Dr. Bonnet1, my old friend—one sometimes has friends older than one's self—had often invited me to spend some time with him at Riom, and, as I did not know Auvergne, I made up my mind to visit him in the summer of 1876.
I arrived by the morning train, and the first person I saw on the platform was the doctor. He was dressed in a gray suit, and wore a soft, black, wide-brimmed, high-crowned felt hat, narrow at the top like a chimney pot, a hat which hardly any one except an Auvergnat would wear, and which reminded one of a charcoal2 burner. Dressed like that, the doctor had the appearance of an old young man, with his spare body under his thin coat, and his large head covered with white hair.
He embraced me with that evident pleasure which country people feel when they meet long-expected friends, and, stretching out his arm, he said proudly:
“This is Auvergne!” I saw nothing before me except a range of mountains, whose summits, which resembled truncated3 cones4, must have been extinct volcanoes.
Then, pointing to the name of the station, he said:
“Riom, the fatherland of magistrates5, the pride of the magistracy, and which ought rather to be the fatherland of doctors.”
“Why?” I, asked.
“Why?” he replied with a laugh. “If you transpose the letters, you have the Latin word 'mori', to die. That is the reason why I settled here, my young friend.”
And, delighted at his own joke, he carried me off, rubbing his hands.
As soon as I had swallowed a cup of coffee, he made me go and see the town. I admired the druggist's house, and the other noted6 houses, which were all black, but as pretty as bric-a-brac, with their facades7 of sculptured stone. I admired the statue of the Virgin8, the patroness of butchers, and he told me an amusing story about this, which I will relate some other time, and then Dr. Bonnet said to me:
“I must beg you to excuse me for a few minutes while I go and see a patient, and then I will take you to Chatel-Guyon, so as to show you the general aspect of the town, and all the mountain chain of the Puy-de-Dome before lunch. You can wait for me outside; I shall only go upstairs and come down immediately.”
He left me outside one of those old, gloomy, silent, melancholy9 houses, which one sees in the provinces, and this one appeared to look particularly sinister10, and I soon discovered the reason. All the large windows on the first floor were boarded half way up. The upper part of them alone could be opened, as if one had wished to prevent the people who were locked up in that huge stone box from looking into the street.
When the doctor came down again, I told him how it struck me, and he replied:
“You are quite right; the poor creature who is living there must never see what is going on outside. She is a madwoman, or rather an idiot, what you Normans would call a Niente. It is a miserable11 story, but a very singular pathological case at the same time. Shall I tell you?”
I begged him to do so, and he continued:
“Twenty years ago the owners of this house, who were my patients, had a daughter who was like all other girls, but I soon discovered that while her body became admirably developed, her intellect remained stationary12.
“She began to walk very early, but she could not talk. At first I thought she was deaf, but I soon discovered that, although she heard perfectly13, she did not understand anything that was said to her. Violent noises made her start and frightened her, without her understanding how they were caused.
“She grew up into a superb woman, but she was dumb, from an absolute want of intellect. I tried all means to introduce a gleam of intelligence into her brain, but nothing succeeded. I thought I noticed that she knew her nurse, though as soon as she was weaned, she failed to recognize her mother. She could never pronounce that word which is the first that children utter and the last which soldiers murmur14 when they are dying on the field of battle. She sometimes tried to talk, but she produced nothing but incoherent sounds.
“When the weather was fine, she laughed continually, and emitted low cries which might be compared to the twittering of birds; when it rained she cried and moaned in a mournful, terrifying manner, which sounded like the howling of a dog before a death occurs in a house.
“She was fond of rolling on the grass, as young animals do, and of running about madly, and she would clap her hands every morning, when the sun shone into her room, and would insist, by signs, on being dressed as quickly as possible, so that she might get out.
“She did not appear to distinguish between people, between her mother and her nurse, or between her father and me, or between the coachman and the cook. I particularly liked her parents, who were very unhappy on her account, and went to see them nearly every day. I dined with them quite frequently, which enabled me to remark that Bertha (they had called her Bertha) seemed to recognize the various dishes, and to prefer some to others. At that time she was twelve years old, but as fully15 formed in figure as a girl of eighteen, and taller than I was. Then the idea struck me of developing her greediness, and by this means of cultivating some slight power of discrimination in her mind, and to force her, by the diversity of flavors, if not to reason, at any rate to arrive at instinctive16 distinctions, which would of themselves constitute a kind of process that was necessary to thought. Later on, by appealing to her passions, and by carefully making use of those which could serve our purpose, we might hope to obtain a kind of reaction on her intellect, and by degrees increase the unconscious action of her brain.
“One day I put two plates before her, one of soup, and the other of very sweet vanilla17 cream. I made her taste each of them successively, and then I let her choose for herself, and she ate the plate of cream. In a short time I made her very greedy, so greedy that it appeared as if the only idea she had in her head was the desire for eating. She perfectly recognized the various dishes, and stretched out her hands toward those that she liked, and took hold of them eagerly, and she used to cry when they were taken from her. Then I thought I would try and teach her to come to the dining-room when the dinner bell rang. It took a long time, but I succeeded in the end. In her vacant intellect a vague correlation18 was established between sound and taste, a correspondence between the two senses, an appeal from one to the other, and consequently a sort of connection of ideas—if one can call that kind of instinctive hyphen between two organic functions an idea—and so I carried my experiments further, and taught her, with much difficulty, to recognize meal times by the clock.
“It was impossible for me for a long time to attract her attention to the hands, but I succeeded in making her remark the clockwork and the striking apparatus19. The means I employed were very simple; I asked them not to have the bell rung for lunch, and everybody got up and went into the dining-room when the little brass20 hammer struck twelve o'clock, but I found great difficulty in making her learn to count the strokes. She ran to the door each time she heard the clock strike, but by degrees she learned that all the strokes had not the same value as far as regarded meals, and she frequently fixed21 her eyes, guided by her ears, on the dial of the clock.
“When I noticed that, I took care every day at twelve, and at six o'clock, to place my fingers on the figures twelve and six, as soon as the moment she was waiting for had arrived, and I soon noticed that she attentively22 followed the motion of the small brass hands, which I had often turned in her presence.
“She had understood! Perhaps I ought rather to say that she had grasped the idea. I had succeeded in getting the knowledge, or, rather, the sensation, of the time into her, just as is the case with carp, who certainly have no clocks, when they are fed every day exactly at the same time.
“When once I had obtained that result all the clocks and watches in the house occupied her attention almost exclusively. She spent her time in looking at them, listening to them, and in waiting for meal time, and once something very funny happened. The striking apparatus of a pretty little Louis XVI clock that hung at the head of her bed having got out of order, she noticed it. She sat for twenty minutes with her eyes on the hands, waiting for it to strike ten, but when the hands passed the figure she was astonished at not hearing anything; so stupefied was she, indeed, that she sat down, no doubt overwhelmed by a feeling of violent emotion such as attacks us in the face of some terrible catastrophe23. And she had the wonderful patience to wait until eleven o'clock in order to see what would happen, and as she naturally heard nothing, she was suddenly either seized with a wild fit of rage at having been deceived and imposed upon by appearances, or else overcome by that fear which some frightened creature feels at some terrible mystery, and by the furious impatience24 of a passionate25 individual who meets with some obstacle; she took up the tongs26 from the fireplace and struck the clock so violently that she broke it to pieces in a moment.
“It was evident, therefore, that her, brain did act and calculate, obscurely it is true, and within very restricted limits, for I could never succeed in making her distinguish persons as she distinguished27 the time; and to stir her intellect, it was necessary to appeal to her passions, in the material sense of the word, and we soon had another, and alas28! a very terrible proof of this!
“She had grown up into a splendid girl, a perfect type of a race, a sort of lovely and stupid Venus. She was sixteen, and I have rarely seen such perfection of form, such suppleness29 and such regular features. I said she was a Venus; yes, a fair, stout30, vigorous Venus, with large, bright, vacant eyes, which were as blue as the flowers of the flax plant; she had a large mouth with full lips, the mouth of a glutton31, of a sensualist, a mouth made for kisses. Well, one morning her father came into my consulting room with a strange look on his face, and, sitting down without even replying to my greeting, he said:
“'I want to speak to you about a very serious matter. Would it be possible—would it be possible for Bertha to marry?'
“'Bertha to marry! Why, it is quite impossible!'
“'Yes, I know, I know,' he replied. 'But reflect, doctor. Don't you think—perhaps—we hoped—if she had children—it would be a great shock to her, but a great happiness, and—who knows whether maternity32 might not rouse her intellect?'
“I was in a state of great perplexity. He was right, and it was possible that such a new situation, and that wonderful instinct of maternity, which beats in the hearts of the lower animals as it does in the heart of a woman, which makes the hen fly at a dog's jaws33 to defend her chickens, might bring about a revolution, an utter change in her vacant mind, and set the motionless mechanism34 of her thoughts in motion. And then, moreover, I immediately remembered a personal instance. Some years previously35 I had owned a spaniel bitch who was so stupid that I could do nothing with her, but when she had had puppies she became, if not exactly intelligent, yet almost like many other dogs who had not been thoroughly36 broken.
“As soon as I foresaw the possibility of this, the wish to get Bertha married grew in me, not so much out of friendship for her and her poor parents as from scientific curiosity. What would happen? It was a singular problem. I said in reply to her father:
“'Perhaps you are right. You might make the attempt, but you will never find a man to consent to marry her.'
“'I have found somebody,' he said, in a low voice.
“I was dumfounded, and said: 'Somebody really suitable? Some one of your own rank and position in society?'
“'Decidedly,' he replied.
“'Oh! And may I ask his name?'
“'I came on purpose to tell you, and to consult you. It is Monsieur Gaston du Boys de Lucelles.'
“I felt inclined to exclaim: 'The wretch37!' but I held my tongue, and after a few moments' silence I said:
“'Oh! Very good. I see nothing against it.'
“'She is to be married next month,' he said.
“Monsieur Gaston du Boys de Lucelles was a scapegrace of good family, who, after having spent all that he had inherited from his father, and having incurred39 debts in all kinds of doubtful ways, had been trying to discover some other means of obtaining money, and he had discovered this method. He was a good-looking young fellow, and in capital health, but fast; one of that odious40 race of provincial41 fast men, and he appeared to me to be as suitable as anyone, and could be got rid of later by making him an allowance. He came to the house to pay his addresses and to strut42 about before the idiot girl, who, however, seemed to please him. He brought her flowers, kissed her hands, sat at her feet, and looked at her with affectionate eyes; but she took no notice of any of his attentions, and did not make any distinction between him and the other persons who were about her.
“However, the marriage took place, and you may guess how my curiosity was aroused. I went to see Bertha the next day to try and discover from her looks whether any feelings had been awakened43 in her, but I found her just the same as she was every day, wholly taken up with the clock and dinner, while he, on the contrary, appeared really in love, and tried to rouse his wife's spirits and affection by little endearments44 and such caresses45 as one bestows46 on a kitten. He could think of nothing better.
“I called upon the married couple pretty frequently, and I soon perceived that the young woman knew her husband, and gave him those eager looks which she had hitherto only bestowed47 on sweet dishes.
“She followed his movements, knew his step on the stairs or in the neighboring rooms, clapped her hands when he came in, and her face was changed and brightened by the flames of profound happiness and of desire.
“She loved him with her whole body and with all her soul to the very depths of her poor, weak soul, and with all her heart, that poor heart of some grateful animal. It was really a delightful48 and innocent picture of simple passion, of carnal and yet modest passion, such as nature had implanted in mankind, before man had complicated and disfigured it by all the various shades of sentiment. But he soon grew tired of this ardent49, beautiful, dumb creature, and did not spend more than an hour during the day with her, thinking it sufficient if he came home at night, and she began to suffer in consequence. She used to wait for him from morning till night with her eyes on the clock; she did not even look after the meals now, for he took all his away from home, Clermont, Chatel-Guyon, Royat, no matter where, as long as he was not obliged to come home.
“She began to grow thin; every other thought, every other wish, every other expectation, and every confused hope disappeared from her mind, and the hours during which she did not see him became hours of terrible suffering to her. Soon he ceased to come home regularly of nights; he spent them with women at the casino at Royat and did not come home until daybreak. But she never went to bed before he returned. She remained sitting motionless in an easy-chair, with her eyes fixed on the hands of the clock, which turned so slowly and regularly round the china face on which the hours were painted.
“She heard the trot50 of his horse in the distance and sat up with a start, and when he came into the room she got up with the movements of an automaton51 and pointed52 to the clock, as if to say: 'Look how late it is!'
“And he began to be afraid of this amorous53 and jealous, half-witted woman, and flew into a rage, as brutes54 do; and one night he even went so far as to strike her, so they sent for me. When I arrived she was writhing55 and screaming in a terrible crisis of pain, anger, passion, how do I know what? Can one tell what goes on in such undeveloped brains?
“I calmed her by subcutaneous injections of morphine, and forbade her to see that man again, for I saw clearly that marriage would infallibly kill her by degrees.
“Then she went mad! Yes, my dear friend, that idiot went mad. She is always thinking of him and waiting for him; she waits for him all day and night, awake or asleep, at this very moment, ceaselessly. When I saw her getting thinner and thinner, and as she persisted in never taking her eyes off the clocks, I had them removed from the house. I thus made it impossible for her to count the hours, and to try to remember, from her indistinct reminiscences, at what time he used to come home formerly56. I hope to destroy the recollection of it in time, and to extinguish that ray of thought which I kindled57 with so much difficulty.
“The other day I tried an experiment. I offered her my watch; she took it and looked at it for some time; then she began to scream terribly, as if the sight of that little object had suddenly awakened her memory, which was beginning to grow indistinct. She is pitiably thin now, with hollow and glittering eyes, and she walks up and down ceaselessly, like a wild beast in its cage; I have had gratings put on the windows, boarded them up half way, and have had the seats fixed to the floor so as to prevent her from looking to see whether he is coming.
“Oh! her poor parents! What a life they must lead!”
We had got to the top of the hill, and the doctor turned round and said to me:
“Look at Riom from here.”
The gloomy town looked like some ancient city. Behind it a green, wooded plain studded with towns and villages, and bathed in a soft blue haze58, extended until it was lost in the distance. Far away, on my right, there was a range of lofty mountains with round summits, or else cut off flat, as if with a sword, and the doctor began to enumerate59 the villages, towns and hills, and to give me the history of all of them. But I did not listen to him; I was thinking of nothing but the madwoman, and I only saw her. She seemed to be hovering60 over that vast extent of country like a mournful ghost, and I asked him abruptly61:
“What has become of the husband?”
My friend seemed rather surprised, but after a few moments' hesitation62, he replied:
“He is living at Royat, on an allowance that they made him, and is quite happy; he leads a very fast life.”
As we were slowly going back, both of us silent and rather low-spirited, an English dogcart, drawn63 by a thoroughbred horse, came up behind us and passed us rapidly. The doctor took me by the arm.
“There he is,” he said.
I saw nothing except a gray felt hat, cocked over one ear above a pair of broad shoulders, driving off in a cloud of dust.
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收听单词发音
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1
bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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charcoal
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| n.炭，木炭，生物炭 | |
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truncated
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| adj.切去顶端的，缩短了的，被删节的v.截面的( truncate的过去式和过去分词 )；截头的；缩短了的；截去顶端或末端 | |
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cones
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| n.（人眼）圆锥细胞；圆锥体( cone的名词复数 )；球果；圆锥形东西；（盛冰淇淋的）锥形蛋卷筒 | |
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magistrates
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| 地方法官，治安官( magistrate的名词复数 ) | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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facades
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| n.（房屋的）正面( facade的名词复数 )；假象，外观 | |
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virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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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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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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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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murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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vanilla
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| n.香子兰，香草 | |
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correlation
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| n.相互关系，相关，关连 | |
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apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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tongs
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| n.钳；夹子 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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suppleness
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| 柔软； 灵活； 易弯曲； 顺从 | |
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glutton
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| n.贪食者，好食者 | |
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maternity
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| n.母性，母道，妇产科病房；adj.孕妇的，母性的 | |
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jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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incurred
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| [医]招致的，遭受的； incur的过去式 | |
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odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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strut
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| v.肿胀，鼓起；大摇大摆地走；炫耀；支撑；撑开；n.高视阔步；支柱，撑杆 | |
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43
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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endearments
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| n.表示爱慕的话语，亲热的表示( endearment的名词复数 ) | |
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caresses
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| 爱抚，抚摸( caress的名词复数 ) | |
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bestows
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的第三人称单数 ) | |
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bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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50
trot
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| n.疾走，慢跑；n.老太婆；现成译本；(复数）trots:腹泻（与the 连用）；v.小跑，快步走，赶紧 | |
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51
automaton
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| n.自动机器，机器人 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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amorous
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| adj.多情的；有关爱情的 | |
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brutes
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| 兽( brute的名词复数 )； 畜生； 残酷无情的人； 兽性 | |
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writhing
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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kindled
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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haze
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| n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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enumerate
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| v.列举，计算，枚举，数 | |
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60
hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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61
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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62
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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63
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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