2019年2月23日 星期六

The Diary of Samuel Pepys






Saturday 19 July 1662 (The Diary of Samuel Pepys)


https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1662/07/19/








Saturday 19 July 1662


Up early and to some business, and my wife coming to me I staid long with her discoursing about her going into the country, and as she is not very forward so am I at a great loss whether to have her go or no because of the charge, and yet in some considerations I would be glad she was there, because of the dirtiness of my house and the trouble of having of a family there. So to my office, and there all the morning, and then to dinner and my brother Tom dined with me only to see me. In the afternoon I went upon the river to look after some tarr I am sending down and some coles, and so home again; it raining hard upon the water, I put ashore and sheltered myself, while the King came by in his barge, going down towards the Downs to meet the Queen: the Duke being gone yesterday. But methought it lessened my esteem of a king, that he should not be able to command the rain.


Home, and Cooper coming (after I had dispatched several letters) to my mathematiques, and so at night to bed to a chamber at Sir W. Pen’s




, my own house being so foul that I cannot lie there any longer, and there the chamber lies so as that I come into it over my leads without going about, but yet I am not fully content with it, for there will be much trouble to have servants running over the leads to and fro.





English diarist Samuel Pepys was born in London, England on this day in 1633.




"Methought it lessened my esteem of a king, that he should not be able to command the rain."

—from Samuel Pepys's July 19, 1662 entry in THE DIARY OF SAMUEL PEPYS⋯⋯




A newly edited selection from the most famous, colorful, and vivid diarist in the English language–in the most accessible, uncensored, and clearly annotated edition available. Though he rose to become the most powerful administrator in King Charles II’s navy, when Samuel Pepys began writing his secret journal in 1660 he was just a young clerk living in London. Over the next nine years, he became eyewitness to some of the most significant events in seventeenth-century English history, among them, the Restoration, the Great Plague of London in 1665, and the Great Fire of London in 1666. Pepys’s diary gives vivid descriptions of spectacular events, but much of the richness of the work lies in the details it provides about the minor dramas of daily life. While Pepys was keen to hear the king’s views, he was also always ready to talk with a soldier, a housekeeper, or a child rag-picker. He records with searing frankness his tumultuous personal life, including his marriage, infidelities, ambitions, and power schemes. He recounts with relish all the latest scandals, and reflects his voracious delight in music, food, books, scientific discoveries, and fashion. The result is a lively, often astonishing diary and an unrivaled account of life in seventeenth-century London. READ an excerpt from the introduction here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/…/the-diary-of-samuel-p…/

William Stafford wrote a new poem every day for over 50 years

William Edgar Stafford was an American poet and pacifist. He was the father of poet and essayist Kim Stafford. He was appointed the twentieth Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1970. Wikipedia

Born: January 17, 1914, Hutchinson, Kansas, United States
Died: August 28, 1993, Lake Oswego, Oregon, United States


Browse through William Stafford's poems and quotes. 39 poems of William Stafford. Still I Rise, The Road Not Taken, If You Forget Me, Dreams, Annabel Lee.

BBC Radio 4
2016年2月23日下午7:50 ·
Over 20,000 all together,



關於這個網站

BBC.IN

William Stafford wrote a new poem every day for over 50 years
He was America's poet laureate. His poetry was accessible and timeless.

2019年2月22日 星期五

"To Sleep" by John Keats: Life is but a day;



"Life is but a day;
A fragile dew-drop on its perilous way
From a tree summit."
Fatally stricken with tuberculosis, great Romantic poet #JohnKeatsmade his own perilous way down and died #onthisday 1821, aged 25.





"To Sleep" by John Keats
O soft embalmer of the still midnight,
Shutting, with careful fingers and benign,
Our gloom-pleas'd eyes, embower'd from the light,
Enshaded in forgetfulness divine:
O soothest Sleep! if so it please thee, close
In midst of this thine hymn my willing eyes,
Or wait the "Amen," ere thy poppy throws
Around my bed its lulling charities.
Then save me, or the passed day will shine
Upon my pillow, breeding many woes,—
Save me from curious Conscience, that still lords
Its strength for darkness, burrowing like a mole;
Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards,
And seal the hushed Casket of my Soul.

Aubrey Vincent Beardsley ( 1872 – 1898) 《琵亞詞侶詩畫集》




在邵溝美出版的圖書中,有一本書很具有代表性,從中以看出邵詢美出版的偏好和特點。這就是1929年6月出版的比亞茲萊的譯詩集《琵亞詞侶詩畫集》。這是一本精美的小冊子,64開毛邊本小畫冊,封面用深灰色紙,僅用黑色裝飾,保留了古雅的書卷氣,但打開書,每頁卻有淺粉色的麥穗花邊裝飾。


原文網址:https://kknews.cc/zh-mo/culture/bojrklo.html


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigationJump to search
Aubrey Beardsley
Aubrey Beardsley by Frederick Hollyer, 1893.jpg
Portrait of Beardsley by Frederick Hollyer, 1893
Born
Aubrey Vincent Beardsley

21 August 1872
Brighton, England
Died16 March 1898 (aged 25)
Menton, France
Resting placeCimetiere du Vieux-Chateau, Menton, France[1]
NationalityEnglish
EducationWestminster School of Art
Known forIllustrationGraphics/Graphic arts
MovementArt Nouveauaestheticism
Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (21 August 1872 – 16 March 1898) was an English illustrator and author. His drawings in black ink, influenced by the style of Japanese woodcuts, emphasized the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. He was a leading figure in the Aesthetic movement which also included Oscar Wilde and James A. McNeill Whistler. Beardsley's contribution to the development of the Art Nouveau and poster styles was significant, despite the brevity of his career before his early death from tuberculosis.

Early life, education, and early career

The Lady of the Lake


The Lady of the Lake is a narrative poem by Sir Walter Scott, first published in 1810. Set in the Trossachs region of Scotland, it is composed of six cantos, each of which concerns the action of a single day.[1] The poem has three main plots: the contest among three men, Roderick Dhu, James Fitz-James, and Malcolm Graeme, to win the love of Ellen Douglas; the feud and reconciliation of King James V of Scotland and James Douglas; and a war between the lowland Scots (led by James V) and the highland clans (led by Roderick Dhu of Clan Alpine). The poem was tremendously influential in the nineteenth century, and inspired the Highland Revival.
By the late nineteenth century, however, the poem was much less popular. (It continued, however, to be a standard reading in elementary schools until the early twentieth century.[2]) Its influence is indirect: Schubert's Ellens Dritter Gesang (later adapted to use the full lyrics of the Latin Ave Maria), Rossini's La Donna del Lago (1819), the Ku Klux Klan custom of cross burning, the last name of U.S. abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and the song "Hail to the Chief", were all inspired by the poem.
It shares its name with the Arthurian character, the Lady of the Lake. Other allusions to the legend are scant.

External links[edit]


e-text at Project Gutenberg
The Lady of the Lake at Archive.org
The Lady of the Lake public domain audiobook at LibriVox
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3011/3011-h/3011-h.htm
I found this beautiful book. I’m so in love. The Lady of The Lake, illustrated by Howard Chandler Christy. 1910. Added some of the sketches. Every single page has illustrations.

2019年2月21日 星期四

The Ecchoing Green BY WILLIAM BLAKE



The Ecchoing Green

The sun does arise,
And make happy the skies.
The merry bells ring
To welcome the Spring.
The sky-lark and thrush,
The birds of the bush,
Sing louder around,
To the bells’ cheerful sound. 
While our sports shall be seen
On the Ecchoing Green.
 
Old John, with white hair 
Does laugh away care,
Sitting under the oak,
Among the old folk, 
They laugh at our play, 
And soon they all say.
‘Such, such were the joys. 
When we all girls & boys, 
In our youth-time were seen, 
On the Ecchoing Green.’
 
Till the little ones weary
No more can be merry
The sun does descend,
And our sports have an end: 
Round the laps of their mothers, 
Many sisters and brothers,
Like birds in their nest,
Are ready for rest;
And sport no more seen,
On the darkening Green. 

2019年2月19日 星期二

The Physical Pleasures of Jane Austen's Persuasion. No plain Jane:閱讀《理性與感性》的幾個理由(顏擇雅)

Johnson explores Austen’s use of blushes, beating hearts, physical gestures, and almost-contact—devices that weave a web of physicality around Anne and Wentworth. “Little circumstances—when eyes just miss, or when hands touch, whether by accident or intent—are interspersed among more dramatic scenes in which a man and woman feel acutely each other’s physical presence,” she writes. Johnson finds deep significance in these tiny gestures, and analyzes moments of physical intimacy between Elliott and her suitors.



"Austen uses the eyes and hands to create a world that is 'physically stimulating, if not sexually suggestive.'” On why PERSUASION may be Jane Austen's most seductive novel.



*****
English literature
No plain Jane

Nov 19th 2009
From The Economist print edition

A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 33 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen. Edited by Susannah Carson. Random House; 320 pages; $25. Buy from Amazon.com

“SOME literary works are mortal; Jane Austen’s are immortal,” writes Harold Bloom in his foreword to this delightful volume. In it, 33 writers—from Virginia Woolf to Jay McInerney, from Somerset Maugham to Fay Weldon, from Martin Amis to A.S. Byatt—explain the whys and wherefores of our love affair with this provincial spinster, whose six novels have embedded themselves so powerfully in the minds and lives of countless readers over the past two centuries.




The breadth of Austen’s appeal is indeed extraordinary. All her works deal with love and courtship, but she is much more adept at reaching a wide audience than other romantic novelists. Young and old, men and women, scholars and those reading solely for pleasure—all find that her writing satisfies again and again. Not only is she one of the most read authors in the canon; she is one of the most reread.

Yet Austen is never merely a comfort blanket, for her novels make readers think as much as they allow them to escape into another world. She may be the greatest propagandist for bourgeois marriage that English literature has produced, yet she is never smug and her happy endings are tempered by wise realism. As for her prose style, even the greatest cynic has to marvel at the control with which she employs her characteristic irony.

Each one of Austen’s novels has its champions, though apart from the author herself, who feared it was rather too sparkling, it would be hard to find anyone who was not captivated by the vibrant wit of “Pride and Prejudice”. “Emma”, too, is universally praised for its extraordinary mastery of narrative form, and for making readers love its flawed, and even unlikeable, heroine; she who attempts to control the lives of those around her but is blinded by her own self-satisfaction. Readers’ favourites, however, often change according to their moods and situations. The autumnal feel of “Persuasion”, in which Anne Elliot gets a second chance at love, tends to appeal to older readers; others may find their sympathies shifting between the characters over time, especially with “Sense and Sensibility” and “Northanger Abbey”.

The least easy for modern readers is “Mansfield Park”. Unlike the confident Elizabeth Bennet or the overconfident Emma Woodhouse, its heroine, Fanny Price, is quiet, timid and moralistically opposed to amateur theatricals. It is only by imagining ourselves into the world of the early 19th century that we can begin to empathise with Fanny’s scruples. Yet if readers accept the historical context they can then appreciate that Austen is actually dealing with the much more universal moral problem of selfishness.

As Susannah Carson writes in her excellent introduction, today’s critics are split between those who emphasise Austen’s timeless understanding of human nature, and those who stress the very real differences between her time and our own. This volume illustrates both, and it shows how, after 200 years, it is still possible to have new insights. Had you ever noticed that silly Mrs Bennet, whom everyone loves to mock, ends up having the last laugh in “Pride and Prejudice”? That her machinations to marry off her daughters all work out? Austen’s irony is so deliciously multilayered that every rereading will yield a fresh perspective. This book offers many such discoveries, and it would make a perfect Christmas present for anyone who loves Austen.







顏擇雅專文:閱讀《理性與感性》的幾個理由
顏擇雅 2017年04月09日《理性與感性》是珍﹒奧斯汀唯一有雙女主角的小說,不同於其他作品,以情感為主線,《理性與感性》更著重於姊妹情。(取自李安《理性與感性》電影劇照)





珍﹒奧斯汀有寫完的六部小說,結局都是女主角尋得美滿歸宿,乍看是喜感十足的羅曼史,骨子裡卻都是義理小說(didactic novel),意即創作意圖是想傳遞某種人生智慧。正因為有義理要闡釋,6部小說才有半數以抽象概念為名:《理性與感性》、《傲慢與偏見》、《勸導》。不過,《理性與感性》在奧斯汀作品中,還是有幾點奇特。首先,這是她唯一雙女主角的作品,小說中最重要關係並非情愛,而是姊妹。這點有自傳成份,因為奧斯汀一生最親近的人正是姊姊。大她兩歲的卡珊卓既是她知己,也是她所有創作的第一位讀者。奧斯汀終身未嫁,並不是一開始就決定單身。在姊姊論及婚嫁那陣子,她也曾積極找老公。是姊姊後來立志終身不嫁,妹妹才決定陪姊姊,也不要嫁的。可說,《理性與感性》大寫特寫姊妹情,因為這本來就是奧斯汀最熟悉的感情。卡珊卓立志終身不嫁,是因為青梅竹馬的未婚夫突然過世。這就要談到《理性與感性》另一特點:它是奧斯汀唯一探討失戀的作品。姊姊那種劇痛她並沒親身經歷,只在旁扮演一位體貼、忠誠的陪伴者。她是把親眼目睹並渴望幫忙分擔的那種痛徹心肺,投射到筆下兩位女主角身上,並以整本小說來回答姊妹倆(想必)一起討論過的問題:「人有沒可能愛第二次?」


從這個問題,還可以衍生其他問題:人應該以什麼樣的態度來承受痛苦?悲痛之餘,要怎麼重新出發?狠跌在地之際,要怎麼維持尊嚴?悲痛至極還在意別人眼光,是否自討苦吃?這些都是《理性與感性》要回答的大哉問。問題很沉重,但別忘了,珍小妹本就是全家的開心果。少年習作3大冊,裡面都是搞笑詩文。《理性與感性》初稿雖是在十九歲完成(這點是姪女回憶,此時作者已過世五十年),但正式改寫卻是在1797年動筆,也就是得知準姊夫死訊後沒多久。珍小妹既想撫平姊姊正承受的創痛,也想逗姊姊開懷。這就造成《理性與感性》不同於其他奧斯汀作品的另一特色:特別多的喜感配角。




有雙女主角,代表必須有兩條故事線穿插交疊,再加上一群喜感配角,《理性與感性》就變成奧斯汀運用最多烘托、襯映筆法的作品。不只雙女主角彼此烘托、襯映,還有其他兩對姊妹與雙女主角烘托、襯映。三對姊妹都是一冷一熱,艾琳諾與瑪麗安是一種對照,露西與安妮是第二種,米道敦夫人與帕爾默太太是第三種。

《理性與感性》中,免不了也有情愛描寫,但特別的是,在一對對夫妻中,彷彿彼此映襯。(取自李安《理性與感性》電影劇照)

彼此烘托、襯映的,還有各種成功的壞婚姻。這些婚姻之所以壞,是它把夫妻都變成更壞的人。這些婚姻會成功,則因為雙方都從婚姻各取所需,如魚得水。約翰已經夠自私又一錢如命,芬妮卻比他更自私、更一錢如命。羅勃浮誇又自負,娶善拍馬屁的露西為妻正好水乳交融。魏樂比入不敷出,當然必須娶富小姐,男方付出代價是妻管嚴,女方付出代價是丈夫暗望她早死,雙方扯平。米道敦夫婦一人愛熱鬧,一人裝優雅,乍看很不配,但爵士若沒常找人來熱鬧,夫人也不會有機會裝優雅,所以也絕配。再來是帕爾默夫婦,丈夫脾氣壞,妻子則覺得他這樣好可愛,要白頭偕老也相當容易。

與這些壞婚姻對照的,就是奧斯汀心目中的好婚姻:夫妻必須有共享價值,而且必須是好的價值。初看《理性與感性》一定奇怪,艾琳諾與布蘭登上校都老成持重,個性好像,怎不是他倆配成一對?

答案,是艾琳諾若與上校配對,雙方根本沒一起成長的可能。而且,她老成持重是天性,上校卻不是。上校本是浪漫主義者,曾為狂戀付出最慘烈代價,真正價值共享的就成了瑪麗安。

瑪麗安誤以為她跟魏樂比都是浪漫主義者,事實上魏樂比自始至終都是現實主義者。他與瑪麗安若有價值共享,只有無視禮法這一點。結成夫妻只會強化彼此缺點,就跟書中其他壞婚姻一樣。

第10章有一段姊妹對話,正是在闡釋理想婚姻的對話基礎。瑪麗安認為跟魏樂比好投緣,兩人都熱愛同樣作品,都為同樣段落感動,艾琳諾卻不以為然,認為一下子就把想講的話都講完了,將來要聊什麼?奧斯汀在此提出一種尖銳觀察:許多夫妻婚後沒話講,正因為熱戀時的百分百心靈相契,其實是場誤會。這種對話是建立在雙方徹底意見一致上面,根本沒互相探索,也沒嘗試理解,因此是無法繼續的對話。

另一場對話,在第4章,瑪麗安嫌愛德華對繪畫沒有品味,艾琳諾卻主張,愛德華自己不畫畫,卻欣賞她畫畫,這就是品味了。這裡,奧斯汀點出了婚姻(還有愛情)的教育功能:因為愛一個人,願意去欣賞對方所愛所感所思,是最能豐富人生的。這樣的夫妻一方不必好為人師,另一方也不必因為自慚形穢而強迫學習,只憑著彼此的強烈同理,就能在婚姻中共同成長。

奧斯汀所有作品,以《理性與感性》花最多筆墨寫小孩。小說開頭,女主角橫遭厄運,正是受小孩所累:她們受到不公平對待,沒得到該得的遺產,因為伯公看哥哥的小孩太可愛,遺產全給哥哥。這裡,奧斯汀寫出她的觀察:大人對小孩的愛經常喪失理智。伯公如果還有判斷力,就知那幾個小孩並不是特別可愛。他們只是在最可愛的年紀讓正準備遺囑的伯公看到而已。

奧斯汀的另一個尖銳觀察是在親情上,有些人的母愛其實是自戀的延伸﹔對他人感受有多忽視,對自家小孩就有多溺愛。(作者提供)

書中最極致的愛小孩卻是虛情假意。露西與安妮在小孩最煩死人的時候(21章)也表現得很愛小孩,全是為了討好貴太太。貴太太輕易上當,只能說她們都認定自己小孩放的屁全世界都應該覺得香。書中兩位最溺愛的媽媽,一位只是對人冷淡,另一位則是苛薄。這是奧斯汀另一個尖銳觀察:有些人的母愛其實是自戀的延伸﹔對他人感受有多忽視,對自家小孩就有多溺愛。

因為喜感配角眾多,讀者可在《理性與感性》看到禮貌與友善的差別。珍寧斯太太、米道敦爵士、帕爾默太太是友善卻不禮貌,約翰、芬妮與米道敦夫人則是禮貌而不友善。禮貌不同於友善,必須拿捏人我分際,友善則不需要。珍寧斯太太、米道敦爵士之不禮貌,正體現於無法尊重他人隱私。友善卻必須發自內心,禮貌則只要熟悉社會規範。因此露西明明對艾琳諾只有惡意,每次講話卻極有禮貌。

無論公私領域,都可見艾琳諾與瑪麗安兩人的個性差異。在公領域,艾琳諾都在意別人感受,也在意別人眼光,必要時願意說謊,這點瑪麗安卻絕對不屑。私底下,瑪麗安總在宣洩情緒,艾琳諾則忙於安頓情緒。

這就要討論書名「理性與感性」的真正意義。乍看艾琳諾代表理性,瑪麗安代表感性。其實,艾琳諾比瑪麗安愛思索分析是真的,在書中卻不是頭號理性。書中頭號理性是芬妮,她在第二章勸先生別照顧妹妹那番說辭,正是經濟學家假想的「完全理性」(perfect rationality),無一絲感情,全憑邏輯與算計,追求自利極大化。

啟蒙運動標榜的理性(reason)倒是跟「經濟人」無關,而是迷信與教條的對照。但這種理性亦非本書所關注。艾琳諾一大性格就是願意為了他人感受,而克制自己情緒。因此書中的理性並不是與感性區隔,而是克制感性的力量。嚴格說,就是自制力。如此,我們可把書名「理性與感性」翻譯成「有節制與沒節制的感性」。小說的重點,根本就只是感性。

奧斯汀所有作品都是成長小說,女主角都無法倚靠父母,重要關卡都必須自己摸索,進而成長(作者提供)

以感性為小說重點,其實是十八世紀下半葉橫掃全歐的文學風潮,今稱「感性小說」(novel of sensibility又稱sentimental novel)。這種小說在英國有理察德森《克萊麗莎》(1748),在法國有盧騷《新哀綠綺絲》(1761),在德國則有歌德《少年維特的煩惱》(1774)。「感性小說」主角都有顆善感的心,悲傷起來都不可收拾,悲傷之餘都憐貧憫弱,都好善良。這種角色塑造背後,其實有當時流行的一種哲學見解。

這種見解可見於休謨《人性論》(1739)第三卷,就是認定人性之善並非來自理性,而是來自情感。「人在做錯事的當時,總是心裡有數的。如果知道不恰當,我當時就不會有樂趣了。」在十三章,奧斯汀把這話放進瑪麗安嘴裡,當作合理化自己離譜行為的說法,可見奧斯汀並不同意休謨的「道德情感主義」(moral sentimentalism)。

從這層面來看,奧斯汀《理性與感性》就是寫來取笑自己青春期最重要精神食糧的。她認為感性就跟理性一樣,可以傷害別人,也可以替人著想。二者皆是人的天賦,全看人想不想運用,怎麼運用。

該怎麼運用,是奧斯汀所有女主角都必須學習的。讀者讀完小說,亦不難想像她們的學習將在婚後持續下去。奧斯汀所有作品都是成長小說(Bildungsroman)。女主角都無法倚靠父母,重要關卡都必須自己摸索,過程中犯錯或承受打擊,並經歷「覺今是而昨非」的一刻。她們的成長方式,是透過一次次的對話與沉殿。

在女主角一次次的對話與沉殿之中,讀者可讀到民主風範,也讀到自由的真諦。民主並不是一人一票,而是公民應該學會彼此對話,不管大家見解、偏好差異多大。奧斯汀作品最多這種對話。所謂自由,則是在意識自我侷限之餘,做出選擇。奧斯汀女主角每次沉殿,都是在自我選擇,並承擔後果。

《理性與感性》又有一點不同於其他奧斯汀作品,就是秘密、隱情特別多。女主角既需要頻頻判讀不完整資訊,也必須控制自身隱私的揭露程度。因此書中呈現的成長,已不僅僅是學習承受痛苦,還要管理人生的各種不確定性。在充滿不確定性的時代,這是《理性與感性》別具一格的意義。



*作者為專欄作家,出版人。本文為作者譯作《理性與感性》的導讀。授權轉載。


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