On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth
From my boyish days I had always felt a great perplexity on one point in Macbeth. It was this: the knocking at the gate, which succeeds to the murder of Duncan, produced to my feelings an effect for which I never could account. The effect was, that it reflected back upon the murderer a peculiar awfulness and a depth of solemnity; yet, however obstinately I endeavoured with my understanding to comprehend this, for many years I never could see why it should produce such an effect. Here I pause for one moment, to exhort the reader never to pay any attention to his understanding, when it stands in opposition to any other faculty of his mind. The mere understanding, however useful and indispensable, is the meanest faculty in the human mind, and the most to be distrusted; and yet the great majority of people trust to nothing else, which may do for ordinary life, but not for philosophical purposes. Of this out of ten thousand instances that I might produce, I will cite one. Ask of any person whatsoever, who is not previously prepared for the demand by a knowledge of the perspective, to draw in the rudest way the commonest appearance which depends upon the laws of that science; as, for instance, to represent the effect of two walls standing at right angles to each other, or the appearance of the houses on each side of a street, as seen by a person looking down the street from one extremity. Now in all cases, unless the person has happened to observe in pictures how it is that artists produce these effects, he will be utterly unable to make the smallest approximation to it. Yet why? For he has actually seen the effect every day of his life. The reason is that he allows his understanding to overrule his eyes. His understanding, which includes no intuitive knowledge of the laws of vision, can furnish him with no reason why a line which is known and can be proved to be a horizontal line, should not appear a horizontal line; a line that made any angle with the perpendicular, less than a right angle, would seem to him to indicate that his houses were all tumbling down together. Accordingly, he makes the line of his houses a horizontal line, and fails, of course, to produce the effect demanded. Here, then, is one instance out of many, in which not only the understanding is allowed to overrule the eyes, but where the understanding is positively allowed to obliterate the eyes, as it were; for not only does the man believe the evidence of his understanding in opposition to that of his eyes, but (what is monstrous!) the idiot is not aware that his eyes ever gave such evidence. He does not know that he has seen (and therefore quoad his consciousness has not seen) that which he has seen every day of his life. But to return from this digression, my understanding could furnish no reason why the knocking at the gate in Macbeth should produce any effect, direct or reflected. In fact, my understanding said positively that it could not produce any effect. But I knew better: I felt that it did; and I waited and clung to the problem until further knowledge should enable me to solve it. At length, in 1812, Mr. Williams made his debut on the stage of Ratcliff Highway, and executed those unparalleled murders which have procured for him such a brilliant and undying reputation. On which murders, by the way, I must observe, that in one respect they have had an ill effect, by making the connoisseur in murder very fastidious in his taste, and dissatisfied by anything that has been since done in that line. All other murders look pale by the deep crimson of his; and, as an amateur once said to me in a querulous tone, "There has been absolutely nothing doing since his time, or nothing that's worth speaking of." But this is wrong; for it is unreasonable to expect all men to be great artists, and born with the genius of Mr. Williams. Now it will be remembered, that in the first of these murders (that of the Marrs), the same incident (of a knocking at the door, soon after the work of extermination was complete) did actually occur, which the genius of Shakespeare has invented; and all good judges, and the most eminent dilettanti, acknowledged the felicity of Shakespeare's suggestion, as soon as it was actually realized. Here, then, was a fresh proof that I was right in relying on my own feeling, in opposition to my understanding; and I again set myself to study the problem; at length I solved it to my own satisfaction, and my solution is this. Murder, in ordinary cases, where the sympathy is wholly directed to the case of the murdered person, is an incident of coarse and vulgar horror; and for this reason that it flings the interest exclusively upon the natural but ignoble instinct by which we cleave to life; an instinct which, as being indispensable to the primal law of self-preservation, is the same in kind (though different in degree) amongst all living creatures: this instinct, therefore, because it annihilates all distinctions, and degrades the greatest of men to the level of "the poor beetle that we tread on," exhibits human nature in its most abject and humiliating attitude. Such an attitude would little suit the purposes of the poet. What then must he do? He must throw the interest on the murderer. Our sympathy must be with him (of course, I mean a sympathy of comprehension, a sympathy by which we enter into his feelings, and are made to understand them -- not a sympathy of pity or approbation*{Footnote below}). In the murdered person, all strife of thought, all flux and reflux of passion and of purpose, are crushed by one overwhelming panic; the fear of instant death smites him "with its petrific mace." But in the murderer, such a murderer as a poet will condescend to, there must be raging some great storm of passion jealousy, ambition, vengeance, hatred which will create a hell within him; and into this hell we are to look. In Macbeth, for the sake of gratifying his own enormous and teeming faculty of creation, Shakespeare has introduced two murderers; and, as usual in his hands, they are remarkably discriminated; but, though in Macbeth the strife of mind is greater than in his wife, the tiger spirit not so awake, and his feelings caught chiefly by contagion from her yet, as both were finally involved in the guilt of murder, the murderous mind of necessity is finally to be presumed in both. This was to be expressed; and on its own account, as well as to make it a more proportionable antagonist to the unoffending nature of their victim, "the gracious Duncan," and adequately to expound "the deep damnation of his taking off," this was to be expressed with peculiar energy. We were to be made to feel that the human nature, i.e., the divine nature of love and mercy, spread through the hearts of all creatures, and seldom utterly withdrawn from man was gone, vanished, extinct? and that the fiendish nature had taken its place. And, as this effect is marvellously accomplished in the dialogues and soliloquies themselves, so it is finally consummated by the expedient under consideration: and it is to this that I now solicit the reader's attention. If the reader has ever witnessed a wife, daughter, or sister in a fainting fit, he may chance to have observed that the most affecting moment in such a spectacle is that in which a sigh and a stirring announce the recommencement of suspended life. Or, if the reader has ever been present in a vast metropolis on the day when some great national idol was carried in funeral pomp to his grave, and chancing to walk near the course through which it passed, has felt powerfully in the silence and desertion of the streets, and in the stagnation of ordinary business, the deep interest which at that moment was possessing the heart of man -- if all at once he should hear the death-like stillness broken up by the sound of wheels rattling away from the scene, and making known that the transitory vision was dissolved, he will be aware that at no moment was his sense of the complete suspension and pause in ordinary human concerns so full and affecting as at that moment when the suspension ceases, and the goings-on of haman life are suddenly resumed. All action in any direction is best expounded, measured, and made apprehensible by reaction. Now, apply this to the case in Macbeth. Here, as I have said, the retiring of the human heart, and the entrance of the fiendish heart was to be expressed and made sensible. Another world has stepped in; and the murderers are taken out of the region of human things, human purposes, human desires. They are transfigured: Lady Macbeth is "unsexed;" Macbeth has forgot that he was born of woman; both are conformed to the image of devils; and the world of devils is suddenly revealed. But how shall this be conveyed and made palpable? In order that a new world may step in, this world must for a time disappear. The murderers and the murder must be insulated -- cut off by an immeasurable gulf from the ordinary tide and succession of human affairs locked up and sequestered in some deep recess; we must be made sensible that the world of ordinary life is suddenly arrested -- laid asleep -- tranced -- racked into a dread armistice; time must be annihilated; relation to things without abolished; and all must pass self-withdrawn into a deep syncope and suspension of earthly passion. Hence it is, that, when the deed is done, when the work of darkness is perfect, then the world of darkness passes away like a pageantry in the clouds: the knocking at the gate is heard; and it makes known audibly that the reaction has commenced: the human has made its reflux upon the fiendish; the pulses of life are beginning to beat again; and the re-establishment of the goings-on of the world in which we live, first makes us profoundly sensible of the awful parenthesis that had suspended them. O mighty poet! Thy works are not as those of other men, simply and merely great works of art: but are also like the phenomena of nature, like the sun and the sea, the stars and the flowers; like frost and snow, rain and dew, hail-storm and thunder, which are to be studied with entire submission of our own faculties, and in the perfect faith that in them there can be no too much or too little, nothing useless or inert but that, the farther we press in our discoveries, the more we shall see proofs of design and self-supporting arrangement where the careless eye had seen nothing but accident.
N.B. In the above specimen of psychological criticism, I have purposely omitted to notice another use of the knocking at the gate, viz. the opposition and contrast which it produces in the porter's coments to the scenes immediately preceding; because this use is tolerably obviously to all who are accustomed to reflect on what they read.
译文：
深夜叩门之声
从童年时起，我就一直对《麦克白》中的一点感到极大的困惑。那就是：麦克白谋杀邓肯后的深夜叩门之声在我的心中产生了一种从未能言清的感受。给我的印象是，深夜叩门之声折射出凶手的那种独有的恐惧和深重的严肃。然而，无论我多么拼命的用我的思维努力思考这个问题，多年来，我却从未能明白为什么它会产生这样的效果。
在这儿我稍作停顿,奉劝读者当自己的思维与其他心理因素相左时，绝对不要关注它。不管有用与否，思维不过是人类内心中最平常的因素，并且最不被信任；然而大多数人还是不信这个，这可能对普通生活而言确实如此，但对哲学而言并非这样。对此，我可以列举万余个例子，下面我就举一个吧。要求随便的一个人根据某种科学的法则以最粗糙的方法去画最普通的形体，前提是，此人事先并不了解这个要求，也没有刻意准备。例如，呈现出两堵互成直角的墙的视觉效果，抑或是画出一条街道两旁房屋的样子，即一个人从高处俯瞰街道时，房屋呈现出的景观。现在，在所有情况中，除过此人已在画作中观察过艺术家是如何创造出这些效果的，否则，他完全不能画出与实物最贴近的画面效果。然而原因何在？就在于他看到的实际上是他每天生活的印象。这个原因就是他允许他的思维统治了他的双眼。他的不包括视觉感知的思维能莫名的供给他为河一条已知的并非水平的线，能被画成水平线；一条与垂线构成的任意角都小于直角的线条在他看来，就像他画的所有房子都正在一起向下倒塌，据此，他把房子的线条画成了一条水平线，当然就不能成功的作出所要求的效果。这儿列举的只是诸多事件中的一件，此例中不仅允许思维控制双眼，而且还积极的允许它蒙蔽双眼。因为那人不单相信思维所得的证据与眼睛直接所见的相反，而且（令人惊奇的是）那白痴没意识到他的眼睛总是给予他佐证。他不知道他看见的知识他日常生活中的印象。
现在言归正传，我的思维能莫名地提供给我为什么《麦克白》里的深夜叩门之声会直接或间接地产生一些效果。事实上，我的思维积极的告诉我它不能产生任何效果。但我了解得多些，我觉得它可以，并在等待中坚持这个问题，直至有更深的知识促使我解决这个问题为止。最终，在1812年，威廉先生在莱特克里夫﹒海威的舞台上举行了首场演出，而且上演了为他赢得辉煌不朽的名望的举世无双的谋杀。同时，我察觉到那些谋杀在另一方面已经产生了负面影响，它使得其行家十分挑剔，不满于业内任何已完成的事。其的所有谋杀因其血腥而显得苍白；一位业余人士曾以不满的语调向我说到：“自威廉那个时代以来，完全没有什么成就，或者说没什么值得谈论的。”这根本不对。因为期望所有人都成为伟大的艺术家，并且天生就有威廉先生的才智，是不合情理的。现在，要提及的是，在这些谋杀的第一个（马里斯的谋杀）中，天才莎士比亚所创造的紧随谋杀之后而来的完全相同的事件（深夜叩门之声）的确发生了。一旦它真正被意识到，所有优秀的评论者，以及最受推崇的业余评论者都承认莎士比亚暗示的恰当性。此处，是一个新近的证据，我只与我的思维相反的感受得来。我再次让自己研究这个问题，最终，我满意的解决了这个问题并且这就是我得到的结果：谋杀，在一般情况下，即同情完全指向被害人的情况中，它是一桩粗野并让人恐惧的恶行；而且正因为如此，谋杀完全抛弃了我们维系生命的可耻的本能之外的人性；这种本能对自我存活的原始法则必不可缺，它对所有动物（尽管程度不同）都是一样的。这种本能，消靡了所有动物间的差异，把最伟大的人类降低到河我们“践踏的可怜的甲虫”同等的程度，它展现了人性中最无耻，最令人汗颜的姿态。这样一种姿态与诗人的目的没有丝毫契合。接下来诗人要做什么？他必须丢弃对凶手的兴趣。我们的同情将追随于他（当然我指的是一种全面理解的同情，是一种我们藉以深入他的感受之中并理解他的感受的同情，而非一种遗憾或嘉许）。在被谋害者心中，所有思绪的斗争，所有情感与目的的冲撞，被一种势不可遏的惊恐压碎，短暂的死亡的恐惧和死神的摧毁一切的权杖将他毁灭。但在一位诗人塑造的这样一个凶手的身上，一定有某种剧烈的情感风暴在肆虐——嫉妒，野心，报复，仇恨——这些在他的内心浇筑了一座地狱，我们所关注的就在这地狱之中。
在《麦克白》中，为了满足他巨大而丰富的创作才能，莎士比亚塑造了两个凶手，而且和以往塑造的人物一样，两个凶手明显的具有区别。尽管麦克白内心的挣扎比他的妻子强烈，但没有唤起他的兽性，它的感触主要由他的妻子引起，然而，当两人最后卷入谋杀的罪恶之中时，都下定了冒险行凶的决心。这点被表达了出来；出于剧情自身的考虑，还让他们谋杀的那个平和仁慈的邓肯——无辜的受害者与之相衬，充分阐明其深沉阴谋的罪恶，这随着罕有的力量被表现了出来。让我们体会到人性，即人人心中都充满的绝少完全丧失的爱心和仁慈的圣洁的本性，已经离去，完全消失，泯灭了。魔性取而代之。这种效果在对话与独白中奇迹般地达成，最终凭推理完成。而且这一点就是现在我要请读者注意的。如果读者曾经目睹过昏迷中的妻子，女儿或姐妹，他可能有机会观察到，在那个场景印象最深刻的时候就是一声叹息和宣布重生的令人振奋的消息。或者，若读者曾在一座大城市中，适逢某位国家首被从隆重的葬礼中被送至墓冢的那一天，并有机会临近柩车预过的路线，他在寂静与冷漠的街道里一切都停滞的氛围中感受过，浓重的情绪压在人们心头，一旦人们听到死亡般的寂静被从这场景中散去的车轮声打破，让他们得知短暂的情景已经消散了，他会意识到他完全终止的感受空前饱满与强烈。当这种短暂的时刻消失的时候，人们正常的生活突然恢复了。所有行为在任何角度都被反应最完全的阐述、衡量并使之可以理解。现在把这点运用到麦克白之事。在此，正如我说过的隐幽的内心和通向邪恶之心的入口被展现出来且显得明显。另一个世界已经介入；凶手超出了人的日常之事的目的及欲望的限度。他们被形象化了：麦克白夫人“失去母性”；麦克白也已然忘记他由妇女而生；两人符合恶魔的形象；魔鬼的世界一下子显露出来了。但这如何被传达出来使其明显化？为了进入一个新的世界，这个世界必须暂时的消失。凶手以及谋杀之事必须被隔离——被一个巨大的浪潮与一连串的事件隔断——锁起来并扣押在某个暗处；必须让我们觉得平常生活的世界突然被隔断了——躺下睡着了，昏厥了——被搁在一张恐惧的休战协议上，时间必须被消灭；事物的关系没有废止，一切都自动退缩到一个深幽的昏睡之中。因此，当这件事做完之时，当阴谋实施完毕时，黑暗的世界像一团乌云一样消逝；敲门声响了,这声音宣布反抗已经开始。人性对魔性进行讨伐，生命的脉搏又开始跳动；合乎人性的正常生活正在建立；首先让我们深刻地感受到邪恶的插曲曾经使它们一度中断过。
哦，伟大的诗人！您的著作不像他人的作品，简单而伟大的艺术品，它像自然现象，像太阳，像大海，像星辰，像花朵；像雾又像雪，像雨亦似露，像猛烈的冰雹，又像闪电，让我们五体投地地去学习。在那完美的作品中，不多不少，没有无用与呆滞——但是，我们在作品的探究上走得越远，我们粗鄙的眼光所见的精心的设计和除事故外别无其他的拙见就越多。
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