第四册第9篇：哈姆雷特

9 Hamlet 哈姆雷特



The seeming inconsistencies in the conduct and character of Hamlet have long exercised the

conjectural 1 ingenuity 2 of critics; and, as we are always loth to suppose that the cause of defective 3 apprehension 4 is in ourselves, the mystery has been too commonly explained by the very easy process of setting it down as in fact inexplicable 5, and by resolving the phenomenon into a misgrowth or lusus of the capricious and irregular genius of Shakespeare. The shallow and stupid arrogance 6 of these vulgar and indolent decisions I would fain do my best to expose.

哈姆雷特的行动和性格似乎很不一致。长期以来，这已使文艺评论家绞尽脑汁，加以推测；而由于我们总是不愿设想，理解上存在缺陷的原因在于我们自身，所以通常都以一种非常简单的方式来解释这个奥秘，即把它看成实际上是无法说明的现象，并把这一现象归之于莎士比亚的变幻莫测和不同寻常的天才的畸形发展。对于这些卑俗和怠惰导致的结论所表现出来的浅薄而愚昧的狂妄态度，我愿尽力予以揭露。

 

I believe the character of Hamlet may be traced to Shakespeare’s deep and accurate science in mental philosophy. Indeed, that this character must have some connection with the common fundamental laws of our nature may be assumed from the fact, that Hamlet has been the darling of every country in which the literature of England has been fostered. In order to understand him, it is essential that we should reflect on the constitution of our own minds. Man is distinguished 7 from the brute 8 animals in proportion as thought prevails over sense: but in the healthy processes of the mind, a balance is constantly maintained between the impressions from outward objects and the inward operations of the intellect; for if there be an overbalance in the contemplative faculty 9, man thereby 10 becomes the creature of mere 11 meditation 12, and loses his natural power of action.

我相信哈姆雷特的性格根植于莎士比亚对心理学准确而深刻的认识。在每个受过英国文学熏陶的国家里，哈姆雷特都是人们心爱的人物；从这个事实我们可以设想：哈姆雷特这个人物和我们性格中的共同基本规律，一定有某种联系。为了理解他，我们必须思考我们自己的心理构造。人和野兽的区别，同思想驾驭感官知觉的程度成正比。可是，在正常的思维活动过程中，外界事物所产生的印象和内心的智力活动之间经常保持平衡；因为，如果思维的机能占了优势，人就会变成思索的中心，而丧失了行动的本能。



Now one of Shakespeare’s modes of creating characters is, to conceive any one intellectual or moral faculty in morbid 13 excess, and then to place himself, Shakespeare, thus mutilated or diseased, under given circumstances. In Hamlet he seems to have wished to exemplify the moral necessity of a due balance between our attention to the objects of our senses, and our meditation on the workings of our minds, -- an equilibrium 14 between the real and the imaginary worlds.

莎士比亚塑造人物的方式之一是：设想任何一种智能或精神官能处于不健康的过度发展状态，接着就把因此变得带有心理伤残或病态的他自己――莎士比亚――至于特定的环境之中。他似乎想以哈姆雷特为例，说明对感觉对象的注意和对心理活动的深思研究之间，也就是现实世界和想象世界之间，保持应有的平衡在精神上的必要性。



In Hamlet this balance is disturbed: his thoughts, and the images of his fancy are far more vivid than his actual perceptions, and his very perceptions, instantly passing through the medium of his contemplations, acquire, as they pass, a form and a colour not naturally their own. Hence we see a great, an almost enormous, intellectual activity, and a proportionate aversion to real action consequent upon it, with all its symptoms and accompanying qualities.

在哈姆雷特身上，这种平衡被破坏了：他的思想，以及他幻想的形象，比他实际感觉到的东西生动得多；而他所感觉到的那些东西本身，因为要立即通过一种媒介，即他的种种沉思，所以在通过的时候便获得了一种非其自身天然具有的形状和色彩。因此，我们见到一种巨大的、甚至是庞大无比的理性活动，我们还见到了随此理性活动产生，并与之成正比例的，对采取具体行动反感，以及此反感的种种表现和固有特点。

 

This character Shakespeare places in circumstances, under which it is obliged to act on the spur of the moment: -- Hamlet is brave and careless of death; but he vacillates from sensibility, and procrastinates 15 from thought, and loses the power of action in the energy of resolve. Thus it is that this tragedy presents a direct contrast to that of "Macbeth;" the one proceeds with the utmost slowness, the other with a crowded and breathless rapidity.

莎士比亚将这个人物置于特定的使他不能不在一时的冲动下行动的环境之中：哈姆雷特是勇敢的，他把生死置于度外，可是他由于过分敏感而动摇，由于思虑太多而拖延，由于致力于下决心而失掉了行动的力量。这就是这个悲剧和麦克佩斯的悲剧形成截然相反对照的缘故：前者的发展过程极其缓慢，而后者则头绪纷繁，并且是以令人透不过气的速度展开的。