None of Wordsworth's productions are better known by name than Peter Bell, and yet few, probably, are less familiar, even to convinced Wordsworthians. The poet's biographers and critics have commonly shirked the responsibility of discussing this poem, and when the Primrose1 stanza2 has been quoted, and the Parlour stanza smiled at, there is usually no more said about Peter Bell. A puzzling obscurity hangs around its history. We have no positive knowledge why its publication was so long delayed; nor, having been delayed, why it was at length determined3 upon. Yet a knowledge of this poem is not merely an important, but, to a thoughtful critic, an essential element in the comprehension of Wordsworth's poetry. No one who examines that body of literature with sympathetic attention should be content to overlook the piece in which Wordsworth's theories are pushed to their furthest extremity4.
When Peter Bell was published in April 1819, the author remarked that it had "nearly survived its minority; for it saw the light in the summer of 1798." It was therefore composed at Alfoxden, that plain stone house in West Somersetshire, which Dorothy and William Wordsworth rented for the sum of ￡23 for one year, the rent covering the use of "a large park, with seventy head of deer."
Thanks partly to its remoteness from a railway, and partly also to the peculiarities5 of its family history, Alfoxden remains6 singularly unaltered. The lover of Wordsworth who follows its deep umbrageous7 drive to the point where the house, the park around it, and the Quantocks above them suddenly break upon the view, sees to-day very much what Wordsworth's visitors saw when they trudged8 up from Stowey to commune with him in 1797. The barrier of ancient beech-trees running up into the moor9, Kilve twinkling below, the stretch of fields and woods descending10 northward11 to the expanse of the yellow Severn Channel, the plain white fa?ade of Alfoxden itself, with its easy right of way across the fantastic garden, the tumultuous pathway down to the glen, the poet's favourite parlour at the end of the house—all this presents an impression which is probably less transformed, remains more absolutely intact, than any other which can be identified with the early or even the middle life of the poet. That William and Dorothy, in their poverty, should have rented so noble a country property seems at first sight inexplicable12, and the contrast between Alfoxden and Coleridge's squalid pot-house in Nether13 Stowey can never cease to be astonishing. But the sole object of the trustees in admitting Wordsworth to Alfoxden was, as Mrs. Sandford has discovered, "to keep the house inhabited during the minority of the owner;" it was let to the poet on the 14th of July 1797.
It was in this delicious place, under the shadow of "smooth Quantock's airy ridge," that Wordsworth's genius came of age. It was during the twelve months spent here that Wordsworth lost the final traces of the old traditional accent of poetry. It was here that the best of the Lyrical Ballads14 were written, and from this house the first volume of that epoch16-making collection was forwarded to the press. Among the poems written at Alfoxden Peter Bell was prominent, but we hear little of it except from Hazlitt, who, taken over to the Wordsworths by Coleridge from Nether Stowey, was on a first visit permitted to read "the sibylline17 leaves," and on a second had the rare pleasure of hearing Wordsworth himself chant Peter Bell, in his "equable, sustained, and internal" manner of recitation, under the ash-trees of Alfoxden Park. I do not know whether it has been noted18 that the landscape of Peter Bell, although localised in Yorkshire by the banks of the River Swale, is yet pure Somerset in character. The poem was composed, without a doubt, as the poet tramped the grassy19 heights of the Quantock Hills, or descended21 at headlong pace, mouthing and murmuring as he went, into one sylvan22 combe after another. To give it its proper place among the writings of the school, we must remember that it belongs to the same group as Tintern Abbey and The Ancient Mariner23.
Why, then, was it not issued to the world with these? Why was it locked up in the poet's desk for twenty-one years, and shown during that time, as we gather from its author's language to Southey, to few, even of his close friends? To these questions we find no reply vouchsafed24, but perhaps it is not difficult to discover one. Every revolutionist in literature or art produces some composition in which he goes further than in any other in his defiance25 of recognised rules and conventions. It was Wordsworth's central theory that no subject can be too simple and no treatment too naked for poetic26 purposes. His poems written at Alfoxden are precisely27 those in which he is most audacious in carrying out his principle, and nothing, even of his, is quite so simple or quite so naked as Peter Bell.
Hazlitt, a very young man, strongly prejudiced in favour of the new ideas, has given us a notion of the amazement28 with which he listened to these pieces of Wordsworth, although he was "not critically nor sceptically inclined." Others, we know, were deeply scandalised. I have little doubt that Wordsworth himself considered that, in 1798, his own admirers were scarcely ripe for the publication of Peter Bell, while, even so late as June 1812, when Crabb Robinson borrowed the MS. and lent it to Charles Lamb, the latter "found nothing good in it." Robinson seems to have been the one admirer of Peter Bell at that time, and he was irritated at Lamb's indifference29. Yet his own opinion became modified when the poem was published, and (May 3, 1819) he calls it "this unfortunate book."[1] In another place (June 12, 1820) Crabb Robinson says that he implored30 Wordsworth, before the book was printed, to omit "the party in a parlour," and also the banging of the ass20's bones, but, of course, in vain.
[Footnote 1: The word unfortunate is omitted by the editor, Thomas Sadler, perhaps in deference31 to the feelings of Wordsworth's descendants.]
In 1819 much was changed. The poet was now in his fiftieth year. The epoch of his true productiveness was closed; all his best works, except The Prelude32, were before the public, and although Wordsworth was by no means widely or generally recognised yet as a great poet, there was a considerable audience ready to receive with respect whatever so interesting a person should put forward. Moreover, a new generation had come to the front; Scott's series of verse-romances was closed; Byron was in mid-career; there were young men of extraordinary and somewhat disquieting33 talent—Shelley, Keats, and Leigh Hunt—all of whom were supposed to be, although characters of a very reprehensible34 and even alarming class, yet distinctly respectful in their attitude towards Mr. Wordsworth. It seemed safe to publish Peter Bell.
Accordingly, the thin octavo described at the head of this chapter duly appeared in April 1819. It was so tiny that it had to be eked35 out with the Sonnets36 written to W. Westall's Views, and it was adorned38 by an engraving39 of Bromley's, after a drawing specially40 made by Sir George Beaumont to illustrate41 the poem. A letter to Beaumont, unfortunately without a date, in which this frontispiece is discussed, seems to suggest that the engraving was a gift from the artist to the poet; Wordsworth, "in sorrow for the sickly taste of the public in verse," opining that he cannot afford the expense of such a frontispiece as Sir George Beaumont suggests. In accordance with these fears, no doubt, an edition of only 500 was published; but it achieved a success which Wordsworth had neither anticipated nor desired. There was a general guffaw42 of laughter, and all the copies were immediately sold; within a month a ribald public received a third edition, only to discover, with disappointment, that the funniest lines were omitted.
No one admired Peter Bell. The inner circle was silent. Baron43 Field wrote on the title-page of his copy, which now belongs to Mr. J. Dykes44 Campbell, "And his carcass was cast in the way, and the Ass stood by it." Sir Walter Scott openly lamented45 that Wordsworth should exhibit himself "crawling on all fours, when God has given him so noble a countenance46 to lift to heaven." Byron mocked aloud, and, worse than all, the young men from whom so much had been expected, les jeunes feroces, leaped on the poor uncomplaining Ass like so many hunting-leopards. The air was darkened by hurtling parodies47, the arrangement of which is still a standing48 crux49 to the bibliographers.
It was Keats's friend, John Hamilton Reynolds, who opened the attack. His parody50 (Peter Bell: a Lyrical Ballad15. London, Taylor and Hessey, 1819) was positively51 in the field before the original. It was said, at the time, that Wordsworth, feverishly52 awaiting a specimen53 copy of his own Peter Bell from town, seized a packet which the mail brought him, only to find that it was the spurious poem which had anticipated Simon Pure. The Times protested that the two poems must be from the same pen. Reynolds had probably glanced at proofs of the genuine poem; his preface is a close imitation of Wordsworth's introduction, and the stanzaic54 form in which the two pieces are written is identical. On the other hand, the main parody is made up of allusions55 to previous poems by Wordsworth, and shows no acquaintance with the story of Peter Bell. Reynolds's whole pamphlet—preface, text, and notes—is excessively clever, and touches up the bard56 at a score of tender points. It catches the sententious tone of Wordsworth deliciously, and it closes with this charming stanza:
He quits that moonlight yard of skulls57,
And still he feels right glad, and smiles
With moral joy at that old tomb;
Peter's cheek recalls its bloom,
And as he creepeth by the tiles,
He mutters ever—"W.W.
Never more will trouble you, trouble you."
Peter Bell the Second, as it is convenient, though not strictly58 accurate, to call Reynold's "antenatal Peter," was more popular than the original. By May a third edition had been called for, and this contained fresh stanzas59 and additional notes.
Another parody, which ridiculed60 the affection for donkeys displayed both by Wordsworth and Coleridge, was called The Dead Asses61: A Lyrical Ballad; and an elaborate production, the author of which I have not been able to discover, was published later on in the year, Benjamin the Waggoner (Baldwin, Craddock and Joy, 1819), which, although the title suggests The Waggoner of Wordsworth, is entirely62 taken up with making fun of Peter Bell. This parody—and it is certainly neither pointless nor unskilful—chiefly deals with the poet's fantastic prologue63. Then, no less a person than Shelley, writing to Leigh Hunt from Florence in November of the same year, enclosed a Peter Bell the Third which he desired should be printed, yet in such a form as to conceal64 the name of the author. Perhaps Hunt thought it indiscreet to publish this not very amusing skit65, and it did not see the light till long after Shelley's death. Finally, as though the very spirit of parody danced in the company of this strange poem, Wordsworth himself chronicled its ill-fate in a sonnet37 imitated from Milton's defence of "Tetrachordon," singing how, on the appearance of Peter Bell,
a harpy brood On Bard and Hero clamourously fell.
Of the poem which enjoyed so singular a fate, Lord Houghton has quietly remarked that it could not have been written by a man with a strong sense of humour. This is true of every part of it, of the stiff and self-sufficient preface, and of the grotesque66 prologue, both of which in all probability belong to 1819, no less than of the story itself, in its three cantos or parts, which bear the stamp of Alfoxden and 1798. The tale is not less improbable than uninteresting. In the first part, a very wicked potter or itinerant67 seller of pots, Peter Bell, being lost in the woodland, comes to the borders of a river, and thinks to steal an ass which he finds pensively68 hanging its head over the water; Peter Bell presently discovers that the dead body of the master of the ass is floating in the river just below. (The poet, as he has naively69 recorded, read this incident in a newspaper.) In the second part Peter drags the dead man to land, and starts on the ass's back to find the survivors70. In the third part a vague spiritual chastisement71 falls on Peter Bell for his previous wickedness. Plot there is no more than this, and if proof were wanted of the inherent innocence72 of Wordsworth's mind, it is afforded by the artless struggles which he makes to paint a very wicked man. Peter Bell has had twelve wives, he is indifferent to primroses73 upon a river's brim, and he beats asses when they refuse to stir. This is really all the evidence brought against one who is described, vaguely74, as combining all vices75 that "the cruel city breeds."
That which close students of the genius of Wordsworth will always turn to seek in Peter Bell is the sincere sentiment of nature and the studied simplicity76 of language which inspire its best stanzas. The narrative77 is clumsy in the extreme, and the attempts at wit and sarcasm78 ludicrous. Yet Peter Bell contains exquisite79 things. The Primrose stanza is known to every one; this is not so familiar:
The dragon's wing, the magic ring,
I shall not covet80 for my dower.
If I along that lowly way
With sympathetic heart may stray
And with a soul of power.
Nor this, with its excruciating simplicity, its descriptive accent of 1798:
_I see a blooming Wood-boy there,
And, if I had the power to say
How sorrowful the wanderer is,
Your heart would be as sad as his
Till you had kiss'd his tears away!
Holding a hawthorn81 branch in hand,
All bright with berries ripe and red;
Into the cavern's mouth he peeps—
Thence back into the moonlight creeps;
What seeks the boy?—the silent dead!_
It is when he wishes to describe how Peter Bell became aware of the dead body floating under the nose of the patient ass that Wordsworth loses himself in uncouth82 similes83. Peter thinks it is the moon, then the reflection of a cloud, then a gallows85, a coffin86, a shroud87, a stone idol88, a ring of fairies, a fiend. Last of all the poet makes the Potter, who is gazing at the corpse89, exclaim:
Is it a party in a parlour?
Cramm'd just as they on earth were cramm'd—
Some sipping90 punch, some sipping tea,
But, as you by their faces see,
All silent and all damned!
So deplorable is the waggishness91 of a person, however gifted, who has no sense of humour! This simile84 was too much for the gravity even of intimate friends like Southey and Lamb, and after the second edition it disappeared.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
primrose
|
|
| n.樱草，最佳部分， | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
stanza
|
|
| n.（诗）节，段 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
determined
|
|
| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
extremity
|
|
| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
peculiarities
|
|
| n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
remains
|
|
| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
umbrageous
|
|
| adj.多荫的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
trudged
|
|
| vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
moor
|
|
| n.荒野，沼泽；vt.(使)停泊；vi.停泊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
descending
|
|
| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
northward
|
|
| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
inexplicable
|
|
| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
nether
|
|
| adj.下部的，下面的；n.阴间；下层社会 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
ballads
|
|
| 民歌，民谣，特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 )； 讴 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
ballad
|
|
| n.歌谣，民谣，流行爱情歌曲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
epoch
|
|
| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
sibylline
|
|
| adj.预言的；神巫的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
noted
|
|
| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
grassy
|
|
| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
ass
|
|
| n.驴；傻瓜，蠢笨的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
descended
|
|
| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
sylvan
|
|
| adj.森林的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
mariner
|
|
| n.水手号不载人航天探测器，海员，航海者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
vouchsafed
|
|
| v.给予，赐予( vouchsafe的过去式和过去分词 )；允诺 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
defiance
|
|
| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
poetic
|
|
| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
precisely
|
|
| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
amazement
|
|
| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
indifference
|
|
| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
implored
|
|
| 恳求或乞求（某人）( implore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
deference
|
|
| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
prelude
|
|
| n.序言，前兆，序曲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
disquieting
|
|
| adj.令人不安的，令人不平静的v.使不安，使忧虑，使烦恼( disquiet的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
reprehensible
|
|
| adj.该受责备的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
eked
|
|
| v.（靠节省用量）使…的供应持久( eke的过去式和过去分词 )；节约使用；竭力维持生计；勉强度日 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
sonnets
|
|
| n.十四行诗( sonnet的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
sonnet
|
|
| n.十四行诗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
adorned
|
|
| [计]被修饰的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
engraving
|
|
| n.版画；雕刻（作品）；雕刻艺术；镌版术v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的现在分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
specially
|
|
| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
illustrate
|
|
| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
guffaw
|
|
| n.哄笑；突然的大笑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
baron
|
|
| n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
dykes
|
|
| abbr.diagonal wire cutters 斜线切割机n.堤( dyke的名词复数 )；坝；堰；沟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
lamented
|
|
| adj.被哀悼的，令人遗憾的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
countenance
|
|
| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
parodies
|
|
| n.拙劣的模仿( parody的名词复数 )；恶搞；滑稽的模仿诗文；表面上模仿得笨拙但充满了机智用来嘲弄别人作品的作品v.滑稽地模仿，拙劣地模仿( parody的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
crux
|
|
| adj.十字形；难事，关键，最重要点 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
parody
|
|
| n.打油诗文，诙谐的改编诗文，拙劣的模仿；v.拙劣模仿，作模仿诗文 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
positively
|
|
| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
feverishly
|
|
| adv. 兴奋地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
specimen
|
|
| n.样本，标本 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
stanzaic
|
|
| 诗节的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
55
allusions
|
|
| 暗指，间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
bard
|
|
| n.吟游诗人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
skulls
|
|
| 颅骨( skull的名词复数 )； 脑袋； 脑子； 脑瓜 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
strictly
|
|
| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
stanzas
|
|
| 节，段( stanza的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
ridiculed
|
|
| v.嘲笑，嘲弄，奚落( ridicule的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
asses
|
|
| n. 驴，愚蠢的人，臀部 adv. (常用作后置)用于贬损或骂人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
entirely
|
|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
prologue
|
|
| n.开场白，序言；开端，序幕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
conceal
|
|
| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
skit
|
|
| n.滑稽短剧；一群 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
grotesque
|
|
| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
itinerant
|
|
| adj.巡回的；流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
pensively
|
|
| adv.沉思地，焦虑地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
naively
|
|
| adv. 天真地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
survivors
|
|
| 幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
chastisement
|
|
| n.惩罚 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
innocence
|
|
| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
primroses
|
|
| n.报春花( primrose的名词复数 )；淡黄色；追求享乐（招至恶果） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
vaguely
|
|
| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
vices
|
|
| 缺陷( vice的名词复数 )； 恶习； 不道德行为； 台钳 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
simplicity
|
|
| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
narrative
|
|
| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
sarcasm
|
|
| n.讥讽，讽刺，嘲弄，反话 （adj.sarcastic） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
exquisite
|
|
| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
covet
|
|
| vt.垂涎；贪图(尤指属于他人的东西) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
hawthorn
|
|
| 山楂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
uncouth
|
|
| adj.无教养的，粗鲁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
similes
|
|
| （使用like或as等词语的）明喻( simile的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
simile
|
|
| n.直喻，明喻 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
gallows
|
|
| n.绞刑架，绞台 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
86
coffin
|
|
| n.棺材，灵柩 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
87
shroud
|
|
| n.裹尸布，寿衣；罩，幕；vt.覆盖，隐藏 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
88
idol
|
|
| n.偶像，红人，宠儿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
89
corpse
|
|
| n.尸体，死尸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
90
sipping
|
|
| v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
91
waggishness
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |