Translating Empire, Translating Cartier and Léry into English: text and context in comparative narratives of expansion and the new world

Jonathan L. Hart

doi:10.5007/2175-8026.2022.e86630

Authors

Jonathan L. Hart University of Alberta https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9782-828X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2022.e86630

Keywords:

Cartier, Léry, Translation, New World, Comparative Literature

Abstract

This article provides comparative texts and contexts between Brazil and Canada in the Atlantic world, not simply an Inter-American comparison, but a trans-Atlantic and global typology. It focuses on the translation of empire through translation, particularly of part of Jacques Cartier’s narratives about Canada by John Florio in 1580 and of Jean de Léry’s account of the voyage to Brazil in Samuel Purchas’ collection in 1625. English travel or encounter literature is in the service of contact, exploration, encounter and possible possession and settlement. The Spanish, through Columbus, and the Portuguese as well as the French are part of this comparative literature and these cultural texts, which are intertextual and translational, among themselves and with English culture and literature. The encounter between the Indigenous peoples and Europeans in the New World, in Brazil and Canada is central to changing the literature and cultures of the Americas, Europe, Africa, and of the world as seen in the texts analyzed here. The building of English travel accounts, literature and empire is also, to an important degree, intertextual, intercultural, and translational.

Author Biography

Jonathan L. Hart, University of Alberta

<

References

Anderson, Jean. Henry the Navigator, Prince of Portugal. Westminster Press, 1969.

Anon. “A Discovery of Lands Beyond the Equinoctial”. The Three Voyages of Martin Frobisher. Edited by Richard Collinson. London: Printed for the Hakluyt Society, 1867.

Azurara, Gomes Eannes de. Descobrimentoe Conquistade Guiné. Paris: J. P. Aullaud, 1841.

Azurara, Gomes Eannes de. The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea. Translated and edited by C. R. Beazley and E. Prestage. London: Hakluyt Society, 1896–99.

Barlow, Joel. The Columbiad. A Poem with The Last Corrections of the Author. Paris: F. Schoell, 1813.

Biggar, Henry Percival. The Precursors of Jacques Cartier, 1497-1534: A Collection of Documents Relating to the Early History of the Dominion Of Canada. Government Printing Bureau, 1911.

Boxer, C. R. The Dutch in Brazil 1624–1654. Archon Books, 1973.

Cabral, Pedro Álvares. The Voyage of Pedro Álvares Cabral to Brazil and India from Contemporary Documents and Narratives. Trans. with an intro. by William Brooks Greenlee, Second Series No. 81. London: Hakluyt Society 1938 for 1937.

Caminha, Pedro Vaz de. “Letter of by Pedro Vaz de Caminha to King Manuel Written from Porto Seguro of Vera Cruz The Ist of May 1500. ” In The Voyage of Pedro Álvares Cabral to Brazil and India from Contemporary Documents and Narratives. Trans. with an intro. by William Brooks Greenlee, Second Series No. 81. London: Hakluyt Society 1938 for 1937. 3–33.

Camões, Luís de. The Luciad, Or Portugalls Historicall Poem: Written In the Portingall Language By Lvis De Camoens; And Now newly put into English By Richard Fanshaw Esq; Horat. Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori; Carmen amat quisquis, Carmine digna facit. London: Humphrey Moseley, 1655.

Camões, Luís de. The Lusiads. Trans. Richard Fanshawe, ed. Geoffrey Bullough. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1963.

Camões, Luís de. Os Lusiadas. Ed. Frank Pierce. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973.

Cartier, Jacques. A Shorte and Briefe Narration of the Two Nauigations and Discoueries to the Northweast Partes Called Newe Fraunce: First Translated Out of French into Italian, by that Famous Learned Man Gio: Bapt: Ramutius, and Now Turned into English by Iohn Florio; Worthy the Reading of all Venturers, Trauellers, and Discouerers. London, By H. Bynneman, dvvelling in Thames streate, neere vnto Baynardes Castell, 1580.

Cartier, Jacques, Henry Percival Biggar, and Canada. Secretary of State. The Voyages of Jacques Cartier. F. A. Acland, printer, 1924.

Cartier, Jacques. Voyages au Canada avec les relations des voyages en Amérique de Gonneville, Verranzano et Roberval. Paris: F. Maspero, 1981.

Cartier, Jacques and Ramsey Cook, editors. The Voyages of Jacques Cartier. University of Toronto Press, 1993.

Certeau, Michel de. “Travel Narratives of the French to Brazil: Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries.” New World Encounters. Edited by Stephen Greenblatt. U of California P, 1993. 323–328.

Chiapelli, Fredi, editor. First Images of America: The Impact of the New World on the Old. U of California P, 1976.

Coben, Lawrence A. “The Events That Led to the Treaty of Tordesillas.” Terrae Incognitae, vol. 47, no. 2, 2015, pp. 142–62.

Colón, Fernando, and Benjamin Keen. The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus. Rutgers UP, 1959.

Cook, Noble David. Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492-1650. Cambridge UP, 1998.

Crosby, Alfred W. Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900. Cambridge UP, 1986.

Cuneo, Anne. Un monde de mots: John Florio, traducteur, lexicographe, pédagogue, homme de lettres:un récit. B. Campiche, 2011.

Curious and Entertaining Voyages: Undertaken Either for Discovery, Conquest, or the Benefit of Trade, Commencing with the Earliest Discoveries Promoted by Prince Henry, of Portugal, and Fifty-Eight Portuguese and Spanish Voyages: Exhibiting Various Scenes of Cruelties, Hardships, Misfortunes and Discoveries, Particularly on Columbus's Conquest of Mexico &c. with Mhagellan's [sic] Voyage Round the World. London: Published for C. Stalker, Stationer's Court, Ludgate-Street, 1790.

Davenport, Frances Gardiner. European Treaties Bearing on the History of the United States and Its Dependencies to 1648. 4 vols. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1917-1937.

Dickason, Olive. The Myth of the Savage and the Beginnings of French Colonialism in the Americas. The U of Alberta P, 1984.

Diffie, Bailey W. and George D. Winius. Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415–1580. U of Minnesota P, 1977.

Dutto, L. A. “COLUMBUS IN PORTUGAL.” Catholic World, vol. 55, no. 325, 1892, p. 44.

Duviols, Jean-Paul. Voyageurs français en Amérique (colonies espagnoles et portugaises). Bordas, 1978.

Florio, John. “To All Gentlemen, Merchants, and Pilots.” In Jacques Cartier. A Shorte and Briefe Narration of the Two Nauigations and Discoueries to the Northweast Partes Called Newe Fraunce: First Translated Out of French into Italian, by that Famous Learned Man Gio: Bapt: Ramutius, and Now Turned into English by Iohn Florio; Worthy the Reading of all Venturers, Trauellers, and Discouerers. London, By H. Bynneman, dvvelling in Thames streate, neere vnto Baynardes Castell, 1580. Bj-[Biv].

Foucqueron, Gilles. Jacques Cartier. Vol. 1. Éditions Cristel, 2018.

Gasgoigne, George. “A Prophetical Sonnet of the Same George Gascoine,Vpon the Com- mendable Trauaile Disclosed in this Worke.” Humphrey Gilbert, Discourse of a Discoverie for a New Passage to Cataia, London: Henry Middleton for Richarde Ihones, 1576), qqq.i.

Gilbert, Humphrey. Discourse of a Discoverie for a New Passage to Cataia. London: Henry Middleton for Richarde Ihones, 1576.

Gonneville, Binot Paulmier de. “Relation authentique . . .” Julien, Charles-André, René Herval and Théodore Beauchesne, editors. Les Français en Amérique pendant la première moitié du XVIe siècle. Presses Universitaires de France, 1946. 25-49.

Green, L. C. and Olive P. Dickason, The Law of Nations and the New World. U of Alberta P, 1989.

Greenlee, William Brooks. Introduction, In Pedro Álvares Cabral The Voyage of Pedro Álvares Cabral to Brazil and India from Contemporary Documents and Narratives. Trans. with an intro. by William Brooks Greenlee, Second Series No. 81. London: Hakluyt Society 1938 for 1937. xxxv–xxxix.

Guerreiro, Manuel Viegas. Colombo e Portugal. Edições Cosmos. 1994.

Hair, P. E. H., R. C. Bridges, and Hakluyt Society. Compassing the Vaste Globe of the Earth : Studies in the History of the Hakluyt Society, 1846-1996; with a Complete List of the Society's Publications. Hakluyt Society, 1996.

Hakluyt, Richard. The Voyages of the English Nation to America Before the year 1600. From Hakim’s Collection of Voyages (1598-1600.) EDMUND GOLDSMID, vol. I. Edinburgh: E. & G. GOLDSMlD. 1889.

The Hakluyt Society, https://www.hakluyt.com

Helps, Arthur. The Spanish Conquest in America: and Its Relation to the History of Slavery and to the Government of Colonies. London: J.W. Parker, 1855.

Herval, René. Giovanni da Verrazzano et les Dieppois à la Recherche du Cathay (1524–1528). Jouan & Bigot, 1933.

Honour, Hugh. The New Golden Land: European Images of America from the Discoveries to the Present Time. Pantheon, 1975.

Jowitt, Claire, and Daniel Carey. Richard Hakluyt and Travel Writing in Early Modern Europe. Routledge, 2012.

Julien, Charles-André, René Herval, and Théodore Beauchesne ed. Les Français en Amérique pendant la première moitié du XVIe siècle. Presses Universitaires de France, 1946.

Léry, Jean de. “Extracts out of the Historic of John Lerius a Frenchman, who lived in Brasill with Monsieur Villagagnon, Anno 1557. and 58. H.P.” Samuel. Puchars. Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes In Twenty Volumes. GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE COMPANY LTD. FOR JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS, PUBLISHERS TO THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW, 106. Volume XVI, Chapter III, 518-579 [also paginated in this edition as 1325-1347 from the original, London, 1625

Léry, Jean de. History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil. Translation and introduction by Janet Whatley. University of California Press, 1990.

Lestringant, Frank. "L'excursion brésilienne: Note sur les trois premières éditions de l'Histoire d'un Voyage de Jean de Léry (1578-1585)." Mélanges sur la littérature de la Renaissance à la mémoire de V.-L. Saulnier. Droz, 1984. 53-72.

Livermore, H. V. “Portuguese History,” Portugal and Brazil: An Introduction. Ed. H. V. Livermore. The Clarendon Press, 1953. 50–54.

López-Portillo, José-Juan. “Before Columbus: Portugal's African Prelude to the Middle Passage and Contribution to Discourse on Race and Slavery.” Spain, Portugal and the Atlantic Frontier of Medieval Europe. London: Routledge, n.d. 291-326.

López-Portillo, José-Juan. Spain, Portugal and the Atlantic Frontier of Medieval Europe. Farnham, England; Burlington, Ashgate Variorum, 2013.

Lussagnet, Suzanne, André Thevet, and Jean Ribaut. Les Français en Amérique pendant la deuxième moitié du XVI siècle. [1. ed.]. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1953.

Lynam, Edward. Richard Hakluyt and His Successors. Taylor and Francis, 2017.

Mancall, Peter C. Hakluyt's Promise: An Elizabethan's Obsession for an English America. Yale UP, 2007.

Marlowe, Christopher. The Massacre at Paris: With the Death Of the Duke Of Guise: As It Was Plaide By the Right Honourable the Lord High Admirall His Seruants. Written By Christopher Marlow. London: Printed by E. A. for Edward White [etc.], 1594.

McAlister, Lyle N. Spain and Portugal in the New World 1492–1700. U of Minnesota, 1984.

Mignolo, Walter. The Darker Side of the Renaissance: Literacy, Territoriality, and Colonization. U of Michigan P, 1995.

Pagden, Anthony. Lords of All the World: Ideologies of Empire in Spain, Britain and France c. 1500–c. 1800. Yale UP, 1995.

Peele, George, The Battell of Alcazar Fought in Barbarie, Betweene Sebastian King of Portugall, and Abdelmelec King of Marocco. with the Death of Captaine Stukeley. as it was Sundrie Times Plaid by the Lord High Admirall His Seruants London, By Edward Allde for Richard Bankworth, and are to be solde at his shoppe in Pouls Churchyard at the signe of the Sunne, 1594.

Milward, Peter, and Jōchi Daigaku. Runessansu Sentā. Portuguese Voyages to Asia and Japan in the Renaissance Period: Proceedings of the International Conference Held at Sophia University, Tokyo, from September 24-26, 1993, Commemorating the First Arrival of Westerners in Japan (Portuguese Traders on the Island of Tanegashima) on September 23, 1543, Exactly 450 Years Ago. Tokyo, Japan: The Renaissance Institute, Sophia University, 1994.

Morison, Samuel Eliot. Christopher Columbus, Mariner. Little Brown, 1955.

Pereira, Duarte Pacheco. Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis. Translated and edited by George H. T. Kimble, Hakluyt Society, 1937.

Phillips, William D. 1992. “Christopher Columbus in Portugal: Years of Preparation.” Terrae Incognitae, vol. 24, no. 1, 1992, pp. 31–41.

Phillips, Jr., William D. and Carla Rahn Phillips. The Worlds of Christopher Columbus. Cambridge UP, 1992.

Ramusio, Giovanni Battista. Primo volume. delle navigationi et viaggi... In Venetia: Appresso gli heredi di Lucantonio Giunti, 1550.

Russell, P. E. The English Intervention in Spain and Portugal in the Time of Edward III and Richard II. Oxford UP, 1955.

Russell, Peter. Prince Henry “The Navigator.” Yale UP, 2000.

Russell-Wood, A. J. R. The Portuguese Empire, 1415–1808: A World on the Move. 1992; Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.

Shakespeare, William, G. Blakemore Evans, and J. J. M. Tobin. 1997. The Riverside Shakespeare: the Complete Works. Houghton Mifflin, 1997.

Stannard, David E. American Holocaust : Columbus, Christianity, and the Conquest of the Americas. Oxford University Press, 1992.

Sullivan, Blair. Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies. Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Tasso, Torquato. Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. Done into English Heroicall verse, by Edward Fairefax Gent. London: Ar. Hatfield, for I. Iaggard and M. Lownes, 1600.

Thevet, André. Les Singularitez de la France Antartique, autrement nommé Amérique. Anvers: Christophle Plantin, 1558.

Thevet, André. La Cosmographie Vniverselle D’André Thevet Cosmographe dv Roy . . . Tome Second. Paris: Guillaume Chaudiere, 1575.

Tremblay, Rémi. Jacques Cartier. [Grez-sur-Loing]: Pardès, 2020.

Vachon, André, Victorin. Chabot, and André. Desrosiers. 1982. Dreams of Empire: Canada before 1700. [Ottawa]: Public Archives Canada, 1982.

Whatley, Janet. "Une révérence réciproque: Huguenot Writing on the New World. " University of Toronto Quarterly 57.2 (Winter 1987/88): 270-289.

Whatley, Janet. “Introduction.” Jean de Léry, History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil, trans. and introduction by Janet Whatley. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. xv-xxxviii.

Whatley, Janet. “Editions and Reception of Léry.” Jean de Léry, History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil, trans. and introduction by Janet Whatley. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. 220-224.

Wroth, Lawrence C. The Voyages of Giovanni da Verrazzano 1524–1528. New Haven: Yale UP, 1970.

Yates, Frances A. John Florio; the Life of an Italian in Shakespeare's England. Cambridge The University Press, 1934.

Zaharia, Oana-Alis. 2012. “Translata Proficit: Revisiting John Florio's Translation of Michel de Montaigne's Les Essais.” SEDERI. Sociedad Española de Estudios Renacentistas Ingleses, vol. 22, no. 22, pp. 115–36.