【解读】李尔王1 故事内容：国王的错误

King Lear -- Part I -- A King’s Mistake (The Story)

《李尔王》——第一部分——国王的错误（故事梗概）

Simon Palfrey: So I think more than any other play, perhaps more than anything else in world literature,King Learbrings us face to face with the most basic questions of life, of life's very possibility, and of the foundations of any human contract. It strips things bare and asks what remains. It forces us to attend to and account for the evidence before our eyes. The play rips things away and asks what, if anything, can be built from the wreckage?

西蒙·帕尔弗里：我认为在所有戏剧中，甚至可以说在所有文学作品中，《李尔王》最直白地让我们看到了人生的核心问题，看到了人生种种的可能性，以及人与人之间构建契约的根本所在。戏剧将问题赤裸裸地暴露在我们面前，并向我们发问，问我们什么是可以永恒不变的。它迫使我们不得不去关注眼前的证据，并对其进行解释说明。《李尔王》将一切撕裂击碎，然后发问：在这片废墟上，我们有没有可以构建的东西，任何东西？

Simon Palfrey:King Learis also a play about human weakness. It's about temptation and pain and beauty and vulnerability of love.

西蒙·帕尔弗里：《李尔王》还探讨了人性的弱点。这是一部关于诱惑、痛苦，以及爱的美好与易逝的戏剧。

Simon Palfrey:King Learis a play about family. It's about what it's like to live in a family, about the blindness and ignorance and passions and unspoken feelings that exist within families.

西蒙·帕尔弗里：《李尔王》同时也探讨了家庭问题，探讨了什么是家庭生活，探讨了家庭生活中的盲目、无知与深情，以及家人之间那些无法用言语表达的情绪。

Simon Palfrey: So it's a combination of both. On the one hand, the large, huge cosmic questions -- mortality, what it means to live in a body that, you know, the sense, is there any purpose to life? These huge questions, but then the intimate ones as well.

西蒙·帕尔弗里：在这部剧中，宏大与渺小融合交织。一方面，它在探寻那些波澜壮阔的宏大问题，如死亡等。戏剧让我们思考个体生命究竟意味着什么？思考活着的是否真的有其意义？这些都是很庞大的问题，但接着它又探讨了那些与个人密切相关的小问题。

Simon Palfrey: Hi, I'm Simon Palfrey, I'm professor of English at Brasenose College, University of Oxford.

西蒙·帕尔弗里：嗨，我是西蒙·帕尔弗里，是牛津大学布雷齐诺斯学院的英语文学教授。

Today, we’re talking with Professor Simon Palfrey aboutKing Lear. Written around 1605, this play has perhaps the most expansive cosmic vision of all of Shakespeare’s tragedies. The play is based on English chronicle sources, which tell the story of a king from Britain’s ancient past who divides his kingdom between his two eldest daughters, only to have them rise against him. In Shakespeare’s play, too, King Lear divides his kingdom between his daughters Goneril and Regan, believing mistakenly that they love him more than his youngest daughter, Cordelia. Disastrous consequences follow that strip the aged king -- and, it seems, the whole world -- down to nothing.

今天，将由西蒙·帕尔弗里教授将带我们一同欣赏戏剧《李尔王》。《李尔王》是莎士比亚在1605年左右创作的一部悲剧，是莎士比亚所有悲剧中最为气势恢宏的一部。戏剧取材于英国历史，故事主角是古老不列颠岛上的一位国王，他将领土一分为二，分别赠予两个大女儿，但这两个女儿最终却都背叛了自己的父亲。同样地，在莎士比亚的这部戏剧中，李尔王也将自己的国土分给了两个大女儿——高纳里尔和里根，他深信这两个女儿比小女儿考狄利娅更爱自己。但很快，这个举措引发了一系列灾难性后果，这些不幸撕扯着年迈的国王，将他的世界冲撞得四分五裂。

Simon Palfrey: In the world ofKing Lear, no dignity, and no possession, can be taken for granted. Everything is vulnerable. Everything is open to loss -- house, home, nation, family, name, identity, love, your own body, your own mind, your hold upon where or who or whether you even are. And the world ofKing Learis a liminal world. It's in between human and non-human, living and dead, ends and beginnings. It's life, if you can imagine life as a storm, or life at the edge of a cliff, or life in no place, as empty as a stage --King Learoccupies all these places.

西蒙·帕尔弗里：在《李尔王》这部戏剧的世界里，没有永远不变的尊贵地位，也没有永远属于某个人的财物。一切都是那么脆弱易逝。任何东西都有失去的可能——房屋、家庭、国家、家族、姓名、身份、爱，还有你的身体、你的思维、你的坚持，以及你这个人本身。剧中的世界是一个极限世界，它存在于人类和非人类之间，存在于生存和死亡之间，存在于终点与起点之间。这就是人生，你可以把人生想象成一场暴风雨，想象着悬崖边上的生活，想象着空旷舞台那般虚空之地中的生活。《李尔王》的故事就发生在这样的地点。

King Learwas published in two substantially different versions, in 1608 and 1623. Our summary is based primarily on the 1623 Folio text. In both texts, the play opens with a dramatic political scene. Lear, the aged king of Britain, has decided to hand over the responsibility of ruling to his three daughters. He has assembled his court and is preparing to divide the kingdom. But who will get the biggest share depends on who wins the test that Lear sets. “Tell me, my Daughters,” he says, “Which of you shall we say doth love us most?”

在1608年和1623年，分别出版了两个很不一样的《李尔王》版本。我们今天的讨论将主要以1623年第一对开本中的文本为依据而展开。不过这两个版本有一个相同点，他们都以一场戏剧性的政治戏开场。不列颠年迈的国王李尔决定将掌管国家的责任交付给自己的三个女儿，他将女儿们召集到宫中，预备着划分领土。通过了李尔的测试的那一位，可以获得最大的那块领土。他说：“孩子们，告诉我，你们中间哪一个人最爱我？”

Simon Palfrey: He wants to be able to say to other people which of his daughters loves him the most. And so it's this kind of boastful vanity of the father, where you have this enormous act of dividing the kingdom, which, of course, would be the worst possible thing to do in a nation. To divide your kingdom is a recipe for disaster.

西蒙·帕尔弗里：他想要能够对别人说三个女儿中哪一个最爱他的。他就像是一位爱慕虚荣又爱吹嘘的父亲，很伟大地把国土划分成了三份，然而这个举措对于国家而言却是极为致命的。分割国土将会引发许多可怕的灾难。

Shakespeare wroteKing Learduring the reign of King James I, who was king of both Scotland and England. James petitioned Parliament to unite England and Scotland into a single kingdom, stressing how a divided kingdom leads to tumult and civil war. The play’s first audiences, watching Lear divide his kingdom, would likely have anticipated that strife would follow. And indeed it does. The two eldest daughters, Goneril and Regan, pledge that they love Lear beyond anything else in life, beyond what words can say. Lear, pleased, gives them each a third of the kingdom. The youngest daughter, Cordelia, knows that her love for Lear is far more genuine than her sisters’ -- but putting that love into words would sound like she was simply repeating her sisters’ flattery. She expresses this dilemma in an aside to the audience: “What shall Cordelia speak? Love, and be silent.” Then Lear asks Cordelia what she can say to outdo her sisters.

莎士比亚创作《李尔王》的时候，正是詹姆斯一世统治时期。詹姆斯一世既是苏格兰国王，也是英格兰国王，他向议会申请将英格兰和苏格兰合并，由此可以看出，一个四分五裂的王国极易发生动荡与内战。所以，戏剧最初的那批观众，看到李尔在分割自己的领土，就都可以预判之后可能发生的混乱局面。而事实也正如他们预判的那样。李尔的两个大女儿高纳里尔和里根对他说：她们爱他胜过一切，这种爱无法用语言来形容。这让李尔十分满意，于是他各给了她们领土的三分之一。最小的女儿考狄利娅知道自己对父亲的爱比两位姐姐更加真挚，但她认为，如果用语言来诉说这份爱，就只会显得自己在重复姐姐们的奉承话。她用一段旁白向观众们说明了这个令她为难的困境：“考狄利娅应该怎么好呢？默默地爱着吧。”接着，李尔问考狄利娅有些什么话要说，可以换到比两个姐姐更富庶的土地。

Simon Palfrey: We already know that Cordelia is under pressure to speak her truth because she's told us. And so she's kind of unable to speak to Lear because the only truth she can speak is to the audience. And she says nothing.西蒙·帕尔弗里：作为观众，我们知道迫于压力，考狄利娅只能对观众们说出内心的真实想法。但这些话，她却无法开口说给父王李尔听，因为她开不了口。最终，她什么都没有对李尔说。

“Nothing, my lord,” says Cordelia. Lear is taken aback. “Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again,” he commands. Cordelia replies that she loves her father “According to her bond,” but when she marries, she will give “half her love” to her husband. Lear is enraged. He disinherits Cordelia, saying she will be “a stranger to [his] heart” forever. When Lear’s faithful advisor Kent tells him he is making a terrible mistake, Lear banishes Kent. But the King of France, who has come to court as Cordelia’s suitor, admires her steadfast virtue and asks to marry her.

考狄利娅回答说：“父亲，我没有话说。”这令李尔无比震惊，他命令道：“没有只能换到没有，重新说过。”考狄利娅回应说，她爱他“只是按照名分”，而且当她出嫁了，她还会分“一半的爱”给自己的丈夫。李尔听后十分气愤，于是便剥夺了考狄利娅的继承权，表示今后将把她“当作一个路人看待”。看到这一幕，忠心耿耿大臣肯特告诫李尔说他这么做是犯了个可怕的错误。李尔不仅没有听取他的忠告，反而下令将他流放。不过，来李尔宫廷追求考狄利娅的法兰西王非常欣赏考狄利娅的崇高品质，向她求婚了。

Lear divides the kingdom between Goneril and Regan and says he will live alternately with each of them, bringing a hundred knights with him and retaining “The name and all th’ addition to a king.” He still wants a king’s title and authority. Goneril and Regan wonder anxiously what further irrational demands Lear will make, saying, “he hath ever but slenderly known himself.”

李尔将王国一分为二，分给了高纳里尔和里根。他说自己将只保留一百名骑士，并且会在她们两人的宫廷按月轮流居住，由她们负责供养。他自己将只保留“国王的名义和尊号”。此刻，他依旧想保留国王的名号和权威。高纳里尔和里根也很担忧，不知道李尔接下来还会提出哪些不合理的要求，“他向来就是这样喜怒无常的”。

The play juxtaposes Lear with another father and his children: the Earl of Gloucester, who has two sons. The younger, Edmund, is a bastard, born outside of wedlock, and so he won’t inherit his father’s land, titles, or property. He is automatically disinherited by his birth, as Cordelia has been disinherited by her father’s decree. But Edmund fiercely questions the social customs that deprive him of status, in a soliloquy to the audience that parallels Cordelia’s earlier aside.

除了李尔之外，剧中还涉及了另一位父亲和他的孩子：葛罗斯特伯爵和他的两个儿子。小儿子爱德蒙是个私生子，他不是合法婚姻下出生的，所以没有资格继承父亲的土地、名号和财产。他一出生，就被剥夺了继承权，这和因父亲的命令而失去了继承权的考狄利娅很相似。不过，相较于考狄利娅的默默接受，爱德蒙在一段独白中猛烈抨击了剥夺他地位的这个社会传统。这段台词也与考狄利娅先前的那段独白遥相呼应。

Simon Palfrey: Both these children are placed in these situations, slightly oppressive circumstances, where they aren't allowed to speak their minds. And they can only speak their minds in silence, you know, or when they're by themselves.

西蒙·帕尔弗里：这两个孩子当时都处于压迫的环境中，他们无法对身边的人讲述内心最真实的想法，于是只能在心中默念，或者只有当他们独处的时候，才有机会说出心中的想法。

Edmund forms a plot to ruin his older brother Edgar and obtain his inheritance. Edmund tricks his father Gloucester into thinking that Edgar is plotting against his life. Just as Lear cannot see that Cordelia actually loves him most, Gloucester cannot see that Edgar is no traitor. Gloucester sends Edmund to apprehend the “villain” Edgar and promises to reward Edmund.

爱德蒙密谋想要谋害他的兄长爱德伽，为自己争取继承权。他在父亲葛罗斯特耳边搬弄是非，让他相信爱德伽想要谋害他的性命。李尔不知道考狄利娅才是最爱自己的女儿，同样地，葛罗斯特也没有发觉爱德伽其实并没有背叛自己。葛罗斯特派爱德蒙去逮捕那个“混蛋”爱德伽，并允诺要奖赏爱德蒙。

The scene transitions to Goneril’s house, where Lear and his one hundred knights are staying. The exiled Kent enters in disguise and pledges to serve Lear faithfully. Goneril’s servant Oswald, meanwhile, treats Lear rudely. This angers the king, but his jester, the Fool, reminds him that he brought about this disagreeable situation through his own folly. “Dost thou call me ‘fool,’ boy?” asks Lear. “All thy other titles thou hast given away,” the Fool replies.

接着场景又转到了高纳里尔的家中，李尔与他的一百名骑士也住在那里。被流放的肯特也化了伪装登场，乞求说自己愿意忠心地服侍李尔。高纳里尔的仆人奥斯华德对李尔很是无礼。这令这位国王十分气愤，不过他的小丑却在一边提醒说，这一切的不愉快都是李尔自己的愚蠢所导致的。听到这番话，李尔问：“你叫我傻瓜吗，孩子？”小丑回答说：“你把你所有的尊号都送了别人。”

Goneril tells Lear that his men are wreaking havoc in her house and asks him to send half of his followers away. Lear is outraged at her challenge to his authority. Calling her “degenerate bastard,” he curses her and prays that her children torment her so she too “may feel / How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is / To have a thankless child.” Goneril’s unkindness seems to make him think differently about Cordelia: “I did her wrong,” he says.

高纳里尔对李尔说，“你手下那些骑士把好好的宫廷骚扰得像一个喧嚣的客店”，要求李尔把随从人数减半。李尔对此十分气愤，因为他认为这是在挑战他的权威。他大骂高纳里尔，说她是个“没有良心的贱人”，甚至诅咒她生一个忤逆的孩子，“让她也感觉到一个负心的孩子，比毒蛇的牙齿还要多么使人痛入骨髓”。而高纳里尔的刻薄无情似乎也让李尔对考狄利娅有了不一样的认识，他说：“我错怪她了”。

Meanwhile, Edmund is advancing his plot to displace Edgar. He tells Edgar their father wants to arrest him and convinces him to flee. Gloucester sends men after him. To disguise himself, Edgar strips off his clothing, smears himself with mud, and pretends to be “Poor Tom” -- a beggar who is ostensibly mad, but whose speeches echo strangely with many of the play’s key ideas.

接着，故事又转到了爱德蒙这边。他正谋划着如何赶走爱德伽。他对爱德伽说，他们的父亲想要逮捕他，并说服他赶快逃离这里。得知爱德伽出逃后，葛罗斯特派人去追捕爱德伽。爱德伽为了不被认出来，撕破了身上的衣服，把污泥涂在脸上，化名为“可怜的汤姆”。表面上看，他似乎是个疯疯癫癫的乞丐，但他说的话却呼应了剧中许多核心观念。

Simon Palfrey: The particular thing that I've been most interested in inLearis trying to come to terms with the role of Edgar and the role of poor Tom. That role has the second-most lines in the play after that of the King. I actually think that the figure of poor Tom is the crucial figure for taking the play into the sort of metaphysical territory that everyone recognizes that the play enters, but it's poor Tom who takes us there.

西蒙·帕尔弗里：《李尔王》这部剧里面，让我特别感兴趣就是爱德伽和可怜的汤姆这个角色。剧中，除了李尔王，爱德伽的台词最多。我甚至觉得，可怜的汤姆是个很关键的人物，他把戏剧带入了形而上的领域。所有人都知道戏剧进入了形而上的领域，然而带我们进入这个领域的正是可怜的汤姆。

Lear goes to find Regan, saying that he and his knights will stay with her instead. He expects sympathy and obedience from her. But when Goneril arrives, Regan joins with her sister in telling Lear to dismiss his followers. Why does he need a hundred knights, they ask? Or fifty? Or ten? Or even one?

接着我们再次回到李尔这边。李尔从高纳里尔的宫廷离开后，就出发去找二女儿里根了，他对里根说希望他和他的骑士们能够住在李根的宫廷里。李尔原本以为里根会同情自己，并答应自己的要求。但当高纳里尔也来到里根的宫廷时，里根也和姐姐一起试图说服李尔遣散他的随从。她们问：你为什么需要一百名骑士呢？也许五十名就够了，或者十名？甚至一个就够了吧？

Simon Palfrey: He's run away from Goneril’s place because he's insulted. He goes there expecting to get looked after better, and what you get is this kind of slow, inexorable, remorseless cutting away of Lear’s presence in that world. You know, a hundred knights, fifty, twenty-five, ten, one, none.

西蒙·帕尔弗里：李尔离开了高纳里尔的宫廷，因为他觉得自己受到了冒犯。他去找高纳里尔时，原本期待着女儿会好好照顾他。但我们所看到的却是李尔在这个世界上的存在感被一点点地削弱，这很残酷很无情。他最初拥有一百名骑士，后来变成了二十五名，接着十名，再后来一名，最后竟然一个骑士都没有留给他。

The outraged Lear now becomes inarticulate in his fury: “No, you unnatural hags, I will have such revenges on you both / That all the world shall -- I will do such things -- / What they are yet I know not, but they shall be / The terrors of the Earth! … I shall go mad!” Lear rushes out of the house into the storm that is raging outside. Goneril and Regan, determined to teach him a lesson about his own folly, lock the doors on him. Lear is now trapped in an inner and outer tempest.

此刻，愤怒的李尔被气得都不知道如何用言语来表达内心的怒火，他说：“不，你们这两个不孝的妖妇，我要向你们复仇，我要做出一些使全世界惊怖的事情来，虽然我现在还不知道我要怎么做。......我要发疯了！”说完这些，李尔冲出房屋，冲进了狂怒的暴风雨中。高纳里尔和里根决定好好教训一下愚蠢的李尔，于是她们把门锁上了，把李尔关在了屋外。此刻，李尔的身心都遭受着暴风雨的猛烈摧残。

Simon Palfrey: When Lear goes out into that storm, he’s left the social world sort of entirely. It's like the curtain has been torn and he's entered this torn world, this drowned world, this world where none of the rules apply.

西蒙·帕尔弗里：李尔冲进暴风雨中的那一刻，他就彻底抛弃了世俗社会。幕布被撕开，他闯入了一个支离破粹的世界，一个令人窒息的世界，这个世界没有可供遵循的规律与法则。

Kent goes out into the storm to look for Lear. Still believing in his absolute authority, Lear is seeking to command the storm itself: “Blow winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drench'd our steeples, … And thou, all-shaking thunder, Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world!”

李尔跑出去之后，肯特也追着他奔入了暴风雨中。此时的李尔依旧坚信自己有着绝对的权威，他试图对暴风雨发号施令：“吹吧，风啊！胀破了你的脸颊，猛烈地吹吧！你，瀑布一样的倾盆大雨，尽管倒泻下来，浸没了我们的尖塔......你，震撼一切的霹雳啊，把这生殖繁密的、饱满的地球击平了吧！”

Simon Palfrey: I think Lear often speaks in a way, he's like a sort of Titan figure who doesn't really speak in metaphor, he just expects his words to come true. And this is why when he's cursing the storm, this is just natural for him, because he's on the same level as the gods or something, you know, this is what he believes.

西蒙·帕尔弗里：李尔很喜欢用这样的方式说话，他就像巨人一样，他可不仅仅只是在隐喻什么，他是真的希望自己所说的一切都可以成真。所以，他会咒骂暴风雨，他也觉得这很正常，因为他认为自己和神灵是平起平坐的，并且对此深信不疑。

Kent finds Lear and the Fool, and persuades them to take shelter in a hovel. “My wits begin to turn,” says Lear. “How dost, my boy? Art cold?” he asks the Fool. “I have one part in my heart / That’s yet sorry for thee.” They follow Kent into the hovel. At first Lear focuses on his own sufferings: “In such a night / To shut me out? … O Regan, Goneril, / Your old kind father whose frank heart gave all!” But then his attention turns to all those “naked wretches” that have no shelter to protect them and he begins to feel pity: “I have ta’en too little care of this,” he says.

肯特找到了李尔和小丑，并试图说服他们回到那个虽然简陋但是可以躲避风雨的小茅屋。李尔对他说：“我的头脑开始昏乱起来了。”接着他又问小丑：“你怎么啦，我的孩子？你冷吗？......我的心里还留着一块地方为你悲伤哩。”于是，他们跟随肯特走进了小茅屋里。起初，李尔只关注到了自己的不幸遭遇，他说：“在这样的夜里，把我关在门外！......啊，里根，高纳里尔！你们年老仁慈的父亲一片诚心，把一切都给了你们啊！”但很快，他的注意力转移到了那些“衣不蔽体的不幸的人们”身上，他们头上没有片瓦遮身，李尔十分同情他们，他说：“啊！我一向太没有想到这种事情了。”

In the hovel, they find Edgar disguised as Poor Tom. His distracted speech suggests a fall from status, not unlike Lear’s. Once, he says, he had “Horse to ride, and weapon to wear,” but now he is “Poor Tom; that eats the swimming frog, the toad, / the tadpole, [and] eats cow-dung for sallets;” “Poor Tom’s a cold,” he says. He is also obsessed with the devil, describing his own past “act[s] of darkness,” and tells Lear to “keep thy word’s justice” and “beware the foul fiend.” Lear seems to find a kind of wisdom in Tom’s words and asks to “talk with this philosopher.”

在小茅屋里，他们遇到了伪装成可怜的汤姆的爱德伽。爱德伽向他们讲述了自己落魄的过程，这段话中充满了苦闷和烦恼，此时的他与李尔并无差别。爱德伽说：他曾经“有马可以骑，有武器可以配带”，但现在他是“可怜的汤姆，他吃的是泅水的青蛙、蛤蟆、蝌蚪、壁虎和水蜥”“可怜的汤姆冷着呢”。爱德伽的话中经常提到“恶魔”这个词，他形容自己过去的“行为是黑暗的”，并告诫李尔“说过的话不要反悔”，还让他“当心邪恶的敌人”。李尔似乎也从汤姆的话语中感受到了智慧，表示“要和这位哲学家聊一聊”。

Gloucester also goes to look for the King. Edmund, seizing another chance to increase his fortunes, tells Cornwall that Gloucester is a traitor. Cordelia has landed at Dover with French troops to aid her father, and Edmund says that Gloucester is aiding the enemy troops. Cornwall gives Edmund his father’s title and goes to arrest Gloucester.

当时，考狄利娅正带领法国军队来到了多佛支援她的父亲。葛罗斯特也出发寻找老国王。于是他的私生子爱德蒙又找到了一个对自己有利的机会，他对康华尔说葛罗斯特叛变去法国了。于是，康华尔将葛罗斯特的伯爵封号赐给了爱德蒙，并派埃德蒙去追捕葛罗斯特。

Gloucester finds Lear and tells Kent to bring Lear to Dover, so Cordelia can protect him from the enemies who want to kill him. Regan and Cornwall arrest Gloucester and in a growing rage, Cornwall rips out one of Gloucester’s eyes. A servant tries to stop him and even wounds him, but Cornwall takes out Gloucester’s other eye. Gloucester cries out for Edmund -- but Regan and Cornwall tell him that Edmund handed him over to them in the first place. Gloucester realises that he has placed his trust in the wrong son, and cries “O my follies! Then Edgar was abused. Kind gods, forgive me that and prosper him.” In one version of the play, some servants tend to Gloucester’s wounds before he is forced outside by Regan and Cornwall. On the road, Gloucester unknowingly meets the son he prayed for: Edgar, still disguised as Poor Tom.

葛罗斯特找到了李尔，并让肯特带李尔去多佛，这样考狄利娅就可以保护李尔。但里根和康华尔逮捕了葛罗斯特。康华尔在盛怒之下，挖出了葛罗斯特的一只眼珠。一位仆人想要阻止康华尔，甚至拔剑刺伤了他，可康华尔依旧还是将葛罗斯特另一只眼珠也挖了出来。葛罗斯特哭喊着要爱德蒙为自己报仇，但里根和康华尔告诉他，把他交到自己手上的人恰恰就是爱德蒙。终于，葛罗斯特意识到自己信错了人，大喊着：“啊，我是个蠢材！那么爱德伽是冤枉的了。仁慈的神明啊，赦免我的错误，保佑他吧！”在另一个版本中，葛罗斯特被里根和康华尔赶出去之前，仆人们还替他包扎了伤口。在路上，葛罗斯特遇到了他的儿子——爱德伽。但当时，爱德伽仍旧还是装作可怜的汤姆，而葛罗斯特也没有认出来自己的儿子。

Simon Palfrey: The father doesn't know it's his son. But the son knows it’s his father. You've got the son, as it were, hiding from his own father, not known by the father. And so it's a kind of exquisite but also kind of excruciating moment of family drama.

西蒙·帕尔弗里：葛罗斯特并没有认出自己的儿子，但爱德伽认出了自己的父亲。儿子在躲着父亲，父亲没有认出儿子。这场家庭大戏十分细腻又具有冲击力，同时也令人无比心碎。

More drama is unfolding in Lear’s family, too. Cornwall is dead, and Regan wants to marry Edmund -- but Goneril wants Edmund, too. They all send forces to meet the French troops at Dover. The anguished Gloucester arrives at Dover, too, with Poor Tom, still not knowing the “mad man” is his son. He asks Tom to bring him to a cliff, from which he intends to jump.

而在李尔的家里，更多冲突也在发酵。康华尔死后，里根想和爱德蒙结婚，但高纳里尔也爱上了埃德蒙。她们还派兵前往多佛与法国军队作战。葛罗斯特在可怜的汤姆的陪伴下也到达了多佛，不过此时他依旧不知道这个“疯子”是自己的儿子爱德伽。他让汤姆带他爬上一座悬崖，因为他想跳崖自尽。

Simon Palfrey: Edgar is leading Gloucester to the cliff so that Gloucester can jump to his death. But it's still, again, it's not Edgar, it's poor Tom, it's mad Tom as he's called. We've got a naked man or a mad man leading a blind man to the edge of a cliff.

西蒙·帕尔弗里：爱德伽领着葛罗斯特爬上了悬崖。但此时，爱德伽不是“爱德伽”这个身份，而是“汤姆”带葛罗斯特走上了悬崖。我们看到的是一个衣衫褴褛的人，一个疯子领着一个双目失明的人走到了悬崖边上。

Edgar tells his blind father that they are on a cliff’s edge, describing the dizzying view down to the sea. But when Gloucester jumps, he just falls lightly on the ground. There was no cliff at all. But EdgartellsGloucester that he actually did fall off a cliff and landed unharmed: “Thy life’s a miracle,” he tells him, hoping this belief might cure his father’s suicidal despair. Gloucester believes the gods have preserved his life and says, “Henceforth I’ll bear / Affliction.”

爱德伽对双目失明的父亲说，他们已经来到了悬崖边，并向他描绘着下面波涛汹涌的大海。但当葛罗斯特往下跳时，他却落在了地面上。原来，那根本不是什么悬崖。爱德伽对葛罗斯特说，他的确是从悬崖上摔了下来，之所以“毫发无伤”，那是因为“你的生命是一个奇迹”。他希望可以借此让父亲从自杀的绝望中走出来。果然，葛罗斯特也相信了他的话，认为是神明保佑了自己，并且表示：“从此以后，我要耐心忍受痛苦”。

Just then, Lear enters. As Gloucester has been physically devastated, Lear has been mentally devastated: he has gone mad. He shouts orders to imagined attendants and utters vicious denunciations of women. But, as with Poor Tom, his mad words contain a certain wisdom. He recognizes how authority can be corrupted: “See how yond justice rails upon yond simple thief ... Change places and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief?” He also seems to recognize, perhaps for the first time, that even a king has limitations. He says, “They told me I was everything. ‘Tis a lie.” When the French soldiers escort him back to the camp, he admits, “I am a very foolish fond old man … And to deal plainly, I fear I am not in my perfect mind.” But he does recognize Cordelia -- and in a reversal of his earlier demand for love, he tells her humbly, “I know you do not love me … You have some cause.” But Cordelia, full of compassion for her father, replies, “No cause, no cause.” Lear entreats her, “Pray you now, forget, and forgive.”

就在此时，李尔也走了过来。他的精神遭到了巨大的打击，他疯了。他对着想象中的侍从大声发号施令，用恶毒的语言咒骂女性。但和可怜的汤姆一样，他的“疯言疯语”中也包含了一定的智慧。他认识到权威也可能会腐败堕落：“你没看见那法官怎样痛骂那个卑贱的小偷吗？......让他们两人换了地位，谁还认得出哪个是法官，哪个是小偷？”同时，他还明白了，也许也是第一次认识到，即便是国王也不是无所不能的。他说：“她们把我恭维得天花乱坠；全然是谎话”。当法军的士兵们将他护送到军营时，他承认“我是一个非常愚蠢的傻老头子，......不瞒您说，我怕我的头脑有点儿不大健全。”可尽管如此，他还是认出了考狄利娅，一反先前他要求女儿们吹嘘父爱时的高傲态度，此时，他谦卑地表示：“我知道你不爱我，.......你虐待我还有几分理由。”但考狄利娅却深情地对他说：“谁都没有这理由。”接着，李尔乞求说：“请原谅我。请你不咎既往，宽赦我的过失”。

Simon Palfrey: The play gives us an exquisite scene of reconciliation and redemption, which then isn't the end of the play.

西蒙·帕尔弗里：在这里，父女和解，互相救赎了对方。但戏剧却并没有就此结束。

Their joyful reunion is interrupted by the news that the enemy forces are near. Cordelia’s army clashes with that of Edmund and Albany, and Cordelia’s forces lose. She and Lear are captured and Edmund sends them to prison -- but Lear sees their imprisonment together as almost a private paradise in a bleak world: “Come, let’s away to prison. We two alone will sing like birds i’ th’ cage. / When thou dost ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down / And ask of thee forgiveness.” But no sooner have they entered this imagined paradise than Edmund sends orders to kill Cordelia.

他们幸福的团圆很快就被打断了，因为有情报说敌军已经来到他们营地附近了。考狄利娅的军队与爱德蒙和奥本尼的军队激烈交战，最终考狄利娅战败。爱德蒙俘虏了考狄利娅和李尔，并把他们关进了监狱。但在李尔看来，和考狄利娅一起被关在小小的监狱里，就像是在荒凉无情的世界里，找到了一片属于他们的私密天堂：“来，让我们到监牢里去。我们两人将要像笼中之鸟一般唱歌；当你求我为你祝福的时候，我要跪下来求你饶恕。”然而，他们刚进入这个幻想天堂中时，爱德蒙便下令要杀死考狄利娅。

Goneril, too, is plotting death. She poisons Regan to keep her from claiming Edmund. She also encourages Edmund to kill Albany so she can marry Edmund. But Edgar helps Albany discover the plot. Goneril commits suicide, and Albany arrests Edmund and invites Edgar, in disguise, to fight Edmund in single combat. Edgar mortally wounds Edmund and then reveals who he is. He also describes how he finally revealed himself to their father, whose heart “burst smilingly” at learning he was reunited with his son. Edmund is moved and tries to make amends before he dies. He sends a message to halt the execution of Cordelia. But it is too late. Lear enters carrying Cordelia’s dead body in his arms howling , “She's gone for ever! … She's dead as earth.”

同时，高纳里尔也在密谋杀人。为了阻止里根和自己争抢爱德蒙，高纳里尔向里根的食物中下毒，同时她还怂恿爱德蒙去杀死奥本尼，这样自己就可以与爱德蒙结婚了。但爱德伽向奥本尼揭露了这个阴谋。于是，高纳里尔自杀而亡。奥本尼也逮捕了爱德蒙，并邀请爱德伽与爱德蒙单独进行一场决斗。在决斗中，爱德伽给了爱德蒙致命一击，并表明了自己的真实身份。他讲述了自己在父亲面前表明身份时的场景，讲起当父亲和自己团聚时有多开心。爱德蒙希望在死前可以弥补自己曾经犯下的过错。他下令收回处决考狄利娅的命令，但一切都太迟了。李尔抱着考狄利娅的尸体，哀号着：“她是一去不回的了。......她已经像泥土一样死去。”

Kent and Albany try to comfort Lear. Kent removes his disguise and reveals that he has been serving Lear even in exile; Albany declares he will restore Lear to his former power. But Lear can think only of Cordelia, speaking some of the most moving words Shakespeare ever wrote:

肯特和奥本尼上前安慰李尔。肯特脱去了伪装，表明自己就是李尔流亡时一直服侍他的仆人；奥本尼也表示，他将把最高的权力归还给李尔。但此刻李尔的心中只有考狄利娅，他说了莎士比亚所有戏剧中最感人的一段台词：

Simon Palfrey: “No, no, no life? / Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life, / And thou no breath at all? Thou’lt come no more, / Never, never, never, never, never”… A single line, the same word repeated five times. It's a moment of absolute concentration.

西蒙·帕尔弗里：“不，不，没有命了！为什么一条狗、一匹马、一只耗子。都有它们的生命，你却没有一丝呼吸？你是永远不回来的了，永不，永不，永不，永不，永不！”在一个简单的句子中，同一个词重复了五遍。这一段十分扣人心弦，震撼人心。

In one version of the published text, this despairing line is followed by one that seems to offer hope: “Do you see this? Look on her, look, her lips, / Look there, look there!” Does Lear imagine that he sees breath stirring on Cordelia’s lips? Does he believe she might still be alive? We never know, for then Lear dies too. For those left alive, there is little sense of hope. The play ends with bleak lines, spoken in one text of the play by Albany and in another by Edgar: “The weight of this sad time we must obey, / Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. / The oldest hath borne most; we that are young / Shall never see so much nor live so long.”

而在另一个版本的《李尔王》中，那段台词之后，李尔还说了一句带着些许希望的话：“你看见了吗？看她的双唇，看那里，看那里！”李尔是不是幻想考狄利娅的双唇在呼吸？他是不是认为她还活着？我们不得而知，因为他在说完这句话后，也死去了。而且对于其他活着的人而言，他们也几乎感觉不到希望。最后，戏剧在一段忧伤的台词中结束，有版本是奥本尼说的这段话，有的是爱德伽说的：“不幸的重担不能不肩负，感情是我们唯一的言语。年老的人已经忍受一切，后人只有抚陈迹而叹息。”

In the next episode, we’ll discuss what exactly we’ve seen by the end ofKing Lear-- a near-apocalyptic vision of the destruction of the world, and glimmers of life’s survival. We’ll see how this play asks, to paraphrase Lear’s Fool, what use can be made of nothing.

下集节目，我们重点关注从《李尔王》戏剧的结尾，我们所看到的那些内容——一个近乎末日般的被毁灭的世界，以及影影绰绰的生命之光。我们还将通过对李尔的小丑一段台词的解读，来分析戏剧是如何探讨对‘没有’的利用的。