历史系男生

Quotations and References: Act One

(Page numbers refer to the 2004 paperback Faber & Faber edition. List compiled by Tudor Economic Documents.)

p5
"All knowledge is precious whether or not it serves the slightest human use." - Hector
A.E. Housman

"Loveliest of trees, the cherry now." - Hector
A Shropshire Lad, A.E. Housman

p6
"Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire!" - Hector
Othello, Othello, William Shakespeare, Act V, Scene 2

"I have put before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live." - Hector
Deuteronomy 30:19

p7
"Look up, My Lord."
"Vex not his ghost. O let him pass. He hates him
That would upon the rack of this tough world
Stretch him out longer."
"O, he is gone indeed."
"The wonder is he hath endured so long.
He but usurped this life..."

"...I have a journey sir, shortly to go;
My master calls me, I must not say no." - Hector
"The weight of this sad time we must obey
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say."
- Edgar (Posner), Kent (Timms/Hector), King Lear, William Shakespeare, Act V, Scene 3

Hymns Ancient and Modern - a Church of England hymnal.

p9
Renaissance Man - answers.com: "A man who has broad intellectual interests and is accomplished in areas of both the arts and the sciences."

p12
Although the script does not make it clear, Posner here sings the chorus of L'Accordéoniste, a song popularised by Edith Piaf.

p13
La Vie en Rose - 1946 song, Edith Piaf's signature song. (lyrics)

p23
The Catcher in the Rye - a novel by J.D. Salinger.

"Let each child that's in your care-"
"Have as much neurosis as the child can bear." - Hector and Mrs Lintott
W.H. Auden, Letter to Lord Byron

Hecatomb - like holocaust, a word associated with sacrifice. In this sense, 'holocaust' refers to an animal sacrifice by fire.

p24
"...since Wilfred Owen says men were dying like cattle, [hecatombs] is the appropriate word." - Dakin
Referring to Wilfred Owen's famous WWI poem, Anthem for a Doomed Youth.

Trench warfare - static lines of defence in war, with each side basing soldiers in trenches as a means of defence.

Haig - Field Marshal Douglas Haig, nicknamed 'Butcher of the Somme', one of the more controversial figures in WWI.

"The humiliation of Germany at Versailles." - refers to the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, a formal peace treaty with Germany at the close of WWI. It included that Germany take full responsibility for the war and imposed several restrictions of territorial, military and economic matters.

"Ruhr and the Rhineland." - refers to the Ruhr Crisis. France sent forces to occupy the Ruhr, an area in the north of the Rhineland, in an effort to force Germany to once again make reparation payments, which they stopped in 1923. Britain and the United States did not support this action.

"The collapse of the Weimar Republic" - in the late 1920s and early 1930s, towards the beginning of depression in Germany, the Weimar Republic saw the rise of the popularity of the Nazi party.

p25
The Cenotaph - The Cenotaph in Whitehall, London is where the national ceremony takes place on Remembrance Sunday (11th November, the day hostilities ceased in the First World War).

The Last Post - a bugle call used to commemorate those who have died in war. It is sounded on Remembrance Sunday following the two minutes' silence.

Passchendaele - refers to the 1917 battle of Passchendaele. Dakin is referring to Haig's controversial campaign, in which damage was inflicted to the German Army at great expense to the lives of British troops.

The Somme - refers to the 1916 Battle of the Somme. Exact casualty figures vary, but several hundred thousand were killed in battle, a large proportion of these on the first day. Again, blame was laid upon Haig's leadership.

The Unknown Soldier - the Unknown Soldier is an unidentified soldier killed in battle, buried with full military honours as a symbol of all the unidentified soldiers killed in battle. The British tomb dedicated to the 'Unknown Warrior' is found in London, and contains the body of an unidentified soldier killed in the First World War.

Siegfried Sassoon - an English poet famous for his anti-war poetry.

"If any question why we died,
Tell them because our fathers lied." - Irwin
Common Form, Rudyard Kipling

Rembrandt - Dutch painter, 1606 - 1669.

p27
"Those long uneven lines
Standing as patiently
As if they were stretched outside
The Oval or Villa Park,
The crowns of hats, the sun
On moustached archaic faces
Grinning as if it were all
An August Bank Holiday lark..."

"...Never such innocence,
Never before or since,
As changed itself to past
Without a word--the men
Leaving the gardens tidy,
The thousands of marriages,
Lasting a little while longer:
Never such innocence again." - Scripps, Lockwood, Akthar, Posner, Timms.
MCMXIV, Philip Larkin.

p28
Western Front - the term used in WWI and WWII to describe the frontier between the Allied Forces and Germany.

p29
Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered - 1940s song with lyrics by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rogers. Features in the musical Pal Joey.

p30
"O villainy! Let the door be locked!
Treachery! Seek it out." - Hector
Hamlet, William Shakespeare, Act V, Scene 2

The Trial - a novel by Franz Kafka, about a man arrested and charged with a crime he knows nothing about.

"The person from Porlock" - a reference to the story of the visitor to Coleridge during the writing of Kubla Khan, resulting in the poem's incomplete status.

"Don Giovanni: the Commendatore" - Don Giovanni is an opera by Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte. Il Commendatore is a significant character in the work.

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock." - Scripps
Revelation 3:20

p31
"Did the knights knock at the door of Canterbury before they murdered Beckett?" - Hector
Thomas Beckett, the Archbishop of Canterbury (1162 - 1170) was assassinated inside Canterbury Cathedral. He was later canonised in 1173.

Now, Voyager - a 1942 film starring Bette Davis and Paul Henreid, about a woman who falls in love whilst in therapy after a nervous breakdown.

p32
"The untold want by life and land ne'er granted,
Now voyager sail thou forth to seek and find." - Hector
Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman.

p33
The Carry On films - a series of British comedy films, parodies of famous historical and literary events or people. They are famous for their excessive use of double entendres in dialogue and slapstick comedy.

p34
George Orwell - an English author and journalist, who was famous for his political and social commentary in his essays and novels.

p35
Stalin - First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Part from 1922 to 1953, effectively becoming a dictator by the late 1920s.

Henry VIII - Second Tudor King of England, reigning from 1491 - 1547. Responsible for the introduction of Protestantism to England.

"Mrs Thatcher" - Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister from 1975-1990. She was the first (and, thus far, only) female Prime Minister in Britain.

Pearl Harbour - the attack on Pearl Harbour took place in 1941, when the Japanese attacked the American naval base at that location. Franklin Roosevelt, the President at the time, delivered the Infamy Speech condemning the attack.

Francis Bacon - English philosopher, knighted by James I in 1603.

p36
"Turner, then, or Ingres." - Irwin
J. M. W. Turner was an English painter in the Romantic movement. Jean Ingres was a French painter working in the 1880s.

"About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters...
how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window..." - Timms
Musée des Beaux Arts, W. H. Auden.

p37
"Breaking bread with the dead, sir. That's what we do." - Akthar
- from the statement "Art is breaking bread with the dead", by W. H. Auden.

The Mikado - an opera by Gilbert and Sullivan, first opening in 1885.

"The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing."
Pensées, a philosophical work by Blaise Pascal.

p38
"We're not just a hiccup between the end of university and the beginning of life, like Auden are we, sir?" - Lockwood
Auden was a schoolteacher.

"Lay your sleeping head, my love,
Human on my faithless arm." - Dakin
Lullaby, W. H. Auden

"England, you have been here too long,
And the songs you sing are the songs you sung
On a braver day. Now they are wrong." - Lockwood
Voices Against England in the Night, Stevie Smith

Not Waving But Drowning - a poem by Stevie Smith, published in 1957.

p40
Brief Encounter - a 1945 film starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, telling the story of a couple, both married, who meet in a railway station and soon fall in love. This scene takes place at the end of the film, when Laura (Celia Johnson) returns to her husband, rather than the man she has just fallen in love with.

p44
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross - a hymn written by Isaac Watts.

p45
Matins - Early morning or late night prayers, a feature of many Christian denominations.

"A painter of the Umbrian school
Designed upon a gesso ground
The nimbus of the Baptized God.
The wilderness is cracked and browned
But through the water pale and thin
Still shine the unoffending feet
And there above the painter set
The Father and the Paraclete." - Scripps
Mr Eliot's Sunday Morning Service, T. S. Eliot

Piero della Francesca - an Italian Renaissance artist.

p47
Nietzsche - a German philosopher, writing in the 1800s.

p51
"After such knowledge, what forgiveness?" - Hector
Gerontion, T.S. Eliot.

p52
"The tree of man was never quiet:
Then 'twas the Roman, now 'tis I." - Hector
On Wenlock Edge, A. E. Housman

"To think that two and two are four
And neither five nor three
The heart of man has long been sore
And long 'tis like to be." - Hector
A Shropshire Lad, A. E. Housman

p53
Plato - an ancient Greek philosopher, who wrote about the teachings of Socrates. The notion of Platonic love is found, in one example, in his discussion of the relationship between Socrates and the young Alcibiades.

Michelangelo - Italian Renaissance artist. He is famous focus upon the aesthetic of male beauty and the homoeroticism which may be found in his work.

Oscar Wilde - English playwright and poet of the nineteenth century. He was famously tried and sentenced for his homosexuality.

p54
Rupert Brooke - an English poet, most famous for his First World War poetry. Posner here quotes the opening of his poem The Soldier.

p55
"The Zulu Wars" - a reference to the war between the Zulus and the United Kingdom in the 1870s.

"The Boer War" - refers to either the first or the second Boer wars, fought between the British Empire and the Boer Republics in the late 1800s.

p57
"The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo." - Hector
Love's Labour's Lost, William Shakespeare, Act V, Scene 2

---------------------------
以上是quote的quote=)
from: http://www.subjunctive-history.co.uk ,是这部剧的专门网站

抽了一个下午看完，完全没想到有同志主题，据说原版话剧很棒，应该没错，那每一句台词，别说听，光是看字幕也是享受．

英伦的男同志片之多，质量之高，男色之美（Hugh Grant, Jude Law），恐怕是美国所难以企及的．同是校园题材，饱受好评的＜死亡诗社＞中师生关系展现得是如此的＂清教徒＂，如此的悲怆．那部片中的老师迫于学生自杀的压力只得离开，让人不禁悲从中来；而这部片里那胖胖的Hector交通意外身亡，都没有把人煽出眼泪来．当老师被还原成一个普通人之后，似乎不太容易引发悲剧，一切他个人的笑或泪都属于我们，一切他个人的好与坏也都会在我们身上找到，这时候被解放的不仅仅是老师本人，更是我们自己．

尽管剧中人都说着难听的约克郡英语（比曼彻斯特的略好点），不过瑕不掩瑜，无论是对话还是穿插其中的钢琴伴奏清唱都美不胜收。不过，英国式幽默的确不太好理解，特别像我这种泡在美剧里的要换个脑子还不那么容易。

剧中最出彩的除了胖子Hector以外当属女历史老师了。在帮助学生预演入学面试的那一幕中，她提醒学生考官可能有女性，然后激情昂扬地发表了一篇“女权主义”的历史批判：Can you for a moment imagine how depressing it is to teach five centuries of masculine ineptitude? Why do you think there is no woman historians on TV? I'll tell you why because history is not such a frolic for women as for men. Why should it be? They (women) never get around the conference table. In 1919, they just ... arranged the flowers, then gracefully retired. History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is woman following behind with a bucket. 如果说这是西方女性对于西方历史的“女权主义”解读，那么我不知道就我所知的中国历史如果让我来解读是否应该是 History is women obliterated, exploited, destroyed, distorted, manipulated and manipulating men from behind. 客观一点来看，真如莫文蔚所唱的：男人大可不必百口莫辩，女人实在无须楚楚可怜。

如今的时尚是“混搭”，不仅仅是服装，还有美食，讲究fusion cuisine，电影也是如此，要么把不同族群的人混搭起来，要么把不同的元素揉在一起，成为一个美妙的大疙瘩。

    请原谅我先啰嗦《死亡诗社》~

    很多年前在英语课上看的《死亡诗社》，和我天真可爱心灵纯粹的童学们一齐感动得稀里糊涂，头脑一热，回家还找出剧本来读，后来在豆瓣上看见，四星吧（在我看来，四星是最高的星级了）。

      冷风吹至，热情褪却，发现这电影仍脱离不了那商业性的煽情和那一贯夸张的启承转合。这是不是年轻的好处呢？哎呵，当年的年轻人一个个站到课桌上为Keating送别时，旁观的年轻人也早已热泪盈眶了；而今天，两分钟前，趁着午夜临睡前的异常清醒，我调出了《死亡诗社》的页面，将四星改为三星，只留下句“曾经沧海难为水”。

      狼狼推荐看的《11度青春之-老男孩》，网页上的简介是：“梦想万劫不复，青春内牛满面”。我尚未看过《老男孩》，只是突然觉得这句话换个角度，用来形容《死亡诗社》倒是再贴切不过了——梦想万劫不复，青春内牛满面——今日与青春作别，矫情一把，不愿再内牛满面。

      我真的不是来错页面了，罗里啰嗦，就是因为这部《The History Boys》。

      和《死亡诗社》一样的，《The History Boys》讲述的是一群为升入顶级高等学府做功课的年轻人。

      太平实的电影，没有华丽的剧情或演员阵容，唯有演Hector的老头儿有些眼熟。
      太绚烂的电影，灿若莲花的言谈间 莎士比亚的十四行诗信手拈来，灵活多变的课堂上 天马行空的思想刮起风暴。
      太正经的电影，历史、艺术统统为功课让道，文法、诗歌全权向考试低头。
      太浪漫的电影，缠绵悱恻的歌剧传达着我对你的情谊，羞涩爽朗的拥抱是最好的成年礼。

      一点儿也不意外的结尾。原来后面还有一个太过意外的结尾。
      这，才是真的结尾。
      结尾的结尾，却又有一个黑白默片似的结尾。
      可是这次，好像又不是真的结尾了。

       一直规规矩矩的电影，一反此时此刻的结局，以一种看似嘲弄的眼神盯着我们：嘿，年轻人，这就是人生。（Rudge不是小大人般的说”History is just one fucking thing after another“吗？一乐。）

       电影用欣赏的口吻讲述着这些努力着的、迷惘着的、颓唐着的、纠缠着的年轻人的故事，为Oxford和Cambridge做准备的过程牵动着几多人心啊。命运，你又是否为每个人准备好了一个happy ending 呢？
      对于这个问题，《死亡诗社》戛然而止了，或许，它的立意太高远、太深长，已经不屑于回答这个问题了。
      《The History Boys》也戛然而止了：倾倒的机车像丢弃在路旁的垃圾一般，支离破碎。伴送年轻人离开学园的，不是满载祝福和希冀的欢歌，而是一曲悠扬的“Bye,bye,blackbird"，哀而不伤，可谓至此。
 
      所以，这部电影，永远不会让我内牛满面。我反倒常不经意的笑场：在Cripps喷饭的笑容中、在Dorothy帅气的谈吐中、在Ponser清澈的眼神中、在Hector的不拘一格中、在Rudge口齿不清的谬论中、在Irwin的保守和洒脱中……
      不胜枚举的细节，有如蜡炬燃烧时一点一滴流下的滚烫泪珠，铸成了一个堪称完美的故事。

      没有一枝独秀的Keating（朋友曾感叹几世福分才能修来一个这样的老师，现在想来那时的我们真可爱呀），Dorthy、Hector、Irwin都是中规中矩的英国教育体制下普通普通再普通的教师，可谁能否认有这样一个组合的老师不也是一种幸运呢？

      《死亡诗社》告诉我们：一个不寻常的老师带领一群无知的学生做不寻常的事情。

      《The History Boys》告诉我们：一群寻常的老师带领一群有所知有所不知的学生做一件寻常的事情。

      孰优孰劣，无从分辨。我只知道，我会一直为《The History Boys》情不自禁的笑出声来，却再也不会为《死亡诗社》内牛满面了。

      不走寻常路，你将无路可走。
      ——随着《死亡诗社》中的Keatingl老师激动一把，实乃误人子弟、谋财害命耳。

      走好寻常路，你将不再寻常。
      ——伴着《The history boys》的课本论文考试中规中矩一次，迎接我们的是无悔的青春、无限的人生。
 
      这次，真的结尾了，悠扬清朗的歌声再度响起：
      Bewitched, bothered and bewildered~
      am I……



P.S.题外题内的话：

      恰同学少年，
      风华正茂；
      书生意气，
      挥斥方遒。

      指点江山，
      激扬文字，
      粪土当年万户侯。
      曾记否，
      到中流击水，
      浪遏飞舟？
      
      数风流人物，
      还看今朝。

我儿子在文科上比较有天分，在理科上也就一般般。他喜欢阅读，喜欢思考“大”问题，比如乌托邦的设计中不允许有游戏是不好的。跟所有孩子一样，他感兴趣的东西可以过目不忘，还能结合新闻谈点自己对时事的看法。他对历史感兴趣，希望我给他讲故事。他还能写诗，对文字的美有很不错的品味。然而我却不怎么喜欢跟他讲那些，因为我不希望他对文科感兴趣，在我看起来，读文科日后是要饿死的，而且还会因为想太多而不快乐。

然而，今天我看了《The History Boys》（B站有看，中英文字幕，中文译名《历史系男生》）。背景是1986年，约克郡一个小镇上的男校，雄心勃勃的校长想让那届成绩最好的高三学生去考牛津的奖学金，请来了个代课老师做专门针对名校笔试、面试的特训。剧情的冲突有好几条线，腐国男校里常见的同性恋，老师对学生的性骚扰，实用主义的教育和博雅教育之间的矛盾，以及历史和文学本身引发的思考。几条线交织在一起，复杂而不芜杂，深刻而不刻意，伤感而不煽情。让我觉得，学文科还是好的。

我们归根结底还是人啊，在解决了温饱，买上了房子和车子，能出国旅行，能买个名牌包包，能把孩子送进名校之外，我们还是人啊，一个一个，能快乐，会感伤，面对生和死，爱和别离。而那些人性共通的东西，只有最好的人文教育才能激发出来。即使到了世界末日，我们也需要人文教育，那是能把人从苦难中提拔出来的稻草。

【以下有剧透】

我最喜欢的一段，是胖老师Hector在教室里给学生Posner讲Hardy的诗Drummer Hodge。这时Hector刚刚得知自己因为性骚扰学生的丑行而被解雇，失魂落魄地到教室里，却毫无心理准备地遇到等着他讲解诗歌的Posner。Posner充满感情地朗诵这首诗，描述年轻的鼓手从英国乡村出来，没多久就死在南非的战场上，埋在那里，年老的诗人刻画生命的虚掷，充满感伤。念完后，老师似乎还没从被解雇的噩耗中回过神来，敷衍般问学生的感想。学生兴致勃勃地将这首诗对死在异乡的描述和另一首诗比较。而老师这时候才仿佛慢慢找到感觉，告诉他为什么Hardy写得更好，告诉他这首诗的历史背景，告诉他为何诗里的鼓手是有名字的，这名字意味着什么。告诉他为什么要用uncoffined这个词聊描述死者，这个词的意义，这个词传达的情感。老师没有提到一个字关于自己当时的心情，但他显然感染到了他的学生，把他和学生都带到了诗的情感中，然后Hector说了下面这段话：

“The best moments in reading are when you come across something--a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things--that you'd thought special, particular to you. And here it is, set down by someone else, a person you've never met, maybe someone long dead. And, ... it's as if a hand...has come out... and taken yours."

当说到... it's as if a hand... has come out...，老师伸出手去，像是要递给学生，而学生也正要伸手去接，老师却抽了回来，... and taken yours，他把双手虚握放在了胸口。他是一个性骚扰学生的老师，也是一个了不起的导师，从猥琐到崇高，人性的复杂，表现得淋漓尽致。

Hector和Totti是老派的老师，大量的知识灌进去，孩子们都够聪明，像海绵吸水一样吸收知识，灌多少吸收多少，历史、诗歌、法文...。Irwin却是新派的老师，用电影里孩子的话来说，cutting-edge，逼着孩子去创新，以知识为阶梯去叩问，不满足于复制知识而强迫他们去创新说。这是我看到的最直观的方式表达高中教育和大学教育的区别，或者说传统大学教育和现代大学教育的区别。

我也喜欢他们的小班讨论，讨论大屠杀，讨论历史是什么。老师提问，学生回答，同意不同意都可以，课后去图书馆借一大堆书来，回家一边查书一边写文章支持自己的观点，然后老师批阅他们的文章。这是博雅教育的精华，用一个灵魂去敲击另一个灵魂，认真严肃的思考，我理想中的seminar。

在古迹参观的时候，大家排好队合影，就缺胖老师Hector。他慢慢地走过去，一边走一边说：

"Pass the parcel. That's sometimes all you can do. Take it, feel it, and pass it on. Not for me, not for you. But for someone, somewhere, one day. Pass it on, boys. That's the game I want you to learn. Pass it on."

正好前天吃饭时闲聊，说起我儿子长大干什么。他爸爸希望他做科学家，我说他理科不够好，恐怕够呛。外婆说他可以做诗人，我说不行做诗人会饿死的。外婆说，没关系，妹妹长大了赚钱养哥哥。我们都笑了，我儿子却一言不发。后来他爸爸再三问他，他很严肃地回答：“我要做老师，我要把知识传给后代。” 还特地强调了一句：“我要做小学老师。” 我笑了，因为他幼儿园的时候就说过想做幼儿园老师， 以此类推，说不定上了大学以后就想做大学老师了，似乎也没有离我们对他的期望太远。后来我看到Hector说的这段话，我意识到我才是狭隘的那一个。超越了个人的成败得失，他看到了更深远的东西。That's the game he wants to learn, to pass it on。

"The best moment in reading are when you come across something...a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things that you'd thought special, particular to you, and here it is, set down by someone else, a person you've never met, maybe even someone long dead. And...it's as if a hand...has come out...and taken yours."-- From Hector.
 
       一个六十岁的老男人，是一所中学的老师，和八个年轻的男孩在一起念诗歌读文学。唯一的安慰，可能就是每次借带他们回家的名义，给他们自己的“benedictions".
       他原本想有一辆装满书的车，环游世界。却最终在一次车祸中离开人世。或许，这就是他的一生。
       求而不可得，漫无边际的孤独，唯有书本能给自己安慰。
       可是，那始终不是柔软的，有温度的，真实的手，不是吗？