Alfred de Vigny

Stello est ne le plus heureusement du monde et protege par l'etoile du ciel la plus favorable. Tout lui a reussi, dit-on, depuis son enfance. Les grands evenements du globe sont toujours arrives a leur terme de maniere a seconder et a denouer miraculeusement ses evenements particuliers, quelque embrouilles et confus qu'ils se trouvassent; aussi ne s'inquiete-t-il jamais lorsque le fil de ses aventures se mele, se tord et se noue sous les doigts de la Destinee: il est sur qu'elle prendra la peine de le disposer elle-meme dans l'ordre le plus parfait, qu'elle-meme y emploiera toute l'adresse de ses mains, a la lueur de l'etoile bienfaisante et infaillible.

As with many of his French contemporaries, Alfred de Vigny (1797-1863) enjoyed the challenge of reworking William Shakespeare’s classic plays for a modern audience. "Shylock" (1830) eliminates many of the comic elements of the master’s original, and focuses on the darker themes of racial prejudice and the relationship between Jew and gentile. The result is another stunning resurrection and reinterpretation of a dramatic masterwork. Translated for the very first time into English!Since retiring from the legal profession, FRANK J. MORLOCK has translated over a hundred plays from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French originals, and has also penned a number of original dramas of his own. In 2006 he was honored with an award from the North American Jules Verne Society. He lives and works in Maryland.

The story of the failed consipiracy of young Henri d'Effiat, marquis de Cinq-Mars to overthrow Richelieu; his doomed romance with Marie de Gonzague, a princess betrothed to the king of Poland; and Cinq-Mars' subsequent beheading.