Engelska influenser i tre frihetstida tragedier

Swedish tragedies from the first half of the eighteenth century often looked at French drama, but there are notable instances where inspiration seems to have come from elsewhere: Erik Wrangel’s Torilla (1738), for example, breaks conventions expected of French theatre by letting princes battle supernatural forces on stage; the story presented in Eric Brander’s Cleopatra (1749) seems familiar from Shakespeare’s famous tragedy on the fatal love between Mark Antony and Cleopatra; and there are strong similarities between Lady Macbeth and the tyrannical queen in Johan Göstaf Hallman’s Erik och Waldemar (c. 1750). Reading these tragedies, this article looks at how Swedish theatre from the first half of the eighteenth century might engage with English drama. I argue that while it is difficult to definitively prove intertextual connections to English plays, conventions around English drama in the eighteenth century – particularly concerning treatments of Shakespeare’s plays – can provide a fruitful context through which to read some seemingly unusual qualities in these tragedies. In this reading, the article participates in a discussion about Swedish exchanges with England in the first half of the eighteenth century, touching upon questions about translation, appropriation, and adaptation.