147
147
As if it had been possible for me to gradually drop you! I had tried to end our friendship in every possible way, going so far as actually to leave England and give a false address abroad in the hopes of breaking at one blow a bond that had become irksome, hateful, and ruinous to me[147a]. Do you think that I could have “gradually dropped” you? Do you think that would have satisfied your father? You know it would not. What your father wanted, indeed, was not the cessation of our friendship, but a public scandal. That is what he was striving for[147b]. His name had not been in the papers for years. He saw the opportunity of appearing before the British public in an entirely new character, that of the affectionate father. His sense of humour was roused. Had I severed my friendship with you it would have been a terrible disappointment to him, and the small notoriety of a second divorce suit, however revolting its details and origin, would have proved but little consolation to him.[147.1] For what he was aiming at was popularity, and to pose as a champion of purity, as it is termed, is, in the present condition of the British public, the surest mode of becoming for the nonce a heroic figure[147c]. Of this public I have said in one of my plays that if it is Caliban for one half of the year, it is Tartuffe for the other,[147.2] and your father, in whom both characters may be said to have become incarnate, was in this way marked out as the proper representative of Puritanism in its aggressive and most characteristic form. No gradual dropping of you would have been of any avail, even had it been practicable. Don’t you feel now that the only thing for your mother to have done was to have asked me to come to see her, and had you and your brother present, and said definitely that the friendship must absolutely cease? She would have found in me her warmest seconder, and with Drumlanrig and myself in the room she need not have been afraid of speaking to you. She did not do so. She was afraid of her responsibilities, and tried to shift them on to me. One letter she did certainly write to me. It was a brief one, to ask me not to send the lawyer’s letter to your father warning him to desist. She was quite right. It was ridiculous my consulting lawyers and seeking their protection. But she nullified any effect her letter might have produced by her usual postscript: “On no account let Alfred know that I have written to you.
好像有可能让我把你渐渐放掉似的！我曾千方百计要结束你我的友谊，不惜离开英国，给个在外国的假地址，希望能一举斩断这已经变得可憎可恶、将把我引上绝路的交往[147a]。你说我是能够把你“渐渐放掉”而不放吗？你说这样你父亲就心满意足了吗？你知道不是这么回事的。你父亲要的，的确不是你我中断友谊，而是当众闹出条丑闻。他盘算着的就是这个[147b]。他名字没见诸报端已有些年头了，于是看准这是个机会，好以一个全新的形象，一个慈父的形象，出现在不列颠大众眼前。他来劲了。我要是同你一刀两断，那可真要叫他大失所望，即使二度离婚的官司，不管其始末曲直有多令人恶心，所赢得的小小臭名，充其量也难以自慰。因为他求的是出名走红，而装扮成一个所谓的纯洁世风的卫道士，以时下英国公众的水平论，是成为一时英雄的不二法门[147c]。我在一个剧本里说了，这公众，如果上半年是残忍的卡利班，那下半年就是伪善的答尔丢夫。而你父亲可说是成了这两种性格的化身，这样一来，就被目为咄咄逼人、最典型的清教徒主义的当然代表了。渐渐把你放掉，即使行得通，也于事无补。难道你现在还不这样认为吗，你母亲该做的唯有请我过去同她见面，你和你哥哥也要在场，毫不含糊地提出这段友谊必须一刀两断？那她就会发觉，对她的提议我是最衷心拥护不过了，而且有你哥哥和我在场，也用不着怕同你说话了。她没这么做。她这是怕负责任，想往我身上推。当然她的确给我写过一封信，短短的，要我别再往你父亲处写律师信警告他罢手。她说得倒很对。我真荒唐，去找律师商量，求他们保护。但那封信可能产生的效果，却被她用那句惯常的附言抵消了：“千万别让阿尔弗莱德知道我写信给你。”
147