DUKE VINCENTIO

 

Be absolute for death; either death or life

Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with

life:

If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing

That none but fools would keep: a breath thou

art,

Servile to all the skyey influences,

That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st,

Hourly afflict: merely, thou art death's fool;

For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun

And yet runn'st toward him still. Thou art not

noble;

For all the accommodations that thou bear'st

Are nursed by baseness. Thou'rt by no means

valiant;

For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork

Of a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep,

And that thou oft provokest; yet grossly

fear'st

Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not

thyself;

For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains

That issue out of dust. Happy thou art not;

For what thou hast not, still thou strivest to

get,

And what thou hast, forget'st. Thou art not

certain;

For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,

After the moon. If thou art rich, thou'rt poor;

For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows,

Thou bear's thy heavy riches but a journey,

And death unloads thee. Friend hast thou none;

For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire,

The mere effusion of thy proper loins,

Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum,

For ending thee no sooner. Thou hast nor youth

nor age,

But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,

Dreaming on both; for all thy blessed youth

Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms

Of palsied eld; and when thou art old and rich,

Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor

beauty,

To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in this

That bears the name of life? Yet in this life

Lie hid moe thousand deaths: yet death we fear,

That makes these odds all even.

一报还一报

第三幕 第一场

文森修公爵：

能够抱着必死之念，那么活果然好，死也无所惶虑。对于生命应当作这样的譬解：要是我失去了你，我所失去的，只是一件愚人才会加以爱惜的东西，你不过是一口气，寄托在一个多灾多难的躯壳里，受着一切天时变化的支配。你不过是被死神戏弄的愚人，逃避着死，结果却奔进他的怀里，你并不高贵，因为你所有的一切配备，都沾濡着污浊下贱。你并不勇敢，因为你畏惧着微弱的蛆虫的柔软的触角。睡眠是你所渴慕的最好的休息，可是死是永恒的宁静，你却对它心惊胆裂。你不是你自己，因为你的生存全赖着泥土中所生的谷粒。你并不快乐，因为你永远追求着你所没有的事物，而遗忘了你所已有的事物。你并不固定，因为你的脾气像月亮一样随时变化。你即使富有，也和穷苦无异，因为你正像一头不胜重负的驴子，背上驮载着金块在旅途上跋涉，直等死来替你卸下负荷。你没有朋友，因为即使是你自己的骨血，嘴里称你为父亲尊长，心里也在咒诅着你不早早伤风发疹而死。你没有青春也没有年老，二者都只不过是你在餐后的睡眠中的一场梦景；因为你在年轻的时候，必须像一个衰老无用的人一样，向你的长者乞讨赒济；到你年老有钱的时候，你的感情已经冰冷，你的四肢已经麻痹，你的容貌已经丑陋，纵有财富，也享不到丝毫乐趣。那么所谓生命这东西，究竟有什么值得宝爱呢？在我们的生命中隐藏着千万次的死亡，可是我们对于结束一切痛苦的死亡却那样害怕。