美国国家公共电台 NPR--15th century manuscript offers insight into medieval live comedy show

15th century manuscript offers insight into medieval live comedy show

Transcript¹

A new study about a medieval tome includes the comedy script of an unnamed traveling entertainer, known as a minstrel, and provides a direct glimpse into the oral tradition of English minstrel acts.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Let's hear a snippet from a 15th-century comedy act.

JAMES WADE²: If thou have a great black bowl in thy hand and it be full of good ale and thou leave anything therein, thou puttest thy soul into greater pain (ph).

INSKEEP: James Wade of Cambridge University is there reading a mock religious sermon to thee. In case thou wondered, that mock sermon was part of an actual performance in the 1400s by a traveling entertainer known as a minstrel.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

We know this because someone in the audience took notes, and Wade, who studies medieval literature, found them in an old manuscript.

WADE: What really struck me was a signature line that said, by me, Richard Heege, because I was at that feast and did not have a drink, the joke being that he was at a feast the night before. Everyone else was drunk. He was the only one sober enough to remember it, and therefore, he could write it down.

INSKEEP: Wade recently published a study of the "Heege Manuscript" and says it's the closest thing we have to a minstrel's own notes. Now we know some of the topics that one of them used in a set.

WADE: There are three texts. One is what we now call a burlesque³ romance. So it's a narrative⁴ account of a bunch of peasants who try to hunt a hare, and it all ends disastrously⁵, where they beat each other up and the wives have to come with wheelbarrows and hold them home. The second text is a mock sermon, and then, finally, a nonsense poem which imagines a feast in which various absurdities⁶ happen, and everyone gets too drunk, and it all ends badly.

MARTIN: Wade finds the similarities with comedy today striking.

WADE: A common way to make people laugh is you take people in authority - politicians, celebrities⁷, in this case priests - and you make them seem ridiculous. Another way to make people laugh is you take things that should be private and you make them public. So typically, we're talking about things that happen either in the bedroom or the bathroom. So we see these kind of techniques that apparently⁸ have a very long history.

INSKEEP: The "Heege Manuscript" also shows us another old trope used by the minstrel - tales of a killer⁹ rabbit.

WADE: The premise¹⁰ is that it turns the world upside down. Rather than having humans and dogs hunting rabbits, you have rabbits hunting humans. That's the joke.

MARTIN: So we knew that the '70s movie "Monty Python And The Holy Grail" is a classic, but we didn't know how classic.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL")

GRAHAM CHAPMAN: (As King Arthur) You silly sod.

JOHN CLEESE: (As Tim the Enchanter) What?

CHAPMAN: (As King Arthur) You got us all worked up.

CLEESE: (As Tim the Enchanter) Well, that's no ordinary rabbit. That's the most foul¹¹, cruel and bad-tempered¹² rodent¹³ you ever set eyes on.

MARTIN: Still works, kind of.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE HENRICIAN CONSORT'S "MONTARD BRAWLE")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

3 burlesque   

v.嘲弄，戏仿；n.嘲弄，取笑，滑稽模仿

参考例句：

• Our comic play was a burlesque of a Shakespearean tragedy.我们的喜剧是对莎士比亚一出悲剧的讽刺性模仿。
• He shouldn't burlesque the elder.他不应模仿那长者。

4 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

5 disastrously   

ad.灾难性地

参考例句：

• Their profits began to spiral down disastrously. 他们的利润开始螺旋形地急剧下降。
• The fit between the country's information needs and its information media has become disastrously disjointed. 全国的信息需求与信息传播媒介之间的配置，出现了严重的不协调。

6 absurdities   

n.极端无理性( absurdity的名词复数 )；荒谬；谬论；荒谬的行为

参考例句：

• She has a sharp eye for social absurdities, and compassion for the victims of social change. 她独具慧眼，能够看到社会上荒唐的事情，对于社会变革的受害者寄以同情。 来自辞典例句
• The absurdities he uttered at the dinner party landed his wife in an awkward situation. 他在宴会上讲的荒唐话使他太太陷入窘境。 来自辞典例句

7 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

8 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

9 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

10 premise   

n.前提；v.提论，预述

参考例句：

• Let me premise my argument with a bit of history.让我引述一些史实作为我立论的前提。
• We can deduce a conclusion from the premise.我们可以从这个前提推出结论。

11 foul   

adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规

参考例句：

• Take off those foul clothes and let me wash them.脱下那些脏衣服让我洗一洗。
• What a foul day it is!多么恶劣的天气！

12 bad-tempered   

adj.脾气坏的

参考例句：

• He grew more and more bad-tempered as the afternoon wore on.随着下午一点点地过去，他的脾气也越来越坏。
• I know he's often bad-tempered but really,you know,he's got a heart of gold.我知道他经常发脾气，但是，要知道，其实他心肠很好。

13 rodent   

n.啮齿动物；adj.啮齿目的

参考例句：

• When there is a full moon,this nocturnal rodent is careful to stay in its burrow.月圆之夜，这种夜间活动的啮齿类动物会小心地呆在地洞里不出来。
• This small rodent can scoop out a long,narrow tunnel in a very short time.这种小啮齿动物能在很短的时间里挖出一条又长又窄的地道来。