何谓“基于”?莎士比亚、渊源研究与原创性

What Does"Based On"Mean?:Shakespeare,Source-Study,and Originality

莎士比亚代表着英语文学原创性的最高水准,他的伟大也激起了人们对于他创作渊源的最执着的探询,也就是说,激发人们寻找其非原创性的证据。莎士比亚显然从别处借鉴了情节、人物乃至整段对话,但为何他的一名同时代人还会说他"所写的一切都是独出机杼的",本文对这一悖论进行了探讨。

Shakespeare is both the writer who has come to represent the highest form of literary originality in English,and also the writer whose very greatness has provoked the most determined search for his sources,that is,for the evidence,one might say,of his unoriginality.This essay will explore this paradox:how it is that of Shakespeare,who conspicuously borrows plots,characters,even whole speeches,one of his contemporaries could say that “All that he doth write is pure his owne.”