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Article published In:
Language, translation and empire in the Americas
Edited by Roberto A. Valdeón
[Target 31:2] 2019
► pp. 189–206

Translation, a Tudor political instrument

ORCID logo | Huazhong University of Science and Technology | University of the Free State | University of Oviedo

Starting with an overview of F. O. Matthiessen’s work on the role of translation during the Elizabethan period, this article delves into the paratexts of the translations of Spanish colonial texts by Richard Hakluyt, Edward Grimeston, Michael Lok and John Frampton to discuss the underlying reasons why Spanish accounts of the conquest were rendered into English. The analysis of the dedications and addresses shows that, although these translations may have served to express admiration for the Spanish conquerors or to criticize their actions, the ultimate goals of these texts were to encourage England to replicate the Spanish empire in the Americas, on the one hand, and to obtain social, political and economic benefits for the translators, on the other.

Keywords: Spanish chronicles, colonial translation, Richard Hakluyt, Michael Lok, John Frampton, Edward Grimeston
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Richard Hakluyt
  • 3.Michael Lok’s Decades
  • 4.Edward Grimeston’s The Naturall and Morall Historie of the East and West Indies
  • 5.John Frampton
  • 6.Concluding discussion
  • References
Published online: 21 June 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.19031.val
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