The Misunderstanding Caligula - Knocklofty

1 ALBERT CAMUS. The Misunderstanding Caligula Translated by Christopher Williams First published 2007. Page2 Stage Copyright 2007 in translation: Christopher Williams Christopher Williams asserts the right to be identi ed as the author of this book This work is copyright. It may be freely copied for bona de productions of the plays or for educational purposes; apart from these uses, it may not be reproduced by any means whatsoever without the prior written permission of the author/publisher. All rights reserved. Designed by Knocklofty Press Typeset in Minion Pro National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data Author: Camus, Albert, 1913-1960. Title: The Misunderstanding and Caligula : two plays by Albert Camus/translated by Christopher Williams. Edition: 1st ed. Publisher: West Hobart, Tas. : Knocklofty Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780980281446 (pbk.). Subjects: Camus, Albert, 1913-1960 Translations into English. Camus, Albert, 1913-1960 Malentendu.

2 English. Camus, Albert, 1913-1960 Caligula . English. Caligula , Emperor of Rome, 12-41 Drama French drama 20th century Translations into English Other Authors: Williams, Christopher John, 1959- Dewey Number: and PDF record: Author: Camus, Albert, 1913-1960. Title: The Misunderstanding and Caligula [electronic record]: two plays by Albert Camus/translated by Christopher Williams. Edition: 1st ed. Publisher: West Hobart, Tas. : Knocklofty Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780980281453 (pdf.). Subjects: Camus, Albert, 1913-1960 Translations into English. Camus, Albert, 1913-1960 Malentendu. English. Camus, Albert, 1913-1960 Caligula . English. Caligula , Emperor of Rome, 12-41 Drama French drama 20th century Translations into English Other Authors: Williams, Christopher John, 1959- Dewey Number: ALBERT CAMUS. The Misunderstanding and Caligula Translated by Christopher Williams HINTS ON USING AND PRINTING THIS EBOOK. e books are the publishing format of the future.

3 You can read them on- sceen and modern at monitors are far clicking on the name of a scene will take you straight to the rst page of the scene;. on the last page of a chapter, a click on easier to read than traditional cathode the Back to contents' button will return ray monitors. you to the contents page. Portable, hand-held, pocket-sized If you wish to print any or all of the reading devices which can hold large pages in this eBook, the printer con- numbers of eBooks are already on the nected to your computer should o er market and prices are coming down. you a number of choices. eBooks are also cheaper than printed The page size is A4 (210 x 297mm or books and there is the added bene t of 8 x 11 inches) and will print at that knowing that no tree has died so that size on either A4 or US Letter if you you may read. choose actual size' in your printer's dia- Adobe Reader allows you to navigate logue box. Your printer may give you a quickly and easily through the book, variety of options which can be useful.

4 To lay out the pages in the size and for- Many printers give you the option mat that suits you best. Clicking on the of printing multiple pages on a single Pages' tab will display thumbnail imag- sheet; two pages to a sheet will save pa- es of the pages; you can scroll through per and still give you a perfectly legible these and click on the page you want result. to see. If your computer has a sound You can save more paper if your facility, Adobe Reader can read selected printer o ers you a print even pages/. pages or the entire eBook out loud. print odd pages option print all the There are navigation links built into odd pages rst, turn the printed pages this eBook. On the contents page, over and print the even pages. Contents Publisher's Note .. i Note on Le Malentendu (The Misunderstanding ) .. ii Note on Caligula .. iii Biography of Camus .. iv Note on the Translator ..v Note for Actors and Directors ..v Translator's vi The Misunderstanding 1 ACT TWO.

5 Scene 1 ..22. ACT ONE Scene 2 ..26. Scene 1 .. 3 Scene 3 ..27. Scene 2 .. 6 Scene 4 ..28. Scene 3 .. 7 Scene 5 ..29. Scene 4 .. 9 Scene 6 ..30. Scene 5 ..12 Scene 7 ..32. Scene 6 ..16 Scene 8 ..33. Scene 7 ..19. Scene 8 ..20 ACT THREE. Scene 1 ..35. Scene 2 ..40. Scene 3 ..41. Scene 4 ..47. Caligula ACT THREE. Scene 1 ..98. ACT ONE Scene 2 ..101. Scene 1 ..53 Scene 3 ..104. Scene 2 ..56 Scene 4 ..106. Scene 3 ..58 Scene 5 ..108. Scene 4 ..59 Scene 6 ..109. Scene 5 ..62. Scene 6 ..63 ACT FOUR. Scene 7 ..64 Scene 1 ..113. Scene 8 ..65 Scene 2 ..115. Scene 9 ..67 Scene 3 ..116. Scene 10 ..68 Scene 4 ..117. Scene 11 ..69 Scene 5 ..119. Scene 6 ..120. ACT TWO Scene 7 ..121. Scene 1 ..73 Scene 8 ..122. Scene 2 ..74 Scene 9 ..123. Scene 3 ..77 Scene 10 ..125. Scene 4 ..78 Scene 11 ..126. Scene 5 ..79 Scene 12 ..127. Scene 6 ..83 Scene 13 ..130. Scene 7 ..84 Scene 14 ..135. Scene 8 ..85. Scene 9 ..86. Scene 10 ..88. Scene 11 ..91. Scene 12.

6 92. Scene 13 ..93. Scene 14 ..94. The Misunderstanding and Caligula Publisher's Note T HE TRANSLATOR, like lexicographer, is a harmless drudge;. the along with the screen writer, the editor and written expressly to be interpreted and actors and directors have taken huge liberties with texts witness how the dictatorial the designer, his work takes place behind actor-managers of the nineteenth century the scenes and is rarely considered by the rewrote Shakespeare to satisfy their desire reading public. for stardom and their audiences' hunger for In translating these two rather di cult celebrity. plays, Christopher Williams has toiled long The relationship between the reader of and hard to get at the meaning of Camus' a novel and its author is quite direct, with text. Drama presents di erent challenges the reader almost as a participant. The only to the translator, in particular that of how possible intermediary is a translator. much licence he should allow himself.

7 But with drama there are many Unlike a novel, a play is dialogue stripped interpreters between the author and the bare. There is little or no opportunity to use audience: the director, the producer who author talk' to describe character, place, imposes constraints on the director, the atmosphere and cultural and political greater or lesser talents of the actors, context, so the translator of drama has to the stage and lighting designers and work within much narrower con nes than the special e ects technicians, to say the translator of novels. Many translations nothing of incidental music and theatrical are, in reality, artistic interpretations and machinery. often stray from the author's intention. No two productions of a play are ever the Translation into English is especially same because of the many possible levels of problematic because it is a language of interpretation, and Christopher Williams'. allusion and synonym, with an estimated intention has been to remove at least the 200,000 words in common usage and a habit rst stage of ambiguity from the process by of adapting them over time.

8 Electing to translate as plainly as possible French has approximately half this rather than to impose his own world view number of words and, despite the o cially on the text. deprecated readiness of popular French He believes that the plain meaning of culture to pilfer useful words from other Camus' texts can stand by itself without languages (especially English), a tradition the need for interpretation; unadorned of austere precision. Nuance performs the translation alone is all the plays need for the same function in French as does ambiguity theatre to carry his message. in English. R G Mazurky Drama, for most of its history, has been Knocklofty Press BACK TO CONTENTS. i The Misunderstanding and Caligula INTRODUCTORY NOTES. Note on Le Malentendu (The Misunderstanding ). A LBERT CAMUS wrote Le Malentendu (The Misunderstanding ) in 1942 and 1943 in Chambon-sur-Lignon in Nazi- The character of Martha emphasises to her mother that she is anxious to nd that country where the sun kills questions.

9 My occupied France. It was staged for the rst home isn't here . In explaining to his wife, time at the Mathurins Theatre in Paris in Maria, why he has decided to return to his June 1944. The inspiration for the play came childhood home after an absence of twenty from a true crime that Camus had read years, Jan says Only, people cannot be about in a newspaper. happy in exile or oblivion. One can't always The Misunderstanding was one of four remain a stranger. I want to recover my works that focused on Camus' idea of the country, to make all those I love happy . absurd. The core of this idea is that human After listening to Jan's evocative desire is in perpetual con ict with a world description of spring in the African town that is arbitrary, illogical and unfair. A he has come from, Martha con des to him central theme of this play is that life does I no longer have patience to spare for this not distinguish between those who pursue Europe where the autumn has the face of a bad' path and those who pursue a good' spring and spring the smell of misery.

10 But path. Life, as Camus sees it, is equally cruel I imagine with delight that other country to the innocent and the criminal; this is the where summer crushes everything, where absurdity of existence. the winter rains ood the towns and where, Originally the play was to have been nally, things are what they are . entitled Budejovice after a city in the south Camus once described Le Malentendu to of the Czech Republic close to the Austrian Francine as: the play that resembles me the border where Camus stayed brie y during most **. Certainly, in contrast to his other a European trip with his rst wife, Simone plays, Camus looks at himself and some of Hie, and a teacher friend, Yves Bourgeois, those closest to him through the characters in the summer of 1936. The two-month trip of this one. Although seen by a number of through France, Austria, Czechoslovakia, critics as a bleak piece of work, Camus did Germany and Italy precipitated the collapse not regard Le Malentendu as pessimistic.