2011年9月12日 星期一

"I hope you'll now purge and live cleanly, like a gentleman."

Falstaff,The Life of Johnson by Boswell

dissolute Falstaff, Vice, miles gloriosus




Johnson was some time with Beauclerk at his house at Windsor, where he was entertained with experiments in natural philosophy. One Sunday, when the weather was very fine, Beauclerk enticed him, insensibly, to saunter about all the morning. They went into a church-yard, in the time of divine service, and Johnson laid himself down at his ease upon one of the tomb-stones. "Now, Sir, (said Beauclerk) you are like Hogarth's Idle Apprentice." When Johnson got his pension, Beauclerk said to him, in the humourous phrase of Falstaff, "I hope you'll now purge and live cleanly, like a gentleman." The Life of Johnson by Boswell


要了解這脈絡也必須了解Falstaff 是要從戰場脫身要去領賞
出自
莎士比亞 亨利四世上篇 第五幕第四景末
這 purge 雙義 可以是"好好洗澡 潔身"或"悔改"等等
所以朱和梁翻譯各取一義


另外 Boswell說 Johnson的 "No, Sir."類似 Falstaff的
"I deny your major. " 這多少從脈絡中了解比較有趣
major大前題 premiss, proposition 出自1H4 II.iv.481 [Falstaff to Prince Hal] I deny your major.

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