《罗密欧与朱丽叶》对莎士比亚时间谜题的解决外文翻译资料

Shukespeave rsquo;s Time-Riddles in Romeo and Juliet Salved
IL n with Romeo great and precision”; Juliet, William why, then, Shakespeare canrsquo;t commentators “agree such marks the passing of time a
seemingly elementary chronological point as the number of days the plot
covers”?1P. A. Daniel reckons that the action concluded on the sixth
day;2John Munro argues for fewer than six;3Caroline Spurgeon4 and
G. B. Harrisonrsquo; count five; Harley Granville-Barker reckons four6 as
does Raymond Chapman, who accuses Shakespeare of mixing short and long-time references to endue his play with “double-time,” as in
Othello.rsquo; Contemporary editors still canrsquo;t agree; Arden and Cambridge
content themselves with five days8while Jill L. Levenson ponders a sixth

in the Oxford edition.rsquo; And the numbering of days isnrsquo;t the sum of discord. Scholars have yet to agree on the date of Nursersquo;s earthquake
(1.3.22)”rsquo; or to explain why the Capulets were then in Mantua. No one
has identified the occasion for Old Capuletrsquo;s “old customed feast”
(1.2.20) or why Romeo and Juliet speak as pilgrims when they meet
(I.5.96-I 14). If Old Capulet is precise about One being not a number in
Act I (1.2.32-33), why canrsquo;t he remember what day it is in Act 3 (3.4.18)?
The Nurse is just as puzzling; sent to meet Romeo at nine (2.5.1), she
turns up at noon (2.4.97-99). What has kept her? Which “holy day”
shutters the Mantuan apothecary shop (5.1.58)? What is Friar Lawrence
thinking when he promises Juliet “two and fortie houresrsquo;” sleep
(4.1.106)? Why does Shakespeare birth his Juliet on “Lammas Eve at
night” (1.3.21) when all the sources set her birthday in September? And,
finally, why does the Chorus promise “two houres trafficque of our
Stage” (Pro. I 2) when the play runs almost three hours?
My hermeneutical methodology relates Shakespearersquo;s texts to the
Renaissance calendars and liturgy in a manner that allows us to resolve the
temporal cruces in Romeo and Juliet. All of this playrsquo;s time-riddles are artifacts
of the playwrightrsquo;s previously unrecognized mise-en-sdne. Shakespeare set
his story in I 582, the shortest year in Europe in 2000 years, and calendrically
the most confused since 46 BC. For confirmation I turn to the Nurse.
Commentators have roundly declared Nurse an unreliable chronographer.” E. K. Chambers cautions against using Nursersquo;s reminiscence
of Julietrsquo;s traumatic weaning (I .3.I 8-3 8) to establish a coherent timescheme for the play; that, he smiles, would be “pressing the Nursersquo;s
interest in chronology-and Shakespearersquo;s-rather hard.”12But I will
suggest Nursersquo;s chronicle is correct (and offer a pair of neglected sources
as part-proof). Then I will demonstrate that Shakespeare crafted the
Nursersquo;s monologue-including the elusive earthquake and her missing
teeth-as a passkey to his time-riddles for the “wiser sort” among his
auditors.

I believe this letter and its earthquakes are a once-recognized but
long-neglected source of Shakespearersquo;s Nursersquo;s reminiscence. For
Elizabethans familiar with the letter and/or the catastrophe it describes,
Nursersquo;s reference to an earthquake would pin the date of Julietrsquo;s
weaning to November 1570. If the action of Romeo and Juliet is taking
place “since the Earth-quake now eleuen yeares,” the “wiser sort” could
instantly calculate that Nursersquo;s conversation with Wife Capulet must be
taking place between November I 58 I and November I 582. Since we are
told the scene transpires “a fortnight and odde dayes” before Lammastide
-the harvest festival which began with Vespers on July 3 1-their
conversation must take place in mid-July I 582. Shakespeare and Nurse
are at pains to tell us twice that Julietrsquo;s fourteenth birthday will fall not
on the evening but on the night of July 31, 1582 (1.3.18-19 and 21);
therefore, Juliet must have been born after Compline that is, between
9 p.m. and midnight-on July 3 I, 1568. Recovering the date of Julietrsquo;s
birth untangles one of the much-debated cruces of the play: Julietrsquo;s late
weaning. There has been considerable comment on Julietrsquo;s weaning and
waddling at the age of three.23Once we recognize that Juliet, born July
3 I , I 568, was weaned in mid-November I 57o-that is, at the age of two
years and three months-we can accept Nursersquo;s boast that her charge
“could stand hylone, n a y byth roode she could haue run and wadled all about.”
Shakespearersquo;sJuliet was two years old-not three-when she was
weaned, and she will marry at thirteen. These numbers are important;
they will help us fix the holy day (and eve) on which Nursersquo;s conversation with Wife Capulet takes place.2s

----------------

In sum, Romeo and Juliet is a play about the overthrow of noble houses.
It warns us that human beings may advance the calendar, but that wonrsquo;t
make them older or riper or wiser. For Shakespearersquo;sfirst auditors, who
knew they were living by a scientifically discredited Julian calendar and

ten days out of step with the rest of the world, Romeo and Juliet was about
people living on the cusp of precariously changing times: people like
themselves. But for modern scholars Romeo and Juliet now provides an
insight into William Shakespearersquo;s mind which his editors-even the
edltors of his Sonnets-have never grasped. Shakespeare was not captivated
by time in a merely poetical way; he had a profound interest in chrononietry and possessed a most

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《罗密欧与朱丽叶》对莎士比亚时间谜题的解决

在《罗密欧与朱丽叶》这部著作之中，莎士比亚以“超乎寻常的精准”的笔触，对时间的流逝进行了描写。既然如此，那么为何评论家们不能在“就书中的情节到底发生几天之内这种看起来极其基本的时间问题”达成一致呢？P.A Daniel 推论说书中的情节在第六天的时候结束；John Munro认为情节发生的时间少于六天；Caroline Spurgeon 和G.B Harrison 认为这个数字应该是五天。而Harley Granville-Barker 认为这个数字应该是四。Raymond Chapman 同样认为四天是正确的答案，他还认为莎士比亚为了让他的作品呈现出一种“双时间线”的状态，将“短时间”和“长时间记事”拼合在了一起，例如在《奥赛罗》中他就是这样做的。同时期的编辑者们依然没有一致地意见，Arden 和Cambridge 认为五天是最完美的答案，而在剑桥出版的版本中Jill L. Levenson认为六天或许更为合适。

然而学者们意见不一地地方，并不仅仅在于时间的天数。虽然他们不得在“奶妈地震”发生的时间或者解释为什么Capulet 一家当时居住在Mantua 等方面取得一致。至今还没有确认过书中老卡普莱特家举办的“旧式宴会”发生时的具体情形，也没有人仔细研究过为什么罗密欧和朱丽叶初次相遇时会像朝圣者一样的说话。如果老卡普莱特在第一场的对于数字的要求十分精准，那么为什么在第三场的时候他就记不起来事情是在哪一天发生的呢？奶妈这一角色也同样让人困惑，朱丽叶在九点就已经催促她出门去见罗密欧了，然而她直到中午的时候才出现在罗密欧的面前。让她延误的时间到底是什么？Mantua 的药铺关门的那一天又是哪个神圣日？神父劳伦斯在许诺朱丽叶“二十四小时沉睡”的时候到底是怎么计划的？为什么莎士比亚要在其他种种迹象都表明朱丽叶的生日是在九月份的时候，偏偏将其安排在“收获节之夜”出生？最后一个问题则是，为什么当这出戏剧一共有三小时长的时候，合唱团会在演出前说“我们的演奏将会持续两个小时？”

我的解释学方法论用一种能让我们解决《罗密欧与朱丽叶》中诸多难题的方法，将莎士比亚的作品和文艺复兴发生的时间和方式联系起来。这部戏剧中所有的时间谜题不过是一种之前未被察觉的舞台场景布置的产物。莎士比亚将事件发生的时间设定在1582年，这一年恰好是欧洲两千多年来最短的一年，也是自从公元前46年之后日历记录上最为混乱的一年。为了证明我的理论，我将奶妈这一角色作为例子。

此前，评论家们已经直言不讳地指出用“奶妈”这一角色当做时间计时器是不可行的。 E. K. Chambers 谨慎地反对在奶妈对朱丽叶断奶时回忆的台词的基础上建立整场剧的时间线。他是这样说的：“那样会将奶妈的关注点转移到lsquo;时间rsquo;，继而让莎士比亚的原意更难得到理解。”然而我却认为使用“奶妈”这条线索来建立整场戏剧的时间线是可行的。接下来我将证明，莎士比亚精心地通过奶妈关于地震的独白和她失去的牙齿为他“较为聪慧”的观众打造了一把万能钥匙，以打开这部戏剧的时间谜题。

我相信原作中的信和其中提到的地震是莎士比亚笔下奶妈回忆中虽然曾经得到些许注意但最终还是被长期忽略了的一部分。因为伊丽莎白家族明显是熟悉这封信和其中涉及的灾祸的。奶妈对于地震的提及完全可以将朱丽叶断奶的日期精确地确定在1570年的十一月。

如果《罗密欧与朱丽叶》的故事发生在“那场地震之后的十一年”，聪明的听众们一定立刻就能判断出奶妈和卡普莱特夫人的对话发生在1581年11月到1582年11月之间。
我们已经知道这个场景出现在7月31号“收获节”之前的两个星期多一点的某一天。那么她们的对话一定发生在1582年的七月中旬。至此，莎士比亚和奶妈已经两次告知我们朱丽叶的第十四个生日不是在1582七月31号年的傍晚，而是在那一天的晚上。

因此朱丽叶一定是在晚祷后出生，即七月三十一号的晚九点到午夜之间。

而朱丽叶出生日期的确定能帮助我们解决原作中许多时间谜题中的另一个谜题：朱丽叶断奶的时间。关于这一问题已经有很多人对此作出了论述。一旦我们确定了朱丽叶出生在1568年的七月三号并且在1570年，两岁零三个月时断奶。我们就可以确定奶妈关于她当时事迹地一些叙述的可信度。

莎士比亚笔下的朱丽叶在两岁零三个月的时候断奶，并且在十三岁时就即将结婚，都是对于解决其他世间谜题来说相当重要的信息。
这两个数字能帮助我们推演出前文提出过的奶妈和卡普莱特夫人对话发生的那个“神圣日”的具体日期。

总之，《罗密欧与朱丽叶》是一个关于贵族世家衰落的故事。它告诉我们人类或许能够超越时间地限制，但这并不意味着我们会因此变得更加成熟或者聪慧。对于莎士比亚的一些特别的听众，即那些知道主人公们生活在一个已经被科学证明不可信的Julian日历世界并且比其他的世界永远落后十天的听众们来说，不论是罗密欧还是朱丽叶都只不过是生活在永恒变幻时间风口浪尖的角色，而这正是这样的角色往往都很喜欢他们自己。但是对于现代学者来说，《罗密欧与朱丽叶》是一道可以通往威廉莎士比亚内心世界的大门。那个世界对于他的编辑者们来说是如此得遥不可及，连他的十四行诗的收编者都无缘一窥。莎士比亚的作品并不仅仅出于艺术的目的来对作品发生的时间线进行限制。他对于时间这一观念有着无穷的兴趣并且对于文艺复兴中新出现的时间观念有着无与伦比的深刻理解。

我们现在知道莎士比亚在《罗密欧与朱丽叶》中布置了许多线索来隐射“神圣日”的无用，以及格里高利日历改革之后造成的社会混乱。

当下一次我们听到合唱团说“我们会尽最大力量在两个小时之内结束我们的演出”的时候，我们就会明白，原来我们不过身处在莎士比亚的笑话之中。

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