Вирджиния Вулф - Orlando / Орландо. Книга для чтения на английском языке

Greene laughed sardonically. Shakespeare, he admitted, had written some scenes that were well enough; but he had taken them chiefly from Marlowe. Marlowe was a likely boy, but what could you say of a lad who died before he was thirty? As for Browne, he was for writing poetry in prose, and people soon got tired of such conceits as that. Donne was a mountebank who wrapped up his lack of meaning in hard words. The gulls were taken in; but the style would be out of fashion twelve months hence. As for Ben Jonson – Ben Jonson was a friend of his and he never spoke ill of his friends.

No, he concluded, the great age of literature is past; the great age of literature was the Greek; the Elizabethan age was inferior in every respect to the Greek. In such ages men cherished a divine ambition which he might call La Gloire (he pronounced it Glawr, so that Orlando did not at first catch his meaning). Now all young writers were in the pay of the booksellers and poured out any trash that would sell [54] poured out any trash that would sell – ( разг. ) кропали любую чушь, лишь бы она продавалась . Shakespeare was the chief offender in this way and Shakespeare was already paying the penalty. Their own age, he said, was marked by precious conceits and wild experiments – neither of which the Greeks would have tolerated for a moment. Much though it hurt him to say it – for he loved literature as he loved his life – he could see no good in the present and had no hope for the future. Here he poured himself out another glass of wine.

Orlando was shocked by these doctrines; yet could not help observing that the critic himself seemed by no means downcast. On the contrary, the more he denounced his own time, the more complacent he became. He could remember, he said, a night at the Cock Tavern in Fleet Street when Kit Marlowe was there and some others. Kit was in high feather [55] was in high feather – ( разг. ) был в хорошем настроении , rather drunk, which he easily became, and in a mood to say silly things. He could see him now, brandishing his glass at the company and hiccoughing out, “Stap my vitals, Bill” (this was to Shakespeare), “there’s a great wave coming and you’re on the top of it,” by which he meant, Greene explained, that they were trembling on the verge of a great age in English literature, and that Shakespeare was to be a poet of some importance. Happily for himself, he was killed two nights later in a drunken brawl, and so did not live to see how this prediction turned out. “Poor foolish fellow,” said Greene, “to go and say a thing like that. A great age, forsooth – the Elizabethan a great age!”

“So, my dear Lord,” he continued, settling himself comfortably in his chair and rubbing the wine-glass between his fingers, “we must make the best of it, cherish the past and honour those writers – there are still a few of ’em – who take antiquity for their model and write, not for pay but for Glawr.” (Orlando could have wished him a better accent.) “Glawr”, said Greene, “is the spur of noble minds. Had I a pension of three hundred pounds a year paid quarterly, I would live for Glawr alone. I would lie in bed every morning reading Cicero. I would imitate his style so that you couldn’t tell the difference between us. That’s what I call fine writing,” said Greene; “that’s what I call Glawr. But it’s necessary to have a pension to do it.”

By this time Orlando had abandoned all hope of discussing his own work with the poet; but this mattered the less as the talk now got upon the lives and characters of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and the rest, all of whom Greene had known intimately and about whom he had a thousand anecdotes of the most amusing kind to tell. Orlando had never laughed so much in his life. These, then, were his gods! Half were drunken and all were amorous. Most of them quarrelled with their wives; not one of them was above a lie or an intrigue [56] not one of them was above a lie or an intrigue – ( разг. ) никто не гнушался лжи и интриг

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Record Office– Государственный архив

have a turn for– ( разг. ) имеют склонность, расположены к чему-л.

Aethelbert– Этельберт (552–616), король Кента

catches one’s foot on a painted chest– ( разг. ) зацепляется ногой о раскрашенный сундук

The Queen– королева Англии Елизавета I (1533–1603)

the memory … green in her mind– ( разг. ) воспоминания … были еще свежи

Order of the Garter– орден Подвязки, награда, присуждаемая за достижения, дает право называться «сэр»

Nothing after that was denied him.– ( разг. ) Теперь ему дозволялось всё.

a certain grandmother of his had worn a smock and carried milkpails– ( ирон. ) одна из его прабабушек доила коров

the Spanish main– область вокруг северного побережья Южной Америки, откуда испанские корабли везли сокровища в Испанию в XVI и XVII вв., сражаясь с пиратами

but we omit the moral– ( ирон. ) но мы воздержимся от осуждения

King James– король Яков I (1566–1625), король Англии с 1603 г., сын Марии Стюарт

stinted her underlinen– ( разг. ) экономила на нижнем белье

was by far the most serious of his flames– ( разг. ) была самым серьезным его увлечением

the Spanish Armada– «Непобедимая Армада», крупный военный флот, созданный Испанией в 1586–1588 гг. для завоевания Англии