第18章 My Experience in Elocution 我的演讲经历

John Neal, 1793-1876, a brilliant but eccentric American writer, was born in Portland, Maine. He went into business, when quite young, in company with John Pierpont, the well-known poet. They soon failed, and Mr. Neal then turned his attention to the study of law. He practiced his profession somewhat, but devoted most of his time to literature. For a time he resided in England, where he wrote for "Blackwood's Magazine" and other periodicals. His writings were produced with great rapidity, and with a purposed disregard of what is known as "classical English."

In the academy I attended, elocution was taught in a way I shall never forget—never! We had a yearly exhibition, and the favorites of the preceptor were allowed to speak a piece; and a pretty time they had of it. Somehow I was never a favorite with any of my teachers after the first two or three days; and, as I went barefooted, I dare say it was thought unseemly, or perhaps cruel, to expose me upon the platform. And then, as I had no particular aptitude for public speaking, and no relish for what was called oratory, it was never my luck to be called up.

Among my schoolmates, however, was one—a very amiable, shy boy—to whom was assigned, at the first exhibition I attended, that passage in Pope's Homer beginning with,

"Aurora, now, fair daughter of the dawn! "

This the poor boy gave with so much emphasis and discretion, that, to me, it sounded like "O roarer! " and I was wicked enough, out of sheer envy, I dare say, to call him "O roarer! "—a nickname which clung to him for a long while, though no human being ever deserved it less; for in speech and action both, he was quiet, reserved, and sensitive.

My next experience in elocution was still more disheartening, so that I never had a chance of showing what I was capable of in that way till I set up for myself. Master Moody, my next instructor, was thought to have uncommon qualifications for teaching oratory. He was a large, handsome, heavy man, over six feet high; and having understood that the first, second, and third prerequisite in oratory was action, the boys he put in training were encouraged to most vehement and obstreperous manifestations. Let me give an example, and one that weighed heavily on my conscience for many years after the poor man passed away.

Among his pupils were two boys, brothers, who were thought highly gifted in elocution. The master, who was evidently of that opinion, had a habit of parading them on all occasions before visitors and strangers; though one bad lost his upper front teeth and lisped badly, and the other had the voice of a penny trumpet. Week after week these boys went through the quarrel of Brutus and Cassius, for the benefit of myself and others, to see if their example would not provoke us to a generous competition for all the honors.

How it operated on the other boys in after life I can not say; but the effect on me was decidedly unwholesome—discouraging, indeed, —until I was old enough to judge for myself, and to carry into operation a system of my own.

On coming to the passage, —

"Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts;

Dash him to pieces! "—

the elder of the boys gave it after the following fashion:

"Be ready, godths, with all your thunderbolths, —dath him in pietheth! "—bringing his right fist down into his left palm with all his strength, and his lifted foot upon the platform, which was built like a sounding-board, so that the master himself, who had suggested the action and obliged the poor boy to rehearse it over and over again, appeared to be utterly carried away by the magnificent demonstration; while to me—so deficient was I in rhetorical taste—it sounded like a crash of broken crockery, intermingled with chicken peeps.

I never got over it; and to this day can not endure stamping, nor even tapping of the foot, nor clapping the hands together, nor thumping the table for illustration; having an idea that such noises are not oratory, and that untranslatable sounds are not language.

My next essay was of a somewhat different kind. I took the field in person, being in my nineteenth year, well proportioned, and already beginning to have a sincere relish for poetry, if not for declamation. I had always been a great reader; and in the course of my foraging depredations I had met with "The Mariner's Dream" and "The Lake of the Dismal Swamp, " both of which I had committed to memory before I knew it.

And one day, happening to be alone with my sister, and newly rigged out in a student's gown, such as the lads at Brunswick sported when they came to show off among their old companions, I proposed to astonish her by rehearsing these two poems in appropriate costume. Being very proud of her brother, and very obliging, she consented at once, —upon condition that our dear mother, who had never seen anything of the sort, should be invited to make one of the audience.

On the whole, I rather think that I succeeded in astonishing both. I well remember their looks of amazement—for they had never seen anything better or worse in all their lives, and were no judges of acting—as I swept to and fro in that magnificent robe, with outstretched arms and uplifted eyes, when I came to passages like the following, where an apostrophe was called for:

"And near him the she wolf stirred the brake,

And the copper snake breathed in his ear,

Till he, starting, cried, from his dream awake,

'Oh, when shall I see the dusky lake,

And the white canoe of my dear'! '"

Or like this:

"On beds of green sea flowers thy limbs shall be laid;

Around thy white bones the red coral shall grow,

Of thy fair yellow locks, threads of amber be made,

And every part suit to thy mansion below; "—

throwing up my arms, and throwing them out in every possible direction as the spirit moved me, or the sentiment prompted; for I always encouraged my limbs and features to think for themselves, and to act for themselves, and never predetermined, never forethought, a gesture nor an intonation in my life; and should as soon think of counterfeiting another's look or step or voice, or of modulating my own by a pitch pipe (as the ancient orators did,with whom oratory was acting elocution, a branch of the dramatic art), as of adopting or imitating the gestures and tones of the most celebrated rhetorician I ever saw.

The result was rather encouraging. My mother and sister were both satisfied. At any rate, they said nothing to the contrary. Being only in my nineteenth year, what might I not be able to accomplish after a little more experience!

How little did I think, while rehearsing before my mother and sister, that anything serious would ever come of it, or that I was laying the foundations of character for life, or that I was beginning what I should not be able to finish within the next forty or fifty years following.

Yet so it was. I had broken the ice without knowing it. These things were but the foreshadowing of what happened long afterward.

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约翰·尼尔（1793～1876年），杰出而有些古怪的美国作家，出生在缅因州的波特兰。他很年轻时就开始经商，合伙人是约翰·皮尔庞特，一位家喻户晓的诗人。不过，这家公司很快就倒闭了，随后，尼尔开始集中精力研究法律。虽然他从事法律的工作，但他投入了大量时间和精力进行文学创作。他曾在英国居住过一段时间。在英国居住的时候，他负责给《黑木杂志》和其他期刊撰稿。他是一位多产作家，其作品被视为“经典英语”的典范。

在我读书的学院，有一门课程叫演说术，它的授课方式令我终生难忘。我们每年都要举办一个公开的博览会，到那时，老师会让自己比较钟爱的学生上讲台读一些东西。那段时间是他们领悟演说术的最佳时期。也不知为什么，在开学的头三天，没有任何一个老师认为我是他们中意的对象。我没有被选上，只好独自登台，我敢说没人会认为我这样做很恰当，应该说，让我登台表演本身就是一件很不得体的事。由于我没有在公共场合演讲的经历，也不懂给人们带来欢乐的演说术，所以，被叫起来进行演讲实属我的不幸。

但是，在我的同学当中，有这么一个温和、腼腆的小男孩——在我第一次进行公开演讲的时候，他负责给我做示范，我还记得当时他的开场是蒲伯的《荷马》选段，该文的开头是这样的——

“现在，奥罗拉，黎明女神的漂亮女儿！”

这个小男孩在读的过程中，由于太过于强调人名，以至于在我看来，他朗读的奥罗拉更像是“啊，奥罗雷！”纯粹出于嫉妒的心理，我实在是忍无可忍，于是我大声对他喊道：“啊，奥罗雷！”——此后，这个奥罗雷便成了他的绰号，这个绰号再适合他不过了，无论是从演讲还是从动作举止来看，他都太过安静、谨慎和敏感了。

我的第二次演说经历仍然令人感到沮丧，以至于我根本就没有机会充分展现我自身的能力，直到我勇敢地去尝试。我的第二位演讲导师穆迪在演讲教学方面有着非凡的能力。他是一个高大、英俊的男人，身高六英尺。他鼓励参与培训的孩子们要尽可能地展现出激情，打破传统的界限。我举个例子，在这个可怜的男人逝世多年之后，他那高大的身躯依然浮现在我的脑海里，令我无法忘记。

在穆迪导师的学生当中，有这么两个人，他们是一对兄弟，他们一直被认为是可塑之材。很显然，穆迪导师也这么认为，他有个习惯，那就是无论在什么场合，他都会带着这两个人在来客和陌生人面前炫耀。不过这对兄弟，一个上门牙没了，牙齿参差不齐，另一个的声调就像是小号。又过了数个礼拜，这兄弟二人在众人面前吵起了架，那架势就像是布鲁图和凯西尤在争吵一样。他们想看看，是否能够通过他们的争吵挑起我们为了荣誉而进行激烈的竞争。

我不清楚他们这样做会对其他孩子今后的生活带来多大影响，但是，他们这种行为对我造成的影响却很深远——更准确地说是沮丧——直到我的阅历足够丰富，能够评判自己的时候，我才将这一行动纳入到我的生活体系当中。

接下来是这段话：

“做好准备，诸神，请用你们手中的雷电

将他五马分尸！”

那对兄弟中年长的一个用下面的腔调读了起来：

“做好准备，诸神，请用你们手中的雷电，将他五马分尸！”他在朗读的时候，将全身的力量都集中在了右拳上，使劲用右拳打击左掌，接着，他抬腿狠狠地踩到讲台上，就好像是个导音板，以至于穆迪导师原本是暗示他要用动作来配合演讲，要这可怜的孩子一再排练，结果他却被眼前精妙绝伦的表演给吸引住了。依照我的观点——从语言的修辞手法来看，这样的表演存在很大的缺陷——那种声音就像是陶瓷被人摔碎了的声音，里面还掺杂着小鸡的吱吱声。

我从来没有真正领悟所谓的秘诀。直到今天，我也无法容忍这样的足踏，即使是用脚轻拍也不行，我也不会两手相碰，更不会为了增加表现力而怒拍桌子。我一直都这么认为，像这样的噪音根本就不能被称为演说术，那些无法令人理解的古怪声音也不能称之为语言。

我的下一篇论文或多或少还是有些不同的。我记得当时我只有十九岁，我一个人去郊外游玩，这倒也很合理，毕竟十九岁就是出去玩的年纪，也就是在那时候，我开始对诗歌产生了浓厚的兴趣，坦白地说，如果我不是打心底里喜欢雄辩的演说的话，恐怕我仍旧是一名忠实的读者。在我找寻蹂躏的对象之前，我同《水手的梦想》和《凄凉的沼泽湖》偶遇了，因为这两首诗歌都是耳熟能详的作品，所以在我通读之前，我就已经很熟悉了。

有一天，我恰巧和姐姐两个人在家，我当时穿了一件全新的学生装，就像布伦兹维克故意向别人显摆的男孩子，他们在玩伴面前故意炫耀自己的时候，就跟现在的我如出一辙，我原本打算穿上比较得体的衣服，然后排练这两首诗，给我姐姐一个惊喜。她听后，一定会为有这样的弟弟而感到自豪。她马上表示同意——我们亲爱的母亲还从来没有看过像这样的表演，那就把她邀请过来当观众。

总而言之，我宁愿相信我让她们两人都对我的表演瞠目结舌。没错，我还记得当时她们脸上显露出来的惊讶之情——因为，她们在日常生活中从来没有见过这样的表演，她们无法根据我的表现来进行评判——我穿着那件艳丽的长袍来回游荡，尽力伸展自己的胳膊，眼角上扬，我记得当时我朗读的好像是下面的选段，按照要求，我省略了一些文字：

“就在他的身边，那条母狼冲破闸门，

紫色巨蟒在他耳畔咝咝作响，

直到他开始嚎叫，从睡梦中惊醒，

‘啊！当我看到那光线昏暗的湖泊，

我亲爱的白色小舟！'”

又或者是这一首：

“你在深绿色的海洋花圃中舒展四肢，

红色珊瑚在你白白的骨头周围肆意生长，

你那金色秀发，就好比琥珀的丝线，

所有一切和下面的宅邸遥相辉映；”

我开始舒展臂膀，在激情四溢的情感的指引下，把胳膊向所有可能的方向尽情地舒展，因为我一直提倡手臂和脸部表情要为与演讲内容所匹配，所以在我的演说生涯中，我永远不会预定什么，也永远不会有什么先决条件，哪怕只是一个手势或者一个腔调的变化也不会有。一提到演说，我就会想到模仿别人的面部表情、音调或声音或用小竖笛来调整我的腔调（古代的演说家曾经说过，在他们来看，演说术就是一种通过朗诵的方式进行表演的艺术手法，它是一种舞台剧的分支），又或是接受或模仿我曾看过的著名演说家的肢体语言和声音。

结果还是挺振奋人心的。母亲和姐姐都对我的表演十分满意。不管怎么说，她们并没有说出什么消极、负面的话。考虑到当时我才十九岁，先前又没有太多的表演经历，所以我能有如此表现，也实属不易。

在母亲和姐姐面前朗诵时，我脑子里毫无杂念，那时的我，无论多大的困难都能迎刃而解，也可以这么说，我在用故事中主人公的性格为我的人生奠定根基，或是现在就开始着手做四五十年之后就无法做的事情。事实就是如此。我在毫不知情的情况下，打破了坚冰。这些事情很好的预言了今后很多年将要发生的事情。