Orlando / Орландо. Книга для чтения на английском языке. Вирджиния Вулф

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СКАЧАТЬ my dear Lord,” he continued, settling himself comfortably in his chair and rubbing the wine-glass between his fingers, “we must make the best of it, cherish the past and honour those writers – there are still a few of ’em – who take antiquity for their model and write, not for pay but for Glawr.” (Orlando could have wished him a better accent.) “Glawr”, said Greene, “is the spur of noble minds. Had I a pension of three hundred pounds a year paid quarterly, I would live for Glawr alone. I would lie in bed every morning reading Cicero. I would imitate his style so that you couldn’t tell the difference between us. That’s what I call fine writing,” said Greene; “that’s what I call Glawr. But it’s necessary to have a pension to do it.”

      By this time Orlando had abandoned all hope of discussing his own work with the poet; but this mattered the less as the talk now got upon the lives and characters of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and the rest, all of whom Greene had known intimately and about whom he had a thousand anecdotes of the most amusing kind to tell. Orlando had never laughed so much in his life. These, then, were his gods! Half were drunken and all were amorous. Most of them quarrelled with their wives; not one of them was above a lie or an intrigue[56] of the most paltry kind. Their poetry was scribbled down on the backs of washing bills held to the heads of printer’s devils at the street door. Thus Hamlet went to press; thus Lear; thus Othello. No wonder, as Greene said, that these plays show the faults they do. The rest of the time was spent in carousings and junketings in taverns and in beer gardens, when things were said that passed belief for wit, and things were done that made the utmost frolic of the courtiers seem pale in comparison. All this Greene told with a spirit that roused Orlando to the highest pitch of delight. He had a power of mimicry that brought the dead to life, and could say the finest things of books provided they were written three hundred years ago.

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      Примечания

      1

      Record Office – Государственный архив

      2

      have a turn for – (разг.) имеют склонность, расположены к чему-л.

      3

      Aethelbert – Этельберт (552–616), король Кента

      4

      catches one’s foot on a painted chest – (разг.) зацепляется ногой о раскрашенный сундук

      5

      The Queen – королева Англии Елизавета I (1533–1603)

      6

      the memory … green in her mind – (разг.) воспоминания … были еще свежи

Примечания

1

Record Office – Государственный архив

2

have a turn for – (разг.) имеют склонность, расположены к чему-л.

3

Aethelbert – Этельберт (552–616), король Кента

4

catches one’s foot on a painted chest – (разг.) зацепляется ногой о раскрашенный сундук

5

The Queen – королева Англии Елизавета I (1533–1603)

6

the memory … green in her mind – (разг.) воспоминания … были еще свежи

7

Order of the Garter – орден Подвязки, награда, присуждаемая за достижения, дает право называться «сэр»

8

Nothing after that was denied him. – (разг.) Теперь ему дозволялось всё.

9

a certain grandmother of his had worn a smock and carried milkpails – (ирон.) одна из его прабабушек доила коров

10

the Spanish main – область вокруг северного побережья Южной Америки, откуда испанские корабли везли сокровища в Испанию в XVI и XVII вв., сражаясь с пиратами

11

but we omit the moral – (ирон.) но мы воздержимся от осуждения

12

King James – король Яков I (1566–1625), король Англии с 1603 г., сын Марии Стюарт

13

stinted her underlinen – (разг.) экономила на нижнем белье

14

was by far the most serious of his flames – (разг.) была самым серьезным его увлечением

15

the Spanish Armada – «Непобедимая Армада», крупный военный флот, созданный Испанией в 1586–1588 гг. для завоевания Англии

16

in the extreme – (разг.) в высшей СКАЧАТЬ