【Editor's Note】April 23 is World Book Day, and it is also the birthday and death day of The British playwright and poet Shakespeare. In the history of everyone's reading, Shakespeare is a classic that cannot be avoided. Some people say that in the four centuries since his death, there is no one who can tell the good and evil of human nature, the depth of love, the tragedy and joy of the world, and the complexity of the world so thoroughly than he can. On the occasion of World Book Day, let's review the articles published by Wenhui in 2019 to learn more about why Shakespeare's plays are so charming.
▲On December 18, 2019, Shanghai Daily held a lecture on "Meet the World, Meet Shakespeare - Shakespeare and a Renaissance Spirit".
When we talk about Shakespeare, we may think of Hamlet's meditations: "to be or not to be", of Romeo's tragic yin and yang separation from Juliet, of Othello, who killed his beloved wife, of King Lear, who was betrayed by his penchant for vanity... Shakespeare's plays create characters with rich personalities, who are not "perfect people" in the pure sense, but people with internal contradictions but real people. After a long and dark Middle Ages, "man" was brought back to the stage of history. At the beginning of the Renaissance, "man" was considered to be the "perfect man", such as Michelangelo's sculpture of David; in the later period, Caravaggio painted the apple with wormholes, showing the truth of reality as it really is: human nature is flawed. This is where Shakespeare's greatness lies.
At two o'clock in the afternoon of December 18, 2019, at the lecture "Meet the World, Meet Shakespeare - Shakespeare and a Renaissance Spirit" held by Shanghai Daily, Tan Yingzhou, a professor, famous translator and writer of the School of Foreign Languages of Fudan University, took the audience back to the ancient Renaissance era and felt the greatness of Shakespeare - portraying the true human nature, showing the complexity and contradictions within people, which makes his writing have a profound spirit of realism and has great resonance with contemporary times. This is why we continue to read Shakespeare and watch Shakespeare today.
Tan Yingzhou (1966-), real name Tan Zheng, is a professor, famous translator and writer at the School of Foreign Languages of Fudan University.
Because of writing the truth of human nature, the evaluation is mixed
When the French philosopher Voltaire saw Shakespeare's Othello, he asked: Why would a general strangle his wife? Shouldn't people do things that match their identity? And Shakespeare's answer is that man is a contradictory and profound being. It is precisely because he wrote about the true state of human nature: good and evil exist in a person at the same time, so he is also evaluated with mixed reputations.
* British evaluation: on par with Chaucer, Bumon, Spencer and even belongs to all centuries
On April 23, 1616, Shakespeare died in his hometown. The English poet William Basse wrote an elegy for him, which read: "Famous Spencer, you lie a little by the erudite Chaucer; rare Bumon, you lie a little by Spencer, and make a bunk for Shakespeare in your triple mausoleum." Tan Yingzhou explained to the audience that Spencer, Chaucer and Bumon were all leading Writers in England at the time, and William Bass wrote this because he thought Shakespeare was also a first-class writer, and he was entitled to stand side by side with them.
But Shakespeare's friend Ben Joanson disagreed, and the two often made cameo appearances with each other in each other's plays. Ben Johnson responded: "I don't want to place you next to Chaucer and Spencer, and Bumon doesn't have to lie down a little and make a bunk for you: you don't need a monument to the mausoleum." In Johansson's view, Shakespeare's achievements far exceeded those of the writers mentioned above, writing: "He can impress all of Europa's plays." He does not belong to one era but to all centuries! But Johansson was not entirely appreciative of Shakespeare, saying that Shakespeare "did not know much Latin, much less Greek." And he himself understood.
* German Counterpart: The form unfolds naturally, revealing the nobility and inferiority of human nature
How do other countries view it? Tan Yingzhou shared the praise given by Germany. When his work spread to Germany, Lessing wrote the Hamburg Review, which laid the foundation for Shakespeare's enduring international reputation, which also strengthened his literary status in Britain, "People are happy to see their country's writers praised internationally, so when Lessing spoke highly of Shakespeare, Shakespeare's status in England naturally rose." Coincidentally, the German poet Sregel believed that Shakespeare was the pinnacle of Romantic drama: "The organic form is natural: it unfolds from within." The bud of the artwork grows perfectly, and it is determined with it. Tan Yingzhou explains: "Although some of Shakespeare's plays are considered to be inconsistent with the rules of drama, they have an inherent vitality, and its unfolding is supported by its inner vitality. Sregel was also the first to give Hamlet an important place in Shakespeare's plays, "a tragedy of ideas; it is inspired by a constant and insatiable reflection on the fate of mankind and the dark and chaotic events of the world." ”
The famous German thinker and writer Goethe believed that Shakespeare's work showed an extremely rich human nature, "Shakespeare has exhausted all aspects of human nature, its nobility and its inferiority." ”
▲ Ben Johnson (1573-1637) English lyric poet and playwright, one of the most accomplished playwrights of the Renaissance, representative works of "Volton", "Alchemist", Shakespeare's close friend.
* Objection: Neoclassicists consider characters to be somewhat "out of place"
A great writer is always judged with mixed reviews, and when Shakespeare's work reached France, the philosopher and statesman Voltaire had a very low evaluation of Shakespeare, "Shakespeare had an abundant, prolific genius; he was natural and sublime, but he did not have the slightest taste, nor did he understand any rules of drama... In the monster-like farce that the writer has called tragedy, there are such beautiful, magnificent, and terrible scenes. Tan Yingzhou believes that the main reason why Voltaire dislikes Shakespeare is that he thinks that the behavior of some of the characters in Shakespeare is "inappropriate", such as Othello, as a general, actually strangled his wife," Neoclassicists believe that the actions of the characters in the tragedy should be in line with their identity, voltaire believes that Shakespeare did not do this. ”
Tolstoy was the most famous Critic of Shakespeare, and he had a very low opinion of Shakespeare: "Shakespeare cannot be considered a great genius, not even an ordinary writer." He thinks the plot of King Lear is eccentric and out of proportion; the dialogue is exaggerated and unnatural; and there are anachronistic plantings. For example, he thinks that since King Lear is king, why would he do such unreasonable things? Tan Yingzhou joked: "Because Tolstoy also slowly became an unreasonable old man at that time, with a discordant relationship with his family, and ran away from home." Tan Yingzhou believes that the reason why they do not highly value Shakespeare is because they believe that when society is in a period of change, writers should be critical of reality, and Shakespeare did not do this well.
Shakespeare's critics see some "flaws" in his work, such as his writing that a good man may sin because of passion, and that a ruler of a country may make mistakes because of his own vulnerability. These realities of human nature violated the moral standards of the critics mentioned above, and it was only when they made a negative evaluation of Shakespeare.
The contradictions of human nature are the greatest characteristics of the era of change
A writer becomes himself not only because of his own talent, but also because of the influence of the times. Shakespeare was born in the turbulent Elizabethan era, a chaotic, bloody age of great possibility, in which human nature often reveals a very real side, just as the times themselves.
Shakespeare's birthplace was stratford in Warwickshire, England, and Tan Yingzhou explained to the audience, "It is called Stratford-upon-Avon in English, which means 'Stratford by the River Aven'. The Elizabethan era was a turning point, when the British fleet defeated the Spanish fleet to achieve maritime supremacy and thus gained more overseas colonies, and the British economy entered a period of vigorous development. Britain also transitioned from a Catholic state to a Protestant state. But at the same time, social and international injustices and the terrible side of human nature are also exposed to people's eyes, because of the bloody events that often occur in religious conflicts, such as the death penalty of Catholics and the abandonment of the city, the process of execution of traitors will be "performed" in the bazaar, the gallows at that time are actually very similar to the form of the theater, and the audience spends one or two pennies to watch the play in the theater that was just emerging at that time, which has a similar structure to watching people being executed in the bazaar.
Drastic changes in society mean that progress and contradictions coexist, and it also means that everything is uncertain and that society has the possibility of being shaped. It is very easy to have many influential figures in such an environment, "Shakespeare, Milton, Maloway and Bacon are catching up with this era." Tan Yingzhou believes that Shakespeare was born in a suitable era.
In order to counter the repression of human nature in the Middle Ages, Renaissance England founded many new schools of kings, that is, grammar schools that taught Latin and Greek, "The Renaissance means regeneration, what is regeneration?" Regenerate the culture of ancient Greece and Rome. "Talk about Yingzhou introduction." With the rise of grammar schools, a large number of scholars who studied ancient Greek and Roman studies also emerged. It was in this educational environment that Shakespeare grew up, he actively pondered "what is true human nature", living in a time of contradiction made him realize that man is a concrete situation, and in the face of complex power situations, people may show a terrible side that they have not expected.
Shakespeare's birthplace is the town of Stratford in Warwickshire, England.
The human nature of good and evil coexists, transcending the times and transcending national borders
Although people of different eras will carry the spiritual outlook of different eras, human nature always has a common place. Shakespeare's plays are like a mirror from which everyone can see themselves. He took materials from history and returned the mirror to mankind.
*The story is based on national themes, and the themes involved are ahead of the times
Talking about Yingzhou's interpretation of the cosmopolitanism of his subject matter from Shakespeare's sources: for example, the story of his Antony and Cleopatra is taken from Plutarch's "Biography of Mark Antony" ("Greek and Roman Celebrity"), the story of "The Merchant of Venice" is based on an Italian story in the 14th century, and "Othello" is based on an Italian short story in the 16th century. Although Shakespeare himself does not make up new stories, his ability to deal with stories is very genius: "The same story, as long as Shakespeare wrote it, almost no one read the previous version." ”
Take the very familiar Hamlet (The Prince's Revenge), which is based on Danish history, where Shakespeare did not portray Hamlet as a brave and decisive figure who avenged his father, but rather as a man with "delays". When Hamlet is determined to avenge his father, he is also caught in the delay of "skepticism": he constantly doubts others, asks for the truth of his father's murder, and constantly doubts the legitimacy of his revenge. "Tobeornottobe" embodies Hamlet's hesitant contemplation in the face of the real world, he does not consider himself to be absolutely righteous, he is lacking in action, this is because he has always reflected on human nature inward. Shakespeare also borrowed the darkness within the Danish court to allude to the political and power problems of England at that time.
Tan Yingzhou told the audience that "The Merchant of Venice" deals with anti-Semitism and religious conflict, "Othello" deals with racial discrimination and interracial marriage, and "The Tempest" is a metaphor for Western colonization... Shakespeare was good at distilling eternally discussable topics from concrete events, and he went on to conclude, "These themes have great contemporary significance even today, which is why Shakespeare has such a great vitality, and his plays have practical significance for us." "The subject matter of a great work may have come from the epoch, but the reflection it evokes is timeless.
* In the late Renaissance, the coexistence of good and evil embodied the spirit of realism
Before talking about Shakespeare, Tan Yingzhou first showed the audience some paintings by Caravaggio, starting with Caravaggio's "Fruit Basket": the apple has a moth hole, and the leaves of the grape are also withered. Tan Yingzhou asked: "Why doesn't Caravaggio paint fruits and paint more beautiful fruits?" Want to draw defective fruit? In the painting "Young Man Holding a Fruit Basket", Tan Yingzhou points to the white dot on the grape leaves in the painting with a mouse, joking that some scholars have examined this white dot as a fungus. In the early Renaissance, artists' imaginations of human nature were more idealistic, such as Michelangelo's statue of David, who almost represented the perfect male. But Caravaggio, as a painter of the late Renaissance, did not paint idealistically, and the contrast between chiaroscuro and darkness in The Martyrdom of St. Matthew, the contrast between heaven and hell, shows that reality is not perfect, and that good and evil coexist. It is a highly realistic spirit.
"Similar to Caravaggio, Shakespeare is committed to showing the duality of man." His Macbeth is a brave general on the one hand, but a greedy ambition for power on the other; King Lear is rash and impatient on the one hand, likes to listen to good words, but in general he is a good man, and when he suffers, he thinks of the same suffering of the lower classes. There is not only one side to the real person, good and evil can coexist in the humanity of the same person at the same time. In other words, human nature is extremely malleable, and people can show a variety of faces in different situations.
▲ Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) in 1596 oil painting "Fruit Basket".
In Aristotle's concept of tragedy, tragic characters are flawed noble people, and when the audience sees that noble people encounter misfortune, they will produce more intense feelings of pity and fear, and be purified and play a role in enlightenment. The characters in Shakespeare's plays are not necessarily noble, but they must be complex. Tan Yingzhou believes that Shakespeare is like Cao Xueqin, he will not deliberately avoid the "indecent" part of the character: "Elegance can be very elegant, but vulgar can also be very vulgar, this is the person", he wants to write about human nature itself. Today is also in an era of great change, but at the same time a pluralistic society, perhaps one step further than Shakespeare, not only to explore the true humanity of a few people, but also to break the boundaries, see the face of different people, understand and self different people is also to explore the multiple possibilities of human nature.
▲After the lecture, Zhu Lianguo, an audience member of wenhui lecture hall, asked: Can Shakespeare create independently? Talk about Yingzhou to give interpretation. (Source: Wenhui Network)
Author/Hsinchu Wang
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