alexander,pope

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篇一：From Alexander Pope(Thomas De Quincey)

From Alexander Pope

[The Literature of Knowledge and the Literature of Power]

by Thomas De Quincey

1 What is it that we mean by literature? Popularly, and amongst the thoughtless, it is held to include everything that is printed in a book. Little logic is required to disturb that definition. The most thoughtless person is easily made aware that in the idea of literature one essential element is some relation to a general and common interest of man---so that what applies only to a local, or professional, or merely personal interest, even though presenting itself in the shape of a book, will not belong to Literature. So far the definition is easily narrowed; and it is as easily expanded. For not only is much that takes a station in books not literature; but inversely, much that really is literature never reaches a station in books. The weekly sermons of Christendom, that vast pulpit literature which acts so extensively upon the popular mind---to warn, to uphold, to renew, to comfort, to alarm---does not attain the sanctuary of libraries in the ten-thousandth part of its extent. The Drama again---as, for instance, the finest of Shakespeare’s plays in England, and all leading Athenian plays in the noontide of the Attic stage---operated as a literature on the public mind, and were (according to the strictest letter of that term) published through the audiences that witnessed their representation some time before they were published as things to be read; and they were published in this scenical mode of publication with much more effect than they could have had as books during ages of costly copying or of costly printing.

2Books, therefore, do not suggest an idea coextensive and interchangeable with the idea of Literature; since much literature, scenic, forensic, or didactic (as from lecturers and public orators), may never come into books, and much that does come into books may connect itself with no literary interest. But a far more important correction, applicable to the common vague ideal of literature, is to be sought not so much in a better definition of literature as in a sharper distinction of the two functions which it fulfills. In that great social organ which, collectively, we call literature, there may be distinguished two separate offices that may blend and often do so, but capable, severally, of a severe insulation, and naturally fitted for reciprocal repulsion. There is, first, the literature of knowledge; and, secondly, the literature of power. The function of the first is---to teach; the function of the second is---to move; the first is a rudder; the second, an oar or a sail. The first speaks to the mere discursive understanding; the second speaks ultimately, it may happen, to the higher understanding or reason, but always through affections of pleasure and sympathy. Remotely, it may travel towards an object seated in what Lord Bacon calls dry light; but, proximately, it does and must operate—else it ceases to be a literature of power—on and through 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

that humid light which clothes itself in the mists and glittering iris of human passions, desires, and genial emotions. Men have so little reflected on the higher functions of literature as to find it a paradox if one should describe it as a mean or subordinate purpose of books to give information. But this is a paradox only in the sense which makes it honorable to be paradoxical. Whenever we talk in ordinary language of seeking information or gaining knowledge, we understand the words as connected with something of absolute novelty. But it is the grandeur of all truth which can occupy a very high place in human interests that it is never absolutely novel to the meanest of minds: it exists eternally by way of germ or latent principle in the lowest as in the highest, needing to be developed, but never to be planted. To be capable of transplantation is the immediate criterion of a truth that ranges on a lower scale. Besides which, there is a rarer thing than truth—namely, power, or deep sympathy with truth. What is the effect, for instance, upon society, of children? By the pity, by the tenderness, and by the peculiar modes of admiration, which connect themselves with the helplessness, with the innocence, and with the simplicity of children, not only are the primal affections strengthened and continually renewed, but the qualities which are dearest in the sight of heaven—the frailty, for instance, which appeals to forbearance, the innocence which symbolizes the heavenly, and the simplicity which is most alien from the worldly—are kept up in perpetual remembrance, and their ideals are continually refreshed. A purpose of the same nature is answered by the higher literature, viz. the literature of power. What do you learn from Paradise Lost? Nothing at all. What do you learn from a cookery book? Something new, something that you did not know before, in every paragraph. But would you therefore put the wretched cookery book on a higher level of estimation than the divine poem? What you owe to Milton is not any knowledge, of which a million separate items are still but a million of advancing steps on the same earthly level; what you owe is power—that is, exercise and expansion to your own latent capacity of sympathy with the infinite, where every pulse and each separate influx is a step upwards, a step ascending as upon a Jacob’s ladder from earth to mysterious altitudes above the earth. All the steps of knowledge, from first to last, carry you further on the same plane, but could never raise you one foot above your ancient level of earth: whereas the very first step in power is a flight—is an ascending movement into another element where earth is forgotten. 40 45 50 55 60 65

篇二：Alexander pope(蒲柏)

亚历山大·蒲柏

百科名片

亚历山大·蒲柏

亚历山大·蒲柏（Alexander Pope，1688年5月22日 - 1744年5月30

日）是18世纪英国最伟大的诗人；杰出的启蒙主义者。目录[隐藏]

人生历程

主要作品

人文评价

历史

人生历程

蒲柏出生于一个罗马天主教家庭，由于当时英国法律规定学校要强制推行英国国教圣公会，因此他没有上

亚历山大·蒲柏

过学，从小在家中自学，学习了拉丁文、希腊文、法文和意大利文的大量作品。他幼年时期患有结核性脊椎炎，造成驼背，身高没有超过1.37米，并过早的夭折（56岁去世）。柏从12岁即开始发表诗作，17岁时，经戏剧家威彻利（WilliamWycherley，1640-1716）的引荐，结识了当时伦敦的一些著名的文人学士，并在斯威夫特的鼓励下以十三年功夫翻译了古希腊史诗《伊利亚特》（Iliad，译成于1720年）与《奥德

赛》（Odyssey，译成于1726年）。21岁时，蒲柏发表《田园诗集》（Pastorals，1709），并在以后的几年中先后发表阐述自己文学观点的诗《批评论》（AnEssayonCriticism，1711）和叙事诗《温莎林》（WindsorForest，1713）等。

亚历山大·蒲柏

主要作品

他的第一部重要作品是1711年他23岁时出版的诗体《批评论》，其中许多名句已经成为英语成语。《批评

亚历山大·蒲柏

论》是一首744行的长诗，前200行指出批评的重要性，201行到559行谈批评的实例与原因，560行到744行析出批评的正确原则及回顾欧洲批评史。蒲柏深受法国古典主义文学理论家布瓦落（NicolasBoileau-Despréaux，1636-1711）的影响，在《批评论》一诗中提出只有自然才是值得研究和描写的对象，诗人不能离开自然，并认为古希腊、罗马的诗歌是最优秀的艺术典范。蒲柏遵循着这种古典主义的原则进行文学创作。

1712年他写作了长篇讽刺诗《夺发记》，1714年又补充了两章。这首诗描写一家男孩偷剪了另一家女孩的一绺金发，因为此事引起两家的争执。蒲柏把此事描写得和《伊利亚特》中特洛伊战争一样壮观，写成了一部英雄史诗。

1713年起，他着手翻译荷马的史诗《伊利亚特》和《奥德赛》，他并没有准确地进行翻译，而是根据当时英国时代精神进行再创作，他自己说如果荷马生活在18世纪的英国，也一定会这样写作这两部史诗。但是这两种译本在英国大受欢迎，第一部英语词典的编纂者约翰逊博士称赞为“世界前所未见的高贵的诗译作”。依靠这两部书的收入，足以使他的生活不必依靠赞助，并使他稳居英国桂冠诗人的宝座.

蒲柏的代表作是讽刺长诗《鬈发遇劫记》（TheRapeoftheLock，1714），诗人称之为“英雄滑稽诗”（AnHeroi-ComicalPoem）。这部作品对英国上流社会的无聊生活提出了温和的批评。蒲柏的其他诗作还有讽刺长诗《愚人志》（TheDunciad，174

2）、哲理诗《道德论》（MoralEssays，1731-1735）、《》（AnEssayonMan，1734）和《与阿布斯诺博士书》（EpistletoDr.Arbuthnot，1735）等。另外，蒲柏还编纂了莎士比亚的戏剧集。

蒲柏的诗多用“英雄双韵体”。他的许多词句写得工整、精练、富有哲理性，有些诗行几乎成为格言。

柏之死，月神狄安娜抱着他，弥尔顿、斯宾塞和乔叟迎接他进入天堂1725年，他对莎士比亚的作品进行重新编辑，用当时的标准衡量，作了不少改动，受到学者们的批评，他又写了《群愚史诗》，把批评他的人描写成“沉闷女神”的宠儿。30年代他计划写一部关于人、自然和社会关系的巨著，但只完成一部序论：《人论》（1734年）。1735年，他写作了《致阿巴思诺医生书》，讽刺了身居高位，逍遥法外的道德败坏者。

蒲柏还为牛顿写了著名的墓志铭：“自然和自然法则隐藏在暗处，上帝说：?让牛顿来?然后所有的都暴露出来了”。

人文评价

牛津语录词典中收录了212条蒲柏的作品精辟语录。如“只有少量知识是危险的”，“人皆有错，难能宽恕”，“正确的学习造就男子汉”等。

1719年起，蒲柏在泰晤士河畔的特威克纳姆别墅定居，经常招待朋友，以文会友，并写了一些关于建筑和园林设计的文章。特威克纳姆别墅19世纪对蒲柏的评价不佳，认为他的用词过于造作，韵律过于死板，他的讽刺有点不太人道。但到了20世纪，他的声望又开始提高，有的诗作如《夺发记》和一些讽刺诗被称为讽刺诗的最高境界；但有些诗如《人论》普遍认为并无多少独创的思想；他的《伊利亚特》译本和《群愚史诗》一直受到争议。

蒲柏是第一位受到欧洲大陆关注的英国诗人，他的著作把翻译成欧洲许多国家的文字。

历史

牛津语录词典中收录了212条蒲柏的作品精辟语录。如“只有少量知识是危险的”，“人皆有错，难能宽恕”，“正确的学习造就男子汉”等。

蒲柏是第一位受到欧洲大陆关注的英国诗人，他的著作把翻译成欧洲许多国家的文字。

篇三：4.2Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

4.2Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) Life and his Major Literary Achievements Alexander Pope, the most important poet in the first half of the 18th century, was born into a Roman Catholic family in London in 1688. His father was a merchant. Pope's education was affected by the laws in force at the time upholding the status of the Established Church of England which banned Catholics from teaching, attending a university, voting, or holding public office on pain of perpetual imprisonment (违者以终身监禁论处). Pope was taught to read by his aunt and then sent to two surreptitious （秘密的） Catholic schools, at Twyford and at Hyde Park Corner(Hyde Park: 海德公园：伦敦中西部的一个大公园，以其中众多的自由演说者而闻名). Catholic schools, while illegal, were tolerated in some areas. From early childhood he suffered numerous health problems, including Pott’s disease脊椎结核病(a form of tuberculosis affecting the spine) which deformed his body and stunted his growth（阻碍发育）, no doubt helping to end his life at the age of 56. He never grew beyond 1.37 metres (4 feet 6 inches) tall. Although he never married, he had many women friends and wrote them witty letters. In 1700, his family was forced to move to a small estate in Binfield, Berkshire伯克郡(英格兰南部郡) due to strong anti-Catholic sentiment and a statute preventing Catholics from living within 10 miles (16 km) of either London or Westminster. With his formal education now at an end, Pope embarked on an extensive campaign of reading. As he later remembered: "In a few years I had dipped into a great number of the English, French, Italian, Latin, and Greek Poets. This I did without any design but that of pleasing myself, and got the languages by hunting after the stories...rather than read the books to get the languages." At Binfield, he also began to make many important friends. One of them, John Caryll (the future dedicatee of The Rape of the Lock), was two decades older than the poet and had made many acquaintances in the London literary world. He introduced the young Pope to the aging playwright William Wycherley and to William Walsh, a minor poet, who helped Pope revise his first major work, The Pastorals（田园诗集）. The Pastorals brought instant fame to the twenty-year-old Pope. They were followed by An Essay on Criticism(1711) 批评论, which was equally well received, although it incurred the wrath of the prominent critic John Dennis, the first of the many literary enemies which would play such a great role in Pope's life and writings. An Essay on Criticism is a didactic poem written in heroic couplet. It sums up the art of poetry as taught by Aristotle, Horace贺拉斯, and the 18the century classicists. And it tells poets and critics to write and appreciate poetry according to the principles set up by the Greek and Roman writers. The Rape of the Lock 夺发记: A fop (dandy, playboy) at the court forcibly cut off a lock of curls of a pretty maid of honor. This caused a quarrel between the families and became the talk of London. Pope seized the occasion to write a mock-heroic poem(戏拟英雄诗/模拟史诗mock epic：a satirical literary form that treats a trivial or commonplace subject with the elevated language and heroic style of the classical epic)，in which he satirizes the triviality and silliness of the high society with a delicate wit. It is worth reading for its description and satire of the court life of that time, with its cards, parties, toilets(梳妆台) lapdogs, tea-drinking, snuff-taking and idle vanities. Pope’s Homer:Pope translated the entire Iliad and half of Odyssey, the other half being finished by two Cambridge scholars. He had no sound knowledge of Greek. But he set resolutely to work. The linguistic difficulties were overcome by a comparison of previous translations, Latin, French, and English. Pope approached Homer with reverence, but his translation, done in heroic couplets, is not an accurate version of the original. Bentley, a great scholar of the time, said, “It is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer.” Pope’s Shakespeare: Pope is also an editor of Shakespeare’s plays. he published an edition of Shakespeare in 1725. He showed a sincere recognition of Shakespeare’s greatness in his preface, and the toil he spent upon the text can be found on nearly every page. But he lacked an intimate knowledge of the Elizabethan period and the quality of patience which is requisite for an editor. So in his edition of Shakespeare there are many errors, which were pointed out by Theobald, a scholar of his time. This gave offense to Pope who satirized him in return in The Dunciad愚人志. The Dunciad愚人志 This is a satirical poem in 4 books. Provoked by Theobald’s criticism of his edition of Shakespeare, Pope wrote this poem, first choosing Theobald as the poet laureate of the Kingdom of Dullness. But by and by all the authors who had criticized Pope were held up to ridicule, and the satire was directed against all the literature vices of the time. The poem as a whole is a brilliant piece of satire. Essay on Man: This is a philosophical poem in heroic couplets. It consists of four letters addressed to Lord Bolingbroke, a philosopher of the time. Pope’s design is to “form a temperate, yet not inconsistent, and a short, yet not imperfect, system of ethics道德规范”. The general object is to prove that the scheme of the universe is the best in spite of appearances of evil, and that our failure to see the perfection of the whole is due to our limited vision. This idea is summed up in a well-known line:“One truth is clear, whatever is, is right.” Some quotations from Pope's work have passed so deeply into the English language that they are often taken as proverbial by those who do not know their source: "A little learning is a dang'rous thing" (from Essay On Criticism); "To err is human, to forgive, divine"犯错乃人之常情，宽恕则超凡入圣也。(ibid.); "For fools rush in where angels fear to tread胆大妄为, 愚蠢而自负地去冒险" (ibid); "Hope springs eternal in the human breast" and "The proper study of mankind is man"人文研究，应以人为本 (Essay on Man). Pope’s Position in English Literature 1. Pope is an outstanding enlightener and the greatest English poet of the classical school in the first half of the 18th century. He strongly advocated classicism, emphasizing that literary works should be judged by classical rules: order, reason, logic, accuracy, good taste and decorum规范性. And he believed that literature had the power to influence and eich life, to educate and correct people. He was a master in the art of poetry. By frequently writing in this form of heroic couplets, he became so perfect in it that no one has been able to outdo him. 2. Pope was at his best in satire and epigram(警句、讽刺短诗). But he lacked the literary gift. And in his endeavor for finish and compactness, he sometimes becomes artificial and obscure. As a man of letters, he had his ugly side. His satire was not always just, often caused by personal grudge. 隽语(Epigram)是英语修辞学的重要术语。英文定义为：short poem or saying expressing an idea in a clever and amusing way.即短而机智之妙语，名言警句。

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