In real life we have heard of young solicitors4, of foppish6 solicitors, of short solicitors; but on the stage they are always very thin and very old. The youngest stage solicitor5 we ever remember to have seen looked about sixty—the oldest about a hundred and forty-five.
By the bye, it is never very safe to judge people's ages on the stage by their personal appearance. We have known old ladies who looked seventy, if they were a day, turn out to be the mothers of boys of fourteen, while the middle-aged7 husband of the young wife generally gives one the idea of ninety.
Again, what appears at first sight to be a comfortable-looking and eminently8 respectable elderly lady is often discovered to be, in reality, a giddy, girlish, and inexperienced young thing, the pride of the village or the darling of the regiment9.
So, too, an exceptionally stout10 and short-winded old gentleman, who looks as if he had been living too well and taking too little exercise for the last forty-five years, is not the heavy father, as you might imagine if you judged from mere11 external evidence, but a wild, reckless boy.
You would not think so to look at him, but his only faults are that he is so young and light-headed. There is good in him, however, and he will no doubt be steady enough when he grows up. All the young men of the neighborhood worship him and the girls love him.
"Here he comes," they say; "dear, dear old Jack12—Jack, the darling boy—the headstrong youth—Jack, the leader of our juvenile13 sports—Jack, whose childish innocence14 wins all hearts. Three cheers for dancing, bright-eyed Jack!"
On the other hand, ladies with the complexion15 of eighteen are, you learn as the story progresses, quite elderly women, the mothers of middle-aged heroes.
The experienced observer of stage-land never jumps to conclusions from what he sees. He waits till he is told things.
The stage lawyer never has any office of his own. He transacts16 all his business at his clients' houses. He will travel hundreds of miles to tell them the most trivial piece of legal information.
It never occurs to him how much simpler it would be to write a letter. The item for "traveling expenses" in his bill of costs must be something enormous.
There are two moments in the course of his client's career that the stage lawyer particularly enjoys. The first is when the client comes unexpectedly into a fortune; the second when he unexpectedly loses it.
In the former case, upon learning the good news the stage lawyer at once leaves his business and hurries off to the other end of the kingdom to bear the glad tidings. He arrives at the humble17 domicile of the beneficiary in question, sends up his card, and is ushered18 into the front parlor19. He enters mysteriously and sits left—client sits right. An ordinary, common lawyer would come to the point at once, state the matter in a plain, business-like way, and trust that he might have the pleasure of representing, etc., etc.; but such simple methods are not those of the stage lawyer. He looks at the client and says:
"You had a father."
The client starts. How on earth did this calm, thin, keen-eyed old man in black know that he had a father? He shuffles20 and stammers21, but the quiet, impenetrable lawyer fixes his cold, glassy eye on him, and he is helpless. Subterfuge22, he feels, is useless, and amazed, bewildered at the knowledge of his most private affairs possessed23 by his strange visitant, he admits the fact: he had a father.
The lawyer smiles with a quiet smile of triumph and scratches his chin.
"You had a mother, too, if I am informed correctly," he continues.
It is idle attempting to escape this man's supernatural acuteness, and the client owns up to having had a mother also.
From this the lawyer goes on to communicate to the client, as a great secret, the whole of his (the client's) history from his cradle upward, and also the history of his nearer relatives, and in less than half an hour from the old man's entrance, or say forty minutes at the outside, the client almost knows what the business is about.
On the other occasion, when the client has lost his fortune, the stage lawyer is even still happier. He comes down himself to tell the misfortune (he would not miss the job for worlds), and he takes care to choose the most unpropitious moment possible for breaking the news. On the eldest24 daughter's birthday, when there is a big party on, is his favorite time. He comes in about midnight and tells them just as they are going down to supper.
He has no idea of business hours, has the stage lawyer—to make the thing as unpleasant as possible seems to be his only anxiety.
If he cannot work it for a birthday, then he waits till there's a wedding on, and gets up early in the morning on purpose to run down and spoil the show. To enter among a crowd of happy, joyous25 fellow-creatures and leave them utterly26 crushed and miserable27 is the stage lawyer's hobby.
The stage lawyer is a very talkative gentleman. He regards the telling of his client's most private affairs to every stranger that he meets as part of his professional duties. A good gossip with a few chance acquaintances about the family secrets of his employers is food and drink for the stage lawyer.
They all go about telling their own and their friends' secrets to perfect strangers on the stage. Whenever two people have five minutes to spare on the stage they tell each other the story of their lives. "Sit down and I will tell you the story of my life" is the stage equivalent for the "Come and have a drink" of the outside world.
The good stage lawyer has generally nursed the heroine on his knee when a baby (when she was a baby, we mean)—when she was only so high. It seems to have been a part of his professional duties. The good stage lawyer also kisses all the pretty girls in the play and is expected to chuck the housemaid under the chin. It is good to be a good stage lawyer.
The good stage lawyer also wipes away a tear when sad things happen; and he turns away to do this and blows his nose, and says he thinks he has a fly in his eye. This touching28 trait in his character is always held in great esteem29 by the audience and is much applauded.
The good stage lawyer is never by any chance a married man. (Few good men are, so we gather from our married lady friends.) He loved in early life the heroine's mother. That "sainted woman" (tear and nose business) died and is now among the angels—the gentleman who did marry her, by the bye, is not quite so sure about this latter point, but the lawyer is fixed30 on the idea.
In stage literature of a frivolous31 nature the lawyer is a very different individual. In comedy he is young, he possesses chambers32, and he is married (there is no doubt about this latter fact); and his wife and his mother-in-law spend most of the day in his office and make the dull old place quite lively for him.
He only has one client. She is a nice lady and affable, but her antecedents are doubtful, and she seems to be no better than she ought to be—possibly worse. But anyhow she is the sole business that the poor fellow has—is, in fact, his only source of income, and might, one would think, under such circumstances be accorded a welcome by his family. But his wife and his mother-in-law, on the contrary, take a violent dislike to her, and the lawyer has to put her in the coal-scuttle or lock her up in the safe whenever he hears either of these female relatives of his coming up the stairs.
We should not care to be the client of a farcical comedy stage lawyer. Legal transactions are trying to the nerves under the most favorable circumstances; conducted by a farcical stage lawyer, the business would be too exciting for us.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
eyebrows
|
|
| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
itches
|
|
| n.痒( itch的名词复数 )；渴望，热望v.发痒( itch的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
considerably
|
|
| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
solicitors
|
|
| 初级律师( solicitor的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
solicitor
|
|
| n.初级律师，事务律师 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
foppish
|
|
| adj.矫饰的，浮华的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
middle-aged
|
|
| adj.中年的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
eminently
|
|
| adv.突出地；显著地；不寻常地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
regiment
|
|
| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
mere
|
|
| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
jack
|
|
| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
juvenile
|
|
| n.青少年，少年读物；adj.青少年的，幼稚的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
innocence
|
|
| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
complexion
|
|
| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
transacts
|
|
| v.办理（业务等）( transact的第三人称单数 )；交易，谈判 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
humble
|
|
| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
ushered
|
|
| v.引，领，陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
parlor
|
|
| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
shuffles
|
|
| n.洗（纸牌）( shuffle的名词复数 )；拖着脚步走；粗心地做；摆脱尘世的烦恼v.洗（纸牌）( shuffle的第三人称单数 )；拖着脚步走；粗心地做；摆脱尘世的烦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
stammers
|
|
| n.口吃，结巴( stammer的名词复数 )v.结巴地说出( stammer的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
subterfuge
|
|
| n.诡计；藉口 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
possessed
|
|
| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
eldest
|
|
| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
joyous
|
|
| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
utterly
|
|
| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
miserable
|
|
| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
touching
|
|
| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
esteem
|
|
| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
frivolous
|
|
| adj.轻薄的；轻率的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
chambers
|
|
| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |