departmental bulletin paper

Departmental Bulletin Paper

Text

日本語・日本文化. 2025, 52, p. 17-36

Japanese

Text

2025-03-10

研究論文

In the eighth chapter of Wagahai ha Neko dearu (I am a cat, hereafter Neko) by Natsume Soseki, published in January of 1906, a peculiar anecdote about Aescylus’ death is introduced by the cat narrator. This narrative, which has been transmitted from antiquity, recounts the demise of the Greek tragic poet Aeschylus, who, according to the account, was killed by a tortoise that an eagle had dropped down onto the poet’s bald head, mistaking it for a rock. A preliminary investigation into the origins of this account by Soseki revealed that the source was a passage in Victor Hugo’s William Shakespeare (hereafter Shakespeare), a critical work encompassing a broad array of subjects, extending beyond the confines of Shakespearean studies. The poet’s death is recounted in the section of the work devoted to Aeschylus. The following arguments support this assertion. Firstly, it is attested that Soseki obtained a copy of the English translation of Shakespeare by the time he was writing the eighth chapter of Neko. Secondly, it is evident that two passages in the seventh and eighth chapters of Neko, specifically the dialogue concerning the longest word in the world and the reference to the death of Chrysippus, are derived from the accounts in Shakespeare. Given the paucity of information regarding Aescylus’s Death in Shakespeare, it can be posited that Soseki sought further information about the poet’s demise by referring to the article of Aescylus in a dictionary of the antiquity, a copy of which he possessed in his library at the time.

10.18910/100658

100658

『吾輩は猫である』の材源としてのヴィクトル・ユゴー『ウィリアム・シェイクスピア』 : 「アイスキュロスの死」の材源再考

五之治, 昌比呂

大阪大学日本語日本文化教育センター

Japanese

2025-03-10

日本語・日本文化

52

17

36

https://hdl.handle.net/11094/100658

10.18910/100658

https://doi.org/10.18910/100658