女儿应由少男扮(英文)

Boys Should be Girls

近来,莎士比亚戏剧演出中的女性角色常由成年男性扮演,这就无形中助长了一种荒诞的观念:认为这就是莎士比亚时代的做法。本文通过对当时演出需要的分析,强调莎士比亚时代剧中的所有女性均由男孩扮演,即由声音婉转的少男扮演。莎士比亚通常至多雇有四个男孩作演员,或许更多。然而,有些戏仅有两位女性人物,而超过四位女性人物的戏则极为罕见。本文的结论是,莎士比亚不可能浪费自己剧团的人力资源,而去聘请成人男性出演手下既有的少男演员都能胜任的角色。

Recent performances of female roles in Shakespeare＇ s plays by adult males help to perpetuate the myth that this was the practice of Shakespeare＇ s time. This article attempts to reinforce the view that all female roles were played by boys-i, e. young males with unbroken voices-by analyzing the demands made by the plays. Shakespeare regularly had available to him up to four boy actors, perhaps more. Yet some plays have as few as two female roles, and few have more than four. The conclusion is that Shakespeare would have been highly unlikely to waste the resources of his company by calling upon adult males to play parts that make use of the talents of his boys.