- in original text:
...Française de Michelet et puis l’hiver dernier Shakespeare et un peu V. Hugo et Dickens et...
...comme le Dieu de l’ivrogne Falstaff de Shakespeare “le dedans d’une église”, “the inside...
...et d’aimer, il y a du Rembrandt dans
Shakespeare et du Corrège ou du Sarto en Michelet et du...
...que Kent, un homme dans King Lear de Shakespeare, est tout aussi noble et distingué personnage que...
...davantage, Mon Dieu, comme cela est-il beau. Shakespeare, qui est mysterieux comme lui, sa parole...
- in translation:
...s La révolution Française, and then last winter, Shakespeare and a little V. Hugo and Dickens and...
...them.
Their God is like the God of Shakespeare’s drunkard, Falstaff, ‘the inside of a church...
...be loved; there’s something of Rembrandt in
Shakespeare and something of Correggio or Sarto in...
...resemblance. And I think that Kent, a man in Shakespeare’s King Lear, is just as noble and...
...it no higher, my God, how beautiful that is. Shakespeare — who is as mysterious as he? — his...
- in note 9:
...Shakespeare. Paris 1864. Other places in this passage also betray the fact that he had read Hugo’s book with profound interest. The term ‘shocking’ (l. 76 and l. 80), for example, could have been taken from this book (pp. 274, 484). The list of analogies – ‘There is something of...in...’ (ll. 159-161) – has a syntactic parallel in Hugo: ‘Il y a du Voltaire dans Socrate’ (There is something of Voltaire in Socrates) (p. 206). In chapter 2 (on geniuses), Hugo continually makes connections between luminaries in the arts, something that Van Gogh does as well. The underlying thought is that, in reflections on art, opposites can provide mutual enrichment. Regarding the influence of Hugo’s William Shakespeare on Van Gogh, Dorn stated: ‘There is hardly a book in Van Gogh’s correspondence that has left a clearer or more profound mark – probably on his thinking as well.’ See exhib. cat. Vienna 1996, pp. 32-33 (quotation on p. 32). Van Gogh had sent his parents one of Hugo’s books in an attempt to make them understand his ideas. Mrs van Gogh, however, found the work of the Frenchman ethically reprehensible and wrote on 5 July to Theo: ‘We think it’s true, what you write about Vincent, but if reading books yields such impractical results, is it good? And what kind of ideas does his reading give him? He sent us one by Victor Hugo, but he takes the side of criminals and calls no evil by its real name. What would the world be like if one were to call evil good? Even with the best will in the world, that is not possible’ (FR b2495). Vincent perhaps sent Le dernier jour d’un condamné, which he mentions in letter 158. Hulsker assumes that it was Les misérables (Hulsker 1990-1, p. 185...
- in note 12:
In William Shakespeare, King Henry iv, act 3, scene 3, Sir John Falstaff, a gluttonous and pusillanimous...
- in note 17:
Similarities between the work of Rembrandt and Shakespeare, both of whom portrayed subjects ranging in nature...
- in note 20:
Van Gogh considers the character Kent in Shakespeare’s King Lear (1606-1607) to be just as noble as ‘any...