“That Famous Wit and Cavaleer of France”: The English Translation of Cyrano de Bergerac in the 1650s

Abstract

"by the mid-seventeenth century romance had become a worthwhile commodity for English booksellers. This essay focuses on the English translations of two works by Cyrano de Bergerac that were published in quick succession in London during the Interregnum in the context of this new interest in French literature.... This article proposes a study of the marketing strategies that booksellers, translators, and potential editors used to present the two works in translation. In both instances, the translators’ own voices can be heard.... Yet Cyrano’s identity as a “Libertin érudit” with a scandalous reputation in France, whose works were submitted to censorship, seems not to have registered in the English context. The translatorial and editorial strategies tend to disregard the question of heterodoxy: as he crossed the Channel, Cyrano lost his aura of scandal to become the archetypal figure of the French “Wit” - a marketing strategy capitalizing on national stereotypes, but also catering to the demand for French literature in English translation."