French presidential frontrunner Francois Hollande mistakenly used a quote that came not from William Shakespeare but from a distant relative of the Bard, a British newspaper claimed on Thursday.

"/> French presidential frontrunner Francois Hollande mistakenly used a quote that came not from William Shakespeare but from a distant relative of the Bard, a British newspaper claimed on Thursday.

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Shakespeare mix-up for presidential candidate

French presidential frontrunner Francois Hollande mistakenly used a quote that came not from William Shakespeare but from a distant relative of the Bard, a British newspaper claimed on Thursday.

Published: 27 January 2012 10:13 CET

Shakespeare mix-up for presidential candidate

Shakespeare & Company bookshop by Marcel de Jong

French media seized on the error on Friday following the report.

Hollande told 25,000 supporters at a campaign rally in Le Bourget on Sunday that the “universal message” he wished to convey was best summed up by Shakespeare’s words: “They failed because they did not start with a dream.”

But The Daily Telegraph reported that Nicholas Shakespeare, a descendant of William’s grandfather and the broadsheet’s chief book reviewer, recognised the Socialist candidate’s words as his own.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the French presidential candidate had quoted me,” he said.

The words come from his 1989 novel “The Vision of Elena Silves” and were uttered by the novel’s hero, Gabriel, a Maoist revolutionary who ends up a terrorist for the Peruvian guerrilla group, Shining Path.

“He is saying the last Marxist revolution of the Sixties had failed, but his is going to succeed and the idea is that they failed because they did not have a dream,” Shakespeare told the Telegraph.

Hollande, leading in polls three months ahead of an election in which he is expected to face the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, unveiled a manifesto on Thursday focused on new spending and scrapping tax breaks.

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Here's the latest in France's presidential race

French centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron in Reunion. Photo: Eric Feferberg/AFP

Here are three things that happened in the campaign on Saturday:

Let them throw eggs

Conservative candidate Francois Fillon, under pressure over allegations of fake parliamentary jobs for the family which have hit his poll ratings, received a chaotic reception on a trip to the southern Basque region where some protesters pelted him with eggs.

Fillon, who has accused Hollande of helping foment a smear campaign against him amid claims his wife was on the public payroll but did little for her salary, ran the gauntlet in the small town of Cambo-les-Bains.

Locals demanding an amnesty for radical Basque nationalists banged pots and pans, hurled abuse and objects.

“The more they demonstrate the more the French will back me,” Fillon insisted before meeting with local officials.

Warning on Europe

President Francois Hollande warned would-be successors they should cleave closely to Europe as it was “impossible” that France could contemplate going its own way.

In a barb aimed at far-right National Front candidate Marine Le Pen, Hollande said: “So some want to quit Europe? Well let them show the French people they would be better off alone fighting terrorism without the indispensable European coordination…

“Let them show that without the single currency and (single) market there would be more jobs, activity and better purchasing power,” Hollande said in Rome where he attended the ceremonies marking the EU's 60th anniversary.

Le Pen, favoured in opiniion polls to reach the second-round run-off vote in May, wants France to dump the euro, but Hollande said that would lead to devaluation and loss of purchasing power as he warned against nationalist populism.

'Not Father Christmas'

French centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron, seen in polls as beating Marine Le Pen in the May 7 run-off, was in Reunion, a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean, where alongside discussing local issues, he told voters he was “not Father Christmas.”

“I don't have the solution to all problems and I am not Father Christmas,” the 39-year-old former economy minister and banker admitted, saying he had not come to make “promises.”

He indicated he would focus on education as a priority on an island where around one in five youths are illiterate.

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