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Liam Carrigan 专属博客
追随莎士比亚的步伐：吟游诗人对现代英语的影响
Following in Shakespeare’s Steps: The Bard’s Influence on Modern English
作为一个小小的开场白我在这里需要说的是：当我还是一名高中生的时候，我非常痛恨被迫阅读莎士比亚的著作，也很厌恶在英文考试当中写关于《第十二夜》、《罗密欧与朱丽叶》和《威尼斯商人》的评论。
Ok, first a little opening statement here that needs to be said: As a high school student, I utterly detested being forced to read Shakespeare and I resented being made to write commentaries on the likes of Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet and The Merchant of Venice for my English exams.
如果说真的有一个可以回到过去的时光机，我一定会很兴奋地跳进去，回到十六世纪的英格兰，照“吟游诗人”最疼的地方给踢一脚！
It’s fair to say that if a time machine existed back in those days, I would have gladly jumped in, set course for 16th century England and given “The Bard” a swift kick where it hurts the most!
当然，事到如今，作为一个成年人和一个爬格子的人，我已经进化到到可以给莎士比亚的作品致以“勉强的敬意”了。尽管我依然认为他笔下的人物老套、故事转折总是极为容易被猜中，他的作品还是有一些令人钦佩的地方的。
Of course, these days, as an adult, and as someone who writes, I have developed what one may call a “grudging respect” for Shakespeare’s works. Whilst I still maintain that his characters are clichéd and the twists in his stories are often highly predictable, there is a certain admirable quality to their overall content.
不管怎样我对莎士比亚的戏剧都不那么感冒。但我今天想要说的是他的作品对英语产生的持续影响。
However, I’m not so much concerned with Shakespeare’s plays. What I wish to talk about today is more the lasting impact that his work has left on the English language.
我对莎士比亚的批评经常被他的粉丝反驳道，许多我们常用的短语、俗语和词汇，很显然都来源于他的作品。
I had often been told by defenders of Shakespeare that for all I criticized him, many of the phrases, idioms and words that I commonly use were, apparently, derived from his works.
的确，剧作家让戏剧创造和人物角色成为一个新标杆是一回事，但是用独有的词汇和短语来构建戏剧和人物又是另外一回事了。
It’s one thing to pen plays that set a new benchmark for script-writing and characterization, but it’s another thing altogether to actually start making up your own words and phrases to go along with them.
现在，我们一起来看看这些你未必知道是出自莎士比亚笔下的的词汇和短语吧。
So, let’s look at some common words and phrases you probably didn’t know came from Shakespeare’s own pen.
1）Articulated（阐述）：英语里常说“我们要正确地阐述自己（确切地表达我们想要表达的）。”动词articulate的确是莎士比亚的一大创作，“用文章阐述”约定俗成的简易格式，表示清晰地解释某些事物，包括所有细节。“articulated”动词形式的首次记录可以在莎士比亚的《亨利四世》的第五幕第一场里面找到：“These things indeed, you have articulated.”（“你们曾经振振有词地阐述这一类的话煽动群众。”）
1) Articulated: We often talk about the need to articulate ourselves correctly (say exactly what we mean to say) in English. But the verb to articulate was actually a creation of Shakespeare as a short form of the accepted convention at the time “to set forth in articles” which meant to explain something clearly, including even the most minute details. The first recorded use of the verb form “articulated” can be found in Shakespeare’s “Henry IV”, Act5, Scene1: “These things indeed, you have articulated.”
创造出便利的新动词是莎士比亚的特长。他相似的贡献还有“advertising”（做广告）, “blushing”（脸红） 以及大众热爱的“puking”（呕吐）!
Creating new verbs of convenience was one of Shakespeare’s fortes. He similarly is responsible for the genesis of “advertising”, “blushing” and the much loved “puking”!
2）Arch-Villain（恶棍）：所有著名的漫画书里面的重要角色。所有的蝙蝠侠故事中必定会有一个小丑，而所有超人漫画则会有一个莱克斯·卢瑟，凡此种种，不一而足。讽刺的是漫画书的粉丝们会照例会细细阅读他们喜欢的恶棍的阴谋诡计，但是他们却从来不会考虑拿起莎士比亚的文本。有一部不是那么著名的莎士比亚戏剧叫《雅典的泰门》，在第五幕第一场中，有这样一句著名的台词：“You that way and you this, but two in company, each man apart, all single and alone, yet an arch-villain keeps him company.”（“你向那边走，你向这边走。你们一共只有两个人，可是你们两人分开以后，各人还有一个万恶的奸徒和他在一起。”）莎士比亚用了一个前缀“arch”表示比同类的任何事物都要严重，意在强调恶棍中的极品。
2) Arch-Villain: That great staple of all the most famous comic books. For every Batman there must be a Joker, for every Superman, a Lex Luthor, and so on. It is ironic that fans of the comic book genre will routinely read about the machinations of their favourite arch-villains, and yet wouldn’t dare even consider picking up a Shakespeare text. It was the somewhat obscure play Timon of Athens, Act V, Scene I that gave rise to this famous label: “You that way and you this, but two in company, each man apart, all single and alone, yet an arch-villain keeps him company.”
3）财产、所有物：事实上，在莎士比亚的《一报还一报》出现之前，英语似乎缺乏一个单纯的集合名词来指代一个人的所有物品。
3) Belongings: Indeed, prior to Shakespeare penning “Measure for Measure” it seems the English language was lacking a single collective noun for all of one’s personal items.
正如文森提欧公爵在第一幕第一景中说的：
As Duke Vincentio says in Act I Scene I:
“你自己和你所有的一切，倘不拿出来贡献于人世，仅仅一个人独善其身，那实在是一种浪费。”
“Thyself and thy belongings are not thine own so proper as to waste thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee.”
4）（上）瘾、嗜好：作为晚年生活滥用鸦片成瘾的人，在某种程度上蛮讽刺的是莎士比亚发明了“（上）瘾”这个词，而在它变得流行起来的两三百年前他就已经是一个沉迷于毒品的瘾君子了！这个词首次在英语当中出现是在《奥赛罗》第二幕第二场：
“It is Othello's pleasure, our noble and valiant general, that, upon certain tidings now arrived, importing the mere perdition of the Turkish fleet, every man put himself into triumph; some to dance, some to make bonfires, each man to what sport and revels his addiction leads him.”（ “我们尊贵英勇的元帅奥瑟罗有令，根据最近接到的消息，土耳其舰队已经全军覆没，全体军民听到这一个捷音，理应同伸庆祝：跳舞的跳舞，燃放焰火的燃放焰火，每一个人都可以随他自己的嗜好尽情欢乐”）
4) Addiction: As an opiate abuser for much of his later life, it is somewhat appropriately ironic that Shakespeare invented the term “addiction”, he was afterall a drug addict a good 2-300 years before it was fashionable! The word makes its first known appearance in the English language in Othello, Act II Scene II:
“It is Othello's pleasure, our noble and valiant general, that, upon certain tidings now arrived, importing the mere perdition of the Turkish fleet, every man put himself into triumph; some to dance, some to make bonfires, each man to what sport and revels his addiction leads him.”
