LESSON 33 Panegyric on Marie Antoinette

第三十三课 玛丽·安托瓦内特的颂歌

It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the Queen of France—then the Dauphiness—at Versailles; and surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in—glittering like the morning star, full of life, and splendour, and joy.

我上次在凡尔赛见到法国女王——后来的皇太子妃已经是六、七年前的事情了。她定不会点亮那对她来说难以触及的王权宝球，虽然必是一番愉悦景象。我看见她，她正在装饰并为那高贵的宝球而欢呼，她刚刚入场，像晨星一样闪闪发光，洋溢着激情，光彩夺目，充满欢乐。

Oh, what a revolution! and what a heart must I have, to contemplate without emotion that elevation, and that fall! Little did I dream, when she added titles of veneration to those of enthusiastic, distant, respectful love, that she should ever be obliged to carry the sharp antidote against disgrace concealed in that bosom; little did I dream that I should live to see such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honour and of cavaliers. I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult.

啊，多么伟大的一场革命啊！我须以怎样的内心，来注视那沉浮！我从未想到，她将尊贵的头衔授予了那些热情、遥远及尊敬之人。她将不得不带着尖锐的解药来对抗藏在她怀里的耻辱；我也从未想到，我将活着看到这样的灾难降临在她身上，降临在一个勇敢的民族里、一个荣誉的民族里、一个骑士的民族里。哪怕是一个侮辱性的威胁她的眼神，我想也定会有一万把剑从鞘中跳出来为她复仇。

But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever. Never, never more shall we behold that generous loyalty to rank and sex—that proud submission, that dignified obedience, that subordination of the heart—which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom. The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise is gone! It is gone,—that sensibility of principle, that chastity of honour, which felt a stain like a wound; which inspired courage whilst it mitigated ferocity; which ennobled whatever it touched; and under which vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness.

但是，骑士时代已经过去，诡辩家、经济学家和计算家成了主宰，欧洲的荣耀也不复存在。我们再也看不到那种对等级和性别的慷慨的忠诚——那种骄傲的屈服、那种带着尊严的顺从、那种心灵的从属——即使在奴役中，也能保持一种崇高的自由精神。那未被收买的生命的恩典，国家的廉价防御，男子气概和英雄主义的滋养都已一去不复返！那对原则的敏感，贞洁的荣誉，像伤口上的污迹，全部荡然无存。在激发了勇气的同时却让凶残减缓。这令它所触碰的东西更加高贵，如此，罪恶则通过失去它的粗鄙而失去了自己的一半邪恶。