16.Sir Walter Raleigh沃尔特·雷利爵士-双语名著无障碍阅读丛书——《西方老故事50篇Fifty Famous Stories Retold》

Fifty Famous Stories Retold 6.Sir Walter Raleigh There once lived in England a brave and noble man whose name was Walter Raleigh.He was not only brave and noble,but he was also handsome and polite; and for that reason the queen made him a knight,and called him Sir Walter Raleigh. I will tell you about it. When Raleigh was a young man,he was one day walking along a street in London.At that time the streets were not paved,and there were no sidewalks. Raleigh was dressed in very fine style,and he wore a beautiful scarlet cloak thrown over his shoulders. As he passed along,he found it hard work to keep from stepping in the mud, and soiling his handsome new shoes.Soon he came to a puddle of muddy water which reached from one side of the street to the other.He could not step across. Perhaps he could jump over it. As he was thinking what he should do,he happened to look up.Who was it coming down the street,on the other side of the puddle? It was Elizabeth,the Queen of England,with her train of gentlewomen and waiting maids.She saw the dirty puddle in the street.She saw the handsome young man with the scarlet cloak,standing by the side of it.How was she to get across? ·088· 西方老故事50篇 16.沃尔特·雷利爵士 从前，英格兰有一个名叫沃尔特·雷利的人。此人 不仅勇敢高贵、相貌堂堂，而且待人彬彬有礼，为此女 王封他为骑士，称他沃尔特·雷利爵士。 下面，我就来讲一讲这个故事。 当时，雷利还是个年轻人。有一天，他穿着一套时 尚的衣服走在伦敦街头，肩上披着漂亮的红色披风。当 时的街道既没有铺路，也没有人行道。 ①cloak [klouk]n.披风 雷利走着走着，发现前面的道路十分泥泞，脚上穿 的漂亮新鞋子很难不被泥水弄脏。没过多久，雷利来到 一个泥潭的前面。泥潭横跨整条街道，他迈不过去，要 ②puddle[psd川n.泥潭 想过去就只能从泥潭上面跳过去。 正当雷利左右为难之际，忽然看见街道那头有人正 往泥潭的另一边走来。 此人正是英格兰女王伊丽莎白，领着一队宫娥和侍 女。女王看到街道上污浊的泥潭，又看见一个穿着红色 披风的英俊青年站在另一边。女王寻思着，该怎么从这 里走过去呢？ ·089· Fifty Famous Stories Retold Young Raleigh,when he saw who was coming,forgot about himself.He thought only of helping the queen.There was only one thing that he could do,and no other man would have thought of that. He took off his scarlet cloak,and spread it across the puddle.The queen could step on it now,as on a beautiful carpet. She walked across.She was safely over the ugly puddle,and her feet had not touched the mud.She paused a moment,and thanked the young man. As she walked onward with her train,she asked one of the gentlewomen, "Who is that brave gentleman who helped us so handsomely?" "His name is Walter Raleigh,"said the gentle-woman. "He shall have his reward,"said the queen. Not long after that,she sent for Raleigh to come to her palace. The young man went,but he had no scarlet cloak to wear.Then,while all the great men and fine ladies of England stood around,the queen made him a knight. And from that time he was known as Sir Walter Raleigh,the queen's favorite. Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Humphrey Gilbert about whom I have already told you,were half-brothers. When Sir Humphrey made his first voyage to America,Sir Walter was with him.After that,Sir Walter tried several times to send men to this country to make a settlement. But those whom he sent found only great forests,and wild beasts,and savage Indians.Some of them went back to England;some of them died for want of food;and some of them were lost in the woods.At last Sir Walter gave up trying to get people to come to America. But he found two things in this country which the people of England knew very little about.One was the potato,the other was tobacco. If you should ever go to Ireland,you may be shown the place where Sir Walter planted the few potatoes which he carried over from America.He told his friends how the Indians used them for food;and he proved that they would grow in the Old World as well as in the New. ·090· 西方老故事50篇 年轻的雷利看到女王后便忘记了自己的处境，一 心只想帮助女王。他知道现在只有一个办法，一个别 人想不到的办法。 雷利把红披风从身上取下来铺在泥潭上，如此一来 女王踩在上面，就像走在漂亮的红地毯上一样。 女王顺利通过了泥潭，脚上没有沾一丝污泥。她踌 躇了一下，才向这个年轻人道谢。 ①onward[onwad]ad.向 女王领着队伍继续向前走，她问一个宫娥：“那个 前 如此慷慨帮助我们的勇敢绅士是谁？” “是沃尔特·雷利。”宫娥回答说。 “他理应得到奖赏。”女王说。 不久之后，女王派人把雷利叫到王宫里。 年轻人去了，不过这次已经没有红色披风穿了。女 王在英格兰所有达官贵妇的见证下，册封雷利为骑士。 从那以后，人们都知道沃尔特·雷利爵士是女王的宠臣。 沃尔特·雷利爵士和前面提到过的汉弗莱·吉尔伯 特爵士是同母异父的兄弟。 汉弗莱爵士第一次乘船去美洲时，同行的就有沃尔 特爵士。之后，沃尔特爵士又几次派人前往新大陆试图 定居。 但沃尔特爵士派出去的人发现，新大陆只有大片森 林、野兽和野蛮的印第安人。这些人中有些返回了英格 ②savage['sevid-]a.野蛮 的 兰，有些因为食物短缺而被饿死，还有人在森林里迷了 ③for want of因缺少 路，最终下落不明。迫不得已，沃尔特爵士只好放弃了 差人去美洲的探险。 可是沃尔特爵士在新大陆上发现了马铃薯和烟草， 在此之前英国人对这两样东西知之甚少。 如果你到访爱尔兰，或许会被带去参观一个沃尔特 爵士种了少量马铃薯的地方，那是爵士从美洲带回来 的。沃尔特爵士给朋友们讲述了印第安人食用马铃薯的 ·091· Fifty Famous Stories Retold Sir Walter had seen the Indians smoking the leaves of the tobacco plant.He thought that he would do the same,and he carried some of the leaves to England. Englishmen had never used tobacco before that time;and all who saw Sir Walter puffing away at a roll of leaves thought that it was a strange sight. One day as he was sitting in his chair and smoking,his servant came into the room.The man saw the smoke curling over his master's head,and he thought that he was on fire. He ran out for some water.He found a pail that was quite full.He hurried back,and threw the water into Sir Walter's face.Of course the fire was all put out. After that a great many men learned to smoke.And now tobacco is used in all countries of the world.It would have been well if Sir Walter Raleigh had let it alone. ·092· 西方老故事50篇 方法，而且证明马铃薯在英国同样可以像在美洲一样长 得很好。 看到印第安人吸食烟叶，沃尔特爵士也想效仿，回 ①puff [pA吸，抽（吞 去的时候就带了一些烟叶。在此之前英格兰从来没有人 烟、烟斗等) 吸过烟草，人们看到沃尔特爵士吸着烟卷，嘴里喷着烟 ②curl [ka:l]盘绕 雾，都觉得十分奇怪。 一天，沃尔特爵士正坐在房间的椅子上吸烟，刚好 ③pail[peil训n.提桶 仆人走了进来，看到主人的头顶上冒着烟，还以为他身 上着火了。 仆人立刻跑到外面去找水。发现一只装满水的水桶 后，便飞快地提回来泼到沃尔特爵士的脸上。当然，火 被彻底浇灭了。 从那以后，很多人便开始学习抽烟，如今烟草已经 传遍了全世界。假设当初瓦尔特爵士不去关注烟草那该 多好啊！ ·093·