There were flitting moments, indeed, when she played the sylvan character as perfectly10 as he. Catching11 glimpses of her, then, you would have fancied that an oak had sundered12 its rough bark to let her dance freely forth13, endowed with the same spirit in her human form as that which rustles14 in the leaves; or that she had emerged through the pebbly15 bottom of a fountain, a water-nymph, to play and sparkle in the sunshine, flinging a quivering light around her, and suddenly disappearing in a shower of rainbow drops.
As the fountain sometimes subsides16 into its basin, so in Miriam there were symptoms that the frolic of her spirits would at last tire itself out.
“Ah! Donatello,” cried she, laughing, as she stopped to take a breath; “you have an unfair advantage over me! I am no true creature of the woods; while you are a real Faun, I do believe. When your curls shook just now, methought I had a peep at the pointed17 ears.”
Donatello snapped his fingers above his head, as fauns and satyrs taught us first to do, and seemed to radiate jollity out of his whole nimble person. Nevertheless, there was a kind of dim apprehension18 in his face, as if he dreaded19 that a moment’s pause might break the spell, and snatch away the sportive companion whom he had waited for through so many dreary20 months.
“Dance! dance!” cried he joyously21. “If we take breath, we shall be as we were yesterday. There, now, is the music, just beyond this clump22 of trees. Dance, Miriam, dance!”
They had now reached an open, grassy23 glade24 (of which there are many in that artfully constructed wilderness), set round with stone seats, on which the aged25 moss26 had kindly27 essayed to spread itself instead of cushions. On one of the stone benches sat the musicians, whose strains had enticed28 our wild couple thitherward. They proved to be a vagrant29 band, such as Rome, and all Italy, abounds30 with; comprising a harp31, a flute32, and a violin, which, though greatly the worse for wear, the performers had skill enough to provoke and modulate33 into tolerable harmony. It chanced to be a feast-day; and, instead of playing in the sun-scorched piazzas34 of the city, or beneath the windows of some unresponsive palace, they had bethought themselves to try the echoes of these woods; for, on the festas of the Church, Rome scatters35 its merrymakers all abroad, ripe for the dance or any other pastime.
As Miriam and Donatello emerged from among the trees, the musicians scraped, tinkled36, or blew, each according to his various kind of instrument, more inspiringly than ever. A darkchecked little girl, with bright black eyes, stood by, shaking a tambourine37 set round with tinkling38 bells, and thumping39 it on its parchment head. Without interrupting his brisk, though measured movement, Donatello snatched away this unmelodious contrivance, and, flourishing it above his head, produced music of indescribable potency40, still dancing with frisky41 step, and striking the tambourine, and ringing its little bells, all in one jovial42 act.
It might be that there was magic in the sound, or contagion43, at least, in the spirit which had got possession of Miriam and himself, for very soon a number of festal people were drawn44 to the spot, and struck into the dance, singly or in pairs, as if they were all gone mad with jollity. Among them were some of the plebeian45 damsels whom we meet bareheaded in the Roman streets, with silver stilettos thrust through their glossy46 hair; the contadinas, too, from the Campagna and the villages, with their rich and picturesque47 costumes of scarlet48 and all bright hues49, such as fairer maidens51 might not venture to put on. Then came the modern Roman from Trastevere, perchance, with his old cloak drawn about him like a toga, which anon, as his active motion heated him, he flung aside. Three French soldiers capered52 freely into the throng53, in wide scarlet trousers, their short swords dangling54 at their sides; and three German artists in gray flaccid hats and flaunting55 beards; and one of the Pope’s Swiss guardsmen in the strange motley garb56 which Michael Angelo contrived57 for them. Two young English tourists (one of them a lord) took contadine partners and dashed in, as did also a shaggy man in goat-skin breeches, who looked like rustic58 Pan in person, and footed it as merrily as he. Besides the above there was a herdsman or two from the Campagna, and a few peasants in sky-blue jackets, and small-clothes tied with ribbons at the knees; haggard and sallow were these last, poor serfs, having little to eat and nothing but the malaria59 to breathe; but still they plucked up a momentary60 spirit and joined hands in Donatello’s dance.
Here, as it seemed, had the Golden Age come back again within the Precincts of this sunny glade, thawing61 mankind out of their cold formalities, releasing them from irksome restraint, mingling62 them together in such childlike gayety that new flowers (of which the old bosom63 of the earth is full) sprang up beneath their footsteps. The sole exception to the geniality64 of the moment, as we have understood, was seen in a countryman of our own, who sneered65 at the spectacle, and declined to compromise his dignity by making part of it.
The harper thrummed with rapid fingers; the violin player flashed his bow back and forth across the strings66; the flautist poured his breath in quick puffs67 of jollity, while Donatello shook the tambourine above his head, and led the merry throng with unweariable steps. As they followed one another in a wild ring of mirth, it seemed the realization68 of one of those bas-reliefs where a dance of nymphs, satyrs, or bacchanals is twined around the circle of an antique vase; or it was like the sculptured scene on the front and sides of a sarcophagus, where, as often as any other device, a festive69 procession mocks the ashes and white bones that are treasured up within. You might take it for a marriage pageant70; but after a while, if you look at these merry-makers, following them from end to end of the marble coffin71, you doubt whether their gay movement is leading them to a happy close. A youth has suddenly fallen in the dance; a chariot is overturned and broken, flinging the charioteer headlong to the ground; a maiden50 seems to have grown faint or weary, and is drooping72 on the bosom of a friend. Always some tragic73 incident is shadowed forth or thrust sidelong into the spectacle; and when once it has caught your eye you can look no more at the festal portions of the scene, except with reference to this one slightly suggested doom74 and sorrow.
As in its mirth, so in the darker characteristic here alluded75 to, there was an analogy between the sculptured scene on the sarcophagus and the wild dance which we have been describing. In the midst of its madness and riot Miriam found herself suddenly confronted by a strange figure that shook its fantastic garments in the air, and pranced76 before her on its tiptoes, almost vying77 with the agility78 of Donatello himself. It was the model.
A moment afterwards Donatello was aware that she had retired79 from the dance. He hastened towards her, and flung himself on the grass beside the stone bench on which Miriam was sitting. But a strange distance and unapproachableness had all at once enveloped80 her; and though he saw her within reach of his arm, yet the light of her eyes seemed as far off as that of a star, nor was there any warmth in the melancholy81 smile with which she regarded him.
“Come back!” cried he. “Why should this happy hour end so soon?”
“It must end here, Donatello,” said she, in answer to his words and outstretched hand; “and such hours, I believe, do not often repeat themselves in a lifetime. Let me go, my friend; let me vanish from you quietly among the shadows of these trees. See, the companions of our pastime are vanishing already!”
Whether it was that the harp-strings were broken, the violin out of tune82, or the flautist out of breath, so it chanced that the music had ceased, and the dancers come abruptly83 to a pause. All that motley throng of rioters was dissolved as suddenly as it had been drawn together. In Miriam’s remembrance the scene had a character of fantasy. It was as if a company of satyrs, fauns, and nymphs, with Pan in the midst of them, had been disporting84 themselves in these venerable woods only a moment ago; and now in another moment, because some profane85 eye had looked at them too closely, or some intruder had cast a shadow on their mirth, the sylvan pageant had utterly86 disappeared. If a few of the merry-makers lingered among the trees, they had hidden their racy peculiarities87 under the garb and aspect of ordinary people, and sheltered themselves in the weary commonplace of daily life. Just an instant before it was Arcadia and the Golden Age. The spell being broken, it was now only that old tract88 of pleasure ground, close by the people’s gate of Rome,—a tract where the crimes and calamities89 of ages, the many battles, blood recklessly poured out, and deaths of myriads90, have corrupted91 all the soil, creating an influence that makes the air deadly to human lungs.
“You must leave me,” said Miriam to Donatello more imperatively92 than before; “have I not said it? Go; and look not behind you.”
“Miriam,” whispered Donatello, grasping her hand forcibly, “who is it that stands in the shadow yonder, beckoning93 you to follow him?”
“Hush; leave me!” repeated Miriam. “Your hour is past; his hour has come.”
Donatello still gazed in the direction which he had indicated, and the expression of his face was fearfully changed, being so disordered, perhaps with terror,—at all events with anger and invincible94 repugnance,—that Miriam hardly knew him. His lips were drawn apart so as to disclose his set teeth, thus giving him a look of animal rage, which we seldom see except in persons of the simplest and rudest natures. A shudder95 seemed to pass through his very bones.
“I hate him!” muttered he.
“Be satisfied; I hate him too!” said Miriam.
She had no thought of making this avowal96, but was irresistibly97 drawn to it by the sympathy of the dark emotion in her own breast with that so strongly expressed by Donatello. Two drops of water or of blood do not more naturally flow into each other than did her hatred98 into his.
“Shall I clutch him by the throat?” whispered Donatello, with a savage99 scowl100. “Bid me do so, and we are rid of him forever.”
“In Heaven’s name, no violence!” exclaimed Miriam, affrighted out of the scornful control which she had hitherto held over her companion, by the fierceness that he so suddenly developed. “O, have pity on me, Donatello, if for nothing else, yet because in the midst of my wretchedness I let myself be your playmate for this one wild hour! Follow me no farther. Henceforth leave me to my doom. Dear friend,—kind, simple, loving friend,—make me not more wretched by the remembrance of having thrown fierce hates or loves into the wellspring of your happy life!”
“Not follow you!” repeated Donatello, soothed101 from anger into sorrow, less by the purport102 of what she said, than by the melancholy sweetness of her voice,—“not follow you! What other path have I?”
“We will talk of it once again,” said Miriam still soothingly103; “soon—to-morrow when you will; only leave me now.”
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1
cadence
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| n.（说话声调的）抑扬顿挫 | |
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extemporizing
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| v.即兴创作，即席演奏( extemporize的现在分词 ) | |
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effaced
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| v.擦掉( efface的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；超越；使黯然失色 | |
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grotesqueness
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provocative
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| adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的 | |
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akin
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| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
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pathos
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| n.哀婉，悲怆 | |
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peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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9
sylvan
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| adj.森林的 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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11
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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12
sundered
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| v.隔开，分开( sunder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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14
rustles
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| n.发出沙沙的声音( rustle的名词复数 )v.发出沙沙的声音( rustle的第三人称单数 ) | |
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15
pebbly
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| 多卵石的，有卵石花纹的 | |
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subsides
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的第三人称单数 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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joyously
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| ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
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22
clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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grassy
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| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
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glade
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| n.林间空地，一片表面有草的沼泽低地 | |
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25
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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28
enticed
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| 诱惑，怂恿( entice的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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29
vagrant
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| n.流浪者，游民；adj.流浪的，漂泊不定的 | |
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30
abounds
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| v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的第三人称单数 ) | |
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31
harp
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| n.竖琴；天琴座 | |
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32
flute
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| n.长笛；v.吹笛 | |
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33
modulate
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| v.调整，调节(音的强弱)；变调 | |
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34
piazzas
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| n.广场，市场( piazza的名词复数 ) | |
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35
scatters
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| v.（使）散开， （使）分散，驱散( scatter的第三人称单数 )；撒 | |
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36
tinkled
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| （使）发出丁当声，（使）发铃铃声( tinkle的过去式和过去分词 )； 叮当响着发出，铃铃响着报出 | |
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37
tambourine
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| n.铃鼓，手鼓 | |
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38
tinkling
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| n.丁当作响声 | |
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39
thumping
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| adj.重大的，巨大的；重击的；尺码大的；极好的adv.极端地；非常地v.重击(thump的现在分词)；狠打；怦怦地跳；全力支持 | |
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40
potency
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| n. 效力，潜能 | |
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41
frisky
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| adj.活泼的，欢闹的；n.活泼，闹着玩；adv.活泼地，闹着玩地 | |
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42
jovial
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| adj.快乐的，好交际的 | |
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43
contagion
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| n.(通过接触的疾病)传染；蔓延 | |
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44
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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45
plebeian
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| adj.粗俗的；平民的；n.平民；庶民 | |
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46
glossy
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| adj.平滑的；有光泽的 | |
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47
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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48
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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49
hues
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| 色彩( hue的名词复数 )； 色调； 信仰； 观点 | |
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50
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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51
maidens
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| 处女( maiden的名词复数 )； 少女； 未婚女子； （板球运动）未得分的一轮投球 | |
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52
capered
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| v.跳跃，雀跃( caper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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53
throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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54
dangling
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| 悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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55
flaunting
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| adj.招摇的，扬扬得意的，夸耀的v.炫耀，夸耀( flaunt的现在分词 )；有什么能耐就施展出来 | |
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56
garb
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| n.服装，装束 | |
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57
contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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58
rustic
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| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
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59
malaria
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| n.疟疾 | |
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60
momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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61
thawing
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| n.熔化，融化v.（气候）解冻( thaw的现在分词 )；（态度、感情等）缓和；（冰、雪及冷冻食物）溶化；软化 | |
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62
mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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63
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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64
geniality
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| n.和蔼，诚恳；愉快 | |
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65
sneered
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| 讥笑，冷笑( sneer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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66
strings
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| n.弦 | |
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67
puffs
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| n.吸( puff的名词复数 )；（烟斗或香烟的）一吸；一缕（烟、蒸汽等）；（呼吸或风的）呼v.使喷出( puff的第三人称单数 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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68
realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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69
festive
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| adj.欢宴的，节日的 | |
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70
pageant
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| n.壮观的游行；露天历史剧 | |
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71
coffin
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| n.棺材，灵柩 | |
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72
drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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74
doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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75
alluded
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| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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76
pranced
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| v.（马）腾跃( prance的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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77
vying
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| adj.竞争的；比赛的 | |
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78
agility
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| n.敏捷，活泼 | |
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79
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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80
enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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81
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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82
tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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83
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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84
disporting
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| v.嬉戏，玩乐，自娱( disport的现在分词 ) | |
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85
profane
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| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
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86
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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87
peculiarities
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| n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪 | |
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88
tract
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| n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林) | |
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89
calamities
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| n.灾祸，灾难( calamity的名词复数 )；不幸之事 | |
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90
myriads
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| n.无数，极大数量( myriad的名词复数 ) | |
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91
corrupted
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| （使）败坏( corrupt的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
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92
imperatively
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| adv.命令式地 | |
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93
beckoning
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| adj.引诱人的，令人心动的v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的现在分词 ) | |
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94
invincible
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| adj.不可征服的，难以制服的 | |
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95
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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96
avowal
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| n.公开宣称，坦白承认 | |
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97
irresistibly
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| adv.无法抵抗地，不能自持地；极为诱惑人地 | |
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98
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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99
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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100
scowl
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| vi.(at)生气地皱眉，沉下脸，怒视；n.怒容 | |
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101
soothed
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| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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102
purport
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| n.意义，要旨，大要；v.意味著，做为...要旨，要领是... | |
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103
soothingly
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| adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地 | |
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