第四冊第13篇：拜倫的性格

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He was anxious to show you that he possessed no Shakespeare or Milton; “because,” he said, “I have been accused of borrowing from them!” He affected to doubt whether Shakespeare was so great a genius as he has been taken for, and whether fashion had not a great deal to do with it. Spenser he could not read—at least he said so. All the gusto of that most poetical of the poets went with him for nothing. I lent him a volume of the Faerie Queene, and he said he would try to like it. Next day he brought it to my study window, and said: “Here, Hunt, here is your Spenser. I cannot see anything in him;” and he seemed anxious that I should take it out of his hands, as if he was afraid of being accused of copying so poor a writer. That he saw nothing in Spenser is not likely; but I really do not think that he saw much. Spenser was too much out of the world, and he too much in it…

他急于讓你知道，莎士比亞或彌爾頓的作品他一本也有，因為，他說，“竟有人指責我妙襲他們，”他假裝懷疑，難道莎士比亞真是如大家公認的那樣偉大的天才?那樣推崇莎士比亞是否多半與時尚有關(guān)?斯賓塞的作品他讀不下去—至少他這樣說過。在他著來，這位“最富詩意的詩人”的巨大熱情一無可取。我借給他一本《仙后》，他說他要設(shè)法喜歡它。第二天，他把書帶到我書房的窗前，說，.喂，亨特，這是你的斯賓塞，我看不出他有什么名堂。他好象急于要我把書從他手里收回，仿佛害怕會受到指責，說他竟抄襲這樣一個蹩腳作家。要說他看不出斯賓塞有什么名堂，那是不可能的，不過我確實相信他也不會看出多少。斯賓塞過于超脫塵世，而拜倫卻太執(zhí)著于現(xiàn)世。

He would make confessions of vanity, or some other faults, or of inaptitude for a particular species of writing, partly to sound what you thought of it, partly that while you gave him credit for the humility, you were to protest against the concession. All the perversity of his spoiled nature would then come into play; and it was in these, and similar perplexities, that the main difficulty of living with him consisted. If you made everything tell in his favor, as most people did, he was pleased with you for not differing with him; but then nothing was gained. He lumped you with the rest, and was prepared to think as little of you in the particular as he did of anyone else. If you contested a claim, or allowed him to be right in a concession, he could neither argue the point nor readily concede it. He was only mortified, and would take his revenge.

他有時承認有虛榮心，或者別的什么缺點，或者承認對某種問題不熟練、其目的有二，一則是想試探你對這點的看法， 二則你如相信他的謙虛是出于真心，就會抗辯他所承認的那種缺點不真實，于是他那任性的脾氣就會充分表演。主要正是諸如此類令人困惑不解之處，才使他難以相處。如果你跟大多數(shù)人一樣，同他談話時處處迎合他，他會對你很中意，一因為你沒有跟他唱反調(diào)，可是這樣也就一無所獲。他就對你視若等閑， 并且立意把你當作常人而不屑一顧。如果你反駁他的某項主張， 或者作為讓步姑且認為他是對的，他就既不能在這一點上同你爭辯，又不樂意認輸。你就會耿耿于懷，總要伺機報復。

Lastly, if you behaved, like his admirers in general, in a sulky or disputatious manner, but naturally, and as if you had a right to your jest and your independence—whether to differ or admire, and apart from an eternal consideration for himself—he thought it an assumption, and would perplex you with all the airs and humors of an insulted beauty. Then nobody could rely, for a comfortable intercourse with him, either upon admissions or non-admissions, or even upon flattery itself. An immeasurable vanity kept even his adorers at a distance; like Xerxes enthroned with his millions a mile off. And if in fit of desperation he condescended to come close, and he fond, he laughed at you for thinking you were of consequence to him, if you were taken in; and hated you if you stood out, which was to think yourself of greater consequence. Neither would a knowledge of all this, if you made him conscious, have lowered his self-admiration a jot. He would have thought it the mark of a great man—a noble capriciousness—an evidence of power, which none but the Alexanders and Napoleons of the intellectual world could venture upon.

最后，如果你象他的一般崇拜者一樣， 或者對他板著臉， 或者同他爭論，但態(tài)度很自然，仿佛你有權(quán)開個玩笑，也有權(quán)保持獨立見解—不論持不同意見或是表示欽佩，但不是永遠把他看得了不起一一這時他就會認為你是個驕慢自負的人，就會象一個受到侮辱的美人似地忽兒傲慢異常，忽兒傲出百般驕縱的姿態(tài)使你不知如何是好一因此，不論是誰想間他處得融洽都不行，認錯不行，不認錯不行，甚至謅媚奉承也不行。這種無法估量的盛榮心使敬慕他的人都不敢接近他。一他就象波斯王澤克西斯那樣，遠離他的百萬臣民一英里登基.要是在他無可奈何時竟曲尊與你親近，如果你上了當，以為他少不了你，他就 作弄你，并且嘲笑你，如果你不肯上當，他就恨你，因為你自命不凡。即使你讓他認識到這一切，也不會使他自我崇拜的意識降分毫。他會認為這正是一個偉人的標志—種高貴的任性，一種力量的證明，只有知識界的亞歷山大和拿破侖才敢于這樣。

Mr. Hazlitt had some reason to call him “a sublime coxcomb.” Who but he (or Rochester, perhaps, whom he resembled) would have thought of avoiding Shakespeare, lest he should be thought to owe him anything? And talking of Napoleon—he delighted, when he took the additional name of Noel, in consequence of his marriage with an heiress, to sign himself “N.B”, “because,” said he, “Bonaparte and I are the only public persons whose initials are the same.”

因此，赫茲利特把他稱傲‘至高無上的花花公子”是不無道理的。除了他(也許還有羅徹斯特，拜倫很象他)，誰會想到要回避莎士比亞，免得被認為欠了莎士比亞的情呢?至于拿破侖一拜倫由手同一位女繼承人結(jié)婚而獲得一個額外的姓氏諾埃爾(Noel)，因此他在簽名時就樂于寫成N.B，因為，他說：在名人當中，只有拿破侖(Bonaparte)和我，姓名的首字母是相同的。