Description

Sidney's Arcadia on the French Stage

Two Renaissance Adaptations

Over a period of at least forty years after its initial 1590 publication (in truncated form), Philip Sidney's pastoral romance Arcadia attracted multiple French translations, imitations-and dramadsadons. The two plays presented here, never previously translated into English, are gauges of its appeal and adaptability. Jean Galaut, apparendy working from the original, composed his seemingly unique dramadc work (c. 1598) in the shadow of neo-classical Humanist tragedy, isolating from Sidney's sprawling ficdon a minor episode replete with tragic potential, which he impressively exploited. André Mareschal, in service to Cardinal Richelieu, produceed a remakably well-balanced tragicomedy (1638) combining humour, transcendent idealism and political pungency.