The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 17.0314 Monday, 17 April 2006
[1] From: Kevin Donovan <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Tuesday, 11 Apr 2006 10:38:34 -0500 (CDT)
Subj: Re: SHK 17.0309 Monsieur La Far
[2] From: S. L Kasten <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 12 Apr 2006 12:58:46 +0200
Subj: Re: SHK 17.0309 Monsieur La Far
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Kevin Donovan <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Tuesday, 11 Apr 2006 10:38:34 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: 17.0309 Monsieur La Far
Comment: Re: SHK 17.0309 Monsieur La Far
Re: Tony Burton's connection of La Far with the H5's Le Fer, Steevens
noted the similarity in his 1793 edition and ascribed it to
Shakespeare's relative ignorance of French names.
Kevin Donovan <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: S. L Kasten <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 12 Apr 2006 12:58:46 +0200
Subject: 17.0309 Monsieur La Far
Comment: Re: SHK 17.0309 Monsieur La Far
From: Tony Burton:
>I'm surprised that no one has connected the Monsieur La Far of Lear with
>the Monsieur Le Fer of Henry V. Both names have evoked speculation that
>it carries some unrecognized significance. Given the vagaries of
>English orthography and regional or class differences in pronunciation,
>the "e"/"a" variation practically assures that the names were pronounced
>the same way.
Some time after a Shaksper thread some years ago on "Frog" as a nickname
for a Frenchman I became aware that that the Chinese for France is "Fah
Guo", Fah denoting "law" and Guo meaning "land" or "kingdom" . (My
Chinese is smaller than my Latin and Greeke, but I was able to make my
way on the Bei Jing subway without help and occasionally strike a very
good bargain in the market, and this without Berlitz.)
English is peppered with many common words acquired in foreign sojourns,
conquests, and presumably trade, India being the prime example of such a
source.
My question is how far back have England and France been rubbing
shoulders in China? Does anyone out there have any idea when and how
the French got their Chinese name? Certainly for "Lear" Fah would be
anachronistic, but for "Henry V" less so. By the time the plays were
written the Silk Road had been well trod and the world well
circumnavigated by, among others, the English Tar.
England is Ying Guo, America is Mei Guo. Fah may well have been what
the Chinese ear made of the French pronunciation of "France", rather
than homage to Frances devotion to law and constitutionality.
Best wishes,
Syd Kasten
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