牛津英文经典：麦克白

《麦克白》是莎士比亚四大悲剧之一，世界文学史上的不朽名著。全书由东安格利亚大学英国文学教授尼古拉斯·布鲁克（Nicolas Brooke）撰写导读并注释。

 

苏格兰国王邓肯的表弟麦克白将军，为国王平叛和抵御人侵立功归来，他在野心的驱使下谋杀邓肯，做了国王。为掩人耳目和防止他人夺位，他一步步害死了邓肯的侍卫，害死了班柯，害死了贵族麦克达夫的妻子和小孩。恐惧和猜疑使麦克白心里越来越有鬼，也越来越冷酷。麦克白夫人神经失常而自杀，对他也是一大刺激。在众叛亲离的情况下，麦克白面对邓肯之子和他请来的英格兰援军的围攻，落得袅首的下场。

作者

威廉·莎士比亚（William
Shakespeare，1564—1616）　英国文艺复兴时期伟大的剧作家、诗人，欧洲文艺复兴时期人文主义文学的集大成者，全世界卓越的文学家之一。英国戏剧家本·琼森称他为“时代的灵魂”，马克思称他和古希腊的埃斯库罗斯为“人类伟大的戏剧天才”。他流传下来的作品包括约38部剧本、154首十四行诗、两首长叙事诗和其他诗作。他的剧本被翻译成所有主要语言，并且表演次数远远超过其他剧作家。直至今日，他的作品依然广受欢迎。

 

 

导读者

尼古拉斯·布鲁克（Nicolas Brooke），英国东安格利亚大学英国文学教授。

List of
Illustrations

Introduction

Editorial
Procedures

MACBETH

APPENDIX A

APPENDIX B

APPENDIX C

Index

Introduction

1. Illusion

Macbeth was first produced at a time of
radical theatrical change in England.
It seems to have been written during 1606 (pp. 59-64) and to have been
presented at the Globe Theatre fairly late in that year, and so to have been
conceived for performance in daylight, in a constantly light space which could
not be physically transformed into darkness. Two years later, in 1608-9, Shakespeare’s
company, the King’s Men, took over the medieval friary and was therefore
basically a dark space into which artificial light had to be introduced—which
has been the normal state of all European theatres ever since. From then until
the London
theatres were finally closed in the 1650s after repeated injunctions from
Cromwell’s government the repertory had to be adapted for performance in both
theatres, in both conditions. Shakespeare’s last plays, from The Winter’s Tale
to The Tempest (including his collaborations with Fletcher) show remarkable
ingenuity in devising spectacular effects which could take advantage of the
dark theatre and of the experience of the company in participating in Court
masques, while still being performable at the Globe. Most of Shakespeare’s
earlier plays could no doubt have been easily adapted for revival in the new
situation since the basic configuration of the stage seems to have been much
the same, but Macbeth was a special case: about two-thirds of this play written
for the daylight theatre is set in darkness.

  All
theatre depends, in one way or another, on illusion, but Macbeth is exceptional
in affirming continuously a direct contradiction of the natural conditions: the
transformation of daylight into darkness is a tour de force which established
illusion as, not merely a utility, but a central preoccupation of the play,
dramatically announced by an opening unique in Shakespeare’s plays, the use of
the non-naturalistic prologue by the Weird Sisters in 1.1. there follows a
carefully controlled range of forms of dramatic illusion which needs to be
enumerated, not only because it is so frequently mutilated by the naturalistic
tradition of modern theatre, but also because it clarifies the study of
illusion as a structural foundation of the play.

 

 

【前言】

This edition of Macbeth has taken over ten
years to prepare, an inordinately long time, due to a variety of interruptions
as well as to my own dilatoriness. It would have been longer still without the
benefit of Kenneth Muir’s Arden edition, originally published as far back as
1951, but finally revised with a new Introduction as recently as 1984; I am
deeply indebted to Professor Muir, both for that volume, and for his kindness,
encouragement, and friendship over many years. An editor’s first debt is always
to his predecessors. the essential reference work for Macbeth is the New
Variorum of 1901, faithfully chronicling the variants of all scholarly
predecessors from the beginning of the eighteenth to the end of the nineteenth
centuries. My successors will hope for an extension through the very active
scholarship of another, nearly exhausted, century, and they could be much
helped by a similar digest of the numerous surviving prompt-books and editions
derived from prompt-books. Drama is an ephemeral art-form, and the changes made
in text and structure are constantly revealing of the theatrical potentialities
of even so great a text as this: Macbeth belongs to the theatre, and I have
learnt from far more productions than I can mention in the Introduction.

  Fifty
years ago, Macbeth was put to sleep in my mind by the all-too-common
unhappiness of studying it for School Certificate; it seemed as impossible to
wake as the Sleeping Beauty, despite my profession. Twenty-five years later,
professor Wolfgang Clement had the generous idea of using a grant from the
Volkswagen Institute to invite ‘younger Shakespearians’ to Munich for a few weeks to visit his
Department and its Shakespeare Library, and to be shown the City and its
environs. In the celebrated church
of St. John Nepomuk I
experienced a conversion, not of a religious kind, but to a perception of
baroque art. What was most strange was that it was Macbeth which came so
powerfully into my mind: for better or for worse, my debt to that occasion will
be obvious in this volume.

　“莎士比亚就是无限”；“说不尽的莎士比亚”！“莎士比亚的作品风格包含的精神方面的真实性远远超过看得见的行动”。

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　——歌德

 

　　创造得*多的是莎士比亚，他仅仅次于上帝。

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　——大仲马

1.1

Thunder and lightning.

Enter three Witches

FIRST WITCH

When shall we three meet again?

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

SECOND WITCH

When the hurl-yburly's done,

When the battle's lost and won.

THIRD WITCH

That will be ere the set of sun.

FIRST WITCH

Where the place?

SECOND WITCH

Upon the heath.

THIRD WITCH

There to meet with Macbeth.

FIRST WITCH

I come, Graymalkin!

ALL

Fair is foul, and foul is fair:

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

Exeunt

1.2

Alarum within. 

Enter King Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding Captain

DUNCAN

What bloody man is that? He can report,

As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt

The newest state.

MALCOLM

This is the sergeant

Who, like a good and hardy soldier fought

'Gainst my captivity.--Hail, brave friend:

Say to the King the knowledge of the broil

As thou didst leave it.

CAPTAIN

Doubtful it stood;

As two spent swimmers that do cling together

And choke their art; the merciless Macdonwald--

Worthy to be a rebel,--for to that

The multiplying villainies of nature

Do swarm upon him--from the Western Isles

Of kerns and galloglasses is supplied,

And Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling

Showed like a rebel's whore; but all's too weak,

For brave Macbeth--well he deserves that name--

Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel

Which smoked with bloody execution,

Like Valour's minion carved out his passag 

Till he faced the slave—

Which ne'er shook hands nor bade farewell to him,

Till he unseamed him from the nave to th’chaps,

And fixed his head upon our battlements.

DUNCAN.

O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman.