世界名著Little BritainWord格式文档下载.docx

1、sea, divides it from the eastern part of the city; whilst theyawning gulf of Bull-and-Mouth Street separates it fromButcher Lane, and the regions of Newgate. Over this littleterritory, thus bounded and designated, the great dome of St.Pauls, swelling above the intervening houses of PaternosterRow, A

2、men Corner, and Ave Maria Lane, looks down with anair of motherly protection.This quarter derives its appellation from having been, inancient times, the residence of the Dukes of Brittany. AsLondon increased, however, rank and fashion rolled off to thewest, and trade, creeping on at their heels, too

3、k possession oftheir deserted abodes. For some time Little Britain became thegreat mart of learning, and was peopled by the busy andprolific race of booksellers; these also gradually deserted it,and, emigrating beyond the great strait of Newgate Street,settled down in Paternoster Row and St. Pauls C

4、hurchyard,where they continue to increase and multiply even at thepresent day.But though thus falling into decline, Little Britain still bearstraces of its former splendor. There are several houses readyto tumble down, the fronts of which are magnificently enrichedwith old oaken carvings of hideous

5、faces, unknown birds,beasts, and fishes; and fruits and flowers which it wouldperplex a naturalist to classify. There are also, in AldersgateStreet, certain remains of what were once spacious and lordlyfamily mansions, but which have in latter days been subdividedinto several tenements. Here may oft

6、en be found the family ofa petty tradesman, with its trumpery furniture, burrowingamong the relics of antiquated finery, in great, rambling, time-stained apartments, with fretted ceilings, gilded cornices, andenormous marble fireplaces. The lanes and courts also containmany smaller houses, not on so

7、 grand a scale, but, like yoursmall ancient gentry, sturdily maintaining their claims to equalantiquity. These have their gable ends to the street; great bow-windows, with diamond panes set in lead, grotesque carvings,and low arched door-ways.In this most venerable and sheltered little nest have I p

8、assedseveral quiet years of existence, comfortably lodged in thesecond floor of one of the smallest but oldest edifices. Mysitting-room is an old wainscoted chamber, with small panels,and set off with a miscellaneous array of furniture. I have aparticular respect for three or four high-backed claw-f

9、ootedchairs, covered with tarnished brocade, which bear the marksof having seen better days, and have doubtless figured in someof the old palaces of Little Britain. They seem to me to keeptogether, and to look down with sovereign contempt upontheir leathern-bottomed neighbors: as I have seen decayed

10、gentry carry a high head among the plebeian society with whichthey were reduced to associate. The whole front of my sitting-room is taken up with a bow-window, on the panes of whichare recorded the names of previous occupants for manygenerations, mingled with scraps of very indifferentgentlemanlike

11、poetry, written in characters which I can scarcelydecipher, and which extol the charms of many a beauty ofLittle Britain who has long, long since bloomed, faded, andpassed away. As I am an idle personage, with no apparentoccupation, and pay my bill regularly every week, I am lookedupon as the only i

12、ndependent gentleman of the neighborhood;and, being curious to learn the internal state of a community soapparently shut up within itself, I have managed to work myway into all the concerns and secrets of the place.Little Britain may truly be called the hearts core of the city;the stronghold of true

13、 John Bullism. It is a fragment ofLondon as it was in its better days, with its antiquated folksand fashions. Here flourish in great preservation many of theholiday games and customs of yore. The inhabitants mostreligiously eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, hot-cross-buns onGood Friday, and roast goos

14、e at Michaelmas; they send love-letters on Valentines Day, burn the pope on the fifth ofNovember, and kiss all the girls under the mistletoe atChristmas. Roast beef and plum pudding are also held insuperstitious veneration, and port and sherry maintain theirgrounds as the only true English wines; al

15、l others beingconsidered vile, outlandish beverages.Little Britain has its long catalogue of city wonders, which itsinhabitants consider the wonders of the world: such as thegreat bell of St. Pauls, which sours all the beer when it tolls;the figures that strike the hours at St. Dunstans clock; theMo

16、nument; the lions in the Tower; and the wooden giants inGuildhall. They still believe in dreams and fortune-telling, andan old woman that lives in Bull-and-Mouth Street makes atolerable subsistence by detecting stolen goods, and promisingthe girls good husbands. They are apt to be rendereduncomforta

17、ble by comets and eclipses; and if a dog howlsdolefully at night, it is looked upon as a sure sign of a deathinthe place. There are even many ghost stories current,particularly concerning the old mansion-houses; in several ofwhich it is said strange sights are sometimes seen. Lords andladies, the fo

18、rmer in full bottomed wigs, hanging sleeves, andswords, the latter in lappets, stays, hoops and brocade, havebeen seen walking up and down the great waste chambers, onmoonlight nights; and are supposed to be the shades of theancient proprietors in their court-dresses.Little Britain has likewise its

19、sages and great men. One ofthe most important of the former is a tall, dry old gentleman, ofthe name of Skryme, who keeps a small apothecarys shop. Hehas a cadaverous countenance, full of cavities and projections;with a brown circle round each eye, like a pair of hornedspectacles. He is much thought

20、 of by the old women, whoconsider him a kind of conjurer, because he has two of threestuffed alligators hanging up in his shop, and several snakes inbottles. He is a great reader of almanacs and newspapers, andis much given to pore over alarming accounts of plots,conspiracies, fires, earthquakes, an

21、d volcanic eruptions; whichlast phenomena he considers as signs of the times. He hasalways some dismal tale of the kind to deal out to his customers,with their doses; and thus at the same time puts both soul andbody into an uproar. He is a great believer in omens andpredictions; and has the propheci

22、es of Robert Nixon andMother Shipton by heart. No man can make so much out of aneclipse, or even an unusually dark day; and he shook the tail ofthe last comet over the heads of his customers and disciplesuntil they were nearly frightened out of their wits. He haslately got hold of a popular legend o

23、r prophecy, on which hehas been unusually eloquent. There has been a saying currentamong the ancient sibyls, who treasure up these things, thatwhen the grasshopper on the top of the Exchange shook handswith the dragon on the top of Bow Church Steeple, fearfulevents would take place. This strange con

24、junction, it seems, hasas strangely come to pass. The same architect has been engagedlately on the repairs of the cupola of the Exchange, and thesteeple of Bow church; and, fearful to relate, the dragon andthe grasshopper actually lie, cheek by jole, in the yard of hisworkshop.Others, as Mr. Skryme

25、is accustomed to say, may go star-gazing, and look for conjunctions in the heavens, but here is aconjunction on the earth, near at home, and under our own eyes,which surpasses all the signs and calculations of astrologers.Since these portentous weathercocks have thus laid their headstogether, wonder

26、ful events had already occurred. The goodold king, notwithstanding that he had lived eighty-two years,had all at once given up the ghost; another king had mountedthe throne; a royal duke had died suddenly,-another, inFrance, had been murdered; there had been radical meetings inall parts of the kingd

27、om; the bloody scenes at Manchester;great plot of Cato Street; and above all, the queen had returnedto England! All these sinister events are recounted by Mr.Skryme, with a mysterious look, and a dismal shake of thehead; and being taken with his drugs, and associated in theminds of his auditors with

28、 stuffed sea-monsters, bottledserpents, and his own visage, which is a title-page oftribulation, they have spread great gloom through the minds ofthe people of Little Britain. They shake their heads wheneverthey go by Bow Church, and observe, that they never expectedany good to come of taking down that steeple, which in oldtimes told nothing but glad tidings, as the history ofWhittington and his Cat bears witness.The rival oracle of Little Britain is a substantialcheesemonger, who lives in a fragment of one of the old familymansions, and is as magnificently lodged as a round-bellied