纳尼亚传奇:凯斯宾王子评价 《凯斯宾王子》第4章:凯斯宾王子的故事

《凯斯宾王子》第4章:凯斯宾王子的故事  

PRINCE CASPIAN lived in a great castle in the centre of Narnia with his uncle
Miraz
the King of Narnia
and his aunt
who had red hair and was called Queen Prunaprismia. His father and mother were dead and the person whom Caspian loved best was his nurse
and though (being a prince) he had wonderful toys which would do almost anything but talk
he liked best the last hour of the day when the toys had all been put back in their cupboards and Nurse would tell him stories.
He did not care much for his uncle and aunt
but about ice a week his uncle would send for him and they would walk up and down together for half an hour on the terrace at the south side of the castle. One day
while they were doing this
the King said to him

"Well
boy
we must soon teach you to ride and use a sword. You know that your aunt and I have no children
so it looks as if you might have to be King when I'm gone. How shall you like that
eh?"
"I don't know
Uncle
" said Caspian.
"Don't know
eh?" said Miraz. "Why
I should like to know what more anyone could wish for!"
"All the same
I do wish
" said Caspian.
"What do you wish?" asked the King.
"I wish - I wish - I wish I could have lived in the Old Days
" said Caspian. (He was only a very little boy at the time.)
Up till now King Miraz had been talking in the tiresome way that some grown-ups have
which makes it quite clear that they are not really interested in what you are saying
but now he suddenly gave Caspian a very sharp look.
"Eh? What's that?" he said. "What old days do you mean?"
"Oh
don't you know
Uncle?" said Caspian. "When everything was quite different. When all the animals could talk
and there were nice people who lived in the streams and the trees. Naiads and Dryads they were called. And there were Dwarfs. And there were lovely little Fauns in all the woods. They had feet like goats. And -"
"That's all nonsense
for babies
" said the King sternly. "Only fit for babies
do you hear? You're getting too old for that sort of stuff. At your age you ought to be thinking of battles and adventures
not fairy tales."
"Oh
but there were battles and adventures in those days
" said Caspian. "Wonderful adventures. Once there was a White Witch and she made herself Queen of the whole country. And she made it so that it was always winter. And then o boys and o girls came from somewhere and so they killed the Witch and they were made Kings and Queens of Narnia
and their names were Peter and Susan and Edmund and Lucy. And so they reigned for ever so long and everyone had a lovely time
and it was all because of Aslan -"
"Who's he?" said Miraz. And if Caspian had been a very little older
the tone of his uncle's voice would have warned him that it would be wiser to shut up. But he babbled on

"Oh
don't you know?" he said. "Aslan is the great Lion who es from over the sea."
"Who has been telling you all this nonsense?" said the King in a voice of thunder. Caspian was frightened and said nothing.
"Your Royal Highness
" said King Miraz
letting go of Caspian's hand
which he had been holding till now
"I insist upon being answered. Look me in the face. Who has been telling you this pack of lies?"
"N - Nurse
" faltered Caspian
and burst into tears.
"Stop that noise
" said his uncle
taking Caspian by the shoulders and giving ham a shake. "Stop it. And never let me catch you talking - or thinking either - about all those silly stories again. There never were those Kings and Queens. How could there be o Kings at the same time? And there's no such person as Aslan. And there are no such things as lions. And there never was a time when animals could talk. Do you hear?"
"Yes
Uncle
" sobbed Caspian.
"Then let's have no more of it
" said the King. Then he called to one of the gentlemen-in-waiting who were standing at the far end of the terrace and said in a cold voice
"Conduct His Royal Highness to his apartments and send His Royal Highness's nurse to me AT ONCE."
Next day Caspian found what a terrible thing he had done
for Nurse had been sent away without even being allowed to say good-bye to him
and he was told he was to have a Tutor.
Caspian missed his nurse very much and shed many tears; and because he was so miserable
he thought about the old stories of Narnia far more than before. He dreamed of Dwarfs and Dryads every night and tried very hard to make the dogs and cats in the castle talk to him. But the dogs only wagged their tails and the cats only purred.
Caspian felt sure that he would hate the new Tutor
buy when the new Tutor arrived about a week later he turns out to be the sort of person it is almost impossible not to like. He was the smallest
and also the fattest
man Caspian had ever seen. He had a long
silvery
pointed beard which came down to his waist
and his face
which was brown and covered with wrinkles
looked very wise
very ugly
and very kind. His voice was grave and his eyes were merry so that
until you got to know him really well
it was hard to know when he was joking and when he was serious. His name was Doctor Cornelius.
Of all his lessons with Doctor Cornelius the one that Caspian liked best was History. Up till now
except for Nurse's stories
he had known nothing about the History of Narnia
and he was very surprised to learn that the royal family were newers in the country.
"It was your Highness's ancestor
Caspian the First
" said Doctor Cornelius
"who first conquered Narnia and made it his kingdom. It was he who brought all your nation into the country. You are not native Narnians at all. You are all Telmarines - that is
you all came from the Land of Telmar
far beyond the Western Mountains. That is why Caspian the First is called Caspian the Conqueror."
"Please
Doctor
" asked Caspian one day
"who lived in Narnia before we all came here out of Telmar?"
"No men - or very few - lived in Narnia before the Telmarines took it
" said Doctor Cornelius.
"Then who did my great-great-grandcesters conquer?"
"Whom
not who
your Highness
" said Doctor Cornelius. "Perhaps it is time to turn from History to Grammar."
"Oh please
not yet!" said Caspian.
"I mean
wasn't there a battle? Why is he called Caspian the Conqueror if there was nobody to fight with him?"
"I said there were very few men in Narnia
" said the Doctor
looking at the little boy very strangely through his great spectacles.
For a moment Caspian was puzzled and then suddenly his heart gave a leap. "Do you mean
" he gasped
"that there were other things? Do you mean it was like in the stories? Were there-?"
"Hush!" said Doctor Cornelius
laying his head very close to Caspian's. "Not a word more. Don't you know your Nurse was sent away for telling you about Old Narnia? The King doesn't like it. If he found me telling you secrets
you'd be whipped and I should have my head cut off."
"But why?" asked Caspian.
"1t is high time we turned to Grammar now
" said Doctor Cornelius in a loud voice. "Will your Royal Highness be pleased to open Pulverulentus Siccus at the fourth page of his Grammatical garden or the Arbour of Accidence pleasantlie open'd to Tender Wits?"
After that it was all nouns and verbs till lunchtime
but I don't think Caspian learned much. He was too excited. He felt sure that Doctor Cornelius would not have said so much unless he meant to tell him more sooner or later.
In this he was not disappointed. A few days later his Tutor said
"Tonight I am going to give you a lesson in Astronomy. At dead of night o noble plas
Tarva and Alambil
will pass within one degree of each other. Such a conjunction has not occurred for o hundred years
and your Highness will not live to see it again. It will be best if you go to bed a little earlier than usual. When the time of the conjunction draws near I will e and wake you."
This didn't seem to have anything to do with Old Narnia
which was what Caspian really wanted to hear about
but getting up in the middle of the night is always interesting and he was moderately pleased. When he went to bed that night
he thought at first that he would not be able to sleep; but he soon dropped off and it seemed only a few minutes before he felt someone gently shaking him.
He sat up in bed and saw that the room was full of moonlight. Doctor Cornelius
muffled in a hooded robe and holding a small lamp in his hand
stood by the bedside.
Caspian remembered at once what they were going to do. He got up and put on some clothes. Athough it was a summer night he felt colder than he had expected and was quite glad when the Doctor wrapped him in a robe like his own and gave him a pair of warm
soft buskins for his feet. A moment later
both muffled so that they could hardly be seen in the dark corridors
and both shod so that they made almost no noise
master and pupil left the room.
Caspian followed the Doctor through many passages and up several staircases
and at last
through a little door in a turret
they came out upon the leads. On one side were the battlements
on the other a steep roof; below them
all shadowy and shimmery
the castle gardens; above them
stars and moon. Presently they came to another door
which led into the great central tower of the whole castle: Doctor Cornelius unlocked it and they began to climb the dark winding stair of the tower. Caspian was being excited; he had never been allowed up this stair before.
It was long and steep
but when they came out on the roof of the tower and Caspian had got his breath
he felt that it had been well worth it. Away on his right he could see
rather indistinctly
the Western Mountains. On his left was the gleam of the Great River
and everything was so quiet that he could hear the sound of the waterfall at Beaversdam
a mile away. There was no difficulty in picking out the o stars they had e to see. They hung rather low in the southern sky
almost as bright as o little moons and very close together.
"Are they going to have a collision?" he asked in an awestruck voice.
"Nay
dear Prince
" said the Doctor (and he too spoke in a whisper). "The great lords of the upper sky know the steps of their dance too well for that. Look well upon them. Their meeting is fortunate and means some great good for the sad realm of Narnia. Tarva
the Lord of Victory
salutes Alambil
the Lady of Peace. They are just ing to their nearest."
"It's a pity that tree gets in the way
" said Caspian. "We'd really see better from the West Tower
though it is not so high."
Doctor Cornelius said nothing for about o minutes
but stood still with his eyes fixed on Tarva and Alambil. Then he drew a deep breath and turned to Caspian.
"There
" he said. "You have seen what no man now alive has seen
nor will see again. And you are right. We should have seen it even better from the smaller tower. I brought you here for another reason."
Caspian looked up at him
but the Doctor's hood concealed most of his face.
"The virtue of this tower
" said Doctor Cornelius
"is that we have six empty rooms beneath us
and a long stair
and the door at the bottom of the stair is locked. We cannot be overheard."
"Are you going to tell me what you wouldn't tell me the other day?" said Caspian.
"I am
" said the Doctor. "But remember. You and I must never talk about these things except here - on the very top of the Great Tower."
"No. That's a promise
" said Caspian. "But do go on
please."
"Listen
" said the Doctor. "All you have heard about Old Narnia is true. It is not the land of Men. It is the country of Aslan
the country of the Waking Trees and Visible Naiads
of Fauns and Satyrs
of Dwarfs and Giants
of the gods and the Centaurs
of Talking Beasts. It was against these that the first Caspian fought. It is you Telmarines who silenced the beasts and the trees and the fountains
and who killed and drove away the Dwarfs and Fauns
and are now trying to cover up even the memory of them. The King does not allow them to be spoken of."
"Oh
I do wish we hadn't
" said Caspian. "And I am glad it was all true
even if it is all over."
"Many of your race wish that in secret
" said Doctor Cornelius.
"But
Doctor
" said Caspian
"why do you say my race? After all
I suppose you're a Telmarine too."
"Am I?" said the Doctor.
"Well
you're a Man anyway
" said Caspian.
"Am I?" repeated the Doctor in a deeper voice
at the same moment throwing back his hood so that Caspian could see his face clearly in the moonlight.
All at once Caspian realized the truth and felt that he ought to have realized it long before. Doctor Cornelius was so small
and so fat
and had such a very long beard. Two thoughts came into his head at the same moment. One was a thought of terror - "He's not a real man
not a man at all
he's a Dwarf
and he's brought me up here to kill me." The other was sheer delight - "There are real Dwarfs still
and I've seen one at last."
"So you've guessed it in the end
" said Doctor Cornelius. "Or guessed it nearly right. I'm not a pure Dwarf. I have human blood in me too. Many Dwarfs escaped in the great battles and lived on
shaving their beards and wearing highheeled shoes and pretending to be men. They have mixed with your Telmarines. I am one of those
only a halfDwarf
and if any of my kindred
the true Dwarfs
are still alive anywhere in the world
doubtless they would despise me and call me a traitor. But never in all these years have we fotten our own people and all the other happy creatures of Narnia
and the long-lost days of freedom."
"I'm - I'm sorry
Doctor
" said Caspian. "It wasn't my fault
you know."
"I am not saying these things in blame of you
dear Prince
" answered the Doctor. "You may well ask why I say them at all. But I have o reasons. Firstly
because my old heart has carried these secret memories so long that it aches with them and would burst if I did not whisper them to you. But secondly
for this: that when you bee King you may help us
for I know that you also
Telmarine though you are
love the Old Things."
"I do
I do
" said Caspian. "But how can I help?"
"You can be kind to the poor remnants of the Dwarf people
like myself. You can gather learned magicians and try to find a way of awaking the trees once more. You can search through all the nooks and wild places of the land to see if any Fauns or Talking Beasts or Dwarfs are perhaps still alive in hiding."
"Do you think there are any?" asked Caspian eagerly.
"I don't know - I don't know
" said the Doctor with a deep sigh. "Sometimes I am afraid there can't be. I have been looking for traces of them all my life. Sometimes I have thought I heard a Dwarf-drum in the mountains. Sometimes at night
in the woods
I thought I had caught a glimpse of Fauns and Satyrs dancing a long way off; but when I came to the place
there was never anything there. I have often despaired; but something always happens to start me hoping again. I don't know. But at least you can try to be a King like the High King Peter of old
and not like your uncle."
"Then it's true about the Kings and Queens too
and about the White Witch?" said Caspian.
"Certainly it is true
" said Cornelius. "Their reign was the Golden Age in Narnia and the land has never fotten them."
"Did they live in this castle
Doctor?"
"Nay
my dear
" said the old man. "This castle is a thing of yesterday. Your great-great-grandfather built it. But when the o sons of Adam and the o daughters of Eve were made Kings and Queens of Narnia by Aslan himself
they lived in the castle of Cair Paravel. No man alive has seen that blessed place and perhaps even the ruins of it have now vanished. But we believe it was far from here
down at the mouth of the Great River
on the very shore of the sea."
"Ugh!" said Caspian with a shudder. "Do you mean in the Black Woods? Where all the - the - you know
the ghosts live?"
"Your Highness speaks as you have been taught
" said the Doctor. "But it is all lies. There are no ghosts there. That is a story invented by the Telmarines. Your Kings are in deadly fear of the sea because they can never quite fet that in all stories Aslan es from over the sea. They don't want to go near it and they don't want anyone else to go near it. So they have let great woods grow up to cut their people off from the coast. But because they have quarrelled with the trees they are afraid of the woods. And because they are afraid of the woods they imagine that they are full of ghosts. And the Kings and great men
hating both the sea and the wood
partly believe these stories
and partly encourage them. They feel safer if no one in Narnia dares to go down to the coast and look out to sea towards Aslan's land and the morning and the eastern end of the world."
There was a deep silence beeen them for a few minutes. Then Doctor Cornelius said
"Come. We have been here long enough. It is time to go down and to bed."
"Must we?" said Caspian. "I'd like to go on talking about these things for hours and hours and hours."
"Someone might begin looking for us
if we did that
" said Doctor Cornelius.