Lemsford was a poet; so thoroughly4 inspired with the divine afflatus5, that not even all the tar6 and tumult7 of a man-of-war could drive it out of him.
As may readily be imagined, the business of writing verse is a very different thing on the gun-deck of a frigate8, from what the gentle and sequestered9 Wordsworth found it at placid10 Rydal Mount in Westmoreland. In a frigate, you cannot sit down and meander11 off your sonnets12, when the full heart prompts; but only, when more important duties permit: such as bracing13 round the yards, or reefing top-sails fore14 and aft. Nevertheless, every fragment of time at his command was religiously devoted15 by Lemsford to the Nine. At the most unseasonable hours, you would behold16 him, seated apart, in some corner among the guns—a shot-box before him, pen in hand, and eyes "in a fine frenzy17 rolling."
"What's that 'ere born nat'ral about?"—"He's got a fit, hain't he?" were exclamations18 often made by the less learned of his shipmates. Some deemed him a conjurer; others a lunatic; and the knowing ones said, that he must be a crazy Methodist. But well knowing by experience the truth of the saying, that poetry is its own exceeding great reward, Lemsford wrote on; dashing off whole epics19, sonnets, ballads20, and acrostics, with a facility which, under the circumstances, amazed me. Often he read over his effusions to me; and well worth the hearing they were. He had wit, imagination, feeling, and humour in abundance; and out of the very ridicule21 with which some persons regarded him, he made rare metrical sport, which we two together enjoyed by ourselves; or shared with certain select friends.
Still, the taunts22 and jeers23 so often levelled at my friend the poet, would now and then rouse him into rage; and at such times the haughty24 scorn he would hurl25 on his foes26, was proof positive of his possession of that one attribute, irritability27, almost universally ascribed to the votaries28 of Parnassus and the Nine.
My noble captain, Jack29 Chase, rather patronised Lemsford, and he would stoutly30 take his part against scores of adversaries31. Frequently, inviting32 him up aloft into his top, he would beg him to recite some of his verses; to which he would pay the most heedful attention, like Maecenas listening to Virgil, with a book of Aeneid in his hand. Taking the liberty of a well-wisher, he would sometimes gently criticise33 the piece, suggesting a few immaterial alterations34. And upon my word, noble Jack, with his native-born good sense, taste, and humanity, was not ill qualified35 to play the true part of a Quarterly Review;—which is, to give quarter at last, however severe the critique.
Now Lemsford's great care, anxiety, and endless source of tribulation36 was the preservation37 of his manuscripts. He had a little box, about the size of a small dressing-case, and secured with a lock, in which he kept his papers and stationery38. This box, of course, he could not keep in his bag or hammock, for, in either case, he would only be able to get at it once in the twenty-four hours. It was necessary to have it accessible at all times. So when not using it, he was obliged to hide it out of sight, where he could. And of all places in the world, a ship of war, above her hold, least abounds39 in secret nooks. Almost every inch is occupied; almost every inch is in plain sight; and almost every inch is continually being visited and explored. Added to all this, was the deadly hostility40 of the whole tribe of ship-underlings—master-at-arms, ship's corporals, and boatswain's mates,—both to the poet and his casket. They hated his box, as if it had been Pandora's, crammed41 to the very lid with hurricanes and gales42. They hunted out his hiding-places like pointers, and gave him no peace night or day.
Still, the long twenty-four-pounders on the main-deck offered some promise of a hiding-place to the box; and, accordingly, it was often tucked away behind the carriages, among the side tackles; its black colour blending with the ebon hue43 of the guns.
But Quoin, one of the quarter-gunners, had eyes like a ferret. Quoin was a little old man-of-war's man, hardly five feet high, with a complexion44 like a gun-shot wound after it is healed. He was indefatigable45 in attending to his duties; which consisted in taking care of one division of the guns, embracing ten of the aforesaid twenty-four-pounders. Ranged up against the ship's side at regular intervals46, they resembled not a little a stud of sable47 chargers in their stall. Among this iron stud little Quoin was continually running in and out, currying48 them down, now and then, with an old rag, or keeping the flies off with a brush. To Quoin, the honour and dignity of the United States of America seemed indissolubly linked with the keeping his guns unspotted and glossy49. He himself was black as a chimney-sweep with continually tending them, and rubbing them down with black paint. He would sometimes get outside of the port-holes and peer into their muzzles51, as a monkey into a bottle. Or, like a dentist, he seemed intent upon examining their teeth. Quite as often, he would be brushing out their touch-holes with a little wisp of oakum, like a Chinese barber in Canton, cleaning a patient's ear.
Such was his solicitude52, that it was a thousand pities he was not able to dwarf53 himself still more, so as to creep in at the touch-hole, and examining the whole interior of the tube, emerge at last from the muzzle50. Quoin swore by his guns, and slept by their side. Woe54 betide the man whom he found leaning against them, or in any way soiling them. He seemed seized with the crazy fancy, that his darling twenty-four-pounders were fragile, and might break, like glass retorts.
Now, from this Quoin's vigilance, how could my poor friend the poet hope to escape with his box? Twenty times a week it was pounced55 upon, with a "here's that d——d pillbox again!" and a loud threat, to pitch it overboard the next time, without a moment's warning, or benefit of clergy56. Like many poets, Lemsford was nervous, and upon these occasions he trembled like a leaf. Once, with an inconsolable countenance57, he came to me, saying that his casket was nowhere to be found; he had sought for it in his hiding-place, and it was not there.
I asked him where he had hidden it?
"Among the guns," he replied.
"Then depend upon it, Lemsford, that Quoin has been the death of it."
Straight to Quoin went the poet. But Quoin knew nothing about it. For ten mortal days the poet was not to be comforted; dividing his leisure time between cursing Quoin and lamenting58 his loss. The world is undone59, he must have thought: no such calamity60 has befallen it since the Deluge;—my verses are perished.
But though Quoin, as it afterward61 turned out, had indeed found the box, it so happened that he had not destroyed it; which no doubt led Lemsford to infer that a superintending Providence62 had interposed to preserve to posterity63 his invaluable64 casket. It was found at last, lying exposed near the galley65.
Lemsford was not the only literary man on board the Neversink. There were three or four persons who kept journals of the cruise. One of these journalists embellished66 his work—which was written in a large blank account-book—with various coloured illustrations of the harbours and bays at which the frigate had touched; and also, with small crayon sketches67 of comical incidents on board the frigate itself. He would frequently read passages of his book to an admiring circle of the more refined sailors, between the guns. They pronounced the whole performance a miracle of art. As the author declared to them that it was all to be printed and published so soon as the vessel68 reached home, they vied with each other in procuring69 interesting items, to be incorporated into additional chapters. But it having been rumoured70 abroad that this journal was to be ominously71 entitled "The Cruise of the Neversink, or a Paixhan shot into Naval72 Abuses;" and it having also reached the ears of the Ward-room that the work contained reflections somewhat derogatory to the dignity of the officers, the volume was seized by the master-at-arms, armed with a warrant from the Captain. A few days after, a large nail was driven straight through the two covers, and clinched73 on the other side, and, thus everlastingly74 sealed, the book was committed to the deep. The ground taken by the authorities on this occasion was, perhaps, that the book was obnoxious75 to a certain clause in the Articles of War, forbidding any person in the Navy to bring any other person in the Navy into contempt, which the suppressed volume undoubtedly76 did.
点击收听单词发音
1 narrated | |
v.故事( narrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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2 curiously | |
adv.有求知欲地;好问地;奇特地 | |
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3 akin | |
adj.同族的,类似的 | |
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4 thoroughly | |
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地 | |
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5 afflatus | |
n.灵感,神感 | |
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6 tar | |
n.柏油,焦油;vt.涂或浇柏油/焦油于 | |
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7 tumult | |
n.喧哗;激动,混乱;吵闹 | |
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8 frigate | |
n.护航舰,大型驱逐舰 | |
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9 sequestered | |
adj.扣押的;隐退的;幽静的;偏僻的v.使隔绝,使隔离( sequester的过去式和过去分词 );扣押 | |
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10 placid | |
adj.安静的,平和的 | |
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11 meander | |
n.河流的曲折,漫步,迂回旅行;v.缓慢而弯曲地流动,漫谈 | |
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12 sonnets | |
n.十四行诗( sonnet的名词复数 ) | |
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13 bracing | |
adj.令人振奋的 | |
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14 fore | |
adv.在前面;adj.先前的;在前部的;n.前部 | |
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15 devoted | |
adj.忠诚的,忠实的,热心的,献身于...的 | |
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16 behold | |
v.看,注视,看到 | |
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17 frenzy | |
n.疯狂,狂热,极度的激动 | |
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18 exclamations | |
n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 );感叹;感叹语;感叹词 | |
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19 epics | |
n.叙事诗( epic的名词复数 );壮举;惊人之举;史诗般的电影(或书籍) | |
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20 ballads | |
民歌,民谣,特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 ); 讴 | |
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21 ridicule | |
v.讥讽,挖苦;n.嘲弄 | |
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22 taunts | |
嘲弄的言语,嘲笑,奚落( taunt的名词复数 ) | |
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23 jeers | |
n.操纵帆桁下部(使其上下的)索具;嘲讽( jeer的名词复数 )v.嘲笑( jeer的第三人称单数 ) | |
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24 haughty | |
adj.傲慢的,高傲的 | |
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25 hurl | |
vt.猛投,力掷,声叫骂 | |
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26 foes | |
敌人,仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
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27 irritability | |
n.易怒 | |
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28 votaries | |
n.信徒( votary的名词复数 );追随者;(天主教)修士;修女 | |
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29 jack | |
n.插座,千斤顶,男人;v.抬起,提醒,扛举;n.(Jake)杰克 | |
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30 stoutly | |
adv.牢固地,粗壮的 | |
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31 adversaries | |
n.对手,敌手( adversary的名词复数 ) | |
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32 inviting | |
adj.诱人的,引人注目的 | |
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33 criticise | |
v.批评,评论;非难 | |
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34 alterations | |
n.改动( alteration的名词复数 );更改;变化;改变 | |
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35 qualified | |
adj.合格的,有资格的,胜任的,有限制的 | |
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36 tribulation | |
n.苦难,灾难 | |
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37 preservation | |
n.保护,维护,保存,保留,保持 | |
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38 stationery | |
n.文具;(配套的)信笺信封 | |
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39 abounds | |
v.大量存在,充满,富于( abound的第三人称单数 ) | |
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40 hostility | |
n.敌对,敌意;抵制[pl.]交战,战争 | |
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41 crammed | |
adj.塞满的,挤满的;大口地吃;快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满;填入;临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式) | |
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42 gales | |
龙猫 | |
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43 hue | |
n.色度;色调;样子 | |
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44 complexion | |
n.肤色;情况,局面;气质,性格 | |
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45 indefatigable | |
adj.不知疲倦的,不屈不挠的 | |
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46 intervals | |
n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 );间隔时间;[数学]区间;(戏剧、电影或音乐会的)幕间休息 | |
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47 sable | |
n.黑貂;adj.黑色的 | |
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48 currying | |
加脂操作 | |
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49 glossy | |
adj.平滑的;有光泽的 | |
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50 muzzle | |
n.鼻口部;口套;枪(炮)口;vt.使缄默 | |
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51 muzzles | |
枪口( muzzle的名词复数 ); (防止动物咬人的)口套; (四足动物的)鼻口部; (狗)等凸出的鼻子和口 | |
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52 solicitude | |
n.焦虑 | |
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53 dwarf | |
n.矮子,侏儒,矮小的动植物;vt.使…矮小 | |
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54 woe | |
n.悲哀,苦痛,不幸,困难;int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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55 pounced | |
v.突然袭击( pounce的过去式和过去分词 );猛扑;一眼看出;抓住机会(进行抨击) | |
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56 clergy | |
n.[总称]牧师,神职人员 | |
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57 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
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58 lamenting | |
adj.悲伤的,悲哀的v.(为…)哀悼,痛哭,悲伤( lament的现在分词 ) | |
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59 undone | |
a.未做完的,未完成的 | |
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60 calamity | |
n.灾害,祸患,不幸事件 | |
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61 afterward | |
adv.后来;以后 | |
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62 providence | |
n.深谋远虑,天道,天意;远见;节约;上帝 | |
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63 posterity | |
n.后裔,子孙,后代 | |
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64 invaluable | |
adj.无价的,非常宝贵的,极为贵重的 | |
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65 galley | |
n.(飞机或船上的)厨房单层甲板大帆船;军舰舰长用的大划艇; | |
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66 embellished | |
v.美化( embellish的过去式和过去分词 );装饰;修饰;润色 | |
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67 sketches | |
n.草图( sketch的名词复数 );素描;速写;梗概 | |
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68 vessel | |
n.船舶;容器,器皿;管,导管,血管 | |
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69 procuring | |
v.(努力)取得, (设法)获得( procure的现在分词 );拉皮条 | |
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70 rumoured | |
adj.谣传的;传说的;风 | |
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71 ominously | |
adv.恶兆地,不吉利地;预示地 | |
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72 naval | |
adj.海军的,军舰的,船的 | |
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73 clinched | |
v.(尤指两人)互相紧紧抱[扭]住( clinch的过去式和过去分词 );解决(争端、交易),达成(协议) | |
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74 everlastingly | |
永久地,持久地 | |
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75 obnoxious | |
adj.极恼人的,讨人厌的,可憎的 | |
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76 undoubtedly | |
adv.确实地,无疑地 | |
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