“Rome was now the seat of my nativity, where I was born of a family more remarkable1 for honor than riches. I was intended for the church, and had a pretty good education; but my father dying while I was young, and leaving me nothing, for he had wasted his whole patrimony2, I was forced to enter myself in the order of mendicants.
“When I was at school I had a knack3 of rhyming, which I unhappily mistook for genius, and indulged to my cost; for my verses drew on me only ridicule4, and I was in contempt called the poet.
“This humor pursued me through my life. My first composition after I left school was a panegyric5 on pope Alexander IV, who then pretended a project of dethroning the king of Sicily. On this subject I composed a poem of about fifteen thousand lines, which with much difficulty I got to be presented to his holiness, of whom I expected great preferment as my reward; but I was cruelly disappointed: for when I had waited a year, without hearing any of the commendations I had flattered myself with receiving, and being now able to contain no longer, I applied6 to a Jesuit who was my relation, and had the pope’s ear, to know what his holiness’s opinion was of my work: he coldly answered me that he was at that time busied in concerns of too much importance to attend the reading of poems.
“However dissatisfied I might be, and really was, with this reception, and however angry I was with the pope? for whose understanding I entertained an immoderate contempt, I was not yet discouraged from a second attempt. Accordingly, I soon after produced another work, entitled, The Trojan Horse. This was an allegorical work, in which the church was introduced into the world in the same manner as that machine had been into Troy. The priests were the soldiers in its belly7, and the heathen superstition8 the city to be destroyed by them. This poem was written in Latin. I remember some of the lines:—
Mundanos scandit fatalis machina muros,
Farta sacerdotum turmis: exinde per alvum
Visi exire omnes, maguo cum murmure olentes.
Non aliter quam cum llumanis furibundus ab antris
It sonus et nares simul aura invadit hiantes.
Mille scatent et mille alii; trepidare timore
Ethnica gens coepit: falsi per inane10 volantes
Effugere Dei — Desertaque templa relinquunt.
Jam magnum crepitavit equus, mox orbis et alti
Ingemuere poli: tunc tu pater, ultimus omnium
Maxime Alexander, ventrem maturus equinum
Deseris, heu proles meliori digne parente.”
“I believe Julian, had I not stopped him, would have gone through the whole poem (for, as I observed in most of the characters he related, the affections he had enjoyed while he personated them on earth still made some impression on him); but I begged him to omit the sequel of the poem, and proceed with his history. He then recollected11 himself, and, smiling at the observation which by intuition he perceived I had made, continued his narration12 as follows:—
“I confess to you,” says he, “that the delight in repeating our own works is so predominant in a poet, that I find nothing can totally root it out of the soul. Happy would it be for those persons if their hearers could be delighted in the same manner: but alas13! hence that ingens solitudo complained of by Horace: for the vanity of mankind is so much greedier and more general than their avarice14, that no beggar is so ill received by them as he who solicits15 their praise.
“This I sufficiently16 experienced in the character of a poet; for my company was shunned17 (I believe on this account chiefly) by my whole house: nay18, there were few who would submit to hearing me read my poetry, even at the price of sharing in my provisions. The only person who gave me audience was a brother poet; he indeed fed me with commendation very liberally: but, as I was forced to hear and commend in my turn, I perhaps bought his attention dear enough.
“Well, sir, if my expectations of the reward I hoped from my first poem had balked19 me, I had now still greater reason to complain; for, instead of being preferred or commended for the second, I was enjoined20 a very severe penance21 by my superior, for ludicrously comparing the pope to a f — t. My poetry was now the jest of every company, except some few who spoke22 of it with detestation; and I found that, instead of recommending me to preferment, it had effectually barred me from all probability of attaining23 it.
“These discouragements had now induced me to lay down my pen and write no more. But, as Juvenal says,
— Si discedas, Laqueo tenet ambitiosi
Consuetudo mali.
“I was an example of the truth of this assertion, for I soon betook myself again to my muse24. Indeed, a poet hath the same happiness with a man who is dotingly fond of an ugly woman. The one enjoys his muse, and the other his mistress, with a pleasure very little abated25 by the esteem26 of the world, and only undervalues their taste for not corresponding with his own.
“It is unnecessary to mention any more of my poems; they had all the same fate; and though in reality some of my latter pieces deserved (I may now speak it without the imputation27 of vanity) a better success, as I had the character of a bad writer, I found it impossible ever to obtain the reputation of a good one. Had I possessed28 the merit of Homer I could have hoped for no applause; since it must have been a profound secret; for no one would now read a syllable29 of my writings.
“The poets of my age were, as I believe you know, not very famous. However, there was one of some credit at that time, though I have the consolation30 to know his works are all perished long ago. The malice31, envy, and hatred32 I bore this man are inconceivable to any but an author, and an unsuccessful one; I never could bear to hear him well spoken of, and writ9 anonymous33 satires34 against him, though I had received obligations from him; indeed I believe it would have been an absolute impossibility for him at any rate to have made me sincerely his friend.
“I have heard an observation which was made by some one of later days, that there are no worse men than bad authors. A remark of the same kind hath been made on ugly women, and the truth of both stands on one and the same reason, viz., that they are both tainted35 with that cursed and detestable vice36 of envy; which, as it is the greatest torment37 to the mind it inhabits, so is it capable of introducing into it a total corruption38, and of inspiring it to the commission of the most horrid39 crimes imaginable.
“My life was but short; for I soon pined myself to death with the vice I just now mentioned. Minos told me I was infinitely40 too bad for Elysium; and as for the other place, the devil had sworn he would never entertain a poet for Orpheus’s sake: so I was forced to return again to the place from whence I came.”
点击收听单词发音
1 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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2 patrimony | |
n.世袭财产,继承物 | |
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3 knack | |
n.诀窍,做事情的灵巧的,便利的方法 | |
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4 ridicule | |
v.讥讽,挖苦;n.嘲弄 | |
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5 panegyric | |
n.颂词,颂扬 | |
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6 applied | |
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用 | |
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7 belly | |
n.肚子,腹部;(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分,膛 | |
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8 superstition | |
n.迷信,迷信行为 | |
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9 writ | |
n.命令状,书面命令 | |
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10 inane | |
adj.空虚的,愚蠢的,空洞的 | |
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11 recollected | |
adj.冷静的;镇定的;被回忆起的;沉思默想的v.记起,想起( recollect的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12 narration | |
n.讲述,叙述;故事;记叙体 | |
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13 alas | |
int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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14 avarice | |
n.贪婪;贪心 | |
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15 solicits | |
恳请 | |
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16 sufficiently | |
adv.足够地,充分地 | |
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17 shunned | |
v.避开,回避,避免( shun的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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18 nay | |
adv.不;n.反对票,投反对票者 | |
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19 balked | |
v.畏缩不前,犹豫( balk的过去式和过去分词 );(指马)不肯跑 | |
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20 enjoined | |
v.命令( enjoin的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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21 penance | |
n.(赎罪的)惩罪 | |
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22 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 | |
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23 attaining | |
(通常经过努力)实现( attain的现在分词 ); 达到; 获得; 达到(某年龄、水平、状况) | |
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24 muse | |
n.缪斯(希腊神话中的女神),创作灵感 | |
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25 abated | |
减少( abate的过去式和过去分词 ); 减去; 降价; 撤消(诉讼) | |
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26 esteem | |
n.尊敬,尊重;vt.尊重,敬重;把…看作 | |
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27 imputation | |
n.归罪,责难 | |
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28 possessed | |
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
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29 syllable | |
n.音节;vt.分音节 | |
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30 consolation | |
n.安慰,慰问 | |
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31 malice | |
n.恶意,怨恨,蓄意;[律]预谋 | |
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32 hatred | |
n.憎恶,憎恨,仇恨 | |
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33 anonymous | |
adj.无名的;匿名的;无特色的 | |
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34 satires | |
讽刺,讥讽( satire的名词复数 ); 讽刺作品 | |
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35 tainted | |
adj.腐坏的;污染的;沾污的;感染的v.使变质( taint的过去式和过去分词 );使污染;败坏;被污染,腐坏,败坏 | |
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36 vice | |
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的 | |
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37 torment | |
n.折磨;令人痛苦的东西(人);vt.折磨;纠缠 | |
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38 corruption | |
n.腐败,堕落,贪污 | |
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39 horrid | |
adj.可怕的;令人惊恐的;恐怖的;极讨厌的 | |
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40 infinitely | |
adv.无限地,无穷地 | |
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