Shakespeare was the great glory of England. So wrote Victor Hugo. But he added that if you went to England to admire the statue of Shakespeare you would find instead the statue of Wellington. The English did not like Shakespeare. His fame came to England from overseas. And Hugo believed that the French played their part in making the English conscious of his greatness.
There is a generation of English people to whom this will appeal. Those who went to France after the Liberation found themselves taking part in discussions about Shakespeare such as they never knew in England. Central was Jean-Louis Barrault with his production of Hamlet. Was he a great actor? Was the mis-en-scène appropriate? Were the translations acceptable? Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet were all produced, and Shakespeare was everywhere, an intellectual subject of discussion that was forced on many British visitors.
This represents a climax to John Pemble’s account of how Shakespeare, unknown in France during his lifetime and for even 100 years after his death, was eventually discovered by the French.
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