Has-been Queens?: Reception and (Re)figuration of Catherine de’ Medici and Mary Stuart in Translation

Published anonymously in Paris in 1575, Discours merveilleux de la vie, actions & deportemens de Catherine de Medicis Royne mere (...) is the anonymous translation of a Latin pamphlet against Catherine de’ Medici, which was the focal point of a fierce controversy around the Queen Mother. One year later, the French text was translated into English and published in Edinburgh, linking it clearly with the debate about another controversial queen, Mary Stuart. Both in power at a time of political and religious change, the French and Scottish queens have left an enduring mark in memory and history. Their public image has been deeply influenced by the circulation of polemical texts that have contributed to turn them into emblematic figures. Similarly to other works published about Mary Stuart, this text and its translations attempt to orientate the reception of the queen’s actions according to their own political agenda. In that context, translation plays a crucial role, multiplying the layers of ideological intervention, as translators add their own voice to the debate. Based on a comparative study of the French and English translations of this tract, this paper will explore some mechanisms of rehabilitation and/or deconstruction behind translators’ decisions and their impact on the reception of queenly figures. It will more specifically focus on the ways in which translation leaves open space for fiction and how this interacts with a rhetoric of truth-telling