Thus man pursues his weary calling,
And wrings1 the hard life from the sky,
While happiness unseen is falling
Down from God’s bosom2 silently.
Schiller.
In one of those islands whose history the imperishable literature and renown3 of Athens yet invest with melancholy4 interest, and on which Nature, in whom “there is nothing melancholy,” still bestows5 a glory of scenery and climate equally radiant for the freeman or the slave,— the Ionian, the Venetian, the Gaul, the Turk, or the restless Briton,— Zanoni had fixed6 his bridal home. There the air carries with it the perfumes of the plains for miles along the blue, translucent7 deep. (See Dr. Holland’s “Travels to the Ionian Isles9,” etc., page 18.) Seen from one of its green sloping heights, the island he had selected seemed one delicious garden. The towers and turrets10 of its capital gleaming amidst groves11 of oranges and lemons; vineyards and olive-woods filling up the valleys, and clambering along the hill-sides; and villa12, farm, and cottage covered with luxuriant trellises of dark-green leaves and purple fruit. For there the prodigal13 beauty yet seems half to justify14 those graceful15 superstitions16 of a creed18 that, too enamoured of earth, rather brought the deities19 to man, than raised the man to their less alluring20 and less voluptuous21 Olympus.
And still to the fishermen, weaving yet their antique dances on the sand; to the maiden22, adorning23 yet, with many a silver fibula, her glossy24 tresses under the tree that overshadows her tranquil25 cot,— the same Great Mother that watched over the wise of Samos, the democracy of Corcyra, the graceful and deep-taught loveliness of Miletus, smiles as graciously as of yore. For the North, philosophy and freedom are essentials to human happiness; in the lands which Aphrodite rose from the waves to govern, as the Seasons, hand in hand, stood to welcome her on the shores, Nature is all sufficient. (Homeric Hymn26.)
The isle8 which Zanoni had selected was one of the loveliest in that divine sea. His abode27, at some distance from the city, but near one of the creeks28 on the shore, belonged to a Venetian, and, though small, had more of elegance29 than the natives ordinarily cared for. On the seas, and in sight, rode his vessel30. His Indians, as before, ministered in mute gravity to the service of the household. No spot could be more beautiful,— no solitude31 less invaded. To the mysterious knowledge of Zanoni, to the harmless ignorance of Viola, the babbling32 and garish33 world of civilised man was alike unheeded. The loving sky and the lovely earth are companions enough to Wisdom and to Ignorance while they love.
Although, as I have before said, there was nothing in the visible occupations of Zanoni that betrayed a cultivator of the occult sciences, his habits were those of a man who remembers or reflects. He loved to roam alone, chiefly at dawn, or at night, when the moon was clear (especially in each month, at its rise and full), miles and miles away over the rich inlands of the island, and to cull34 herbs and flowers, which he hoarded35 with jealous care. Sometimes, at the dead of night, Viola would wake by an instinct that told her he was not by her side, and, stretching out her arms, find that the instinct had not deceived her. But she early saw that he was reserved on his peculiar36 habits; and if at times a chill, a foreboding, a suspicious awe37 crept over her, she forebore to question him.
But his rambles38 were not always unaccompanied,— he took pleasure in excursions less solitary39. Often, when the sea lay before them like a lake, the barren dreariness40 of the opposite coast of Cephallenia contrasting the smiling shores on which they dwelt, Viola and himself would pass days in cruising slowly around the coast, or in visits to the neighbouring isles. Every spot of the Greek soil, “that fair Fable–Land,” seemed to him familiar; and as he conversed41 of the past and its exquisite42 traditions, he taught Viola to love the race from which have descended43 the poetry and the wisdom of the world. There was much in Zanoni, as she knew him better, that deepened the fascination44 in which Viola was from the first enthralled45. His love for herself was so tender, so vigilant46, and had that best and most enduring attribute, that it seemed rather grateful for the happiness in its own cares than vain of the happiness it created. His habitual47 mood with all who approached him was calm and gentle, almost to apathy48. An angry word never passed his lips,— an angry gleam never shot from his eyes. Once they had been exposed to the danger not uncommon49 in those then half-savage lands. Some pirates who infested50 the neighbouring coasts had heard of the arrival of the strangers, and the seamen51 Zanoni employed had gossiped of their master’s wealth. One night, after Viola had retired52 to rest, she was awakened53 by a slight noise below. Zanoni was not by her side; she listened in some alarm. Was that a groan54 that came upon her ear? She started up, she went to the door; all was still. A footstep now slowly approached, and Zanoni entered calm as usual, and seemed unconscious of her fears.
The next morning three men were found dead at the threshold of the principal entrance, the door of which had been forced. They were recognised in the neighbourhood as the most sanguinary and terrible marauders of the coasts,— men stained with a thousand murders, and who had never hitherto failed in any attempt to which the lust55 of rapine had impelled56 them. The footsteps of many others were tracked to the seashore. It seemed that their accomplices57 must have fled on the death of their leaders. But when the Venetian Proveditore, or authority, of the island, came to examine into the matter, the most unaccountable mystery was the manner in which these ruffians had met their fate. Zanoni had not stirred from the apartment in which he ordinarily pursued his chemical studies. None of the servants had even been disturbed from their slumbers58. No marks of human violence were on the bodies of the dead. They died, and made no sign. From that moment Zanoni’s house — nay59, the whole vicinity — was sacred. The neighbouring villages, rejoiced to be delivered from a scourge60, regarded the stranger as one whom the Pagiana (or Virgin) held under her especial protection.
In truth, the lively Greeks around, facile to all external impressions, and struck with the singular and majestic61 beauty of the man who knew their language as a native, whose voice often cheered them in their humble62 sorrows, and whose hand was never closed to their wants, long after he had left their shore preserved his memory by grateful traditions, and still point to the lofty platanus beneath which they had often seen him seated, alone and thoughtful, in the heats of noon. But Zanoni had haunts less open to the gaze than the shade of the platanus. In that isle there are the bituminous springs which Herodotus has commemorated63. Often at night, the moon, at least, beheld64 him emerging from the myrtle and cystus that clothe the hillocks around the marsh65 that imbeds the pools containing the inflammable materia, all the medical uses of which, as applied66 to the nerves of organic life, modern science has not yet perhaps explored. Yet more often would he pass his hours in a cavern67, by the loneliest part of the beach, where the stalactites seem almost arranged by the hand of art, and which the superstition17 of the peasants associates, in some ancient legends, with the numerous and almost incessant68 earthquakes to which the island is so singularly subjected.
Whatever the pursuits that instigated69 these wanderings and favoured these haunts, either they were linked with, or else subordinate to, one main and master desire, which every fresh day passed in the sweet human company of Viola confirmed and strengthened.
The scene that Glyndon had witnessed in his trance was faithful to truth. And some little time after the date of that night, Viola was dimly aware that an influence, she knew not of what nature, was struggling to establish itself over her happy life. Visions indistinct and beautiful, such as those she had known in her earlier days, but more constant and impressive, began to haunt her night and day when Zanoni was absent, to fade in his presence, and seem less fair than THAT. Zanoni questioned her eagerly and minutely of these visitations, but seemed dissatisfied, and at times perplexed70, by her answers.
“Tell me not,” he said, one day, “of those unconnected images, those evolutions of starry71 shapes in a choral dance, or those delicious melodies that seem to thee of the music and the language of the distant spheres. Has no ONE shape been to thee more distinct and more beautiful than the rest,— no voice uttering, or seeming to utter, thine own tongue, and whispering to thee of strange secrets and solemn knowledge?”
“No; all is confused in these dreams, whether of day or night; and when at the sound of thy footsteps I recover, my memory retains nothing but a vague impression of happiness. How different — how cold — to the rapture72 of hanging on thy smile, and listening to thy voice, when it says, ‘I love thee!’”
“Yet, how is it that visions less fair than these once seemed to thee so alluring? How is it that they then stirred thy fancies and filled thy heart? Once thou didst desire a fairy-land, and now thou seemest so contented73 with common life.”
“Have I not explained it to thee before? Is it common life, then, to love, and to live with the one we love? My true fairy-land is won! Speak to me of no other.”
And so night surprised them by the lonely beach; and Zanoni, allured74 from his sublimer75 projects, and bending over that tender face, forgot that, in the Harmonious76 Infinite which spread around, there were other worlds than that one human heart.
1 wrings | |
绞( wring的第三人称单数 ); 握紧(尤指别人的手); 把(湿衣服)拧干; 绞掉(水) | |
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2 bosom | |
n.胸,胸部;胸怀;内心;adj.亲密的 | |
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3 renown | |
n.声誉,名望 | |
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4 melancholy | |
n.忧郁,愁思;adj.令人感伤(沮丧)的,忧郁的 | |
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5 bestows | |
赠给,授予( bestow的第三人称单数 ) | |
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6 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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7 translucent | |
adj.半透明的;透明的 | |
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8 isle | |
n.小岛,岛 | |
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9 isles | |
岛( isle的名词复数 ) | |
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10 turrets | |
(六角)转台( turret的名词复数 ); (战舰和坦克等上的)转动炮塔; (摄影机等上的)镜头转台; (旧时攻城用的)塔车 | |
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11 groves | |
树丛,小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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12 villa | |
n.别墅,城郊小屋 | |
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13 prodigal | |
adj.浪费的,挥霍的,放荡的 | |
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14 justify | |
vt.证明…正当(或有理),为…辩护 | |
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15 graceful | |
adj.优美的,优雅的;得体的 | |
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16 superstitions | |
迷信,迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
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17 superstition | |
n.迷信,迷信行为 | |
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18 creed | |
n.信条;信念,纲领 | |
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19 deities | |
n.神,女神( deity的名词复数 );神祗;神灵;神明 | |
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20 alluring | |
adj.吸引人的,迷人的 | |
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21 voluptuous | |
adj.肉欲的,骄奢淫逸的 | |
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22 maiden | |
n.少女,处女;adj.未婚的,纯洁的,无经验的 | |
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23 adorning | |
修饰,装饰物 | |
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24 glossy | |
adj.平滑的;有光泽的 | |
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25 tranquil | |
adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
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26 hymn | |
n.赞美诗,圣歌,颂歌 | |
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27 abode | |
n.住处,住所 | |
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28 creeks | |
n.小湾( creek的名词复数 );小港;小河;小溪 | |
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29 elegance | |
n.优雅;优美,雅致;精致,巧妙 | |
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30 vessel | |
n.船舶;容器,器皿;管,导管,血管 | |
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31 solitude | |
n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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32 babbling | |
n.胡说,婴儿发出的咿哑声adj.胡说的v.喋喋不休( babble的现在分词 );作潺潺声(如流水);含糊不清地说话;泄漏秘密 | |
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33 garish | |
adj.华丽而俗气的,华而不实的 | |
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34 cull | |
v.拣选;剔除;n.拣出的东西;剔除 | |
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35 hoarded | |
v.积蓄并储藏(某物)( hoard的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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37 awe | |
n.敬畏,惊惧;vt.使敬畏,使惊惧 | |
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38 rambles | |
(无目的地)漫游( ramble的第三人称单数 ); (喻)漫谈; 扯淡; 长篇大论 | |
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39 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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40 dreariness | |
沉寂,可怕,凄凉 | |
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41 conversed | |
v.交谈,谈话( converse的过去式 ) | |
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42 exquisite | |
adj.精美的;敏锐的;剧烈的,感觉强烈的 | |
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43 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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44 fascination | |
n.令人着迷的事物,魅力,迷恋 | |
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45 enthralled | |
迷住,吸引住( enthrall的过去式和过去分词 ); 使感到非常愉快 | |
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46 vigilant | |
adj.警觉的,警戒的,警惕的 | |
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47 habitual | |
adj.习惯性的;通常的,惯常的 | |
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48 apathy | |
n.漠不关心,无动于衷;冷淡 | |
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49 uncommon | |
adj.罕见的,非凡的,不平常的 | |
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50 infested | |
adj.为患的,大批滋生的(常与with搭配)v.害虫、野兽大批出没于( infest的过去式和过去分词 );遍布于 | |
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51 seamen | |
n.海员 | |
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52 retired | |
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的 | |
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53 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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54 groan | |
vi./n.呻吟,抱怨;(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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55 lust | |
n.性(淫)欲;渴(欲)望;vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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56 impelled | |
v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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57 accomplices | |
从犯,帮凶,同谋( accomplice的名词复数 ) | |
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58 slumbers | |
睡眠,安眠( slumber的名词复数 ) | |
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59 nay | |
adv.不;n.反对票,投反对票者 | |
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60 scourge | |
n.灾难,祸害;v.蹂躏 | |
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61 majestic | |
adj.雄伟的,壮丽的,庄严的,威严的,崇高的 | |
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62 humble | |
adj.谦卑的,恭顺的;地位低下的;v.降低,贬低 | |
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63 commemorated | |
v.纪念,庆祝( commemorate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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64 beheld | |
v.看,注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 );瞧;看呀;(叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现)哎哟 | |
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65 marsh | |
n.沼泽,湿地 | |
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66 applied | |
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用 | |
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67 cavern | |
n.洞穴,大山洞 | |
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68 incessant | |
adj.不停的,连续的 | |
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69 instigated | |
v.使(某事物)开始或发生,鼓动( instigate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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70 perplexed | |
adj.不知所措的 | |
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71 starry | |
adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的 | |
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72 rapture | |
n.狂喜;全神贯注;着迷;v.使狂喜 | |
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73 contented | |
adj.满意的,安心的,知足的 | |
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74 allured | |
诱引,吸引( allure的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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75 sublimer | |
使高尚者,纯化器 | |
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76 harmonious | |
adj.和睦的,调和的,和谐的,协调的 | |
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