The "goodly and virtuous8 young imps9" of old citation10, we should also construe11 but saucily12. Besides, "vagabond" lendeth itself gracefully13 to the affectionate diminutives14 of alien tongues, which, to a philologist15, may be as good as an argument: what can be tenderer than vagaböndchen, vagabondellino, and a like musical play of syllables16 over the solid English rock?
The vagabond is the modern representative of the knight-errant, shorn of his romance, inasmuch as both fall neatly17 under the definition of a stroller, a free lance, whom the domestic Lar does not allure18 or attach to any one fireside. The immortal19 Don of la Mancha, revived in this age, should figure as a tramp in the police station, before he had adorned20 public life twenty-four hours. But the vagabond proper has an Asiatic cousin, who gets princelier treatment. The Rônin of chivalrous21 Japan is a gentleman of leisure, who, not averse22 to a chance of seasonable employment, roams at large, settling his private differences, and serving Heaven unmolested, according to his lights. Vagabonds are legally denominated "such as wake on the night, and sleep on the day; and haunt customable taverns23 and ale-houses, and rout24 about; and no man wots whence they come nor whither they go:" a comprehensive statement in three parts, which has, moreover, a covert25 whimsical reference categorically to actors, politicians, and bank-clerks. A vagabond, primarily, was merely an idle person;and if his name has come to imply variations of decorum, and a questionable26 standing27 in polite circles, it is to be accounted for only on the worn adage28 that Satan takes personal care of undedicated energies.
Our friend is vagrant29 as the swallow, "born in the eighth climate, and framed and constellated unto all." He is the world's freeman. He strays at his fancy, sign-boards and mile-stones his only ritual, and changes of weather the sole political economy of his study, by which he abides30. Everybody's property is his in fief. Terminus and his stakes were never set up for him. He has no particular reason for moving on the first of May, nor for passing the winter in warm quarters. When he is very weary, since he has no tent to strike, nor bed to make, he unconcernedly "lays his neck on the lap of his mother." Neither landlord nor tenant31 is he; and never has he known a spring-cleaning, nor packed a trunk, nor priced a door-plate. He trolls out that joyful32 strophe which Richard Brome wrote for his forefathers33, as he swings past inland villages:
"Come away! why do we stay?
We have no debt or rent to pay,
No bargains or accompts to make,
Nor land nor lease, to let or take:
Or if we had, should that remore us,
When all the world's our own before us,
And where we pass and make resort,
There is our kingdom and our court!"
He has his choice of professions: he may have a natural disposition34 to beg, yet, on the whole, consider it genteeler to steal. He is exempt35 from Adam's curse. Nobody expects him to work, save in a moment of inspiration. When he has no funds, he travels on his dignity. There is that in his eye which awes36 the merchantman, and mesmerizes37 the maid at the hostel38 gate.
The vagabond, "extravagant39 and erring40 spirit," as Horatio would call him, has had his court-painter, who took the portraits of several of his eccentric family in the year of Waterloo, and exposed them for sale in Covent Garden under the title: "Etchings of Remarkable41 Beggars, Itinerant42 Traders, and other persons of Notoriety," drawn43 from the life in London town. There glisten44 perennially45 the seraphic upturned eyes of "Hot Peas!" there you may see the Hogarthian face and attitude of the one-armed vender46 of gasping47 "Live Haddock!" the pastoral cousin offering "Young (toy) Lambs!" the dealer48 in pickled cucumbers, his arms akimbo, a fork stuck in the dish on his head, and a surreptitious wink49 in his well-conducted eye; the flying pie-man, smirking50 like Malvolio, and starched51 and skirted like a dignitary of bluff52 Hal's; the reduced beau, sweeping53 crossings, with his yet fastidious air; and the humble54 bespectacled painter, his own drayman, changing quarters on holy Luke's day, so festooned with torsos, casts, brushes, phials, easels, that he seems a perambulating studio.
The vagabondistic sect55 is of exceedingly mutable nature. It distends56, it contracts; it swears in, now a person of probity57, not of wealth; now a sinner, like the rest of us, who seldom moves in good society: an odd congregation, comprising dozens that have no business among the elect, and lacking a proportionate number who stray untethered into other folds. On this showing, not only all mendicants, pedlers, street-singers, pick-pockets, and uneasy minds are accepted rascals58, but poor queer B., who wrote poetry, and went veiled like the great Mokanna, distraught to know whether the aggregate59 stare of her fellow-citizens was attributable to her renown60, or to her scarce Hellenic beauty, falls into the same category; and the venerable campaigner, who tacks61 on to her hurdy-gurdy a certificate of army membership signed by Napoleon (presumably to be referred to her fighting spouse62, deceased),—that wrinkled and taciturn spook of what was once French vivacity63 and grace, faithfully grinding "Partant pour la Syrie," in snow and sun, within a fixed64 radius65 of Boston Common,—even she must emerge, despite the music of Austerlitz and Jena, nothing short of a naturalized Yankee vagabond! There are laws yet unrepealed, Céleste! for thy suppression; prices set on the innocuous heads of "minstrels and useless persons."
We could wish that a new Plutarch should write up the patron-saint of vagabonds,—one Bampfylde Moore Carew, a Devonshire celebrity66 born under William and Mary, a most conscientious67, well-bred person, and of good parts, who became a gentleman at large only under irresistible68 conviction; and who, after a series of adventures before which an Arabian tale covers its head, rose to be king of the gypsies, and Great High Joss of beggars and mimics69, henceforward: a pleasant, adroit70 creature, familiar with the wildernesses71 of what were not yet the Atlantic States, reckless enough to be kindly-disposed towards his fellows, and successful in everything he undertook, living, "gray as a wharf-rat, and supple72 as the devil," to a consistent and edifying73 old age.
We have a sneaking74 kindness for him and his votaries75. A congenital affinity76 softens77 us towards suspicious characters. We were early aware that we startled shop-keepers with our roving thumb, how or whence we know not; but we have come to love the indiscreet something in us which calls forth78 Puritan vigilance, and we should violently resent a change of tactics. More than once a jeweller (who might have made a mad wag if-111- he had not been so choked with virtue) refused to give back our repaired watch, eying us with grewsome distrust, and absolutely disclaimed79 having beheld80 our cockney countenance81 before! We enter a warehouse82, only to await identification, as they are pleased to call it, from Tom, Dick, and Harry83, and only by force of eloquence84, or by literal making of faces (honest, ingenuous85, reliable, unevasive faces, out of use, but quite as good as new, and triumphantly86 effective), do we succeed in securing the household necessities. Reading once, of a windy day, seated on the sea-wall of the Charles, through a chance waiting-hour, in cloistral87 privacy, we were accosted88 across lots by a sombre policeman, and mysteriously lured89 back to the confines of civilization; whereupon the misguided creature, scanning our cheerful lineaments,—cheerful from the pages of "Travels with a Donkey,"—burst into uncanny laughter, and presently explained that he had been detailed90 to save yon despondent91 crank from plunging92 into the hungry river!
Our career of vagabond by brevet had wellnigh closed. Seriously, sir or madam, you may stand by that harbor-mouth, and have an inkling into the tragedies of the strollers of whom "men wot not whence they come, nor whither they go." But, to keep you on the liberal side of compassion93, you who are not of the faith must also be made aware that Aldebaran is a gracious star to his own; and that "wild and noble sights" are vouchsafed94 to the outer and inner eye of shabbiest Bohemianism, "such as they that sit in parlors95 never dream of."
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1 caresses | |
爱抚,抚摸( caress的名词复数 ) | |
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2 appellation | |
n.名称,称呼 | |
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3 rogue | |
n.流氓;v.游手好闲 | |
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4 truant | |
n.懒惰鬼,旷课者;adj.偷懒的,旷课的,游荡的;v.偷懒,旷课 | |
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5 endearments | |
n.表示爱慕的话语,亲热的表示( endearment的名词复数 ) | |
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6 antiquity | |
n.古老;高龄;古物,古迹 | |
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7 brats | |
n.调皮捣蛋的孩子( brat的名词复数 ) | |
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8 virtuous | |
adj.有品德的,善良的,贞洁的,有效力的 | |
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9 imps | |
n.(故事中的)小恶魔( imp的名词复数 );小魔鬼;小淘气;顽童 | |
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10 citation | |
n.引用,引证,引用文;传票 | |
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11 construe | |
v.翻译,解释 | |
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12 saucily | |
adv.傲慢地,莽撞地 | |
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13 gracefully | |
ad.大大方方地;优美地 | |
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14 diminutives | |
n.微小( diminutive的名词复数 );昵称,爱称 | |
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15 philologist | |
n.语言学者,文献学者 | |
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16 syllables | |
n.音节( syllable的名词复数 ) | |
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17 neatly | |
adv.整洁地,干净地,灵巧地,熟练地 | |
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18 allure | |
n.诱惑力,魅力;vt.诱惑,引诱,吸引 | |
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19 immortal | |
adj.不朽的;永生的,不死的;神的 | |
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20 adorned | |
[计]被修饰的 | |
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21 chivalrous | |
adj.武士精神的;对女人彬彬有礼的 | |
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22 averse | |
adj.厌恶的;反对的,不乐意的 | |
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23 taverns | |
n.小旅馆,客栈,酒馆( tavern的名词复数 ) | |
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24 rout | |
n.溃退,溃败;v.击溃,打垮 | |
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25 covert | |
adj.隐藏的;暗地里的 | |
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26 questionable | |
adj.可疑的,有问题的 | |
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27 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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28 adage | |
n.格言,古训 | |
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29 vagrant | |
n.流浪者,游民;adj.流浪的,漂泊不定的 | |
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30 abides | |
容忍( abide的第三人称单数 ); 等候; 逗留; 停留 | |
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31 tenant | |
n.承租人;房客;佃户;v.租借,租用 | |
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32 joyful | |
adj.欢乐的,令人欢欣的 | |
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33 forefathers | |
n.祖先,先人;祖先,祖宗( forefather的名词复数 );列祖列宗;前人 | |
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34 disposition | |
n.性情,性格;意向,倾向;排列,部署 | |
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35 exempt | |
adj.免除的;v.使免除;n.免税者,被免除义务者 | |
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36 awes | |
n.敬畏,惊惧( awe的名词复数 )v.使敬畏,使惊惧( awe的第三人称单数 ) | |
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37 mesmerizes | |
v.使入迷( mesmerize的第三人称单数 ) | |
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38 hostel | |
n.(学生)宿舍,招待所 | |
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39 extravagant | |
adj.奢侈的;过分的;(言行等)放肆的 | |
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40 erring | |
做错事的,错误的 | |
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41 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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42 itinerant | |
adj.巡回的;流动的 | |
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43 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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44 glisten | |
vi.(光洁或湿润表面等)闪闪发光,闪闪发亮 | |
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45 perennially | |
adv.经常出现地;长期地;持久地;永久地 | |
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46 vender | |
n.小贩 | |
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47 gasping | |
adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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48 dealer | |
n.商人,贩子 | |
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49 wink | |
n.眨眼,使眼色,瞬间;v.眨眼,使眼色,闪烁 | |
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50 smirking | |
v.傻笑( smirk的现在分词 ) | |
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51 starched | |
adj.浆硬的,硬挺的,拘泥刻板的v.把(衣服、床单等)浆一浆( starch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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52 bluff | |
v.虚张声势,用假象骗人;n.虚张声势,欺骗 | |
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53 sweeping | |
adj.范围广大的,一扫无遗的 | |
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54 humble | |
adj.谦卑的,恭顺的;地位低下的;v.降低,贬低 | |
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55 sect | |
n.派别,宗教,学派,派系 | |
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56 distends | |
v.(使)膨胀,肿胀( distend的第三人称单数 ) | |
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57 probity | |
n.刚直;廉洁,正直 | |
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58 rascals | |
流氓( rascal的名词复数 ); 无赖; (开玩笑说法)淘气的人(尤指小孩); 恶作剧的人 | |
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59 aggregate | |
adj.总计的,集合的;n.总数;v.合计;集合 | |
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60 renown | |
n.声誉,名望 | |
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61 tacks | |
大头钉( tack的名词复数 ); 平头钉; 航向; 方法 | |
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62 spouse | |
n.配偶(指夫或妻) | |
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63 vivacity | |
n.快活,活泼,精神充沛 | |
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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 radius | |
n.半径,半径范围;有效航程,范围,界限 | |
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66 celebrity | |
n.名人,名流;著名,名声,名望 | |
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67 conscientious | |
adj.审慎正直的,认真的,本着良心的 | |
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68 irresistible | |
adj.非常诱人的,无法拒绝的,无法抗拒的 | |
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69 mimics | |
n.模仿名人言行的娱乐演员,滑稽剧演员( mimic的名词复数 );善于模仿的人或物v.(尤指为了逗乐而)模仿( mimic的第三人称单数 );酷似 | |
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70 adroit | |
adj.熟练的,灵巧的 | |
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71 wildernesses | |
荒野( wilderness的名词复数 ); 沙漠; (政治家)在野; 不再当政(或掌权) | |
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72 supple | |
adj.柔软的,易弯的,逢迎的,顺从的,灵活的;vt.使柔软,使柔顺,使顺从;vi.变柔软,变柔顺 | |
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73 edifying | |
adj.有教训意味的,教训性的,有益的v.开导,启发( edify的现在分词 ) | |
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74 sneaking | |
a.秘密的,不公开的 | |
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75 votaries | |
n.信徒( votary的名词复数 );追随者;(天主教)修士;修女 | |
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76 affinity | |
n.亲和力,密切关系 | |
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77 softens | |
(使)变软( soften的第三人称单数 ); 缓解打击; 缓和; 安慰 | |
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78 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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79 disclaimed | |
v.否认( disclaim的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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80 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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81 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
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82 warehouse | |
n.仓库;vt.存入仓库 | |
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83 harry | |
vt.掠夺,蹂躏,使苦恼 | |
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84 eloquence | |
n.雄辩;口才,修辞 | |
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85 ingenuous | |
adj.纯朴的,单纯的;天真的;坦率的 | |
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86 triumphantly | |
ad.得意洋洋地;得胜地;成功地 | |
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87 cloistral | |
adj.修道院的,隐居的,孤独的 | |
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88 accosted | |
v.走过去跟…讲话( accost的过去式和过去分词 );跟…搭讪;(乞丐等)上前向…乞讨;(妓女等)勾搭 | |
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89 lured | |
吸引,引诱(lure的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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90 detailed | |
adj.详细的,详尽的,极注意细节的,完全的 | |
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91 despondent | |
adj.失望的,沮丧的,泄气的 | |
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92 plunging | |
adj.跳进的,突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
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93 compassion | |
n.同情,怜悯 | |
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94 vouchsafed | |
v.给予,赐予( vouchsafe的过去式和过去分词 );允诺 | |
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95 parlors | |
客厅( parlor的名词复数 ); 起居室; (旅馆中的)休息室; (通常用来构成合成词)店 | |
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