Richard Plantagenet, England’s most controversial king, was officially rediscovered on February 4th
2月4日,官方宣布重新发现英格兰最具争议的国王——理查德-金雀花的尸骨
Feb 9th 2013 |From the print edition
NO VIPER, toad or hedgehog; no unformed bear-whelp, or lump of foul deformity. Instead, the man dug up from the car park of Leicester Social Services in September had, for the most part, an ordinary shape. His height was a little above average for the time when he had lived. His limbs were regular and delicate—almost feminine, the scientists said. Pace Shakespeare, there was no withered arm. There was, however, a severely sideways-twisted spine, the result of scoliosis that had probably emerged in adolescence. It would have put one shoulder higher than the other, making him stand shorter than he was. He might have needed extra cushions in his chairs, and extra tugs when putting on those robes of green velvet and crimson cloth of gold so lovingly detailed in his orders to the Wardrobe. But then a king would get that sort of help anyway.
The body now identified as Richard (give or take the last layers of DNA testing) was found beneath the choir of the vanished Grey Friars, the Franciscan priory in Leicester. An honourable place, but hardly good enough for a king, and the work was done hastily: the grave dug too short for the body and the body itself crammed in without shroud or coffin, with its hands bound in front of its privates. The skull, when found, was open-mouthed, as if it still yelled “Treason! Treason!” When you lose a battle, as he had just lost Bosworth, on August 22nd 1485, to Henry Tudor, that is how you end. The body was battered. The face, however, was kept intact, to show the people he was dead. It has now been reconstructed: younger-looking than its 32 years, smooth with fresh paint and plastic and, in an odd way, innocent.
His supporters hope this new Richard can come to replace the old. Time to focus on the loyal brother, the brave soldier, the highly competent administrator of the north of England, the pounder of the Scots; time to remember the man who brought in special courts to hear the complaints of the poor, who abolished “benevolences” (taxes, unvoted by Parliament, disguised as gifts to the king) and who banned any curbs on the new art of printing. And time to bury deep the accused murderer of Henry VI, Henry’s son Edward, George Duke of Clarence, Lord Hastings and his own two pathetic nephews, the princes in the Tower: the crook-backed, leering, strawberry-fancying villain of Polydore Vergil, Thomas More, Shakespeare and Laurence Olivier, dragging his spider-body round and round the stage of history.
To a large degree, though, the man who was Richard III has already been uncovered. He has been found in his books, most of them second-hand and well-thumbed: “The Guidance of Princes”, Wycliffe’s New Testament, “The Art of War”, stock romances. In these he wrote his name and, sometimes, the motto tant le desiree, “I’ve wanted it so much”. (The crown, perhaps?) On the calendar page of his book of hours he carefully wrote in his name, birthplace and birth-year against October 2nd, his birthday. This was a man who spent the Christmas of 1484 over-partying, and who liked to appear in a sea of silk banners of his own device, the white boar; but who also had a particular devotion to St Anthony the Hermit, patron of those who struggled against the sins of the flesh. Compared with his hedonistic, amorous brother, Edward IV, there was a moral strictness, almost prudishness, about Richard, much emphasised by him when in 1483 he made his risky lunge for the throne.
但总的来说,人们已经揭开了理查德三世的真面目。人们已在他的藏书中发现了他,那些书大部分是二手的和翻旧了的:像《王子指南(The Guidance of Princes)》、威克里夫(Wycliffe)的《新约》译本、《孙子兵法(The Art of War)》,老掉牙的传奇故事。在这些书中,他写下了他的名字,有时他会写下他的座右铭“tant le desiree(法语:我是那么的想得到它)”(也许是皇冠?)。在他的祈祷书日历的那一页,他会在自己的生日10月2日的旁边仔细地写下他的名字、出生地、出生年份。他在1484年的圣诞节大办舞会,他喜欢出现在丝制旗帜的海洋之间,那些旗帜是他自己亲自设计的,上面的图案是白色的野猪。但他对隐士圣安东尼尤其虔诚,后者是那些与肉体的罪恶相斗争的人们的守护神。与他的兄弟——终日享乐的情种爱德华四世相比,理查德具有严格的道德观念,甚至到了拘谨的地步,他在1483年冒险向王位发起冲击,可谓一反常态。
The killer blow
致命一击
All these human touches and virtues have been known for years, and yet the monster Richard survives. Favourite stories, centuries old, are very hard to shift. The Tudors, who blackened him to promote themselves, laid it on thick. That is not the only problem, however. Richard was already, to some, a monster in his own time. For all his self-conferred title of Lord Protector, he had usurped the throne, and rumours were alive that he was a child-killer. That was why his reign could never properly get started, and why he was betrayed at Bosworth a mere two years in.
The skeleton found in the car park gave vivid evidence of the strength of feeling against him. Unhorsed in the mêlée, fighting like fury with his helmet off, he was killed either by a sword-thrust right through his brain, or by a halberd-blow that sliced off the back of his skull. More dagger blows to his head were inflicted once he was dead, and as a parting shot a knife was plunged in his buttocks as his naked body, slung over a saddle, was carried from the field.
On the mystery of how the loyal soldier of 1482 turned into the desperate, secretive, conspiracy-haunted man of 1485 the bones have nothing to say. His childhood and youth were marked by civil war. In 1470 he was forced, with his brother, into exile in the Low Countries. The age was one of ever-shifting loyalties and every man for himself. He was physically hampered, that is now clear: if not enough to change his life, enough to hurt his pride and try his temper. Those factors may explain something. Yet all the CT scans, environmental sampling and DNA analysis in the world cannot reveal whether, when he kissed the small nephews whose guardian he ostensibly was, he really meant it, or whether he was already contemplating an order that would snuff them out.
看例句:Well, youd better be careful, he said threateningly.And,with that parting shot, he stormed out oftheroom.(他恐吓道,“哼,你们最好小心一点。” 说完怒气冲冲大步走出了房间去。)
3 Every man for himself, and the devil takes the hindmost.
人不为己,天诛地灭。
II. 注释
【1】莎士比亚在《理查三世》中描述其有枯萎的手臂
【2】George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, 1st Earl of Salisbury, 1st Earl of Warwick, KG (21 October 1449 – 18 February 1478) was the third son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville, and the brother of kings Edward IV and Richard III. He played an important role in the dynastic struggle known as the Wars of the Roses. He is also remembered as the character in William Shakespeare's play Richard III who was drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine.
【3】Polydore Vergil or Virgil (c. 1470 – 18 April 1555) was an Italian historian, otherwise known as PV Castellensis. He is a primary source for the early Tudor period, though his historical accuracy is often questioned.