Pierre-Antoine de La Place (1 March 1707,

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. Th ...

– 14 May 1793, Paris) was an 18th-century French writer and playwright, the first translator of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

into French.

Biography

A pupil at the , Pierre-Antoine de La Place was compelled, after college, to get back to the study of French, which he had partly forgotten. His first literary attempts having been barely noticed, he imagined to send the news of his death in Paris where it was inserted in the ''Feuilles'' of abbot Desfontaines. If the scheme, once discovered, triggered laugh at the author's expense, the succès de scandale also drew him out of his darkness. The

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

being then fashionable, La Place was quick to exploit the genre from which he drew most of his income. In 1750, he became the first translator of ''

Tom Jones Tom Jones may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Tom Jones (singer) (born 1940), Welsh singer * Tom Jones (writer) (1928–2023), American librettist and lyricist *''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'', a novel by Henry Fielding published in ...

'', Henry Fielding's masterpiece, and the works of his sister,

Sarah Fielding Sarah Fielding (8 November 1710 – 9 April 1768) was an English author and sister of the novelist Henry Fielding. She wrote ''The Governess, or The Little Female Academy'' (1749), thought to be the first novel in English aimed expressly at chil ...

. Having had the opportunity to do a favor to

Madame de Pompadour Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (, ; 29 December 1721 – 15 April 1764), commonly known as Madame de Pompadour, was a member of the French court. She was the official chief mistress of King Louis XV from 1745 to 1751, and rema ...

, he obtained through her, the title of Secretary of the Academy of

Arras Arras ( , ; pcd, Aro; historical nl, Atrecht ) is the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, department, which forms part of the regions of France, region of Hauts-de-France; before the regions of France#Reform and mergers of ...

and the privilege of the ''

Mercure de France The was originally a French gazette and literary magazine first published in the 17th century, but after several incarnations has evolved as a publisher, and is now part of the Éditions Gallimard publishing group. The gazette was published f ...

'' in 1760 but subscriptions under his leadership, diminished to the point that he had to withdraw about 1767, maintaining, in consolation, a 5,000-pound pension. But what made him famous was his book, ''le Théâtre anglois'', of which the first volume was published in Paris in 1745. In the first four volumes of his work, The Place wrote a speech on the English stage (preface), an introduction to the life of Shakespeare, the translation of ten Shakespeare plays (''

Othello ''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cypru ...

'', ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

'', ''

Macbeth ''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those w ...

'', '' Cymbeline'', ''

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...

'', ''

The Merry Wives of Windsor ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' or ''Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare first published in 1602, though believed to have been written in or before 1597. The Windsor of the play's title is a ref ...

'', '' Timon of Athens'', ''

Antony and Cleopatra ''Antony and Cleopatra'' (First Folio title: ''The Tragedie of Anthonie, and Cleopatra'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The play was first performed, by the King's Men, at either the Blackfriars Theatre or the Globe Theatre in around ...

'', ''Henry VI'', and ''

Richard III Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battl ...

''), as well as summaries of twenty-six Shakespeare plays. In the following four volumes, The Place translated plays by

Ben Jonson Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...

, Thomas Otway,

Edward Young Edward Young (c. 3 July 1683 – 5 April 1765) was an English poet, best remembered for ''Night-Thoughts'', a series of philosophical writings in blank verse, reflecting his state of mind following several bereavements. It was one of the mos ...

John Dryden '' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...

, William Congreve, Nicholas Rowe, Thomas Southerne,

Joseph Addison Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 – 17 June 1719) was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was the eldest son of The Reverend Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend Richard S ...

Richard Steele Sir Richard Steele (bap. 12 March 1672 – 1 September 1729) was an Anglo-Irish writer, playwright, and politician, remembered as co-founder, with his friend Joseph Addison, of the magazine ''The Spectator''. Early life Steele was born in Du ...

and John Hughes. If his translation work was widely appreciated (he also proposed a paraphrase of the first

gothic novel Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of ea ...

by Clara Reeve, ('' The Champion of virtue''), it also attracted him some enmity, especially that of

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his ...

, who neither appreciated Shakespeare (as evidenced by his '' Lettres philosophiques'' (1734), nor the fact of losing his unique position of Shakespearean expert in France. La Place also translated '' Oroonoko'' into French in 1745, but it was more an adaptation than a translation. According to La Harpe, who wrote his biography, he was "a great braggart, but compelling, flexible, active, and over all a man of fun and good food." Pierre-Antoine de La Place himself wrote some pieces which, however, had little success. It took nothing less than the formal order of the Duke of Richelieu to force the actors to represent ''Adèle de Ponthieu''. He wrote under several pen-names, including "Skunk" and "Skupk". He was the great-great-grand-son of

Pierre de la Place Duke Pierre de la Place (ca. 1520, Angoulême – 25 August 1572, Paris) was a French Huguenot martyr, who died a few days after the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of the Huguenots. According to Foxe, he was informed of the massacre, and ...

, philosopher and first president of the

Court of Aids The Courts of Aids (French: ''Cours des aides'') were sovereign courts in ''Ancien Régime'' France, primarily concerned with customs, but also other matters of public finance. They exercised some control over certain excise taxes and octroi duti ...

of Paris, murdered during the

St. Bartholomew's Day massacre The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre (french: Massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy) in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations and a wave of Catholic mob violence, directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) during the French War ...

Works

''Le Théâtre anglais'' (1745–1748)

Sources

* Ferdinand Hoefer, ''Nouvelle Biographie universelle'', vol.40, Paris, Didot, 1862, (p. 1862). * The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21). Volume V. The Drama to 1642, Part One. XII. Shakespeare on the Continen
§ 11. The Translations of La Place, and their effect on Voltaire and French Criticism.
Online Version in Bartleby.com.

Biography

Works

Sources

External links