crome yellow(克罗姆·耶娄)-第19节
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Jabal dwelt in tents and Jubal struck the lyre; Flesh grown corrupt brought
forth a monstrous birth And obscene giants trod the shrinking earth; Till
God; impatient of their sinful brood; Gave rein to wrath and drown'd them
in the Flood。 Teeming again; repeopled Tellus bore The lubber Hero and
the Man of War; Huge towers of Brawn; topp'd with an empty Skull;
Witlessly bold; heroically dull。 Long ages pass'd and Man grown more
refin'd; Slighter in muscle but of vaster Mind; Smiled at his grandsire's
broadsword; bow and bill; And learn'd to wield the Pencil and the Quill。
The glowing canvas and the written page Immortaliz'd his name from age
to age; His name emblazon'd on Fame's temple wall; For Art grew great as
Humankind grew small。 Thus man's long progress step by step we trace;
The Giant dies; the hero takes his place; The Giant vile; the dull heroic
Block: At one we shudder and at one we mock。 Man last appears。 In him
the Soul's pure flame Burns brightlier in a not inord'nate frame。 Of old
when Heroes fought and Giants swarmed; Men were huge mounds of
matter scarce inform'd; Wearied by leavening so vast a mass; The spirit
slept and all the mind was crass。 The smaller carcase of these later days Is
soon inform'd; the Soul unwearied plays And like a Pharos darts abroad
her mental rays。 But can we think that Providence will stay Man's
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footsteps here upon the upward way? Mankind in understanding and in
grace Advanc'd so far beyond the Giants' race? Hence impious thought!
Still led by GOD'S own Hand; Mankind proceeds towards the Promised
Land。 A time will come (prophetic; I descry Remoter dawns along the
gloomy sky); When happy mortals of a Golden Age Will backward turn
the dark historic page; And in our vaunted race of Men behold A form as
gross; a Mind as dead and cold; As we in Giants see; in warriors of old。 A
time will come; wherein the soul shall be From all superfluous matter
wholly free; When the light body; agile as a fawn's; Shall sport with grace
along the velvet lawns。 Nature's most delicate and final birth; Mankind
perfected shall possess the earth。 But ah; not yet! For still the Giants'
race; Huge; though diminish'd; tramps the Earth's fair face; Gross and
repulsive; yet perversely proud; Men of their imperfections boast aloud。
Vain of their bulk; of all they still retain Of giant ugliness absurdly vain;
At all that's small they point their stupid scorn And; monsters; think
themselves divinely born。 Sad is the Fate of those; ah; sad indeed; The rare
precursors of the nobler breed! Who come man's golden glory to foretell;
But pointing Heav'nwards live themselves in Hell。'
〃As soon as he came into the estate; Sir Hercules set about
remodelling his household。 For though by no means ashamed of his
deformityindeed; if we may judge from the poem quoted above; he
regarded himself as being in many ways superior to the ordinary race of
manhe found the presence of full…grown men and women embarrassing。
Realising; too; that he must abandon all ambitions in the great world; he
determined to retire absolutely from it and to create; as it were; at Crome a
private world of his own; in which all should be proportionable to himself。
Accordingly; he discharged all the old servants of the house and replaced
them gradually; as he was able to find suitable successors; by others of
dwarfish stature。 In the course of a few years he had assembled about
himself a numerous household; no member of which was above four feet
high and the smallest among them scarcely two feet and six inches。 His
father's dogs; such as setters; mastiffs; greyhounds; and a pack of beagles;
he sold or gave away as too large and too boisterous for his house;
replacing them by pugs and King Charles spaniels and whatever other
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breeds of dog were the smallest。 His father's stable was also sold。 For
his own use; whether riding or driving; he had six black Shetland ponies;
with four very choice piebald animals of New Forest breed。
〃Having thus settled his household entirely to his own satisfaction; it
only remained for him to find some suitable companion with whom to
share his paradise。 Sir Hercules had a susceptible heart; and had more
than once; between the ages of sixteen and twenty; felt what it was to love。
But here his deformity had been a source of the most bitter humiliation;
for; having once dared to declare himself to a young lady of his choice; he
had been received with laughter。 On his persisting; she had picked him
up and shaken him like an importunate child; telling him to run away and
plague her no more。 The story soon got aboutindeed; the young lady
herself used to tell it as a particularly pleasant anecdoteand the taunts
and mockery it occasioned were a source of the most acute distress to
Hercules。 From the poems written at this period we gather that he
meditated taking his own life。 In course of time; however; he lived down
this humiliation; but never again; though he often fell in love; and that
very passionately; did he dare to make any advances to those in whom he
was interested。 After coming to the estate and finding that he was in a
position to create his own world as he desired it; he saw that; if he was to
have a wifewhich he very much desired; being of an affectionate and;
indeed; amorous temperhe must choose her as he had chosen his
servantsfrom among the race of dwarfs。 But to find a suitable wife was;
he found; a matter of some difficulty; for he would marry none who was
not distinguished by beauty and gentle birth。 The dwarfish daughter of
Lord Bemboro he refused on the ground that besides being a pigmy she
was hunchbacked; while another young lady; an orphan belonging to a
very good family in Hampshire; was rejected by him because her face; like
that of so many dwarfs; was wizened and repulsive。 Finally; when he
was almost despairing of success; he heard from a reliable source that
Count Titimalo; a Venetian nobleman; possessed a daughter of exquisite
beauty and great accomplishments; who was by three feet in height。
Setting out at once for Venice; he went immediately on his arrival to pay
his respects to the count; whom he found living with his wife and five
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children in a very mean apartment in one of the poorer quarters of the
town。 Indeed; the count was so far reduced in his circumstances that he
was even then negotiating (so it was rumoured) with a travelling company
of clowns and acrobats; who had had the misfortune to lose their
performing dwarf; for the sale of his diminutive daughter Filomena。 Sir
Hercules arrived in time to save her from this untoward fate; for he was so
much charmed by Filomena's grace and beauty; that at the end of three
days' courtship he made her a formal offer of marriage; which was
accepted by her no less joyfully than by her father; who perceived in an
English son…in…law a rich and unfailing source of revenue。 After an
unostentatious marriage; at which the English ambassador acted as one of
the witnesses; Sir Hercules and his bride returned by sea to England;
where they settled down; as it proved; to a life of uneventful happiness。
〃Crome and its household of dwarfs delighted Filomena; who felt
herself now for the first time to be a free woman living among her equals
in a friendly world。 She