名篇背诵：The English Humour 英国人的幽默

The English Humour 英国人的幽默

约翰·华生(John Watson)

Fun seems to be the possession of the English race. Fun is John Bull's idea of humour, and there is no intellectual judgment in fun. Everybody understands it because it is practical. More than that, it unites all classes and sweetens even political life. To study the elemental form of English humour, you must look to the school-book. It begins with the practical joke, and unless there is something of his nature about it, it is never humour to an Englishman. In an English household, fun is going all the time. The entire house resounds with it. The father comes home and the whole family contribute to the amusement; puns , humorous uses of words, little things that are meaningless nonsense, if you like, fly round, and every one enjoys them thoroughly for just what they are. The Scotch are devoid of this trait, and the Americans seem to be, too.

If I had the power to give humour to the nations I would not give them drollery , for that is impractical; I would not give them wit, for that is aristocratic, and many minds cannot grasp it; but I would be contented to deal out fun , which has no intellectual element, no subtlety, belongs to old and young, educated and uneducated alike, and is the natural form of the humour of the Englishman.

Let me tell you why the Englishman speaks only one language. He believes with the strongest conviction that his own tongue is the one that all people ought to speak and will come in time to speak, so what is the use of learning any other? He believes, too, that he is appointed by Providence to be a governor of all the rest of the human race. From our Scottish standpoint we can never see an Englishman without thinking that there is oozing from every pore of his body the conviction that he belongs to a governing race. It has not been his desire that large portions of the world should be under his care, but as they have been thrust upon him in the proceedings of a wise Providence, he must discharge his duty. This theory hasn't endeared him to others of his kind, but that isn't a matter that concerns him. He doesn't learn any other language because he knows that he could speak it only so imperfectly that other people would laugh at him, and it would never do that a person of his importance in the scheme of the universe should be made the object of ridicule.

- sweeten [ˈswiːtən] v. 使美好，使亲和

- pun [pʌn] n. 双关语

are devoid of 缺乏，没有

- drollery [ˈdrəʊlərɪ] n. 笑谈,幽默的话

to deal out fun 学会开玩笑

- ooze [uːz] v. 冒出，溢出；洋溢

幽默似乎是英国人特有的。趣味性是属于英国人的东西，是英国人的幽默感，对此无法作理论判断分析。幽默感很实在，人人能懂，它把不同阶级的人团结在一起，甚至美化政治生活。要研究英国幽默的基本形式，就必须看他们的教科书。教科书以幽默笑话开始，除非内容契合英国人的性情，否则怎么说都不能让英国人觉得幽默。英国家庭中幽默无时不在，整个屋子里一片欢声笑语。父亲一回家，全家都投入幽默的交谈，双关语、俏皮的遣词造句，尽是些鸡毛蒜皮的小事。只要你喜欢，可以随便说幽默笑话，大家都乐于参与，一同享受。苏格兰人没有这种特长，美国人看起来也没有。

如果我有能力给普天下各个民族幽默，我不会给他们奇趣的幽默，因为那不实用；我不会给他们机智的幽默，因为那有点打官腔，晦涩难懂。但我会很乐意给出逗趣的幽默，因为这种幽默没有智力要素，没有微妙之处，老少咸宜，雅俗共赏，是英国人幽默的自然形式。

让我告诉你为什么英国人只说一种语言。他坚信他的母语是所有人都该讲并且最终会讲的语言，所以学任何其他的语言还有什么用？他还认为，天意授命他掌管其他所有的人类。从我们苏格兰人的立场来看，从来没有哪个英国人不认为，自己不是属于占统治地位的人种，这种坚定信念是从他们身体的每个毛孔里散发出来的。要让世界的大部分在他照管之下，还没有成为他的欲念，但是既然在英明的上帝的议程中把这些地区交给了他，他就必须履行自己的责任。这个理论没能让其他人类变得亲密，但这不关他的事。他不学任何其他的语言，因为他知道他只会把别的语言说得非常糟糕，而遭到别人耻笑，而在这个宇宙格局里像他这等重要之人是绝不可成为他人笑柄的。

约翰·华生(1850—1907)，笔名为安·麦克拉伦(Ian Maclaren)，苏格兰人，写了一部十分成功的书(Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush， 1894)。