn in view of the sale of his library ("Bibliotheca Digbeiana," London, 1680, 4to). There was, a little later, a translation in German: "Arcadia ... in unser Hochteutsche Sprach ... ubersetzt," by Theocritus von Hirschberg [i.e., Martin Opitz], Francfort, 1629, 4to.
"Par la bouche des bons esprits
Apollon vous tient à mespris
Troupe ignorance et trop hardie,
Car vous prophanez ses beaux dons
Et faites naistre des chardons
Au milieu de vostre Arcadie."
[240] And then it was spelt Chaksper, "La critique du théâtre anglois," translated from the English of Collier, Paris, 1715, 8vo. In the "Journal des Scavans" for the year 1710 it appears under the shape "Shakees Pear," p. 110.
[241] Thus speaks Clarimond in his harangue against romances: "L'Angleterre n'a pas manqué d'avoir aussi son Arcadie, laquelle ne nous a esté montrée que depuis peu par la traduction qui en a esté faite. Je ne trouve point d'ordre là dedans et il y a beaucoup de choses qui ne me peuvent satisfaire.... Il est vrai que Sidney, étant mort jeune, a pu laisser son ouvrage imparfait." In his defence of romances, Philiris answers: "Quant a l'Arcadie de Sidney, après avoir passé la mer pour nous venir voir, je suis marry que Clarimond la reçoive avec un si mauvais compliment. S'il n'entend rien aux amours de Strephon et de Clajus, il faut qu'il s'en prenne a luy, non pas a l'autheur qui a rendu son livre l'un des plus beaux du monde. Il y a des discours d'amour et des discours d'estat si excellens et si délectables que je ne me lasserois jamais de les lire" ("Le Berger extravagant, où, parmy des fantaisies amoureuses, l'on void les impertinences des romans et de la poesie," vol. iii., Paris, 1628, pp. 70 and 134). Sorel's work was translated into English: "The extravagant shepherd. The anti-romance, or the history of the shepherd Lysis," by John Davies, of Kidwelly; London, 1653, fol. The book has very curious plates; Davies in his preface is extremely hard upon Sidney, and heaps ridicule especially on the head of King Basilius. See infra, chap. vii.
[242] Fouquet, however, was very fond of foreign books; the catalogue (dated 1665) of his library, drawn up after his committal, shows that he had a fairly large number of English books. He was the earliest known French possessor of a Shakespeare. The catalogue, it is true, reveals the fact that he preserved it "in his garret":
| "Livres in folio qui se trouvent dans le grenier: | |
| Comédies de Jazon [i.e., Ben Jonson] en anglois, 2 vol., London, 1640 | 3l. |
| Idem, comédies angloises | 10s. |
| Shakespeares comédies angloises | 1l. |
| Fletcher commédies angloises | 1l." |
| (MS. 9,438 français, in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.) | |