《阿普尔顿府邸颂》中的秩序之探

The Negotiation of Order in “Upon Appleton House”

处于英国内战时期保皇派与清教的政治文化对抗中,安德鲁·马维尔的《阿普尔顿府邸颂》见证了两者之间的博弈,却拒绝追随任何一方。他援用了乡村府邸诗的传统,以充沛的田园细节描述了费尔法克斯的乡村府邸,却淡化了乡间娱乐、和谐的贵族平民关系等被保皇派视为王权统治基石的传统乡村秩序。同时,他一反保皇派文人的抒情诗中那种慵懒闲散、归隐静思的阴柔之气,也规避了清教文化对艺术表达的怀疑和对感官愉悦的压抑,转而呈现了一种刚健活跃甚至带着些许暴力元素的自然审美,从而建构了一种与两者都不同的"更得体"的秩序。对于马维尔而言,诗中的花园承载着他对社会政治、审美、宗教等各方面的理想秩序的探寻。

Caught in the contending forces of royalist and puritan cultures, Andrew Marvell’s "Upon Appleton House" registers the influences of both while conceding to neither. He salutes the country-house poem conventions by depicting Lord Fairfax’s estate and garden with pastoral details, yet he downplays the importance of traditional rural community with its merriment and harmonious lord-tenant relationship, which are upheld by royalist culture as the reliable bedrock of the kingdom. Also, compared with the retired, contemplative life and languid, slightly effeminate beauty celebrated by royalist lyricists, Marvell’s gardens are often marked by a more active, masculine, even occasionally violent type of aesthetics, a stance also patently different from Puritan suspicion of artistic exuberance and censorship of pleasure, thus representing an order equally removed from royalism and puritanism. For Marvell, therefore, these gardens have become the venue for exploring and negotiating a "more decent" sociopolitical, aesthetic, and religious order.