ドラマで英語を学ぼう (46) Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Part 1

Download MP3



今回より４回にわたり、毎月第１週は「ドラマで英語を学ぼう」をお届けします。



今回お届けする作品はウィリアム・シェイクスピア（William Shakespeare, 1564-1616）作の『夏の夜の夢』（A Midsummer Night's Dream）です。



舞台はギリシア・アテネ。好きではない男との政略結婚か、あるいは死か。そのどちらかの選択を父親に迫られた娘は、家を抜け出し、恋人の待つ森に出かけます。その娘の後を追いかけるのは…。



400年前に書かれたシェイクスピアの脚本は現代の英語とはかなり異なるので、今回は19世紀にラム姉弟（Charles & Mary Lamb）によってやさしく書き直された『シェイクスピア物語』のバージョンでお楽しみいただきます。以前お届けした『ロミオとジュリエット』と同様に、シェイクスピアによるセリフを生かしながら、美しい英語で書かれています。上級者向けの内容ですが、注とスクリプトを参考にしながら、ぜひチャレンジしてみてください。

　Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"



PART 1



to compel

= to force



whomsoever they pleased

= whoever they wanted



for upon

= and with the situation of (Note: older, formal English)



to be empowered

= to have the power



to put (somebody) to death

= to kill somebody legally (Note: Usually the government puts to death criminals)



to happen to

= to occur by chance



to prove a little refractory

= to be a bit resistant, not obeying



to put (a law) in execution

= to carry out or exercise a law, to do according to a law



not unfrequently

= frequently



to reign

= to have powers (like a king)



a duke

= a prince, 公爵



to put (a law) in force

= to carry out or exercise a law, to do according to the law



to plead

= to strongly request



in excuse

= to make an excuse (Note: older, formal English)



disobedience

= not obeying



formerly

= before



to profess (your) love for (someone)

= to say that (you) love (someone)



to love (someone) to distraction

= to really really love someone



an honorable reason

= a good reason



to move not

= to not affect



stern

= strict, 厳しい



merciful

= 慈悲深い



to alter

= to change



to be dismissed

= to be told that (a person) can go



peril

= danger



to be in great affliction

= to be greatly troubled and unhappy



evil tidings

= wicked or cruel happenings or doings



to recollect

= to remember



at some distance from

= relatively far from



to steal out of

= to secretly go out of



the wood

= the forest, the woods (Note: In most English-speaking countries today, "woods" is much more often used than "wood".)



without the city

= outside the city (Note: old English)



a flight

= an escape



but

= except for



a maiden

= a young, unmarried woman



ungenerously

= without appreciation, in an unfriendly way



to resolve to

= to decide to



to betray

= 裏切る



faithless

= 不貞な, not faithful



to go thither

= to go there (Note: old English)



a favorite haunt

= a popular place for spending time (Example: "A game center is a favorite haunt of teenage boys.")



a being

= a living thing (Note: often used to refer to crazy things such as aliens)



a fairy

= a mythical being with magic powers



a train of followers

= a group of assistants



revels

= parties (Note: old English)



a sprite

= a little person, resembling a fairy or a ghost



to quarrel

= to argue, to have a disagreement



elves

= 小妖精たち (Note: the singular is "an elf". The word "elves" often is used to refer to Santa Clause's assistants: "Santa's elves".)



to creep into

= to go quietly into



acorn-cups

= the outside shell of a nut from an oak tree, similar to the outside shell of a どんぐり



a changeling boy

= a boy secretly exchanged for another as a baby (Note: old English)



a nurse

= a woman who gives breast milk to a baby who is not her own



a maid of honor

= an assistant to a queen (Note: Today the expression is usually used at weddings, as the bride's best female friend who helps the bride during the wedding.)



to be attended by

= to be accompanied and assisted by



a courtier

= an assistant to the king



Ill met by moonlight...

= It is unlucky or not good that we are meeting tonight (Note: old English)



jealous

= しっと深い



skip hence

= let's get out of here (Note: old English)



I've foresworn his company

= I've promised never to be with him.



Tarry

= Wait just a minute. (Note: old English)



to be rash

= 気の早い



thy

= your (Note: old English)



to cross (someone)

= to make (someone) angry



a page

= a king's assistant



Set your heart at rest

= Calm down



of

= from (Note: old English)



a lord

= a king



to torment (someone)

= 困らせる、悩ます



an injury

= hurting (someone) physically or psychologically



Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream - Part 1

Written by Charles and Mary Lamb



There was a law in the city of Athens which gave to its citizens the power of compelling their daughters to marry whomsoever they pleased; for upon a daughter's refusing to marry the man her father had chosen to be her husband, the father was empowered by this law to cause her to be put to death; but as fathers do not often desire the death of their own daughters, even though they do happen to prove a little refractory, this law was seldom or never put in execution, though perhaps the young ladies of that city were not unfrequently threatened by their parents with the terrors of it.

There was one instance, however, of an old man, whose name was Egeus, who actually did come before Theseus (at that time the reigning Duke of Athens), to complain that his daughter Hermia, whom he had commanded to marry Demetrius, a young man of a noble Athenian family, refused to obey him, because she loved another young Athenian, named Lysander. Egeus demanded justice of Theseus, and desired that this cruel law might be put in force against his daughter.

Hermia pleaded in excuse for her disobedience, that Demetrius had formerly professed love for her dear friend Helena, and that Helena loved Demetrius to distraction; but this honourable reason, which Hermia gave for not obeying her father's command, moved not the stern Egeus.

Theseus, though a great and merciful prince, had no power to alter the laws of his country; therefore, he could only give Hermia four days to consider of it: and at the end of that time, if she still refused to marry Demetrius, she was to be put to death.

When Hermia was dismissed from the presence of the duke, she went to her lover Lysander, and told him the peril she was in, and that she must either give him up and marry Demetrius, or lose her life in four days.

Lysander was in great affliction at hearing these evil tidings; but recollecting that he had an aunt who lived at some distance from Athens, and that at the place where she lived the cruel law could not be put in force against Hermia (this law not extending beyond the boundaries of the city), he proposed to Hermia that she should steal out of her father's house that night, and go with him to his aunt's house, where he would marry her. "I will meet you," said Lysander, "in the wood a few miles without the city; in that delightful wood where we have so often walked with Helena in the pleasant month of May."

To this proposal Hermia joyfully agreed; and she told no one of her intended flight but her friend Helena. Helena (as maidens will do foolish things for love) very ungenerously resolved to go and tell this to Demetrius, though she could hope no benefit from betraying her friend's secret, but the poor pleasure of following her faithless lover to the wood; for she well knew that Demetrius would go thither in pursuit of Hermia.

The wood, in which Lysander and Hermia proposed to meet was the favourite haunt of those little beings known by the name of Fairies.

Oberon the king, and Titania the queen of the Fairies, with all their tiny train of followers, in this wood held their midnight revels.

Between this little king and queen of sprites there happened, at this time, a sad disagreement; they never met by moonlight in the shady walks of this pleasant wood, but they were quarrelling, till all their fairy elves would creep into acorn-cups and hide themselves for fear.

The cause of this unhappy disagreement was Titania's refusing to give Oberon a little changeling boy, whose mother had been Titania's friend; and upon her death the fairy queen stole the child from its nurse, and brought him up in the woods.

The night on which the lovers were to meet in this wood, as Titania was walking with some of her maids of honour, she met Oberon attended by his train of fairy courtiers.

"Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania," said the fairy king. The queen replied, "What, jealous Oberon, is it you? Fairies, skip hence; I have forsworn his company." "Tarry, rash fairy," said Oberon; "am not I thy lord? Why does Titania cross her Oberon? Give me your little changeling boy to be my page."

"Set your heart at rest," answered the queen; "your whole fairy kingdom buys not the boy of me." She then left her lord in great anger. "Well, go your way," said Oberon: "before the morning dawns I will torment you for this injury."