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奥兰多orlando (英文版)作者:弗吉尼亚·伍尔芙-第8部分

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 not heard them。 The poet then gave Orlando the full story of his health for the past ten years or so。 It had been so bad that one could only marvel that he still lived。 He had had the palsy; the gout; the ague; the dropsy; and the three sorts of fever in succession; added to which he had an enlarged heart; a great spleen; and a diseased liver。 But; above all; he had; he told Orlando; sensations in his spine which defied description。 There was one knob about the third from the top which burnt like fire; another about second from the bottom which was cold as ice。 Sometimes he woke with a brain like lead; at others it was as if a thousand wax tapers were alight and people were throwing fireworks inside him。 He could feel a rose leaf through his mattress; he said; and knew his way almost about London by the feel of the cobbles。 Altogether he was a piece of machinery so finely made and curiously put together (here he raised his hand as if unconsciously; and indeed it was of the finest shape imaginable) that it confounded him to think that he had only sold five hundred copies of his poem; but that of course was largely due to the conspiracy against him。 All he could say; he concluded; banging his fist upon the table; was that the art of poetry was dead in England。

How that could be with Shakespeare; Marlowe; Ben Jonson; Browne; Donne; all now writing or just having written; Orlando; reeling off the names of his favourite heroes; could not think。

Greene laughed sardonically。 Shakespeare; he admitted; had written some scenes that were well enough; but he had taken them chiefly from Marlowe。 Marlowe was a likely boy; but what could you say of a lad who died before he was thirty? As for Browne; he was for writing poetry in prose; and people soon got tired of such conceits as that。 Donne was a mountebank who wrapped up his lack of meaning in hard words。 The gulls were taken in; but the style would be out of fashion twelve months hence。 As for Ben Jonson—Ben Jonson was a friend of his and he never spoke ill of his friends。

No; he concluded; the great age of literature is past; the great age of literature was the Greek; the Elizabethan age was inferior in every respect to the Greek。 In such ages men cherished a divine ambition which he might call La Gloire (he pronounced it Glawr; so that Orlando did not at first catch his meaning)。 Now all young writers were in the pay of the booksellers and poured out any trash that would sell。 Shakespeare was the chief offender in this way and Shakespeare was already paying the penalty。 Their own age; he said; was marked by precious conceits and wild experiments—neither of which the Greeks would have tolerated for a moment。 Much though it hurt him to say it—for he loved literature as he loved his life—he could see no good in the present and had no hope for the future。 Here he poured himself out another glass of wine。

Orlando was shocked by these doctrines; yet could not help observing that the critic himself seemed by no means downcast。 On the contrary; the more he denounced his own time; the more placent he became。 He could remember; he said; a night at the Cock Tavern in Fleet Street when Kit Marlowe was there and some others。 Kit was in high feather; rather drunk; which he easily became; and in a mood to say silly things。 He could see him now; brandishing his glass at the pany and hiccoughing out; ‘Stap my vitals; Bill’ (this was to Shakespeare); ‘there’s a great wave ing and you’re on the top of it;’ by which he meant; Greene explained; that they were trembling on the verge of a great age in English literature; and that Shakespeare was to be a poet of some importance。 Happily for himself; he was killed two nights later in a drunken brawl; and so did not live to see how this prediction turned out。 ‘Poor foolish fellow;’ said Greene; ‘to go and say a thing like that。 A great age; forsooth—the Elizabethan a great age!’

‘So; my dear Lord;’ he continued; settling himself fortably in his chair and rubbing the wine–glass between his fingers; ‘we must make the best of it; cherish the past and honour those writers—there are still a few of ‘em—who take antiquity for their model and write; not for pay but for Glawr。’ (Orlando could have wished him a better accent。) ‘Glawr’; said Greene; ‘is the spur of noble minds。 Had I a pension of three hundred pounds a year paid quarterly; I would live for Glawr alone。 I would lie in bed every morning reading Cicero。 I would imitate his style so that you couldn’t tell the difference between us。 That’s what I call fine writing;’ said Greene; ‘that’s what I call Glawr。 But it’s necessary to have a pension to do it。’

By this time Orlando had abandoned all hope of discussing his own work with the poet; but this mattered the less as the talk now got upon the lives and characters of Shakespeare; Ben Jonson; and the rest; all of whom Greene had known intimately and about whom he had a thousand anecdotes of the most amusing kind to tell。 Orlando had never laughed so much in his life。 These; then; were his gods! Half were drunken and all were amorous。 Most of them quarrelled with their wives; not one of them was above a lie or an intrigue of the most paltry kind。 Their poetry was scribbled down on the backs of washing bills held to the heads of printer’s devils at the street door。 Thus Hamlet went to press; thus Lear; thus Othello。 No wonder; as Greene said; that these plays show the faults they do。 The rest of the time was spent in carousings and junketings in taverns and in beer gardens; When things were said that passed belief for wit; and things were done that made the utmost frolic of the courtiers seem pale in parison。 All this Greene told with a spirit that roused Orlando to the highest pitch of delight。 He had a power of mimicry that brought the dead to life; and could say the finest things of books provided they were written three hundred years ago。

So time passed; and Orlando felt for his guest a strange mixture of liking and contempt; of admiration and pity; as well as something too indefinite to be called by any one name; but had something of fear in it and something of fascination。 He talked incessantly about himself; yet was such good pany that one could listen to the story of his ague for ever。 Then he was so witty; then he was so irreverent; then he made so free with the names of God and Woman; then he was So full of queer crafts and had such strange lore in his head; could make salad in three hundred different ways; knew all that could be known of the mixing of wines; played half–a–dozen musical instruments; and was the first person; and perhaps the last; to toast cheese in the great Italian fireplace。 That he did not know a geranium from a carnation; an oak from a birch tree; a mastiff from a greyhound; a teg from a ewe; wheat from barley; plough land from fallow; was ignorant of the rotation of the crops; thought oranges grew underground and turnips on trees; preferred any townscape to any landscape;—all this and much more amazed Orlando; who had never met anybody of his kind before。 Even the maids; who despised him; tittered at his jokes; and the men–servants; who loathed him; hung about to hear his stories。 Indeed; the house had never been so lively as now that he was there—all of which gave Orlando a great deal to think about; and caused him to pare this way of life with the old。 He recalled the sort of talk he had been used to about the King of Spain’s apoplexy or the mating of a bitch; he bethought him how the day passed between the stables and the dressing closet; he remembered how the Lords snored over their wine and hated anybody who woke them up。 He bethought him how active and valiant they were in body; how slothful and timid in mind。 Worried by these thoughts; and unable to strike a proper balance; he came to the conclusion that he had admitted to his house a plaguey spirit of unrest that would never suffer him to sleep sound again。

At the same moment; Nick Greene came to precisely the opposite conclusion。 Lying in bed of a morning on the softest pillows between the smoothest sheets and looking out of his oriel window upon turf which for centuries had known neither dandelion nor dock weed; he thought that unless he could somehow make his escape; he should be smothered alive。 Getting up and hearing the pigeons coo; dressing and hearing the fountains fall; he thought that unless he could hear the drays roar upon the cobbles of Fleet Street; he would never write another line。 If this goes on much longer; he thought; hearing the footman mend the fire and spread the table with silver dishes next door; I shall fall asleep and (here he gave a prodigious yawn) sleeping die。

So he sought Orlando in his room; and explained that he had not been able to sleep a wink all night because of the silence。 (Indeed; the house was surrounded by a park fifteen miles in circumference and a wall ten feet high。) Silence; he said; was of all things the most oppressive to his nerves。 He would end his visit; by Orlando’s leave; that very morning。 Orlando felt some relief at this; yet also a great reluctance to let him go。 The house; he thought; would seem very dull without him。 On parting (for he had never yet liked to mention the subject); he had the temerity to press his play upon the Death of Hercules upon the poet and ask his opinion of it。 The poet took it; muttered something about Glawr and Cicero; which Orlando cut short by promising to pay the pension quarterly; whereupon Greene; with many protestations of affection; jumped into the coach and was gone。

The great hall had never seemed so large; so splendid; or so empty as the chariot rolled away。 Orlando knew that he would never have the heart to make toasted cheese in the Italian fireplace again。 He would never have the wit to crack jokes about Italian pictures; never have the skill to mix punch as it should be mixed; a thousand good quips and cranks would be lost to him。 Yet what a relief to be out of the sound of that querulous voice; what a luxury to be alone once more; so he could not help reflecting; as he unloosed the mastiff which had been tied up these six weeks because it never saw the poet without biting him。

Nick Greene was set down at the corner of Fetter Lane that same afternoon; and found things going on much as he had left them。 Mrs Greene; that is to say; was giving birth to a baby in one room; Tom Fletcher was drinking gin in another。 Books were tumbled all about the floor; dinner—such as it was—was set on a dressing–table where the children had been making mud pies。 But this; Greene felt; was the atmosphere for writing; here he could write; and write he did。 The subject was made for him。 A noble Lord at home。 A visit to a Nobleman in the country—his new poem was to have some such title as that。 Seizing the pen with which his little boy was tickling the cat’s ears; and dipping it in the egg–cup which served for inkpot; Greene dashed off a very spirited satire there and then。 It was so done to a turn that no one could doubt that the young Lord who was roasted was Orlando; his most private sayings and doings; his enthusiasms and folies; down to the very colour of his hair and the foreign way he had of rolling his r’s; were there to the life。 And if there had been any doubt about it; Greene clinched the matter by introducing; with scarcely any disguise; passages from that aristocratic tragedy; the Death of Hercules; which he found as he expected; wordy and bombastic in the extreme。

The pamphlet; which ran at once into several editions; and paid the expenses of Mrs Greene’s tenth lying–in; was soon sent by friends who take care of such matters to Orlando himself。 When he had read it; which he did with deadly posure from start to finish; he rang for the footman; delivered the document to him at the end of a pair of tongs; bade him drop it in the filthiest heart of the foulest midden on the estate。 Then; when the man was turning to go he stopped him; ‘Take the swiftest horse in the stable;’ he said; ‘ride for dear life to Harwich。 There embark upon a ship which you will find bound for Norway。 Buy for me from the King’s own kennels the finest elk–hounds of the Royal strain; male and female。 Bring them back without delay。 For’; he murmured; scarcely above his breath as he turned to his books; ‘I have done with men。’

The footman; who was perfectly trained in his duties; bowed and disappeared。 He fulfilled his task so efficiently that he was back that day three weeks; leading in his hand a leash of the finest elk–hounds; one of whom; a female; gave birth that very night under the dinner–table to a litter of eight fine puppies。 Orlando had them brought to his bedchamber。

‘For’; he said; ‘I have done with men。’

Nevertheless; he paid the pension quarterly。

Thus; at the age of thirty; or thereabouts; this young Nobleman had not only had every experience that life has to offer; but had seen the worthlessness of them all。 Love and ambition; women and poets were all equally vain。 Literature was a farce。 The night after reading Greene’s Visit to a Nobleman in the Country; he burnt in a great conflagration fifty–seven poetical works; only retaining ‘The Oak Tree’; which was his boyish dream and very short。 Two things alone remained to him in which he now put any trust: dogs and nature; an elk–hound and a rose bush。 The world; in all its variety; life in all its plexity; had shrunk to that。 Dogs and a bush were the whole of it。 So feeling quit of a vast mountain of illusion; and very naked in consequence; he called his hounds to him and strode through the Park。

So long had he been secluded; writing and reading; that he had half forgotten the amenities of nature; which in June can be great。 When he reached that high mound whence on fine days half of England with a slice of Wales and Scotland thrown in can be seen; he flung himself under his favourite oak tree and felt that if he need never speak to another man or woman so long as he lived; if his dogs did not develop the faculty of speech; if he never met a poet or a Princess again; he might make out what years remained to him in tolerable content。

Here he came then; day after day; week after week; month after month; year after year。 He saw the beech trees turn golden and the young ferns unfurl; he saw the moon sickle and then circular; he saw—but probably the reader can imagine the passage which should follow and how every tree and plant in the neighbourhood is described first green; then golden; how moons rise and suns set; how spring follows winter and autumn summer; how night succeeds day and day night; how there is first a storm and then fine weather; how things remain much as they are for two or three hundred years or so; except for a little dust and a few cobwebs which one old woman can sweep up in half an hour; a conclusion which; one cannot help feeling; might have been reached more quickly by the simple statement that ‘Time passed’ (here the exact amount could be indicated in brackets) and nothing whatever happened。

But Time; unfortunately; though it makes animals and vegetables bloom and fade with amazing punctuality; has no such simple effect upon the mind of man。 The mind of man; moreover; works with equal strangeness upon the body of time。 An hour; once it lodges in the
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