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聪明的消遣：毛姆谈英国文学

亨利·菲尔丁与《汤姆·琼斯》 1|Henry Fielding and Tom Jones 1

属类： 双语小说 【分类】其他读物 -[作者: 毛姆] 阅读：[20859]
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写亨利·菲尔丁的难处在于世人对他所知甚少。一七六二年，菲尔丁去世八年后，阿瑟·墨非为他作了篇小传，作为对他一版著作的介绍。但是墨非其实并不了解菲尔丁，要说了解，似乎也仅限于菲尔丁的晚年。因此他几无可写，又要写满八十页，只好东拉西扯些冗长无趣的旁枝末节。他所述事实不仅极少，还经常被后来的研究证明是不准确的。最近一位详写菲尔丁的人是牛津大学彭布罗克学院的院长霍姆斯·达顿博士，他那两大卷《菲尔丁研究》是他辛劳的记录。达顿生动地描写了菲尔丁生时的政治环境，以及一七四五年小王位觊觎者(1)的那场失败的冒险，他的研究给菲尔丁一生波折的事业添加了色彩、深度和实质。有关菲尔丁，我不认为还有什么是这位杰出的作者未写到的了。

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The difficulty of writing about Henry Fielding, the man, is that very little is known about him. Arthur Murphy, who wrote a short life of him in 1762, only eight years after his death, as an introduction to an edition of his works, seems to have known him, if he knew him at all, only in his later years, and had so little material to work with that, presumably to fill the eighty pages of his essay, he indulged in long and tedious digressions. The facts he tells are few, and subsequent research has shown that they are not always accurate. The last writer to deal at length with Fielding is Dr. Homes Dudden, Master of Pembroke, Oxford. The two stout volumes of his work are a monument of painstaking industry. By giving a lively picture of the political circumstances of the times, and a vivid account of the Young Pretender’s disastrous adventure in 1745, he has added colour, depth and substance to the narrative of his hero’s checkered career. I don’t believe that there is anything to be said about Henry Fielding that the eminent author has left unsaid.

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菲尔丁出生于绅士家庭。他父亲是索尔兹伯里的牧师约翰·菲尔丁的第三子，约翰·菲尔丁又是一位德斯蒙德伯爵的第五子。德斯蒙德家是登比家的支系，登比家则认为自己是哈布斯堡家族(2)的后裔。吉本，写《罗马帝国衰亡史》的吉本，在其自传中写道：“查理五世(3)的后继者们可能不认其英国兄弟，但是叫作《汤姆·琼斯》的这部传奇，这幅人情世态的美妙画卷，却将超越埃斯科里亚尔的宫殿(4)和奥地利皇室的鹰徽长存于世。”吉本的措辞读来铿锵，但遗憾的是，那些高贵的爵爷对其家系渊源的声称其实并无根据。他们的姓氏拼写是Feilding （而不是“菲尔丁”现在的拼写Fielding）。还有一个著名的故事。据说，某次，当时的德斯蒙德伯爵问菲尔丁这是怎么回事，菲尔丁回答说：“我只能猜这是因为我们这一支在阁下您那支之前学会了拼写。”

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Fielding was a gentleman born. His father was the third son of John Fielding, a Canon of Salisbury, and he in turn was the fifth son of an Earl of Desmond. The Desmonds were a younger branch of the family of Denbigh, who flattered themselves that they were descended from the Habsburgs. Gibbon, the Gibbon of The Decline and Fall, wrote in his autobiography: “The successors of Charles the Fifth may disclaim their brethren of England; but the romance of Tom Jones, that exquisite picture of human manners, will outlive the palace of the Escorial, and the imperial eagle of the House of Austria.”The phrase has a fine resonance, and it is a pity that the claim of these noble lords has been shown to have no foundation. They spelt their name Feilding, and there is a well-known story that on one occasion the then Earl asked Henry Fielding how this came about; whereupon he answered: “I can only suppose it is because my branch of the family learnt to spell before your lordship’s.”

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菲尔丁的父亲参过军，在马尔巴罗公爵(5)手下打过仗，据说“表现勇敢，名声不错”。他娶了王座法院法官亨利·古尔德爵士的女儿萨拉为妻。一七〇七年，在他的乡村邸宅——位于格拉斯顿伯里附近的夏朴罕庄园，我们的作家亨利·菲尔丁出生了。两三年后菲尔丁夫妇又添了两个女儿，全家搬到了多塞特郡的东斯陶尔，这是法官留给女儿的产业，次年亨利·菲尔丁上了伊顿公学。他在那里结交了一些珍贵的朋友。即便他离开伊顿的时候不是像墨非说的那样“对希腊作者有着非同寻常的熟悉，又在很小的时候就已把拉丁经典烂熟于胸”，他也肯定培养出了对古典学问的真爱。人生末年贫病交加时，他会读西塞罗的《论自我安慰》寻求慰藉。死前坐船去里斯本时，他也会随身携带一卷柏拉图的作品。

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Fielding’s father entered the army and served in the wars under Marlborough“with much bravery and reputation.”He married Sarah, the daughter of Sir Henry Gould, a Judge of the King’s Bench; and at his country seat, Sharpham Park, near Glastonbury, our author was born in 1707. Two or three years later the Fieldings, who by this time had had two more children, daughters, moved to East Stour in Dorsetshire, a property which the judge had settled on his daughter, and there three more girls and a boy were born. Mrs. Fielding died in 1718, and in the following year Henry went to Eton. Here he made some valuable friends and, if he did not leave, as Arthur Murphy states, “uncommonly well versed in the Greek authors and an early master of the Latin classics, ”he certainly acquired a real love for classical learning. Later in life, when he was ill and poverty-stricken, he found comfort in reading Cicero’s De Consolatione; and when, dying, he set out in the ship that took him to Lisbon, he carried with him a volume of Plato.

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离开伊顿后，菲尔丁没上大学，而是去索尔兹伯里和他外祖母古尔德夫人住了一阵子，那时古尔德法官已经去世了。按达顿博士的说法，菲尔丁在外祖母家读了一点法律书籍，还读了大量各种题材的文学书籍。他那时是个英俊的青年，身高超过六英尺，强壮有力，活泼好动，眼睛深邃，罗马式的鼻子，上唇短而带一个嘲讽的弯儿，下巴向前突出，显示出倔强的性格。头发褐色带卷，牙齿洁白整齐。十八岁时他就显现出了将来会有的样子。有段时间他和一个忠仆住在莱姆里吉斯，这人肯为他“打人、杀人、致人残废”。菲尔丁在此爱上了一位名叫萨拉·安德鲁的小姐。这位小姐本就生得美，再加上相当有钱，更添了魅力。菲尔丁于是制订出了一个计划，想和她私奔，如有必要，还想用强力迫使她私奔，然后和她结婚。可惜事情败露，这个年轻女子被连忙转移走，和更合适的人安全结了婚。之后两三年，菲尔丁在伦敦用着外祖母给的零花钱，趁着自己还英俊潇洒，尽情干着他这样一个出身高贵的年轻人所能干的那些吃喝玩乐的美事。一七二八年，受亲戚玛丽·沃特利—蒙太古夫人的影响，再加上得到了迷人却并不特别贞洁的女演员安妮·奥德菲尔德的帮助，他的一部戏剧在剧院云集的朱瑞巷上演了，制作人是柯莱·西柏。这部剧叫《歌舞会中的恋爱》，演了四场。之后不久，他去了荷兰的莱顿大学，他父亲答应每年给他两百镑。但他父亲不久再婚了，不能或不愿继续负担先前许诺的生活费，于是大约一年后菲尔丁不得不回到了英国。他当时经济状况非常窘迫，正如他自己曾诙谐地说过的那样，他别无选择，要么当个出租马车车夫，要么替人捉刀(6)。

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On leaving Eton, instead of going up to a university, he lived for a while at Salisbury with his grandmother, Lady Gould, the judge being dead; and there, according to Dr. Dudden, read some law and a good deal of miscellaneous literature. He was then a handsome youth, over six feet tall, strong and active, with deep-set eyes, a Roman nose, a short upper lip with an ironical curl to it, and a stubborn, prominent chin. His hair was brown and curly, his teeth white and even. By the time he was eighteen, he gave promise of the sort of man he was going to be. He happened to be staying at Lyme Regis with a trusty servant, ready to“beat, maim or kill”for his master, and there fell in love with a Miss Sarah Andrews, whose considerable fortune added to the charm of her beauty, and he concocted a scheme to carry her off, by main force if necessary, and marry her. It was discovered, and the young woman was hurried away and safely married to a more eligible suitor. For all one knows to the contrary, Fielding spent the next two or three years in London, with an allowance from his grandmother, engaging in the gaieties of the town as agreeably as a well-connected young man can do when he has good looks and charm of manner. In 1728, by the in fluence of his cousin, Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu, and with the help of the charming, but not particularly chaste, actress, Anne Oldfield, a play of Fielding’s was put on by Colley Cibber at Drury Lane. It was called Love in Several Masques and was given four performances. Shortly after this, he entered the University of Leyden with an allowance from his father of two hundred pounds a year. But his father had married again and either could not, or would not, continue to pay him the allowance he had promised, so after about a year Fielding was obliged to return to England. He was in such straits then that, as in his light-hearted way he put it himself, he had no choice but to be a hackney coachman or a hackney writer.

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曾在《英国文人系列》中为菲尔丁作传的奥斯汀·道伯森说：“菲尔丁的秉性和机遇将他引向舞台。”菲尔丁有当剧作家所需的那种兴致与幽默，也有对当时社会的敏锐观察力。除此，他还有一定程度的独创性和一种结构感。道伯森所谓的“秉性”很可能是指，首先，菲尔丁有种表现欲，这是身为剧作家必不可少的；其次，菲尔丁把写剧看成赚快钱的轻松手段。所谓“机遇”，大概是委婉地说菲尔丁是个俊男，精力旺盛，合了一个著名女演员的意。取悦女主角从来都是年轻剧作家最能确保上戏的手段。在一七二九年到一七三七年间，菲尔丁创作并改编了二十六部剧，其中至少有三部大获成功。这三部里边又有一部把斯威夫特都逗笑了，而在这位教长(7)的记忆中，有生以来他总共只笑过两次。菲尔丁的纯喜剧写得不是很成功。据我所知，他最成功之处似乎是他自己发明了一种体裁。这种体裁载歌载舞，有简短的主题说明，有戏仿，有对名人的影射。实际上，就和我们现在流行的、讽刺时事的滑稽剧差不多。按照墨非的说法，菲尔丁的闹剧“通常都是两三个上午的急就章，他写东西太容易了”。达顿博士认为这是夸大其词。我认为不是。这些剧有的很短。我自己就听说过一个周末就写出一部轻喜剧的例子，而且写得还不差。菲尔丁的最后两部剧抨击了当时的政治腐败，因为抨击得太有力，内阁出台了《戏剧审查法案》，要求剧院经理在上戏前务必先从宫务大臣处获得许可。这个法直到现在还在折磨着英国作家。从此菲尔丁基本不再写戏剧，如果写，就只有一个理由：太缺钱。

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Austin Dobson, who wrote his life for The English Men of Letters Series, says that“his inclinations as well as his opportunities led him to the stage.”He had the high spirits, the humour, the keen-witted observation of the contemporary scene, which are needed by the playwright; and he seems to have had besides some ingenuity and a sense of construction. The“inclinations”of which Austin Dobson speaks may very well mean that he had the vicarious exhibitionism which is part of the playwright’s make-up, and that he looked upon writing plays as an easy way to make quick money; the“opportunities”may be a delicate way of saying that he was a handsome fellow of exuberant virility and had taken the fancy of a popular actress. To please a leading lady has ever been the surest way for a young dramatist to get his play produced. Between 1729 and 1737 Fielding composed or adapted twenty-six plays, of which at least three greatly pleased the town; and one of which made Swift laugh, a thing that to the best of the Dean’s recollection he had only done twice in his life before. Fielding did not do very well when he attempted pure comedy; his great successes seem to have been in a genre which, so far as I know, he devised himself, an entertainment in which there were singing and dancing, brief topical sketches, parodies and allusions to public figures: in fact, something indistinguishable from the revues popular in our own day. According to Arthur Murphy, Fielding’s farces“were generally the production of two or three mornings, so great was his facility in writing.”Dr. Dudden looks upon this as an exaggeration. I don’t think it is. Some of these pieces were very short, and I have myself heard of light comedies that were written over a week-end and were none the worse for that. The last two plays Fielding wrote were attacks on the political corruption of the times, and the attacks were effective enough to cause the Ministry to pass a Licensing Act which obliged managers to obtain the Lord Chamberlain’s licence to produce a play. This act still obtains to torment British authors. After this, Fielding wrote only rarely for the theatre and, when he did, presumably for no other reason than that he was more than usually hard up.

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我不假装通读过他的戏剧，我只是翻过，并时不时地读一场，我发现他戏剧中的对话很是自然活泼。我读过最有趣的一段是他在《伟大的大拇指汤姆》的演员表里以当时流行的口吻对一个人物的描述：“一个绝无过失的女人，只除了有点太爱喝酒。”菲尔丁的戏剧常被认为无甚出奇。无疑，他如果不是《汤姆·琼斯》的作者，那么他的戏剧连想都不会有人想起。它们缺少两百年后坐在书斋里读他戏剧的那些批评家所期待的文学性，而康格里夫(8)的戏剧就有这种文学性。但是戏剧是拿来演的，而不是读的。有文学性当然好，可是使一出戏剧成为好剧的并非文学性，反而这种性质还可能（也经常）使戏剧演不好。菲尔丁的戏剧现在已经没了当初的优点，因为戏剧靠的是现实，因此戏剧是昙花一现的，几乎就像报纸的昙花一现一样短暂。菲尔丁的戏剧，我已经说过，能成功靠的是时事。不过哪怕他的戏分量再轻，也一定有其长处。只是因为一个年轻人有写戏的愿望，还有一个受欢迎的女演员的推动，都不至于使剧院经理一个接一个地上他的戏，除非他的戏打动了观众。观众才是此事的最终的评判者。如果剧院经理连观众的口味都摸不准的话，那他准保要破产了。菲尔丁的戏至少有观众喜欢的长处。《伟大的大拇指汤姆》演了“超过四十晚”，《帕斯昆》演了六十晚，而约翰·盖伊的《乞丐的歌剧》也无非就演了这么久。

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I will not pretend that I have read his plays, but I have flipped through the pages, reading a scene here and there, and the dialogue seems natural and sprightly. The most amusing bit I have come across is the description which, after the fashion of the day, he gives in the list of Dramatis Person? in Tom Thumb the Great: “A woman entirely faultless, save that she is a little given to drink.”It is usual to dismiss Fielding’s plays as of no account, and doubtless no one would give them a thought if he were not the author of Tom Jones. They lack the literary distinction (such as Congreve’s plays have) which the critic, reading them in his library two hundred years later, would like them to have. But plays are written to be acted, not to be read; it is certainly well for them to have literary distinction; but it is not that which makes them good plays, it may (and often does) make them less actable. Fielding’s plays have by now lost what merit they had, for the drama depends very much on actuality and so is ephemeral, almost as ephemeral as a newspaper, and Fielding’ plays, as I have said, owed their success to the fact that they were topical; but light as they were, they must have had merit, for neither a young man’s wish to write plays, nor pressure brought to bear by a favourite actress, will induce managers to put on play after play unless they please the public. For in this matter the public is the final judge. Unless the manager can gauge their taste, he will go bankrupt. Fielding’s plays had at least the merit that the public liked to go to see them. Tom Thumb the Great ran for“upwards of forty nights, ”and Pasquin for sixty, which was as long as The Beggar’s Opera had run.

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菲尔丁对他的戏剧的价值不抱幻想，自言他本该在开始写舞台剧的时候就放弃。他写戏只是为了钱，并且不觉得观众有什么理解力。墨非说：“他现在还健在的很多朋友都知道，当他签了合同答应写个戏剧或写个闹剧的时候，他会很晚才从酒馆回家。第二天上午他就能给演员们拿出一场戏来，而那是写在他包烟草的纸上的，他很喜欢这么做。”排练那部名为《婚礼那天》的喜剧时，参演的盖里克(9)不看好其中一场戏，要求菲尔丁砍掉。“不，该死！”菲尔丁说，“这场戏要是不好，也得让观众发现不好。”戏剧开演了，观众闹嚷着表示不悦。盖里克回到休息室，发现那位剧作者“正在那儿陶醉于自己的天才，用一瓶香槟安慰自己。他已经喝了不少了，此时斜眼看着盖里克，烟草和着口水顺嘴角往下滴着。‘出什么事了，盖里克？’他说，‘他们在嘘什么？’

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Fielding had no illusions about the worth of his plays, and himself said that he left off writing for the stage when he should have begun. He wrote for money, and had no great respect for the understanding of an audience.“When he had contracted to bring on a play, or a farce, ”says Murphy, “it is well known by many of his friends now living, that he would go home rather late from a tavern and would, the next morning, deliver a scene to the players, written upon the papers which had wrapped the tobacco, in which he so much delighted.”During the rehearsals of a comedy called The Wedding Day, Garrick, who was playing in it, objected to a scene and asked Fielding to cut it.“No, damn ’em, ”said Fielding, “if the scene isn’t a good one let them find it out.”The scene was played, the audience noisily expressed their displeasure, and Garrick retired to the green-room where his author was“indulging his genius and solacing himself with a bottle of champagne. He had by this time drunk pretty plentifully; and cocking his eye at the actor, with streams of tobacco trickling down from the corner of his mouth, ‘What’s the matter, Garrick, ’ says he, ‘what are they hissing now?’

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“‘我早跟你说过让你砍掉那场戏，我就知道不行。他们把我吓坏了，我一整晚都镇定不下来了。’

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“‘Why, the scene that I begged you to retrench; I knew it would not do; and they have so frightened me, that I shall not be able to collect myself the whole night.’

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“‘哦，该死！’菲尔丁回答，‘他们发现了吗？’”

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“‘Oh, damn ’em, ’ replies the author, ‘they have found it out, have they?’”

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这个故事是墨非讲的，我必须说我怀疑它的真实性。我认识剧院经理，和他们打过交道，他们就是盖里克那样。在我看来，如果盖里克认为某场戏会毁了整出剧，他是不可能答应出演的。但是如果这事不是真的，又怎么会被人编出来。这至少表明了菲尔丁的朋友和伙伴对他的看法。

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This story is told by Arthur Murphy, and I am bound to say that I doubt its truth. I have known and had dealings with actor-managers, which is what Garrick was, and it does seem to me very unlikely that he would have consented to play a scene which he thought would wreck the play; but the anecdote wouldn’t have been invented unless it had been plausible. It at least indicates how Fielding’s friends and boon-companions regarded him.

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如果关于菲尔丁的戏剧我说了不少，而戏剧又只不过是他文学生涯的一个插曲，那是因为我认为戏剧对他作为小说家的发展起到了重要作用。很多杰出的小说家都尝试过写戏剧，但我想不起谁是真正成功了的。原因是写小说和写戏剧所需的技巧大不相同，知道如何写小说对写戏剧毫无帮助。小说家为了展开主题，想要花多少时间就花多少时间；他想要多细致地描写人物就可以有多细致；他还可以通过叙述人物的动机，向读者解释人物的行为。如果他有技巧，他能让不可能的事变得逼真可能。如果他有叙述的天赋，他还能逐渐构筑起高潮，而漫长的准备会让这个高潮无比惊人，最极致的一例就是克拉丽莎宣布她被诱奸的那封信(10)。小说家不必表现动作，他只需告诉读者有这么一个动作。他可以让人物用对话解释自己，想写多少页就写多少页。但是戏剧靠的是动作，我说的动作当然不是落下悬崖或被公共汽车碾压这样的剧烈动作，类似递给一个人一杯水这样的动作就可以具备最高的戏剧张力。观众的注意力是非常有限的，需要不断有事发生才能吸引他们的注意。必须一直有新鲜东西。主题必须马上言明，其发展必须遵循一条明确的路线，不能偏移到不相干的小路上去。对话必须干脆切题，必须使观众听到后，不用停下来思考就能明白意思。人物必须有整体性，不能超出观众的理解力，必须一眼就能看明白。人物可以复杂，但是必须复杂得合理。戏剧不能有没系上的线头，或者未了之事。一出戏不管多么微不足道，基础必须稳固，结构也必须紧凑。

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If I have dwelt on his activity as a playwright, though it was after all not much more than an episode in his career, it is because I think it was important to his development as a novelist. Quite a number of eminent novelists have tried their hands at playwriting, but I cannot think of any that have conspicuously succeeded. The fact is that the techniques are very different, and to have learnt how to write a novel is of no help when it comes to writing a play. The novelist has all the time he wants to develop his theme, he can describe his characters as minutely as he chooses and make their behaviour plain to the reader by relating their motives; if he is skilful, he can give verisimilitude to improbabilities; if he has a gift for narrative, he can gradually work up to a climax which a long preparation makes more striking (a supreme example of this is Clarissa’s letter in which she announced her seduction); he does not have to show action, but only to tell it; he can make the persons explain themselves in dialogue for as many pages as he likes. But a play depends on action, and by action, of course, I don’t mean violent action like falling off a precipice or being run over by a bus; such an action as handing a person a glass of water may be of the highest dramatic intensity. The power of attention that an audience has is very limited, and it must be held by a constant succession of incidents; something fresh must be doing all the time; the theme must be presented at once and its development must follow a definite line, without digression into irrelevant bypaths; the dialogue must be crisp and to the point, and it must be so put that the listener can catch its meaning without having to stop and think; the characters must be all of a piece, easily grasped by the eye and the understanding, and however complex, their complexity must be plausible. A play cannot afford loose ends; however slight, its foundation must be secure and its structure solid.

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如果一个剧作家掌握了我刚才说的这些戏剧的核心品质，可以让观众愿意坐在那里愉快地看完一出戏，那他写小说的时候就有优势了。他学会了简洁，学会了让事件快速发生的重要性，学会了不在半路游移，而是紧扣主题，不断推进他的故事。他还学会了不靠描述，而是让人物通过言行来表现自己。这样一来，当他在小说所许可的更广阔的画布上施展时，他就不仅可以从小说这一形式的特殊优势中获益，他作为剧作家的训练也会使他的小说生动活泼、进展迅速、富有戏剧性。这些都是很好的品质，是某些很好的小说家也不具备的品质，哪怕他们在别的方面富有优点。我不认为菲尔丁写戏剧的那些年是浪费了。相反，我认为他当时获得的经验对他写小说极具价值。

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When the playwright, who has acquired the qualities which I have suggested are essential to writing a play which audiences will sit through with pleasure, starts writing novels, he is at an advantage. He has learnt to be brief; he has learnt the value of rapid incident; he has learnt not to linger on the way, but to stick to his point and get on with his story; he has learnt to make his characters display themselves by their words and actions, without the help of description; and so, when he comes to work on the larger canvas which the novel allows, he can not only profit by the advantages peculiar to the form of the novel, but his training as a playwright will enable him to make his novel lively, swift-moving and dramatic. These are excellent qualities, and some very good novelists, whatever their other merits, have not possessed them. I cannot look upon the years Fielding spent writing plays as wasted; I think, on the contrary, the experience he gained then was of value to him when he came to writing novels.

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一七三四年，菲尔丁和夏洛特·克莱德克结了婚。她是索尔兹伯里一个寡妇的女儿，这个寡妇只有两个女儿。除了美丽迷人外，我们对她一无所知。克莱德克夫人是个很世俗、很有主意的女人，她明显不赞成菲尔丁对她女儿的追求。这无可厚非，因为菲尔丁的生计实在不稳，而他和戏剧界的联系也很难让一个谨慎的母亲鼓起信心来。不管怎么样，两个相爱的人私奔了。克莱德克夫人追过，但还是“没来得及阻止他们结婚”。菲尔丁把夏洛特写成《汤姆·琼斯》中的索菲亚，以及《艾米莉亚》中的艾米莉亚，读者由此可以知道她在她的爱人，也就是她的丈夫眼中的确切模样了。克莱德克夫人一年后死了，留给夏洛特一千五百镑。钱来得正是时候，因为那年年初上演的一出菲尔丁的戏惨遭失败，他正缺钱。他当时习惯时不时地去他母亲的小产业上住上一阵，现在他和他年轻的妻子同去了。接下来的九个月里他大宴宾客，尽情享受着乡村所能带来的种种乐趣。等他拿着夏洛特剩下的钱回到伦敦时，他找到了干草街的“小剧场”，很快就在那上演了据说是他最好的，也是最成功的一出戏——《帕斯昆：一出时代的讽刺剧》。

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In 1734 Fielding married Charlotte Cradock. She was one of the two daughters of a widow who lived in Salisbury, and nothing is known of her but that she was beautiful and charming. Mrs. Cradock was a worldly, strong-minded woman, who apparently did not approve of Fielding’s attentions to her daughter, and she can hardly be blamed for that, since his means of livelihood were uncertain and his connection with the Theatre can hardly have inspired a prudent mother with confidence; anyhow, the lovers eloped, and though Mrs. Cradock pursued, “she did not catch up with them in time to stop the marriage.”Fielding has described Charlotte as Sophia in Tom Jones and again as Amelia in the novel of that name, so that the reader of those books can gain a very exact notion of what she looked like in the eyes of her lover and husband. Mrs. Cradock died a year later and left Charlotte fifteen hundred pounds. It came at a fortunate moment, since a play that Fielding had produced early in the year was a disastrous failure, and he was very short of cash. He had been in the habit of staying from time to time on the small estate which had been his mother’s, and he went there now with his young wife. He spent the next nine months lavishly entertaining his friends and enjoying the various pursuits which the country offered, and on his return to London with what, it may be supposed, remained of Charlotte’s legacy he took the Little Theatre in the Haymarket, and there presently produced the best (they say) and the most successful of his plays—Pasquin; a Dramatic Satire on the Times.

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当《戏剧审查法案》变成法律，菲尔丁的戏剧事业因此结束之时，他已经有了一妻二子，还有了一点很珍贵的、不够养活妻儿的钱，他不得不找条活路。他三十一岁了。他进了中殿律师学院。虽然按照墨非的说法，“他早年寻欢作乐的恶习还会时不时地萌发，加之他充沛的精力，使他沉迷于伦敦的疯狂享乐中”，但他努力学习，最终成了律师。他准备好好干番事业，但他业务不多，可能是因为律师们都对他这个仅靠写轻喜剧和政治讽刺剧出名的人有所怀疑。何况当律师三年后，他开始经常痛风，使他无法定期出庭。为了挣钱他不得不向报纸卖文，并同时挤时间写了他的第一部小说《约瑟夫·安德鲁》。两年后他的妻子死了。她的死使他痛苦得发疯。路易莎·斯图尔特夫人说：“他热烈地爱着她，她也如此回报他的爱。但他们过得并不幸福，因为他们总是很穷，很少感到平静和安全。全世界都知道他的轻率所在：他只要有钱就会乱花，根本不会为明天着想。有时候他们有体面的住处，日子过得还算舒适。可有时候他们住在糟糕的阁楼上，连生活必需品都没有，更别说他还时常被人从负债人拘留所和别的藏身之处找出来。他靠着能屈能伸的高兴劲儿扛了过去，可忧愁和焦虑却折磨着她娇弱的心灵，毁坏了她的身体。她逐渐憔悴了，最后发了烧，在他的怀里死去了。”这段话很真实，部分在《艾米莉亚》中得到了确认。我们知道小说家习惯把他们自身经历过的任何小事都用于创作，因此当菲尔丁创作比利·布斯这个人物的时候，他就是以自己为原型进行刻画的，还以妻子为原型塑造了艾米莉亚这个人物，还用上了他们婚姻生活中发生过的各种事。妻子去世四年后，他娶了妻子的女仆玛丽·丹尼尔，她那时已有了三个月的身孕。这桩婚事使他的朋友倍感震惊，他妹妹本来从夏洛特死后就与他同住的，后来也离开了他的家。他的亲戚玛丽·沃特利—蒙太古夫人对此非常轻蔑不屑，嫌他居然可以“销魂于给他煮饭的女佣”。玛丽·丹尼尔确实没什么个人魅力，但她是个好人，菲尔丁提到她时，从来都是怀着爱意与尊敬。她是个正派女人，把他照顾得很好，是个贤妻良母，给他生了两儿一女。

14
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When the Licensing Act became law, and so put an end to his theatrical career, Fielding had a wife and two children and precious little money to support them on. He had to find a means of livelihood. He was thirty-one. He entered the Middle Temple, and though, according to Arthur Murphy, “it happened that the early taste he had taken of pleasure would occasionally return upon him; and conspire with his spirit and vivacity to carry him into the wild enjoyments of the town, ”he worked hard, and he was in due course called to the bar. He was ready to follow his profession with assiduity, but he seems to have had few briefs; and it may well be that the attorneys were suspicious of a man who was known only as a writer of light comedies and political satires. Moreover, within three years of being called, he began to suffer from frequent attacks of gout which prevented him from regularly attending the courts. In order to make money he was obliged to do hack work for the papers. He found time, meanwhile, to write Joseph Andrews, his first novel. Two years later his wife died. Her death left him distracted with grief. Lady Louisa Stuart wrote: “He loved her passionately, and she returned his affection; yet led no happy life, for they were almost always miserably poor, and seldom in a state of quiet and safety. All the world knows what was his imprudence; if ever he possessed a score of pounds nothing could keep him from lavishing it idly, or make him think of tomorrow. Sometimes they were living in decent lodgings with tolerable comfort; sometimes in a wretched garret without necessaries, not to speak of the sponging-houses and hiding places where he was occasionally to be found. His elastic gaiety of spirit carried him through it all; but, meanwhile, care and anxiety were preying upon her more delicate mind, and undermining her constitution. She gradually declined, caught a fever, and died in his arms.”This has an air of truth, and is in part confirmed by Fielding’s Amelia. We know that novelists habitually make use of any little experience that they have had, and when Fielding created the character of Billy Booth, he not only drew a portrait of himself and of his wife as Amelia, but utilized various incidents in their married life. Four years after his wife’s death he married her maid, Mary Daniel. She was at the time three months pregnant. The marriage shocked his friends, and his sister, who had lived with him since Charlotte’s death, left the house. His cousin Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu was haughtily scornful because he could“feel rapture with his cook-maid.”Mary Daniel had few personal charms, but she was an excellent creature and he never spoke of her but with affection and respect. She was a very decent woman, who looked after him well, a good wife and a good mother. She bore him two boys and a girl.

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当菲尔丁还是个拼命奋斗的剧作家时，他曾向权倾一时的罗伯特·沃波尔爵士献过殷勤。他把名为《现代丈夫》的戏剧热情洋溢地敬献给沃波尔，但这位不知感恩的首相却不愿为他做任何事。于是菲尔丁决定投靠沃波尔的反对者，还立刻就向反对党领袖之一的切斯特菲尔德爵爷示好。正如达顿博士所说的那样，菲尔丁“明确表示愿意把他的机智和幽默为反对党所用，只要他们愿意用”。他们终于表示愿意，菲尔丁于是被任命为一份名为《斗士》的报纸的主编，这份报纸的创立就是为了攻击和嘲笑沃波尔及其内阁。一七四二年沃波尔倒台了，很快由亨利·佩勒姆接替。现在菲尔丁为之服务的党派掌权了。多年来他为支持政府以及为政府辩护的报纸做编辑和写稿工作，现在他自然期待他的服务能得到奖赏。他在伊顿公学结交的、至今还在维系着的一个朋友名叫乔治·利特尔顿，此人出身于显赫的政治家庭（至今仍很显赫），还是个慷慨的文学赞助人。利特尔顿当时被任命为佩勒姆政府的财政大臣，于是在利特尔顿的影响下，菲尔丁在一七八四年被任命为威斯敏斯特的治安官。很快，为了使他可以更为有效地行使职权，他的管辖范围扩大到了米德尔塞克斯，他也和家人搬到了伦敦警察法庭所在的博街的官方住所。他的律师训练，他对生活的了解，以及他天生的才能，使他非常适合这个职位。菲尔丁说在他任职前，这个职位一年可以赚五百镑脏钱，但他任职后，这个职位一年顶多只能挣三百镑干净钱了。通过贝德福德公爵的关系，菲尔丁还从公众服务资金中领到了一笔养老金，每年大概有一两百镑。一七四九年他出版了《汤姆·琼斯》，此书一定是他还在为政府编报纸期间就在写的。他因此书一共挣了七百镑。那时的钱至少值现在的五六倍，因此这笔钱大约等于现在的四千镑。今天一部小说能挣这么多也很好了。

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When still a struggling dramatist, Fielding had made advances to Sir Robert Walpole, then all-powerful; but though he dedicated to him with effusive compliments his play, The Modern Husband, the ungrateful minister seems to have been disinclined to do anything for him. He therefore decided that he could do better with the party opposed to Walpole, and forthwith made overtures to Lord Chesterfield, one of its leaders. As Dr. Dudden puts it: “He could hardly have given a broader hint that he was ready to place his wit and humour at the disposal of the opposition, should they be willing to employ him.”Eventually they showed themselves willing, and Fielding was made editor of a paper called The Champion, founded to attack and ridicule Sir Robert and his ministry. Walpole fell in 1742 and, after a brief interlude, was succeeded by Henry Pelham. The party Fielding worked for was now in power, and for some years he edited and wrote for the papers which supported and defended the government. He naturally expected that his services should be rewarded. Among the friends he had made at Eton, and whose friendship he had retained, was George Lyttelton, a member of a distinguished political family (distinguished to the present day) and a generous patron of literature. Lyttelton was made a Lord of the Treasury in Henry Pelham’s Government, and in 1784 by his in fluence Fielding was made Justice of the Peace for Westminster. Presently, so that he might discharge his duties more effectively, his jurisdiction was extended over Middlesex, and he established himself with his family in the official residence in Bow Street. He was well fitted for the post by his training as a lawyer, his knowledge of life and his natural gifts. Fielding says that before his accession the job was worth five hundred pounds a year of dirty money, but that he made no more than three hundred a year of clean. Through the Duke of Bedford he was granted a pension out of the public-service money. It is supposed that this was either one or two hundred pounds a year. In 1749 he published Tom Jones, which he must have been writing when he was still editing a paper on behalf of the Government. He received altogether seven hundred pounds for it, and since money at that period was worth five or six times at least what it is worth now, this sum was equivalent to something like four thousand pounds. That would be good payment for a novel to-day.

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此时菲尔丁的健康已经很糟糕了。痛风经常发作，他经常需要去巴斯，或是去他在伦敦附近的一间农舍疗养，但他没有停止写作。他写与工作有关的政论文，其中一篇文章名为《近来抢劫案多发之威胁的成因探讨》，据说引起了《杜松子法案》(11)的通过。他还写了《艾米莉亚》。他的勤奋令人感叹。一七五一年《艾米莉亚》出版时，他又着手编《考文特花园日报》。他的健康愈发差了，明显不能在博街继续行使职能了。一七五四年，在打掉了一个令伦敦人谈之色变的“恶棍和割喉者团伙”后，他辞了职，让位于他的同父异母弟弟约翰·菲尔丁。现在看来，他唯一的生机就是找一个气候比英国和暖的地方，于是同年六月，他离开故国，乘理查德·维尔船长的“葡萄牙王后号”去了里斯本。他于八月到达，两个月后就死了，时年仅四十七岁。

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Fielding’s health by now was poor. His attacks of gout were frequent, and he had often to go to Bath to recuperate, or to a cottage he had near London. But he did not cease to write. He wrote pamphlets concerning his office; one, an Enquiry into the Causes of the Late Menace of Robbers is said to have caused the famous Gin Act to be passed; and he wrote Amelia. His industry was indeed amazing. Amelia was published in 1751 and in the same year Fielding undertook to edit still another paper, The Covent Garden Journal. Hishealth grew worse. It was evident that he could no longer perform his duties at Bow Street, and in 1754, after breaking up“a gang of villains and cut-throats”who had become the terror of London, he resigned his office to his half-brother, John Fielding. It looked as though his only chance of life was to seek a milder climate than that of England, and so, in the June of that year, 1754, he left his native country in The Queen of Portugal, Richard Veal, master, for Lisbon. He arrived in August, and two months later died. He was forty-seven years old.

序号 英文/音标 中文解释 更多操作

digression

[daɪ'ɡreʃn]

n.离题;脱轨

Oxford

['ɒksfəd]

n.牛津城;牛津大学;牛津

disastrous

[dɪ'zɑːstrəs]

adj.灾难性的;极糟的

chequered

['tʃekəd]

adj.方格式的;变化的.

eminent

['emɪnənt]

adj.著名的;卓越的

unsay

[ʌn'seɪ]

vt.取消;撤回(说过的话)

flatter

['flætə(r)]

v.奉承;恭维;取悦;显得好看

exquisite

[ɪk'skwɪzɪt]

adj.精挑细选的;精致的;细腻的;强烈的

imperial

[ɪm'pɪəriəl]

adj.帝国的;皇帝的

eagle

['iːɡl]

n.鹰

resonance

['rezənəns]

n.共鸣;共振

verse

[vɜːs]

n.诗;韵文;诗节

miscellaneous

[ˌmɪsə'leɪniəs]

a. 杂;

ironic

[aɪ'rɒnɪk]

adj.说反话的;讽刺的

curl

[kɜːl]

n.卷曲;卷发;年轮;漩涡;【足】曲线球

stubborn

['stʌbən]

adj.顽固的;倔强的;难对付的

concoct

[kən'kɒkt]

v.捏造;调制

allowance

[ə'laʊəns]

n.津贴

gaiety

['ɡeɪəti]

n.愉快;喜庆;(服装等)华丽

agreeably

[ə'ɡriːəbli]

adv.欣然;依照

masque

[mɑːsk]

n.假面剧;假面具剧本;化装舞会;面膜

oblige

[ə'blaɪdʒ]

vt.迫使;责成;使感激;施恩于;帮 ... 的忙;使…成为必要

strait

[streɪt]

n.海峡;困境

coachman

['kəʊtʃmən]

n.赶马车人

inclination

[ˌɪnklɪ'neɪʃn]

n.倾向;意愿;趋势;斜坡;倾斜度

make-up

[meɪkʌp]

n.化妆品;性格;补考

fancy

['fænsi]

n. 【C】设想；幻想；空想;

Swift

[swɪft]

adj.快的;迅速的;敏捷的

recollection

[ˌrekə'lekʃn]

n.回忆;记忆力;记忆;回忆起的事物

devise

[dɪ'vaɪz]

vt.设计;发明;遗赠

topical

['tɒpɪkl]

adj.谈论的;时事问题的;局部的

parody

['pærədi]

n.仿作;拙劣的模仿

theatre

[ˈθɪətə]

n.戏院,剧场,电影院

actuality

[ˌæktʃu'æləti]

n.实在;现实;现状

gauge

[ɡeɪdʒ]

n.测量仪器;测量标准

noisily

['nɔɪzɪli]

adv.喧闹地

displeasure

[dɪs'pleʒə(r)]

n.不愉快;不高兴;不满意

solace

['sɒləs]

n.安慰;慰藉

plentiful

['plentɪfl]

adj.丰富的;多的;充裕的

cock

[kɒk]

n.公鸡

trickle

['trɪkl]

vi.滴流;慢慢移动

hiss

[hɪs]

n.嘘声;嘶嘶声

frightened

['fraɪtnd]

adj.受惊的

dwell

[dwel]

vi.居住;存在;冥想;详细阐述

episode

['epɪsəʊd]

n.一段情节;片段;轶事;插曲

novelist

['nɒvəlɪst]

n.小说家

conspicuous

[kən'spɪkjuəs]

adj.显著的;显眼的;显而易见的

behaviour

[bɪˈheɪvɪə]

n.行为

skilful

['skɪlfl]

adj.熟练的;巧妙的;技术好的.

gradual

['ɡrædʒuəl]

adj.逐渐的;逐步的;平缓的

climax

['klaɪmæks]

n.高潮;极点;层进法;【生】顶极群落;巅峰，最高峰

succession

[sək'seʃn]

n.连续;继承权;继位

irrelevant

[ɪ'reləvənt]

adj.不恰当的;无关系的;不相干的

bypath

['baɪˌpæθ]

n.小路;侧道;私道

crisp

[krisp]

a. 脆的；酥的；松脆的;

fortunate

['fɔːtʃənət]

adj.幸运的;侥幸的;带来幸运的

lavish

['lævɪʃ]

adj.大方的;丰富的;浪费的

entertain

[ˌentə'teɪn]

v.娱乐;使有兴趣;招待;考虑;抱有;容纳

Theatre

[ˈθɪətə]

n.戏院,剧场,电影院

theatrical

[θi'ætrɪkl]

adj.剧场的;夸张的

satire

['sætaɪə(r)]

n.讽刺文;讽刺

hack

[hæk]

vt. 穿过丛林开出一条路.

passionate

['pæʃənət]

adj.热情的;激情的;易怒的

miserably

['mɪzrəbli]

adv.悲惨地;糟糕地

lodging

['lɒdʒɪŋ]

n.寄宿处;借宿

elastic

[ɪ'læstɪk]

adj.灵活的;有弹性的

prey

[preɪ]

n.牺牲者;被掠食者，猎物

habitual

[hə'bɪtʃuəl]

adj.惯常的;习惯的

Billy

['bɪli]

n.棍棒;警棍;【英纺】粗纱机

ungrateful

[ʌn'ɡreɪtfl]

adj.忘恩负义的;不领情的

disincline

[ˌdɪsɪn'klaɪn]

vt.使人不愿意

disposal

[dɪ'spəʊzl]

n.处理

founding

['faʊndɪŋ]

n.建立;成立,

Westminster

['westmɪnstə(r)]

威斯敏斯特

accession

[æk'seʃn]

n.到达;即位;加入

pamphlet

['pæmflət]

n.小册子

amaze

[ə'meɪz]

vt.使吃惊;使惊异

villain

['vɪlən]

n.坏人;恶棍;淘气鬼;反派角色;罪犯

Richard

['ritʃəd]

n.理查德(男子名)

gout

[ɡaʊt]

n.痛风;一滴、一团或一块

recuperate

[rɪ'kuːpəreɪt]

v.(使)恢复;(使)复原

Menace

['menəs]

n.威胁;恐吓;讨厌的人(物)

Amelia

[eɪˈmiːlɪə]

n.阿米莉亚(女子名)

Covent

['kɒvənt]

n.女修道院

Veal

[viːl]

n.小牛肉

Lisbon

[ˈlɪzbən]

n.里斯本(葡萄牙首都)

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