第 24 节
作者:雨霖铃      更新:2024-12-13 14:16      字数:9322
  began to oppose his measures; whether right or wrong。  It is true
  that monarch had faults enow。  He was so abandoned to lust and
  luxury; that he addicted himself to the most extravagant excesses
  in both; while he indolently suffered the king of France to rob
  him of almost all his foreign dominions:  my opposition therefore
  was justifiable enough; and if my motive from within had been as
  good as the occasion from without I should have had little to
  excuse; but; in truth; I sought nothing but my own preferment; by
  making myself formidable to the king; and then selling to him the
  interest of that party by whose means I had become so。  Indeed;
  had the public good been my care; however zealously I might have
  opposed the beginning of his reign; I should not have scrupled to
  lend him my utmost assistance in this struggle between him and
  pope Innocent the third; in which he was so manifestly in the
  right; nor have suffered the insolence of that pope; and the
  power of the king of France; to have compelled him in the issue;
  basely to resign his crown into the hands of the former; and
  receive it again as a vassal; by means of which acknowledgment
  the pope afterwards claimed this kingdom as a tributary fief to
  be held of the papal chair; a claim which occasioned great
  uneasiness to many subsequent princes; and brought numberless
  calamities on the nation。
  〃As the king had; among other concessions; stipulated to pay an
  immediate sum of money to Pandulph; which he had great difficulty
  to raise; it was absolutely necessary for him to apply to the
  city; where my interest and popularity were so high that he had
  no hopes without my assistance。  As I knew this; I took care to
  sell myself and country as high as possible。  The terms I
  demanded; therefore; were a place; a pension; and a knighthood。
  All those were immediately consented to。  I was forthwith
  knighted; and promised the other two。
  〃I now mounted the hustings; and; without any regard to decency
  or modesty; made as emphatical a speech in favor of the king as
  before I had done against him。  In this speech I justified all
  those measures which I had before condemned; and pleaded as
  earnestly with my fellow…citizens to open their purses; as I had
  formerly done to prevail with them to keep them shut。  But; alas!
  my rhetoric had not the effect I proposed。  The consequence of my
  arguments was only contempt to myself。  The people at first
  stared on one another; and afterwards began unanimously to
  express their dislike。  An impudent fellow among them; reflecting
  on my trade; cried out; 'Stinking fish;' which was immediately
  reiterated through the whole crowd。  I was then forced to slink
  away home; but I was not able to accomplish my retreat without
  being attended by the mob; who huzza'd me along the street with
  the repeated cries of 'Stinking fish。'
  〃I now proceeded to court; to inform his majesty of my faithful
  service; and how much I had suffered in his cause。  I found by my
  first reception he had already heard of my success。  Instead of
  thanking me for my speech; he said the city should repent of
  their obstinacy; for that he would show them who he was:  and so
  saying; he immediately turned that part to me to which the toe of
  man hath so wonderful an affection; that it is very difficult;
  whenever it presents itself conveniently; to keep our toes from
  the most violent and ardent salutation of it。
  〃I was a little nettled at this behavior; and with some
  earnestness claimed the king's fulfilling his promise; but he
  retired without answering me。  I then applied to some of the
  courtiers; who had lately professed great friendship to me; had
  eat at my house; and invited me to theirs:  but not one would
  return me any answer; all running away from me as if I had been
  seized with some contagious distemper。  I now found by
  experience; that as none can be so civil; so none can be ruder
  than a courtier。
  〃A few moments after the king's retiring I was left alone in the
  room to consider what I should do or whither I should turn
  myself。  My reception in the city promised itself to be equal at
  least with what I found at court。  However; there was my home;
  and thither it was necessary I should retreat for the present。
  〃But; indeed; bad as I apprehended my treatment in the city would
  be; it exceeded my expectation。  I rode home on an ambling pad
  through crowds who expressed every kind of disregard and
  contempt; pelting me not only with the most abusive language; but
  with dirt。  However; with much difficulty I arrived at last at my
  own house; with my bones whole; but covered over with filth。
  〃When I was got within my doors; and had shut them against the
  mob; who had pretty well vented their spleen; and seemed now
  contented to retire; my wife; whom I found crying over her
  children; and from whom I had hoped some comfort in my
  afflictions; fell upon me in the most outrageous manner。  She
  asked me why I would venture on such a step; without consulting
  her; she said her advice might have been civilly asked; if I was
  resolved not to have been guided by it。  That; whatever opinion I
  might have conceived of her understanding; the rest of the world
  thought better of it。  That I had never failed when I had asked
  her counsel; nor ever succeeded without it;with much more of
  the same kind; too tedious to mention; concluding that it was a
  monstrous behavior to desert my party and come over to the court。
  An abuse which I took worse than all the rest; as she had been
  constantly for several years assiduous in railing at the
  opposition; in siding with the court…party; and begging me to
  come over to it; and especially after my mentioning the offer of
  knighthood to her; since which time she had continually
  interrupted my repose with dinning in my ears the folly of
  refusing honors and of adhering to a party and to principles by
  which I was certain of procuring no advantage to myself and my
  family。
  〃I had now entirely lost my trade; so that I had not the least
  temptation to stay longer in a city where I was certain of
  receiving daily affronts and rebukes。  I therefore made up my
  affairs with the utmost expedition; and; scraping together all I
  could; retired into the country; where I spent the remainder of
  my days in universal contempt; being shunned by everybody;
  perpetually abused by my wife; and not much respected by my
  children。
  〃Minos told me; though I had been a very vile fellow; he thought
  my sufferings made some atonement; and so bid me take the other
  trial。〃
  CHAPTER XXIV
  Julian recounts what happened to him while he was a poet。
  〃Rome was now the seat of my nativity; where I was born of a
  family more remarkable for honor than riches。  I was intended for
  the church; and had a pretty good education; but my father dying
  while I was young; and leaving me nothing; for he had wasted his
  whole patrimony; I was forced to enter myself in the order of
  mendicants。
  〃When I was at school I had a knack of rhyming; which I unhappily
  mistook for genius; and indulged to my cost; for my verses drew
  on me only ridicule; and I was in contempt called the poet。
  〃This humor pursued me through my life。  My first composition
  after I left school was a panegyric on pope Alexander IV; who
  then pretended a project of dethroning the king of Sicily。  On
  this subject I composed a poem of about fifteen thousand lines;
  which with much difficulty I got to be presented to his holiness;
  of whom I expected great preferment as my reward; but I was
  cruelly disappointed:  for when I had waited a year; without
  hearing any of the commendations I had flattered myself with
  receiving; and being now able to contain no longer; I applied to
  a Jesuit who was my relation; and had the pope's ear; to know
  what his holiness's opinion was of my work:  he coldly answered
  me that he was at that time busied in concerns of too much
  importance to attend the reading of poems。
  〃However dissatisfied I might be; and really was; with this
  reception; and however angry I was with the pope? for whose
  understanding I entertained an immoderate contempt; I was not yet
  discouraged from a second attempt。  Accordingly; I soon after
  produced another work; entitled; The Trojan Horse。  This was an
  allegorical work; in which the church was introduced into the
  world in the same manner as that machine had been into Troy。  The
  priests were the soldiers in its belly; and the heathen
  superstition the city to be destroyed by them。  This poem was
  written in Latin。  I remember some of the lines:
  Mundanos scandit fatalis machina muros;
  Farta sacerdotum turmis:  exinde per alvum
  Visi exire omnes; maguo cum murmure olentes。
  Non aliter quam cum llumanis furibundus ab antris
  It sonus et nares simul aura invadit hiantes。
  Mille scatent et mille alii; trepidare timore
  Ethnica gens coepit:  falsi per inane volantes
  Effu