Quel est l’egarement ou ton ame se livre?
La Harpe, “Le Comte de Warwick,” Act 4, sc. 4.
(To what delusion1 does thy soul abandon itself?)
Alas2, Zanoni! the aspirer, the dark, bright one!— didst thou think that the bond between the survivor3 of ages and the daughter of a day could endure? Didst thou not foresee that, until the ordeal4 was past, there could be no equality between thy wisdom and her love? Art thou absent now seeking amidst thy solemn secrets the solemn safeguards for child and mother, and forgettest thou that the phantom5 that served thee hath power over its own gifts,— over the lives it taught thee to rescue from the grave? Dost thou not know that Fear and Distrust, once sown in the heart of Love, spring up from the seed into a forest that excludes the stars? Dark, bright one! the hateful eyes glare beside the mother and the child!
All that day Viola was distracted by a thousand thoughts and terrors, which fled as she examined them to settle back the darklier. She remembered that, as she had once said to Glyndon, her very childhood had been haunted with strange forebodings, that she was ordained6 for some preternatural doom7. She remembered that, as she had told him this, sitting by the seas that slumbered8 in the arms of the Bay of Naples, he, too, had acknowledged the same forebodings, and a mysterious sympathy had appeared to unite their fates. She remembered, above all, that, comparing their entangled9 thoughts, both had then said, that with the first sight of Zanoni the foreboding, the instinct, had spoken to their hearts more audibly than before, whispering that “with HIM was connected the secret of the unconjectured life.”
And now, when Glyndon and Viola met again, the haunting fears of childhood, thus referred to, woke from their enchanted11 sleep. With Glyndon’s terror she felt a sympathy, against which her reason and her love struggled in vain. And still, when she turned her looks upon her child, it watched her with that steady, earnest eye, and its lips moved as if it sought to speak to her,— but no sound came. The infant refused to sleep. Whenever she gazed upon its face, still those wakeful, watchful12 eyes!— and in their earnestness, there spoke10 something of pain, of upbraiding13, of accusation14. They chilled her as she looked. Unable to endure, of herself, this sudden and complete revulsion of all the feelings which had hitherto made up her life, she formed the resolution natural to her land and creed15; she sent for the priest who had habitually16 attended her at Venice, and to him she confessed, with passionate17 sobs18 and intense terror, the doubts that had broken upon her. The good father, a worthy19 and pious20 man, but with little education and less sense, one who held (as many of the lower Italians do to this day) even a poet to be a sort of sorcerer, seemed to shut the gates of hope upon her heart. His remonstrances21 were urgent, for his horror was unfeigned. He joined with Glyndon in imploring22 her to fly, if she felt the smallest doubt that her husband’s pursuits were of the nature which the Roman Church had benevolently23 burned so many scholars for adopting. And even the little that Viola could communicate seemed, to the ignorant ascetic24, irrefragable proof of sorcery and witchcraft25; he had, indeed, previously26 heard some of the strange rumours27 which followed the path of Zanoni, and was therefore prepared to believe the worst; the worthy Bartolomeo would have made no bones of sending Watt28 to the stake, had he heard him speak of the steam-engine. But Viola, as untutored as himself, was terrified by his rough and vehement29 eloquence,— terrified, for by that penetration30 which Catholic priests, however dull, generally acquire, in their vast experience of the human heart hourly exposed to their probe, Bartolomeo spoke less of danger to herself than to her child. “Sorcerers,” said he, “have ever sought the most to decoy and seduce31 the souls of the young,— nay32, the infant;” and therewith he entered into a long catalogue of legendary33 fables34, which he quoted as historical facts. All at which an English woman would have smiled, appalled35 the tender but superstitious36 Neapolitan; and when the priest left her, with solemn rebukes37 and grave accusations38 of a dereliction of her duties to her child, if she hesitated to fly with it from an abode39 polluted by the darker powers and unhallowed arts, Viola, still clinging to the image of Zanoni, sank into a passive lethargy which held her very reason in suspense40.
The hours passed: night came on; the house was hushed; and Viola, slowly awakened41 from the numbness42 and torpor43 which had usurped44 her faculties45, tossed to and fro on her couch, restless and perturbed46. The stillness became intolerable; yet more intolerable the sound that alone broke it, the voice of the clock, knelling47 moment after moment to its grave. The moments, at last, seemed themselves to find voice,— to gain shape. She thought she beheld48 them springing, wan49 and fairy-like, from the womb of darkness; and ere they fell again, extinguished, into that womb, their grave, their low small voices murmured, “Woman, we report to eternity50 all that is done in time! What shall we report of thee, O guardian51 of a new-born soul?” She became sensible that her fancies had brought a sort of partial delirium52, that she was in a state between sleep and waking, when suddenly one thought became more predominant than the rest. The chamber53 which, in that and every house they had inhabited, even that in the Greek isles54, Zanoni had set apart to a solitude55 on which none might intrude56, the threshold of which even Viola’s step was forbid to cross, and never, hitherto, in that sweet repose57 of confidence which belongs to contented58 love, had she even felt the curious desire to disobey,— now, that chamber drew her towards it. Perhaps THERE might be found a somewhat to solve the riddle59, to dispel60 or confirm the doubt: that thought grew and deepened in its intenseness; it fastened on her as with a palpable and irresistible61 grasp; it seemed to raise her limbs without her will.
And now, through the chamber, along the galleries thou glidest, O lovely shape! sleep-walking, yet awake. The moon shines on thee as thou glidest by, casement62 after casement, white-robed and wandering spirit!— thine arms crossed upon thy bosom63, thine eyes fixed64 and open, with a calm unfearing awe65. Mother, it is thy child that leads thee on! The fairy moments go before thee; thou hearest still the clock-knell tolling66 them to their graves behind. On, gliding67 on, thou hast gained the door; no lock bars thee, no magic spell drives thee back. Daughter of the dust, thou standest alone with night in the chamber where, pale and numberless, the hosts of space have gathered round the seer!
1 delusion | |
n.谬见,欺骗,幻觉,迷惑 | |
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2 alas | |
int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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3 survivor | |
n.生存者,残存者,幸存者 | |
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4 ordeal | |
n.苦难经历,(尤指对品格、耐力的)严峻考验 | |
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5 phantom | |
n.幻影,虚位,幽灵;adj.错觉的,幻影的,幽灵的 | |
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6 ordained | |
v.任命(某人)为牧师( ordain的过去式和过去分词 );授予(某人)圣职;(上帝、法律等)命令;判定 | |
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7 doom | |
n.厄运,劫数;v.注定,命定 | |
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8 slumbered | |
微睡,睡眠(slumber的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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9 entangled | |
adj.卷入的;陷入的;被缠住的;缠在一起的v.使某人(某物/自己)缠绕,纠缠于(某物中),使某人(自己)陷入(困难或复杂的环境中)( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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10 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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11 enchanted | |
adj. 被施魔法的,陶醉的,入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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12 watchful | |
adj.注意的,警惕的 | |
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13 upbraiding | |
adj.& n.谴责(的)v.责备,申斥,谴责( upbraid的现在分词 ) | |
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14 accusation | |
n.控告,指责,谴责 | |
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15 creed | |
n.信条;信念,纲领 | |
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16 habitually | |
ad.习惯地,通常地 | |
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17 passionate | |
adj.热情的,热烈的,激昂的,易动情的,易怒的,性情暴躁的 | |
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18 sobs | |
啜泣(声),呜咽(声)( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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19 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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20 pious | |
adj.虔诚的;道貌岸然的 | |
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21 remonstrances | |
n.抱怨,抗议( remonstrance的名词复数 ) | |
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22 imploring | |
恳求的,哀求的 | |
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23 benevolently | |
adv.仁慈地,行善地 | |
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24 ascetic | |
adj.禁欲的;严肃的 | |
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25 witchcraft | |
n.魔法,巫术 | |
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26 previously | |
adv.以前,先前(地) | |
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27 rumours | |
n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 );风闻;谣言;谣传 | |
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28 watt | |
n.瓦,瓦特 | |
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29 vehement | |
adj.感情强烈的;热烈的;(人)有强烈感情的 | |
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30 penetration | |
n.穿透,穿人,渗透 | |
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31 seduce | |
vt.勾引,诱奸,诱惑,引诱 | |
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32 nay | |
adv.不;n.反对票,投反对票者 | |
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33 legendary | |
adj.传奇(中)的,闻名遐迩的;n.传奇(文学) | |
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34 fables | |
n.寓言( fable的名词复数 );神话,传说 | |
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35 appalled | |
v.使惊骇,使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的;丧胆的 | |
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36 superstitious | |
adj.迷信的 | |
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37 rebukes | |
责难或指责( rebuke的第三人称单数 ) | |
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38 accusations | |
n.指责( accusation的名词复数 );指控;控告;(被告发、控告的)罪名 | |
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39 abode | |
n.住处,住所 | |
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40 suspense | |
n.(对可能发生的事)紧张感,担心,挂虑 | |
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41 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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42 numbness | |
n.无感觉,麻木,惊呆 | |
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43 torpor | |
n.迟钝;麻木;(动物的)冬眠 | |
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44 usurped | |
篡夺,霸占( usurp的过去式和过去分词 ); 盗用; 篡夺,篡权 | |
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45 faculties | |
n.能力( faculty的名词复数 );全体教职员;技巧;院 | |
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46 perturbed | |
adj.烦燥不安的v.使(某人)烦恼,不安( perturb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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47 knelling | |
v.丧钟声( knell的现在分词 );某事物结束的象征 | |
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48 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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49 wan | |
(wide area network)广域网 | |
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50 eternity | |
n.不朽,来世;永恒,无穷 | |
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51 guardian | |
n.监护人;守卫者,保护者 | |
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52 delirium | |
n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
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53 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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54 isles | |
岛( isle的名词复数 ) | |
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55 solitude | |
n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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56 intrude | |
vi.闯入;侵入;打扰,侵扰 | |
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57 repose | |
v.(使)休息;n.安息 | |
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58 contented | |
adj.满意的,安心的,知足的 | |
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59 riddle | |
n.谜,谜语,粗筛;vt.解谜,给…出谜,筛,检查,鉴定,非难,充满于;vi.出谜 | |
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60 dispel | |
vt.驱走,驱散,消除 | |
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61 irresistible | |
adj.非常诱人的,无法拒绝的,无法抗拒的 | |
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62 casement | |
n.竖铰链窗;窗扉 | |
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63 bosom | |
n.胸,胸部;胸怀;内心;adj.亲密的 | |
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64 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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65 awe | |
n.敬畏,惊惧;vt.使敬畏,使惊惧 | |
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66 tolling | |
[财]来料加工 | |
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67 gliding | |
v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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