2016年6月22日功課

The Greek Theatre

古希臘戲劇

THE ORIGINS OF THE THEATRE, THE FIRST FORM OF PUBLIC AMUSEMENT

戲劇的起源，最早的公共娛樂形式。

AT a very early stage of their history the Greeks had begun to collect the poems, which had been written in honor of their brave ancestors who had driven the Pelasgians out of Hellas and had destroyed the power of Troy. These poems were recited in public and everybody came to listen to them. But the theatre, the form of entertainment which has become almost a necessary part of our own lives, did not grow out of these recited heroic tales. It had such a curious origin that I must tell you something about it in a separate chapter。

希臘人在很早的時期就開始收集詩歌了，這些詩歌都是為歌頌他們勇敢的祖先而創作的。他們的祖先曾把佩拉斯基人(史前居住在希臘及小亞細亞一帶的人)驅趕出希臘，并粉碎了特洛伊人的政權。這些詩篇被當眾誦讀，每個人都來傾聽。但是我們今天生活中已經不可或缺的藝術形式——戲劇，卻不是從那些被傳誦的英雄贊美詩發展而來的。希臘戲劇有一個非常奇特的起源，所以我必須單列一章來為你講述。

2016年6月23日功課

The Greeks had always been fond of parades. Every year they held solemn processions in honor of Dionysos the God of the wine. As everybody in Greece drank wine (the Greeks thought water only useful for the purpose of swimming and sailing) this particular Divinity was as popular as a God of the Soda-Fountain would be in our own land.

希臘人總是很喜歡游行。每年他們都舉行盛大的游行儀式來紀念酒神狄厄尼索斯。希臘的每個人都喝酒（因為希臘人認為水只有在航行和游泳時才用得到）。這個特別的神就像在我們國家發明飲料機的那個牛人那么受歡迎。

2016年6月24日功課

And because the Wine-God was supposed to live in the vineyards, amidst a merry mob of Satyrs (strange creatures who were half man and half goat), the crowd that joined the procession used to wear goat-skins and to hee-haw like real billy-goats. The Greek word for goat is “tragos” and the Greek word for singer is “oidos.” The singer who meh-mehed like a goat therefore was called a “tragos-oidos” or goat singer, and it is this strange name which developed into the modern word “Tragedy,” which means in the theatrical sense a piece with an unhappy ending, just as Comedy (which really means the singing of something “comos” or gay) is the name given to a play which ends happily.

因為希臘人認為酒神居住在葡萄園里，與一群薩提爾（一種奇怪的半人半獸的生物）混雜在一起。所以希臘人在參加游行時，通常會披著山羊皮還學驢叫，就像真的公山羊。山羊用希臘語說是“特拉哥斯”，歌手在希臘語中是“oidos”。一副山羊音唱腔的歌手就叫做“tragos-oidos”或者山羊歌手，就是這個奇怪的詞匯發展成了“悲劇”這個現代詞匯，意思是戲劇中以悲傷結尾，就像戲劇（真實意義是歌唱關于“comos”或者放蕩的事情）是指以歡快結尾的演出。

2016年6月25日功課

But how, you will ask, did this noisy chorus of masqueraders, stamping around like wild goats, ever develop into the noble tragedies which have filled the theatres of the world for almost two thousand years?

不過，現在你會問確定是那些站立在四周化妝成野山羊樣子的人們，制造的重復的嘈雜合唱，發展成了今天的高雅的悲劇——那些在劇院里傳唱了近兩千年的劇目。

The connecting link between the goat-singer and Hamlet is really very simple as I shall show you in a moment.

山羊歌手與哈姆雷特（莎士比亞著名悲劇劇名及該劇的主人公）之間的聯系非常簡單，我一會兒就給你講清楚。

The singing chorus was very amusing in the beginning and attracted large crowds of spectators who stood along the side of the road and laughed. But soon this business of tree-hawing grew tiresome and the Greeks thought dullness an evil only comparable to ugliness or sickness. They asked for something more entertaining.?

剛開始這種唱法非常有趣，吸引力一大幫人站在路旁邊看邊笑。但很快人們就感到厭煩，感到無趣并認為這種打扮很丑陋、惡心。希臘人呼喚真正能讓人娛樂的東西。

2016年6月26日功課

Then an inventive young poet from the village of Icaria in Attica hit upon a new idea which proved a tremendous success. He made one of the members of the goat-chorus step forward and engage in conversation with the leader of the musicians who marched at the head of the parade playing upon their pipes of Pan. This individual was allowed to step out of line. He waved his arms and gesticulated while he spoke (that is to say he “acted” while the others merely stood by and sang) and he asked a lot of questions, which the bandmaster answered according to the roll of papyrus upon which the poet had written down these answers before the show began.

突然，在阿提卡地區的伊卡里亞鎮上的一個富有創意的年輕詩人想到一個新主意，他的想法引發了巨大的成功。他從山羊歌手里挑出一個人站到前面，讓他專門與游行隊伍前面演奏排笛的樂師領隊對話。這個人被允許站到隊列外面。他一邊講話（也就是說，當別人僅僅是站在哪里或者唱歌時，他在“表演”），一邊手舞足蹈的提問問題，樂隊指揮依據那個詩人在演出之前在稿紙上寫好的答案來回答他。

This rough and ready conversation–the dialogue–which told the story of Dionysos or one of the other Gods, became at once popular with the crowd. Henceforth every Dionysian procession had an “acted scene” and very soon the “acting" was considered more important than the procession and the meh-mehing.

這種粗糙的事先準備好的對話講述狄關于厄尼索斯（希臘神話中的酒神）或者其它什么神的故事，突然在人群中流行起來。從此，每界酒神節游行都會有一出“表演劇目”，很快“演出”被認為比游行和山羊歌唱還重要。

2016年6月28功課

AEschylus, the most successful of all “tragedians” who wrote no less than eighty plays during his long life (from 526 to 455) made a bold step forward when he introduced two “actors" instead of one. A generation later Sophocles increased the number of actors to three. When Euripides began to write his terrible tragedies in the middle of the fifth century, B.C., he was allowed as many actors as he liked and when Aristophanes wrote those famous comedies in which he poked fun at everybody and everything, including the Gods of Mount Olympus, the chorus had been reduced to the role of mere bystanders who were lined up behind the principal performers and who sang “this is a terrible world” while the hero in the foreground committed a crime against the will of the Gods.

埃斯庫羅斯（希臘的詩人及悲劇作家）是最成功的“悲劇作家”，他一生（從公元前526年到公元前455年）至少創作了80部戲劇，他進行了大膽的革新——引入兩個“演員”替換原來的一個。比他晚一代的索福克勒斯（古希臘悲劇詩人）將演員數目增加到三個。當歐里庇得斯（希臘的悲劇詩人）在公元前四世紀創作他的經典悲劇時，他肆意地增加演員數目。當阿里斯多芬尼斯（古希臘早期喜劇代表作家、詩人）創作他的著名戲劇時，他把所有人和事都拿來開玩笑，包括奧林匹斯山的諸神。合唱隊已經淪落為只能做配角了，當英雄在前臺違背神的意愿實施罪惡時，他們在主唱的后面站成一排唱“這是一個悲慘的世界”。

2016年6月29日功課

This new form of dramatic entertainment demanded a proper setting, and soon every Greek city owned a theatre, cut out of the rock of a nearby hill. The spectators sat upon wooden benches and faced a wide circle (our present orchestra where you pay three dollars and thirty cents for a seat). Upon this half-circle, which was the stage, the actors and the chorus took their stand. Behind them there was a tent where they made up with large clay masks which hid their faces and which showed the spectators whether the actors were supposed to be happy and smiling or unhappy and weeping. The Greek word for tent is “skene” and that is the reason why we talk of the “scenery” of the stage.

這種新形式的戲劇娛樂方式需要一個合適的表演環境，很快每個希臘城市都有了一個劇院，從附近的山上開采石材建成。觀眾們坐在長條登上，面向一個廣闊的圓形（就像現在你掏3塊3買張票去聽管弦音樂會）。在這個半圓形上就是舞臺，演員與合唱隊就站在哪里。在他們后面是一個帷幕，他們在帷幕里用巨大的陶制面具裝扮自己，隱藏自己的面目，讓觀眾覺得他們是高興的在笑或者不高興在哭。希臘語帷幕是“skene”，所以我們也稱舞臺為“scenery”。

2016年6月30日功課

When once the tragedy had become part of Greek life, the people took it very seriously and never went to the theatre to give their minds a vacation. A new play became as important an event as an election and a successful playwright was received with greater honors than those bestowed upon a general who had just returned from a famous victory.

當觀看悲劇一旦成為希臘人生活的一部分，希臘人非常嚴肅的看待這個事情，他們從來不會為了消遣而到劇院看演出。一個新的劇目推出就像一次大選那么重要，一個成功的劇作家享有的榮譽要超過一個剛參加著名戰役凱旋歸來的將軍。