(六)失意與詩意的君王
《理查二世》首版於1597年,是莎士比亞早期的一部曆史劇,講述了一個不稱職的國王的故事。
第二幕是該劇的一個重要轉折點,岡特的約翰臨終前對侄子理查二世說了一個極壞的詛咒。我發現,出現在莎翁多部戲劇的詛咒似乎都給被詛咒者帶來厄運,從老者或瀕死者嘴裏說出的詛咒尤其靈驗。
第二幕第一場,理查二世帶著一幫人來看望重病的約翰,約翰對他說:“啊,不要饒恕我, 我的哥哥愛德華的兒子,因為我是他父親愛德華的兒子。你像鵜鶘一樣啄飲親情血液,喝得酩酊大醉。我的兄弟葛羅斯特是個淳樸善良的好人,在天堂和那些有福的靈魂同享極樂,他就是前例和見證,來說明你對濺灑愛德華的血是毫無顧忌的。和我的疾病一起來加害我吧,你的無情就像衰老駝背的年齡,砍下這一朵久已凋零的花。活在你的恥辱中吧,但恥辱不會和你同歸於盡!從今以後這些話會折磨著你。把我搬到床上去,然後再把我送進墳墓;享受著愛和榮譽的人,才會感到生存的樂趣。”
(注:理查二世的父親黑太子愛德華(Edward the Black Prince,1330-1376年)是英王愛德華三世的長子)
(JOHN OF GAUNT
O, spare me not, my brother Edward’s son,
For that I was his father Edward’s son;
That blood already, like the pelican,
Hast thou tapp’d out and drunkenly caroused:
My brother Gloucester, plain well-meaning soul,
Whom fair befal in heaven ’mongst happy souls!
May be a precedent and witness good
That thou respect’st not spilling Edward’s blood:
Join with the present sickness that I have;
And thy unkindness be like crooked age,
To crop at once a too long wither’d flower.
Live in thy shame, but die not shame with thee!
These words hereafter thy tormentors be!
Convey me to my bed, then to my grave:
Love they to live that love and honour have.
這段話交待了謀殺葛羅斯特公爵(理查二世的叔叔)的正是理查二世本人。從約翰口中說出的“活在你的恥辱中吧,但恥辱不會和你同歸於盡”,這個詛咒是跨朝代的,為莎士比亞今後的續集創作奠定了基礎。理查二世的恥辱不會隨著他的被害而消亡,會繼續籠罩繼任者的頭上。
第四幕第一場中,從卡萊爾主教的嘴裏也冒出了類似的預言,現將相關的英文台詞翻譯如下:
約克公爵:
“偉大的蘭開斯特公爵,我奉铩羽而歸的理查之命而來,他願意讓您成為他的繼承人,把他至尊的權杖交到您莊嚴的手裏。他已經退位讓賢,登上他的寶座吧,亨利四世萬歲!”
(DUKE OF YORK
Great Duke of Lancaster, I come to thee
From plume-pluck’d Richard; who with willing soul
Adopts thee heir, and his high sceptre yields
To the possession of thy royal hand:
Ascend his throne, descending now from him;
And long live Henry, fourth of that name!
亨利.波林勃洛克:
“以上帝之名,我要登上寶座了。”
(HENRY BOLINGBROKE
In God’s name, I’ll ascend the regal throne.)
卡萊爾主教:
“噯喲,上帝禁止這種做法!在諸位貴人當中,我是最卑微的,卻最適合講真話。如果上帝在你們這些尊貴的人群中找出一個有資格公平審判尊貴的理查的法官,那麽他高貴的精神就會使他不犯下這麽重大的錯誤。哪一個臣子可以判他的君王的罪行?在座的哪一位不是理查的臣子?竊賊們即使罪狀確鑿,也必須讓他們親自出場,才能審判。難道一位代表著神的威嚴、為天命所選而治理萬民、塗抹香膏、頂戴王冠、已經執政多年的君王,可以由他的出身低微的臣子們來判罪,而他卻沒有當場辯白的機會嗎?哦,上帝保佑啊,在這基督教的氛圍內,一群富有教養的人士竟然做出如此可惡、黑暗、卑劣的行為!受到上帝的鼓勵,我以一個臣子的身分向臣子們說話,大膽地為他的君王辯護。這位被你們稱為國王的赫裏福德公爵是一個欺君罔上的奸惡的叛徒,如果你們擁戴他為王,讓我預言:英國人的血將使土壤更肥沃,後世的子孫將要為這個惡行而痛苦呻吟;和平將要安睡在土耳其人和異教徒當中,這片樂土將飽受戰亂,骨肉至親自相殘殺。混亂、恐怖、驚慌和暴動將要在這裏定居,這塊國土將要被稱為各各他,堆積骷髏的荒場。啊!要是你們幫助一個王族中人傾覆他的同族的君王,將會造成這個被咒詛的世界的最不幸的分裂。阻止它,抵抗它,不要讓它實現,免得你們的子孫和你們子孫的子孫們為你們的行為感到悲哀。”
(注:Golgotha, 各各他山,意譯為“骷髏地”,乃羅馬統治以色列時期耶路撒冷城郊之山,耶穌曾被釘在各各他山上的十字架上。)
(BISHOP OF CARLISLE
Marry. God forbid!
Worst in this royal presence may I speak,
Yet best beseeming me to speak the truth.
Would God that any in this noble presence
Were enough noble to be upright judge
Of noble Richard! then true noblesse would
Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong.
What subject can give sentence on his king?
And who sits here that is not Richard’s subject?
Thieves are not judged but they are by to hear,
Although apparent guilt be seen in them;
And shall the figure of God’s majesty,
His captain, steward, deputy-elect,
Anointed, crowned, planted many years,
Be judged by subject and inferior breath,
And he himself not present? O, forfend it, God,
That in a Christian climate souls refined
Should show so heinous, black, obscene a deed!
I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks,
Stirr’d up by God, thus boldly for his king:
My Lord of Hereford here, whom you call king,
Is a foul traitor to proud Hereford’s king:
And if you crown him, let me prophesy:
The blood of English shall manure the ground,
And future ages groan for this foul act;
Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels,
And in this seat of peace tumultuous wars
Shall kin with kin and kind with kind confound;
Disorder, horror, fear and mutiny
Shall here inhabit, and this land be call’d
The field of Golgotha and dead men’s skulls.
O, if you raise this house against this house,
It will the woefullest division prove
That ever fell upon this cursed earth.
Prevent it, resist it, let it not be so,
Lest child, child’s children, cry against you woe!)
第四幕第一場是《理查二世》的一個小高潮,卡萊爾主教的演講被安排在該幕劇情的中間,是一場非常重要的台詞。他強烈地悍衛了君權神授的專製製度,並給了反叛者一係列的警告、詛咒和不祥的預言。亨利.波林勃洛克和他的手下惱羞成怒,以叛國罪逮捕了卡萊爾主教,但主教的不祥預言仍然籠罩著後麵的劇情。
盡管《理查二世》是莎士比亞的早期作品,裏麵的內心獨白和大段優美的台詞已經充分展示了作者嫻熟高超的寫作技巧。細細品嚐,但覺滿口香醇,陶醉其中,竟然流連忘返。
第四幕第一場,理查二世退位前的幾場非凡的演說是該劇最著名的場景之一,值得再三閱讀。本人現舉出以下幾個經典例子:
一:當理查將王冠交給波林勃洛克時,沒有打算馬上放手,兩個人互相注視著對方,理查做了一個很精彩的比喻:“把王冠給我。這兒,賢弟,把王冠拿住了;這邊是我的手,那邊是你的手。現在這一頂黃金王冠就像一口深井,有兩個吊桶,舉起一個桶就會使另一個桶落入井中汲水。那空的一桶在空中起舞,滿的一桶在底下,不被人發現。我就是那下麵的裝滿了淚水的桶,啜飲著自己的悲傷,你卻升到了高空。”
(KING RICHARD II
Give me the crown. Here, cousin, seize the crown;
Here cousin:
On this side my hand, and on that side yours.
Now is this golden crown like a deep well
That owes two buckets, filling one another,
The emptier ever dancing in the air,
The other down, unseen and full of water:
That bucket down and full of tears am I,
Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high.)
(左:理查二世,右:亨利四世)
二:當波林勃洛克直截了當地問他:“你願意放棄你的王冠嗎?”(Are you contented to resign the crown?), 理查陷入了漫長的自言自語中,無可奈何地交出王權:“是,不;不,是;因為我是一個無用的人,所以,不,不,一切悉聽尊便。現在,看好了,我怎樣把自己變成一個廢人。從我的頭上卸下這重壓,從我的手中放下這粗笨的權杖,從我的心頭丟棄這君王的驕傲。我用自己的眼淚洗去了我的香膏,用自己的雙手放棄了我的王冠,用自己的舌頭否認了我的神聖地位,用自己的呼吸免除了所有的職責儀式。我摒絕一切浮華與尊嚴,放棄我的莊園、租金、收入,撤銷我的法令、裁定、法律,願上帝赦免所有對我毀棄的誓言!願上帝保佑一切對你所做的盟約永不遭背叛!讓我這個一無所有的人為一無所有而悲哀,讓你這個得到一切的人為享有一切而開心!願你坐在理查的寶位上萬壽無疆,願理查早早長眠於墳坑中!上帝保佑亨利國王,失去王位的理查這樣說,送給他許多年陽光燦爛的日子!還有其他的事情嗎?”
(KING RICHARD II
Ay, no; no, ay; for I must nothing be;
Therefore no no, for I resign to thee.
Now mark me, how I will undo myself;
I give this heavy weight from off my head
And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand,
The pride of kingly sway from out my heart;
With mine own tears I wash away my balm,
With mine own hands I give away my crown,
With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,
With mine own breath release all duty’s rites:
All pomp and majesty I do forswear;
My manors, rents, revenues I forego;
My acts, decrees, and statutes I deny:
God pardon all oaths that are broke to me!
God keep all vows unbroke that swear to thee!
Make me, that nothing have, with nothing grieved,
And thou with all pleased, that hast all achieved!
Long mayst thou live in Richard’s seat to sit,
And soon lie Richard in an earthly pit!
God save King Harry, unking’d Richard says,
And send him many years of sunshine days!
What more remains?)
三:接著,理查又將自己比作陽光下的雪人,他說:“我不是你的主人,你這盛氣淩人的家夥,我也不是任何人的主人。我無名無號,不,連我受洗時給的名字,也被人篡奪了。哎,這沉重的日子,我枉度了這麽多的歲月,現在卻不知道應該用什麽名字來稱呼自己。喔,如果我是一尊由雪堆成的滑稽的國王塑像,我會站在波林勃洛克的陽光之前,化成水滴而溶解。好國王,偉大的國王,雖然你不是最仁厚的,如果我的話在英國還有價值的話,吩咐他們立刻拿一麵鏡子到這兒來,讓我看一看失去了君主的尊嚴後,我有一張什麽樣的麵孔。”
(KING RICHARD II
No lord of thine, thou haught insulting man,
Nor no man’s lord; I have no name, no title,
No, not that name was given me at the font,
But ’tis usurp’d: alack the heavy day,
That I have worn so many winters out,
And know not now what name to call myself!
O that I were a mockery king of snow,
Standing before the sun of Bolingbroke,
To melt myself away in water-drops!
Good king, great king, and yet not greatly good,
An if my word be sterling yet in England,
Let it command a mirror hither straight,
That it may show me what a face I have,
Since it is bankrupt of his majesty.)
四:波林勃洛克吩咐手下去拿鏡子時,理查說:“他們會滿意的:當我看到那本記載著我的罪惡的書冊,也就是當我看見我自己的時候,我要讀到很多內容。”
侍從持鏡重上。
理查二世:“把鏡子給我,我要從那裏閱讀我自己。還沒有更深的皺紋嗎?悲傷把這麽多重擊打在我臉上,難道沒有留下更深的傷痕嗎?啊,獻媚的鏡子!正像我榮盛時期的那些追隨者一樣,你欺騙了我!這就是每天有一萬人在他的屋簷下服侍的那張臉嗎?這就是那張像太陽一樣讓人不敢直視的臉嗎?這就是那張曾經麵對著許多愚蠢的行徑、最後被波林勃洛克挫敗的臉嗎?一道脆弱的榮耀在這張臉上閃爍,這張臉和榮耀一樣脆弱。
(將鏡子狠摔在地上)
瞧,它在那兒摔成碎片了。沉默的國王,注意這場遊戲的教訓吧,悲傷如此迅速地摧毀了我的臉。”
(KING RICHARD II
They shall be satisfied: I’ll read enough,
When I do see the very book indeed
Where all my sins are writ, and that’s myself.)
Re-enter Attendant, with a glass
(Give me the glass, and therein will I read.
No deeper wrinkles yet? hath sorrow struck
So many blows upon this face of mine,
And made no deeper wounds? O flattering glass,
Like to my followers in prosperity,
Thou dost beguile me! Was this face the face
That every day under his household roof
Did keep ten thousand men? was this the face
That, like the sun, did make beholders wink?
Was this the face that faced so many follies,
And was at last out-faced by Bolingbroke?
A brittle glory shineth in this face:
As brittle as the glory is the face;)
Dashes the glass against the ground
(For there it is, crack’d in a hundred shivers.
Mark, silent king, the moral of this sport,
How soon my sorrow hath destroy’d my face.)
我發現莎士比亞在幾部戲劇裏都將君王比作了太陽,榮盛時期的理查二世有著一張“像太陽一樣讓人不敢直視的臉”,當他被迫交出王位時,“一道脆弱的榮耀在這張臉上閃爍”,表明他這個舊太陽的光芒即將消失,取而代之的是波林勃洛克這個新太陽。被廢黜的理查則像“一尊由雪堆成的滑稽的國王塑像“,“站在波林勃洛克的陽光之前,化成水滴而溶解。”《亨利四世》第一部裏的哈裏王子暗自“效仿太陽”,“它容許汙濁的雲層遮住了它的美麗,然而當它穿透似乎要扼殺了它的肮髒醜陋的霧障,重新大放光彩的時候,人們因為有一陣子沒見著它,對它格外驚歎。”- 可見他已為將來繼承王位在悄悄錘煉自己了。
理查二世被廢黜前的表現可圈可點,妙語連珠,出口成章,他的長篇獨白與波林勃洛克的短句形成鮮明對比,前者像詩人,後者是行動家。這讓我想起南唐的李後主在丟了江山後寫下的:“一旦歸為臣虜,沈腰潘鬢消磨。最是倉皇辭廟日,教坊猶奏別離歌,垂淚對宮娥。”後來的一首“問君能有幾多愁,恰似一江春水向東流”,幹脆讓他丟了性命。
理查二世與李後主一樣,不適合做一國之君,也許更適合做個詩人吧。