章节正文
The Tinker's Wedding
by J. M. Synge
A COMEDY IN TWO ACTS
PREFACE.
THE drama is made serious -- in the French
sense of the word -- not by the degree in
which it is taken up with problems that are
serious in themselves, but by the degree in
which it gives the nourishment" target="_blank" title="n.食物；营养品(情况)">nourishment, not very easy
to define, on which our imaginations live. We
should not go to the theatre as we go to a
chemist's, or a dram-shop, but as we go to
a dinner, where the food we need is taken
with pleasure and excitement. This was
nearly always so in Spain and England and
France when the drama was at its richest --
the infancy and decay of the drama tend to
be didactic -- but in these days the playhouse
is too often stocked with the drugs of many
VI
seedy problems, or with the absinthe or ver-
mouth of the last musicalcomedy.
The drama, like the symphony, does not
teach or prove anything. Analysts with their
problems, and teachers with their systems, are
soon as old-fashioned as the pharmacop艙ia of
Galen, -- look at Ibsen and the Germans -- but
the best plays of Ben Jonson and Moli猫re can
no more go out of fashion than the black-
berries on the hedges.
Of the things which nourish the imagination
humour is one of the most needful, and it is
dangerous to limit or destroy it. Baudelaire
calls laughter the greatest sign of the Satanic
element in man; and where a country loses
its humor, as some towns in Ireland are doing,
there will be morbidity of mind, as Baude-
laire's mind was morbid.
In the greater part of Ireland, however,
the whole people, from the tinkers to the
clergy, have still a life, and view of life, that
VII
are rich and genial and humorous. I do not
think that these country people, who have so
much humor themselves, will mind being
laughed at without malice, as the people in
every country have been laughed at in their
own comedies.
J. M. S.
December 2nd, 1907
PERSONS
MICHAEL BYRNE, a tinker.
MARY BYRNE, an old woman, his mother.
SARAH CASEY, a young tinker woman.
A PRIEST.
THE TINKER'S WEDDING
-----------
ACT I.
SCENE: A Village roadside after nightfall.
A fire of sticks is burning near the ditch a
little to the right. Michael is working beside
it. In the background, on the left, a sort of
tent and ragged clothes drying on the hedge.
On the right a chapel-gate.
SARAH CASEY -- coming in on right,
eagerly. -- We'll see his reverence this place,
Michael Byrne, and he passing backward to
his house to-night.
MICHAEL -- grimly. -- That'll be a sacred
and a sainted joy!
SARAH -- sharply. -- It'll be small joy for
yourself if you aren't ready with my wedding
ring. (She goes over to him.) Is it near
done this time, or what way is it at all?
MICHAEL. A poor way only, Sarah
Casey, for it's the divil's job making a ring,
and you'll be having my hands destroyed in
a short while the way I'll not be able to make
a tin can at all maybe at the dawn of day.
SARAH -- sitting down beside him and
throwing sticks on the fire. -- If it's the divil's
14
job, let you mind it, and leave your speeches
that would choke a fool.
MICHAEL -- slowly and glumly. -- And
it's you'll go talking of fools, Sarah Casey,
when no man did ever hear a lying story even
of your like unto this mortal day. You to
be going beside me a great while, and rearing
a lot of them, and then to be setting off with
your talk of getting married, and your driv-
ing me to it, and I not asking it at all.
[Sarah turns her back to him and ar-
ranges something in the ditch.
MICHAEL -- angrily. -- Can't you speak
a word when I'm asking what is it ails you
since the moon did change?
SARAH -- musingly. -- I'm thinking there
isn't anything ails me, Michael Byrne; but
the spring-time is a queer time, and its* queer
thoughts maybe I do think at whiles.
MICHAEL. It's hard set you'd be to think
queerer than welcome, Sarah Casey; but what
will you gain dragging me to the priest this
night, I'm saying, when it's new thoughts
you'll be thinking at the dawn of day?
SARAH -- teasingly. -- It's at the dawn of
day I do be thinking I'd have a right to be
going off to the rich tinker's do be travelling
from Tibradden to the Tara Hill; for it'd be
a fine life to be driving with young Jaunting
15
Jim, where there wouldn't be any big hills
to break the back of you, with walking up and
walking down.
MICHAEL -- with dismay. -- It's the like
of that you do be thinking!
SARAH. The like of that, Michael Byrne,
when there is a bit of sun in it, and a kind
air, and a great smell coming from the thorn
trees is above your head.
MICHAEL -- looks at her for a moment
with horror, and then hands her the ring. --
Will that fit you now?
SARAH -- trying it on. -- It's making it
tight you are, and the edges sharp on the tin.
MICHAEL -- looking at it carefully. --
It's the fat of your own finger, Sarah Casey;
and isn't it a mad thing I'm saying again
that you'd be asking marriage of me, or mak-
ing a talk of going away from me, and you
thriving and getting your good health by the
grace of the Almighty God?
SARAH -- giving it back to him. -- Fix it
now, and it'll do, if you're wary you don't
squeeze it again.
MICHAEL -- moodily, working again. --
It's easy saying be wary; there's many things
easy said, Sarah Casey, you'd wonder a fool
even would be saying at all. (He starts vio-
16
lently.) The divil mend you, I'm scalded
again!
SARAH -- scornfully. -- If you are, it's a
clumsy man you are this night, Michael Byrne
(raising her voice); and let you make haste
now, or herself will be coming with the porter.
MICHAEL -- defiantly, raising his voice.*
Let me make haste? I'll be making haste
maybe to hit you a great clout; for I'm think-
ing on the day I got you above at Rathvanna,
and the way you began crying out and say-
ing, "I'll go back to my ma," and I'm thinking
on the way I came behind you that time, and
hit you a great clout in the lug, and how quiet
and easy it was you came along with me from
that hour to this present day.
SARAH -- standing up and throwing all
her sticks into the fire. -- And a big fool I was
too, maybe; but we'll be seeing Jaunting Jim
to-morrow in Ballinaclash, and he after get-
ting a great price for his white foal in the
horse-fair of Wicklow, the way it'll be a great
sight to see him squandering his share of gold,
and he with a grand eye for a fine horse, and
a grand eye for a woman.
MICHAEL -- working again with impa-
17
tience. -- The divil do him good with the two
of them.
SARAH -- kicking up the ashes with her
foot. -- Ah, he's a great lad, I'm telling you,
and it's proud and happy I'll be to see him,
and he the first one called me the Beauty of
Ballinacree, a fine name for a woman.
MICHAEL -- with contempt. -- It's the
like of that name they do be putting on the
horses they have below racing in Arklow. It's
easy pleased you are, Sarah Casey, easy
pleased with a big word, or the liar speaks it.
SARAH. Liar!
MICHAEL. Liar, surely.
SARAH -- indignantly. -- Liar, is it?
Didn't you ever hear tell of the peelers fol-
lowed me ten miles along the Glen Malure,
and they talking love to me in the dark night,
or of the children you'll meet coming from
school and they saying one to the other, "It's
this day we seen Sarah Casey, the Beauty of
Ballinacree, a great sight surely."
MICHAEL. God help the lot of them!
SARAH. It's yourself you'll be calling
God to help, in two weeks or three, when
you'll be waking up in the dark night and
thinking you see me coming with the sun on
me, and I driving a high cart with Jaunting
18
Jim going behind. It's lonesome and cold
you'll be feeling the ditch where you'll be
lying down that night, I'm telling you, and
you hearing the old woman making a great
by J. M. Synge
A COMEDY IN TWO ACTS
PREFACE.
THE drama is made serious -- in the French
sense of the word -- not by the degree in
which it is taken up with problems that are
serious in themselves, but by the degree in
which it gives the nourishment" target="_blank" title="n.食物；营养品(情况)">nourishment, not very easy
to define, on which our imaginations live. We
should not go to the theatre as we go to a
chemist's, or a dram-shop, but as we go to
a dinner, where the food we need is taken
with pleasure and excitement. This was
nearly always so in Spain and England and
France when the drama was at its richest --
the infancy and decay of the drama tend to
be didactic -- but in these days the playhouse
is too often stocked with the drugs of many
VI
seedy problems, or with the absinthe or ver-
mouth of the last musicalcomedy.
The drama, like the symphony, does not
teach or prove anything. Analysts with their
problems, and teachers with their systems, are
soon as old-fashioned as the pharmacop艙ia of
Galen, -- look at Ibsen and the Germans -- but
the best plays of Ben Jonson and Moli猫re can
no more go out of fashion than the black-
berries on the hedges.
Of the things which nourish the imagination
humour is one of the most needful, and it is
dangerous to limit or destroy it. Baudelaire
calls laughter the greatest sign of the Satanic
element in man; and where a country loses
its humor, as some towns in Ireland are doing,
there will be morbidity of mind, as Baude-
laire's mind was morbid.
In the greater part of Ireland, however,
the whole people, from the tinkers to the
clergy, have still a life, and view of life, that
VII
are rich and genial and humorous. I do not
think that these country people, who have so
much humor themselves, will mind being
laughed at without malice, as the people in
every country have been laughed at in their
own comedies.
J. M. S.
December 2nd, 1907
PERSONS
MICHAEL BYRNE, a tinker.
MARY BYRNE, an old woman, his mother.
SARAH CASEY, a young tinker woman.
A PRIEST.
THE TINKER'S WEDDING
-----------
ACT I.
SCENE: A Village roadside after nightfall.
A fire of sticks is burning near the ditch a
little to the right. Michael is working beside
it. In the background, on the left, a sort of
tent and ragged clothes drying on the hedge.
On the right a chapel-gate.
SARAH CASEY -- coming in on right,
eagerly. -- We'll see his reverence this place,
Michael Byrne, and he passing backward to
his house to-night.
MICHAEL -- grimly. -- That'll be a sacred
and a sainted joy!
SARAH -- sharply. -- It'll be small joy for
yourself if you aren't ready with my wedding
ring. (She goes over to him.) Is it near
done this time, or what way is it at all?
MICHAEL. A poor way only, Sarah
Casey, for it's the divil's job making a ring,
and you'll be having my hands destroyed in
a short while the way I'll not be able to make
a tin can at all maybe at the dawn of day.
SARAH -- sitting down beside him and
throwing sticks on the fire. -- If it's the divil's
14
job, let you mind it, and leave your speeches
that would choke a fool.
MICHAEL -- slowly and glumly. -- And
it's you'll go talking of fools, Sarah Casey,
when no man did ever hear a lying story even
of your like unto this mortal day. You to
be going beside me a great while, and rearing
a lot of them, and then to be setting off with
your talk of getting married, and your driv-
ing me to it, and I not asking it at all.
[Sarah turns her back to him and ar-
ranges something in the ditch.
MICHAEL -- angrily. -- Can't you speak
a word when I'm asking what is it ails you
since the moon did change?
SARAH -- musingly. -- I'm thinking there
isn't anything ails me, Michael Byrne; but
the spring-time is a queer time, and its* queer
thoughts maybe I do think at whiles.
MICHAEL. It's hard set you'd be to think
queerer than welcome, Sarah Casey; but what
will you gain dragging me to the priest this
night, I'm saying, when it's new thoughts
you'll be thinking at the dawn of day?
SARAH -- teasingly. -- It's at the dawn of
day I do be thinking I'd have a right to be
going off to the rich tinker's do be travelling
from Tibradden to the Tara Hill; for it'd be
a fine life to be driving with young Jaunting
15
Jim, where there wouldn't be any big hills
to break the back of you, with walking up and
walking down.
MICHAEL -- with dismay. -- It's the like
of that you do be thinking!
SARAH. The like of that, Michael Byrne,
when there is a bit of sun in it, and a kind
air, and a great smell coming from the thorn
trees is above your head.
MICHAEL -- looks at her for a moment
with horror, and then hands her the ring. --
Will that fit you now?
SARAH -- trying it on. -- It's making it
tight you are, and the edges sharp on the tin.
MICHAEL -- looking at it carefully. --
It's the fat of your own finger, Sarah Casey;
and isn't it a mad thing I'm saying again
that you'd be asking marriage of me, or mak-
ing a talk of going away from me, and you
thriving and getting your good health by the
grace of the Almighty God?
SARAH -- giving it back to him. -- Fix it
now, and it'll do, if you're wary you don't
squeeze it again.
MICHAEL -- moodily, working again. --
It's easy saying be wary; there's many things
easy said, Sarah Casey, you'd wonder a fool
even would be saying at all. (He starts vio-
16
lently.) The divil mend you, I'm scalded
again!
SARAH -- scornfully. -- If you are, it's a
clumsy man you are this night, Michael Byrne
(raising her voice); and let you make haste
now, or herself will be coming with the porter.
MICHAEL -- defiantly, raising his voice.*
Let me make haste? I'll be making haste
maybe to hit you a great clout; for I'm think-
ing on the day I got you above at Rathvanna,
and the way you began crying out and say-
ing, "I'll go back to my ma," and I'm thinking
on the way I came behind you that time, and
hit you a great clout in the lug, and how quiet
and easy it was you came along with me from
that hour to this present day.
SARAH -- standing up and throwing all
her sticks into the fire. -- And a big fool I was
too, maybe; but we'll be seeing Jaunting Jim
to-morrow in Ballinaclash, and he after get-
ting a great price for his white foal in the
horse-fair of Wicklow, the way it'll be a great
sight to see him squandering his share of gold,
and he with a grand eye for a fine horse, and
a grand eye for a woman.
MICHAEL -- working again with impa-
17
tience. -- The divil do him good with the two
of them.
SARAH -- kicking up the ashes with her
foot. -- Ah, he's a great lad, I'm telling you,
and it's proud and happy I'll be to see him,
and he the first one called me the Beauty of
Ballinacree, a fine name for a woman.
MICHAEL -- with contempt. -- It's the
like of that name they do be putting on the
horses they have below racing in Arklow. It's
easy pleased you are, Sarah Casey, easy
pleased with a big word, or the liar speaks it.
SARAH. Liar!
MICHAEL. Liar, surely.
SARAH -- indignantly. -- Liar, is it?
Didn't you ever hear tell of the peelers fol-
lowed me ten miles along the Glen Malure,
and they talking love to me in the dark night,
or of the children you'll meet coming from
school and they saying one to the other, "It's
this day we seen Sarah Casey, the Beauty of
Ballinacree, a great sight surely."
MICHAEL. God help the lot of them!
SARAH. It's yourself you'll be calling
God to help, in two weeks or three, when
you'll be waking up in the dark night and
thinking you see me coming with the sun on
me, and I driving a high cart with Jaunting
18
Jim going behind. It's lonesome and cold
you'll be feeling the ditch where you'll be
lying down that night, I'm telling you, and
you hearing the old woman making a great
- excitement [ik´saitmənt]
n.兴奋；骚动；煽动 (初中英语单词) - musical [´mju:zikəl] a.音乐的；悦耳的 (初中英语单词)
- old-fashioned [´əuld´feʃənd] a.老式的；过时的 (初中英语单词)
- laughter [´lɑ:ftə] n.笑，笑声 (初中英语单词)
- working [´wə:kiŋ] a.工人的；劳动的 (初中英语单词)
- background [´bækgraund] n.背景；经历；幕后 (初中英语单词)
- backward [´bækwəd] ad.向后 a.向后的 (初中英语单词)
- sharply [´ʃɑ:pli] ad.锋利地；剧烈地 (初中英语单词)
- welcome [´welkəm] a.受欢迎的；可喜的 (初中英语单词)
- priest [pri:st] n.教士；牧师；神父 (初中英语单词)
- dismay [dis´mei] n.惊慌 vt.使惊慌 (初中英语单词)
- horror [´hɔrə] n.恐怖；战栗 (初中英语单词)
- standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
- comedy [´kɔmidi] n.喜剧；喜剧场面 (高中英语单词)
- define [di´fain] vt.解释；说明；限定 (高中英语单词)
- nourish [´nʌriʃ] vt.养育；施肥于 (高中英语单词)
- ireland [´aiələnd] n.爱尔兰 (高中英语单词)
- malice [´mælis] n.恶意；怨恨；预谋 (高中英语单词)
- ragged [´rægid] a.衣服破烂的 (高中英语单词)
- reverence [´revərəns] n.尊敬；敬畏；尊严 (高中英语单词)
- grimly [´grimli] ad.严厉地；坚强地 (高中英语单词)
- mortal [´mɔ:tl] a.致命的 n.凡人 (高中英语单词)
- angrily [´æŋgrili] ad.生气地；愤怒地 (高中英语单词)
- saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)
- seeing [si:iŋ] see的现在分词 n.视觉 (高中英语单词)
- contempt [kən´tempt] n.轻蔑；受辱；不顾 (高中英语单词)
- lonesome [´ləunsəm] a.孤独的；冷清清的 (高中英语单词)
- hearing [´hiəriŋ] n.听力；听证会；审讯 (高中英语单词)
- nourishment [´nʌriʃmənt] n.食物；营养品(情况) (英语四级单词)
- infancy [´infənsi] n.婴儿期；初期 (英语四级单词)
- symphony [´simfəni] n.交响乐(曲) (英语四级单词)
- genial [´dʒi:niəl] a.愉快的；和蔼的 (英语四级单词)
- humorous [´hju:mərəs] a.富于幽默的，诙谐的 (英语四级单词)
- tinker [´tiŋkə] n.&v.补锅(匠) (英语四级单词)
- roadside [´rəudsaid] n.&a.路边(的) (英语四级单词)
- setting [´setiŋ] n.安装；排字；布景 (英语四级单词)
- trying [´traiiŋ] a.难堪的；费劲的 (英语四级单词)
- almighty [ɔ:l´maiti] a.万能的；全能的 (英语四级单词)
- indignantly [in´dignəntli] ad.愤慨地，义愤地 (英语六级单词)
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