1、莎士比亚戏剧集序言翻译1. Shakespeare with his excellencies has likewise faults, and faults sufficient to obscure and overwhelm any other merit. I shall shew them in the proportion in which they appear to me, without envious malignity or superstitious veneration. No question can be more innocently discussed tha
2、n a dead poets pretensions to renown; and little regard is due to that bigotry which sets candour higher than truth.莎士比亚的作品纵然出类拔萃，但也同样有缺点，而且这些缺点足以掩盖和碾压任何其他优点。我将如实地说出我对它们的看法，不恶意中伤，也不迷信崇拜。没有什么问题能比讨论一个已故作家的身后之名更加无罪的了；此外，将直率看得比真相更重要这种偏执，也不会赢得什么敬佩。2.His first defect is that to which may be imputed most o
3、f the evil in books or in men. He sacrifices virtue to convenience, and is so much more careful to please than to instruct, that he seems to write without any moral purpose. From his writings indeed a system of social duty may be selected, for he that thinks reasonably must think morally; but his pr
4、ecepts and axioms drop casually from him; he makes no just distribution of good or evil, nor is always careful to shew in the virtuous a disapprobation of the wicked; he carries his persons indifferently through right and wrong, and at the close dismisses them without further care, and leaves their
5、examples to operate by chance. This fault the barbarity of his age cannot extenuate; for it is always a writers duty to make the world better, and justice is a virtue independant on time or place.他的第一个缺点是在书中或在人身上的大多数罪恶可能发生的根源。他为了方便而牺牲美德，更用心于取悦他人而疏于教化，他的写作似乎没有任何道德目的。从他的著作中，倒是可以筛选出一套社会义务，因为他认为理性的思考必须建
6、立在道德的考量上;但他的训词和公理只是他的随口一说；他既没有公正地分配善与恶，也不总是谨慎地通过善来表达对恶的蔑视；他漠然地在是非之间塑造他的人物，并在最后不加关心地将他们消解掉，留他们来待人解读。他的这个缺点不能因他处在那个野蛮时代而掩盖；因为作家总是有责任让这个世界变得更美好，而且正义是一种不拘于时间或地域的美德。3.The plots are often so loosely formed, that a very slight consideration may improve them, and so carelessly pursued, that he seems not alw
7、ays fully to comprehend his own design. He omits opportunities of instructing or delighting which the train of his story seems to force upon him, and apparently rejects those exhibitions which would be more affecting, for the sake of those which are more easy.他作品的情节常常组织地十分松散，以至小费心思就能使它们得到改善，情节开展得也太过
8、漫不经心，他似乎并不总是充分理解他自己的谋篇布局。故事的发展为他提供了教化或取悦读者的机会，他却忽略这些机会。虽说这些机会本会让他的描写更为感人，他却显然地拒绝以此来大显身手，转而关注那些比较容易描写的场面。4.It may be observed, that in many of his plays the latter part is evidently neglected. When he found himself near the end of his work, and, in view of his reward, he shortened the labour, to snat
9、ch the profit. He therefore remits his efforts where he should most vigorously exert them, and his catastrophe is improbably produced or imperfectly represented.人们或许可以注意到，他许多剧本的后半部分显然被他忽视了。当他发现作品将至尾声之时，面对近在眼前的报酬，他会为了攫取利润而偷工减料。他因此在最应该发挥他写作激情的地方懈怠了，使他的悲剧的收尾不那么真实，或没有得到完美的呈现。5.He had no regard to distin
10、ction of time or place, but gives to one age or nation, without scruple, the customs, institutions, and opinions of another, at the expence not only of likelihood, but of possibility. These faults Pope has endeavoured, with more zeal than judgment, to transfer to his imagined in interpolators. We ne
11、ed not wonder to find Hector quoting Aristotle, when we see the loves of Theseus and Hippolyta combined with the Gothic mythology of fairies. Shakespeare, indeed, was not the only violator of chronology, for in the same age Sidney, who wanted not the advantages of learning, has, in his “Arcadia”, co
12、nfounded the pastoral with the feudal times, the days of innocence, quiet and security, with those of turbulence, violence and adventure.他没有考虑时空的差异，毫无顾忌地将一个时代或者国家的风俗习惯，社会体系，意见主强加到另一个时代或国家上，不仅违反了似然率，也牺牲了可能性。蒲柏怀以热忱而非明断的态度，强行设想莎士比亚的作品有篡改者，并将这些缺点推诿给了他们。当我们看到忒修斯和希波吕忒的爱情与哥特仙女神话结合在一起时，我们就不必因为赫克托引用了亚里士多德的话而
13、感到惊奇。实际上，莎士比亚并不是唯一一个违背年代顺序的人，与他同时代的西德尼，虽说学识深厚，在他的阿卡迪亚中，也将田园生活的那些天真，安宁的日子与动荡，暴力和冒险的封建时代混于一处。6.In his comick scenes he is seldom very successful, when he engages his characters in reciprocations of smartness and contest of sarcasm; their jests are commonly gross, and their pleasantry licentious; neith
14、er his gentlemen nor his ladies have much delicacy, nor are sufficiently distinguished from his clowns by any appearance of refined manners. Whether he represented the real conversation of his time is not easy to determine; the reign of Elizabeth is commonly supposed to have been a time of stateline
15、ss, formality and reserve, yet perhaps the relaxations of that severity were not very elegant. There must, however, have been always some modes of gayety preferable to others, and a writer ought to chuse the best.当莎士比亚让他的角色互耍聪明，展开相互挖苦的竞争时，他的喜剧场面少有很成功的；这些角色的玩笑往往是粗俗的，他们的幽默往往是淫秽的；他笔下的绅士或淑女都不够优雅，不足以通过他们
16、的有教养的举止将他们与他笔下的小丑们区分开。我们很难判断莎士比亚所展现的是不是他那个时代人们的真实谈话；伊丽莎白时代一般被看作一个庄严，拘谨和矜持的时代，但是或许将这种严苛放松下来就不太体面了。然而，总有一些娱乐方式比其他的更可取，而作家应当选择其中最适宜的。7.In tragedy his performance seems constantly to be worse, as his labour is more. The effusions of passion which exigence forces out are for the most part striking and en
17、ergetick; but whenever he solicits his invention, or strains his faculties, the offspring of his throes is tumour, meanness, tediousness, and obscurity.在悲剧中，他投入的精力更多，他的表现似乎常常更差。他在危急时刻因受逼迫而喷发出的激情，整个来说是鲜明的，有力的。但每当他刻意求新，或竭尽全力时，他苦心孕育出的成果却是臃肿，低劣，沉闷而晦涩的。8.In narration he affects a disproportionate pomp of
18、 diction and a wearisome train of circumlocution, and tells the incident imperfectly in many words, which might have been more plainly delivered in few. Narration in dramatick poetry is, naturally tedious, as it is unanimated and inactive, and obstructs the progress of the action; it should therefor
19、e always be rapid, and enlivened by frequent interruption. Shakespeare found it an encumbrance, and instead of lightening it by brevity, endeavoured to recommend it by dignity and splendour.在叙述时，他措辞过于浮华，一系列迂回累赘的话语令人生厌；本来寥寥数语就能说清的事他却大费篇章。诗剧里的叙事本就乏味，因为它毫无生气，阻碍了情节的发展；因此叙事总需要紧凑些，常常加入些波折来活跃气氛。莎士比亚发现叙事是一种
20、负担，可他不会简化它使之变得明快，而是努力通过庄严华丽来让它吸引人。9.His declamations or set speeches are commonly cold and weak, for his power was the power of nature; when he endeavoured, like other tragick writers, to catch opportunities of amplification, and instead of inquiring what the occasion demanded, to show how much his
21、stores of knowledge could supply, he seldom escapes without the pity or resentment of his reader.他的演说或致辞一般都冷淡而又无力，因为他长于描写自然；当他像其他悲剧作家一样，竭力抓住详述的机会，不去追问这个场合是否需要，以此来卖弄他的学问时，他难以逃过读者的遗憾与愤恨。10.It is incident to him to be now and then entangled with an unwieldy sentiment, which he cannot well express, and
22、will not reject; he struggles with it a while, and if it continues stubborn, comprises it in words such as occur, and leaves it to be disentangled and evolved by those who have more leisure to bestow upon it.莎士比亚难免面对这种情况：他时不时地与一种难以控制的感情纠缠在一起，不能将此很好地表达出来，也不想将其舍弃；他与之苦斗一段时间，如果这种情况还是不能得到解决，他就用几个词敷衍搪塞，留给
23、那些有闲心的读者去理清和演绎。11.Not that always where the language is intricate the thought is subtle, or the image always great where the line is bulky; the equality of words to things is very often neglected, and trivial sentiments and vulgar ideas disappoint the attention, to which they are recommended by sono
24、rous epithets and swelling figures.并非总是语言复杂的地方，它的思想就是微妙的；也并非总是情节庞杂的地方，它的想象就是精妙的；言语与事物本身的平等常常被人忽视，琐碎的情感和庸俗的观念让人们失望，虽然这些作品被响亮的名号和膨胀的数据所推崇。12.But the admirers of this great poet have never less reason to indulge their hopes of supreme excellence, than when he seems fully resolved to sink them in deject
25、ion, and mollify them with tender emotions by the fall of greatness, the danger of innocence, or the crosses of love. He is not long soft and pathetick without some idle conceit, or contemptible equivocation. He no sooner begins to move, than he counteracts himself; and terrour and pity, as they are
26、 rising in the mind, are checked and blasted by sudden frigidity.可是对于这位伟大诗人的仰慕者们来说，相比当他似乎下定决心让他们沉浸于沮丧，并带着温情用伟大的堕落，无知的危险或爱情的磨难来安抚他们时，他们从来没有理由沉溺于所他们希望的至高至美。莎士比亚不带虚妄的自负，所以不矫情做作，也不说那些可鄙的含糊话。他一开始行动就对抗自己；当恐惧和怜悯出现在脑海，它们就会被瞬间的冷静抑制和击溃。13.A quibble is to Shakespeare, what luminous vapours are to the traveller
27、; he follows it at all adventures, it is sure to lead him out of his way, and sure to engulf him in the mire. It has some malignant power over his mind, and its fascinations are irresistible. Whatever be the dignity or profundity of his disquisition, whether he be enlarging knowledge or exalting aff
28、ection, whether he be amusing attention with incidents, or enchaining it in suspense, let but a quibble spring up before him, and he leaves his work unfinished. A quibble is the golden apple for which he will always turn aside from his career, or stoop from his elevation. A quibble poor and barren a
29、s it is, gave him such delight, that he was content to purchase it, by the sacrifice of reason, propriety and truth. A quibble was to him the fatal Cleopatra for which he lost the world, and was content to lose it.双关语之于莎士比亚，好比清晰可见的蒸汽之于旅行者；在莎士比亚所有的历险中，他都追随着双关语，它一定会将他引入歧途，让他陷入泥沼。双关语对莎士比亚的思维有一种恶性的力量，它的
30、魅力是无法抗拒的。无论莎士比亚的研究是庄重还是深奥，无论他是在扩宽知识面还是冶情操，无论他是用小插曲逗趣儿还是利用悬疑来吸引注意，只要一个双关语涌现在他的脑海，就会让他的作品虎头蛇尾。双关语对莎士比亚来说好比是一个金苹果，为了它他愿意背离自己的事业，从自己的高位堕落。尽管贫乏无益，双关语却给了莎士比亚快乐，让他满足于获得它，甚至为此牺牲理性，礼节和真理。双关语就像莎士比亚命中注定的克丽奥佩拉，他会因它失了全世界，但却甘于如此。14.It will be thought strange, that, in enumerating the defects of this writer, I hav
31、e not yet mentioned his neglect of the unities; his violation of those laws which have been instituted and established by the joint authority of poets and of criticks.对于枚举莎士比亚的缺点，我还没有提到他对三一律的忽视，这会让大家感到奇怪；他对这一规则的违反已经被一系列有权威的诗人和批评家提出和指正了。15.For his other deviations from the art of writing, I resign hi
32、m to critical justice, without making any other demand in his favour, than that which must be indulged to all human excellence; that his virtues be rated with his failings: But, from the censure which this irregularity may bring upon him, I shall, with due reverence to that learning which I must opp
33、ose, adventure to try how I can defend him.对于莎士比亚对写作艺术的其他偏离，我把他交给批判性的正义，除了那些必须为人类的所有优秀品质所宽容的要求之外，没有对他提出任何其他要求；他的优点可与他的缺点相提而论：但是，由违反三一律所带来的责难，出于对学问的敬意，我必须反对，并冒险尝试为他辩护。16.His histories, being neither tragedies nor comedies, are not subject to any of their laws; nothing more is necessary to all the praise which they expect, than tha
