Nut Meg’s Reviews > An Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespear: Compared with the Greek and French Dramatic Poets: With Some Remarks upon the Misrepresentations of ... - Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama) > Status Update

"I am sorry the translator had not a better English dictionary" omg she's savage

Omg it's page after page of her calling out his shitty translations and showing receipts. She publicly humiliated France's premier intellectual. No wonder he was furious when this was published.

"The charm arising from the tones of English blank verse cannot be felt by a foreigner, who is so far from being acquainted with the pronunciation of our language, that he often mistakes the signification of the most common words" cold shade, especially considering how essential multilingualism was to the 18th century European intelligentsia

"The vulgar call all animals that are not natives of their own country, monsters, however beautiful they may be"

Saying Voltaire's "translations often, his criticisms still oftener, prove he did not perfectly understand the words of the author and therefore it is certain he could not enter into his meaning" is some cold 18th century shade. She accused the most respected intellectual in Europe of not not knowing English well enough to know what he's talking about.

Opens up with a little casual racism, but I've seen worse