159
Of all this, Guildenstern and Rosenscrantz realise nothing. They bow and smirk and smile, and what the one says the other echoes with sicklier iteration. When at last, by means of the play within the play and the puppets in their dalliance, Hamlet “catches the conscience” of the King, and drives the wretched man in terror from his throne, Guildenstern and Rosencrantz see no more in his conduct than a rather painful breach of court-etiquette. That is as far as they can attain to in “the contemplation of the spectacle of life with appropriate emotions.” [159.1] They are close to his very secret and know nothing of it. Nor would there be any use in telling them. They are the little cups that can hold so much and no more. Towards the close it is suggested that, caught in a cunning springe set for another, they have met, or may meet with a violent and sudden death. But a tragic ending of this kind, though touched by Hamlet’s humour with something of the surprise and justice of comedy, is really not for such as they. They never die. Horatio who, in order to “report Hamlet and his cause aright to the unsatisfied,”
Absents him from felicity a while
And in this harsh world draws his breath in pain,
dies, though not before an audience, and leaves no brother. But Guildenstern and Rosencrantz are as immortal as Angelo and Tartuffe,[159.2] and should rank with them. They are what modern life has contributed to the antique ideal of friendship. He who writes a new De Amicitia must find a niche for them and praise them in Tusculan prose.[159.3] They are types fixed for all time. To censure them would show a lack of appreciation. They are merely out of their sphere: that is all. In sublimity of soul there is no contagion. High thoughts and high emotions are by their very existence isolated[159a]. What Ophelia herself could not understand was not to be realised by “Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz,” by “Rosencrantz and gentle Guildestern.” Of course I do not propose to compare you. There is a wide difference between you. What with them was chance, with you was choice[159b]. Deliberately and by me uninvited you thrust yourself into my sphere, usurped there a place for which you had neither right nor qualifications, and having by curious persistence, and by the rendering of your very presence a part of each separate day, succeeded in absorbing my entire life, could do no better with that life than break it in pieces. Strange as it may sound to you, it was but natural that you should do so. If one gives to a child a toy too wonderful for its little mind, or too beautiful for its but half-awakened eyes, it breaks the toy, if it is wilful; if it is listless it lets it fall and goes its way to its own companions. So it was with you. Having got hold of my life, you did not how what to do with it. You couldn’t have known. It was too wonderful a thing to be in your grasp. You should have let it slip from your hands and gone back to your own companions at their play. But unfortunately you were wilful, and so you broke it. That, when everything is said, is perhaps the ultimate secret of all that has happened. For secrets are always smaller than their manifestations. By the displacement of an atom a world may be shaken. And that I may not spare myself any more than you[159c] I will add this: that dangerous to me as my meeting with you was, it was rendered fatal to me by the particular moment in which we met. For you were at that time of life when all that one does is no more than the sowing of the seed, and I was at that time of life when all that one does is no less than the reaping of the harvest[159d].
关于这一切，纪尔顿斯丹和罗森克兰兹全然不知。 他们鞠着躬，陪着假笑和真笑，一个说什么另一个便用更恶心的话回应重复出来。最后，借助戏中戏和这两个傀儡的相互调笑，哈姆雷特把国王的“良心抓住了”，把这无耻之徒吓得魂不附体，赶下了宝座。这个举动在纪尔顿斯丹和罗森克兰兹看来不过是颇费苦心地违反了宫廷规矩罢了。在“以合适的情感观照生活之奇景”中，他们只能达到这个程度。他们眼看就触到哈姆雷特的心机所在了，却一点也不知道。告诉他们也没什么用。他们是小小的杯子，只装得下这么些，再多就不行了。在戏快终场时，有暗示说这两人中了本来为另外一个人而设的圈套，他们死得或者会死得很惨、很突然。但这样一种悲剧性结局，虽然借助哈姆雷特的幽默带上了一点意外和喜剧性的罪有应得，真正却不是给他们的。他们永远不死。而霍拉旭，为了“把哈姆雷特和他的事业如实向那些尚未尽兴的人报告”，
就暂且免他去享福，
在这冷酷的世界上痛苦地留口气，
他却死了，虽然没在观众面前死，也没留下弟兄。但纪尔顿斯丹和罗森克兰兹却长生不老，如同《一报还一报》中的安吉罗和莫里哀笔下的答尔丢夫，并且应该与他们地位相等。他们就是现代生活对古心古意的友谊理想所做的贡献。如果有谁要写一篇新的《论友谊》，应该为他们找个位置，用图斯库卢姆散文的风格把他们褒奖一番。他们这些类型的人什么时候都应时应景。谴责他们反而显得缺乏欣赏力了。他们只不过是逸出了自己的范围，如此而已。灵魂的崇高是无法蔚成风气的。高远的思想，高尚的情感，从来就和者乏人[159a]。莪菲利亚本人不明白的，“纪尔顿斯丹和好人罗森克兰兹”或者“罗森克兰兹和好人纪尔顿斯丹”也领悟不了。当然我并不是说要将你们相比较。你和他们差别太大了。他们是机会使然，而你是成心为之[159b]。故意地，不请自便地，你冲进我的范围，篡夺了一个你既无权又无资格占据的位子。凭着你那出奇的顽梗，没有一天不守在我跟前一阵，终于把我的整个生活吸走了，除了把它糟践得支离破碎又能怎样。尽管你听着可能会觉得奇怪，但你这么行事却是很自然的。如果把一件玩具给一个小孩，这玩具对那颗小小的心来说太过美妙了，对那双懵懵懂懂的眼睛来说太过美丽了，要是小孩任性，就把玩具摔了；要是小孩满不在乎，就让玩具掉落在一旁，自己找伙伴玩去了。 你就是这样。攥住了我的生活，又不知道怎么办才好。你知道不了的。这生活太美妙了，你是不该把它握在手里的。你本该松手放开它，找你自己的伙伴玩去。但不幸的是你很任性，于是把它摔了。这一点，归根结底，也许就是所发生的一切事情的最终秘密所在。因为秘密总是比外在的表露要小。调换一个原子可以震撼一个世界。关于这一点，我同你一样难辞其咎[159c]，在此要补一句：碰上你，对我是危险的，而在那个特定时候碰上你，对我则成了致命，因为在你生命所处的那个时候，所作所为不过是撒种入土罢了，而我生命所处的，却正是一切都在收成归仓的季节[159d]。
159