2014年7月20日 星期日

the moon and Shakespeare

http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/art-of-movement/writing-by-moonlight/part/4

“O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.” – William Shakespeare, “Romeo and Juliet,” 1597
More than 800 years later, William Shakespeare is not content to leave the moon in the sky.
In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” he makes the moon a character in itself, the aptly named “Moonshine,” depicted rather comically as a man with a lantern, a dog and a thornbush. Why this bumbling trio? Elizabethans believed the pattern on the moon’s face was that of a human with a four-legged friend, the dangling light leading the way.
Elsewhere on Shakespeare’s stage, an invisible cord connects moon and man, their emotions swelling and subsiding in unison. Indeed, Othello blames the moon for inducing the madness that leads to his murder of Desdemona – an allusion to the idea of moon-inspired “lunacy,” which dates back at least as far as ancient Greece:
“It is the very error of the moon;
She comes more nearer the Earth than she was wont,
And makes men mad.” – William Shakespeare, “Othello,” around 1603
O, swear not by the moon,
the inconstant moon
Love -- some might say a madness of its own -- also flourishes under the soft glow of moonlight, as Romeo woos Juliet. But like matters of the heart, the satellite is a changeable creature – if Romeo had hoped to set his love in stone, he might have wanted to pick a more reliable rock than Shakespeare’s “inconstant moon.”
“Like many playwrights of his time, Shakespeare is influenced by the classical tradition of the moon being associated with the goddess Diana, who is perversely the goddess of chastity, but also associated with Lucina, goddess of childbirth,” said Professor Michael Dobson, director of the Shakespeare Institute, at the University of Birmingham, England. “So in that way, the moon is eroticized both positively and negatively.”

2014年7月17日 星期四

胡適之先生也很喜歡丁尼生Lord Alfred Tennyson的詩 :"Ulysses" ( 1833)、St Simeon Stylites ,The Charge of the Light Brigade;



胡適之先生也很喜歡Lord Alfred Tennyson的詩,最早在留學時代:1915年3月....

胡適曾經用格律詩體翻譯了英國詩人阿爾弗雷德· 丁尼生(Alfred Tennyson 1809-1892 年)的《輕騎兵出擊》,譯為《六百男兒行》。
The Charge of the Light Brigade
六百男兒行
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
1.
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
半里复半里,半里向前馳。
馳驅入死地,六百好男兒。
男兒前進耳,會須奪炮歸。
馳驅入死地,六百好男兒。
2.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
男兒前進耳,豈復生恇懼。
軍令即有失,吾曹豈復顧。
不敢复詰責,戰死以為期。
偕來就死地,六百好男兒。
3.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
左右皆巨砲,巨砲當吾前。
炮聲震天地,炸彈相蟬聯。
男兒善磬控,馳驅入鬼谷。
六百好男兒,偕來臨地獄
4.
Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.
刀光何熠爚,殺敵如犬羊。
孤軍當大敵,聲名天下煌。
蒙彈冒矢石,陷陣复衝堅。
怯哉哥薩克,逡巡不敢前。
敵陣亂且靡,男兒縱轡歸。
歸來非六百,六百好男兒。
5.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
左右皆巨砲,巨砲逼吾後。
炮聲起四圍,轟然若當吼。
砲彈相蟬聯,馬僕健兒死。
苦戰得旋歸,歸自鬼伯齒。
鬼谷入復出,復出良不易。
悲彼戰死者,朝出暮相棄。
6.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honor the charge they made,
Honor the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred.
英名何時墜,一戰驚天下。
勗哉天下人,欽此專嚴者。

----
St Simeon Stylites by Lord Alfred Tennyson

胡適在與楊聯陞談論楊先生的"自搏和自撲" 論文時,指出英國詩人丁尼生Tennyson 的作品 Saint Simoen Stylites有中古"聖徒"這方面的描述 ,他推薦楊讀該詩。

----給高宗武的信


有意思的是,該文給胡適的不朽論,竟不是胡的三不朽(楊聯陞先生在給《陳世驤先生選集》作序敬輓,就是用胡適的話來破題的--該文功力不凡),或是像我們在<華爾街院長>中了解的,B. Graham 的墓誌銘是刻了他與胡適都極喜愛的丁尼生 (Alfred, Lord Tennyson 1833)詩歌 “Ulysses”的句子。Wikipedia article "Ulysses (poem)"(詳《努力、探尋、發現、永不退讓、不屈服》)






有意思的是,該文給胡適的不朽論,竟不是胡的三不朽(楊聯陞先生在給《陳世驤先生選集》作序敬輓,就是用胡適的話來破題的--該文功力不凡),或是像我們在<華爾街院長>中了解的,B. Graham的墓誌銘是刻了他與胡適都極喜愛的丁尼生 (Alfred, Lord Tennyson 1833)詩歌 “Ulysses”的句子。Wikipedia article "Ulysses (poem)"(詳《努力、探尋、發現、永不退讓、不屈服》)

2014年7月8日 星期二

Shakespearian Tragedy , Shakespearean Comedy Charlton, H. B.


  1. Shakespearian Tragedy by H. B. Charlton, 1949 | Questia ...

    www.questia.com › Browse › Books
    Aug 4, 2012 - Read the full-text online edition of Shakespearian Tragedy (1949).






Shakespearean Comedy初版1938年。
University Paperbacks 的主要出版商是Methuen & CO. LTD
我手頭的是1973年版。
不過下面的書是另外的英國出版商。

Shakespearean Comedy (University Paperbacks)

Charlton, H. B.

Published by Routledge Kegan & Paul, 1966


可知有2章無法在網路上讀

Shakespearian Comedy

Front Cover
Psychology PressDec 23, 2004 - Literary Criticism - 303 pages