sangcreole:

devilsfool:

just-another-vcblog:

Lestat’s love of Shakespeare is referenced a lot through the series, such as him reciting the lines to Claudia. But he didn’t learn English until the early 20th century. So I’m wondering, were they translated into French, or did he just recite lines he didn’t actually understand the meaning of for years? I know the answer is “unreliable narrator” but I want to know if he would recite all the puns and double entendres and have zero idea of what he was actually saying.

//Definitely translated into French. Shakespeare has been translated for far too long for him not to have come across it.

In regards to him spouting bits of monologues like “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,” these have been translated and translate, in some ways, almost exactly (at least that first line does):

“Demain, et puis demain, et puis demain, 

Glissent à petits pas d’un jour à l’autre 

Jusqu’à la dernière syllabe du registre des temps ; 

Et tous nos hiers n’ont fait qu’éclairer pour des fous 

La route de la mort poussiéreuse. 

Eteins-toi, éteins-toi, brève chandelle ! 

La vie n’est qu’une ombre errante ; un pauvre acteur 

Qui se pavane et s’agite une heure sur la scène 

Et qu’ensuite on n’entend plus ; c’est une histoire 

Racontée par un idiot, pleine de bruit et de fureur, 

Et qui ne signifie rien.”

I don’t think that here we need to think of Lestat as an unreliable narrator. These plays would have been performed as regularly then as now, if not more so, especially since the types of theatres Lestat frequented couldn’t have afforded to perform Molière or some of the more prevalent French works of the times. 

In addition, Lestat is uneducated but he’s also shown to be relatively intelligent, and especially balks at being stupid and having his ignorance exposed. Especially around Louis. So I can’t imagine the Lestat of IWTV walking around spouting Shakespeare in English and not knowing what it meant–Louis would have called him out on that in a heartbeat. 

Now, if you really want to get nerdy about it, this French translation has one less syllable (in the first line) than the original English, which does change the inflection and meaning. So THAT is fascinating…

// That’s actually super interesting because while I knew the frequency with which Shakespeare was translated, I never realized that IT CHANGES THE METER! And while that is fascinating in terms of scansion and determining which words have infliction, it’s really important and actually rather poetic considering that iambic pentameter is meant to mimic the human heartbeat, and Louis and Lestat are creatures who thrive off of the human heart, who try so desperately to mimic human beings, but who are just subtly wrong and unnatural.