Reworkings in the textual history of Gulliver’s Travels: a translational approach Alice Colombo The thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Portsmouth August 2013 ii ABSTRACT On 28 October 1726 Gulliver’s Travels debuted on the literary scene as a political and philosophical satire meant to provoke and entertain an audience of relatively educated and wealthy British readers. Since then, Swift’s work has gradually evolved, assuming multiple forms and meanings while becoming accessible and attractive to an increasingly broad readership in and outside Britain. My study emphasises that reworkings, including re-editions, translations, abridgments, adaptations and illustrations, have played a primary role in this process. Its principal aim is to investigate how reworkings contributed to the popularity of Gulliver’s Travels by examining the dynamics and the stages through which they transformed its text and its original significance. Central to my research is the assumption that this transformation is largely the result of shifts of a translational nature and that, therefore, the analysis of reworkings and the understanding of their role can greatly benefit from the models of translation description devised in Descriptive Translation Studies. The reading of reworkings as entailing processes of translation shows how derivative creations operate collaboratively to ensure literary works’ continuous visibility and actively shape the literary polysystem. The study opens with an exploration of existing approaches to reworkings followed by an examination of the characteristics which exposed Gulliver’s Travels to continuous rethinking and reworking. Emphasis is put on how the work’s satirical significance gave rise to a complex early textual problem for which Gulliver’s Travels can be said to have debuted on the literary scene as a derivative production in the first place. The largest part of the study is devoted to textual analysis. This is carried out in two stages. First I concentrate on reworkings of Gulliver’s Travels published in eighteenth- and in nineteenth-century Italy. These illustrate how interlingual translation operated alongside criticism, abridgment, adaptation and pictorial representation to extend the accessibility of Swift’s work and eventually turned it into a popular and children’s book. Then, I examine British reworkings and how the translational processes which they entail contributed to the popularity and the popularisation of Gulliver’s Travels in eighteenth- century Britain. iii CONTENTS INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………… 1 CHAPTER ONE - Towards an integrated study of reworkings ……………. 7 1.1 ‘Refractions’ and their role within the literary polysystem …………………... 7 1.2 The translational side of refractions …………………………………………. 11 1.3 In search of a systematic methodology of analysis………………………….. 25 CHAPTER TWO - Gulliver’s Travels: a work in constant progress ……….. 34 2.1 The renegotiation of the significance of Gulliver’s Travels ………………..... 34 2.2 The debut of Gulliver’s Travels: ‘original’ or refraction? …………………… 43 2.2.1 The publication of Motte’s editions and Swift’s response……………… 43 2.2.2 The ‘non-Ford’ corrections and the composition of Faulkner’s text…… 50 2.2.3 The publication of the 1735 text and its implications ………………….. 55 CHAPTER THREE - Gulliver’s Travels in Italy: 1729-1890 ………………… 59 3.1 The Italian debut of Gulliver’s Travels …………………………………….. 59 3.2 Translation trends in the first half of the eighteenth century ………………. 64 3.3. Viaggj del Capitano Lemuel Gulliver in diversi Paesi lontani (Corona, 1729) 71 3.3.1 Macro-level …………………………………………………………….. 71 3.3.2 Micro-level …………………………………………………………….. 76 3.4 The (mis)fortune of Gulliver’s Travels after Marsecco’s translation ………. 81 3.5 The fluctuating course of Gulliver’s Travels: a polysystemic explanation … 85 3.6 Viaggi di Gulliver (Stella, 1840-42) …………………………………………. 99 3.6.1 Macro-level ……………………………………………………………… 99 3.6.2 Micro-level ………………………………………………………………. 101 3.7 The popularisation and the popularity of Gulliver’s Travels in united Italy.. 114 3.8 The triumph of popular publishing …………………………………………. 116 3.9 The diversification of the reading public and the rise of children’s literature 119 3.10 The textual evolution of Gulliver’s Travels between 1865 and 1890 ……. 121 3.10.1 Macro-level ……………………………………………………………. 121 3.10.2 Micro-level …………………………………………………………….. 131 CHAPTER FOUR - The refraction of Gulliver’s Travels in eighteenth- century Britain ……………………………………….. 147 4.1 The response of the British readership ……………………………………. 147 iv 4.2 The early popularisation of Gulliver’s Travels: serialisations, abridgments and chapbooks …………………………………………………………….. 150 4.3 Stone and King’s 1727 edition: a ‘faithful’ abridgement? ………………… 156 4.3.1 Macro-level ……………………………………………………………. 156 4.3.2 Micro-level …………………………………………………………..... 159 4.4 Gulliver’s Travels and the world of chapbooks ………………………….. 172 4.4.1 The Travels and Adventures of Capt. Lemuel Gulliver (1750?): macro-level …………………………………………………………..... 173 4.4.2 Micro-level …………………………………………………………… 177 4.5 The origins of Gulliver’s Travels as a children’s book …………………… 185 4.6 The Newberys and the earliest children’s edition of Gulliver’s Travels 190 4.6.1 Newbery’s Gulliver’s Travels: macro-level ………………………….. 194 4.6.2 Micro-level ………………………………………………………….... 197 CONCLUSION ………………………………………………………………… 209 BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………………………… 214 v DECLARATION Whilst registered as a candidate for the above degree, I have not been registered for any other research award. The results and conclusions embodied in this thesis are the work of the named candidate and have not been submitted for any other academic award. WORD COUNT: 74.508 words (excluding tables) vi LIST OF TABLES Tab.1 Italian editions of Gulliver’s Travels published between 1729 and 1890 .. 26 Tab.2 British reworkings of Gulliver’s Travels subject to analysis…………….. 27 Tab.3 Opening sentences of passage one in Motte’s 1726 edition, the Hague translation and Marsecco’s version………………………………………. 76 Tab.4 Opening sentences of passage two in Motte’s 1726 edition, the Hague translation and Marsecco’s version………………………………………. 77 Tab.5 Opening sentences of passage three in Motte’s 1726 edition, the Hague translation and Marsecco’s version………………………………………. 77 Tab.6 Opening sentences of passage four in Motte’s 1726 edition, the Hague translation and Marsecco’s version………………………………………. 77 Tab.7 Omissions in Marsecco’s version ………………………………………... 78 Tab.8 Syntactic transposition in Marsecco’s version…………………………… 79 Tab.9 Amplification in Marsecco’s version…………………………………….. 79 Tab.10 Extract from Scott’s commentary in the original and in the French and Italian editions of 1838 and 1842 ……………………………………….. 100 Tab.11 Amplification in Barbieri’s translation, (passage one) …………………. 102 Tab.12 Amplification in Barbieri’s translation, (passage two) …………………. 102 Tab.13 Amplification in Barbieri’s translation, (passage three) ………………… 102 Tab.14 Amplification in Barbieri’s translation, (passage four) ………………… 102 Tab.15 Intensification of the dramatic effect in Barbieri’s translation ………….. 103 Tab.16 Syntactic transposition in Barbieri’s translation, extract from passage 1 .. 103 Tab.17 Syntactic structure of the extract in table 16……………………………... 104 Tab.18 Censorship in Barbieri’s translation (passage four) …………………… 104 Tab.19 Repetitions in Barbieri’s translation……………………………………… 105 Tab.20 Shifts imposed by Grandville’s illustrations …………………………….. 109 Tab.21 Illuminated letters in the first four chapters of the voyage to Lilliput in Faulkner’s 1735 text and in Fournier and Furne’s and Stella’s editions .. 111 Tab.22 Illuminated letters in the first four chapters of the voyage to Lilliput in Faulkner’s 1735 text and in Fournier and Furne’s and Taylor’s editions .. 112 Tab.23 Initials of Chapter IX, Part IV, in Faulkner’s 1735 text and in Fournier and Furne’s and Taylor’s editions ………………………………………. 113 Tab.24 Italian editions of Gulliver’s Travels published between 1865 and 1890 .. 115 Tab.25 Italian versions published between 1865 and 1890 and their sources ….. 132 Tab.26 Opening sentences of passage one in Desfontaines’ translation and in Treves’ and Sonzogno’s editions………………………………………… 132 vii Tab.27 Opening sentences of passage two in Desfontaines’ translation and in Treves’ and Sonzogno’s editions………………………………………… 133 Tab.28 Opening sentences of passage three in Desfontaines’ translation and in Treves’ and Sonzogno’s editions ……………………………………….. 133 Tab.29 Opening sentences of passage four in Desfontaines’ translation and Sonzogno’s edition ………………………………………………………. 133 Tab.30 Gulliver’s awakening in Motte’s 1726 edition and in Desfontaines’ and Cavanna’s translations…………………………………………………… 135 Tab.31 The Lilliputians’ attacks in Motte’s 1726 edition and in Desfontaines’ and Cavanna’s translations………………………………………………. 135 Tab.32 The religious wars in Motte’s 1726 edition and in Desfontaines’ and Cavanna’s translations …………………………………………………... 137 Tab.33 Extinction of the fire in Motte’s 1726 edition and in Desfontaines’ and Cavanna’s translations…………………………………………………… 138 Tab.34 Reduction, reordering and syntactic transposition in Cavanna’s translation ………………………………………………………………... 139 Tab.35 Similarities between Barbieri’s and Cavanna’s translations……………... 140 Tab.36 Minor interventions in Bestetti’s version………………………………… 141 Tab.37 Translational shifts in Bestetti’s version ………………………………… 141 Tab.38