（视频）莎士比亚《一报还一报》

 

 

ACT II SCENE IV   A room in ANGELO's house.  

    Enter ANGELO.

ANGELO     When I would pray and think, I think and pray

    To several subjects. Heaven hath my empty words;

    Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue,  

    Anchors on Isabel: Heaven in my mouth,

    As if I did but only chew his name;   

    And in my heart the strong and swelling evil 

    Of my conception. The state, whereon I studied  

    Is like a good thing, being often read,  

    Grown fear'd and tedious; yea, my gravity,

    Wherein--let no man hear me--I take pride,    10

    Could I with boot change for an idle plume,  

    Which the air beats for vain. O place, O form,  

    How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit,

    Wrench awe from fools and tie the wiser souls

    To thy false seeming! Blood, thou art blood: 

    Let's write good angel on the devil's horn:  

    'Tis not the devil's crest.

    Enter a Servant. 

    How now! who's there?   

Servant    One Isabel, a sister, desires access to you.

ANGELO     Teach her the way.  

    Exit Servant.

    O heavens!

    Why does my blood thus muster to my heart,    20

    Making both it unable for itself, 

    And dispossessing all my other parts

    Of necessary fitness?   

    So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons;   

    Come all to help him, and so stop the air

    By which he should revive: and even so

    The general, subject to a well-wish'd king,

    Quit their own part, and in obsequious fondness 

    Crowd to his presence, where their untaught love

    Must needs appear offence. 

    Enter ISABELLA.  

    How now, fair maid?  30

ISABELLA   I am come to know your pleasure.

ANGELO     That you might know it, would much better please me 

    Than to demand what 'tis. Your brother cannot live. 

ISABELLA   Even so. Heaven keep your honour! 

ANGELO     Yet may he live awhile; and, it may be,  

    As long as you or I yet he must die.

ISABELLA   Under your sentence?

ANGELO     Yea.  

ISABELLA   When, I beseech you? that in his reprieve,   

    Longer or shorter, he may be so fitted 40

    That his soul sicken not.

ANGELO     Ha! fie, these filthy vices! It were as good 

    To pardon him that hath from nature stolen   

    A man already made, as to remit

    Their saucy sweetness that do coin heaven's image   

   

 

In stamps that are forbid: 'tis all as easy

 

    Falsely to take away a life true made 

    As to put metal in restrained means   

    To make a false one.

ISABELLA   'Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth. 50

ANGELO     Say you so? then I shall pose you quickly.

    Which had you rather, that the most just law 

    Now took your brother's life; or, to redeem him,

    Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness  

    As she that he hath stain'd?   

ISABELLA   Sir, believe this,

    I had rather give my body than my soul.  

ANGELO     I talk not of your soul: our compell'd sins  

    Stand more for number than for accompt.  

ISABELLA   How say you? 

ANGELO     Nay, I'll not warrant that; for I can speak

    Against the thing I say. Answer to this:  60

    I, now the voice of the recorded law, 

    Pronounce a sentence on your brother's life: 

    Might there not be a charity in sin   

    To save this brother's life?

ISABELLA   Please you to do't, 

    I'll take it as a peril to my soul,   

    It is no sin at all, but charity. 

ANGELO     Pleased you to do't at peril of your soul,   

    Were equal poise of sin and charity.

ISABELLA   That I do beg his life, if it be sin, 

    Heaven let me bear it! you granting of my suit,  70

    If that be sin, I'll make it my morn prayer  

    To have it added to the faults of mine,  

    And nothing of your answer.

ANGELO     Nay, but hear me.

    Your sense pursues not mine: either you are ignorant,  

    Or seem so craftily; and that's not good.

ISABELLA   Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good, 

    But graciously to know I am no better.

ANGELO     Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright 

    When it doth tax itself; as these black masks

    Proclaim an enshield beauty ten times louder  80

    Than beauty could, display'd. But mark me;   

    To be received plain, I'll speak more gross:

    Your brother is to die. 

ISABELLA   So.

ANGELO     And his offence is so, as it appears, 

    Accountant to the law upon that pain. 

ISABELLA   True.

ANGELO     Admit no other way to save his life,--

    As I subscribe not that, nor any other,  

    But in the loss of question,--that you, his sister,  90

    Finding yourself desired of such a person,   

    Whose credit with the judge, or own great place,

    Could fetch your brother from the manacles   

    Of the all-building law; and that there were 

    No earthly mean to save him, but that either 

    You must lay down the treasures of your body 

    To this supposed, or else to let him suffer;

    What would you do?  

ISABELLA   As much for my poor brother as myself:

    That is, were I under the terms of death, 100  

    The impression of keen whips I'ld wear as rubies,   

    And strip myself to death, as to a bed

    That longing have been sick for, ere I'ld yield 

    My body up to shame.

ANGELO     Then must your brother die.

ISABELLA   And 'twere the cheaper way:

    Better it were a brother died at once,

    Than that a sister, by redeeming him, 

    Should die for ever.

ANGELO     Were not you then as cruel as the sentence   

    That you have slander'd so? 110  

ISABELLA   Ignomy in ransom and free pardon

    Are of two houses: lawful mercy

    Is nothing kin to foul redemption.

ANGELO     You seem'd of late to make the law a tyrant; 

    And rather proved the sliding of your brother

    A merriment than a vice.

ISABELLA   O, pardon me, my lord; it oft falls out, 

    To have what we would have, we speak not what we mean: 

    I something do excuse the thing I hate,  

    For his advantage that I dearly love.  120  

ANGELO     We are all frail.

ISABELLA   Else let my brother die,

    If not a feodary, but only he  

    Owe and succeed thy weakness.  

ANGELO     Nay, women are frail too.  

ISABELLA   Ay, as the glasses where they view themselves;

    Which are as easy broke as they make forms.  

    Women! Help Heaven! men their creation mar   

    In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times frail; 

    For we are soft as our complexions are,  

    And credulous to false prints.

ANGELO     I think it well:  130  

    And from this testimony of your own sex,--   

    Since I suppose we are made to be no stronger

    Than faults may shake our frames,--let me be bold;  

    I do arrest your words. Be that you are,

    That is, a woman; if you be more, you're none;  

    If you be one, as you are well express'd 

    By all external warrants, show it now,

    By putting on the destined livery.

ISABELLA   I have no tongue but one: gentle my lord,

    Let me entreat you speak the former language. 140  

ANGELO     Plainly conceive, I love you.  

ISABELLA   My brother did love Juliet,

    And you tell me that he shall die for it.

ANGELO     He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love.

ISABELLA   I know your virtue hath a licence in't,  

    Which seems a little fouler than it is,  

    To pluck on others. 

ANGELO     Believe me, on mine honour,

    My words express my purpose.

ISABELLA   Ha! little honour to be much believed,

    And most pernicious purpose! Seeming, seeming!   150  

    I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for't:

    Sign me a present pardon for my brother, 

    Or with an outstretch'd throat I'll tell the world aloud

    What man thou art.  

ANGELO     Who will believe thee, Isabel? 

    My unsoil'd name, the austereness of my life,

    My vouch against you, and my place i' the state,

    Will so your accusation overweigh,

    That you shall stifle in your own report 

    And smell of calumny. I have begun,   

    And now I give my sensual race the rein:  160  

    Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite; 

    Lay by all nicety and prolixious blushes,

    That banish what they sue for; redeem thy brother   

    By yielding up thy body to my will;   

    Or else he must not only die the death,  

    But thy unkindness shall his death draw out  

    To lingering sufferance. Answer me to-morrow,

    Or, by the affection that now guides me most,

    I'll prove a tyrant to him. As for you,   169  

    Say what you can, my false o'erweighs your true.

    Exit  

ISABELLA   To whom should I complain? Did I tell this,  

    Who would believe me? O perilous mouths,

    That bear in them one and the self-same tongue, 

    Either of condemnation or approof;

    Bidding the law make court'sy to their will: 

    Hooking both right and wrong to the appetite,

    To follow as it draws! I'll to my brother:

    Though he hath fallen by prompture of the blood,

    Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour.

    That, had he twenty heads to tender down  180  

    On twenty bloody blocks, he'ld yield them up,

    Before his sister should her body stoop

    To such abhorr'd pollution.

    Then, Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die:

    More than our brother is our chastity.

    I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request,

    And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest.  200

    Exit

 

 

朱生豪  译：

 

第二幕

第四场　安哲鲁府中一室

 

安哲鲁上。

 

安哲鲁 我每次要祈祷沉思的时候，我的心思总是纷乱无主：上天所听到的只是我的口不应心的空言，我的精神却贯注在依莎贝拉身上；上帝的名字挂在我的嘴边咀嚼，心头的欲念，兀自在那里奔腾。我已经厌倦于我所矜持的尊严，正像一篇大好的文章一样，在久读之后，也会使人掩耳；现在我宁愿把我这岸然道貌，去换一根因风飘荡的羽毛。什么地位！什么面子！多少愚人为了你这虚伪的外表而凛然生畏，多少聪明人为了它而俯首贴服！可是人孰无情，不妨把善良天使的名号写在魔鬼的角上，冒充他的标志。

 

一仆人上。

 

安哲鲁 啊，有谁来了？

 

仆人 一个叫依莎贝拉的尼姑求见大人。

 

安哲鲁 领她进来。（仆人下）天啊！我周身的血液为什么这样涌上心头，害得我心旌摇摇不定，浑身失去了气力？正像一群愚人七手八脚地围集在一个晕去的人的身边一样，本想救他，却因阻塞了空气的流通而使他醒不过来；又像一个圣 明的君主手下的子民，各弃所业争先恐后地拥挤到宫廷里来瞻望颜色*，无谓的忠诚反而造成了不愉快。

 

依莎贝拉上。

 

安哲鲁 啊，姑娘！

 

依莎贝拉 我来听候大人的旨意。

 

安哲鲁 我希望你自己已经知道，用不着来问我。你的弟弟不能活命。

 

依莎贝拉 好。上天保佑您！

 

安哲鲁 可是他也许可以多活几天；也许可以活得像你我一样长；可是他必须死。

 

依莎贝拉 最后还是要受到您的判决吗？

 

安哲鲁 是的。

 

依莎贝拉 那么请问他在什么时候受死？好让他在未死之前忏悔一下，免得灵魂受苦。

 

安哲鲁 哼！这种下流的罪恶！用暧昧的私情偷铸上帝的形象，就像从造化窃取一个生命，同样是不可逭恕的。用诈伪的手段剥夺合法的生命，和非法地使一个私生的孩子问世，完全没有差别。

 

依莎贝拉 这是天上的法律，人间却不是如此。

 

安哲鲁 你以为是这样的吗？那么我问你：你还是愿意让公正无私的法律取去你兄弟的生命呢，还是愿意像那个被他奸污的姑娘一样，牺牲肉体的清白，从而把他救赎出来？

 

依莎贝拉 大人，相信我，我情愿牺牲肉体，却不愿玷污灵魂。

 

安哲鲁 我不是跟你讲什么灵魂。你知道迫不得已犯下的罪恶是只能充数，不必计较的。

 

依莎贝拉 您这话是什么意思？

 

安哲鲁 当然，我不能保证这点；因为我所说的将来还可以否认。回答我这一个问题：我现在代表着明文规定的法律，宣布你兄弟的死刑；假使为了救你的兄弟而犯罪，这罪恶是不是一件好事呢？

 

依莎贝拉 请您尽管去作吧，有什么不是，我原用灵魂去担承；这是好事，根本不是什么罪恶。

 

安哲鲁 那么按照同样的方式权衡轻重，你也可以让灵魂冒险去犯罪呀！

 

依莎贝拉 倘使我为他向您乞恕是一种罪恶，那么我愿意担当上天的惩罚；倘使您准许我的请求是一种罪恶，那么我会每天清晨祈祷上天，让它归并到我的身上，决不让您负责。

 

安哲鲁 不，你听我。你误会了我的意思了。也许是你不懂我的话，也许你假装不懂，那可不大好。

 

依莎贝拉 我除了有一点自知之明之外，宁愿什么都不懂，事事都不好。

 

安哲鲁 智慧越是遮掩，越是明亮，正像你的美貌因为蒙上黑纱而十倍动人。可是听好，我必须明白告诉你，你兄弟必须死。

 

依莎贝拉 噢。

 

安哲鲁 按照法律，他所犯的罪名应处死刑。

 

依莎贝拉 是。

 

安哲鲁 我现在要这样问你，你的兄弟已经难逃一死，可是假使有这样一条出路——其实无论这个或任何其他作法，当然都不可能，这只是为了抽象地说明问题——假使你，他的姊姊，给一个人爱上了，他可以授意法官，或者运用他自己的权力，把你的兄弟从森严的法网中解救出来，唯一的条件是你必须把你肉体上最宝贵的一部分献给此人，不然他就得送命，那么你预备怎样？

 

依莎贝拉 为了我可怜的弟弟，也为了我自己，我宁愿接受死刑的宣判，让无情的皮鞭在我身上留下斑斑的血迹，我会把它当作鲜明的红玉；即使把我粉身碎骨，我也会从容就死，像一个疲倦的旅人奔赴他的渴慕的安息，我却不愿让我的身体蒙上羞辱。

 

安哲鲁 那么你的兄弟就再不能活了。

 

依莎贝拉 还是这样的好，宁可让一个兄弟在片刻的惨痛中死去，不要让他的姊姊因为救他而永远沉沦。

 

安哲鲁 那么你岂不是和你所申斥的判决同样残酷吗？

 

依莎贝拉 卑劣的赎罪和大度的宽赦是两件不同的事情；合法的慈悲，是不可和肮脏的徇纵同日而语的。

 

安哲鲁 可是你刚才却把法律视为暴君，把你兄弟的过失，认作一时的游戏而不是罪恶。

 

依莎贝拉 原谅我，大人！我们因为希望达到我们所追求的目的，往往发出违心之论。我爱我的弟弟，所以才会在无心中替我所痛恨的事情辩解。

 

安哲鲁 我们都是脆弱的。

 

依莎贝拉 如果你所说的脆弱，只限于我兄弟一人，其他千千万万的男人都毫无沾染，那么他倒是死得不冤了。

 

安哲鲁 不，女人也是同样的脆弱。

 

依莎贝拉 是的，正像她们所照的镜子一样容易留下影子，也一样容易碎裂。女人！愿上天帮助她们！男人若是利用她们的弱点来找便宜，恰恰是污毁了自己。不，你尽可以说我们是比男人十倍脆弱的，因为我们的心性*像我们的容颜一样温柔，很容易接受虚伪的印记。

 

安哲鲁 我同意你的话。你既然自己知道你们女人的柔弱，我想我们谁都抵抗不住罪恶的引诱，那么恕我大胆，我要用你的话来劝告你自己：请你保持你女人的本色*吧；你既不然能做一个超凡绝俗的神仙，而从你一切秀美的外表看来，都不过是一个女人，那么就该接受一个女人不可避免的命运。

 

依莎贝拉 我只有一片舌头，说不出两种言语；大人，请您还是用您原来的语调对我说话吧。

 

安哲鲁 老老实实说，我爱你。

 

依莎贝拉 我的弟弟爱朱丽叶，你却对我说他必须因此受死。

 

安哲鲁 依莎贝拉，只要你答应爱我，就可以免他一死。

 

依莎贝拉 我知道你自恃德行高超，无须检点，但是这样对别人漫意轻薄，似乎也有失体面。

 

安哲鲁 凭着我的名誉，请相信我的话出自本心。

 

依莎贝拉 嘿！相信你的名誉！你那卑鄙龌龊的本心！好一个虚有其表的正人君子！安哲鲁，我要公开你的罪恶，你等着瞧吧！快给我签署一张赦免我弟弟的命令，否则我要向世人高声宣布你是一个怎样的人。

 

安哲鲁 谁会相信你呢，依莎贝拉？我的洁白无瑕的名声，我的持躬的严正，我的振振有词的驳斥，我的柄持国政的地位，都可以压倒你的控诉，使你自取其辱，人家会把你的话当作挟嫌诽谤，我现在一不做二不休，不再控制我的情|欲，你必须满足我的饥渴，放弃礼法的拘束，解脱一切的忸怩，这些对你要请求的事情是有害无利的；把你的肉体呈献给我，来救你弟弟的性*命，否则他不但不能活命，而且因为你的无情冷酷，我要叫他遍尝各种痛苦而死去。明天给我答复，否则我要听任感情的支配，叫他知道些厉害。你尽管向人怎样说我，我的虚伪会压倒你的真实。（下。）

 

依莎贝拉 我将向谁诉说呢？把这种事情告诉别人，谁会相信我？凭着一条可怕的舌头，可以操纵人的生死，把法律供自己的驱使，是非善恶，都由他任意判断！我要去看我的弟弟，他虽然因为一时情|欲的冲动而堕落，可是他是一个爱惜荣誉的人，即使他有二十颗头颅，他也宁愿让它们在二十个断头台上被人砍落，而不愿让他姊姊的身体遭受如此的污辱。依莎贝拉，你必须活着做一个清白的人，让你的弟弟死去吧，贞操是比兄弟更为重要的。我还要去把安哲鲁的要求告诉他，叫他准备一死，使他的灵魂得到安息。（下。）