A rainy day in Switzerland puts a sudden stop to many diversions. The coachman may drive to the tavern1 and then back to the stable; but no farther. The sunburnt guide may sit at the ale-house door, and welcome; and the boatman whistle and curse the clouds, at his own sweet will; but no foot stirs abroad for all that; no traveller moves, if he has time to stay. The rainy daygives him time for reflection. He has leisure now to take cognizance of his impressions, and make up his account with the mountains. He remembers, too, that he has friends at home; and writes up the Journal, neglected for a week or more; and letters neglected longer; or finishes the rough pencil-sketch2, begun yesterday in the open air. On the whole he is not sorry it rains; though disappointed.
Flemming was both sorry and disappointed; but he did not on that account fail to go over to the Ashburtons at the appointed hour. He found them sitting in the parlour. The mother was reading, and the daughter retouching a sketch of the Lake of Thun. After the usual salutations, Flemming seated himself near the daughter, and said;
"We shall have no Staubbach to-day, I presume; only this Giessbach from the clouds."
"Nothing more, I suppose. So we must be content to stay in-doors; and listen to the soundof the eves-dropping rain. It gives me time to finish some of these rough sketches3."
"It is a pleasant pastime," said Flemming; "and I perceive you are very skilful4. I am delighted to see, that you can draw a straight line. I never before saw a lady's sketch-book, in which all the towers did not resemble the leaning Tower of Pisa. I always tremble for the little men under them."
"How absurd!" exclaimed Mary Ashburton, with a smile that passed through the misty6 air of Flemming's thoughts, like a sunbeam; "For one, I succeed much better in straight lines than in any others. Here I have been trying a half-hour to make this water-wheel round; and round it never will be."
The lady continued to sketch, and Flemming to gaze at her beautiful face; often repeating to himself those lines in Marlow's Faust;
"O thou art fairer than the evening air,
Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars!"
He certainly would have betrayed himself to the maternal9 eye of Mrs. Ashburton, had she not been wholly absorbed in the follies10 of a fashionable novel. Ere long the fair sketcher11 had paused for a moment; and Flemming had taken her sketch-book in his hands and was looking it through from the beginning with ever-increasing delight, half of which he dared not express, though he favored her with some comments and bursts of admiration12.
"This is truly a very beautiful sketch of Murten and the battle-field! How quietly the land-scape sleeps there by the lake, after the battle! Did you ever read the ballad13 of Veit Weber, the shoe-maker, on this subject? He says, the routed Burgundians jumped into the lake, and the Swiss Leaguers shot them down like wild ducks among the reeds. He fought in the battle and wrote the ballad afterwards;--
'He had himself laid hand on sword,
He who this rhyme did write;
And sang the song at night.' "
"You must give me the whole ballad," said Miss Ashburton; "it will serve to illustrate15 the sketch."
"And the sketch to illustrate the ballad. And now we suddenly slide down the Alps into Italy, and are even in Rome, if I mistake not. This is surely a head of Homer?"
"Yes," replied the lady, with a little enthusiasm. "Do you not remember the marble bust16 at Rome? When I first beheld17 that bust, it absolutely inspired me with awe18. It is not the face of a man, but of a god!"
"And you have done it no injustice19 in your copy," said Flemming, catching20 a new enthusiasm from hers. "With what a classic grace the fillet, passing round the majestic21 forehead, confines his flowing locks, which mingle22 with his beard! The countenance23, too, is calm, majestic, godlike! Even the fixed24 and sightless eyeballs do not mar5 the imageof the seer! Such were the sightless eyes of the blind old man of Chios. They seem to look with mournful solemnity into the mysterious future; and the marble lips to repeat that prophetic passage in the Hymn25 to Apollo; 'Let me also hope to be remembered in ages to come. And when any one, born of the tribes of men, comes hither, a weary traveller, and inquires, who is the sweetest of the Singing Men, that resort to your feasts, and whom you most delight to hear, do you make answer for me. It is the Blind Man, who dwells in Chios; his songs excel all that can ever be sung!' But do you really believe, that this is a portrait of Homer?"
"Certainly not! It is only an artist's dream. It was thus, that Homer appeared to him in his visions of the antique world. Every one, you know, forms an image in his fancy of persons and things he has never seen; and the artist reproduces them in marble or on canvass26."
"And what is the image in your fancy? Is it like this?"
"No; not entirely27. I have drawn28 my impressions from another source. Whenever I think of Homer, which is not often, he walks before me, solemn and serene29, as in the vision of the great Italian; in countenance neither sorrowful nor glad, followed by other bards30, and holding in his right hand a sword!"
"That is a finer conception, than even this," said Flemming. "And I perceive from your words, as well as from this book, that you have a true feeling for art, and understand what it is. You have had bright glimpses into the enchanted31 land."
"I trust," replied the lady modestly, "that I am not wholly without this feeling. Certainly I have as strong and passionate32 a love of Art as of Nature."
"But does it not often offend you to hear people speaking of Art and Nature as opposite and discordant33 things? Surely nothing can be more false. Nature is a revelation of God; Art a revelation of man. Indeed, Art signifies no more than this. Art is Power. That is the original meaning of the word. It is the creative power by which the soul of man makes itself known, through some external manifestation34 or outward sign. As we can always hear the voice of God, walking in the garden, in the cool of the day, or under the star-light, where, to quote one of this poet's verses, 'high prospects35 and the brows of all steep hills and pinnacles36 thrust up themselves for shows';--so, under the twilight37 and the starlight of past ages, do we hear the voice of man, walking amid the works of his hands, and city walls and towers and the spires38 of churches, thrust up themselves for shows."
The lady smiled at his warmth; and he continued;
"This, however, is but a similitude; and Art and Nature are more nearly allied39 than by similitudes only. Art is the revelation of man; and not merely that, but likewise the revelation of Nature, speaking through man. Art preëxists in Nature, and Nature is reproduced in Art. As vaporsfrom the ocean, floating landward and dissolved in rain, are carried back in rivers to the ocean, so thoughts and the semblances41 of things that fall upon the soul of man in showers, flow out again in living streams of Art, and lose themselves in the great ocean, which is Nature. Art and Nature are not, then, discordant, but ever harmoniously42 working in each other."
Enthusiasm begets43 enthusiasm. Flemming spake with such evident interest in the subject, that Miss Ashburton did not fail to manifest some interest in what he said; and, encouraged by this, he proceeded;
"Thus in this wondrous44 world wherein we live, which is the World of Nature, man has made unto himself another world hardly less wondrous, which is the World of Art. And it lies infolded and compassed about by the other,
'And the clear region where 't was born,
Round in itself incloses.'
Taking this view of art, I think we understand more easily the skill of the artist, and the differencebetween him and the mere40 amateur. What we call miracles and wonders of art are not so to him who created them. For they were created by the natural movements of his own great soul. Statues, paintings, churches, poems, are but shadows of himself;--shadows in marble, colors, stone, words. He feels and recognises their beauty; but he thought these thoughts and produced these things as easily as inferior minds do thoughts and things inferior. Perhaps more easily. Vague images and shapes of beauty floating through the soul, the semblances of things as yet indefinite or ill-defined, and perfect only when put in art,--this Possible Intellect, as the Scholastic45 Philosophers have termed it,--the artist shares in common with us all. The lovers of art are many. But the Active Intellect, the creative power,--the power to put these shapes and images in art, to imbody the indefinite, and render perfect, is his alone. He shares the gift with few. He knows not even whence nor how this is. He knows only that it is; that God has given him the power, which has been denied to others."
"I should have known you were just from Germany," said the lady, with a smile, "even if you had not told me so. You are an enthusiast46 for the Germans. For my part I cannot endure their harsh language."
"You would like it better, if you knew it better," answered Flemming. "It is not harsh to me; but homelike, hearty47, and full of feeling, like the sound of happy voices at a fireside, of a winter's night, when the wind blows, and the fire crackles, and hisses48, and snaps. I do indeed love the Germans; the men are so hale and hearty, and the Fräuleins so tender and true!"
"I always think of men with pipes and beer, and women with knittingwork."
"O, those are English prejudices," exclaimed Flemming. "Nothing can be more--"
"And their very literature presents itself to my imagination under the same forms."
"I see you have read only English criticisms; and have an idea, that all German books smell, as it were, 'of groceries, of brown papers, filled withgreasy cakes and slices of bacon; and of fryings in frowzy49 back-parlours; and this shuts you out from a glorious world of poetry, romance, and dreams!"
Mary Ashburton smiled, and Flemming continued to turn over the leaves of the sketch-book, with an occasional criticism and witticism50. At length he came to a leaf which was written in pencil. People of a lively imagination are generally curious, and always so when a little in love.
"Here is a pencil-sketch," said he, with an entreating51 look, "which I would fain examine with the rest."
"You may do so, if you wish; but you will find it the poorest sketch in the book. I was trying one day to draw the picture of an artist's life in Rome, as it presented itself to my imagination; and this is the result. Perhaps it may awaken52 some pleasant recollection in your mind."
Flemming waited no longer; but read with the eyes of a lover, not of a critic, the following description, which inspired him with a new enthusiasm for Art, and for Mary Ashburton.
"I often reflect with delight upon the young artist's life in Rome. A stranger from the cold and gloomy North, he has crossed the Alps, and with the devotion of a pilgrim journeyed to the Eternal City. He dwells perhaps upon the Pincian Hill; and hardly a house there, which is not inhabited by artists from foreign lands. The very room he lives in has been their abode53 from time out of mind. Their names are written all over the walls; perhaps some further record of them left in a rough sketch upon the window-shutter, with an inscription54 and a date. These things consecrate55 the place, in his imagination. Even these names, though unknown to him, are not without associations in his mind.
"In that warm latitude56 he rises with the day. The night-vapors are already rolling away over the Campagna sea-ward. As he looks from his window, above and beyond their white folds he recognises the tremulous blue sea at Ostia. Over Soracte rises the sun,--over his own beloved mountain; though no longer worshipped there, asof old. Before him, the antique house, where Raphael lived, casts its long, brown shadow down into the heart of modern Rome. The city lies still asleep and silent. But above its dark roofs, more than two hundred steeples catch the sunshine on their gilded57 weather-cocks. Presently the bells begin to ring, and, as the artist listens to their pleasant chimes, he knows that in each of those churches over the high altar, hangs a painting by some great master's hand, whose beauty comes between him and heaven, so that he cannot pray, but wonder only.
"Among these works of art he passes the day; but oftenest in St. Peter's and the Vatican. Up the vast marble stair-case,--through the Corridor Chiaramonti,--through vestibules, galleries, chambers58,--he passes, as in a dream. All are filled with busts60 and statues; or painted in daring frescoes61. What forms of strength and beauty! what glorious creations of the human mind! and in that last chamber59 of all, standing62 alone upon his pedestal, the Apollo found at Actium,--in such a majestic attitude,--with such a noble countenance, life-like, god-like!
"Or perhaps he passes into the chambers of the painters; but goes no further than the second. For in the middle of that chamber a large painting stands upon the heavy easel, as if unfinished, though more than three hundred years ago the great artist completed it, and then laid his pencil away forever, leaving this last benediction63 to the world. It is the Transfiguration of Christ by Raphael. A child looks not at the stars with greater wonder, than the artist at this painting. He knows how many studious years are in that picture. He knows the difficult path that leads to perfection, having himself taken some of the first steps.--Thus he recalls the hour, when that broad canvass was first stretched upon its frame, and Raphael stood before it, and laid the first colors upon it, and beheld the figures one by one born into life, and 'looked upon the work of his own hands with a smile, that it should have succeeded so well.' He recalls too, the hour, when, the task accomplished64, the pencil dropped from the master's dying hand, and his eyes closed to open on a more glorious transfiguration, and at length the dead Raphael lay in his own studio, before this wonderful painting, more glorious than any conqueror65 under the banners and armorial hatchments of his funeral!
"Think you, that such sights and thoughts as these do not move the heart of a young man and an artist! And when he goes forth66 into the open air, the sun is going down, and the gray ruins of an antique world receive him. From the Palace of the Cæsars he looks down into the Forum67, or towards the Coliseum; or westward68 sees the last sunshine strike the bronze Archangel, which stands upon the Tomb of Adrian. He walks amid a world of Art in ruins. The very street-lamps, that light him homeward, burn before some painted or sculptured image of the Madonna! What wonder is it, if dreams visit him in his sleep,--nay, if his whole life seem to him a dream! What wonder, if, with a feverish69 heart and quick hand, he strive to reproduce those dreams in marble or on canvass."
Foolish Paul Flemming! who both admired and praised this little sketch, and yet was too blind to see, that it was written from the heart, and not from the imagination! Foolish Paul Flemming! who thought, that a girl of twenty could write thus, without a reason! Close upon this followed another pencil sketch, which he likewise read, with the lady's permission. It was this.
"The whole period of the Middle Ages seems very strange to me. At times I cannot persuade myself that such things could have been, as history tells us; that such a strange world was a part of our world,--that such a strange life was a part of the life, which seems to us who are living it now, so passionless and commonplace. It is only when I stand amid ruined castles, that look at me so mournfully, and behold70 the heavy armour71 of old knights72, hanging upon the wainscot of Gothic chambers; or when I walk amid the aisles73 of some dusky minster, whose walls are narrative74 ofhoar antiquity75, and whose very bells have been baptized, and see the carved oaken stalls in the choir76, where so many generations of monks77 have sat and sung, and the tombs, where now they sleep in silence, to awake no more to their midnight psalms;--it is only at such times, that the history of the Middle Ages is a reality to me, and not a passage in romance.
"Likewise the illuminated79 manuscripts of those ages have something of this power of making the dead Past a living Present in my mind. What curious figures are emblazoned on the creaking parchment, making its yellow leaves laugh with gay colors! You seem to come upon them unawares. Their faces have an expression of wonder. They seem all to be just startled from their sleep by the sound you made when you unloosed the brazen80 clasps, and opened the curiously-carved oaken covers, that turn on hinges, like the great gates of a city. To the building of that city some diligent81 monk78 gave the whole of a long life. With what strange denizens82 he peopled it! Adam and Eve standing under a tree, she, with the apple in her hand;--the patriarch Abraham, with a tree growing out of his body, and his descendants sitting owl-like upon its branches;--ladies with flowing locks of gold; knights in armour, with most fantastic, long-toed shoes; jousts83 and tournaments; and Minnesingers, and lovers, whose heads reach to the towers, where their ladies sit;--and all so angular, so simple, so childlike,--all in such simple attitudes, with such great eyes, and holding up such long, lank84 fingers!--These things are characteristic of the Middle Ages, and persuade me of the truth of history."
At this moment Berkley entered, with a Swiss cottage, which he had just bought as a present for somebody's child in England; and a cane85 with a chamois-horn on the end of it, which he had just bought for himself. This was the first time, that Flemming had been sorry to see the good-natured man. His presence interrupted the delightful86 conversation he was carrying on "under four eyes," with Mary Ashburton. He reallythought Berkley a bore, and wondered it had never occurred to him before. Mrs. Ashburton, too, must needs lay down her book; and the conversation became general. Strange to say, the Swiss dinner-hour of one o'clock, did not come a moment too soon for Flemming. It did not even occur to him that it was early; for he was seated beside Mary Ashburton, and at dinner one can say so much, without being overheard.
点击收听单词发音
1 tavern | |
n.小旅馆,客栈;小酒店 | |
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2 sketch | |
n.草图;梗概;素描;v.素描;概述 | |
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3 sketches | |
n.草图( sketch的名词复数 );素描;速写;梗概 | |
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4 skilful | |
(=skillful)adj.灵巧的,熟练的 | |
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5 mar | |
vt.破坏,毁坏,弄糟 | |
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6 misty | |
adj.雾蒙蒙的,有雾的 | |
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7 uncommonly | |
adv. 稀罕(极,非常) | |
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8 picturesque | |
adj.美丽如画的,(语言)生动的,绘声绘色的 | |
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9 maternal | |
adj.母亲的,母亲般的,母系的,母方的 | |
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10 follies | |
罪恶,时事讽刺剧; 愚蠢,蠢笨,愚蠢的行为、思想或做法( folly的名词复数 ) | |
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11 sketcher | |
n.画略图者,作素描者,舞台布景设计者 | |
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12 admiration | |
n.钦佩,赞美,羡慕 | |
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13 ballad | |
n.歌谣,民谣,流行爱情歌曲 | |
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14 mowed | |
v.刈,割( mow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15 illustrate | |
v.举例说明,阐明;图解,加插图 | |
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16 bust | |
vt.打破;vi.爆裂;n.半身像;胸部 | |
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17 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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18 awe | |
n.敬畏,惊惧;vt.使敬畏,使惊惧 | |
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19 injustice | |
n.非正义,不公正,不公平,侵犯(别人的)权利 | |
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20 catching | |
adj.易传染的,有魅力的,迷人的,接住 | |
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21 majestic | |
adj.雄伟的,壮丽的,庄严的,威严的,崇高的 | |
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22 mingle | |
vt.使混合,使相混;vi.混合起来;相交往 | |
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23 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
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24 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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25 hymn | |
n.赞美诗,圣歌,颂歌 | |
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26 canvass | |
v.招徕顾客,兜售;游说;详细检查,讨论 | |
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27 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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28 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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29 serene | |
adj. 安详的,宁静的,平静的 | |
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30 bards | |
n.诗人( bard的名词复数 ) | |
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31 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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32 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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33 discordant | |
adj.不调和的 | |
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34 manifestation | |
n.表现形式;表明;现象 | |
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35 prospects | |
n.希望,前途(恒为复数) | |
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36 pinnacles | |
顶峰( pinnacle的名词复数 ); 顶点; 尖顶; 小尖塔 | |
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37 twilight | |
n.暮光,黄昏;暮年,晚期,衰落时期 | |
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38 spires | |
n.(教堂的) 塔尖,尖顶( spire的名词复数 ) | |
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39 allied | |
adj.协约国的;同盟国的 | |
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40 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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41 semblances | |
n.外表,外观(semblance的复数形式) | |
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42 harmoniously | |
和谐地,调和地 | |
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43 begets | |
v.为…之生父( beget的第三人称单数 );产生,引起 | |
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44 wondrous | |
adj.令人惊奇的,奇妙的;adv.惊人地;异乎寻常地;令人惊叹地 | |
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45 scholastic | |
adj.学校的,学院的,学术上的 | |
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46 enthusiast | |
n.热心人,热衷者 | |
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47 hearty | |
adj.热情友好的;衷心的;尽情的,纵情的 | |
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48 hisses | |
嘶嘶声( hiss的名词复数 ) | |
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49 frowzy | |
adj.不整洁的;污秽的 | |
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50 witticism | |
n.谐语,妙语 | |
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51 entreating | |
恳求,乞求( entreat的现在分词 ) | |
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52 awaken | |
vi.醒,觉醒;vt.唤醒,使觉醒,唤起,激起 | |
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53 abode | |
n.住处,住所 | |
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54 inscription | |
n.(尤指石块上的)刻印文字,铭文,碑文 | |
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55 consecrate | |
v.使圣化,奉…为神圣;尊崇;奉献 | |
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56 latitude | |
n.纬度,行动或言论的自由(范围),(pl.)地区 | |
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57 gilded | |
a.镀金的,富有的 | |
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58 chambers | |
n.房间( chamber的名词复数 );(议会的)议院;卧室;会议厅 | |
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59 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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60 busts | |
半身雕塑像( bust的名词复数 ); 妇女的胸部; 胸围; 突击搜捕 | |
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61 frescoes | |
n.壁画( fresco的名词复数 );温壁画技法,湿壁画 | |
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62 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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63 benediction | |
n.祝福;恩赐 | |
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64 accomplished | |
adj.有才艺的;有造诣的;达到了的 | |
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65 conqueror | |
n.征服者,胜利者 | |
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66 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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67 forum | |
n.论坛,讨论会 | |
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68 westward | |
n.西方,西部;adj.西方的,向西的;adv.向西 | |
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69 feverish | |
adj.发烧的,狂热的,兴奋的 | |
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70 behold | |
v.看,注视,看到 | |
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71 armour | |
(=armor)n.盔甲;装甲部队 | |
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72 knights | |
骑士; (中古时代的)武士( knight的名词复数 ); 骑士; 爵士; (国际象棋中)马 | |
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73 aisles | |
n. (席位间的)通道, 侧廊 | |
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74 narrative | |
n.叙述,故事;adj.叙事的,故事体的 | |
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75 antiquity | |
n.古老;高龄;古物,古迹 | |
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76 choir | |
n.唱诗班,唱诗班的席位,合唱团,舞蹈团;v.合唱 | |
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77 monks | |
n.修道士,僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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78 monk | |
n.和尚,僧侣,修道士 | |
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79 illuminated | |
adj.被照明的;受启迪的 | |
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80 brazen | |
adj.厚脸皮的,无耻的,坚硬的 | |
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81 diligent | |
adj.勤勉的,勤奋的 | |
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82 denizens | |
n.居民,住户( denizen的名词复数 ) | |
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83 jousts | |
(骑士)骑着马用长矛打斗( joust的名词复数 ); 格斗,竞争 | |
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84 lank | |
adj.瘦削的;稀疏的 | |
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85 cane | |
n.手杖,细长的茎,藤条;v.以杖击,以藤编制的 | |
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86 delightful | |
adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的 | |
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