Riflettendo da se gli eterni ral
Dante: Paradiso, xxxi. 70-72.
I lifted up my gaze,
And looked on her who made herself a crown,
Reflecting from herself the eternal rays.
It was not long before the doctor again walked over to the Tower, to propose to his young friend to co-operate in the Aristophanic comedy.
He found him well disposed to do so, and they passed a portion of the afternoon in arranging their programme.
They dined, and passed the evening much as before. The next morning, as they were ascending2 to the library to resume their pleasant labour, the doctor said to himself, 'I have passed along galleries wherein were many chambers4, and the doors in the day were more commonly open than shut, yet this chamber3 door of my young friend is always shut. There must be a mystery in it.' And the doctor, not generally given to morbid5 curiosity, found himself very curious about this very simple matter.
At last he mustered6 up courage to say, 'I have seen your library, dining-room, and drawing-room; but you have so much taste in internal arrangements, I should like to see the rest of the house.'
Mr. Falconer. There is not much more to see. You have occupied one of the best bedrooms. The rest do not materially differ.
Mr. Falconer. I am quite willing. But I have thought, perhaps erroneously, it is decorated in a manner you might not altogether approve.
The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Nothing indecorous, I hope.
Mr. Falconer. Quite the contrary. You may, perhaps, think it too much devoted9 to my peculiar10 views of the purity of ideal beauty, as developed in Saint Catharine.
Mr. Falconer. You see, there is an altar, with an image of Saint Catharine, and the panels of the room are painted with subjects from her life, mostly copied from Italian masters. The pictures of St. Catharine and her legend very early impressed her on my mind as the type of ideal beauty—of all that can charm, irradiate, refine, exalt12, in the best of the better sex.
The Rev. Dr. Opimian. You are enthusiastic; but indeed, though she is retained as a saint in the Reformed Church, I am not very familiar with her history. And to me some of these pictures require explanation.
Mr. Falconer. I will tell you her legend as briefly13 as I may. And we will pass from picture to picture as the subjects arise.
THE LEGEND OF SAINT CATHARINE
Catharine was a Princess of Alexandria in the third century. She embraced the Christian14 religion by divine inspiration. She was pre-eminent in beauty, learning, and discourse15. She converted her father and mother, and all with whom she came into communication. The Emperor Maxentius brought together the fifty wisest men of the empire to convert her from the error of her way, and she converted them all to the new faith. Maxentius burned her proselytes, and threatened her with a similar death. She remained firm. He had her publicly scourged16, and cast her into prison to perish by famine. Going on an expedition, he left the execution of his orders to the empress and his chief general, Porphyrius. Angels healed her wounds and supplied her with food; and in a beatific17 vision the Saviour18 of the world placed a ring on her finger, and called her His bride.{1} The presence of the ring showed to her the truth of the visitation. The empress and Porphyrius visited the prison, and she converted them also. The emperor, returning, put the empress and Porphyrius to death; and after many ineffectual expostulations with Catharine, determined19 on putting her to death by the wheel which bears her name.
1 Maria, Vergine delle Vergini, e Misericordia delle
Misericordie, vestita de i lampi del Sole, e coronata de i
raggi delle Stelle, prese il sottile, il delicato, ed il
sacro dito di Catarina, humile di core e mansueta di vita,
Vinegia, 1541.
Four of these wheels, armed with iron teeth, and revolving21 towards each other, were to cut her to pieces. Angels broke the wheels. He then brought her to the stake, and the angels extinguished the flames. He then ordered her to be beheaded by the sword. This was permitted, and in the meantime the day had closed. The body, reserved for exposure to wild beasts, was left under guard at the place of execution. Intense darkness fell on the night, and in the morning the body had disappeared. The angels had borne it to the summit of the loftiest mountain of the Horeb range, where still a rock, bearing the form of a natural sarcophagus, meets the eye of the traveller. Here it was watched by angel-guards, and preserved in unchanging beauty, till, in the fulness of time, it was revealed to a holy man, who removed it to the shrine22, under which it lies to this day, with the ring still on its hand, in the convent which was then founded, and which bears her name—the convent Saint Catharine of Mount Sinai.
The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Most of this is new to me. Yet I am not unfamiliar23 with pictures of the marriage of Saint Catharine, which was a favourite subject with the great Italian masters. But here is a picture which the legend, as you have related it, does not illustrate24. What is this tomb, with flames bursting from it, and monks25 and others recoiling26 in dismay?
Mr. Falconer. It represents a remarkable27 incident at the tomb of the saint. The Empress Catharine II. was a great benefactress to the Convent of Mount Sinai, and desired to possess Saint Catharine's ring. She sent a mitred abbot as an envoy28 to request it from the brotherhood29.
The monks, unwilling30 to displease31 the empress, replied that they did not dare to remove it themselves, but that they would open the tomb, and the envoy might take it. They opened the tomb accordingly, and the envoy looked on the hand and the ring. He approached to draw it off; but flames burst forth32: he recoiled33, and the tomb closed. Under such a manifestation34 of the saint's displeasure, the fathers could not again attempt to open it.{1}
1 Illustrations of Jerusalem and Mount Sinai (1837), p. 27.
The Rev. Dr. Opimian. I should like to have seen the empress receiving the envoy's report.
Mr. Falconer. Her reception of it would depend on the degree of faith which she either actually felt, or might have thought it politic35 to assume. At any rate, the fathers had shown their devotion, and afforded her a good opportunity for exhibiting hers. She did not again seek to obtain the ring.
Mr. Falconer. These chapels are here represented as they may be supposed to have been in the Catholic days of England. Three sisters, named Catharine, Martha, and Anne, built them to their namesake saints, on the summits of three hills, which took from these dedications38 the names they still bear. From the summit of each of these chapels the other two were visible. The sisters thought the chapels would long remain memorials of Catholic piety39 and sisterly love. The Reformation laid them in ruins. Nothing remains40 of the chapel36 of St. Anne but a few gray stones, built into an earthen wall, which, some half-century ago, enclosed a plantation41. The hill is now better known by the memory of Charles Fox than by that of its ancient saint. The chapel of Saint Martha has been restored and applied42 to Protestant worship. The chapel of Saint Catharine remains a picturesque43 ruin, on the banks of the Wey, near Guildford.
The Rev. Dr. Opimian. And that old church?
Mr. Falconer. That was the church of Saint Catharine, which was pulled down to make way for the dock by which her name is now profaned44; an act of desecration45 which has been followed by others, and will be followed by many more, whenever it may suit the interests of commerce to commit sacrilege on consecrated46 ground, and dissipate the ashes of the dead; an act which, even when that of a barbarian47 invader48, Horace thought it would be profanation49 even to look on.{1} Whatever may be in other respects the superiority of modern piety, we are far inferior to the ancients in reverence50 for temples and tombs.
1 The saint whom I have chosen frequently to my mind the
most perfect ideality of physical, moral, and intellectual
beauty.'
The Rev. Dr. Opimian. I am afraid I cannot gainsay51 that observation. But what is that stained glass window?
Mr. Falconer. It is copied on a smaller scale, and with more of Italian artistic52 beauty in the principal figure, from the window in West Wickham church. She is trampling53 on the Emperor Maxentius. You see all her emblems54: the palm, which belongs to all sainted martyrs55; the crown, the wheel, the fire, the sword, which belong especially to her; and the book, with which she is always represented, as herself a miracle of learning, and its chosen universal patroness in the schools of the Middle Ages.
The Rev. Dr. Opimian. Unquestionably the legend is interesting. At present, your faith is simply poetical56. But take care, my young friend, that you do not finish by becoming the dupe of your own mystification.
Mr. Falconer. I have no fear of that I think I can clearly distinguish devotion to ideal beauty from superstitious57 belief. I feel the necessity of some such devotion to fill up the void which the world, as it is, leaves in my mind. I wish to believe in the presence of some local spiritual influence; genius or nymph; linking us by a medium of something like human feeling, but more pure and more exalted58, to the all-pervading, creative, and preservative59 spirit of the universe; but 1 cannot realise it from things as they are. Everything is too deeply tinged60 with sordid61 vulgarity. There can be no intellectual power resident in a wood, where the only inscription62 is not 'Genio loci,' but 'Trespassers will be prosecuted'; no Naiad in a stream that turns a cotton-mill; no Oread in a mountain dell, where a railway train deposits a cargo63 of vandals; no Nereids or Oceanitides along the seashore, where a coastguard is watching for smugglers. No; the intellectual life of the material world is dead. Imagination cannot replace it. But the intercession of saints still forms a link between the visible and invisible. In their symbols I can imagine their presence. Each in the recess64 of our own thought we may preserve their symbols from the intrusion of the world. And the saint whom I have chosen presents to my mind the most perfect ideality of physical, moral, and intellectual beauty.
1 Epod. 16, 13.
The Rev. Dr. Opimian. I cannot object to your taste. But I hope you will not be led into investing the ideality with too much of the semblance65 of reality. I should be sorry to find you far gone in hagiolatry. I hope you will acquiesce66 in Martin, keeping equally clear of Peter and Jack67.
Mr. Falconer. Nothing will more effectually induce me so to acquiesce than your company, dear doctor. A tolerant liberality like yours has a very persuasive68 influence.
From this digression the two friends proceeded to the arrangement of their Aristophanic comedy, and divided their respective shares after the manner of Beaumont and Fletcher.
点击收听单词发音
1 corona | |
n.日冕 | |
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2 ascending | |
adj.上升的,向上的 | |
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3 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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4 chambers | |
n.房间( chamber的名词复数 );(议会的)议院;卧室;会议厅 | |
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5 morbid | |
adj.病的;致病的;病态的;可怕的 | |
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6 mustered | |
v.集合,召集,集结(尤指部队)( muster的过去式和过去分词 );(自他人处)搜集某事物;聚集;激发 | |
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7 con | |
n.反对的观点,反对者,反对票,肺病;vt.精读,学习,默记;adv.反对地,从反面;adj.欺诈的 | |
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8 rev | |
v.发动机旋转,加快速度 | |
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9 devoted | |
adj.忠诚的,忠实的,热心的,献身于...的 | |
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10 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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11 apprehend | |
vt.理解,领悟,逮捕,拘捕,忧虑 | |
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12 exalt | |
v.赞扬,歌颂,晋升,提升 | |
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13 briefly | |
adv.简单地,简短地 | |
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14 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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15 discourse | |
n.论文,演说;谈话;话语;vi.讲述,著述 | |
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16 scourged | |
鞭打( scourge的过去式和过去分词 ); 惩罚,压迫 | |
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17 beatific | |
adj.快乐的,有福的 | |
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18 saviour | |
n.拯救者,救星 | |
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19 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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20 largo | |
n.广板乐章;adj.缓慢的,宽广的;adv.缓慢地,宽广地 | |
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21 revolving | |
adj.旋转的,轮转式的;循环的v.(使)旋转( revolve的现在分词 );细想 | |
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22 shrine | |
n.圣地,神龛,庙;v.将...置于神龛内,把...奉为神圣 | |
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23 unfamiliar | |
adj.陌生的,不熟悉的 | |
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24 illustrate | |
v.举例说明,阐明;图解,加插图 | |
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25 monks | |
n.修道士,僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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26 recoiling | |
v.畏缩( recoil的现在分词 );退缩;报应;返回 | |
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27 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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28 envoy | |
n.使节,使者,代表,公使 | |
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29 brotherhood | |
n.兄弟般的关系,手中情谊 | |
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30 unwilling | |
adj.不情愿的 | |
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31 displease | |
vt.使不高兴,惹怒;n.不悦,不满,生气 | |
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32 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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33 recoiled | |
v.畏缩( recoil的过去式和过去分词 );退缩;报应;返回 | |
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34 manifestation | |
n.表现形式;表明;现象 | |
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35 politic | |
adj.有智虑的;精明的;v.从政 | |
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36 chapel | |
n.小教堂,殡仪馆 | |
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37 chapels | |
n.小教堂, (医院、监狱等的)附属礼拜堂( chapel的名词复数 );(在小教堂和附属礼拜堂举行的)礼拜仪式 | |
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38 dedications | |
奉献( dedication的名词复数 ); 献身精神; 教堂的)献堂礼; (书等作品上的)题词 | |
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39 piety | |
n.虔诚,虔敬 | |
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40 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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41 plantation | |
n.种植园,大农场 | |
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42 applied | |
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用 | |
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43 picturesque | |
adj.美丽如画的,(语言)生动的,绘声绘色的 | |
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44 profaned | |
v.不敬( profane的过去式和过去分词 );亵渎,玷污 | |
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45 desecration | |
n. 亵渎神圣, 污辱 | |
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46 consecrated | |
adj.神圣的,被视为神圣的v.把…奉为神圣,给…祝圣( consecrate的过去式和过去分词 );奉献 | |
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47 barbarian | |
n.野蛮人;adj.野蛮(人)的;未开化的 | |
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48 invader | |
n.侵略者,侵犯者,入侵者 | |
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49 profanation | |
n.亵渎 | |
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50 reverence | |
n.敬畏,尊敬,尊严;Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称;v.尊敬,敬畏,崇敬 | |
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51 gainsay | |
v.否认,反驳 | |
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52 artistic | |
adj.艺术(家)的,美术(家)的;善于艺术创作的 | |
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53 trampling | |
踩( trample的现在分词 ); 践踏; 无视; 侵犯 | |
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54 emblems | |
n.象征,标记( emblem的名词复数 ) | |
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55 martyrs | |
n.martyr的复数形式;烈士( martyr的名词复数 );殉道者;殉教者;乞怜者(向人诉苦以博取同情) | |
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56 poetical | |
adj.似诗人的;诗一般的;韵文的;富有诗意的 | |
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57 superstitious | |
adj.迷信的 | |
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58 exalted | |
adj.(地位等)高的,崇高的;尊贵的,高尚的 | |
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59 preservative | |
n.防腐剂;防腐料;保护料;预防药 | |
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60 tinged | |
v.(使)发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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61 sordid | |
adj.肮脏的,不干净的,卑鄙的,暗淡的 | |
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62 inscription | |
n.(尤指石块上的)刻印文字,铭文,碑文 | |
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63 cargo | |
n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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64 recess | |
n.短期休息,壁凹(墙上装架子,柜子等凹处) | |
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65 semblance | |
n.外貌,外表 | |
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66 acquiesce | |
vi.默许,顺从,同意 | |
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67 jack | |
n.插座,千斤顶,男人;v.抬起,提醒,扛举;n.(Jake)杰克 | |
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68 persuasive | |
adj.有说服力的,能说得使人相信的 | |
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