英国历史上的逸闻趣事(节选)翻译(整理版)

Chapter20Dick Whittington and His Cat第20章惠廷顿和他的猫Nowell：This Sir Richard Whittington,three times mayorSonne to a knight and prentice to a mercerBegan the Library of Grey-Friars in London,And his executors after him did buildWhittington Colledge,thirteen almshouses for poore men,Repaired S.Bartholomewes in Smithfield,Glased the Guildhall,and built Newgate.Hobson：Bones of men,then I have heard lies；For I heard he was a scullion,And rais’d himself by venture of a cat.Nowell：They did the more wrong to the gentleman.Thomas Heywood,‘If you don’t know meyou know nobody’,1606诺尔：理查德·惠廷顿爵士三任市长是骑士之光，布商模范伦敦方济各会的图书馆由他开创遗嘱嘱咐为穷人建立惠廷顿学院，救济院十三所修缮史密斯菲尔德的圣巴塞洛缪医院翻新了市政厅，重建了新门霍布森：尸骨中我听到谎言他曾是个卑鄙小人靠着猫带来的财富养活自己诺尔:他们对这位绅士误解颇深“知己方知彼。

”——1606年托马斯·海伍德如是说Thomas Heywood appears to be making two points quite clearly:Richard Whittington was a real historical character but the story of his cat,although well-known in1606,is fiction.In the400years since then,the historical Richard Whittington has been almost entirely forgotten but the legend of Dick Whittington and his cat has become a part of English folklore rivalled in popularity only by Robin Hood and Maid Marian.The innate appeal of the story had made it a popular favourite as early as1668when Samuel Pepys went to Southwark Fair and‘saw the puppet show of Whittington’,reflecting in his Diary afterwards,How that idle thing do work upon people,and even myself too.托马斯·海伍德想要表明两件事：理查德·惠廷顿是一位真实存在的历史人物，但在1606年，他的猫的故事，尽管十分出名，却是虚构的。

后来的400年间，这位历史人物理查德·惠廷顿几乎要被完全遗忘了，但是迪克·惠廷顿和他的猫的故事却逐渐在英国的民间传说中流传，甚至和《罗宾汉和梅德·玛丽安》比肩。

这个故事内在的吸引力，让它在早在1668年就深受人们喜爱。

那时，萨缪尔·佩皮斯去到南沃克集市，“我看了惠廷顿故事的木偶表演”，后来他在日记里写道，“这种无聊的事情是怎么影响人们，甚至影响我的。

”Richard Whittington was born probably sometime in the late1350s,the third son of Sir William Whittington,who,according to Samuel Lysons,held lands in Pauntley,Gloucestershire,and in Sollers Hope,Herefordshire,manors which had been family estates since the thirteenth century.We know nothing of his childhood,but he was clearly no‘poor,orphan boy’compelled to beg a lift from a passing waggoner to help him get to London to seek his fortune.Nor did he starve there until he managed to find work as a scullion in the home of a rich merchant.He made his way to London，certainly，but he quickly established himself as a mercer prosperous enough by1379 to contribute to a loan to the City and with such influential connections that by the 1380s,when he was not yet thirty,he is recorded as supplying velvets and damasks to Henry Bolingbroke,Earl of Derby(later King Henry IV).In the1390s,he became successively Councillor,Alderman,Sheriff and finally Mayor of London,an office he held in1397/8,1406/7and1419/21.理查德·惠廷顿大约出生在13世纪50年代晚期，是威廉·惠廷顿爵士的第三个孩子，据萨缪尔·莱桑斯称，理查德·惠廷顿在庞特里，格洛斯特郡持有地产，在索罗斯霍普和赫里福郡拥有13世纪的家族庄园。

对于他的童年，我们一无所知，但他显然不是一个需要寻求路过的车夫搭车载他去伦敦寻找财富的“穷苦的孤儿”；他也不需要去富商家里做仆人以免被饿死。

他去到了伦敦，很快成为了一个布商。

1379年，惠廷顿飞黄腾达，开始向伦敦提供贷款。

到了13世纪80年代，此时的他还没到30岁，凭借如此的影响力，成为了德比伯爵亨利·柏林布鲁克（后来的国王亨利四世）天鹅绒和锦缎的供应商。

13世纪90年代，他先后成为了议员，市议员，警长，最后是伦敦市长，分别在在1397/8,1406/ 7和1419/21。

His importance in the life of the City is reflected in his presence at a meetingof Henry IV’s Privy Council in1400,probably in relation to the new king’s request for substantial loans.For Whittington was by this time one of the richest men in London,and between1400and1421he was prominent among those who had made a number of substantial loans to both Henry IV and Henry V.E.F.Jacobin the Oxford History of England notes that in1402he contributed two-thirds of the entire City loan to Henry IV,and states unequivocally that‘with the possible exception of John Hende(another mercer)he was the wealthiest citizen in London’.Only one estimate has ever been put on the amount of Whittington’s fortune;a letter to The Tatler in1709(No.78)claimed that‘he who began the world with a cat died worth three hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling.These loans were not primarily agreed to out of personal loyalty to the monarch nor were they inspired by philanthropic patriotism;they were calculated capitalist ventures with tough contracts and severe penalties for non-payment;lenders expected to double their capital from such financial arrangements.Whittington’s dramatic burning of the bonds to cancel the king’s debts to him is pure fantasy.Nor did these kings show gratitude to their financial saviours:Whittington never received a knighthood-Sir Richard belongs only in the folktale.理查德·惠廷顿出席了1400年亨利四世枢密院会议，很有可能与新国王的巨额贷款有关，可见他对伦敦这座城市的重要性。