Chapter 1 〇A writer to readers
〇A writer to readers
You're sweating all over your face,
To maintain a poor livelihood,
Years of labor, exhaustion,
Now death calls you.
This quatrain written in old French is inscribed under an engraving by Holbein, and its simplicity contains deep melancholy.This engraving depicts a farmer plowing a field with a plow handle.The vast fields stretched into the distance, and there could be seen some poor log houses, and the sun sank behind the hills.This is the end of a hard day's work.The farmer, though old, was stout and ragged.The four harnessed horses he drove forward were bony and limp; the coulters shoveled into the rough, hard earth.Only one figure in this scene of sweat and effort is light-hearted and light-footed, and that is a phantasy figure, a skeleton with a whip, who gallops along the furrow beside the terrified horse, Whipped the horses, and served as plows to the old farmer.This is Death, and Holbein allegorically included this ghost in a series of philosophical and religious paintings, both gloomy and comical, entitled Apparitions of Death.
[Note] Holbein (1497︱1543), a German painter, is good at painting portraits, and his masterpiece is "The Death of Christ". "Erasmus in Writing" etc.
In this collection, or rather in this expansive composition, Death plays a role on every page, as the connecting factor and dominant idea; Holbein reproduces the sovereign, the high priest, the lover, the gambler, Drunkards, nuns, whores, robbers, poor people, warriors, monks, Jews, tourists, everyone in his time and ours, the specter of death is everywhere mocking, threatening, and always victorious.Death does not appear in only one painting.Here, poor Lazarus is lying on the dung heap at the rich man's door, claiming that he has no fear of death, since he has nothing to lose, of course, and he died prematurely while alive.
【Note】Lazarus was a beggar with sores. He lay sick at the door of the rich man. After his death, he was led into heaven by an angel. See Chapter 16 of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament.
Is this half-pagan thought of Renaissance Christianity really comforting?Can believers benefit from this kind of thinking?Ambitious men, liars, tyrants, drunkards, these arrogant sinners who waste life and have death grabbing their hair, will undoubtedly be punished; , as a relief from their long-term misery?No!An inescapable melancholy, a terrible fatalistic thought, oppresses the artist's work.It was like unleashing a pungent curse on the fate of mankind.
What Holbein saw was poignant irony, a true portrayal of society.It was evil and misfortune that struck him; and what shall we, artists of another century, paint?Are we to look for the deserving destiny of human beings today in the thoughts of death?Shall we beg the spirit to die, as punishment for injustice and compensation for suffering?
No, we are no longer dealing with death, but with life.We no longer believe in the void of the grave, nor in the salvation of the soul through forced recluse; we want life to be good because we want it to be rich.Lazarus should leave his dunghill, and the poor need not rejoice at the death of the rich.Everyone should be happy, then the happiness of some people will not be a sin, cursed by God.When the farmer sows wheat, he should know that he is working for a living, and he should not take pleasure in having death walking beside him.Finally, death should be neither the punishment of luck nor the consolation of misfortune.God neither punishes life with death nor compensates life with death; and since God blesses life, the grave should not be a refuge, to which those who cannot find happiness should be sent.
Some of the artists of our time, looking squarely around them, love to paint misery, poverty, and Lazarus' dunghill.These may belong to the realm of art and philosophy; but have they achieved their purpose in portraying poverty so hideous, so despicable, sometimes so wicked and so sinful?And is the effect as beneficial as they hoped it would be?We dare not make rash judgments.It may be said to us that it is enough to point out the abyss beneath the frail soil of wealth, to terrify the unkind, just as, in the age of ghosts and dances, the open grave was pointed out to such a rich man, and death at any moment Ready to hold him in his filthy arms.Now we point out to him that thieves are breaking open the door of his house, that murderers are watching to see if he is asleep.We confess that we do not quite understand how writing him the poor man as a fugitive from a penal prison and a thief in the night will endear him to a humanity which he despises, and to concern him with the suffering of the poor whom he dreads.In the paintings of Holbein and his predecessors, the terrible Grim Reaper, gnashing his teeth and playing the violin, does not convert the wicked, nor comfort the afflicted, in his appearance.Doesn't our literature do this a little like the artists of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance?
【Note】In the Middle Ages, people wore carved or painted masks, pretended to be ghosts of various ages and identities, and danced under the leadership of the god of death, which was a metaphor for the inevitable death of people.
Holbein's drunkards fill their glasses frantically to drive away the thought of death; Death, invisible to them, acts as their cupbearer.But today, the evil rich need to build fortifications and buy guns to prevent riots like the Jacques Regiment; art points out to these rich people that riots are secretly brewing carefully, waiting for the opportunity to attack the existing society.The medieval church satiated the fear of the world's powerful by selling amulets.Today's government makes the rich pay taxes, and maintains gendarmes, jailers, bayonets, and prisons to calm the unrest of the rich.
[Note] The Jacques Regiment was a peasant riot that broke out on May 28, 1358, and Jacques is generally a name for peasants.
Albert Dürer, Michelangelo, Holbein, Carlo, Goya[1] all made powerful satires of the ills of their times and their countries.These are monumental works, chapters of history of undeniable value; we do not want to deny the right of artists to explore the traumas of society and expose them before our eyes; Is there anything I can do?In the literature of the mysteries of immorality, which talent and imagination have made popular, we prefer the sweet and lovable characters to the thrillingly bad villains.The former can lead people to change from evil to good, while the latter can make people frightened.Terror does not cure selfishness, it aggravates it.
[Note 1] Dürer (1471︱1528), German painter; sculptor; Michelangelo (1475︱1564), Italian painter; Carlo (15 92︱1632), French painter and sculptor; Goya (1746︱1828), Spanish painter.
[Note 2] This refers to the novel "The Secret of Paris" by Eugène Sue (1803︱1857) and the novel "The Secret of London" by Paul Feval.
We believe that the mission of art is an emotional and loving one, and that the novel of today should replace the fables and metaphors of human infancy, and that the artist, besides offering some careful mitigating means of alleviating the horrors his depictions arouse, also There is a greater and more poetic task.His aim should be to make the objects of his concern lovable, and I do not reproach the artist for beautifying them a little, if necessary.Art is not the study of reality as it actually exists, but the pursuit of ideal truth.The Reverend Wakefield is, therefore, a more useful and wholesome novel than The Fallen Farmer and Dangerous Liaisons.
[Note] "The Biography of Pastor Wakefield" is a novel by the British writer Goldsmith (1728︱1774), which is a sentimental work. "The Fallen Peasant" is a novel by the French writer Restife de la Breton (1734︱1806); 〇3) masterpiece.
Forgive me, reader, for writing these thoughts, and treat them as prefaces.There is no other preface to the story I am about to tell you.This story is short and simple, and for that, I need to ask for forgiveness in advance for telling you my thoughts on horror stories.
I could not help making these digressions about the farmer.It is the story of a farmer that I am going to tell you, and I am going to tell you soon.