Family Name: Wouters
First Name: Cornélie
Birth Date: 1736
Birth Place: Brussels
Death Date: Fri, Apr 02, 1802
Death Place: Paris
Main places of activity:
Place From To
Paris 1779 1792
Place From To
Paris 1794 1801
Personal info:
Education

We have no information as to Wouters' education.
Career

Wouters began her literary career after the death of her husband, the baron of Wasse (or Vassé). Her works enjoyed a wide success during her lifetime.
Financial Situation

Wouters had properties both in Germany and in England, which were however made inaccessible to her during the French Revolution.
Translations Other Works

translations activities

Wouters translated literature and plays from English to French.

Together with her sister Marie, she constantly investigated the similarities and differences between the two cultures and literary styles, adapting the works from across the Channel for the French audience. To Wouters, drama constituted an essential school of manners, as she transformed the texts according to both moral and aesthetic criteria.

secondary bibliography references

N. Bonvalet, 'Adaptations et traductions de Ben Jonson au XVIIIè siècle', Les Lettres Romanes, 35, n°3 (1981), pp. 199-234.

C. F. Klaus, '"Une école des moeurs & de la morale": How the Wouters sisters made English theater French', Palimpsestes, 20, pp. 79-96.

Id., 'Keeping Ahead of the English? A Defence of Jews by Cornélie Wouters, Baroness of Vasse (1790)', in J. Broad and K. Green, eds., Virtue, Liberty, and Toleration: Political Ideas of European Women, 1400-1800, Dordrecht, Springer, 2007, pp. 171-188.

Id., 'The French and the Foreign in Works by Cornélie Wouters, Isabelle de Charrière and Germaine de Staël', in K. Szmurlo, ed., Germaine de Staël and the Politics of Mediation: Challenges to History and Culture, Oxford, Voltaire Foundation, 2011, pp. 79-90.

Id., 'Cornélie Wouters', in Dictionnaire des femmes de l'ancienne France, 2017.


Translations

  • Miscellanea

  • Translation Title: Oeuvres de David Garrick, écuyer
  • Original Author: David Garrick
  • Original title: Miscellanea
  • Publ. Year From: 1739 to: 1766
  • lang: English
  • Translation: Oeuvres de David Garrick, écuyer
  • Pub. Place: Paris
  • Pub. Date: 1783
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    Wouters also edited the volumes, and added the life of Garrick. It is not clear whether she used the unauthorised The dramatic works of David Garrick Esq; now first collected (1768) as her source.

  • Miscellanea

  • Translation Title: Traduction du théâtre anglais depuis l'origine des spectacles jusqu'à nos jours, divisé en 3 époques
  • Original Author: Vv. Aa.
  • Original title: Miscellanea
  • Publ. Year From: 1599 to: 1769
  • lang: English
  • Translation: Traduction du théâtre anglais depuis l'origine des spectacles jusqu'à nos jours, divisé en 3 époques
  • Pub. Place: Paris
  • Pub. Date: 1783
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    Wouters' main undertaking contains some of the most important theatre pieces of English literature.

    It includes works by: Ben Jonson, Nicolas Rowe, Francis Fletcher, John Beaumont, Susanna Centlivre,Sir John VAnburgh and Colley Cibber, Richard Steele, David Garrick, Benjamin Hoadley, Richard Glover, William Mason, Henriette Cowley, Richard Brisley Sheridan, the general Burgoyne and Robert Jephson.


  • The rival beauties; a poetical contest

  • Translation Title: "The Rivals", ou les Rivaux, comédie en 5 actes
  • Original Author: Richard Brinsley Sheridan
  • Original title: The rival beauties; a poetical contest
  • Publ. Year From: 1771 to:
  • lang: English
  • Translation: "The Rivals", ou les Rivaux, comédie en 5 actes
  • Pub. Place: ?
  • Pub. Date: 1783
  • Lang: French

  • The school for scandal, a comedy; as it is performed at the Theatres-Royal, in London and Dublin

  • Translation Title: "The School for scandal", ou l'École de la médisance, comédie en 5 actes
  • Original Author: Richard Brinsley Sheridan
  • Original title: The school for scandal, a comedy; as it is performed at the Theatres-Royal, in London and Dublin
  • Publ. Year From: 1779 to:
  • lang: English
  • Translation: "The School for scandal", ou l'École de la médisance, comédie en 5 actes
  • Pub. Date: 1783
  • Lang: French

  • The British Plutarch; or, biographical entertainer. Being a select collection of the lives at large of the most eminent men, natives of Great Britain and Ireland

  • Translation Title: Traduction du Plutarque anglois, contenant la vie des hommes les plus illustres de l'Angleterre et de l'Irlande
  • Original Author: Thomas Mortimer
  • Original title: The British Plutarch; or, biographical entertainer. Being a select collection of the lives at large of the most eminent men, natives of Great Britain and Ireland
  • Publ. Year From: 1761 to:
  • lang: English
  • Translation: Traduction du Plutarque anglois, contenant la vie des hommes les plus illustres de l'Angleterre et de l'Irlande
  • Pub. Place: Paris
  • Pub. Date: 1784
  • Lang: French

  • Juvenile Indiscretions

  • Translation Title: Les imprudences de la jeunesse
  • Original Author: Agnes Maria Bennett
  • Original title: Juvenile Indiscretions
  • Publ. Year From: 1785 to:
  • lang: English
  • Translation: Les imprudences de la jeunesse
  • Pub. Place: Paris
  • Pub. Date: 1787
  • Lang: French
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By:

  • Giovanni Lista