第 23 节
作者:
莫再讲 更新:2021-02-19 00:42 字数:9322
s of his; terrible and beautiful; are the fruit of the Christian Meditation of all the good men who had gone before him。 Precious they; but also is not he precious? Much; had not he spoken; would have been dumb; not dead; yet living voiceless。
On the whole; is it not an utterance; this mystic Song; at once of one of the greatest human souls; and of the highest thing that Europe had hitherto realized for itself? Christianism; as Dante sings it; is another than Paganism in the rude Norse mind; another than 〃Bastard Christianism〃 half… articulately spoken in the Arab Desert; seven hundred years before!The noblest _idea_ made _real_ hitherto among men; is sung; and emblemed forth abidingly; by one of the noblest men。 In the one sense and in the other; are we not right glad to possess it? As I calculate; it may last yet for long thousands of years。 For the thing that is uttered from the inmost parts of a man's soul; differs altogether from what is uttered by the outer part。 The outer is of the day; under the empire of mode; the outer passes away; in swift endless changes; the inmost is the same yesterday; to…day and forever。 True souls; in all generations of the world; who look on this Dante; will find a brotherhood in him; the deep sincerity of his thoughts; his woes and hopes; will speak likewise to their sincerity; they will feel that this Dante too was a brother。 Napoleon in Saint Helena is charmed with the genial veracity of old Homer。 The oldest Hebrew Prophet; under a vesture the most diverse from ours; does yet; because he speaks from the heart of man; speak to all men's hearts。 It is the one sole secret of continuing long memorable。 Dante; for depth of sincerity; is like an antique Prophet too; his words; like theirs; come from his very heart。 One need not wonder if it were predicted that his Poem might be the most enduring thing our Europe has yet made; for nothing so endures as a truly spoken word。 All cathedrals; pontificalities; brass and stone; and outer arrangement never so lasting; are brief in comparison to an unfathomable heart…song like this: one feels as if it might survive; still of importance to men; when these had all sunk into new irrecognizable combinations; and had ceased individually to be。 Europe has made much; great cities; great empires; encyclopaedias; creeds; bodies of opinion and practice: but it has made little of the class of Dante's Thought。 Homer yet _is_ veritably present face to face with every open soul of us; and Greece; where is _it_? Desolate for thousands of years; away; vanished; a bewildered heap of stones and rubbish; the life and existence of it all gone。 Like a dream; like the dust of King Agamemnon! Greece was; Greece; except in the _words_ it spoke; is not。
The uses of this Dante? We will not say much about his 〃uses。〃 A human soul who has once got into that primal element of _Song_; and sung forth fitly somewhat therefrom; has worked in the _depths_ of our existence; feeding through long times the life…roots of all excellent human things whatsoever;in a way that 〃utilities〃 will not succeed well in calculating! We will not estimate the Sun by the quantity of gaslight it saves us; Dante shall be invaluable; or of no value。 One remark I may make: the contrast in this respect between the Hero…Poet and the Hero…Prophet。 In a hundred years; Mahomet; as we saw; had his Arabians at Grenada and at Delhi; Dante's Italians seem to be yet very much where they were。 Shall we say; then; Dante's effect on the world was small in comparison? Not so: his arena is far more restricted; but also it is far nobler; clearer;perhaps not less but more important。 Mahomet speaks to great masses of men; in the coarse dialect adapted to such; a dialect filled with inconsistencies; crudities; follies: on the great masses alone can he act; and there with good and with evil strangely blended。 Dante speaks to the noble; the pure and great; in all times and places。 Neither does he grow obsolete; as the other does。 Dante burns as a pure star; fixed there in the firmament; at which the great and the high of all ages kindle themselves: he is the possession of all the chosen of the world for uncounted time。 Dante; one calculates; may long survive Mahomet。 In this way the balance may be made straight again。
But; at any rate; it is not by what is called their effect on the world; by what _we_ can judge of their effect there; that a man and his work are measured。 Effect? Influence? Utility? Let a man _do_ his work; the fruit of it is the care of Another than he。 It will grow its own fruit; and whether embodied in Caliph Thrones and Arabian Conquests; so that it 〃fills all Morning and Evening Newspapers;〃 and all Histories; which are a kind of distilled Newspapers; or not embodied so at all;what matters that? That is not the real fruit of it! The Arabian Caliph; in so far only as he did something; was something。 If the great Cause of Man; and Man's work in God's Earth; got no furtherance from the Arabian Caliph; then no matter how many scimetars he drew; how many gold piasters pocketed; and what uproar and blaring he made in this world;_he_ was but a loud…sounding inanity and futility; at bottom; he _was_ not at all。 Let us honor the great empire of _Silence_; once more! The boundless treasury which we do not jingle in our pockets; or count up and present before men! It is perhaps; of all things; the usefulest for each of us to do; in these loud times。
As Dante; the Italian man; was sent into our world to embody musically the Religion of the Middle Ages; the Religion of our Modern Europe; its Inner Life; so Shakspeare; we may say; embodies for us the Outer Life of our Europe as developed then; its chivalries; courtesies; humors; ambitions; what practical way of thinking; acting; looking at the world; men then had。 As in Homer we may still construe Old Greece; so in Shakspeare and Dante; after thousands of years; what our modern Europe was; in Faith and in Practice; will still be legible。 Dante has given us the Faith or soul; Shakspeare; in a not less noble way; has given us the Practice or body。 This latter also we were to have; a man was sent for it; the man Shakspeare。 Just when that chivalry way of life had reached its last finish; and was on the point of breaking down into slow or swift dissolution; as we now see it everywhere; this other sovereign Poet; with his seeing eye; with his perennial singing voice; was sent to take note of it; to give long…enduring record of it。 Two fit men: Dante; deep; fierce as the central fire of the world; Shakspeare; wide; placid; far…seeing; as the Sun; the upper light of the world。 Italy produced the one world…voice; we English had the honor of producing the other。
Curious enough how; as it were by mere accident; this man came to us。 I think always; so great; quiet; complete and self…sufficing is this Shakspeare; had the Warwickshire Squire not prosecuted him for deer…stealing; we had perhaps never heard of him as a Poet! The woods and skies; the rustic Life of Man in Stratford there; had been enough for this man! But indeed that strange outbudding of our whole English Existence; which we call the Elizabethan Era; did not it too come as of its own accord? The 〃Tree Igdrasil〃 buds and withers by its own laws;too deep for our scanning。 Yet it does bud and wither; and every bough and leaf of it is there; by fixed eternal laws; not a Sir Thomas Lucy but comes at the hour fit for him。 Curious; I say; and not sufficiently considered: how everything does co…operate with all; not a leaf rotting on the highway but is indissoluble portion of solar and stellar systems; no thought; word or act of man but has sprung withal out of all men; and works sooner or later; recognizably or irrecognizable; on all men! It is all a Tree: circulation of sap and influences; mutual communication of every minutest leaf with the lowest talon of a root; with every other greatest and minutest portion of the whole。 The Tree Igdrasil; that has its roots down in the Kingdoms of Hela and Death; and whose boughs overspread the highest Heaven!
In some sense it may be said that this glorious Elizabethan Era with its Shakspeare; as the outcome and flowerage of all which had preceded it; is itself attributable to the Catholicism of the Middle Ages。 The Christian Faith; which was the theme of Dante's Song; had produced this Practical Life which Shakspeare was to sing。 For Religion then; as it now and always is; was the soul of Practice; the primary vital fact in men's life。 And remark here; as rather curious; that Middle…Age Catholicism was abolished; so far as Acts of Parliament could abolish it; before Shakspeare; the noblest product of it; made his appearance。 He did make his appearance nevertheless。 Nature at her own time; with Catholicism or what else might be necessary; sent him forth; taking small thought of Acts of Parliament。 King Henrys; Queen Elizabeths go their way; and Nature too goes hers。 Acts of Parliament; on the whole; are small; notwithstanding the noise they make。 What Act of Parliament; debate at St。 Stephen's; on the hustings or elsewhere; was it that brought this Shakspeare into being? No dining at Freemason's Tavern; opening