MacLaren, Ann (1999) Page and stage: translation and transformation for Gil Vicente's new audience. PhD thesis http://theses.gla.ac.uk/6921/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Page and Stage: Translation and Transformation for Gil Vicente's New Audience Ann MacLaren Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD in the Department of Hispanic Studies University of Glasgow © Ann MacLaren - November 1999 Acknowledgements Thanks are due to many people who helped make this thesis possible. I would particularly like to thank my supervisor Mike Harland for his advice, help and encouragement in preparing this thesis. I would also like to thank Pat Odber de Baubeta of Birmingham University who gave generously of her time to encourage me and lent books and other material that I would not otherwise have had access to. Thanks are due also to Dr. Ana de Brito for all her helpful observations and suggestions and for generally being a source of inspiration, and to Isabel Gonzalez Dfaz of the University of La Laguna for her practical help and her cheerful friendship. I would also like to thank Professor Gareth Walters for allowing me to use his room and his computer during his absence, thus making the writing up of this thesis relatively stress free. Special thanks are due to my daughter Kirsty for her love and encouragement, and for selflessly giving up her right to be a sullen, uncommunicative, anxious teenager - allowing her mother to have that privilege instead. Finally, but most importantly, I would like to thank my husband lain without whose love, support and constant encouragement this thesis would not have been possible. Abstract It has been suggested that all major foreign plays should be published in both readable and performable versions. For a deeper understanding of both the content and the meaning of the works of the 16th century Portuguese dramatist, Gil Vicente, this is essential. This thesis will attempt to demonstrate the profitability of producing the two different kinds of translation: one which allows for a close and detailed reading of the dramatic text and one which is a functional representation of the work as it might be produced for a contemporary theatre audience. It will use as its point of reference two of Vicente's comic plays: Quem Tem Farelos and the Farsa de Ines Pereira. These verse plays, with their medieval language, their in-jokes, their many puns and other forms of word-play and their often confusing references to contemporary characters and events, hold their own particular problems for the translator. The research process involved in their translation has highlighted undiscovered issues involving the language used by Gil Vicente for comic and dramatic purposes, which have gone unnoticed by previous commentators. The Introduction to the thesis will present the author and his work. This is followed by the first part of the Introductory Commentary, which will look at some key linguistic and cultural issues of translation as they relate to the translator's own version of the plays, as well as some specific problems relating to the translations themselves. The second part of the Introductory Commentary looks at some of the issues involved in the transformation of the texts, that is, in translating them in such a way that they will be suitable for performance, and will focus on the translator's role as playwright and director; there will also be a discussion about the use of Scots in translation. The final section of the thesis presents the translations of Quem Tem Farelos? and Farsa de Ines Pereira in their two distinct forms: the reading version and the performance version. These versions of the plays, along with their running commentaries, endeavour to contribute to the understanding of the original author and his work, and to highlight the inadequacies of text-only translations of plays which were originally conceived for public performance. Hopefully, through their enactment at some future date, they will go some way towards helping to introduce an English-speaking audience to the hitherto concealed delights of Gil Vicente's theatre. Table of Contents Acknow ledgements ........................................................................ .i Abstract. .................................................................................... .ii Table of Contents ......................................................................... .iii Chapter 1 - Introduction Page and Stage ..................................................................... 1 The Author ......................................................................... 5 The Plays .......................................................................... 11 Editions. Used ...................................................................... 14 Chapter 2 - Introductory Commentary: Part 1 (Translation) The Unit of Translation and the Form......................................... 15 Intention, Effect and Meaning .................................................. 16 Equivalence ....................................................................... 19 Language of the Plays ............................................................ 22 Translation of Titles of Plays .................................................... 26 Translation of Characters' Names ............................................. 28 Pronominal, Nominal and other Vocative Forms ............................. 33 Proverbs and Idiomatic Expressions ............................................ 35 Sexual Euphemism and Innuendo ............................................... 37 Historical, Cultural and Literary Allusions .................................... .42 Blasphemy and Swearing ........................................................ .46 References to Jews ................................................................47 Stage Directions ................................................................... 48 Chapter 3 - Introductory Commentary: Part 2 (Transformation) The Translator as PlaywrightlDirector ......................................... 51 Character Intention ................................................................ 53 Character Language ............................................................... 55 The Use of Scots in Translation ................................................. 59 Translation of Drama into Scots ................................................ 61 Temporal Unity .................................................................... 64 Incorporating Allusions ........................................................... 67 Adaptation .......................................................................... 70 Performability .......................................................... '........... 72 Chapter 4 - The Base Texts Hay for the Horses (with commentary) ......................................... 76 Ines Pereira (with commentary) ................................................ 98 Chapter 5 - The Performance Texts Hay for the Horses (with commentary) ........................................ 137 Ines Pereira (with commentary) ................................................ 155 Conclusion ................................................................................. 190 Bibliography ................................................................................. 193 Appendix 1 - Quem Tem Farelos? - Portuguese Text. .............................. 203 Appendix 2 - Farsa de Ines Pereira - Portuguese Text. ............................. 224 Appendix 3 - List of Gil Vicente's Plays ............................................... 266 Appendix 4 - List of Translations of Gil Vicente's Plays ............................ 268 Chapter 1 Introduction Page and Stage One of the most important elements to be considered for any translation is its 'audience', that is, the recipient or recipients of the work. Most acts of translation have one specific audience in mind. This audience might constitute a very small number of people, for example, for the technical translator, it might be a team of engineers, who are going to have to use a specialised piece of equipment and want to be able to read a set of instructions; or it might be made up of a very large number of people - the prose translator, for example, will have as her potential audience all those who enjoy reading.l The translator of drama, however, has not one, but two specific audiences to consider: those who will read the written text and those who will watch the play being performed. Keir Elam2 has defined the written text, that is, what is composed for the theatre, as "dramatic text", and what is seen on stage, that is, what is produced in the theatre, as "performance text". The acts of reading and watching a play are very different: the former is a solitary occupation, the latter a communal activity. Reading a play is a necessarily incomplete experience: the reader must be his own director and cast; he