The picture by Correggio which I was now commissioned to copy had been lent to the nuns by a Catholic gentleman of fortune, who prized it as the gem6 of his collection, and who had never before trusted it out of his own hands. My copy, when completed, was to be placed over the high altar of the convent chapel7; and my work throughout its progress was to be pursued entirely8 in the parlor9 of the nunnery, and always in the watchful10 presence of one or other of the inmates11 of the house. It was only on such conditions that the owner of the Correggio was willing to trust his treasure out of his own hands, and to suffer it to be copied by a stranger. The restrictions12 he imposed, which I thought sufficiently13 absurd, and perhaps offensively suspicious as well, were communicated to me politely enough before I was allowed to undertake the commission. Unless I was inclined to submit to precautionary regulations which would affect any other artist exactly as they affected14 me, I was told not to think of offering to make the copy; and the nuns would then address themselves to some other person in my profession. After a day’s consideration, I submitted to the restrictions, by my wife’s advice, and saved the nuns the trouble of making application for a copier of Correggio in any other quarter.
I found the convent was charmingly situated15 in a quiet little valley in the West of England. The parlor in which I was to paint was a large, well-lighted apartment; and the village inn, about half a mile off, afforded me cheap and excellent quarters for the night. Thus far, therefore, there was nothing to complain of. As for the picture, which was the next object of interest to me, I was surprised to find that the copying of it would be by no means so difficult a task as I had anticipated. I am rather of a revolutionary spirit in matters of art, and am bold enough to think that the old masters have their faults as well as their beauties. I can give my opinion, therefore, on the Correggio at the convent independently at least. Looked at technically16, the picture was a fine specimen17 of coloring and execution; but looked at for the higher merits of delicacy18, elevation19, and feeling for the subject, it deserved copying as little as the most commonplace work that any unlucky modern artist ever produced. The faces of the Holy Family not only failed to display the right purity and tenderness of expression, but absolutely failed to present any expression at all. It is flat heresy20 to say so, but the valuable Correggio was nevertheless emphatically, and, in so many words, a very uninteresting picture.
So much for the convent and the work that I was to do in it. My next anxiety was to see how the restrictions imposed on me were to be carried out. The first day, the Mother Superior herself mounted guard in the parlor—a stern, silent, fanatical-looking woman, who seemed determined21 to awe22 me and make me uncomfortable, and who succeeded thoroughly23 in the execution of her purpose. The second day she was relieved by the officiating priest of the convent—a mild, melancholy24, gentleman-like man, with whom I got on tolerably well. The third day, I had for overlooker the portress of the house—a dirty, dismal25, deaf, old woman, who did nothing but knit stockings and chew orris-root. The fourth day, a middle-aged26 nun3, whom I heard addressed as Mother Martha, occupied the post of guardian27 to the precious Correggio; and with her the number of my overlookers terminated. She, and the portress, and the priest, and the Mother Superior, relieved each other with military regularity28, until I had put the last touch to my copy. I found them ready for me every morning on entering the parlor, and I left them in the chair of observation every evening on quitting it. As for any young and beautiful nuns who might have been in the building, I never so much as set eyes on the ends of their veils. From the door to the parlor, and from the parlor to the door, comprised the whole of my experience of the inside of the convent.
The only one of my superintending companions with whom I established anything like a familiar acquaintance was Mother Martha. She had no outward attractions to recommend her; but she was simple, good-humored, ready to gossip, and inquisitive29 to a perfectly30 incredible degree. Her whole life had been passed in the nunnery; she was thoroughly accustomed to her seclusion31, thoroughly content with the monotonous32 round of her occupations; not at all anxious to see the world for herself; but, on the other hand, insatiably curious to know all about it from others. There was no question connected with myself, my wife, my children, my friends, my profession, my income, my travels, my favorite amusements, and even my favorite sins, which a woman could ask a man, that Mother Martha did not, in the smallest and softest of voices, ask of me. Though an intelligent, well-informed person in all that related to her own special vocation33, she was a perfect child in everything else. I constantly caught myself talking to her, just as I should have talked at home to one of my own little girls.
I hope no one will think that, in expressing myself thus, I am writing disparagingly34 of the poor nun. On two accounts, I shall always feel compassionately35 and gratefully toward Mother Martha. She was the only person in the convent who seemed sincerely anxious to make her presence in the parlor as agreeable to me as possible; and she good-humoredly told me the story which it is my object in these pages to introduce to the reader. In both ways I am deeply indebted to her; and I hope always to remember the obligation.
The circumstances under which the story came to be related to me may be told in very few words.
The interior of a convent parlor being a complete novelty to me, I looked around with some interest on first entering my painting-room at the nunnery. There was but little in it to excite the curiosity of any one. The floor was covered with common matting, and the ceiling with plain whitewash36. The furniture was of the simplest kind; a low chair with a praying-desk fixed37 to the back, and a finely carved oak book-case, studded all over with brass38 crosses, being the only useful objects that I could discern which had any conventional character about them. As for the ornaments39 of the room, they were entirely beyond my appreciation40. I could feel no interest in the colored prints of saints, with gold platters at the backs of their heads, that hung on the wall; and I could see nothing particularly impressive in the two plain little alabaster41 pots for holy water, fastened, one near the door, the other over the chimney-piece. The only object, indeed, in the whole room which in the slightest degree attracted my curiosity was an old worm-eaten wooden cross, made in the rudest manner, hanging by itself on a slip of wall between two windows. It was so strangely rough and misshapen a thing to exhibit prominently in a neat room, that I suspected some history must be attached to it, and resolved to speak to my friend the nun about it at the earliest opportunity.
“Mother Martha,” said I, taking advantage of the first pause in the succession of quaintly42 innocent questions which she was as usual addressing to me, “I have been looking at that rough old cross hanging between the windows, and fancying that it must surely be some curiosity—”
“Hush43! hush!” exclaimed the nun, “you must not speak of that as a ‘curiosity’; the Mother Superior calls it a Relic44.”
“I beg your pardon,” said I; “I ought to have chosen my expressions more carefully—”
“Not,” interposed Mother Martha, nodding to show me that my apology need not be finished—“not that it is exactly a relic in the strict Catholic sense of the word; but there were circumstances in the life of the person who made it—” Here she stopped, and looked at me doubtfully.
“Circumstances, perhaps, which it is not considered advisable to communicate to strangers,” I suggested.
“Oh, no!” answered the nun, “I never heard that they were to be kept a secret. They were not told as a secret to me.”
“Then you know all about them?” I asked.
“Certainly. I could tell you the whole history of the wooden cross; but it is all about Catholics, and you are a Protestant.”
“That, Mother Martha, does not make it at all less interesting to me.”
“Does it not, indeed?” exclaimed the nun, innocently. “What a strange man you are! and what a remarkable45 religion yours must be! What do your priests say about ours? Are they learned men, your priests?”
I felt that my chance of hearing Mother Martha’s story would be a poor one indeed, if I allowed her to begin a fresh string of questions. Accordingly, I dismissed the inquiries46 about the clergy47 of the Established Church with the most irreverent briefness, and recalled her attention forthwith to the subject of the wooden cross.
“Yes, yes,” said the good-natured nun; “surely you shall hear all I can tell you about it; but—” she hesitated timidly, “but I must ask the Mother Superior’s leave first.”
Saying these words, she summoned the portress, to my great amusement, to keep guard over the inestimable Correggio in her absence, and left the room. In less than five minutes she came back, looking quite happy and important in her innocent way.
“The Mother Superior,” she said, “has given me leave to tell all I know about the wooden cross. She says it may do you good, and improve your Protestant opinion of us Catholics.”
I expressed myself as being both willing and anxious to profit by what I heard; and the nun began her narrative48 immediately.
She related it in her own simple, earnest, minute way; dwelling49 as long on small particulars as on important incidents; and making moral reflections for my benefit at every place where it was possible to introduce them. In spite, however, of these drawbacks in the telling of it, the story interested and impressed me in no ordinary degree; and I now purpose putting the events of it together as skillfully and strikingly as I can, in the hope that this written version of the narrative may appeal as strongly to the reader’s sympathies as the spoken version did to mine.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
farmhouse
|
|
| n.农场住宅（尤指主要住房） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
forth
|
|
| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
nun
|
|
| n.修女，尼姑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
nuns
|
|
| n.（通常指基督教的）修女， （佛教的）尼姑( nun的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
celebrated
|
|
| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
gem
|
|
| n.宝石，珠宝；受爱戴的人 [同]jewel | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
chapel
|
|
| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
entirely
|
|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
parlor
|
|
| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
watchful
|
|
| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
inmates
|
|
| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
restrictions
|
|
| 约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
sufficiently
|
|
| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
affected
|
|
| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
situated
|
|
| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
technically
|
|
| adv.专门地，技术上地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
specimen
|
|
| n.样本，标本 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
delicacy
|
|
| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
elevation
|
|
| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
heresy
|
|
| n.异端邪说；异教 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
determined
|
|
| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
awe
|
|
| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
thoroughly
|
|
| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
melancholy
|
|
| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
dismal
|
|
| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
middle-aged
|
|
| adj.中年的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
guardian
|
|
| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
regularity
|
|
| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
inquisitive
|
|
| adj.求知欲强的，好奇的，好寻根究底的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
seclusion
|
|
| n.隐遁，隔离 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
monotonous
|
|
| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
vocation
|
|
| n.职业，行业 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
disparagingly
|
|
| adv.以贬抑的口吻，以轻视的态度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
compassionately
|
|
| adv.表示怜悯地，有同情心地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
whitewash
|
|
| v.粉刷，掩饰；n.石灰水，粉刷，掩饰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
brass
|
|
| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
ornaments
|
|
| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
appreciation
|
|
| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
alabaster
|
|
| adj.雪白的；n.雪花石膏；条纹大理石 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
quaintly
|
|
| adv.古怪离奇地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
hush
|
|
| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
relic
|
|
| n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
remarkable
|
|
| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
inquiries
|
|
| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
clergy
|
|
| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
narrative
|
|
| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
dwelling
|
|
| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |