François Guizot’s parallel careers as political theorist, prime minister of France and major historian have nearly eclipsed his contributions as a translator. An eminent anglicist, Guizot translated both Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and Shakespeare’s complete works into French. These translations served to convey Guizot’s predominant ideological concerns. The Gibbon translation established epistemological norms for translation: the necessity of erudite elaboration to produce accurate translation. The Shakespeare translation’s introduction bound comparative history of the theatre with political evolution to subtly promote the British constitutional model as a credible political alternative.