登陆注册
5211100000062

第62章

People cry to us: "Be content with what you have, desire nothing that is beyond your estate restrain your curiosity, tame your intellectual disquiet."These are very good maxims; but if we had always followed them, we should still be eating acorns, we should be sleeping in the open air, and we should not have had Corneille, Racine, Moliere.Poussin, Lebrun, Lemoine or Pigalle.Philosophical Dictionary: On the English Theatre ON THE ENGLISH THEATRE I HAVE cast my eyes on an edition of Shakespeare issued by Master Samuel Johnson.I saw there that foreigners who are astonished that in the plays of the great Shakespeare a Roman senator plays the buffoon, and that a king appears on the stage drunk, are treated as little-minded.I do not desire to suspect Master Johnson of being a sorry jester, and of being too fond of wine; but I find it somewhat extraordinary that he counts buffoonery and drunkenness among the beauties of the tragic stage: and no less singular is the reason he gives, that the poet disdains accidental distinctions of circumstance and country, like a painter who, content with having painted the figure, neglects the drapery.The comparison would be more just if he were speaking of a painter who in a noble subject should introduce ridiculous grotesques, should paint Alexander the Great mounted on an ass in the battle of Arbela, and Darius' wife drinking at an inn with rapscallions.

But there is one thing more extraordinary than all, that is that Shakespeare is a genius.The Italians, the French, the men of letters of all other countries, who have not spent some time in England, take him only for a clown, for a joker far inferior to Harlequin, for the most contemptible buffoon who has ever amused the populace.Nevertheless, it is in this same man that one finds pieces which exalt the imagination and which stir the heart to its depths.It is Truth, it is Nature herself who speaks her own language with no admixture of artifice.It is of the sublime, and the author has in no wise sought it.

What can one conclude from this contrast of grandeur and sordidness, of sublime reason and uncouth folly, in short from all the contrasts that we see in Shakespeare? That he would have been a perfect poet had he lived in the time of Addison.

The famous Addison, who flourished under Queen Anne, is perhaps of all English writers the one who best knew how to guide genius with taste.He had a correct style, an imagination discreet in expression, elegance, strength and simplicity in his verse and in his prose.A friend of propriety and orderliness, he wanted tragedy to be written with dignity, and it is thus that his "Cato" is composed.

From the very first act the verses are worthy of Virgil, and the sentiments worthy of Cato.There is no theatre in Europe where the scene of Juba and Syphax was not applauded as a masterpiece of skill, of well-developed characters, of fine contrasts, and of pure and noble diction.Literary Europe, which knows the translations of this piece, applauded even to the philosophic traits with which the role of Cato is filled.

The piece had the great success which its beauty of detail merited, and which was assured to it by the troubles in England to which this tragedy was in more than one place a striking allusion.But the appositeness of these allusions having passed, the verse being only beautiful, the maxims being only noble and just, and the piece being cold, people no longer felt anything more than the coldness.Nothing is more beautiful than Virgil's second canto; recite it on the stage, it will bore: on the stage one must have passion, live dialogue, action.People soon returned to Shakespeare's uncouth but captivating aberrations.Philosophical Dictionary: Philosopher PHILOSOPHER PHILOSOPHER, lover of wisdom , that is to say, of truth.

All philosophers have had this dual character; there is not one in antiquity who has not given mankind examples of virtue and lessons in moral truths.

They have all contrived to be deceived about natural philosophy; but natural philosophy is so little necessary for the conduct of life, that the philosophers had no need of it.It has taken centuries to learn a part of nature's laws.

One day was sufficient for a wise man to learn the duties of man.

The philosopher is not enthusiastic; he does not set himself up as a prophet; he does not say that he is inspired by the gods.Thus I shall not put in the rank of philosophers either the ancient Zarathustra, or Hermes, or the ancient Orpheus, or any of those legislators of whom the nations of Chaldea, Persia, Syria, Egypt and Greece boasted.Those who styled themselves children of the gods were the fathers of imposture; and if they used lies for the teaching of truths, they were unworthy of teaching them; they were not philosophers; they were at best very prudent liars.

By what fatality, shameful maybe for the Western peoples, is it necessary to go to the far Orient to find a wise man who is simple, unostentatious, free from imposture, who taught men to live happily six hundred years before our vulgar era, at a time when the whole of the North was ignorant of the usage of letters, and when the Greeks were barely beginning to distinguish themselves by their wisdom?

同类推荐
  • 重寄金山寺僧

    重寄金山寺僧

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 砚山斋杂记

    砚山斋杂记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 兰言述略

    兰言述略

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 花当阁丛谈

    花当阁丛谈

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 超宗慧方禅师语录

    超宗慧方禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 金锚

    金锚

    渤海湾大亮岛上有个渔村叫做将军帽,不是这个渔村出了什么将军,而是这个村附近的海域盛产鲍鱼,鲍鱼的土名就叫“将军帽”。鲍鱼因其壳面隆起,状似清代官员戴的帽子,渔民称其为“将军帽”。这个小渔村由此而得名。将军帽村有几百年历史,这里的人们祖祖辈辈以打渔为生。尤其是他们村的鲍鱼远近闻名。清朝时期,这里的鲍鱼是贡品,专门贡给皇上食用的美味。将军帽村历经朝代变迁,贡品时代早已成往事,正向改革开放时代迈进。当1977年国家恢复高考时,小渔村出了一位“秀才”,名叫张鲍鱼,父母给他起这个名字是希望他有当官的命,其实张鲍鱼只是考上了一所京城非名牌学校——燃料工业大学。
  • 游戏名自定义

    游戏名自定义

    这里是一个封印着神话的地方,这里是一个由诸神的意识而构建的世界,但,这里的王者,是你。在这里,限制你的,不是现实,而是你的思维。自定义,一个美妙的名词,在这里,它将展现不一样的光彩。尘封的历史,隐藏的秘密,在这里,都将会被一一揭开,诸神,不过是被人们包装过的怪物而已。
  • 隋炀帝

    隋炀帝

    本书以隋炀帝为中心,采用人物传记的形式,描述了隋炀帝的一生,再现了隋朝的建立兴盛、衰落、灭亡的历史画面。
  • 创业的奠基(世界成功励志故事金典)

    创业的奠基(世界成功励志故事金典)

    这套书系是当代成功励志故事的高度浓缩和精华荟萃,是成功的奥秘,智慧的源泉,生命的明灯,是当代青年树立现代观念、实现财智人生的精神奠基之作,也是各级图书馆珍藏的最佳精品。
  • 作弊秘诀

    作弊秘诀

    一提起考场作弊,人们自会油然联想到可以镶嵌在眼镜镜框与耳朵里的微型无线摄像机、接收器等当代的高科技手段。然而,面临火眼金睛的反作弊电子“警察”,它们一进校门就暴露了原形。面对“逆境”,有人挖空心思地独创了连电子网络警察也徒唤奈何的最新的考场作弊方法,而且居然一次次地成功地避开了监考老师的严密监视。这是一种什么样的作弊秘诀?最终又是怎样被人们所破解的?本集16个短篇,都是紧紧围绕学生中所存在的不端正的学习态度与行为,进行深刻揭露与认真反思的优秀作品。其中《插班生》获得了2012年冰心新作奖。中国作协会委会委员、江苏作协主席范小青专为本集作了序。
  • 耕学斋诗集

    耕学斋诗集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 生死恋

    生死恋

    章楠和秦丽本来是一对亲密的恋人,他们正在筹备着婚礼的时候,章楠突然病倒了,得了可怕的血液病,秦丽一直不离不弃地照顾着章楠,章母却听信了迷信,认为秦丽是要克死章楠的狐狸精,对她加以侮辱。秦丽全都忍下来了。章楠病逝,秦丽替他还债,幸运地梅开二度,成功和爱慕者于明帆牵手走向幸福大道。
  • 重生后我成了废材帝姬

    重生后我成了废材帝姬

    本文已弃。 作为前世南栾的第一女将,今生以胸无点墨的极品废材,闻名整个东启的帝无双,有一个非常伟大的志向:一则天下无双问鼎灵神,二则重掌大权看遍天下美男子。因而在世人眼中的她,从一介废材开始,修阴阳术,活白骨,最后还成为了整个东启头一位的女帝陛下。彼时北沐摄政王殿下以清冷矜贵闻名天下,可是帝无双看着这个整日将自己缠在榻上,捧在手心的人,完全都不觉得有半分传闻中的模样。直到她君临天下,某日兴致来潮。“摄政王,朕以天下为聘,十里红妆,娶你如何?”清冷矜贵的摄政王殿下从善如流,“在下之幸。”
  • 六世孤独

    六世孤独

    修海霖是个不起眼的大学生,但是在上大学前家里出了事故,因为一场车祸,父母离世,修海霖却奇迹般地活了下来,醒来后修海霖似乎产生了心理阴影,每次入睡都会做噩梦,似乎在暗示着什么。
  • 谋职必读的N个故事

    谋职必读的N个故事

    本书用一个个简短而又富有哲理的故事,向大家讲述如何在职场上如鱼得水,左右逢源,从而“春风得意马蹄疾”。这些故事都是我们针对即将是入职场的人的实际情况精心选编而成的,因此实用性非常强,能够非常有效地消除准职场人内心的困惑和彷徨,能够在最短的时间内提高准职场人在职场上生存的能力。