Mark Twain - A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court / Янки из Коннектикута при дворе короля Артура. Книга для чтения на английском языке

So I did not talk blood and insurrection to that man there who sat munching black bread with that abused and mistaught herd of human sheep, but took him aside and talked matter of another sort to him. After I had finished, I got him to lend me a little ink from his veins; and with this and a sliver I wrote on a piece of bark:

Put him in the Man-Factory – and gave it to him, and said:

“Take it to the palace at Camelot and give it into the hands of Amyas le Poulet, whom I call Clarence, and he will understand.”

“He is a priest, then,” said the man, and some of the enthusiasm went out of his face.

“How – a priest? Didn’t I tell you that no chattel of the Church, no bond-slave of pope or bishop can enter my Man-Factory? Didn’t I tell you that you couldn’t enter unless your religion, whatever it might be, was your own free property?”

“Marry it is so, and for that was I glad; wherefore it liked me not, and bred in me a cold doubt, to hear of this priest being there.”

“But he isn’t a priest, I tell you.”

The man looked far from satisfied. He said:

“He is not a priest, and yet can read?”

“He is not a priest, and yet can read – yes, and write, too, for that matter. I taught him myself.” The man’s face cleared. “And it is the first thing that you yourself will be taught in that Factory…”

“I? I would give blood out of my heart to know that art. Why, I will be your slave, your…”

“No you won’t; you won’t be anybody’s slave. Take your family and go along. Your lord the bishop will confiscate your small property, but no matter, Clarence will fix you all right.”

I paid three pennies for my breakfast, and a most extravagant price it was, too, seeing that one could have breakfasted a dozen persons for that money; but I was feeling good, by this time, and I had always been a kind of spendthrift anyway; and then these people had wanted to give me the food for nothing, scant as their provision was, and so it was a grateful pleasure to emphasize my appreciation and sincere thankfulness with a good big financial lift where the money would do so much more good than it would in my helmet, where, these pennies being made of iron, and not stinted in weight, my half dollar’s worth was a good deal of a burden to me. I spent money rather too freely, in those days, it is true; but one reason for it was that I hadn’t got the proportions of things entirely adjusted, even yet, after so long a sojourn in Britain – hadn’t got along to where I was able to absolutely realize that a penny in Arthur’s land and a couple of dollars in Connecticut were about one and the same thing: just twins, as you may say, in purchasing power. If my start from Camelot could have been delayed a very few days I could have paid these people in beautiful new coins from our own mint, and that would have pleased me; and them, too, not less. I had adopted the American values exclusively. In a week or two, now, cents, nickels, dimes, quarters and half dollars, and also a trifle of gold, would be trickling in thin but steady streams all through the commercial veins of the kingdom, and I looked to see this new blood freshen up its life.

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Pompadour, and Lady Castlemaine – Жанна-Антуанетта Пуассон, маркиза Помпадур (1721–1764) – фаворитка французского короля Людовика XV; Барбара Вилльер – фаворитка английского короля Карла II (16301685). Обе пользовались большим политическим влиянием и вмешивались в государственные дела

Warwick Castle – выстроен в XI веке, при Вильгельме Завоевателе; расположен недалеко от Лондона

Cromwell – Оливер Кромвель (1599–1658) – один из крупнейших деятелей английской буржуазной революции середины XVII века.

Wit ye well – (разг., устар.) Что скрывать!

Thomas Malory – Мэлори Томас, английский рыцарь XV века, автор книги «Смерть Артура» (1485), которая послужила главным источником данного произведения (рассказ о том, «как сэр Ланселот убил двух великанов и освободил замок», представляет точное воспроизведение главы из книги Мэлори)

as he were wood – (разг.) как безумный

Sir Kay the seneschal – сенешаль, то есть управитель дворца короля Артура; комический персонаж, хвастун и неудачник, строящий козни другим рыцарям и неизменно оказывающийся посрамленным

After a fourth persuader – (зд.) после четвертого стаканчика

At last I met my match, and I got my dose – (разг.) В конце концов я нарвался и получил то, что мне причитается.

When I came to again – (разг.) когда я снова очнулся.

or I’ll report you. – (разг.) или я отправлю вас в полицию.

he meant business – (разг.) он не шутил

I was up a stump – (разг.) я был в недоумении

Give you good den – (устар.) доброй ночи

palimpsest – дневник рукописи на пергаменте, первоначальный текст которых был стерт и заменен новым, с целью экономии дорогостоящего материала для письма

make-up – (зд.) наряд

I couldn’t make head or tail of it – (разг.) я ничего не мог понять

Prithee do not let me. – (зд.) Не мешай.