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Penguin Island-Part12_Anatole France_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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lifetime concealed his genius. I saluted him piously and remained for a long

time without speech.



At last when my halting voice could proceed out of my throat:

"O thou, so dear to the Ausonian Muses, thou honour of the Latin name,



Virgil," cried I, "it is through thee I have known what beauty is, it is

through thee I have known what the tables of the gods and the beds of the



goddesses are like. Suffer the praises of the humblest of thy adorers."

"Arise, stranger," answered the divine poet. "I perceive that thou art a



living being among the shades, and that thy body treads down the grass in this

eternal evening. Thou art not the first man who has descended before his death



into these dwellings, although all intercourse between us and the living is

difficult. But cease from praise; I do not like eulogies and the confused



sounds of glory have always offended my ears. That is why I fled from Rome,

where I was known to the idle and curious, and laboured in the solitude of my



beloved Parthenope. And then I am not so convinced that the men of thy

generation understand my verses that should be gratified by thy praises. Who



art thou?"

"I am called Marbodius of the Kingdom of Alca. I made my profession in the



Abbey of Corrigan. I read thy poems by day and I read them by night. It is

thee whom I have come to see in Hell; I was impatient to know what thy fate



was. On earth the learned often dispute about it. Some hold it probable that,

having lived under the power of demons, thou art now burning in



inextinguishable flames; others, more cautious, pronounce no opinion,

believing that all which is said concerning the dead is uncertain and full of



lies; several, though not in truth the ablest, maintain that, because thou

didst elevate the tone of the Sicilian Muses and foretell that a new progeny



would descend from heaven, thou wert admitted, like the Emperor Trajan, to

enjoy eternal blessedness in the Christian heaven."



"Thou seest that such is not the case," answered the shade, smiling.

"I meet thee in truth, O Virgil, among the heroes and sages in those Elysian



Fields which thou thyself hast described. Thus, contrary to what several on

earth believe, no one has come to seek thee on the part of Him who reigns on



high?

After a rather long silence:



"I will concealnought from thee. He sent for me; one of his messengers, a

simple man, came to say that I was expected, and that, although I had not been



initiated into their mysteries, in consideration of my prophetic verses, a

place had been reserved for me among those of the new sect. But I refused to



accept that invitation; I had no desire to change my lace. I did so not

because I share the admiration of the Greeks for the Elysian fields, or



because I taste here those joys which caused Proserpine to lose the

remembrance of her mother. I never believed much myself in what I say about



these things in the 'Aeneid.' I was instructed by philosophers and men of

science and I had a correct foreboding of the truth. Life in hell is extremely



attenuated; we feel neither pleasure nor pain; we are as if we were not. The

dead have no existence here except such as the living lend them. Nevertheless



I prefer to remain here."

"But what reason didst thou give, O Virgil, for so strange a refusal?"



"I gave excellent ones. I said to the messenger of the god that I did not

deserve the honour he brought me, and that a meaning had been given to my



verses which they did not bear. In truth I have not in my fourth Eclogue

betrayed the faith of my ancestors. Some ignorant Jews alone have interpreted



in favour of a barbarian god a verse which celebrates the return of the golden

age predicted by the Sibylline oracles. I excused myself then on the ground



that I could not occupy a place which was destined for me in error and to

which I recognised that I had no right. Then I alleged my disposition and my



tastes, which do not accord with the customs of the new heavens.

"'I am not unsociable,' said I to this man. 'I have shown in life a



complaisant and easy disposition, although the extremesimplicity of my habits

caused me to be suspected of avarice. I kept nothing for myself alone. My



library was open to all and I have conformed my conduct to that fine saying of

Euripides, "all ought to be common among friends." Those praises that seemed



obtrusive when I myself received them became agreeable to me when addressed to

Varius or to Macer. But at bottom I am rustic and uncultivated. I take



pleasure in the society of animals; I was so zealous in observing them and




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