But, after all, the sale of the ring was a slight matter. Was it also a slight matter that little Tessa was under a delusion20 which would doubtless fill her small head with expectations doomed21 to disappointment? Should he try to see the little thing alone again and undeceive her at once, or should he leave the disclosure to time and chance? Happy dreams are pleasant, and they easily come to an end with daylight and the stir of life. The sweet, pouting22, innocent, round thing! It was impossible not to think of her. Tito thought he should like some time to take her a present that would please her, and just learn if her step-father treated her more cruelly now her mother was dead. Or, should he at once undeceive Tessa, and then tell Romola about her, so that they might find some happier lot for the poor thing? No: that unfortunate little incident of the cerretano and the marriage, and his allowing Tessa to part from him in delusion, must never be known to Romola, and since no enlightenment could expel it from Tessa’s mind, there would always be a risk of betrayal; besides even little Tessa might have some gall in her when she found herself disappointed in her love — yes, she must be a little in love with him, and that might make it well that he should not see her again. Yet it was a trifling23 adventure such as a country girl would perhaps ponder on till some ruddy contadino made acceptable love to her, when she would break her resolution of secrecy24 and get at the truth that she was free. Dunque — good-bye, Tessa! kindest wishes! Tito had made up his mind that the silly little affair of the cerretano should have no further consequences for himself; and people are apt to think that resolutions taken on their own behalf will be firm. As for the fifty-five florins, the purchase-money of the ring, Tito had made up his mind what to do with some of them; he would carry out a pretty ingenious thought which would set him more at ease in accounting25 for the absence of his ring to Romola, and would also serve him as a means of guarding her mind from the recurrence26 of those monkish28 fancies which were especially repugnant to him; and with this thought in his mind, he went to the Via Gualfonda to find Piero di Cosimo, the artist who at that time was preeminent29 in the fantastic mythological30 design which Tito’s purpose required.
Entering the court on which Piero’s dwelling31 opened, Tito found the heavy iron knocker on the door thickly bound round with wool and ingeniously fastened with cords. Remembering the painter’s practice of stuffing his ears against obtrusive32 noises, Tito was not much surprised at this mode of defence against visitors’ thunder, and betook himself first to tapping modestly with his knuckles33, and then to a more importunate34 attempt to shake the door. In vain! Tito was moving away, blaming himself for wasting his time on this visit, instead of waiting till he saw the painter again at Nello’s, when a little girl entered the court with a basket of eggs on her arm, went up to the door, and standing35 on tiptoe, pushed up a small iron plate that ran in grooves36, and putting her mouth to the aperture37 thus disclosed, called out in a piping voice, ‘Messer Piero!’
In a few moments Tito heard the sound of bolts, the door opened, and Piero presented himself in a red right-cap and a loose brown serge tunic38, with sleeves rolled up to the shoulder. He darted39 a look of surprise at Tito, but without further notice of him stretched out his hand to take the basket from the child, re-entered the house, and presently returning with the empty basket, said, ‘How much to pay?’
‘Two grossoni, Messer Piero; they are all ready boiled, my mother says.’
Piero took the coin out of the leathern scarsella at his belt, and the little maiden40 trotted41 away, not without a few upward glances of awed42 admiration43 at the surprising young signor.
Piero’s glance was much less complimentary44 as he said —
‘What do you want at my door, Messer Greco? I saw you this morning at Nello’s; if you had asked me then, I could have told you that I see no man in this house without knowing his business and agreeing with him beforehand.’
‘Pardon, Messer Piero,’ said Tito, with his imperturbable45 good-humour; ‘I acted without sufficient reflection. I remembered nothing but your admirable skill in inventing pretty caprices, when a sudden desire for something of that sort prompted me to come to you.’
The painter’s manners were too notoriously odd to all the world for this reception to be held a special affront46; but even if Tito had suspected any offensive intention, the impulse to resentment47 would have been less strong in him than the desire to conquer goodwill48.
Piero made a grimace49 which was habitual50 with him when he was spoken to with flattering suavity51. He grinned, stretched out the corners of his mouth, and pressed down his brows, so as to defy any divination52 of his feelings under that kind of stroking.
‘And what may that need be?’ he said, after a moment’s pause. In his heart he was tempted53 by the hinted opportunity of applying his invention.
‘I want a very delicate miniature device taken from certain fables54 of the poets, which you will know how to combine for me. It must be painted on a wooden case — I will show you the size — in the form of a triptych. The inside may be simple gilding55: it is on the outside I want the device. lt is a favourite subject with you Florentines — the triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne; but I want it treated in a new way. A story in Ovid will give you the necessary hints. The young Bacchus must be seated in a ship, his head bound with dusters of grapes, and a spear entwined with vine-leaves in his hand: dark-berried ivy56 must wind about the masts and sails, the oars57 must be thyrsi, and flowers must wreathe themselves about the poop; leopards58 and tigers must be crouching59 before him, and dolphins must be sporting round. But I want to have the fair-haired Ariadne with him, made immortal60 with her golden crown — that is not in Ovid’s story, but no matter, you will conceive it all — and above there must be young Loves, such as you know how to paint, shooting with roses at the points of their arrows —’
‘Say no more!’ said Piero. ‘I have Ovid in the vulgar tongue. Find me the passage. I love not to be choked with other men’s thoughts. You may come in.’
Piero led the way through the first room, where a basket of eggs was deposited on the open hearth61, near a heap of broken egg-shells and a bank of ashes. In strange keeping with that sordid9 litter, there was a low bedstead of carved ebony, covered carelessly with a piece of rich oriental carpet, that looked as if it had served to cover the steps to a Madonna’s throne; and a carved cassone, or large chest, with painted devices on its sides and lid. There was hardly any other furniture in the large room, except casts, wooden steps, easels and rough boxes, all festooned with cobwebs.
The next room was still larger, but it was also much more crowded. Apparently62 Piero was keeping the Festa, for the double door underneath63 the window which admitted the painter’s light from above, was thrown open, and showed a garden, or rather thicket64, in which fig-trees and vines grew in tangled65 trailing wildness among nettles66 and hemlocks67, and a tall cypress68 lifted its dark head from a stifling69 mass of yellowish mulberry-leaves. It seemed as if that dank luxuriance had begun to penetrate70 even within the walls of the wide and lofty room; for in one corner, amidst a confused heap of carved marble fragments and rusty71 armour72, tufts of long grass and dark feathery fennel had made their way, and a large stone vase, tilted73 on one side, seemed to be pouring out the ivy that streamed around. All about the walls hung pen and oil sketches75 of fantastic sea-monsters; dances of satyrs and maenads; Saint Margaret’s resurrection out of the devouring76 dragons; Madonnas with the supernal77 light upon them; studies of plants and grotesque78 heads; and on irregular rough shelves a few books were scattered79 among great drooping80 bunches of corn, bullocks’ horns, pieces of dried honeycomb, stones with patches of rare-coloured lichen81 skulls82 and bones, peacocks’ feathers, and large birds’ wings. Rising from amongst the dirty litter of the floor were lay figures: one in the frock of a Vallombrosan monk27, strangely surmounted83 by a helmet with barred visor, another smothered84 with brocade and skins hastily tossed over it. Amongst this heterogeneous85 still life, several speckled and white pigeons were perched or strutting86, too tame to fly at the entrance of men; three corpulent toads87 were crawling in an intimate friendly way near the door-stone — and a white rabbit, apparently the model for that which was frightening Cupid in the picture of Mars and Venus placed on the central easel, was twitching88 its nose with much content on a box full of bran.
‘And now, Messer Greco,’ said Piero, making a sign to Tito that he might sit down on a low stool near the door, and then standing over him with folded arms, ‘don’t be trying to see everything at once, like Messer Domeneddio, but let me know how large you would have this same triptych.’
Tito indicated the required dimensions, and Piero marked them on a piece of paper.
‘And now for the book,’ said Piero, reaching down a manuscript volume.
‘There’s nothing about the Ariadne there,’ said Tito, giving him the passage; ‘but you will remember I want the crowned Ariadne by the side of the young Bacchus: she must have golden hair.’
‘Ha!’ said Piero, abruptly89, pursing up his lips again. ‘And you want them to be likenesses, eh?’ he added, looking down into Tito’s face.
Tito laughed and blushed. ‘I know you are great at portraits, Messer Piero; but I could not ask Ariadne to sit for you, because the painting is a secret.’
‘There it is! I want her to sit to me. Giovanni Vespucci wants me to paint him a picture of Oedipus and Antigone at Colonos, as he has expounded91 it to me: I have a fancy for the subject, and I want Bardo and his daughter to sit for it. Now, you ask them; and then I’ll put the likeness90 into Ariadne.’
‘Agreed, if I can prevail with them. And your price for the Bacchus and Ariadne?’
‘Baie! If you get them to let me paint them, that will pay me. I’d rather not have your money: you may pay for the case.’
‘And when shall I sit for you?’ said Tito; ‘for if we have one likeness, we must have two.’
‘I don’t want your likeness; I’ve got it already,’ said Piero, ‘only I’ve made you look frightened. I must take the fright out of it for Bacchus.’
As he was speaking, Piero laid down the book and went to look among some paintings, propped92 with their faces against the wall. He returned with an oil-sketch74 in his hand.
‘I call this as good a bit of portrait as I ever did,’ he said, looking at it as he advanced. ‘Yours is a face that expresses fear well, because it’s naturally a bright one. I noticed it the first time I saw you. The rest of the picture is hardly sketched93; but I’ve painted you in thoroughly.’
Piero turned the sketch, and held it towards Tito’s eyes. He saw himself with his right hand uplifted, holding a wine-cup, in the attitude of triumphant94 joy, but with his face turned away from the cup with an expression of such intense fear in the dilated95 eyes and pallid96 lips, that he felt a cold stream through his veins97, as if he were being thrown into sympathy with his imaged self.
‘You are beginning to look like it already,’ said Piero, with a short laugh, moving the picture away again. ‘He’s seeing a ghost — that fine young man. I shall finish it some day, when I have settled what sort of ghost is the most terrible — whether it should look solid, like a dead man come to life, or half transparent98, like a mist.’
Tito, rather ashamed of himself for a sudden sensitiveness strangely opposed to his usual easy self-command, said carelessly —
‘That is a subject after your own heart, Messer Piero — a revel99 interrupted by a ghost. You seem to love the blending of the terrible with the gay. I suppose that is the reason your shelves are so well furnished with death’s-heads, while you are painting those roguish Loves who are running away with the armour of Mars. I begin to think you are a Cynic philosopher in the pleasant disguise of a cunning painter.’
‘Not I, Messer Greco; a philosopher is the last sort of animal I should choose to resemble. I find it enough to live, without spinning lies to account for life. Fowls100 cackle, asses101 bray102, women chatter103, and philosophers spin false reasons — that’s the effect the sight of the world brings out of them. Well, I am an animal that paints instead of cackling, or braying104, or spinning lies. And now, I think, our business is done; you’ll keep to your side of the bargain about the Oedipus and Antigone?’
‘I will do my best,’ said Tito — on this strong hint, immediately moving towards the door.
‘And you’ll let me know at Nello’s. No need to come here again.’
‘I understand,’ said Tito, laughingly, lifting his hand in sign of friendly parting.
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收听单词发音
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1
exultant
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| adj.欢腾的，狂欢的，大喜的 | |
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2
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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3
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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recurred
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| 再发生，复发( recur的过去式和过去分词 )； 治愈 | |
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futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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7
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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8
foresight
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| n.先见之明，深谋远虑 | |
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9
sordid
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| adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的 | |
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sordidness
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| n.肮脏；污秽；卑鄙；可耻 | |
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gem
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| n.宝石，珠宝；受爱戴的人 [同]jewel | |
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12
feigned
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| a.假装的，不真诚的 | |
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13
nauseating
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| adj.令人恶心的，使人厌恶的v.使恶心，作呕( nauseate的现在分词 ) | |
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14
deception
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| n.欺骗，欺诈；骗局，诡计 | |
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15
immunity
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| n.优惠；免除；豁免，豁免权 | |
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16
shackles
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| 手铐( shackle的名词复数 )； 脚镣； 束缚； 羁绊 | |
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17
gall
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| v.使烦恼，使焦躁，难堪；n.磨难 | |
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18
entangle
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| vt.缠住，套住；卷入，连累 | |
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19
entanglement
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| n.纠缠，牵累 | |
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20
delusion
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| n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑 | |
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21
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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22
pouting
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| v.撅（嘴）( pout的现在分词 ) | |
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23
trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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24
secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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accounting
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| n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表 | |
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recurrence
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| n.复发，反复，重现 | |
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27
monk
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| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
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monkish
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| adj.僧侣的，修道士的，禁欲的 | |
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29
preeminent
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的 | |
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mythological
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| adj.神话的 | |
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31
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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32
obtrusive
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| adj.显眼的；冒失的 | |
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33
knuckles
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| n.（指人）指关节( knuckle的名词复数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝v.（指人）指关节( knuckle的第三人称单数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝 | |
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34
importunate
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| adj.强求的；纠缠不休的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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grooves
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| n.沟( groove的名词复数 )；槽；老一套；（某种）音乐节奏v.沟( groove的第三人称单数 )；槽；老一套；（某种）音乐节奏 | |
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aperture
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| n.孔，隙，窄的缺口 | |
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tunic
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| n.束腰外衣 | |
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darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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40
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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41
trotted
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| 小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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42
awed
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| adj.充满敬畏的，表示敬畏的v.使敬畏，使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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43
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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44
complimentary
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| adj.赠送的，免费的，赞美的，恭维的 | |
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45
imperturbable
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| adj.镇静的 | |
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46
affront
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| n./v.侮辱，触怒 | |
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resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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48
goodwill
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| n.善意，亲善，信誉，声誉 | |
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49
grimace
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| v.做鬼脸，面部歪扭 | |
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50
habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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51
suavity
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| n.温和；殷勤 | |
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52
divination
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| n.占卜，预测 | |
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53
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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54
fables
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| n.寓言( fable的名词复数 )；神话，传说 | |
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55
gilding
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| n.贴金箔，镀金 | |
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56
ivy
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| n.常青藤，常春藤 | |
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57
oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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58
leopards
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| n.豹( leopard的名词复数 )；本性难移 | |
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59
crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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60
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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61
hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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62
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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nettles
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| n.荨麻( nettle的名词复数 ) | |
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67
hemlocks
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| 由毒芹提取的毒药( hemlock的名词复数 ) | |
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cypress
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| n.柏树 | |
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stifling
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| a.令人窒息的 | |
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70
penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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71
rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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72
armour
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| （=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队 | |
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73
tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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74
sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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sketches
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| n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概 | |
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76
devouring
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| 吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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77
supernal
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| adj.天堂的，天上的；崇高的 | |
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grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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lichen
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| n.地衣, 青苔 | |
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82
skulls
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| 颅骨( skull的名词复数 )； 脑袋； 脑子； 脑瓜 | |
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surmounted
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| 战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 )； 克服（困难）； 居于…之上； 在…顶上 | |
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84
smothered
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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85
heterogeneous
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| adj.庞杂的；异类的 | |
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86
strutting
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| 加固，支撑物 | |
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87
toads
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| n.蟾蜍，癞蛤蟆( toad的名词复数 ) | |
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88
twitching
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| n.颤搐 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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likeness
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| n.相像，相似（之处） | |
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91
expounded
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| 论述，详细讲解( expound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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propped
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| 支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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sketched
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| v.草拟（sketch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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dilated
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| adj.加宽的，扩大的v.（使某物）扩大，膨胀，张大( dilate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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pallid
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| adj.苍白的，呆板的 | |
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veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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99
revel
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| vi.狂欢作乐，陶醉；n.作乐，狂欢 | |
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100
fowls
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| 鸟( fowl的名词复数 )； 禽肉； 既不是这； 非驴非马 | |
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101
asses
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| n. 驴，愚蠢的人，臀部 adv. (常用作后置)用于贬损或骂人 | |
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102
bray
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| n.驴叫声, 喇叭声；v.驴叫 | |
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103
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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104
braying
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| v.发出驴叫似的声音( bray的现在分词 )；发嘟嘟声；粗声粗气地讲话（或大笑）；猛击 | |
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