Fortune d’un roman byzantin à l’époque moderne. Étude sur les traductions françaises d’Hysminé et Hysminias de la Renaissance au XVIIIe siècle
Résumé
The present paper is devoted to the reception of the Byzantine twelfth-century novel Hysmine and Hysminias, from the Renaissance to modern times (18th century). More in particular, it deals with the French translations produced during this period. The examination focuses on the translations by Guillaume Colletet (1625) and Pierre-François de Beauchamps (1729). The two works offer very different ways of dealing with the Greek text: while Colletet shows respect for the content of the original text and makes only formal corrections in order to adapt the novel to the taste of a contemporary readership, Beauchamps – otherwise a composer of libertine novels – thoroughly reworks the original to produce an ‘imitation’ whith special attention devoted to the heroine’s first experience of love. This is probably one of the reasons why Beauchamps’s free adaptation was so successful throughout the 18th century. This Belle Infidèle – translated into English, paraphrased by the materialistic philosopher La Mettrie, and staged by Laujon – has ensured Macrembolites’s novel of a remarquable popularity for several decades.