Wieland
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p. 1 title page
第1の副題 Or The Transformation: [cross references] (1) No other conclusion, therefore, was left me, but that I had mistaken
the sounds, and that my imagination had transformed some casual noise into
the voice of a human creature. (ch. 6, p. 53); (2) On topics of religion and of his own history, previous
to his transformation into a Spaniard, he was invariably silent. You could
merely gather from his discourse that he was English, and that he was well
acquainted with the neighbouring countries. (ch. 7, p. 63); (3) Previously assured of my
affection for Carwin, distracted with grief and jealousy, and impelled hither at that late hour by some unknown instigation,
his imagination transformed shadows into monsters, and plunged him into
these deplorable errors. (ch. 11, p. 97); (4) Was I not likewise transformed from rational and human into a creature
of nameless and fearful attributes? Was I not transported to the brink
of the same abyss? Ere a new day should come, my hands might be embrued
in blood, and my remaining life be consigned to a dungeon and chains. (ch. 20, p. 165); (5) It was with difficulty
that I curbed my fancy and smothered my fears.
Slight movements and casual sounds were transformed into beckoning shadows
and calling shapes. (ch. 22, p. 176); (6) Fallen from his lofty
and heroic station; now finally restored to the perception of truth; weighed to
earth by the recollection of his own deeds; consoled no longer by a
consciousness of rectitude, for the loss of offspring and wife -- a loss for
which he was indebted to his own misguided hand; Wieland was transformed at once into the man of sorrows! (ch. 26, p. 211).
第2の副題 The American Tale: [cross references] (1) The North-American Indians naturally presented themselves as the
first objects for this species of benevolence.
(ch. 1, p. 9); (2) From an Italian adventurer, who erroneously imagined
that he could find employment for his skill, and sale for his sculptures in
America, my brother had purchased a bust of Cicero. (ch. 3, p. 22); (3) Who shall describe the
sorrow and amazement of the husband? His
restlessness, his vicissitudes of hope
and fear, and his ultimate despair? His
duty called him to
epigraph ll. 1-2 From Virtue’s blissful paths away / The double-tongued are sure to stray: The double-tongued [men] are sure to stray away from Virtue’s blissful paths. Virtue: cf. p. 223, ¶4.
l. 2 double-tongued: [cross reference] If Wieland had framed juster notions of moral duty, and of the divine attributes; or if I had been gifted with ordinary equanimity or foresight, the double-tongued deceiver would have been baffled and repelled. (ch. 27, pp. 223-4)
l. 3 still: = always, ever
l. 4 mazy: cf. “maze” [cross reference]
(1) My
brother saw and comprehended my distress.
He was unacquainted, however, with the full extent of it. He knew not by how many motives I was incited
to retrieve the good opinion of Pleyel.
He endeavored to console me. Some
new event, he said, would occur to disentangle the maze. (ch. 11, p. 103); (2) Was not Carwin my foe? I owed my untimely fate to his treason. Instead of flying from his presence, ought
I not to devote all my faculties to the gaining of an interview, and compel him
to repair the ills of which he has been the author? Why should I suppose him impregnable to
argument? Have I not reason on my side,
and the power of imparting conviction?
Cannot he be made to see the justice of unravelling the maze in which Pleyel
is bewildered? (ch. 15, p. 130)
l.
4 but: (adv.) just
l.
4 ill: (noun) the evil
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p.
3, l. 2 this: this performance
l.
5 moral constitution of man: cf. We [Ludloe and Carwin] have been inclined
to impute them to inherent defects in the moral constitution of men: that
oppression and tyranny grow up by a sort of natural necessity, and that
they will perish only when the human species is extinct. (Memoirs of Carwin 256); ‘As to myself, the age of illusion is past. I shall not wed, till I find one whose moral
and physical constitution will make my personal fidelity easy. [. . .] (269).
合衆国憲法に関して “moral constitution” のフレーズが適用されたのはずっとあとのこと。
l.
10 incidents related: related の後置は relevant の意味のadj. との混同を防ぐため。
l. 24 perversions of the human mind: cf. Reflect on the consequences of this error. Has he not destroyed the wife whom he loved, the children whom he idolized? What is it that enables him to bear the remembrance, but the belief that he acted as his duty enjoined? Would you rashly bereave him of this belief? Would you restore him to himself, and convince him that he was instigated to this dreadful outrage by a perversion of his organs, or a delusion from hell? (ch. 21, p. 171); In a short time the infatuation which had led me thus far began to subside. The remembrance of former reasonings and transactions was renewed. How often I had repented this kind of exertion; how many evils were produced by it which I had not foreseen; what occasions for the bitterest remorse it had administered, now passed through my mind. The black catalogue of stratagems was now increased. I had inspired you with the most vehement terrors: I had filled your mind with faith in shadows and confidence in dreams: I had depraved the imagination of Pleyel: I had exhibited you to his understanding as devoted to brutal gratifications and consummate in hypocrisy. The evidence which accompanied this delusion would be irresistible to one whose passion had perverted his judgment, whose jealousy with regard to me had already been excited, and who, therefore, would not fail to overrate the force of this evidence. What fatal act of despair or of vengeance might not this error produce? (ch. 23, p. 193); I refused to listen to their exhortations. Great as my calamity was, to be torn from this asylum was regarded by me as an aggravation of it. By a perverse constitution of mind, he was considered as my greatest enemy who sought to withdraw me from a scene which supplied eternal food to my melancholy, and kept my despair from languishing. (ch. 27, p. 215); Perhaps you are somewhat interested in the fate of Carwin. He saw, when too late, the danger of imposture. So much affected was he by the catastrophe to which he was a witness, that he laid aside all regard to his own safety. He sought my uncle, and confided to him the tale which he had just related to me. He found a more impartial and indulgent auditor in Mr. Cambridge, who imputed to maniacal illusion the conduct of Wieland, though he conceived the previous and unseen agency of Carwin, to have indirectly but powerfully predisposed to this deplorable perversion of mind. (ch. 27, p. 219)
l. 26 moral painters: Brownは “moral painter” を自認している。cf.
(1) Arthur Mervyn (1799) 序文――PREFACE.
The evils of pestilence by which this city has lately been afflicted will probably form an era in its history. The schemes of reformation and improvement to which they will give birth, or, if no efforts of human wisdom can avail to avert the periodical visitations of this calamity, the change in manners and population which they will produce, will be, in the highest degree, memorable. They have already supplied new and copious materials for reflection to the physician and the political economist. They have not been less fertile of instruction to the moral observer, to whom they have furnished new displays of the influence of human passions and motives.
Amidst the medical and political discussions which are now afloat in the community relative to this topic, the author of these remarks has ventured to methodize his own reflections, and to weave into an humble narrative such incidents as appeared to him most instructive and remarkable among those which came within the sphere of his own observation. It is every one's duty to profit by all opportunities of inculcating on mankind the lessons of justice and humanity. The influences of hope and fear, the trials of fortitude and constancy, which took place in this city in the autumn of 1793, have, perhaps, never been exceeded in any age. It is but just to snatch some of these from oblivion, and to deliver to posterity a brief but faithful sketch of the condition of this metropolis during that calamitous period. Men only require to be made acquainted with distress for their compassion and their charity to be awakened. He that depicts, in lively colours, the evils of disease and poverty, performs an eminent service to the sufferers, by calling forth benevolence in those who are able to afford relief; and he who portrays examples of disinterestedness and intrepidity confers on virtue the notoriety and homage that are due to it, and rouses in the spectators the spirit of salutary emulation.
In the following tale a particular series of adventures is brought to a close; but these are necessarily connected with the events which happened subsequent to the period here described. These events are not less memorable than those which form the subject of the present volume, and may hereafter be published, either separately or in addition to this.
C.B.B.
(2) Edgar Huntly (1799) 序文―― To the Public:
The flattering reception that has been given, by the public, to Arthur Mervyn, has prompted the writer to solicit a continuance of the same
favour, and to offer to the world a new performance.
America Europe , --may be readily conceived. The sources of amusement to the fancy and instruction to the heart, that are peculiar to ourselves, are equally numerous and inexhaustible. It is the purpose of this work to profit by some of these sources; to exhibit a series of adventures, growing out of the condition of our country, and connected with one of the most common and most wonderful diseases or affections of the human frame.
One merit the writer may at least claim: --that of calling forth the passions and engaging the sympathy of the reader by means hitherto unemployed by preceding authors. Puerile superstition and exploded manners, Gothic castles and chimeras, are the materials usually employed for this end. The incidents of Indian hostility, and the perils of the Western wilderness, are far more suitable; and for a native of America
C. B. B.
l.
33 epistolary form: 書簡体――1669年の『ぽるとがる文』（虚構だけど本物と考えられた）以来、フランスではモンテスキューの『ペルシャ人の手紙』(1721)
など書簡体が流行して、それがイギリスにも伝染して、RichardsonのPamela は書簡体小説として「実用」をアピールしつつ受け入れられた。で、小説における書簡体も、虚構と現実を切り結ぶverisimilitudeの手段として1つのconventionになる。Hannah Webster Foster の The Coquette (1797) もWilliam Hill Brown のThe
Power of Sympathy (1789)も書簡体小説。
l.
34 small number of friends: 本文を読んでも不明。Cf. “You are a stranger to the depth of my distresses.”(p. 5, ll. 2-3); “your companions” (l. 30).
l.
34 curiosity: story をdriveするengine (cf. E. M. Forster, The Aspects of the Novel) だし、Brownの登場人物たちの行動原理の1つでもある（キリスト教倫理的には「罪」）。
p.
4, ll. 1-2 the French: the French (war) = the French and Indian War (1754-63). 1763年2月10日のthe Treaty of Paris [the Peace of Paris]で終結。詳しくは<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_and_Indian_War>などを参照。
l.
2 the revolutionary war: = the American Revolutionary War (1775-83). 1775年4月19日の t he Battle of Lexington が最初の戦闘と考えられる。
ll. 2-3 The memoirs of Carwin: Cf. Having gained this interview, I purposed to
seek some retreat in the wilderness, inaccessible to your inquiry and to
the malice of my foe, where I might henceforth employ myself in composing
a faithful narrative of my actions. (ch. 23, p. 194)
コメント
1. 事実であること、歴史に位置づくものであることの強調。
2. 有用性・教条性と倫理の強調―― “usefulness,” “instructive,” “moral”
3. “rare” であることの強調――p. 2, l. 10; l. 18; l. 26と繰り返される。
4. miracle vs. human mind
5. “reception” への敏感さ――p. 2, l.
2; p. 3, l. 4と繰り返される。