Butler.
The knight3 and the friar arriving at Arlingford Castle, and leaving their horses in the care of lady Matilda’s groom4, with whom the friar was in great favour, were ushered5 into a stately apartment, where they found the baron6 alone, flourishing an enormous carving-knife over a brother baron — of beef — with as much vehemence7 of action as if he were cutting down an enemy. The baron was a gentleman of a fierce and choleric8 temperament9: he was lineally descended10 from the redoubtable11 Fierabras of Normandy, who came over to England with the Conqueror12, and who, in the battle of Hastings, killed with his own hand four-and-twenty Saxon cavaliers all on a row. The very excess of the baron’s internal rage on the preceding day had smothered13 its external manifestation14: he was so equally angry with both parties, that he knew not on which to vent15 his wrath. He was enraged16 with the earl for having brought himself into such a dilemma18 without his privily19; and he was no less enraged with the king’s men for their very unseasonable intrusion. He could willingly have fallen upon both parties, but, he must necessarily have begun with one; and he felt that on whichever side he should strike the first blow, his retainers would immediately join battle. He had therefore contented20 himself with forcing away his daughter from the scene of action. In the course of the evening he had received intelligence that the earl’s castle was in possession of a party of the king’s men, who had been detached by Sir Ralph Montfaucon to seize on it during the earl’s absence. The baron inferred from this that the earl’s case was desperate; and those who have had the opportunity of seeing a rich friend fall suddenly into poverty, may easily judge by their own feelings how quickly and completely the whole moral being of the earl was changed in the baron’s estimation. The baron immediately proceeded to require in his daughter’s mind the same summary revolution that had taken place in his own, and considered himself exceedingly ill-used by her non-compliance. The lady had retired21 to her chamber22, and the baron had passed a supperless and sleepless23 night, stalking about his apartments till an advanced hour of the morning, when hunger compelled him to summon into his presence the spoils of the buttery, which, being the intended array of an uneaten wedding feast, were more than usually abundant, and on which, when the knight and the friar entered, he was falling with desperate valour. He looked up at them fiercely, with his mouth full of beef and his eyes full of flame, and rising, as ceremony required, made an awful bow to the knight, inclining himself forward over the table and presenting his carving-knife en militaire, in a manner that seemed to leave it doubtful whether he meant to show respect to his visitor, or to defend his provision: but the doubt was soon cleared up by his politely motioning the knight to be seated; on which the friar advanced to the table, saying, “For what we are going to receive,” and commenced operations without further prelude24 by filling and drinking a goblet25 of wine. The baron at the same time offered one to Sir Ralph, with the look of a man in whom habitual26 hospitality and courtesy were struggling with the ebullitions of natural anger. They pledged each other in silence, and the baron, having completed a copious27 draught28, continued working his lips and his throat, as if trying to swallow his wrath as he had done his wine. Sir Ralph, not knowing well what to make of these ambiguous signs, looked for instructions to the friar, who by significant looks and gestures seemed to advise him to follow his example and partake of the good cheer before him, without speaking till the baron should be more intelligible29 in his demeanour. The knight and the friar, accordingly, proceeded to refect themselves after their ride; the baron looking first at the one and then at the other, scrutinising alternately the serious looks of the knight and the merry face of the friar, till at length, having calmed himself sufficiently30 to speak, he said, “Courteous31 knight and ghostly father, I presume you have some other business with me than to eat my beef and drink my canary; and if so, I patiently await your leisure to enter on the topic.”
“Lord Fitzwater,” said Sir Ralph, “in obedience32 to my royal master, King Henry, I have been the unwilling33 instrument of frustrating34 the intended nuptials35 of your fair daughter; yet will you, I trust, owe me no displeasure for my agency herein, seeing that the noble maiden36 might otherwise by this time have been the bride of an outlaw37.”
“I am very much obliged to you, sir,” said the baron; “very exceedingly obliged. Your solicitude38 for my daughter is truly paternal39, and for a young man and a stranger very singular and exemplary: and it is very kind withal to come to the relief of my insufficiency and inexperience, and concern yourself so much in that which concerns you not.”
“You misconceive the knight, noble baron,” said the friar. “He urges not his reason in the shape of a preconceived intent, but in that of a subsequent extenuation40. True, he has done the lady Matilda great wrong ——”
“How, great wrong?” said the baron. “What do you mean by great wrong? Would you have had her married to a wild fly-by-night, that accident made an earl and nature a deer-stealer? that has not wit enough to eat venison without picking a quarrel with monarchy41? that flings away his own lands into the clutches of rascally42 friars, for the sake of hunting in other men’s grounds, and feasting vagabonds that wear Lincoln green, and would have flung away mine into the bargain if he had had my daughter? What do you mean by great wrong?”
“True,” said the friar, “great right, I meant.”
“Right!” exclaimed the baron: “what right has any man to do my daughter right but myself? What right has any man to drive my daughter’s bridegroom out of the chapel43 in the middle of the marriage ceremony, and turn all our merry faces into green wounds and bloody44 coxcombs, and then come and tell me he has done us great right?”
“True,” said the friar: “he has done neither right nor wrong.”
“But he has,” said the baron, “he has done both, and I will maintain it with my glove.”
“It shall not need,” said Sir Ralph; “I will concede any thing in honour.”
“And I,” said the baron, “will concede nothing in honour: I will concede nothing in honour to any man.”
“Neither will I, Lord Fitzwater,” said Sir Ralph, “in that sense: but hear me. I was commissioned by the king to apprehend45 the Earl of Huntingdon. I brought with me a party of soldiers, picked and tried men, knowing that he would not lightly yield. I sent my lieutenant46 with a detachment to surprise the earl’s castle in his absence, and laid my measures for intercepting47 him on the way to his intended nuptials; but he seems to have had intimation of this part of my plan, for he brought with him a large armed retinue48, and took a circuitous49 route, which made him, I believe, somewhat later than his appointed hour. When the lapse50 of time showed me that he had taken another track, I pursued him to the chapel; and I would have awaited the close of the ceremony, if I had thought that either yourself or your daughter would have felt desirous that she should have been the bride of an outlaw.”
“Who said, sir,” cried the baron, “that we were desirous of any such thing? But truly, sir, if I had a mind to the devil for a son-inlaw, I would fain see the man that should venture to interfere51.”
“That would I,” said the friar; “for I have undertaken to make her renounce52 the devil.”
“She shall not renounce the devil,” said the baron, “unless I please. You are very ready with your undertakings53. Will you undertake to make her renounce the earl, who, I believe, is the devil incarnate54? Will you undertake that?”
“Will I undertake,” said the friar, “to make Trent run westward55, or to make flame burn downward, or to make a tree grow with its head in the earth and its root in the air?”
“So then,” said the baron, “a girl’s mind is as hard to change as nature and the elements, and it is easier to make her renounce the devil than a lover. Are you a match for the devil, and no match for a man?”
“My warfare,” said the friar, “is not of this world. I am militant56 not against man, but the devil, who goes about seeking what he may devour57.”
“Oh! does he so?” said the baron: “then I take it that makes you look for him so often in my buttery. Will you cast out the devil whose name is Legion, when you cannot cast out the imp58 whose name is Love?”
“Marriages,” said the friar, “are made in heaven. Love is God’s work, and therewith I meddle59 not.”
“God’s work, indeed!” said the baron, “when the ceremony was cut short in the church. Could men have put them asunder60, if God had joined them together? And the earl is now no earl, but plain Robert Fitz–Ooth: therefore, I’ll none of him.”
“He may atone,” said the friar, “and the king may mollify. The earl is a worthy61 peer, and the king is a courteous king.”
“He cannot atone,” said Sir Ralph. “He has killed the king’s men; and if the baron should aid and abet62, he will lose his castle and land.”
“Will I?” said the baron; “not while I have a drop of blood in my veins63. He that comes to take them shall first serve me as the friar serves my flasks64 of canary: he shall drain me dry as hay. Am I not disparaged65? Am I not outraged66? Is not my daughter vilified67, and made a mockery? A girl half-married? There was my butler brought home with a broken head. My butler, friar: there is that may move your sympathy. Friar, the earl-no-earl shall come no more to my daughter.”
“Very good,” said the friar.
“It is not very good,” said the baron, “for I cannot get her to say so.”
“I fear,” said Sir Ralph, “the young lady must be much distressed68 and discomposed.”
“Not a whit69, sir,” said the baron. “She is, as usual, in a most provoking imperturbability70, and contradicts me so smilingly that it would enrage17 you to see her.”
“I had hoped,” said Sir Ralph, “that I might have seen her, to make my excuse in person for the hard necessity of my duty.”
He had scarcely spoken, when the door opened, and the lady made her appearance.
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收听单词发音
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1
inflamed
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| adj.发炎的，红肿的v.（使）变红，发怒，过热( inflame的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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2
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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3
knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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groom
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| vt.给（马、狗等）梳毛，照料，使...整洁 | |
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ushered
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| v.引，领，陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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baron
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| n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王 | |
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vehemence
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| n.热切；激烈；愤怒 | |
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choleric
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| adj.易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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10
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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11
redoubtable
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| adj.可敬的；可怕的 | |
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12
conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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13
smothered
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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14
manifestation
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| n.表现形式；表明；现象 | |
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15
vent
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| n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄 | |
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16
enraged
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| 使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 )； 歜； 激愤 | |
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17
enrage
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| v.触怒，激怒 | |
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18
dilemma
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| n.困境，进退两难的局面 | |
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19
privily
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| adv.暗中，秘密地 | |
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20
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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21
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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22
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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23
sleepless
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| adj.不睡眠的，睡不著的，不休息的 | |
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24
prelude
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| n.序言，前兆，序曲 | |
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25
goblet
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| n.高脚酒杯 | |
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26
habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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27
copious
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| adj.丰富的，大量的 | |
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28
draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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29
intelligible
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| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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30
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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31
courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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32
obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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33
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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34
frustrating
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| adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧 | |
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35
nuptials
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| n.婚礼；婚礼( nuptial的名词复数 ) | |
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36
maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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37
outlaw
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| n.歹徒，亡命之徒；vt.宣布…为不合法 | |
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38
solicitude
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| n.焦虑 | |
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39
paternal
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| adj.父亲的，像父亲的，父系的，父方的 | |
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40
extenuation
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| n.减轻罪孽的借口；酌情减轻；细 | |
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41
monarchy
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| n.君主，最高统治者；君主政体，君主国 | |
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42
rascally
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| adj. 无赖的，恶棍的 adv. 无赖地，卑鄙地 | |
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43
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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44
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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45
apprehend
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| vt.理解，领悟，逮捕，拘捕，忧虑 | |
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46
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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47
intercepting
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| 截取（技术），截接 | |
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48
retinue
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| n.侍从；随员 | |
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49
circuitous
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| adj.迂回的路的，迂曲的，绕行的 | |
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50
lapse
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| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
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51
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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52
renounce
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| v.放弃；拒绝承认，宣布与…断绝关系 | |
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53
undertakings
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| 企业( undertaking的名词复数 )； 保证； 殡仪业； 任务 | |
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54
incarnate
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| adj.化身的，人体化的，肉色的 | |
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55
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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56
militant
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| adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士 | |
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57
devour
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| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
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58
imp
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| n.顽童 | |
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59
meddle
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| v.干预，干涉，插手 | |
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60
asunder
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| adj.分离的，化为碎片 | |
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61
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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62
abet
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| v.教唆，鼓励帮助 | |
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63
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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64
flasks
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| n.瓶，长颈瓶， 烧瓶( flask的名词复数 ) | |
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65
disparaged
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| v.轻视( disparage的过去式和过去分词 )；贬低；批评；非难 | |
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66
outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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67
vilified
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| v.中伤，诽谤( vilify的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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68
distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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69
whit
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| n.一点，丝毫 | |
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70
imperturbability
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| n.冷静；沉着 | |
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