登陆注册
5267900000026

第26章 NOTES TO THE DEVIL'S DISCIPLE(1)

BURGOYNE

General John Burgoyne, who is presented in this play for the first time (as far as I am aware) on the English stage, is not a conventional stage soldier, but as faithful a portrait as it is in the nature of stage portraits to be. His objection to profane swearing is not borrowed from Mr. Gilbert's H. M. S. Pinafore: it is taken from the Code of Instructions drawn up by himself for his officers when he introduced Light Horse into the English army. His opinion that English soldiers should be treated as thinking beings was no doubt as unwelcome to the military authorities of his time, when nothing was thought of ordering a soldier a thousand lashes, as it will be to those modern victims of the flagellation neurosis who are so anxious to revive that discredited sport. His military reports are very clever as criticisms, and are humane and enlightened within certain aristocratic limits, best illustrated perhaps by his declaration, which now sounds so curious, that he should blush to ask for promotion on any other ground than that of family influence. As a parliamentary candidate, Burgoyne took our common expression "fighting an election" so very literally that he led his supporters to the poll at Preston in 1768 with a loaded pistol in each hand, and won the seat, though he was fined 1,000 pounds, and denounced by Junius, for the pistols.

It is only within quite recent years that any general recognition has become possible for the feeling that led Burgoyne, a professed enemy of oppression in India and elsewhere, to accept his American command when so many other officers threw up their commissions rather than serve in a civil war against the Colonies. His biographer De Fonblanque, writing in 1876, evidently regarded his position as indefensible. Nowadays, it is sufficient to say that Burgoyne was an Imperialist. He sympathized with the colonists; but when they proposed as a remedy the disruption of the Empire, he regarded that as a step backward in civilization. As he put it to the House of Commons, "while we remember that we are contending against brothers and fellow subjects, we must also remember that we are contending in this crisis for the fate of the British Empire." Eighty-four years after his defeat, his republican conquerors themselves engaged in a civil war for the integrity of their Union. In 1886 the Whigs who represented the anti-Burgoyne tradition of American Independence in English politics, abandoned Gladstone and made common cause with their political opponents in defence of the Union between England and Ireland. Only the other day England sent 200,000 men into the field south of the equator to fight out the question whether South Africa should develop as a Federation of British Colonies or as an independent Afrikander United States. In all these cases the Unionists who were detached from their parties were called renegades, as Burgoyne was. That, of course, is only one of the unfortunate consequences of the fact that mankind, being for the most part incapable of politics, accepts vituperation as an easy and congenial substitute. Whether Burgoyne or Washington, Lincoln or Davis, Gladstone or Bright, Mr. Chamberlain or Mr. Leonard Courtney was in the right will never be settled, because it will never be possible to prove that the government of the victor has been better for mankind than the government of the vanquished would have been. It is true that the victors have no doubt on the point; but to the dramatist, that certainty of theirs is only part of the human comedy. The American Unionist is often a Separatist as to Ireland; the English Unionist often sympathizes with the Polish Home Ruler; and both English and American Unionists are apt to be Disruptionists as regards that Imperial Ancient of Days, the Empire of China. Both are Unionists concerning Canada, but with a difference as to the precise application to it of the Monroe doctrine. As for me, the dramatist, I smile, and lead the conversation back to Burgoyne.

Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga made him that occasionally necessary part of our British system, a scapegoat. The explanation of his defeat given in the play is founded on a passage quoted by De Fonblanque from Fitzmaurice's Life of Lord Shelburne, as follows: "Lord George Germain, having among other peculiarities a particular dislike to be put out of his way on any occasion, had arranged to call at his office on his way to the country to sign the dispatches; but as those addressed to Howe had not been faircopied, and he was not disposed to be balked of his projected visit to Kent, they were not signed then and were forgotten on his return home." These were the dispatches instructing Sir William Howe, who was in New York, to effect a junction at Albany with Burgoyne, who had marched from Boston for that purpose. Burgoyne got as far as Saratoga, where, failing the expected reinforcement, he was hopelessly outnumbered, and his officers picked off, Boer fashion, by the American farmer-sharpshooters. His own collar was pierced by a bullet. The publicity of his defeat, however, was more than compensated at home by the fact that Lord George's trip to Kent had not been interfered with, and that nobody knew about the oversight of the dispatch. The policy of the English Government and Court for the next two years was simply concealment of Germain's neglect.

同类推荐
  • The Altar of the Dead

    The Altar of the Dead

    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。
  • 佛说法乘义决定经

    佛说法乘义决定经

    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。
  • 毗婆沙

    毗婆沙

    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。
  • 十诵律

    十诵律

    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。
  • 林泉高致集

    林泉高致集

    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。
热门推荐
  • 美漫里的变形金刚

    美漫里的变形金刚

    以塞博坦之名,征战多元宇宙。高举变种人之王的旗帜,摆脱桎梏走向超脱。背负塞博坦之神的名号,举世唯一,冲击神之领域。我是唐尼,世界树是任我征战的后花园,主宇宙是我随意玩弄的游乐园,多元宇宙是我随意畅游的狩猎场。
  • 宠妻无度:农女喜当家

    宠妻无度:农女喜当家

    一觉醒来,冉风华觉得很憋屈。人家穿越,不是公主郡主就是名媛闺秀,再不济那也是小家碧玉,怎到了她这里就成了一个无权无势的懦弱小农女?更糟糕的是,她不但人小力小存在小,还家徒四壁。弱爹不亲偏心,母亲病弱,兄长冷淡不得志,姐妹争宠互打压,极品亲戚各个会装!她表示实在是鸭梨山大!“夫人,表这么冷淡嘛!人家可是好久都没有那个了!你就不心疼为夫这身子吗?就算你不心疼,也应该为自己下半辈子的‘幸福’着想不是?夫人,你就从了为夫吧!”
  • 大方广佛华严经普贤菩萨行愿品

    大方广佛华严经普贤菩萨行愿品

    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。
  • 中国航空工业大事记:1951—2011

    中国航空工业大事记:1951—2011

    《中国航空工业大事记(1951-2011)》如是记录了中国航空工业近60年走过的光辉历程,系统展示了新中国航空工业所取得的辉煌成就,全面体现了航空人奋进创新、报销祖国的精神风貌。本书内容翔实、系统,记述准确、可观、简明,不少信息属于首次披露,兼具纪念价值和史料价值,可作为工具书使用与收藏。
  • 快穿,反派攻略

    快穿,反派攻略

    【推荐新书《帝少今天又醋了》】#!Σ(?д?lll)急急急,每个世界都在被失忆了的前男友追债怎么破?#ps:本文1对1,甜宠文。
  • 你和我

    你和我

    安宁承认自己容易心软。向葵向他描述的乱局,让他犹豫了两天,然后心软了。从小到大一路而来,他习惯了承担。他挑了莫扎特《G大调第一长笛协奏曲》等几首曲目,与爱音交响乐队合了两个下午,就准备上场了。演出那天,红色大厅灯火灿烂。与每次开演前一样,安宁坐在幽暗后台的一角,让心神静下来。幕布之外,观众们正在进场,到这时他才突然想起,也不知道舞台上方和剧场门外悬挂的横幅是“安静笛子独奏音乐会”呢,还是已改成了“安宁长笛独奏音乐会”,刚才忘记瞥一眼了。如果它们与观众手中门票上印的名称不同,他们会觉得奇怪吗?他的思绪没在这个疑问上停留太久,现在的他不太在意这个。这只是一场演出。不就是一场救场的演出吗?他甚至也没像以往许多次那样纠结,父亲林重道会不会来?
  • 大五那年我的魔兽我的兄弟

    大五那年我的魔兽我的兄弟

    长篇小说《大五那年我的魔兽我的兄弟》讲述了大学男生宿舍中6个男生一起打游戏的大学生活,搞怪、爆笑。WCG世界冠军、人皇SKY李晓峰推荐。《大五那年我的魔兽我的兄弟》由空城大叔编著。
  • 蚀骨1

    蚀骨1

    我讲述不是杀人,是被杀;我解剖的不是尸体,是人性。人就像是一面镜子,一切都是反的。我管善良叫看似邪恶,邪恶叫看似善良。一书包含十五个原创悬疑剧本,情节波折,节奏顺畅,一悬到底,矛盾突出,逻辑合理,深度哲学,社会百态,刻骨悬爱,有一样没做到都算我输!
  • 台东州采访册

    台东州采访册

    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。
  • 超时空祭奠

    超时空祭奠

    《超时空祭奠》是轻小说实力派小天后胡伟红力作。创作历时整整一年,尽管是科幻题材,也将感知到爱的无处不在。让你见识另类安妮丝公主。“在你遇到我的那天起,这超越时空的恋情该如何选择?”时空的穿梭,超力能的比拼,地球安全的威胁。这一切在时间的面前都不过沧海一粟,唯有爱是那么刻骨,那么永恒!