Fra si contrarie tempre in ghiaccio e in foco,
In riso e in pianto, e fra paura e speme
L’ingannatrice Donna —
“Gerusal. Lib.,” cant1. iv. xciv.
(Between such contrarious mixtures of ice and fire, laughter and tears,— fear and hope, the deceiving dame2.)
Now notwithstanding the triumph both of the singer and the opera, there had been one moment in the first act, and, consequently, BEFORE the arrival of Pisani, when the scale seemed more than doubtful. It was in a chorus replete3 with all the peculiarities4 of the composer. And when the Maelstrom6 of Capricci whirled and foamed7, and tore ear and sense through every variety of sound, the audience simultaneously8 recognised the hand of Pisani. A title had been given to the opera which had hitherto prevented all suspicion of its parentage; and the overture9 and opening, in which the music had been regular and sweet, had led the audience to fancy they detected the genius of their favourite Paisiello. Long accustomed to ridicule10 and almost to despise the pretensions11 of Pisani as a composer, they now felt as if they had been unduly12 cheated into the applause with which they had hailed the overture and the commencing scenas. An ominous13 buzz circulated round the house: the singers, the orchestra,— electrically sensitive to the impression of the audience,— grew, themselves, agitated14 and dismayed, and failed in the energy and precision which could alone carry off the grotesqueness16 of the music.
There are always in every theatre many rivals to a new author and a new performer,— a party impotent while all goes well, but a dangerous ambush17 the instant some accident throws into confusion the march of success. A hiss18 arose; it was partial, it is true, but the significant silence of all applause seemed to forebode the coming moment when the displeasure would grow contagious19. It was the breath that stirred the impending20 avalanche21. At that critical moment Viola, the Siren queen, emerged for the first time from her ocean cave. As she came forward to the lamps, the novelty of her situation, the chilling apathy22 of the audience,— which even the sight of so singular a beauty did not at the first arouse,— the whispers of the malignant23 singers on the stage, the glare of the lights, and more — far more than the rest — that recent hiss, which had reached her in her concealment24, all froze up her faculties25 and suspended her voice. And, instead of the grand invocation into which she ought rapidly to have burst, the regal Siren, retransformed into the trembling girl, stood pale and mute before the stern, cold array of those countless26 eyes.
At that instant, and when consciousness itself seemed about to fail her, as she turned a timid beseeching27 glance around the still multitude, she perceived, in a box near the stage, a countenance28 which at once, and like magic, produced on her mind an effect never to be analysed nor forgotten. It was one that awakened29 an indistinct, haunting reminiscence, as if she had seen it in those day-dreams she had been so wont30 from infancy31 to indulge. She could not withdraw her gaze from that face, and as she gazed, the awe32 and coldness that had before seized her, vanished like a mist from before the sun.
In the dark splendour of the eyes that met her own there was indeed so much of gentle encouragement, of benign33 and compassionate34 admiration35,— so much that warmed, and animated36, and nerved,— that any one, actor or orator37, who has ever observed the effect that a single earnest and kindly38 look in the crowd that is to be addressed and won, will produce upon his mind, may readily account for the sudden and inspiriting influence which the eye and smile of the stranger exercised on the debutante39.
And while yet she gazed, and the glow returned to her heart, the stranger half rose, as if to recall the audience to a sense of the courtesy due to one so fair and young; and the instant his voice gave the signal, the audience followed it by a burst of generous applause. For this stranger himself was a marked personage, and his recent arrival at Naples had divided with the new opera the gossip of the city. And then as the applause ceased, clear, full, and freed from every fetter40, like a spirit from the clay, the Siren’s voice poured forth41 its entrancing music. From that time Viola forgot the crowd, the hazard, the whole world,— except the fairy one over with she presided. It seemed that the stranger’s presence only served still more to heighten that delusion42, in which the artist sees no creation without the circle of his art, she felt as if that serene43 brow, and those brilliant eyes, inspired her with powers never known before: and, as if searching for a language to express the strange sensations occasioned by his presence, that presence itself whispered to her the melody and the song.
Only when all was over, and she saw her father and felt his joy, did this wild spell vanish before the sweeter one of the household and filial love. Yet again, as she turned from the stage, she looked back involuntarily, and the stranger’s calm and half-melancholy smile sank into her heart,— to live there, to be recalled with confused memories, half of pleasure, and half of pain.
Pass over the congratulations of the good Cardinal44–Virtuoso, astonished at finding himself and all Naples had been hitherto in the wrong on a subject of taste,— still more astonished at finding himself and all Naples combining to confess it; pass over the whispered ecstasies45 of admiration which buzzed in the singer’s ear, as once more, in her modest veil and quiet dress, she escaped from the crowd of gallants that choked up every avenue behind the scenes; pass over the sweet embrace of father and child, returning through the starlit streets and along the deserted46 Chiaja in the Cardinal’s carriage; never pause now to note the tears and ejaculations of the good, simple-hearted mother,— see them returned; see the well-known room, venimus ad larem nostrum47 (We come to our own house.); see old Gionetta bustling48 at the supper; and hear Pisani, as he rouses the barbiton from its case, communicating all that has happened to the intelligent Familiar; hark to the mother’s merry, low, English laugh. Why, Viola, strange child, sittest thou apart, thy face leaning on thy fair hands, thine eyes fixed49 on space? Up, rouse thee! Every dimple on the cheek of home must smile to-night. (“Ridete quidquid est domi cachinnorum.” Catull. “ad Sirm. Penin.”)
And a happy reunion it was round that humble50 table: a feast Lucullus might have envied in his Hall of Apollo, in the dried grapes, and the dainty sardines51, and the luxurious52 polenta, and the old lacrima a present from the good Cardinal. The barbiton, placed on a chair — a tall, high-backed chair — beside the musician, seemed to take a part in the festive53 meal. Its honest varnished54 face glowed in the light of the lamp; and there was an impish, sly demureness55 in its very silence, as its master, between every mouthful, turned to talk to it of something he had forgotten to relate before. The good wife looked on affectionately, and could not eat for joy; but suddenly she rose, and placed on the artist’s temples a laurel wreath, which she had woven beforehand in fond anticipation56; and Viola, on the other side her brother, the barbiton, rearranged the chaplet, and, smoothing back her father’s hair, whispered, “Caro Padre, you will not let HIM scold me again!”
Then poor Pisani, rather distracted between the two, and excited both by the lacrima and his triumph, turned to the younger child with so naive57 and grotesque15 a pride, “I don’t know which to thank the most. You give me so much joy, child,— I am so proud of thee and myself. But he and I, poor fellow, have been so often unhappy together!”
Viola’s sleep was broken,— that was natural. The intoxication58 of vanity and triumph, the happiness in the happiness she had caused, all this was better than sleep. But still from all this, again and again her thoughts flew to those haunting eyes, to that smile with which forever the memory of the triumph, of the happiness, was to be united. Her feelings, like her own character, were strange and peculiar5. They were not those of a girl whose heart, for the first time reached through the eye, sighs its natural and native language of first love. It was not so much admiration, though the face that reflected itself on every wave of her restless fancies was of the rarest order of majesty59 and beauty; nor a pleased and enamoured recollection that the sight of this stranger had bequeathed: it was a human sentiment of gratitude60 and delight, mixed with something more mysterious, of fear and awe. Certainly she had seen before those features; but when and how? Only when her thoughts had sought to shape out her future, and when, in spite of all the attempts to vision forth a fate of flowers and sunshine, a dark and chill foreboding made her recoil61 back into her deepest self. It was a something found that had long been sought for by a thousand restless yearnings and vague desires, less of the heart than mind; not as when youth discovers the one to be beloved, but rather as when the student, long wandering after the clew to some truth in science, sees it glimmer62 dimly before him, to beckon63, to recede64, to allure65, and to wane66 again. She fell at last into unquiet slumber67, vexed68 by deformed69, fleeting70, shapeless phantoms71; and, waking, as the sun, through a veil of hazy72 cloud, glinted with a sickly ray across the casement73, she heard her father settled back betimes to his one pursuit, and calling forth from his Familiar a low mournful strain, like a dirge74 over the dead.
“And why,” she asked, when she descended75 to the room below,—“why, my father, was your inspiration so sad, after the joy of last night?”
“I know not, child. I meant to be merry, and compose an air in honour of thee; but he is an obstinate76 fellow, this,— and he would have it so.”
1 cant | |
n.斜穿,黑话,猛扔 | |
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2 dame | |
n.女士 | |
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3 replete | |
adj.饱满的,塞满的;n.贮蜜蚁 | |
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4 peculiarities | |
n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪 | |
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5 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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6 maelstrom | |
n.大乱动;大漩涡 | |
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7 foamed | |
泡沫的 | |
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8 simultaneously | |
adv.同时发生地,同时进行地 | |
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9 overture | |
n.前奏曲、序曲,提议,提案,初步交涉 | |
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10 ridicule | |
v.讥讽,挖苦;n.嘲弄 | |
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11 pretensions | |
自称( pretension的名词复数 ); 自命不凡; 要求; 权力 | |
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12 unduly | |
adv.过度地,不适当地 | |
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13 ominous | |
adj.不祥的,不吉的,预兆的,预示的 | |
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14 agitated | |
adj.被鼓动的,不安的 | |
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15 grotesque | |
adj.怪诞的,丑陋的;n.怪诞的图案,怪人(物) | |
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16 grotesqueness | |
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17 ambush | |
n.埋伏(地点);伏兵;v.埋伏;伏击 | |
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18 hiss | |
v.发出嘶嘶声;发嘘声表示不满 | |
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19 contagious | |
adj.传染性的,有感染力的 | |
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20 impending | |
a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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21 avalanche | |
n.雪崩,大量涌来 | |
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22 apathy | |
n.漠不关心,无动于衷;冷淡 | |
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23 malignant | |
adj.恶性的,致命的;恶意的,恶毒的 | |
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24 concealment | |
n.隐藏, 掩盖,隐瞒 | |
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25 faculties | |
n.能力( faculty的名词复数 );全体教职员;技巧;院 | |
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26 countless | |
adj.无数的,多得不计其数的 | |
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27 beseeching | |
adj.恳求似的v.恳求,乞求(某事物)( beseech的现在分词 ) | |
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28 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
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29 awakened | |
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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30 wont | |
adj.习惯于;v.习惯;n.习惯 | |
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31 infancy | |
n.婴儿期;幼年期;初期 | |
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32 awe | |
n.敬畏,惊惧;vt.使敬畏,使惊惧 | |
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33 benign | |
adj.善良的,慈祥的;良性的,无危险的 | |
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34 compassionate | |
adj.有同情心的,表示同情的 | |
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35 admiration | |
n.钦佩,赞美,羡慕 | |
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36 animated | |
adj.生气勃勃的,活跃的,愉快的 | |
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37 orator | |
n.演说者,演讲者,雄辩家 | |
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38 kindly | |
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地 | |
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39 debutante | |
n.初入社交界的少女 | |
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40 fetter | |
n./vt.脚镣,束缚 | |
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41 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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42 delusion | |
n.谬见,欺骗,幻觉,迷惑 | |
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43 serene | |
adj. 安详的,宁静的,平静的 | |
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44 cardinal | |
n.(天主教的)红衣主教;adj.首要的,基本的 | |
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45 ecstasies | |
狂喜( ecstasy的名词复数 ); 出神; 入迷; 迷幻药 | |
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46 deserted | |
adj.荒芜的,荒废的,无人的,被遗弃的 | |
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47 nostrum | |
n.秘方;妙策 | |
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48 bustling | |
adj.喧闹的 | |
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49 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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50 humble | |
adj.谦卑的,恭顺的;地位低下的;v.降低,贬低 | |
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51 sardines | |
n. 沙丁鱼 | |
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52 luxurious | |
adj.精美而昂贵的;豪华的 | |
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53 festive | |
adj.欢宴的,节日的 | |
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54 varnished | |
浸渍过的,涂漆的 | |
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55 demureness | |
n.demure(拘谨的,端庄的)的变形 | |
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56 anticipation | |
n.预期,预料,期望 | |
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57 naive | |
adj.幼稚的,轻信的;天真的 | |
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58 intoxication | |
n.wild excitement;drunkenness;poisoning | |
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59 majesty | |
n.雄伟,壮丽,庄严,威严;最高权威,王权 | |
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60 gratitude | |
adj.感激,感谢 | |
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61 recoil | |
vi.退却,退缩,畏缩 | |
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62 glimmer | |
v.发出闪烁的微光;n.微光,微弱的闪光 | |
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63 beckon | |
v.(以点头或打手势)向...示意,召唤 | |
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64 recede | |
vi.退(去),渐渐远去;向后倾斜,缩进 | |
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65 allure | |
n.诱惑力,魅力;vt.诱惑,引诱,吸引 | |
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66 wane | |
n.衰微,亏缺,变弱;v.变小,亏缺,呈下弦 | |
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67 slumber | |
n.睡眠,沉睡状态 | |
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68 vexed | |
adj.争论不休的;(指问题等)棘手的;争论不休的问题;烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 );使苦恼;使生气;详细讨论 | |
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69 deformed | |
adj.畸形的;变形的;丑的,破相了的 | |
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70 fleeting | |
adj.短暂的,飞逝的 | |
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71 phantoms | |
n.鬼怪,幽灵( phantom的名词复数 ) | |
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72 hazy | |
adj.有薄雾的,朦胧的;不肯定的,模糊的 | |
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73 casement | |
n.竖铰链窗;窗扉 | |
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74 dirge | |
n.哀乐,挽歌,庄重悲哀的乐曲 | |
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75 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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76 obstinate | |
adj.顽固的,倔强的,不易屈服的,较难治愈的 | |
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