【解读】亨利五世1 故事内容:莎士比亚的战争故事

【解读】亨利五世1 故事内容:莎士比亚的战争故事

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Henry V -- Part I – Shakespeare’s War Story (The Story)

《亨利五世》——第一部分——莎士比亚的战争故事(故事梗概)

Stephen Foley: I'm interested in the play because it is so deeply political. I think it takes us into the theater of the political world and makes us aware of how people act; how they do things to other people with words and actions, for better or for worse; how they build relationships, form community and also experience feelings of love and loss of togetherness and alienation.

史蒂芬·福利:我很喜欢这部剧,因为它带有浓厚的政治色彩。它带领我们来到一个戏剧化的政治世界,展现了人们处事方式,让我们看到了剧中人物是怎么和旁人交流互动的,这些互动有好也有坏。在剧中,我们还可以看到这些角色是如何建立人际关系、构建社会,并经历着人世间的各种爱恨情仇。

Stephen Foley: This is Shakespeare's war story. There are wars in many of Shakespeare's plays, but this is the play that really invites the spectator into the theater of war and challenges us in those difficult circumstances to judge character and action fairly, and also to judge how we make those judgments. So as we witness Henry and his countrymen trying to form a community and to invade another nation, we see them pulling together, but also pulled apart in conflict among themselves. And I think that the celebration of Henry's victories opens a window into the conflicts surrounding the conduct of war and the means of keeping the peace. So I think it's an invitation to moral judgment.

史蒂芬·福利:这是一部以战争为主题的戏剧。虽然很多莎剧都有战争场面,但这部剧却让赋予观众一种亲临战场的真实感。它邀请我们进入到剧中的各种困境之中,去评价剧中角色,以及他们的所作所为,并让我们对自己的这些评价作一番评判。我们看到亨利和他的同胞在构建社会、入侵别国时紧密合作,同时也看到了他们会因为彼此之间的冲突而产生嫌隙。我认为对亨利所取得的胜利的庆祝,为我们开启了一扇窗户,让我们看到了战争所引发冲突,以及维系和平的途径方法。所以,我觉得戏剧是在邀请我们,邀请我们作一番道德评判。

Stephen Foley: I'm Stephen Foley and I'm Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Brown.

史蒂芬·福利:我是史蒂芬·福利,布朗大学英语和比较文学教授。

Today, we’re speaking with Professor Stephen Foley about Henry V. Shakespeare wrote a series of plays based on chronicles about England’s past, commonly called “history plays,” and Henry V is one of the most celebrated of these. Written around 1599, it dramatizes the life of the historical English king Henry V, who assumed the throne in 1413. He went to war with France to assert his claim to the French throne and won a dramatic victory in 1415 at the Battle of Agincourt. Shakespeare recounts this story in a play that not only depicts events from history but represents the very process through which history is made.

今天,我们将同史蒂芬·福利教授一起,共同探讨戏剧《亨利五世》。莎士比亚以英国历史为素材创作了一组戏剧,这个系列被称作是“历史剧”,《亨利五世》是其中颇为有名的一部。该剧写于1599年左右,戏剧化地呈现了在1413年登上英国王位的亨利五世的生平事迹。亨利五世对法宣战。在1415年,他戏剧性地取得了阿金库尔战役的胜利。莎士比亚以戏剧的形式讲述了这段历史,他不仅根据历史记载刻画了一系列历史事件,同时还向我们呈现了历史发展的进程和脉络。

The most visible shaper of history in this play is the character of the Chorus. In ancient Greek drama, the chorus was a group of characters representing the city or the society who offered commentary on the action in the play. Shakespeare’s Chorus similarly mediates between the play and the audience, always reminding us that we are watching a play. The Chorus appears at the start of every act to give us background information, to forecast coming events, and, most significantly, to direct the way we interpret and imagine those events.

剧中最显眼的历史故事的“塑造者”就是每一幕戏开头的“歌队”。在古希腊戏剧中,歌队往往代表这个城市或社会,他们会对剧中的情节发表一段评论。同样地,莎剧中的歌队也是戏剧和观众之间的媒介,他时刻提醒着我们此刻自己正在观看一场戏剧演出。在每一幕戏开头,歌队都会向我们介绍故事背景,预告即将发生的情节,最重要的是,他还会指引我们如何去解读、去想象这些事件。

Stephen Foley: In the famous first chorus, the Chorus calls for “a Muse of fire.” He calls for an animated reinvention of what history can be on the stage and admitting that that's inevitably going to fail. He then calls upon the audience to “piece out our imperfections with your thoughts.” Each one of the five choruses invokes the audience as the judge and interpreter of history. So in each one of the choruses, that same kind of contract is renewed and the audience is reminded that it is in their memories that the moral judgments of history are made and that history itself is shaped.

史蒂芬·福利:在戏剧开始时的那段开场白中,歌队呼唤着“四溢的缪斯女神”。他呼吁在舞台上生动地再现历史,但同时也承认单凭简陋的舞台根本无法完全再现历史。于是,他乞求观众们“尽情地想象,以补偿我们的不足”。全剧一共五段致辞,每一段都请求观众们去对历史做判断、做解读。所以,在每一段致辞中,相似的内容会不断被提及,这些内容反复提醒我们,对于历史的道德评判形成于我们的头脑之中,历史是在我们的头脑中塑造成型的。

The play opens with a prologue from the Chorus. He, or she, calls for a “Muse of fire” to inspire the play and calls on the audience to bring it to life in their imagination: to look at a handful of actors on a stage and see “two mighty monarchies” contending on the field of Agincourt. But the play begins not with soldiers or armies, but with two clergymen in a political discussion. The Bishops of Canterbury and Ely express wonder at King Henry’s talent for politics. We hear that as a prince, Henry showed no interest in learning to govern but instead hung around taverns in Eastcheap with “unlettered, rude, and shallow” company, including the fat knight Sir John Falstaff. Now, however, Henry has cast off those companions to embrace the responsibilities of rule.

戏剧在歌队的独白中拉开序幕。歌队,可能是男性,也有可能是女性,他呼吁为戏剧赋予灵感,呼吁观众用想象赋予戏剧生命。他让我们看着舞台上的那群演员,去展开想象,想象眼前站着的是“两位威猛的君王”,想象他们站在阿金库尔的田野上。然而在戏剧真正开演时,我们看到的却并不是战士,也不是军队,而是两位主教,他们在讨论一些政治话题。坎特伯雷主教和伊里主教正在讨论亨利国王那惊世的政治才能。他们说,亨利在青年时期对治国理政毫无兴趣,天天混迹在伦敦东市街的小酒馆里,和那些“无知”“下流”的人打交道,这其中就有胖骑士约翰·福斯塔夫爵士。但如今,亨利不再与那群人来往了,他开始承担起统治国家的责任和义务。

Stephen Foley: What we see here is Shakespeare using a folk motif of the transformation of the frog into the prince to create another sense of mystery about Henry in order to assert his almost magical rise as a king.

史蒂芬·福利:在此处,莎士比亚运用了青蛙变王子的故事套路,为他营造出了一种神秘感,使亨利那不可思议成长历程显得更具说服力。

The bishops plan to win Henry’s support for the Church by helping him fund a war in France -- where, Canterbury hints, Henry has some “true titles” to the crown, thanks to the military victories there of his great-grandfather King Edward III. Henry asks Canterbury about this supposed claim to the throne of France. The bishop embarks on a lengthy, convoluted speech on the French law of succession. Henry’s reply is short and to the point: “May I with right and conscience make this claim?” A great deal hangs on the answer. Even if Henry has some legal claim to the French crown, he can only attain it through war, and as he reminds the bishop, “never two such kingdoms did contend / Without much fall of blood.” The bishop urges Henry to invade France and “win [his] right.” After encouragement from his counselors, Henry resolves to go to war and claim the French crown: “France being ours, we’ll bend it to our awe / Or break it all to pieces.” His resolve is strengthened when the French prince sends a mocking message: a box of tennis balls. The prince doesn’t realize what a capable king the once-wild youth has become.

两位主教计划给朝廷捐一笔巨款以支援亨利的对法战争,从而赢得亨利对教会的支持。但坎特伯雷主教却暗示说,亨利“有权利”戴上法兰西的王冠,因为他是爱德华三世的曾孙,爱德华三世曾赢得了一系列对法战争。之后,亨利也来向坎特伯雷主教询问自己对法兰西王位的主张。主教用一大段迂回繁杂的话向亨利解释了法兰西王位继承的相关事宜。亨利用很简短的话回应了他,但直击要害,他问:“我要求继承王位,然而合情合理,无愧于自己的良知?”这句回应蕴含了大量的信息。虽然亨利要求继承法兰西王位合情合理,但他必须通过战争才能戴上这顶王冠。正如他对主教所说:“一旦这样的两个王国交起火来,那么或死或杀的绝对不会是数十人,数百人的事情。”主教也催促亨利对法宣战,“夺取所应拥有的名位”。在群臣们的鼓动下,亨利最终决定对宣战,以主张自己对法国王位的权力,他说:“既然我们拥有法兰西,那么我们就让它在我们的威力下屈服;否则的话,保证让它化为灰烬。”就在这时,法国王储派遣的使者也来到了英国,他给亨利五世送来了一桶网球,借以讽刺亨利五世年轻时的放荡不羁。这彻底激怒了亨利五世,更加坚定了他对法宣战的决心。此时的法国王储还没有意识到这个曾经放荡不羁的年轻人如今已经成长成了一名英明的君王。

The Chorus says “all the youth of England are on fire” to follow Henry, this “mirror of all Christian kings”, to war. The first recruits we see, however, are far from noble soldiers. They are the King’s former companions from Eastcheap -- Bardolph, Pistol, Nym, and Mistress Quickly. Their first scene is filled with comic squabbles over Mistress Quickly, but their second scene is more sober: they learn that the lusty, gluttonous and merry Falstaff is dead.

歌队说“此时此刻,所有年轻的英国人,心中燃烧着熊熊大火”,他们追随着亨利,“那君主中的贤君”,与他一同奔赴战场。但我们看到的第一批应征入伍的人根本不是什么英勇的战士。他们是亨利五世年少时在伦敦东市街的玩伴:巴道夫、毕斯托尔、尼姆,和野猪头酒店老板娘桂嫂。他们刚出场时,还在热热闹闹地打趣老板娘桂嫂。但等他们再次走上台时,场面却带上了一丝阴郁悲伤,因为他们收到消息,贪吃欢乐的福斯塔夫去世了。

Stephen Foley: When we see Falstaff’s death recounted by Mistress Quickly, this occurs at the very moment when we see Henry once again trying to prove himself an able king and it doesn't undercut that skillful governance on Henry's part. But it's a touching scene of the loss of a former friend.

史蒂芬·福利:当桂嫂向大家宣布福斯塔夫死讯时,亨利刚刚又一次向大家证明了自己的治国之才,所以福斯塔夫去世的消息并没有让我们忽视亨利的治国之能。但失去昔日旧友也确实是很难令人心碎的。

Henry then loses another friend. He learns that three English lords have been bribed by the French to assassinate him, including Lord Scroop, his most intimate confidant. Before he arrests them, he sets a kind of trap. He asks them how he should punish a man caught verbally abusing him. The traitors, making a show of loyalty, say the man should be given punishment, not mercy. Henry then arrests them for treason, saying his mercy has been “killed” by their own counsel.

而且,没过多久,亨利又失去了另一位朋友。他收到消息,法国收买了三位英国的勋爵来刺杀自己,其中就有他最亲密的知己好友——斯克鲁普勋爵。亨利在逮捕他们之前,设了个陷阱。他问这三个人,如果有人对他破口大骂要该如何惩罚这个人呢?这三个反贼为了显示对国王的忠诚,都提议要狠狠地惩罚这个人,决不能轻而易举地放过他。于是,亨利以叛国罪逮捕了他们,并表示自己的仁慈之心已经被他们自己提出的意见扑灭了。

The Chorus paints a vivid picture of the king’s mighty fleet sailing across the channel and invites the audience to “leave your England” and follow the king, in their minds, to France. The English army besieged the French city of Harfleur, and Henry rallies his troops with a stirring speech: “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, / Or close the wall up with our English dead!” In these lines, we hear several hallmarks of Henry’s oratory: his emphasis on camaraderie and brotherhood, and his appeal to national pride. “On, on, you noblest English,” he urges: “Follow your spirit, and upon this charge / Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’”

歌队绘声绘色地描绘着国王率领舰队威风凛凛驶过英吉利海峡的样子,他邀请观众们“离开英格兰”、在脑海中展开想象、追随着国王一同前往法兰西。英国的军队包围了法国的城市哈弗勒尔,亨利召集部下,说了一段惊心动魄的演讲:“好朋友们,继续努力,冲向缺口吧,如果无法冲进去的话,就把我们英国人的尸体抬来,将这座城池堵起来!”从这几句话中,我们可以感受到亨利演讲的特点:他强调友谊和手足情谊,他呼吁为了国家的荣耀而战。他敦促说:“向前冲吧,向前冲吧,你们是最尊贵的英国人,......一面冲锋,一面叫了起来:‘上帝祝福亨利、英格兰以及圣乔治’。”

But once again, the play’s optimistic rhetoric is somewhat undercut by the crew from Eastcheap. Immediately after Henry’s stirring cry to rush into the battle, we see Nym and Pistol hanging back, wishing they could trade all their fame from battle for “a pot of ale and safety.” We hear from their boy servant that these men have no bravery and came to France mainly to steal.

但戏剧澎湃激昂的氛围又一次被伦敦东市街的那伙人打断了。亨利刚喊完那振奋人心的口号没多久,尼姆便冲进战场,后面还跟着毕斯托尔,他们希望以一生的好名声来换取“一壶酒和目前的安全”。我们听见侍童讥讽他们没有胆识,来法国也主要是为了偷东西。

Stephen Foley: The play really is a series of vignettes, each one representing a different segment of the society as it goes to war. And it develops a rich array of characters from all parts of the body politic: nobles, clergy, common soldiers, seasoned officers, and knaves -- Welshman, Irishman, Scots -- and these sets of characters move through the action of the play, constituting a sense of tableaux that reveal the conflicts and contradictions that crisscross the fabric of national unity.

史蒂芬·福利:这部剧充满了各种小片段,每个片段体现了战争时期不同社会群体的面貌。它展现了不同社会阶层在战争时期貌,这些人中有贵族有神职人员有普通士兵有经验丰富的官员,也有恶棍有威尔士人有爱尔兰人,也有苏格兰人。他们随着戏剧的发展而发展,构成了绚丽多姿的剧情,有冲突,有矛盾,这些全都交织在国家统一这面锦缎之上。

Stephen Foley: Pistol, Nym, and Bardolph are sort of the soft, corrupt underbelly of that society. They are only in it for pleasure, for money -- they are mere posers as warriors. Those characters, I think, are a correction to the illusion that there's a pure band of kinship that unites everybody.

史蒂芬·福利:毕斯托尔、尼姆和巴道夫代表着社会中那些无能、腐败、懦弱的群体。他们生活就是为了享乐,为了金钱,他们的英勇也都是装出来做做样子。我觉得,这些角色击碎了人们心中的一种幻想,根本没有什么纯粹的情谊把人们团结在一起的。

We see another segment of society in a scene of disagreement among four captains: the English Gower, the Welsh Fluellen, the Scottish Jamy, and the Irish Macmorris. This scene reveals that the “English” identity to which Henry appeals is something of a fiction. Henry is trying to construct that identity by unifying the peoples of the British isles behind his cause. But the task isn’t easy: the Scottish and the Welsh rebelled against Henry’s father, and when Shakespeare was writing the play, the Irish were rebelling against Queen Elizabeth’s attempts to conquer Ireland.

接着,四位上尉英格兰的高厄、威尔士的弗鲁爱林、苏格兰的杰米和爱尔兰的麦克摩里斯之间的分歧又让我们看到了另一个社会群体。这场戏让我们明白亨利呼吁的“英国”国民性是不现实的。亨利企图把将不列颠群岛上各个民族团结在一起,从而塑造出英国的国民性。但这并非易事。首先,苏格兰和威尔士就曾背叛过亨利的父亲。其次,在莎士比亚创作这部戏剧时,爱尔兰正在起兵反抗伊丽莎白女王攻占爱尔兰的企图。

Stephen Foley: She had brought settlers. She had appropriated common land. She had installed a quasi-military system of government. And she was faced for nine years with a sustained rebellion by the Earl of Tyrone. This is called in Irish history the Nine Years of War or Tyrone’s Rebellion. You might have expected McMorris to take the brunt of the satire as a stage Irishman, but Shakespeare is very gentle with him. So I do think that at the same time that Shakespeare is implicitly celebrating the possibility of English victory, and he's also softening the brute celebration of empire and humanizing the experience of the several peoples of England.

史蒂芬·福利:伊丽莎白将移民爱尔兰。她霸占了爱尔兰公有土地设立了准政府军事系统。她还爱尔兰蒂龙伯爵进行了长达九年的对抗蒂龙伯爵的叛乱在爱尔兰历史上被称作是“九年战争”或“蒂龙叛乱”。你也许认为剧中的麦克摩里斯作为一位爱尔兰人一定会遭受严厉的抨击和讽刺,但实际上,莎士比亚对他十分笔下留情。因此,我认为,莎士比亚在低调庆贺英格兰即将取得的胜利的同时,弱化了对君权的粗暴野蛮,赋予英国各民族一定的人性。

In spite of quarreling captains and reluctant soldiers, Henry prevails against the French. He delivers a graphically threatening speech to the governor of Harfleur, warning that his “blind and bloody soldier[s]” will impale children on pikes, dash old men’s heads against walls, and “mow down” the women like grass unless the city surrenders. But when the governor does surrender and the English enter the city, Henry orders his men to “use mercy to them all.”

虽然上尉之间存在争吵,虽然战士们勉强犹豫,但亨利大败法兰西,取得了最终的胜利。他对哈弗勒尔的总督了一段生动威胁性演讲,他警告说,如果哈弗勒尔拒不投降,他“那肆无忌惮的兵丁”便会将儿童高挑在长枪上,将城中的女性全部屠杀。不过,总督最终投降,英国军队进入城中时,亨利却命令部下“宽容城里的人民”。

The next scene seems to strike a very different note from the violent confrontations of war. It's a comic scene featuring only female characters. The French Princess Katherine asks her lady-in-waiting, Alice, to teach her English by teaching her the names of parts of the body. Alice makes Katherine blush and laugh when she hears that some English words sound just like sexual slang terms in French. But the scene isn’t entirely removed from the scene of surrender we just saw at Harfleur. If the French keep losing the war, Katherine knows that she will be forced to surrender to Henry as his conquest and his wife, which is the reason she wants to learn English.

着上演场戏与之前那激烈的暴力冲突很不一样,它充满了剧的欢乐气息主角是两位女性法国公主凯瑟琳她的女仆爱丽丝。凯瑟琳公主请爱丽丝教她英语,教她用英语表达不同的身体部位。但爱丽丝说出来的英文单词却让凯瑟琳红了脸,她咯咯了起来,因为些英文单词的发音和法语中一些和性有关的下流粗俗表达很像。但这场轻松愉悦戏并没有让我们完全忘记哈弗勒尔城的投降。因为,凯瑟琳也明白如果法国继续战败,亨利将最终征服法国,到那时,她就不得不屈服于亨利,与他成婚。这也正是她想要学习英语的原因所在。

Stephen Foley: The French are still busily confident and preparing to defeat the English. But Katherine and her lady-in-waiting, named Alice, have already given up, and they're figuring out, in French, how they're going to speak with their English conquerors.

史蒂芬·福利:当时的法国十分盲目自信,做好了击退英军的准备凯瑟琳公主和她的女仆爱丽丝却早就屈服了。她们用法语讨论着要如何英国的征服者交流对话

Back in the English army, Bardolph has been sentenced to death for stealing. Although Bardolph is his old friend, Henry declares, “We would have all such offenders so cut off.” The French herald arrives saying that the French will soon destroy the English army and that Henry should consider his ransom. Henry could avoid the risk of being killed in battle if he surrendered to the French as their prisoner, to be sent safely home once England paid France a large sum. But although his soldiers are sick and weak, Henry still insists he will face the French in combat.

回到英国战场,巴道夫因为盗窃被判处了死刑。巴道夫虽然亨利的旧友,但亨利依旧义正言辞地:“无论是谁犯下这种罪行,我们都一样处死他。”接着,法国使者来到亨利跟前,他说法国很快就要击溃英军了,并让亨利赶紧准备赎金,如果亨利同意向法国投降,就可以免于一死。他表示只要英国支付法国一大笔钱,那么他们会把亨利安全地送回英国。亨利深知自己率领的军队当时处于弱势,但听完这番话,他坚定地表示将与法国决一死战。

The next battle is at Agincourt. The French officers drink and joke the night before the battle, displaying their vanity and confidence of victory. The English, by contrast, are fearful that they will die the next day. But, the Chorus tells us, their “cold fear” is “thaw[ed]” by their king, who goes from tent to tent to visit all his men, calling them “brothers, friends, and countrymen,” with such “cheerful semblance and sweet majesty” that every soldier “plucks comfort from his looks.” We then watch Henry, concealing himself in a borrowed cloak, go and visit his men in disguise.

阿金库尔之战即将拉开帷幕。战争前夜,法国军官们还在饮酒作乐,他们自信满满,认为稳操胜券。英与法军恰恰相反,他们担心自己第二天战死沙场。但歌队告诉我们,英军战士们的寒冷和恐惧被他们的国王融化了,亨利一个帐篷接着一个帐篷慰问手下的将士们,他称他们为“兄弟、朋友、同胞”,他总是如此开心,精神抖擞,使每一个士兵都受到了鼓舞。接着,我们看到亨利穿着借来的斗篷,乔装着去看望他的部下。

Stephen Foley: He’s here entering into disguise in order to find out something from the point of view of the people that he rules, and also, in a more sly way, to persuade them to come to his way of thinking about what a king should do.

史蒂芬·福利:他伪装来到军营,不是想弄明白麾下将士对自己的真实看法,更希望说服他们接受自己对“明君”的定义

Henry joins three foot soldiers, Bates, Court, and Williams, who are reflecting with fear and dread on what will happen the next day. Bates says that he wishes that the King were there alone, so that “many poor men's lives [would be] saved.” Henry says he believes that the king, too, feels fear: “I think the King is but a man as I am,” he says. But the soldiers insist the king is different from the common people in important ways. If this war is not just, the common soldiers can’t be held morally responsible for it. The king, on the other hand, will have “a heavy reckoning” to make when he’s called to account for all the men who died for his unjust cause, especially if they died without atoning for their sins. Henry fiercely denies that the king is responsible for the state of his subject’s souls. He and Williams fall into disagreement, especially when Williams suggests that the king might allow himself to be ransomed. They exchange gloves, as a pledge to fight in a formal challenge if they both come through the battle.

在军营中,亨利与三位士兵培茨、考特和威廉斯聊了起来,这三人对于第二天即将发生的战感到十分恐惧害怕。培茨说他希望国王一个人呆在这里,这样的话“不计其数的可怜虫也就不会离开人世了”。亨利表示,他相信国王此刻一定也感觉十分恐惧,他说:“国王心中的感觉和我们的感觉差不了多少。”但这三人却坚国王在很多地方不同于他们这些普通人。如果国王发动非正义的战争,那么普通的士兵不需要为它承担道义上的责任。相反,国王就要背负深重的罪行,因为他发动的这场正义的战争让很多人悲惨地离开了人世,甚至还没及忏悔就死去了。亨利义正言辞地反驳了这个说法,他认为国王不需要为臣民们的灵魂负责。他和威廉斯之间的分歧尤明显,他们之间的的矛盾在威廉斯提出说国王也许应该接受法国提出的赎金要求时达到了顶峰。于是,他们交换手套,发誓如果明天的战役过后他们还活着,那么就进行一场正式决斗来清算这笔账。

Henry then reflects in private on the burdens and responsibilities of kingship: “What infinite heart’s ease / Must kings neglect that private men enjoy?” Henry also prays that God give his soldiers courage and not punish him or his men for the great sin his father committed long ago. Henry’s father, Henry IV, seized the crown from King Richard II and brought about his death.

之后,亨利私下也反思了国王身上所承担的重担和责任,他说:“登上了王位,他就必须放弃多少民间的乐趣!”亨利还向上帝祈祷,祈求他给予士兵们勇气,不要在战争暴发的这一天因为他父王篡位所犯下的罪行而向他他的部下追究。亨利的父亲,亨利四世篡夺了理查二世的王位,将他处死。

Stephen Foley: In the background is always the forced deposition of Richard II by Henry's father. Henry offers his own penitence on behalf of his father for the deposition and murder of Richard by his family. And Shakespeare is following the historical record here, and recalling that Henry V had Richard reinterred in Westminster Abbey, restored to the royal place that Henry knew belonged to him.

史蒂芬·福利:历史记载显示亨利的父亲威逼理查二世交出了王位。亨利替他的父王为篡位和谋杀行忏悔。在这段情节的描写上,莎士比亚很还原历史事实。他写到亨利五世将理查二世的遗体安葬到了威斯敏斯特教堂,并恢复了原本属于他的皇室地位。

The French are gleeful before the battle, wishing the English army were larger so they would have more glory in defeating them. The English, too, wish their army were larger as they contemplate the terrible odds against them: the French outnumber them five to one. But their fears inspire Henry to give his most heroic speech yet. Again he represents the army as a unified family. He also plays on the idea of shaping history. Reminding his men that it is the feast of St. Crispin, he paints a stirring picture of how they will retell the story of their victory on this day: “And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by, / From this day to the ending of the world, / But we in it shall be remembered -- / We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.”

战争开始前,法军依旧开心欢乐,他们甚至还希望英军数量可以再多些,这样,打败他们就更能显示出自己的光辉荣耀。同样地,英军也希望自己的队伍能够在庞大一些,他们思忖着自己所面对的可怕劣势:法军的人数是他们的五倍。但他们所流露出的恐惧激发亨利进行了一场目前最为气势恢宏的演讲。他又一次将军队比作是团结的大家庭。他还针对塑造历史这个想法发挥。他提醒部下,今天是十月二十五日,是“克里斯宾节”,他设想未来人们将会如何回顾他们在这一天所得的胜利,言语十分鼓舞人心,他说:“从今天开始,一直到世界末日来临,克里斯宾节都不会随随便便地消逝,而在这个节日里采取行动的我们也永远活在人们的心中。”

Shakespeare dramatizes a few key scenes from the battle. Pistol captures a French soldier and gleefully anticipates a large ransom; the French nobles suffer an initial defeat and lament at their shame. When the French rally their troops, Henry orders his soldiers to kill their French prisoners. We then learn the French have killed the English boys who were guarding the camp. Finally, the French herald comes to ask Henry’s permission for the French to bury their dead: “The day is yours,” he says. The English have won. Henry attributes their victory to God.

莎士比亚几个关键性的战争场面以戏剧化的方式呈现。毕斯托尔俘虏了一位法国士兵,他兴致勃勃地想着可以拿到一大笔赎金。法国贵族们对遭遇的第一次战败愤恨不平,十分羞耻惭愧。法军集结作战队伍时,亨利下令处死所有法国战俘。接着,法军杀死了守卫营地的那些小孩子。最终,法国使者亨利乞求,请他允许他们安葬那些战死的士兵,他说:“你们赢了。”英国取得了战争的胜利。亨利说是上帝助了他们一臂之力。

Once the battle with the French is over, scores are settled among the English. Henry tells the soldier, Williams, that it was he, the king, that Williams promised to fight. Williams pleads for pardon, reminding Henry he did not know he was speaking with the king. Henry fills Williams’ glove with gold and returns it to him as “an honor.” The Welsh captain Fluellen punishes Pistol for all his insubordination by making him eat a leek, a symbol of Wales. Alone, Pistol reveals his own wartime losses. “My Doll is dead,” he says, and his only way to make a living now is to steal.

对法战争结束后,就解决英国内部的事情了。亨利对士兵威廉斯说,当初接受他挑战的正是自己,英国国王亨利。威廉斯乞求国王宽恕自己,说当时并不知道自己在和国王对话。亨利在威廉斯的手套中装满了金子,将它作为“一个荣誉”还给了威廉斯。威尔士上尉弗鲁爱林也惩罚了毕斯托尔的抗命行为,弗鲁爱林罚他吃韭菜,韭菜是威尔士的一个象征。毕斯托尔独自一人的时候,说出了在战争期间失去的东西他说“我的耐儿死了”,现在他只能靠偷窃谋生。

The Chorus introduces the final act by inviting the audience to imagine the celebrations when Henry arrives in England. He compares Henry’s triumphant return to Caesar returning to Rome after successful conquest, and to “the general of our gracious empress” returning from Ireland.

歌队在介绍最后一幕戏时,邀请观众想象亨利到达英国时会受到怎样的欢迎。他将亨利的回归比作旗开得胜、返回罗马的凯撒,还将他比作伊丽莎白女王讨伐爱尔兰后返回京都的将军埃塞克斯伯爵

Stephen Foley: I think this is probably the most explicit topical reference in any Shakespeare play, and it refers to the expected return of the Earl of Essex from an expedition to Ireland in 1599 to subdue a rebellion. Essex brought with him almost 20,000 troops, and this was the largest military expedition of Elizabeth's reign.

史蒂芬·福利:我认为这是所有莎剧中,暗指明确的一段情节。这里说的其实是1599年埃塞克斯伯爵出兵讨伐爱尔兰叛乱后回到英国这件事。埃塞克斯伯爵率领两万名将士出征爱尔兰,这是伊丽莎白一世女王统治时期最大规模的军事远征

The hopefulness with which the play celebrates Essex’s return attempts to make Henry’s victory at Agincourt the model for future English conquests in Ireland.

戏剧将埃塞克斯伯爵的凯旋和亨利在阿金库尔战役后的凯旋放在一起书写,是希望英国对爱尔兰的讨伐也能阿金库尔战役大获全胜。

Henry returns to France to negotiate the terms of peace and to woo Katherine, the French princess he has asked to marry. The scene brings back some of the comedy of Katherine’s language lesson, as Henry protests that he can only woo clumsily in English and that his wooing becomes even worse in French: “It is as easy for me, Kate, to conquer the kingdom as to speak so much more French. I shall never move thee in French, unless it be to laugh at me.” But the comedy sits alongside a disquieting awareness that Katherine cannot really refuse him: Henry has conquered the kingdom, and she is part of his prize. The French king agrees to all of Henry’s demands, including that he marry Katherine and be made heir to the French throne.

接着,亨利再次回到法国,与法国商议和平条约,同时他还向法国公主凯瑟琳求婚。这一幕又再现了凯瑟琳公主学英那种滑稽场面。亨利说自己只会用英语结结巴巴地表白爱情,而当他开口说法语,就更笨嘴拙舌。他说:“凯蒂,让我征服一个国家,还要轻而易举一些。我是永远不能用法文来使你心动的,除非是让你大笑一次。”但在喜剧的背后,蕴藏着一个令人不安的事实,那就是凯瑟琳公主其实根本没有拒绝亨利的机会,因为那时亨利已经占领了她的国家,她也亨利的战利品之一。法国国王应了亨利所有的请求,其中就包括将凯瑟琳公主嫁给,并将他定为法国王位的继承人。

The play concludes with a final chorus, which celebrates the victorious Henry as “This star of England,” but also reminds the audience, in more subdued tones, of what came after Henry’s conquest. He died young, his son Henry VI became king while still a baby, and during his reign, such disputes erupted among his counselors that “they lost France and made his England bleed.”

戏剧在最后一位歌队的演说中徐徐落幕。歌队歌颂获胜的亨利是“一颗英国的明亮的星星”,但同时也用更为严肃的口吻提醒观众留意亨利占领法国后的那段故事。征服法国之后没多久,亨利五世便去世了,他的儿子亨利六世加冕为王,但当时亨利六世还只是个幼儿。在亨利六世统治期间,他的大臣们之间分歧不,“他们最后失去了法兰西,又使得英格兰血流满地。”

Stephen Foley: All of the florid rhetoric of celebration that marks the Chorus completely disappears in that last epilogue. It doesn't cancel what happened, but it makes us aware of the lack of control that individual actors have over the course of events. The cycle that begins with Richard II as a disabled monarch ends with Henry’s son displaying the same inability to hold his country together. And he literally loses all of the territory that Henry had won.

史蒂芬·福利:在最后这段收场白中,歌队曾经的那些华丽辞藻全都不见了。虽然这不会磨灭曾经的辉煌,但也让我们意识到个体无改变历史进程。环始于理查二世,最终在亨利五世懦弱无能的儿子这一代宣告终结。亨利六世与理查二世一样,完全不具备维护国家统一的能力。最终,他弄丢了亨利五世打下的所有江山。

The final chorus negotiates uneasily between the play’s ongoing attempt to retell history in a particular light and its forced acknowledgement that the past cannot be altered. In the next episode, we’ll look more closely at how Shakespeare gives shape to history. We’ll also discuss the character whose shape continually seems to shift: the indecipherable figure of Henry himself.

戏剧不断试图以一种特定的方式重述历史,但它又不得不承认既定的历史已无法扭转。最后,歌队艰难地在这两者之间进行协调。下集节目,我们将更进一步地探寻莎士比亚阐述历史的方式方法,探讨一个随着剧情不断变化的人物,一个难以捉摸、无法猜透的人物这个人物就是亨利五世


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用户评论
  • 听友57365934

    不是银币吗?不是因为法军杀了所有看守辎重的孩子,还把国王的敞篷烧了抢光了里面的东西,亨利才下令杀光俘虏的吗

    猫小穆 回复 @听友57365934: 谁知道这两件事哪个先发生?战场变幻莫测,时间难以把握,作者的意见倾向于两者是同时发生,没有任何因果关系。亨利需要腾出人手面对法军,法军要找准一切空隙准备反击,不因为俘虏和孩童而改变自己的做法,一切都是出于各自的目的。

  • 不忘初心mom

    打卡