【国外英文文学】Love for Love..docx

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1、【国外英文文学】Love for Love.Love for Loveby William CongreveLOVE FOR LOVE-A COMEDYNudus agris, nudus nummis paternis, Insanire parat certa ratione modoque.- HOR.TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES, EARL OF DORSET AND MIDDLESEX, LORD CHAMBERLAIN OF HIS MAJESTYS HOUSEHOLD, AND KNIGHT OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF

2、THE GARTER, ETC.My Lord,-A young poet is liable to the same vanity and indiscretion with a young lover; and the great man who smiles upon one, and the fine woman who looks kindly upon tother, are both of em in danger of having the favour published with the first opportunity.But there may be a differ

3、ent motive, which will a little distinguish the offenders. For though one should have a vanity in ruining anothers reputation, yet the other may only have an ambition to advance his own. And I beg leave, my lord, that I may plead the latter, both as the cause and excuse of this dedication.Whoever is

4、 king is also the father of his country; and as nobody can dispute your lordships monarchy in poetry, so all that are concerned ought to acknowledge your universal patronage. And it is only presuming on the privilege of a loyal subject that I have ventured to make this, my address of thanks, to your

5、 lordship, which at the same time includes a prayer for your protection.I am not ignorant of the common form of poetical dedications, which are generally made up of panegyrics, where the authors endeavour to distinguish their patrons, by the shining characters they give them, above other men. But th

6、at, my lord, is not my business at this time, nor is your lordship NOW to be distinguished. I am contented with the honour I do myself in this epistle without the vanity of attempting to add to or explain your Lordships character.I confess it is not without some struggling that I behave myself in th

7、is case as I ought: for it is very hard to be pleased with a subject, and yet forbear it. But I choose rather to follow Plinys precept, than his example, when, in his panegyric to the Emperor Trajan, he says:-Nec minus considerabo quid aures ejus pati possint, quam quid virtutibus debeatur.I hope I

8、may be excused the pedantry of a quotation when it is so justly applied. Here are some lines in the print (and which your lordship read before this play was acted) that were omitted on the stage; and particularly one whole scene in the third act, which not only helps the design forward with less pre

9、cipitation, but also heightens the ridiculous character of Foresight, which indeed seems to be maimed without it. But I found myself in great danger of a long play, and was glad to help it where I could. Though notwithstanding my care and the kind reception it had from the town, I could heartily wis

10、h it yet shorter: but the number of different characters represented in it would have been too much crowded in less room.This reflection on prolixity (a fault for which scarce any one beauty will atone) warns me not to be tedious now, and detain your lordship any longer with the trifles of, my lord,

11、 your lordships most obedient and most humble servant,WILLIAM CONGREVE.PROLOGUE. Spoken, at the opening of the new house, by Mr Betterton.The husbandman in vain renews his toil To cultivate each year a hungry soil; And fondly hopes for rich and generous fruit, When what should feed the tree devours

12、the root; Th unladen boughs, he sees, bode certain dearth, Unless transplanted to more kindly earth. So the poor husbands of the stage, who found Their labours lost upon ungrateful ground, This last and only remedy have proved, And hope new fruit from ancient stocks removed. Well may they hope, when

13、 you so kindly aid, Well plant a soil which you so rich have made. As Nature gave the world to mans first age, So from your bounty, we receive this stage; The freedom man was born to, youve restored, And to our world such plenty you afford, It seems like Eden, fruitful of its own accord. But since i

14、n Paradise frail flesh gave way, And when but two were made, both went astray; Forbear your wonder, and the fault forgive, If in our larger family we grieve One falling Adam and one tempted Eve. We who remain would gratefully repay What our endeavours can, and bring this day The first-fruit offering

15、 of a virgin play. We hope theres something that may please each taste, And though of homely fare we make the feast, Yet you will find variety at least. Theres humour, which for cheerful friends we got, And for the thinking party theres a plot. Weve something, too, to gratify ill-nature, (If there b

16、e any here), and that is satire. Though satire scarce dares grin, tis grown so mild Or only shows its teeth, as if it smiled. As asses thistles, poets mumble wit, And dare not bite for fear of being bit: They hold their pens, as swords are held by fools, And are afraid to use their own edge-tools. S

17、ince the Plain-Dealers scenes of manly rage, Not one has dared to lash this crying age. This time, the poet owns the bold essay, Yet hopes theres no ill-manners in his play; And he declares, by me, he has designed Affront to none, but frankly speaks his mind. And should th ensuing scenes not chance

18、to hit, He offers but this one excuse, twas writ Before your late encouragement of wit.EPILOGUE. Spoken, at the opening of the new house, by Mrs Bracegirdle.Sure Providence at first designed this place To be the players refuge in distress; For still in every storm they all run hither, As to a shed t

19、hat shields em from the weather. But thinking of this change which last befel us, Its like what I have heard our poets tell us: For when behind our scenes their suits are pleading, To help their love, sometimes they show their reading; And, wanting ready cash to pay for hearts, They top their learni

20、ng on us, and their parts. Once of philosophers they told us stories, Whom, as I think, they called-Py-Pythagories, Im sure tis some such Latin name they give em, And we, who know no better, must believe em. Now to these men, say they, such souls were given, That after death neer went to hell nor he

21、aven, But lived, I know not how, in beasts; and then When many years were past, in men again. Methinks, we players resemble such a soul, That does from bodies, we from houses stroll. Thus Aristotles soul, of old that was, May now be damned to animate an ass, Or in this very house, for ought we know,

22、 Is doing painful penance in some beau; And thus our audience, which did once resort To shining theatres to see our sport, Now find us tossed into a tennis-court. These walls but tother day were filled with noise Of roaring gamesters and your damme boys; Then bounding balls and rackets they encompas

23、t, And now theyre filled with jests, and flights, and bombast! I vow, I dont much like this transmigration, Strolling from place to place by circulation; Grant heaven, we dont return to our first station! I know not what these think, but for my part I cant reflect without an aching heart, How we sho

24、uld end in our original, a cart. But we cant fear, since youre so good to save us, That you have only set us up, to leave us. Thus from the past we hope for future grace, I beg it - And some here know I have a begging face. Then pray continue this your kind behaviour, For a clear stage wont do, with

25、out your favour.DRAMATIS PERSONAE.MEN.SIR SAMPSON LEGEND, father to Valentine and Ben,-Mr Underhill. VALENTINE, fallen under his fathers displeasure by his expensive way of living, in love with Angelica,-Mr Betterton. SCANDAL, his friend, a free speaker,-Mr Smith. TATTLE, a half-witted beau, vain of

26、 his amours, yet valuing himself for secrecy,-Mr Bowman. BEN, Sir Sampsons younger son, half home-bred and half sea-bred, designed to marry Miss Prue,-Mr Dogget. FORESIGHT, an illiterate old fellow, peevish and positive, superstitious, and pretending to understand astrology, palmistry, physiognomy,

27、omens, dreams, etc; uncle to Angelica,-Mr Sanford. JEREMY, servant to Valentine,-Mr Bowen. TRAPLAND, a scrivener,-Mr Triffusis. BUCKRAM, a lawyer,-Mr Freeman.WOMEN.ANGELICA, niece to Foresight, of a considerable fortune in her own hands,-Mrs Bracegirdle. MRS FORESIGHT, second wife to Foresight,-Mrs

28、Bowman. MRS FRAIL, sister to Mrs Foresight, a woman of the town,-Mrs Barry. MISS PRUE, daughter to Foresight by a former wife, a silly, awkward country girl,-Mrs Ayliff. NURSE to MISS,-Mrs Leigh. JENNY,-Mrs Lawson.A STEWARD, OFFICERS, SAILORS, AND SEVERAL SERVANTS.The Scene in London.LOVE FOR LOVE-A

29、CT I.-SCENE I.VALENTINE in his chamber reading. JEREMY waiting.Several books upon the table.VAL. Jeremy.JERE. Sir?VAL. Here, take away. Ill walk a turn and digest what I have read.JERE. Youll grow devilish fat upon this paper diet. Aside, and taking away the books.VAL. And dye hear, go you to breakf

30、ast. Theres a page doubled down in Epictetus, that is a feast for an emperor.JERE. Was Epictetus a real cook, or did he only write receipts?VAL. Read, read, sirrah, and refine your appetite; learn to live upon instruction; feast your mind and mortify your flesh; read, and take your nourishment in at

31、 your eyes; shut up your mouth, and chew the cud of understanding. So Epictetus advises.JERE. O Lord! I have heard much of him, when I waited upon a gentleman at Cambridge. Pray what was that Epictetus?VAL. A very rich man.-Not worth a groat.JERE. Humph, and so he has made a very fine feast, where t

32、here is nothing to be eaten?VAL. Yes.JERE. Sir, youre a gentleman, and probably understand this fine feeding: but if you please, I had rather be at board wages. Does your Epictetus, or your Seneca here, or any of these poor rich rogues, teach you how to pay your debts without money? Will they shut u

33、p the mouths of your creditors? Will Plato be bail for you? Or Diogenes, because he understands confinement, and lived in a tub, go to prison for you? Slife, sir, what do you mean, to mew yourself up here with three or four musty books, in commendation of starving and poverty?VAL. Why, sirrah, I hav

34、e no money, you know it; and therefore resolve to rail at all that have. And in that I but follow the examples of the wisest and wittiest men in all ages, these poets and philosophers whom you naturally hate, for just such another reason; because they abound in sense, and you are a fool.JERE. Ay, si

35、r, I am a fool, I know it: and yet, heaven help me, Im poor enough to be a wit. But I was always a fool when I told you what your expenses would bring you to; your coaches and your liveries; your treats and your balls; your being in love with a lady that did not care a farthing for you in your prosp

36、erity; and keeping company with wits that cared for nothing but your prosperity; and now, when you are poor, hate you as much as they do one another.VAL. Well, and now I am poor I have an opportunity to be revenged on them all. Ill pursue Angelica with more love than ever, and appear more notoriousl

37、y her admirer in this restraint, than when I openly rivalled the rich fops that made court to her. So shall my poverty be a mortification to her pride, and, perhaps, make her compassionate the love which has principally reduced me to this lowness of fortune. And for the wits, Im sure I am in a condi

38、tion to be even with them.JERE. Nay, your condition is pretty even with theirs, thats the truth ont.VAL. Ill take some of their trade out of their hands.JERE. Now heaven of mercy continue the tax upon paper. You dont mean to write?VAL. Yes, I do. Ill write a play.JERE. Hem! Sir, if you please to giv

39、e me a small certificate of three lines-only to certify those whom it may concern, that the bearer hereof, Jeremy Fetch by name, has for the space of seven years truly and faithfully served Valentine Legend, Esq., and that he is not now turned away for any misdemeanour, but does voluntarily dismiss

40、his master from any future authority over him -VAL. No, sirrah; you shall live with me still.JERE. Sir, its impossible. I may die with you, starve with you, or be damned with your works. But to live, even three days, the life of a play, I no more expect it than to be canonised for a muse after my de

41、cease.VAL. You are witty, you rogue. I shall want your help. Ill have you learn to make couplets to tag the ends of acts. Dye hear? Get the maids to Crambo in an evening, and learn the knack of rhyming: you may arrive at the height of a song sent by an unknown hand, or a chocolate-house lampoon.JERE

42、. But, sir, is this the way to recover your fathers favour? Why, Sir Sampson will be irreconcilable. If your younger brother should come from sea, hed never look upon you again. Youre undone, sir; youre ruined; you wont have a friend left in the world if you turn poet. Ah, pox confound that Wills co

43、ffee-house: it has ruined more young men than the Royal Oak lottery. Nothing thrives that belongs tot. The man of the house would have been an alderman by this time, with half the trade, if he had set up in the city. For my part, I never sit at the door that I dont get double the stomach that I do a

44、t a horse race. The air upon Banstead-Downs is nothing to it for a whetter; yet I never see it, but the spirit of famine appears to me, sometimes like a decayed porter, worn out with pimping, and carrying billet doux and songs: not like other porters, for hire, but for the jests sake. Now like a thi

45、n chairman, melted down to half his proportion, with carrying a poet upon tick, to visit some great fortune; and his fare to be paid him like the wages of sin, either at the day of marriage, or the day of death.VAL. Very well, sir; can you proceed?JERE. Sometimes like a bilked bookseller, with a mea

46、gre terrified countenance, that looks as if he had written for himself, or were resolved to turn author, and bring the rest of his brethren into the same condition. And lastly, in the form of a worn-out punk, with verses in her hand, which her vanity had preferred to settlements, without a whole tat

47、ter to her tail, but as ragged as one of the muses; or as if she were carrying her linen to the paper-mill, to be converted into folio books of warning to all young maids, not to prefer poetry to good sense, or lying in the arms of a needy wit, before the embraces of a wealthy fool.SCENE II.VALENTIN

48、E, SCANDAL, JEREMY.SCAN. What, Jeremy holding forth?VAL. The rogue has (with all the wit he could muster up) been declaiming against wit.SCAN. Ay? Why, then, Im afraid Jeremy has wit: for wherever it is, its always contriving its own ruin.JERE. Why, so I have been telling my master, sir: Mr Scandal, for heavens sake, sir, try if you can dissuade him from turning poet.SCAN. Poet! He shall turn soldier first,