Book 2 Chapter 2 The Place De Greve

There remains¹ to-day but a very imperceptible vestige² of the Place de Grève, such as it existed then; it consists in the charming little turret³, which occupies the angle north of the Place, and which, already enshrouded in the ignoble⁴ plaster which fills with paste the delicate lines of its sculpture, would soon have disappeared, perhaps submerged by that flood of new houses which so rapidly devours⁵ all the ancient fa?ades of Paris.

The persons who, like ourselves, never cross the Place de Grève without casting a glance of pity and sympathy on that poor turret strangled between two hovels of the time of Louis XV., can easily reconstruct in their minds the aggregate⁶ of edifices⁷ to which it belonged, and find again entire in it the ancient Gothic place of the fifteenth century.

It was then, as it is to-day, an irregular trapezoid, bordered on one side by the quay⁸, and on the other three by a series of lofty, narrow, and gloomy houses. By day, one could admire the variety of its edifices, all sculptured in stone or wood, and already presenting complete specimens⁹ of the different domestic architectures of the Middle Ages, running back from the fifteenth to the eleventh century, from the casement¹⁰ which had begun to dethrone the arch, to the Roman semicircle, which had been supplanted¹¹ by the ogive, and which still occupies, below it, the first story of that ancient house de la Tour Roland, at the corner of the Place upon the Seine, on the side of the street with the Tannerie. At night, one could distinguish nothing of all that mass of buildings, except the black indentation of the roofs, unrolling their chain of acute angles round the place; for one of the radical¹² differences between the cities of that time, and the cities of the present day, lay in the fa?ades which looked upon the places and streets, and which were then gables. For the last two centuries the houses have been turned round.

In the centre of the eastern side of the Place, rose a heavy and hybrid¹³ construction, formed of three buildings placed in juxtaposition¹⁴. It was called by three names which explain its history, its destination, and its architecture: "The House of the Dauphin," because Charles V., when Dauphin, had inhabited it; "The Marchandise," because it had served as town hall; and "The Pillared House" (~domus ad piloria~), because of a series of large pillars which sustained the three stories. The city found there all that is required for a city like Paris; a chapel¹⁵ in which to pray to God; a ~plaidoyer~, or pleading room, in which to hold hearings, and to repel¹⁶, at need, the King's people; and under the roof, an ~arsenac~ full of artillery¹⁷. For the bourgeois¹⁸ of Paris were aware that it is not sufficient to pray in every conjuncture, and to plead for the franchises¹⁹ of the city, and they had always in reserve, in the garret of the town hall, a few good rusty²⁰ arquebuses. The Grève had then that sinister²¹ aspect which it preserves to-day from the execrable ideas which it awakens²², and from the sombre town hall of Dominique Bocador, which has replaced the Pillared House. It must be admitted that a permanent gibbet and a pillory²³, "a justice and a ladder," as they were called in that day, erected²⁴ side by side in the centre of the pavement, contributed not a little to cause eyes to be turned away from that fatal place, where so many beings full of life and health have agonized²⁵; where, fifty years later, that fever of Saint Vallier was destined²⁶ to have its birth, that terror of the scaffold, the most monstrous²⁷ of all maladies because it comes not from God, but from man.

It is a consoling idea (let us remark in passing), to think that the death penalty, which three hundred years ago still encumbered²⁸ with its iron wheels, its stone gibbets, and all its paraphernalia²⁹ of torture, permanent and riveted³⁰ to the pavement, the Grève, the Halles, the Place Dauphine, the Cross du Trahoir, the Marché aux Pourceaux, that hideous³¹ Montfau?on, the barrier des Sergents, the Place aux Chats, the Porte Saint-Denis, Champeaux, the Porte Baudets, the Porte Saint Jacques, without reckoning the innumerable ladders of the provosts, the bishop³² of the chapters, of the abbots, of the priors, who had the decree of life and death,--without reckoning the judicial³³ drownings in the river Seine; it is consoling to-day, after having lost successively all the pieces of its armor, its luxury of torment³⁴, its penalty of imagination and fancy, its torture for which it reconstructed every five years a leather bed at the Grand Chatelet, that ancient suzerain of feudal³⁵ society almost expunged³⁶ from our laws and our cities, hunted from code to code, chased from place to place, has no longer, in our immense Paris, any more than a dishonored corner of the Grève,--than a miserable³⁷ guillotine, furtive³⁸, uneasy, shameful³⁹, which seems always afraid of being caught in the act, so quickly does it disappear after having dealt its blow.

 

当时的格雷沃广场，现在已经只剩下模糊的痕迹。占据广场北头一个角落的那座可爱的小塔楼，它的生动的浮雕已经被难看的粉刷盖住，淹没在那些迅速吞没巴黎所有古老建筑物的新式房屋之中，也许不久就会完全消灭了。

从格雷沃广场走过的人们，和我们自己一样，都不会不朝这座塔楼投去怜悯和同情的眼光，它夹在两座路易十五时期的破屋中间。人们可以很容易在心里描绘出附有这个小塔楼的那座主体建筑的样子，并通过它来恢复这十五世纪古老的哥特式广场的全貌。

格雷沃广场在当时也象现在一样是个梯形，一边是码头，其余三边是一排排又高又窄的黑洞洞的房屋。在白天，人们可以欣赏这些形形色色的建筑物，它们到处都有石刻或木刻，已经表现出中世纪（从十五世纪上溯到十一世纪）各种建筑形式的完整雏形，从那些开始取代尖拱的交叉尖拱一直到那已经被尖拱替代了的罗曼式半圆拱，这种圆拱式建筑在尖拱下面却仍占据着这座古老的罗兰塔建筑的第一层。这座塔构成广场的一角，位于制革街这一边，朝着塞纳河。到晚上，就只看得出这堆建筑的一排排尖顶，那些参差不齐的黑色轮廓展现在广场的周围。因为那时候的城市和现代城市根本不同，现代建筑物都是正面朝向街道和广场的，那时朝向广场和街道的却是一些山墙。两个世纪以前，那些房屋就已经翻修过了。

在广场东边的正中，矗立着一座分为并排三套的笨重错杂的建筑，它有三个名字可以说明它的历史、它修造的目的和它的建筑方式。因为查理五世接位前在那里住过，它名叫太子宫；因为它曾经是总督府，所以叫百货商场；又由于支撑它那三层楼的一排大柱子，它又叫柱子房。在那里可以找到巴黎这样一座好城市所需要的一切：一座用来祷告上帝的小礼拜堂，一个用来谒见和在必要时猛烈还击国王近卫队的厅堂，顶楼上还有一个兵器室。因为巴黎的市民都知道，在任何一个非常时期，为旧城区辩护或恳求特权都是不够的，所以他们经常在总督府的一座顶楼上藏着几支生锈的好火绳枪。

格雷沃广场从那时起就象今天这样一直保持着这副惨淡景象，那是由于它本身以及修建在柱子房旧址上的多米尼格·波卡多尔的阴沉沉的总督府所引起的。在那里有一座永久性的刑台和绞刑架，或者照当时人们的说法：一个法官和一架梯子。这座刑台和绞刑架紧挨着矗立在路当中，使那要命的地方特别触目惊心。曾经有多少健康而富于生命力的人在那个地方断送了性命，五十年以后那地方发生过一种圣瓦耶热病，那是担心被绞死的病，是一切病症中最可怕的一种，因为它不是出于天意，而是来自人为。

我们顺便说说，想到死刑在三百年前还把它那些铁轮、石头绞架和一切常设的器械深深嵌进路面，塞满了格雷沃广场、菜市场、王妃广场、德·特拉瓦尔十字架、猪市、骇人听闻的隼山、警卫卡、猫场、圣德尼门、草场、波代门和圣雅克门，这还没算上总督、主教、教务会、神甫和执掌生杀大权的修道院长们的无数“梯子”，还没算上那种把人扔到塞纳河去淹死的刑罚；想到封建社会这个衰老的统治者，在不断失掉它的各种甲胄，失掉它那五花八门的酷刑和各种异想天开的刑罚，失掉每五年要为大沙特雷法庭定制一张作拷问用的皮床之后，如今几乎已消失在我们的法律和我们的城市之外了——想到这种情况，实在令人觉得万分欣慰。在我们庞大的巴黎，如今只剩下格雷沃广场一个不光彩的角落，只剩下一个阴惨的、见不得人的、不安和可耻的绞刑架，它仿佛老在害怕被人当做现行犯，每次行刑完毕就迅速消失不见了！

1 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

2 vestige   

n.痕迹，遗迹，残余

参考例句：

• Some upright stones in wild places are the vestige of ancient religions.荒原上一些直立的石块是古老宗教的遗迹。
• Every vestige has been swept away.一切痕迹都被一扫而光。

3 turret   

n.塔楼，角塔

参考例句：

• This ancient turret has attracted many visitors.这座古老的塔楼吸引了很多游客。
• The soldier scaled the wall of the fortress by turret.士兵通过塔楼攀登上了要塞的城墙。

4 ignoble   

adj.不光彩的，卑鄙的；可耻的

参考例句：

• There's something cowardly and ignoble about such an attitude.这种态度有点怯懦可鄙。
• Some very great men have come from ignoble families.有些伟人出身低微。

5 devours   

吞没( devour的第三人称单数 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光

参考例句：

• If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. 若有人想要害他们，就有火从他们口中出来，烧灭仇敌。
• It eats away parts of his skin; death's firstborn devours his limbs. 他本身的肢体要被吞吃，死亡的长子要吞吃他的肢体。

6 aggregate   

adj.总计的，集合的；n.总数；v.合计；集合

参考例句：

• The football team had a low goal aggregate last season.这支足球队上个赛季的进球总数很少。
• The money collected will aggregate a thousand dollars.进帐总额将达一千美元。

7 edifices   

n.大建筑物( edifice的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They complain that the monstrous edifices interfere with television reception. 他们抱怨说，那些怪物般的庞大建筑，干扰了电视接收。 来自辞典例句
• Wealthy officials and landlords built these queer edifices a thousand years ago. 有钱的官吏和地主在一千年前就修建了这种奇怪的建筑物。 来自辞典例句

8 quay   

n.码头，靠岸处

参考例句：

• There are all kinds of ships in a quay.码头停泊各式各样的船。
• The side of the boat hit the quay with a grinding jar.船舷撞到码头发出刺耳的声音。

9 specimens   

n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人

参考例句：

• Astronauts have brought back specimens of rock from the moon. 宇航员从月球带回了岩石标本。
• The traveler brought back some specimens of the rocks from the mountains. 那位旅行者从山上带回了一些岩石标本。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 casement   

n.竖铰链窗；窗扉

参考例句：

• A casement is a window that opens by means of hinges at the side.竖铰链窗是一种用边上的铰链开启的窗户。
• With the casement half open,a cold breeze rushed inside.窗扉半开，凉风袭来。

11 supplanted   

把…排挤掉，取代( supplant的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• In most offices, the typewriter has now been supplanted by the computer. 当今许多办公室里，打字机已被电脑取代。
• The prime minister was supplanted by his rival. 首相被他的政敌赶下台了。

12 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

13 hybrid   

n.(动，植）杂种，混合物

参考例句：

• That is a hybrid perpetual rose.那是一株杂交的四季开花的蔷薇。
• The hybrid was tall,handsome,and intelligent.那混血儿高大、英俊、又聪明。

14 juxtaposition   

n.毗邻，并置，并列

参考例句：

• The juxtaposition of these two remarks was startling.这两句话连在一起使人听了震惊。
• It is the result of the juxtaposition of contrasting colors.这是并列对比色的结果。

15 chapel   

n.小教堂，殡仪馆

参考例句：

• The nimble hero,skipped into a chapel that stood near.敏捷的英雄跳进近旁的一座小教堂里。
• She was on the peak that Sunday afternoon when she played in chapel.那个星期天的下午，她在小教堂的演出，可以说是登峰造极。

16 repel   

v.击退，抵制，拒绝，排斥

参考例句：

• A country must have the will to repel any invader.一个国家得有决心击退任何入侵者。
• Particles with similar electric charges repel each other.电荷同性的分子互相排斥。

17 artillery   

n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队)

参考例句：

• This is a heavy artillery piece.这是一门重炮。
• The artillery has more firepower than the infantry.炮兵火力比步兵大。

18 bourgeois   

adj./n.追求物质享受的(人)；中产阶级分子

参考例句：

• He's accusing them of having a bourgeois and limited vision.他指责他们像中产阶级一样目光狭隘。
• The French Revolution was inspired by the bourgeois.法国革命受到中产阶级的鼓励。

19 franchises   

n.（尤指选举议员的）选举权( franchise的名词复数 )；参政权；获特许权的商业机构（或服务）；（公司授予的）特许经销权v.给…以特许权，出售特许权( franchise的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• TV franchises will be auctioned to the highest bidder. 电视特许经营权将拍卖给出价最高的投标人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ford dealerships operated as independent franchises. 福特汽车公司的代销商都是独立的联营商。 来自辞典例句

20 rusty   

adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的

参考例句：

• The lock on the door is rusty and won't open.门上的锁锈住了。
• I haven't practiced my French for months and it's getting rusty.几个月不用，我的法语又荒疏了。

21 sinister   

adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的

参考例句：

• There is something sinister at the back of that series of crimes.在这一系列罪行背后有险恶的阴谋。
• Their proposals are all worthless and designed out of sinister motives.他们的建议不仅一钱不值，而且包藏祸心。

22 awakens   

v.（使）醒( awaken的第三人称单数 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到

参考例句：

• The scene awakens reminiscences of my youth. 这景象唤起我年轻时的往事。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The child awakens early in the morning. 这个小孩早晨醒得早。 来自辞典例句

23 pillory   

n.嘲弄；v.使受公众嘲笑；将…示众

参考例句：

• A man has been forced to resign as a result of being pilloried by some of the press.一人因为受到一些媒体的抨击已被迫辞职。
• He was pilloried,but she escaped without blemish.他受到公众的批评，她却名声未损地得以逃脱。

24 ERECTED   

adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立

参考例句：

• A monument to him was erected in St Paul's Cathedral. 在圣保罗大教堂为他修了一座纪念碑。
• A monument was erected to the memory of that great scientist. 树立了一块纪念碑纪念那位伟大的科学家。

25 agonized   

v.使（极度）痛苦，折磨( agonize的过去式和过去分词 )；苦斗；苦苦思索；感到极度痛苦

参考例句：

• All the time they agonized and prayed. 他们一直在忍受痛苦并且祈祷。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She agonized herself with the thought of her loss. 她念念不忘自己的损失，深深陷入痛苦之中。 来自辞典例句

26 destined   

adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的

参考例句：

• It was destined that they would marry.他们结婚是缘分。
• The shipment is destined for America.这批货物将运往美国。

27 monstrous   

adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的

参考例句：

• The smoke began to whirl and grew into a monstrous column.浓烟开始盘旋上升，形成了一个巨大的烟柱。
• Your behaviour in class is monstrous!你在课堂上的行为真是丢人！

28 encumbered   

v.妨碍，阻碍，拖累( encumber的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The police operation was encumbered by crowds of reporters. 警方的行动被成群的记者所妨碍。
• The narrow quay was encumbered by hundreds of carts. 狭窄的码头被数百辆手推车堵得水泄不通。 来自辞典例句

29 paraphernalia   

n.装备；随身用品

参考例句：

• Can you move all your paraphernalia out of the way?你可以把所有的随身物品移开吗？
• All my fishing paraphernalia is in the car.我的鱼具都在汽车里。

30 riveted   

铆接( rivet的过去式和过去分词 )； 把…固定住； 吸引； 引起某人的注意

参考例句：

• I was absolutely riveted by her story. 我完全被她的故事吸引住了。
• My attention was riveted by a slight movement in the bushes. 我的注意力被灌木丛中的轻微晃动吸引住了。

31 hideous   

adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的

参考例句：

• The whole experience had been like some hideous nightmare.整个经历就像一场可怕的噩梦。
• They're not like dogs,they're hideous brutes.它们不像狗，是丑陋的畜牲。

32 bishop   

n.主教，（国际象棋）象

参考例句：

• He was a bishop who was held in reverence by all.他是一位被大家都尊敬的主教。
• Two years after his death the bishop was canonised.主教逝世两年后被正式封为圣者。

33 judicial   

adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的

参考例句：

• He is a man with a judicial mind.他是个公正的人。
• Tom takes judicial proceedings against his father.汤姆对他的父亲正式提出诉讼。

34 torment   

n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠

参考例句：

• He has never suffered the torment of rejection.他从未经受过遭人拒绝的痛苦。
• Now nothing aggravates me more than when people torment each other.没有什么东西比人们的互相折磨更使我愤怒。

35 feudal   

adj.封建的，封地的，领地的

参考例句：

• Feudal rulers ruled over the country several thousand years.封建统治者统治这个国家几千年。
• The feudal system lasted for two thousand years in China.封建制度在中国延续了两千年之久。

36 expunged   

v.擦掉( expunge的过去式和过去分词 )；除去；删去；消除

参考例句：

• Details of his criminal activities were expunged from the file. 他犯罪活动的详细情况已从档案中删去。
• His name is expunged from the list. 他的名字从名单中被除掉了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

37 miserable   

adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的

参考例句：

• It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
• Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。

38 furtive   

adj.鬼鬼崇崇的，偷偷摸摸的

参考例句：

• The teacher was suspicious of the student's furtive behaviour during the exam.老师怀疑这个学生在考试时有偷偷摸摸的行为。
• His furtive behaviour aroused our suspicion.他鬼鬼祟祟的行为引起了我们的怀疑。

39 shameful   

adj.可耻的，不道德的

参考例句：

• It is very shameful of him to show off.他向人炫耀自己，真不害臊。
• We must expose this shameful activity to the newspapers.我们一定要向报社揭露这一无耻行径。