50 bab ballads-第9部分
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When people inquired her size; LIEUTENANT BELAYE replied;
〃Oh; my ship; my ship is the first of the Hundred and Seventy…
ones!〃
Which meant her tonnage; but people imagined it meant her guns。
Whenever I went on board he would beckon me down below;
〃Come down; Little Buttercup; come〃 (for he loved to call me so);
And he'd tell of the fights at sea in which he'd taken a part;
And so LIEUTENANT BELAYE won poor POLL PINEAPPLE'S heart!
But at length his orders came; and he said one day; said he;
〃I'm ordered to sail with the HOT CROSS BUN to the German Sea。〃
And the Portsmouth maidens wept when they learnt the evil day;
For every Portsmouth maid loved good LIEUTENANT BELAYE。
And I went to a back back street; with plenty of cheap cheap shops;
And I bought an oilskin hat and a second…hand suit of slops;
And I went to LIEUTENANT BELAYE (and he never suspected ME!)
And I entered myself as a chap as wanted to go to sea。
We sailed that afternoon at the mystic hour of one; …
Remarkably nice young men were the crew of the HOT CROSS BUN;
I'm sorry to say that I've heard that sailors sometimes swear;
But I never yet heard a BUN say anything wrong; I declare。
When Jack Tars meet; they meet with a 〃Messmate; ho! What cheer?〃
But here; on the HOT CROSS BUN; it was 〃How do you do; my dear?〃
When Jack Tars growl; I believe they growl with a big big D…
But the strongest oath of the HOT CROSS BUNS was a mild 〃Dear me!〃
Yet; though they were all well…bred; you could scarcely call them
slick:
Whenever a sea was on; they were all extremely sick;
And whenever the weather was calm; and the wind was light and fair;
They spent more time than a sailor should on his back back hair。
They certainly shivered and shook when ordered aloft to run;
And they screamed when LIEUTENANT BELAYE discharged his only gun。
And as he was proud of his gun … such pride is hardly wrong …
The Lieutenant was blazing away at intervals all day long。
They all agreed very well; though at times you heard it said
That BILL had a way of his own of making his lips look red …
That JOE looked quite his age … or somebody might declare
That BARNACLE'S long pig…tail was never his own own hair。
BELAYE would admit that his men were of no great use to him;
〃But; then;〃 he would say; 〃there is little to do on a gunboat trim
I can hand; and reef; and steer; and fire my big gun too …
And it IS such a treat to sail with a gentle well…bred crew。〃
I saw him every day。 How the happy moments sped!
Reef topsails! Make all taut! There's dirty weather ahead!
(I do not mean that tempests threatened the HOT CROSS BUN:
In THAT case; I don't know whatever we SHOULD have done!)
After a fortnight's cruise; we put into port one day;
And off on leave for a week went kind LIEUTENANT BELAYE;
And after a long long week had passed (and it seemed like a life);
LIEUTENANT BELAYE returned to his ship with a fair young wife!
He up; and he says; says he; 〃O crew of the HOT CROSS BUN;
Here is the wife of my heart; for the Church has made us one!〃
And as he uttered the word; the crew went out of their wits;
And all fell down in so many separate fainting…fits。
And then their hair came down; or off; as the case might be;
And lo! the rest of the crew were simple girls; like me;
Who all had fled from their homes in a sailor's blue array;
To follow the shifting fate of kind LIEUTENANT BELAYE。
* * * * * * * *
It's strange to think that I should ever have loved young men;
But I'm speaking of ten years past … I was barely sixty then;
And now my cheeks are furrowed with grief and age; I trow!
And poor POLL PINEAPPLE'S eyes have lost their lustre now!
Ballad: LOST MR。 BLAKE。
MR。 BLAKE was a regular out…and…out hardened sinner;
Who was quite out of the pale of Christianity; so to speak;
He was in the habit of smoking a long pipe and drinking a glass of
grog on a Sunday after dinner;
And seldom thought of going to church more than twice or … if Good
Friday or Christmas Day happened to come in it … three times a
week。
He was quite indifferent as to the particular kinds of dresses
That the clergyman wore at church where he used to go to pray;
And whatever he did in the way of relieving a chap's distresses;
He always did in a nasty; sneaking; underhanded; hole…and…corner
sort of way。
I have known him indulge in profane; ungentlemanly emphatics;
When the Protestant Church has been divided on the subject of the
proper width of a chasuble's hem;
I have even known him to sneer at albs … and as for dalmatics;
Words can't convey an idea of the contempt he expressed for THEM。
He didn't believe in persons who; not being well off themselves;
are obliged to confine their charitable exertions to collecting
money from wealthier people;
And looked upon individuals of the former class as ecclesiastical
hawks;
He used to say that he would no more think of interfering with his
priest's robes than with his church or his steeple;
And that he did not consider his soul imperilled because somebody
over whom he had no influence whatever; chose to dress himself up
like an exaggerated GUY FAWKES。
This shocking old vagabond was so unutterably shameless
That he actually went a…courting a very respectable and pious
middle…aged sister; by the name of BIGGS。
She was a rather attractive widow; whose life as such had always
been particularly blameless;
Her first husband had left her a secure but moderate competence;
owing to some fortunate speculations in the matter of figs。
She was an excellent person in every way … and won the respect even
of MRS。 GRUNDY;
She was a good housewife; too; and wouldn't have wasted a penny if
she had owned the Koh…i…noor。
She was just as strict as he was lax in her observance of Sunday;
And being a good economist; and charitable besides; she took all
the bones and cold potatoes and broken pie…crusts and candle…ends
(when she had quite done with them); and made them into an
excellent soup for the deserving poor。
I am sorry to say that she rather took to BLAKE … that outcast of
society;
And when respectable brothers who were fond of her began to look
dubious and to cough;
She would say; 〃Oh; my friends; it's because I hope to bring this
poor benighted soul back to virtue and propriety;
And besides; the poor benighted soul; with all his faults; was
uncommonly well off。
And when MR。 BLAKE'S dissipated friends called his attention to the
frown or the pout of her;
Whenever he did anything which appeared to her to savour of an
unmentionable place;
He would say that 〃she would be a very decent old girl when all
that nonsense was knocked out of her;〃
And his method of knocking it out of her is one that covered him
with disgrace。
She was fond of going to church services four times every Sunday;
and; four or five times in the week; and never seemed to pall of
them;
So he hunted out all the churches within a convenient distance that
had services at different hours; so to speak;
And when he had married her he positively insisted upon their going
to all of them;
So they contrived to do about twelve churches every Sunday; and; if
they had luck; from twenty…two to twenty…three in the course of the
week。
She was fond of dropping his sovereigns ostentatiously into the
plate; and she liked to see them stand out rather conspicuously
against the commonplace half…crowns and shillings;
So he took her to all the charity sermons; and if by any
extraordinary chance there wasn't a charity sermon anywhere; he
would drop a couple of sovereigns (one for him and one for her)
into the poor…box at the door;
And as he always deducted the sums thus given in charity from the
housekeeping money; and the money he allowed her for her bonnets
and frillings;
She soon began to find that even charity; if you allow it to
interfere with your personal luxuries; becomes an intolerable bore。
On Sundays she was always melancholy and anything but good society;
For that day in her household was a day of sighings and sobbings
and wringing of hands and shaking of heads:
She wouldn't hear of a button being sewn on a glove; because it was
a work neither of necessity nor of piety;
And strictly prohibited her servants from amusing themselves; or
indeed doing anything at all except dusting the drawing…rooms;
cleaning the boots and shoes; cooking the parlour dinner; waiting
generally on the family; and making the beds。
But BLAKE even went further than that; and said that people should
do their own works of necessity; and not delegate them to persons
in a menial situation;
So he wouldn't allow his servants to do so much as even answer a
bell。
Here he is making his wife carry up the water for her bath to the
second floor; much against her inclination; …
And why in the world the gentleman who illustrates these ballads
has put him in a cocked hat is more than I can tell。
After about three months of this sort of thing; taking the smooth
with the rough of it;
(Blacking her own boots and peeling her own potatoes was not her
notion of connubial bliss);
MRS。 BLAKE began to find that she had pretty nearly had enough of
it;
And came; in course of time; to think that BLAKE'S own original
line of conduct wasn't so much amiss。
And now that wicked person … that detestable sinner (〃BELIAL BLAKE〃
his friends and well…wishers call him for his atrocities);
And his poor deluded victim; whom all her Christian brothers
dislike and pity so;
Go to the parish church only on Sunday morning and afternoon and
occasionally on a week…day; and spend their evenings in connubial
fondlings and affectionate reciprocities;
And I should like to know where in the world (or rather; out of it)
they expect to go!
Ballad