For sure he was not of my mind:
He cared not for women-kinde,
But did them all disdaine."
Kophetua was undoubtedly1 the handsomest man in his kingdom. The slightest suspicion of Moorish2 blood, incurred3 from a Spanish ancestress, had only added, as it were, a tropical richness to the beauty which he had inherited from the founder4, and that was no small inheritance. It was part of the constitution that every king of Oneiria should be known by the name of Kophetua, but a grateful and imaginative people had been dissatisfied with the bald arithmetical distinctions which this law entailed5. In the old fashion they had begun to speak of their sovereigns by surnames, till an unforeseen difficulty arose. After the death of the founder, his splendid sons succeeded him one after another with an alarming rapidity, due to the reckless exposure of their persons to the early Berber enemies of the State. Every brother was handsomer than the last, and[Pg 9] obviously demanded a surname expressive7 of personal beauty. It was a characteristic so dazzling that the popular mind could not fix itself on any other of the family qualities, brilliant as they were. To a humorous people the monotony soon became ridiculous, and every one was relieved when, before two generations had passed away, it was found that every word in the Oneirian vocabulary in any way synonymous with "handsome" was already exhausted8, and by tacit agreement the country fell back restfully upon the limitless resources of the ordinal numbers.
So our Kophetua was simply known as "Thirteenth." Yet it made a pretty name when you got used to it. It is a soft-sounding one as it stands, and was still prettier in the popular dialect. As the trade of the country was almost entirely9 with the Canaries, the common people counted in Spanish, and so by a diminutive10 of affection their King was known to them as "Trecenito."
Yet of all the line of Kophetuas he most deserved a more distinctive11 surname. Any one must have so agreed who could have seen him as he sat to-day in his library with a copy of Rousseau's Origin of Inequality dropped listlessly on his knees. It was an ideal book-room, in the style of the early French Renaissance12. The whole palace indeed was designed in the same manner. It was the most eclectic style the founder could[Pg 10] light upon, and everything in Oneiria was eclectic.
Ten panels opposite the ten windows were occupied by fine portraits of the ten successors of the founder. Trecenito's own had to hang on a screen. At either end of the long chamber13 was a magnificent fireplace reaching to the panelled ceiling. Not that a fireplace was ever necessary in the balmy air of Oneiria, but still, where the capital was situated14, amongst the hills facing the Atlantic, it enjoyed a temperate15 climate, and with considerable discomfort16 fires could be endured on the coldest days. This discomfort every one was glad to undergo for the sake of the European atmosphere generated by the blazing logs. It was hot but refined, and that was everything to a well-bred Oneirian.
In a smaller panel above one of these sacred hearths18 was a picture of the first King Kophetua placing with love-lorn gesture the wondering beggar-maid upon his jewelled throne. It was a beautiful work, obviously by a dreamy and backward pupil of Perugino. By his childish colour, na?ve composition, and vague expression of sentiment, the painter had unconsciously given a charm to the subject which the greatest of his contemporaries could never have achieved.
You turned from it with a sympathetic smile to look in vain down the long vista19 of[Pg 11] books for the founder's portrait over the other hearth17. Picture there was none. Even his features were forgotten, but where the painting should have been hung a splendid suit of armour20 of the later sixteenth century fashion. Morion, corselet, tassets, all were richly chased. Below hung a great pair of Cordovan boots armed with heavy gilded21 spurs. One gauntlet seemed to grasp a five-foot rapier with a great cup-guard and hilt-points of extravagant22 length, while in the other was placed a shell-dagger of the same design.
It was the very suit in which the heroic founder had stepped from his pinnace upon the burning sand, and claimed that land for his company "by right divine of inheritance from Adam," and somehow that trophy23 of arms always gave to Trecenito a vivid sense of the old knight24's presence in the room, which no dead portrait could have conveyed. Indeed, it was not hard to fancy a grim face beneath the shadow of the peaked morion, as the gloom of evening fell and the firelight flickered25. It was on this the king was gazing with his Rousseau on his knees. Surfeited26 with philosophy, he fell to musing27 on his ancestor till he saw beneath the morion the stern, burnt features, as he pictured them, with grey pointed28 beard and bristling29 moustache. He could not help contrasting the fancy with his own smooth, shaven face, and[Pg 12] the old adventurous30 life with his own colourless existence.
"Turbo!" he cried, as, stung with the unhappy contrast, he started up and half unconsciously tore off a black patch which, after the custom of the time, adorned31 his cheek—"Turbo! I am a miserable32 man."
"So your majesty33 is continually hinting. May I die if I know why!"
With an air of well-feigned interest in his monarch34's state of mind, the speaker rose from an elegant buhl writing-table, which would have been covered with official papers had there been any business for the King to transact35 with his Chancellor36; but as usual there was none, and the table bore nothing weightier than a half-finished copy of Latin verses, perhaps quite heavy enough for its slender proportions, for the Chancellor was a poet by conviction rather than birth.
Indeed poetry could hardly have dwelt in a form so revolting. His face was distorted by two livid scars. One stretched across the lower part of his nose up to his right eye, which in healing it had drawn37 down so that it looked like a bloodhound's. The other ran across his mouth in such a way that it exposed his teeth on one side and gave to his face a snarling38 expression that was acutely unprepossessing. His shoulders, too, seemed in some way ill-matched, and he joined Kophetua at the founder's hearth with an[Pg 13] ungainly limp which completed the picture of deformity he presented.
"No! may I die if I know why," repeated Turbo.
"Ah, you will not understand," said the King. "How can I be happy, how can I live according to nature, leading the life I do, without an annoyance39, literally40 without an annoyance? How can I ever rival the knight," he went on, "with nothing to overcome, with nothing to stand in my way? I tell you I am a miserable man."
"If your majesty will have it so," answered Turbo, "I must of course agree."
"And why should you not in any case?" asked Kophetua a little testily41. "Look at me. Here before you is practically the only sovereign in the civilised world who at this moment has not a revolution more or less developed in his dominions42, while my disgracefully contented43 subjects will not—why, they will not even read the Jacobin paper we have been at the pains surreptitiously to start for them."
"No," said the Chancellor gravely, "I believe that only six copies were sold this week. There were two copies for you and me, one for the Queen-mother, and one for General Dolabella, who I am sure only lights his pipe with it. There was one went to the beggars for decorative44 purposes, it is said; and the sixth—let me see," he continued as he limped to his desk and took out a small[Pg 14] memorandum45 on large official paper. "The sixth—ah! yes, that was a presentation copy to the Museum which I paid for myself."
"It is heart-breaking, absolutely heart-breaking," cried the King. "To what end have I spent all these years in the study of politics? To what end have you lavished46 your inestimable instruction on me, and sacrificed what should have been the most brilliant career in Europe in order to educate me for a throne? Is there a single writer on statecraft, from Plato to More, from Machiavelli to Voltaire, that I have not mastered from end to end, to say nothing of the knight's manuscript?"
"Indeed, sire," answered the Chancellor, "you have made yourself a most consummate47 statesman."
"No, Turbo," said the King, "be just. It is you that have made me so. Without you these books would have said not a word to me for all their wisdom. But to what end is it all, I say? Here I stand disgraced before the knight's armour, not because I will not or cannot do anything, but because there is nothing to do. I tell you, Turbo, I shrink with shame when I see his grave face look out at me from under the morion, and yet,"—he went on, pacing the room, with a noble look on his handsome face,—"he has no right to scorn me. I know that were there wrongs to right, I have will and power to right them, or at least the courage to die[Pg 15] fighting for the same end to which his heroic life was sacrificed."
"Well, be comforted," said Turbo; "to-morrow you will have an annoyance. For to-morrow, I would remind you, comes your mother's last choice for you; at least, I imagine that is the intention. It will be very serious this time. Remember you have entered your thirtieth year, and if at the end of it you are not married——"
"By the constitution," broke in the King, "I shall cease to reign6. I know it, and then they will elect you. I cannot help it. I shall dislike and despise this woman, as I do every other. Thank God, I have learnt your lesson well. How I should have been deceived had it not been for the wise misogyny which you, my dear instructor48, were at such pains to teach me!"
As he spoke49 he stretched out his hand as though to lay it affectionately on his old governor's shoulder, when there was a sudden clash of steel overhead. With a start he looked up in time to catch the founder's long rapier as it fell, and in a moment he was standing50 with its great hilt in his outstretched hand and its point straight at the heart of Turbo, who started back in alarm.
Kophetua turned deadly pale, hardly daring to think what this ghostly warning might mean. As he felt the dusty hilt between his fingers it was as though the dead, war-worn hand of his ancestor were stretched[Pg 16] up out of the grave to grasp his own: he stood almost expecting to hear a hollow voice from under the morion, and Turbo watched him with restless eyes.
Even as he held it the King knew the heavy weapon was tiring his arm. It was the last touch to his misery51, and he dropped the point with a little nervous laugh.
"One would think," he said, in a voice that sounded very strange in the dead silence which followed the clash of steel,—"One would think the old knight discerned in you an enemy instead of my best and only friend."
The Chancellor laughed loud and hoarsely52 at the King's humour, but did not touch the weapon which his monarch laid down sorrowfully.
"The wire must have rusted53 away till it broke," said he.
"Exactly," said the King. "Yet it is a most remarkable54 occurrence." A short but awkward silence followed, till fortunately the chamberlain entered the room to inquire if the King desired to prepare for supper. So the colloquy55 of the two friends ended, and Turbo was left alone, gazing absently out of the window at the beggars before the palace gate, as one by one they rose from their crouching56 postures57, stretched their cramped58 limbs, and wandered slowly away to their dens59 with the air of men conscientiously60 satisfied with a long day's work.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
undoubtedly
|
|
| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
moorish
|
|
| adj.沼地的，荒野的，生[住]在沼地的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
incurred
|
|
| [医]招致的，遭受的； incur的过去式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
Founder
|
|
| n.创始者，缔造者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
entailed
|
|
| 使…成为必要( entail的过去式和过去分词 )； 需要； 限定继承； 使必需 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
reign
|
|
| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
expressive
|
|
| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
exhausted
|
|
| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
entirely
|
|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
diminutive
|
|
| adj.小巧可爱的，小的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
distinctive
|
|
| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
renaissance
|
|
| n.复活，复兴，文艺复兴 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
chamber
|
|
| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
situated
|
|
| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
temperate
|
|
| adj.温和的，温带的，自我克制的，不过分的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
discomfort
|
|
| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
hearth
|
|
| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
hearths
|
|
| 壁炉前的地板，炉床，壁炉边( hearth的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
vista
|
|
| n.远景，深景，展望，回想 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
armour
|
|
| （=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
gilded
|
|
| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
extravagant
|
|
| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
trophy
|
|
| n.优胜旗，奖品，奖杯，战胜品，纪念品 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
knight
|
|
| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
flickered
|
|
| （通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
surfeited
|
|
| v.吃得过多( surfeit的过去式和过去分词 )；由于过量而厌腻 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
musing
|
|
| n. 沉思，冥想 adj. 沉思的, 冥想的 动词muse的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
pointed
|
|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
bristling
|
|
| a.竖立的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
adventurous
|
|
| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
adorned
|
|
| [计]被修饰的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
miserable
|
|
| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
majesty
|
|
| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
monarch
|
|
| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
transact
|
|
| v.处理；做交易；谈判 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
chancellor
|
|
| n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
snarling
|
|
| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的现在分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
annoyance
|
|
| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
literally
|
|
| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
testily
|
|
| adv. 易怒地, 暴躁地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
dominions
|
|
| 统治权( dominion的名词复数 )； 领土； 疆土； 版图 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
contented
|
|
| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
decorative
|
|
| adj.装饰的，可作装饰的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
memorandum
|
|
| n.备忘录，便笺 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
lavished
|
|
| v.过分给予，滥施( lavish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
consummate
|
|
| adj.完美的；v.成婚；使完美 [反]baffle | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
instructor
|
|
| n.指导者，教员，教练 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
spoke
|
|
| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
misery
|
|
| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
hoarsely
|
|
| adv.嘶哑地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
rusted
|
|
| v.（使）生锈( rust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
remarkable
|
|
| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
colloquy
|
|
| n.谈话，自由讨论 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
crouching
|
|
| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
postures
|
|
| 姿势( posture的名词复数 )； 看法； 态度； 立场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
cramped
|
|
| a.狭窄的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
dens
|
|
| n.牙齿，齿状部分；兽窝( den的名词复数 )；窝点；休息室；书斋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
conscientiously
|
|
| adv.凭良心地；认真地，负责尽职地；老老实实 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |