К 'Базилу Хоу'
Все помнят трауберговский перевод "A Chord of Colour" ("Гамма красок"? "Моя госпожа надела серый наряд...": а потом зеленый, алый и синий - про алый, впрочем, Честертон не писал) - стихотворения, написанного в конце девяностых Франсис Блогг. Идею с переодеваниями Честертон потом использует в "Жив-человеке", где многочисленные жены Инносента Смита носят разноцветные наряды и фамилии:
"Miss Green in Lady Bullingdon's village; Miss Brown at the Hendon School; Miss Black at the publishers. A chord of colour, as it were, which ends up with Miss Gray at Beacon House, West Hampstead [...] What is the meaning of this queer coincidence about colours? Personally I cannot doubt for a moment that these names are purely arbitrary names, assumed as part of some general scheme or joke. I think it very probable that they were taken from a series of costumes - that Polly Green only meant Polly (or Mary) when in green, and that Mary Gray only means Mary (or Polly) when in gray."
Мисс Блэк Инносент Смит читает стихи:
O vivid, inviolate head,
Ringed -
которые позволяют установить, что Мисс Блэк была рыжая:
"But I think a wide study of the worst modern poets will enable us to guess that 'ringed with a glory of red' or 'ringed with its passionate red' was the line that rhymed to 'head'."
В действительности 'ringed with its passionate red' - фраза, почти точно повторенная из более раннего варианта того стихотворения, только с немного другим названием, "A Song of Colours":
My lady clad herself in green
And ringed her passionate red hair,
Then knew I why the leaves had been
And every elfin field made fair,
Since God did for her day prepare.
My lady clad herself in grey,
Then saw I why the winter was
Low-raining skies and frosty spray,
And mighty rivers sealed as glass,
Ere God had brought this thing to pass.
My lady clad herself in blue,
Then was the great sea kind to me.
The dread sweet sky seemed made anew,
Since they were colours mingled free
When God first willed this thing to me.
Как известно, Франсис не была рыжей, и этот вариант написан еще до знакомства с ней. Обращен он, по-видимому, к Виолетте Вивиан, прототипу Гертруды Грей, главной героини "Базила Хоу".
PS У 'a glory of red' тоже есть параллель, хотя и менее близкая, в самом "Базиле Хоу", в описании Гертруды:
... a lithe, long-legged girl of fourteen, with a tempest of red hair blown across her by the sea-wind.
А оно, в свою очередь, перекликается с дневниковой записью о сестрах Вивиан:
... or Violet, a veritably delightful child with a temper as formless and erratic as her tempest of red hair.
"Miss Green in Lady Bullingdon's village; Miss Brown at the Hendon School; Miss Black at the publishers. A chord of colour, as it were, which ends up with Miss Gray at Beacon House, West Hampstead [...] What is the meaning of this queer coincidence about colours? Personally I cannot doubt for a moment that these names are purely arbitrary names, assumed as part of some general scheme or joke. I think it very probable that they were taken from a series of costumes - that Polly Green only meant Polly (or Mary) when in green, and that Mary Gray only means Mary (or Polly) when in gray."
Мисс Блэк Инносент Смит читает стихи:
O vivid, inviolate head,
Ringed -
которые позволяют установить, что Мисс Блэк была рыжая:
"But I think a wide study of the worst modern poets will enable us to guess that 'ringed with a glory of red' or 'ringed with its passionate red' was the line that rhymed to 'head'."
В действительности 'ringed with its passionate red' - фраза, почти точно повторенная из более раннего варианта того стихотворения, только с немного другим названием, "A Song of Colours":
My lady clad herself in green
And ringed her passionate red hair,
Then knew I why the leaves had been
And every elfin field made fair,
Since God did for her day prepare.
My lady clad herself in grey,
Then saw I why the winter was
Low-raining skies and frosty spray,
And mighty rivers sealed as glass,
Ere God had brought this thing to pass.
My lady clad herself in blue,
Then was the great sea kind to me.
The dread sweet sky seemed made anew,
Since they were colours mingled free
When God first willed this thing to me.
Как известно, Франсис не была рыжей, и этот вариант написан еще до знакомства с ней. Обращен он, по-видимому, к Виолетте Вивиан, прототипу Гертруды Грей, главной героини "Базила Хоу".
PS У 'a glory of red' тоже есть параллель, хотя и менее близкая, в самом "Базиле Хоу", в описании Гертруды:
... a lithe, long-legged girl of fourteen, with a tempest of red hair blown across her by the sea-wind.
А оно, в свою очередь, перекликается с дневниковой записью о сестрах Вивиан:
... or Violet, a veritably delightful child with a temper as formless and erratic as her tempest of red hair.