IS SHAKESPEARE UNIVERSAL? —THE CASE OF FRANCE.

IS SHAKESPEARE UNIVERSAL?—THE CASE OF FRANCE. I think of Shakespeare as universal—admired in all cultures. Here is a review (by Lenard R. Berlanstein) of a book by John Pemble, SHAKESPEARE GOES TO PARIS: HOW THE BARD CONQUERED PARIS, which argues that the French had a great deal of trouble acknowledging Shakespeare’s greatness. Shakespeare was not translated into French until 1746, over 100 years after he died. Pemble says that Shakespeare was “crucial to the long and painful adjustment of French consciousness to a world in which France and the French were no longer paramount.” Victor Hugo was a supporter of Shakespeare, but Shakespeare’s work was considered excessive and not in good taste. Voltaire referred to Shakespeare’s “pearls… in this enormous dung heap.” In 1947 Jean-Louis Barrault is quoted as saying: “Opinions have not changed since Voltaire. In the name of taste, Shakespeare is reproached for triviality; in the name of rules, for long-windedness and implausibility.”