La defensa del «Hamlet» de Moratín en la «Continuación del Semanario de Salamanca»

Abstract

In volume 12 of Cuadernos Dieciochistas Professor Pedro Álvarez de Miranda revealed the existence of an issue of the Continuación del Semanario de Salamanca, dated 19 April 1800, which included a Letter in defence of the translation by Leandro Fernández de Moratín of Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet.The Letter, signed by a mysterious P. Ozerín-Jáuregui y Z., attacks the Examen of Moratín’s volume published by the Mallorcan man of letters Cristóbal Cladera and sets out a series of objections which in effect defend the quality of the translation and the historical information accompanying it. The present article attempts to place the newly-discovered critical text in its literary and historical contexts, analyzing its arguments and approach, and evaluating its contribution to the on-going debate over the quality of Moratín’s Hamlet. The article includes, by way of appendix, an annotated transcription of the complete Letter as published in the Continuación del Semanario de Salamanca.