Shakespeare’s French Obsession: New Historicism and the Authorship Debate — Elisabeth Waugaman

Shakespeare was obsessed with the French language, French court gossip, French culture, French and pan-European politics. This talk shows how exploring these elements can help keep Oxfordian studies relevant to current literary trends such as the New Historicism and how Oxfordian studies can expand and benefit from it in ways Stratfordians cannot.

Among the topics explored: Shakespeare’s knowledge of the French language, his knowledge of little known and unpublished French history (e.g. Court gossip), his knowledge of French culture, and his knowledge of pan-European politics.

Hamlet was first performed in 1593. Shakespeare did not begin to possibly learn French until 1598 as a roomer with a French Huguenot family, and the French source was not translated until 1608. These problems led Stratfordians to create the Ur-Hamlet theory (a lost Hamlet play possibly by Kyd for which there is no record). The Ur-Hamlet theory has now been abandoned by many Stratfordians, including Harold Bloom. Stratfordians generally ignore the studies of the French scholars Abel Lefranc and his protegé Georges Lambin because both point out that Shakespeare’s knowledge of little-known historical figures and events was not put into print until after Shakspere’s death.
Richard Hillman is a New Historicist who examines Shakespeare’s knowledge of politics beyond even that revealed by Lefranc and Lambin. He reveals not simply an awareness of French politics, but also how Shakespeare’s work reflects a pan-European vision. This vision (the basis for New Historicism) reveals a political sophistication Stratfordians never considered because it requires a political sophistication only to be found in the upper echelons of English government where sensitive political intrigues were examined and plotted.

Bio: Elisabeth P. Waugaman is a faculty member in the New Directions writing program at the Washington Center for Psychoanalysis. She wrote and illustrated her first book, Follow Your Dreams, which won the Santos Dumont Medal from the Brazilian government. Her second book is Women, Their Names, and the Stories They Tell. She did graduate work at Princeton and obtained her PhD in medieval French literature from Duke. She has taught at both Duke and Johns Hopkins Universities and blogged for Psychology Today, Nameberry, and Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Her articles on the French influence in Shakespeare have appeared in The Oxfordian, Psychoanalytic Inquiry and the Journal of Scientific Exploration.

Learn more at https://shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org/

This talk was presented as part of the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship 2023 Annual Conference, held November 9-12, 2023.