"Wit larded with malice". Translating Shakespeare’s Culinary Language

Evidence of Shakespeare’s interest in food preparation and cooking is recurrent throughout his works, though the difficulties provided by the translation of such figurative language have attracted much less interest among scholars. Building on some earlier research (Scarpa 1995a, 1995b) and some more recent publications (Fitzpatrick 2007, 2011) on the language of food, taste and cooking in Shakespeare’s plays, the paper discusses some instances of the translation into Italian by different translators of this often very culture-specific knowledge and terminology in terms of the difficulty of translating such imagery in the target language when trying to maintain the language of food. This specialized language may in fact be considered to fall into the Bard’s language of “things” and, as such, stands most in danger of becoming archaic and posing a problem for translators with a different historical and cultural background. The examples will mainly be drawn from the two practical operations of the baking of bread, cakes and pastry, and the preparation and cooking of meat. It will be argued that the translation approach most suited to all food references in Shakespeare’s plays is a reader-centred approach and in the conclusion some remarks will also be made on other reader-centred approaches to Shakespeare’s language outside the boundaries of Translation Studies which can have a positive impact on revitalizing Shakespeare for a contemporary audience.