登陆注册
5697600000006

第6章 ACT I(6)

[He pulls up his chair and settles himself comfortably to lecture Doyle].Now,Larry,I've listened carefully to all you've said about Ireland;and I can see nothing whatever to prevent your coming with me.What does it all come to?Simply that you were only a young fellow when you were in Ireland.You'll find all that chaffing and drinking and not knowing what to be at in Peckham just the same as in Donnybrook.You looked at Ireland with a boy's eyes and saw only boyish things.Come back with me and look at it with a man's,and get a better opinion of your country.

DOYLE.I daresay you're partly right in that:at all events Iknow very well that if I had been the son of a laborer instead of the son of a country landagent,I should have struck more grit than I did.Unfortunately I'm not going back to visit the Irish nation,but to visit my father and Aunt Judy and Nora Reilly and Father Dempsey and the rest of them.

BROADBENT.Well,why not?They'll be delighted to see you,now that England has made a man of you.

DOYLE [struck by this].Ah!you hit the mark there,Tom,with true British inspiration.

BROADBENT.Common sense,you mean.

DOYLE [quickly].No I don't:you've no more common sense than a gander.No Englishman has any common sense,or ever had,or ever will have.You're going on a sentimental expedition for perfectly ridiculous reasons,with your head full of political nonsense that would not take in any ordinarily intelligent donkey;but you can hit me in the eye with the simple truth about myself and my father.

BROADBENT [amazed].I never mentioned your father.

DOYLE [not heeding the interruption].There he is in Rosscullen,a landagent who's always been in a small way because he's a Catholic,and the landlords are mostly Protestants.What with land courts reducing rents and Land Acts turning big estates into little holdings,he'd be a beggar this day if he hadn't bought his own little farm under the Land Purchase Act.I doubt if he's been further from home than Athenmullet for the last twenty years.And here am I,made a man of,as you say,by England.

BROADBENT [apologetically].I assure you I never meant--DOYLE.Oh,don't apologize:it's quite true.I daresay I've learnt something in America and a few other remote and inferior spots;but in the main it is by living with you and working in double harness with you that I have learnt to live in a real world and not in an imaginary one.I owe more to you than to any Irishman.

BROADBENT [shaking his head with a twinkle in his eye].Very friendly of you,Larry,old man,but all blarney.I like blarney;but it's rot,all the same.

DOYLE.No it's not.I should never have done anything without you;although I never stop wondering at that blessed old head of yours with all its ideas in watertight compartments,and all the compartments warranted impervious to anything that it doesn't suit you to understand.

BROADBENT [invincible].Unmitigated rot,Larry,I assure you.

DOYLE.Well,at any rate you will admit that all my friends are either Englishmen or men of the big world that belongs to the big Powers.All the serious part of my life has been lived in that atmosphere:all the serious part of my work has been done with men of that sort.Just think of me as I am now going back to Rosscullen!to that hell of littleness and monotony!How am I to get on with a little country landagent that ekes out his 5per cent with a little farming and a scrap of house property in the nearest country town?What am I to say to him?What is he to say to me?

BROADBFNT [scandalized].But you're father and son,man!

DOYLE.What difference does that make?What would you say if Iproposed a visit to YOUR father?

BROADBENT [with filial rectitude].I always made a point of going to see my father regularly until his mind gave way.

DOYLE [concerned].Has he gone mad?You never told me.

BROADBENT.He has joined the Tariff Reform League.He would never have done that if his mind had not been weakened.[Beginning to declaim]He has fallen a victim to the arts of a political charlatan who--DOYLE [interrupting him].You mean that you keep clear of your father because he differs from you about Free Trade,and you don't want to quarrel with him.Well,think of me and my father!

He's a Nationalist and a Separatist.I'm a metallurgical chemist turned civil engineer.Now whatever else metallurgical chemistry may be,it's not national.It's international.And my business and yours as civil engineers is to join countries,not to separate them.The one real political conviction that our business has rubbed into us is that frontiers are hindrances and flags confounded nuisances.

BROADBENT [still smarting under Mr Chamberlain's economic heresy].Only when there is a protective tariff--DOYLE [firmly]Now look here,Tom:you want to get in a speech on Free Trade;and you're not going to do it:I won't stand it.My father wants to make St George's Channel a frontier and hoist a green flag on College Green;and I want to bring Galway within 3hours of Colchester and 24of New York.I want Ireland to be the brains and imagination of a big Commonwealth,not a Robinson Crusoe island.Then there's the religious difficulty.My Catholicism is the Catholicism of Charlemagne or Dante,qualified by a great deal of modern science and folklore which Father Dempsey would call the ravings of an Atheist.Well,my father's Catholicism is the Catholicism of Father Dempsey.

BROADBENT [shrewdly].I don't want to interrupt you,Larry;but you know this is all gammon.These differences exist in all families;but the members rub on together all right.[Suddenly relapsing into portentousness]Of course there are some questions which touch the very foundations of morals;and on these I grant you even the closest relationships cannot excuse any compromise or laxity.For instance--DOYLE [impatiently springing up and walking about].For instance,Home Rule,South Africa,Free Trade,and the Education Rate.

同类推荐
  • 句曲外史集

    句曲外史集

    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。
  • 佛说文殊师利法宝藏陀罗尼经

    佛说文殊师利法宝藏陀罗尼经

    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。
  • 法华私记缘起

    法华私记缘起

    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。
  • Sword Blades & Poppy Seed

    Sword Blades & Poppy Seed

    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。
  • 练兵实纪

    练兵实纪

    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
  • 我年轻时候的女朋友

    我年轻时候的女朋友

    这是一场疯狂而离奇的情感之旅,小饭以“背叛”的视角审视他的初恋时光,残忍地将美好的爱情和友情一一打碎——他遭受了爱情和友情的双重背叛……看似平淡无奇的开始,结尾却如此出人意料。
  • 戏剧女神

    戏剧女神

    初见路随时,雾茫茫小鹿乱撞,演技爆表:一定要拿下这款限量版男神!再见时,雾茫茫痛下决心:珍爱生命,远离路随。三见时,雾茫茫表示:路大神我惹不起,还躲不起吗?N次后,雾茫茫缴械投降:路先生,我有病,你愿意和我一起放弃治疗吗?
  • 乱世猎人(13)

    乱世猎人(13)

    他来自山野林间,他是一个普通的猎人,但却有着一位极具传奇性的父亲!他无意名扬天下,他不爱江山只爱美人,但时势却将他造就成一段武林的神话!他无意争霸天下,但他为了拯救天下苍生于水火,而成为乱世中最可怕的战士!他就是——蔡风!北魏末年,一位自幼与兽为伍的少年,凭着武功与智慧崛起于江湖,他虽无志于天下,却被乱世的激流一次次推向生死的边缘,从而也使他深明乱世的真谛——狩猎与被猎。
  • 我和你不得不说的秘密

    我和你不得不说的秘密

    一诺,如果高三的时候可以跟你一起走,我就不会承担这些痛苦。一诺,请再给我一次机会,让我跟你说我藏在心里的秘密。许多事都是错过和遗憾。
  • 月色笙歌:邪魅太子不好惹

    月色笙歌:邪魅太子不好惹

    “枭月,你可否爱过我?”漓笙身着潋滟夺目的大红嫁衣,原本是属于她最幸福的一刻,却偏偏被她最信任最爱的人亲手撕毁。她的王国,她的子民,却因为她的那一念心动,如今都受尽践踏,凌辱。她泪眼婆娑坚持的问出她不死心的那句话。而他的眼里只有她狼狈的一幕,再无其他。“哈!哈!怪只怪孤当时真情错付,以后你我天涯陌路,世上再无爱枭月的漓笙。”可笑天意弄人,时隔万年,偏偏又与他相遇。一边是深情相付,又有救命之恩的妖魅师父,一边又是前世深爱,腹黑专情的太子殿下。谁能来救救她,哪个生气了就得去哄,一个邪魅一个妖魅,唉,不仅要对付这两个,还得对付那群情敌,累的要死啊!
  • 小故事大智慧

    小故事大智慧

    在一本普通的书中,除了我们放进去的东西之外,我们找不到别的什么。但是在一本好书中,心灵能找到存放大量东西的空间。书的内容轻松幽默,而故事的内涵却令人回味无穷。只有精品细读,方能有所收获。此书最适合常备案头,能够使你在茶余饭后,睡前醒来,工作的间隙,休闲的时刻,心情舒畅的瞬间,郁闷烦恼的时候,随手翻阅其中的小故事,相信能给你心旷神怡之感。
  • 校草你家吃货又不见了

    校草你家吃货又不见了

    新文:(替嫁甜妻:亿万老公,请温柔)欢迎填坑。转校第一天,惹上大恶魔,从此身陷狼窝。“亲一下,给你一根棒棒糖!”某恶魔的算盘打的啪啪作响,机关算尽让她留在身边。饿了?恶魔亲亲就不饿了。累了?恶魔亲亲就不累了。困了?恶魔亲亲就不困了。“混蛋!不要再亲了!”小吃货终于忍无可忍,奴隶翻身要把歌唱。而这次,宠她上天的恶魔步步逼紧,“小吃货,吃了我的棒棒糖,哪有不以身相许的道理?”遇上她之前,他不知道什么叫爱情。遇上她之后,他的心里眼里都是她!
  • 五灯严统解惑编

    五灯严统解惑编

    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。
  • 亲爱的生活

    亲爱的生活

    《亲爱的生活》是2013年诺贝尔文学奖得主艾丽丝·门罗在获奖前夕的作品,也是她迄今最新作品,在一定意义上,正是这部别致而富有深意的小说打动了诺奖评委会。小说讲述了别离与开始、意外与危险、离家与返乡的故事,被认为是门罗最丰富、最完美、最具个性的“集大成之作”。这是关于生活,关于生活的旅途。在这趟旅途中,所有的事都不会像我们希望的那样发生。但到最后,这些都不要紧。我们终将原谅这个世界,原谅我们自己。因为,我们一直以如此善意对待的生活,终将以善意回馈你我。亲爱的,生活。
  • 最强末世三国系统

    最强末世三国系统

    新书《我有一个三国召唤系统》已发布,各位书友可以收藏一下!————————————一觉醒来,末世来临。在一阵诡异的白雾笼罩下,整个世界所有的电子产品和现代武器全部失效,人类重归冷兵器时代。丧尸、变异的动植物,还有突然冒出来的一座座古城。还好,老天并没有让杜云失望,最强三国系统激活,魏、蜀、吴三国兵马和强悍副将皆可被召唤。先登死士,麴义振臂一挥,万千弩箭瞬间笼罩苍穹。魏国虎豹骑,铁马震山河!高顺陷阵营,有我无敌!大戟士、无当飞军、西凉铁骑、关羽、马超、赵云……在这混乱的末世中,杜云势要登上那传说中的天空之座!