The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.1000  Wednesday, 25 May 2005

[1]     From:   Bill Arnold <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 24 May 2005 07:29:29 -0700 (PDT)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 16.0977 Shakespeare's Biblical References

[2]     From:   Norman Hinton <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 24 May 2005 13:11:52 -0500
        Subj:   Re: SHK 16.0977 Shakespeare's Biblical References


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Bill Arnold <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 24 May 2005 07:29:29 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: 16.0977 Shakespeare's Biblical References
Comment:        Re: SHK 16.0977 Shakespeare's Biblical References

R. A. Cantrell, answering a question, "'Why not Tyndale's translations?'
writes, These might have been hard to find in Shakespeare's day."

Part of my interest in starting this thread was to create interest in
the subject, and a subset of the subject is the concept of translation.
  I would recommend the section called simply "TRANSLATION" [1303-1306],
*The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics," edited by
Preminger and Brogan, 1993.  I take note of one telling sentence:
"Understanding the fundamental truth that each age, having its own needs
and approaches, needs to remake translations in its own image...." [1304].

Key to relating to translations is for readers of works of translation
to accept what the editors state, "Significantly, most languages have
more than one word for this somewhat mysterious and poorly understood
process" [1303].

Then, there is the process, not always followed as cogently, as noted by
the editors, wherein (1) the original text is seen as primary, and
therefore (2) literary concerns are secondary to content transference
[paraphrased from 1303].

In finality, the debate rages over the three concepts all translators
must deal with, which takes precedence in the new rendering: words,
ideas or style [paraphrased, 1303].

Obviously, to me, the *purpose* of the translator differs from
translation to translation.  Thus, each translation will partake more or
less of faithfulness to word translation, vs. ideas or style.

In the matter at hand, the Bibles translated before, during and after
the Shakespearean Age, it becomes a can of worms, for other reasons.  We
are dealing with a text which some consider the Bible or sacred text and
others consider a bible of selected books.

Questions of which text to use, which text Shakespeare used, which text
is most poetic, which text is faithful to the original word, which text
most easily conveys the original ideas, all are different concerns.  We
should keep in mind the complexity of issues underlying our basic
question: Shakespeare's Biblical References.

Bill Arnold
http://www.cwru.edu/affil/edis/scholars/arnold.htm

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Norman Hinton <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 24 May 2005 13:11:52 -0500
Subject: 16.0977 Shakespeare's Biblical References
Comment:        Re: SHK 16.0977 Shakespeare's Biblical References

 >>Why not Tyndale's translations,
 >
 >These might have been hard to find in Shakespeare's day.

I don't know why -- Tyndale's translation was the basis of the King
James: scholars estimate that as much as 80% of KJV is actually Tyndale.

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