(雙語)月亮和六便士 第1章(5)

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It is due to no accident that when one of his most important works, The Woman of Samaria,"Strickland： The Man and His Work， " by his son， Robert Strickland. Wm. Heinemann， 1913.When The Woman of Samaria was sold at Christie's shortly after the discussion which followed the publication of Mr. Strickland's biography, it fetched POUNDS 235 less than it had done nine months before when it was bought by the distinguished collector whose sudden death had brought it once more under the hammer. Perhaps Charles Strickland's power and riginality would scarcely have sufficed to turn the scale if the remarkable mythopoeic faculty of mankind had not brushed aside with impatience a story which disappointed all its craving for the extraordinary. And presently Dr. Weitbrecht-Rotholz produced the work which finally set at rest the misgivings of all lovers of art.Dr. Weitbrecht-Rotholz belongs to that school of historians which believes that human nature is not only about as bad as it can be, but a great deal worse; and certainly the reader is safer of entertainment in their hands than in those of the writers who take a malicious pleasure in representing the great figures of romance as patterns of the domestic virtues. For my part, I should be sorry to think that there was nothing between Anthony and Cleopatra but an economic situation; and it will require a great deal more evidence than is ever likely to be available, thank God, to persuade me that Tiberius was as blameless a monarch as King George V. Dr. Weitbrecht-Rotholz has dealt in such terms with the Rev. Robert Strickland's innocent biography that it is difficult to avoid feeling a certain sympathy for the unlucky parson. His decent reticence is branded as hypocrisy, his circumlocutions are roundly called lies, and his silence is vilified as treachery. And on the strength of peccadillos, reprehensible in an author, but excusable in a son, the Anglo-Saxon race is accused of prudishness, humbug, pretentiousness, deceit, cunning, and bad cooking.

思特里克蘭德的最重要的一幅作品《薩瑪利亞的女人》【根據(jù)克利斯蒂藏畫目錄的描述，這幅畫的內(nèi)容是：一個裸體女人，社會島的土人，躺在一條小溪邊的草地上，背景是棕櫚樹、芭蕉等熱帶風景。60英寸×48英寸。（作者注）】九個月以前曾經(jīng)賣給一位有名的收藏家。由于這位收藏家后來突然逝世，這幅畫再度拍賣，又被克利斯蒂購去。這次拍賣正值思特里克蘭德牧師的傳記出版、人們議論紛紛之際，這幅名畫的價格竟比九個月以前降低了二百三十五鎊；這顯然不是一件偶合。如果不是人們對神話的喜愛，叫他們對這個使他們的獵奇心大失所望的故事嗤之以鼻的話，只靠思特里克蘭德個人的權威和獨特也許無力挽回大局的。說也湊巧，沒有過多久魏特布瑞希特-羅特霍爾茲博士的文章就問世了，藝術愛好者們的疑慮不安終于消除了。魏特布瑞希特-羅特霍爾茲博士隸屬的這一歷史學派不只相信“人之初，性本惡”，而且認為其惡劣程度是遠遠超過人們的想象的；用不著說，比起那些把富有浪漫色彩的人物寫成道貌岸然的君子的使人敗興的作家來，這一派歷史學者的著作肯定能夠給予讀者更大的樂趣。對于我這樣的讀者，如果把安東尼和克莉奧佩特拉的關系只寫作經(jīng)濟上的聯(lián)盟，我是會覺得非常遺憾的；要想勸說我讓我把泰伯利歐斯【泰伯利歐斯·克勞迪烏斯·尼祿（公元前42—公元37），羅馬皇帝】看作是同英王喬治五世同樣的一位毫無瑕疵的君主，也需要遠比手頭掌握的多得多的證據(jù)（謝天謝地，這種證據(jù)看來很難找到）。魏特布瑞希特-羅特霍爾茲博士在評論羅伯特·思特里克蘭德牧師那部天真的傳記時所用的詞句，讀起來很難叫人對這位不幸的牧師不感到同情。凡是這位牧師為了維護體面不便暢言的地方都被攻擊為虛偽，凡是他鋪陳贅述的章節(jié)則率直地被叫作謊言，作者對某些事情保持緘默則干脆被魏特布瑞希特-羅特霍爾茲斥之為背叛。作品中的這些缺陷，從一個傳記作家的角度來看，固然應該受到指摘，但作為傳記主人公的兒子倒也情有可原；倒霉的是，竟連盎格魯-薩克遜民族也連帶遭了殃，被魏特布瑞希特-羅特霍爾茲博士批評為假裝正經(jīng)、作勢嚇人、自命不凡、狡猾欺心，只會烹調倒人胃口的菜飯。