William Shakespeare by Jennifer Bassett
单词提示
1.glove 手套
原文
Chapter 2: Stratford upon Avon
It was a sunny day in October 1579 when I first met Will, just outside Stratford,near a big field of apple trees.
I saw a boy up in one of the trees.
He had red hair and looked about two years older than me.
“What are you doing up there?” I called.
“Just getting a few apples.” he said, smiling.
“Those are farmer Nash's apples,” I said, “And he'll send his dogs after you if he sees you.”
“Mr.Nash's gone to market,” the boy said, “Come on, they're good apples.”
Next minute, I was up the tree with him, but Will was wrong.
Farmer Nash wasn't at the market, and a few minutes later, we saw his angry red face above the wall on the far side of the field.
Will and I ran like the wind and only stopped when we reached the river.
We sat down to eat our apples.
Will was 15 and lived in Henley Street.
He told me his father was John Shakespeare and he had a sister, Joan, and two younger brothers, Gilbert and Richard.
There was another sister who died, I learnt later.
And the next year, he had another brother, little Edmund, the baby of the family.
“Now what about you?” he asked.
“There's only me and my sister,” I said, “My parents are dead and we live with my mother's brother. He's a shoemaker in Ely Street, and I work for him, what do you do?”
“I go to Mr. Jenkins School in Church Street,” Will said, “every day from 7 o'clock until 5 o'clock, not Sundays, of course.”
I was sorry for him.
“Isn't it boring?” I asked.
“Sometimes,usually it's all right.” He lay back and put his hands behind his head, “But we have to read and learn all these Latin writers. I want to read modern writers and English writers like Jeffrey Chaucer, can you read?”He asked.
“Of course I can read,” I said, “I went to school.”
Will sat up and began to eat another apple.
“I want to be a writer,” he said. “A poet, I want that more than anything in the world.”
We were friends from that day until the day he died.
We met nearly every day, and he taught me a lot about books and poetry and writers.
He always had his nose in a book.
When Will left school, he worked for his father in Henley Street.
John Shakespeare was a glove maker, and he had other business too, like buying and selling sheep, but Will wasn't interested.
“What are we going to do, Toby?” he said to me one day, “We can't spend all our lives making shoes and gloves.”
“Will,”I said, “we could run away to sea and be sailors, sail round the world like Francis Drake.”
Drake sailed back to Plymouth in 1581 after his three-year journey round the world,but we were still in Stratford.
We made lots of plans, but nothing ever came of them.
Will was still reading a lot, and he was already writing poems himself.
He sometimes showed them to me, and I said they were very good.
I didn't really know anything about poetry then, but he was my friend.
Will was not happy with his writing.
“I've got so much to learn, Toby.” he said, “So much to learn.”
Poor Will, He had a lot to learn about women too.
One day in October 1582, he came to my house with a long face.
“I'll never leave Stratford,” he said.
“Why not?” I asked, “We'll get away one day, you'll see.”
“Perhaps you will,” he said, “But I'm going to be married in a few weeks time to Anne Hathaway.”
Mymouth fell open and stayed open.
“Married to Anne Hathaway? Is that the Hathaways over at Shott Toy?”
“Yes.”Will said.
I was working on some shoes on the table, and Will picked one up and looked at it. “Will, she's a fine girl?”
“Of course.”
I said uncomfortably, “But, but Will, she's 26 and you're only 18.”
“I know,” Will said, “But I've got to marry her.”
“Oh no,” I said, “You mean She's…”
“That's right,” said Will, “In about 6 month time, I'm going to be a father.”
翻译
第二章：埃文河畔斯特拉特福
1579年10月的一天，天气晴朗，我在斯特拉特福镇外、一片大苹果园附近，第一次遇见了威尔。
我看见一个男孩正爬在一棵苹果树上。他长着一头红发，看起来比我大两岁左右。
“你在上面干嘛呢？”我朝他喊道。
“摘几个苹果。”他笑着说。
“那是纳什农夫的苹果，”我说，“要是被他看见，他会放狗咬你的。”
“纳什先生去集市了，”男孩说，“快上来吧，这苹果可甜了。”
下一秒，我也爬上了树和他待在一起。不过威尔猜错了，纳什农夫根本没去集市。没过几分钟，我们就看见田地那头墙上方，露出了他那张气得通红的脸。
我和威尔撒腿就跑，像一阵风似的，直到跑到河边才停下。
我们坐下来吃苹果。
威尔那年15岁，住在亨利街。
他告诉我，他父亲叫约翰·莎士比亚，他有个姐姐叫琼，还有两个弟弟，吉尔伯特和理查德。
后来我才知道，他原本还有个姐姐，不幸夭折了。
第二年，他又添了个弟弟，小埃德蒙，是家里最小的孩子。
“那你呢？”他问我。
“家里就我和我姐姐，”我说，“我父母都不在了，我们和我母亲的哥哥住在一起。他在伊利街做鞋匠，我给他打下手。你平时都做些什么？”
“我在教堂街的詹金斯先生学校上学，”威尔说，“每天早上7点一直上到下午5点，星期天当然不上。”
我挺同情他的。
“那不是很无聊吗？”我问。
“有时候吧，不过通常还好。”他往后一躺，双手枕在脑后，“但我们非得读那些拉丁文作家的书，还得全背下来。我倒想读读现代作家，还有像杰弗里·乔叟那样的英国作家。你会看书吗？”他问。
“我当然会看书，”我说，“我也上过学的。”
威尔坐起身来，拿起另一个苹果啃了起来。
“我想当个作家，”他说，“当个诗人，这是我这辈子最渴望的事。”
从那天起，直到他离世，我们一直都是好朋友。
我们几乎天天见面，他教了我很多关于书籍、诗歌和作家的知识。他总是手不释卷。
威尔离开学校后，就在亨利街帮他父亲的忙。
他父亲约翰·莎士比亚是个手套匠，同时也做些别的买卖，比如倒卖羊群，但威尔对此毫无兴趣。
“托比，你说我们以后该怎么办？”有一天他对我说，“我们总不能一辈子都做鞋、做手套吧。”
“威尔，”我说，“我们可以逃到海上去当水手，像弗朗西斯·德雷克那样环游世界。”
1581年，德雷克在历时三年的环球航行后回到了普利茅斯，可我们却依然还在斯特拉特福。
我们制定过无数计划，但最后全都成了泡影。
威尔依然大量阅读，而且已经开始自己写诗了。
他偶尔会把诗拿给我看，我总是说写得非常好。
其实那时候我对诗歌一窍不通，但他毕竟是我的朋友。
威尔对自己的文字并不满意。
“我要学的东西太多了，托比，”他说，“实在有太多要学的了。”
可怜的威尔，他在女人这方面，同样有很多要学的。
1582年10月的一天，他拉着个长脸来到我家。
“我永远也离不开斯特拉特福了。”他说。
“为什么？”我问，“总有一天我们会离开的，你信我。”
“也许你能吧，”他说，“但我再过几周就要和安妮·海瑟薇结婚了。”
我惊得目瞪口呆，半天合不拢嘴。
“和安妮·海瑟薇结婚？是肖特里那边的那个海瑟薇家吗？”
“对。”威尔说。
我当时正在桌前做鞋，威尔顺手拿起一只鞋端详起来。“威尔，她是个好姑娘吗？”
“当然是。”
我有些局促不安地说：“可是，可是威尔，她都26岁了，你才18岁啊。”
“我知道，”威尔说，“但我必须娶她。”
“哦，天哪，”我说，“你的意思是她……”
“没错，”威尔说，“大概六个月后，我就要当爸爸了。”
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