【国外英文文学】The Absentee.doc
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1、【国外英文文学】The AbsenteeNOTES ON THE ABSENTEEIn August 1811, we are told, she wrote a little play about landlordsand tenants for the children of her sister, Mrs. Beddoes. Mr. Edgeworthtried to get the play produced on the London boards. Writing to heraunt, Mrs. Ruxton, Maria says, Sheridan has answered
2、as I foresaw hemust, that in the present state of this country the Lord Chamberlainwould not license THE ABSENTEE; besides there would be a difficulty infinding actors for so many Irish characters. The little drama was thenturned into a story, by Mr. Edgeworths advice. Patronage was laid asidefor th
3、e moment, and THE ABSENTEE appeared in its place in the secondpart of TALES OF FASHIONABLE LIFE. We all know Lord Macaulays verdictupon this favourite story of his, the last scene of which he speciallyadmired and compared to the ODYSSEY. Lord Macaulay was not the onlynotable admirer of THE ABSENTEE.
4、 The present writer remembers hearingProfessor Ruskin on one occasion break out in praise and admiration ofthe book. You can learn more by reading it of Irish politics, he said,than from a thousand columns out of blue-books. Mrs. Edgeworth tellsus that much of it was written while Maria was sufferin
5、g a misery oftoothache.Miss Edgeworths own letters all about this time are much more concernedwith sociabilities than with literature. We read of a pleasant dance atMrs. Burkes; of philosophers at sport in Connemara; of cribbage, andcompany, and country houses, and Lord Longfords merry anecdotes dur
6、ingher visit to him. Miss Edgeworth, who scarcely mentions her own works,seems much interested at this time in a book called MARY AND HER CAT,which she is reading with some of the children.Little scraps of news (I cannot resist quoting one or two of them) comein oddly mixed with these personal recor
7、ds of work and family talk.There is news of the Empress (Marie Louise), who is liked not at allby the Parisians; she is too haughty, and sits back in her carriage whenshe goes through the streets. Of Josephine, who is living very happily,amusing herself with her gardens and her shrubberies. This ci-
8、devantEmpress and Kennedy and Co., the seedsmen, are in partnership, says MissEdgeworth. And then among the lists of all the grand people Maria meetsin London in 1813 (Madame de Stael is mentioned as expected), she givesan interesting account of an actual visitor, Peggy Langan, who wasgrand-daughter
9、 to Thady in CASTLE RACKRENT. Peggy went to England withMrs. Beddoes, and was for thirty years in the service of Mrs. Haldimandwe are told, and was own sister to Simple Susan.The story of THE ABSENTEE is a very simple one, and concerns Irishlandlords living in England, who ignore their natural dutie
10、s and stationin life, and whose chief ambition is to take their place in theEnglish fashionable world. The grand English ladies are talking of LadyClonbrony.If you knew all she endures to look, speak, move, breathe like anEnglishwoman, you would pity her, said Lady Langdale.Yes, and you CAWNT concei
11、ve the PEENS she TEEKES to talk of theTEEBLES and CHEERS, and to thank Q, and, with so much TEESTE, to speakpure English, said Mrs. Dareville.Pure cockney, you mean, said Lady Langdale.Lord Colambre, the son of the lady in question, here walks across theroom, not wishing to listen to any more strict
12、ures upon his mother.He is the very most charming of walking gentlemen, and when stung byconscience he goes off to Ireland, disguised in a big cloak, to visithis fathers tenantry and to judge for himself of the state of affairs,all our sympathies go with him. On his way he stops at Tusculum,scarcely
13、 less well known than its classical namesake. He is entertainedby Mrs. Raffarty, that esthetical lady who is determined to have alittle taste of everything at Tusculum. She leads the way into alittle conservatory, and a little pinery, and a little grapery, and alittle aviary, and a little pheasantry
14、, and a little dairy for show, anda little cottage for ditto, with a grotto full of shells, and a littlehermitage full of earwigs, and a little ruin full of looking-glass, toenlarge and multiply the effect of the Gothic. But you could onlyput your head in, because it was just fresh painted, and thou
15、gh therehad been a fire ordered in the ruin all night, it had only smoked.As they proceeded and walked through the grounds, from which Mrs.Raffarty, though she had done her best, could not take that which naturehad given, she pointed out to my lord a happy moving termination,consisting of a Chinese
16、bridge, with a fisherman leaning over the rails.On a sudden, the fisherman was seen to tumble over the bridge into thewater. The gentlemen ran to extricate the poor fellow, while they heardMrs. Raffarty bawling to his lordship to beg he would never mind, andnot trouble himself.When they arrived at t
17、he bridge, they saw the man hanging from partof the bridge, and apparently struggling in the water; but when theyattempted to pull him up, they found it was only a stuffed figure whichhad been pulled into the stream by a real fish, which had seized hold ofthe bait.The dinner-party is too long to quo
18、te, but it is written in MissEdgeworths most racy and delightful vein of fun.One more little fact should not be omitted in any mention of THEABSENTEE. One of the heroines is Miss Broadhurst, the heiress. TheEdgeworth family were much interested, soon after the book appeared, tohear that a real livin
19、g Miss Broadhurst, an heiress, had appeared uponthe scenes, and was, moreover, engaged to be married to Sneyd Edgeworth,one of the eldest sons of the family. In the story, says Mrs. Edgeworth,Miss Broadhurst selects from her lovers one who unites worth and wit,and then she goes on to quote an old ep
20、igram of Mr. Edgeworths onhimself, which concluded with,Theres an Edge to his wit and theresworth in his heart.Mr. Edgeworth, who was as usual busy building church spires for himselfand other people, abandoned his engineering for a time to criticise hisdaughters story, and he advised that the conclu
21、sion of THE ABSENTEEshould be a letter from Larry the postilion. He wrote one, she wroteanother, says Mrs. Edgeworth. He much preferred hers, which is theadmirable finale of THE ABSENTEE. And just about this time Lord Ross isapplied to, to frank the Edgeworth manuscripts.I cannot by any form of word
22、s express how delighted I am that you arenone of you angry with me, writes modest Maria to her cousin, MissRuxton, and that my uncle and aunt are pleased with what they have readof THE ABSENTEE. I long to hear whether their favour continues to theend, and extends to the catastrophe, that dangerous r
23、ock upon which poorauthors are wrecked.THE ABSENTEECHAPTER IAre you to be at Lady Clonbronys gala next week? said Lady Langdaleto Mrs. Dareville, whilst they were waiting for their carriages in thecrush-room of the opera house.Oh yes! everybodys to be there, I hear, replied Mrs. Dareville. Yourladys
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