Любимые герои. Книга для чтения на английском языке

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

I wanted to ask somebody to explain to me where I was. A boy came towards me. He had long yellow hair and was dressed in red and blue. He came up and looked at my clothes with interest. Then he said that he was a page and that he had come for me. He began to talk and laugh and acted as if we were old friends1 at once. He asked me all kinds of questions about myself and about my clothes, but never waited for an answer. At last he said that he was born in the year 513.

I stopped him and said:

“Maybe I didn’t hear you right. Say it again— and say it slowly. What year was it?”

“513.”

“513! Come2, my boy, I am a stranger here; be honest with me. Now tell me, where am I?”

“In King Arthur’s Court.” “And what year is it now?” “528 — nineteenth of June.”

I felt very, very sad. I said to myself: “I shall never see my friends again — never, never again. They will not be born for more than thirteen hundred years yet.” It was not easy to believe the boy, and I did not know how to check his words. Suddenly I had an idea. I knew that the only total eclipse of the sun3 in the first half of the sixth cen-

1acted as if we were old friends — повёл себя так, как будто мы были старыми друзьями

2Come — (зд.) Послушай

3total eclipse ['eklIps] of the sun — полное солнечное затмение

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tury occurred on the 21st of June, 528, and began at 3 minutes after noon. “So,” I said to myself, “in forty-eight hours I shall know whether I must believe this boy or not.”

I am a practical man and so I quickly made up my mind1. I thought: “If it is really the 6th century, I will be the master of the whole country in three months, because I am the best-educated man2 in the kingdom.”

“Now, Clarence3, my boy,” I said, “if that is your name — help me a little. What is the name of that fellow that brought me here?”

“My master? That is the good knight and great lord Sir Kay.”

III

Clarence took me to the great hall. In the middle of it was a large table which they called the Round Table. The king and many knights were sitting at it. They were eating, drinking and talking. The knights stood up in turn4 and told long stories about their adventures. The longest story was told by a very old man with a white beard.

“Who is that?” I asked Clarence.

1made up my mind — принял решение

2the best-educated man — самый образованный че-

ловек

3Clarence ['klBrAns] — Кларенс

4in turn — по очереди

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“Merlin1, the great liar and magician. He has told his story a thousand times in the same words, and he will tell it again.”

Then Sir Kay stood up. He told a story about how he had met me in a far land, how he had fought with me and killed my thirteen knights and taken me prisoner. He said that I must die at noon on the 21st of June.

After that I was taken into a dungeon. I was so tired that I fell asleep at once.

In the morning Clarence came to talk to me. I asked him to help me to escape from my dungeon. He said it was impossible because Merlin had wrought a spell about the dungeon2.

I laughed and shouted:

“Merlin has wrought a spell! Merlin, indeed! That old fool — oh, damn Merlin!”

But Clarence fell to his knees and asked me to stop. He was frightened to death.

That gave me a good idea. “If everybody here is so afraid of Merlin’s magic,” I thought, “certainly a man like me must be clever enough to use this state of things3.”

“Get up,” I said. “Do you know why I laughed? Because I am a magician myself. I have known Merlin seven hundred years. I knew him in Egypt4 three hundred years ago; I knew him in India five

1Merlin ['mA:lIn] — Мерлин

2had wrought [rD:t] a spell about the dungeon ['dEndZAn] —

наложил заклятие на темницу

3this state of things — это положение вещей

4Egypt ['i:dZIpt] — Египет

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hundred years ago. I am tired of him. Now look here, Clarence, I am your friend, and you must be mine. Go and tell the king that I am a magician. Tell him that if he tries to kill me — today is the 20th?”

“The 20th — yes.”

“And they want to burn me alive tomorrow. At what hour?”

“At noon.”

“Now, tell the king that at that hour I shall turn day into night; the sun will never shine again, and the peoples of the earth will die, to the last man!” When the king learned about my threat, he was frightened, but Merlin told him that I was mad. In the morning on the 21st of June I was brought into the yard of the castle and tied to the stake1 in the middle of the yard. There was a great heap

of wood near the stake.

The king and the queen were sitting on their thrones. There were a lot of people in the yard. A man bent down to my feet with a burning torch2; the monk raised his hands above my head and his eyes towards the blue sky, and began to say some words in Latin. Then, suddenly, he stopped. I looked up. My eclipse was beginning! I was saved.

The king said: “Take pity, sir! Name any terms3, but spare the sun!”

1the stake — столб, к которому привязывают осуж- денного на сожжение

2a burning torch — горящий факел

3Name any terms — Назови любые условия

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I could not stop the eclipse. So I said that I wanted to think.

The darkness was growing. The people were more and more frightened. I said:

“I have thought, Sir King. These are the terms: you will remain king of the country, but you will make me your minister.”

At last the eclipse was total.1 I lifted up my hand — stood so a moment — then I said: “Let the night turn into day again!” Nothing changed for a moment. Then the bright rim of the sun appeared. There was a great shout, and everybody ran forward to thank me.

QUESTIONS AND TASKS

1. Describe the Yankee’s first meeting with King Arthur’s knight.

2What did the Yankee learn when he was talking to Clarence?

3.What did the Yankee see and hear in the great hall?

4.What did the Yankee tell Clarence about himself?

5.How did the Yankee use the eclipse of the sun to save himself?

Part II

I

I was a great man now. I was given new clothes and the best rooms in the castle, after the king’s. The rooms looked very good, but I did not like the life in the castle. There was no mirror, except a

1 At last the eclipse was total. — Наконец наступило полное затмение.

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metal one, no soap, no pictures in the rooms. There was no bell in the castle. I had a lot of servants, but when I wanted one, I had to go and call him. There were no lamps and no candles. There were no books, pens, paper or ink. There was no sugar, no coffee, no tea and no tobacco. I saw that I was just another Robinson Crusoe1, and if I wanted to make life better, I must do as he did — think, make, change things; I must work. Well, I could do it.

I became famous. People came to Camelot every day to look at me. Then they began to speak about a second miracle. That was natural. They wanted to see another miracle with their own eyes and then go home and tell everybody that they had seen it. I saw that I must do something. Besides, old Merlin began to tell the people that I did not make miracles because I could not.

I threw Merlin into prison. Then I announced that I should be busy for about two weeks, but at the end of that time I should take a moment’s rest and blow up Merlin’s stone tower with fires from heaven. I told Clarence that this miracle must be prepared. We made some powder, a lightning-rod and some wires. We worked at night. We put the powder into the walls of the tower, in many places. On the thirteenth night we put up our lightningrod and ran2 wires from it to the places where we had the powder. In the morning I told the people not to come near the tower.

1Robinson Crusoe ['rDbInsn'kru:sAu] — Робинзон Крузо

2ran — (зд.) протянули

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The day was hot, but in the evening clouds began to appear. A thunderstorm was coming. Lightning began to flash.

I went up to the roof of the castle and there were the king, the queen and many lords and ladies. There were a lot of people near the castle. Everybody was looking at Merlin’s tower.

I made some movements1 in the air, and then therewasaterriblecrash,agreatfountainoffire— and that old tower fell to pieces.

II

(The Yankee decided to study the life of the people in the country and to make it better. His plan was to introduce the civilization of the 19th century into the 6th century. He was a very clever man, and so he managed to carry out2 many of his plans. Clarence, who was a clever young man, helped him in everything. In a few years many people were able to read and write. The Yankee built a soap factory near the king’s castle, and the people in the country now washed with soap. There was electric light and telephone. The Yankee was very popular. People called him The Boss.

The Yankee travelled about the country with a lady whose name was Sandy3. He described the

ками1 I made some movements — Я сделал движения ру-

2 managed to carry out — удалось выполнить

3 Sandy ['sBndI] — Сэнди

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hard life of the English peasants and the cruel laws of the king and the church.)

Well, it was a curious country, and full of interest. And the people! They were nothing but rabbits1.

Most of King Arthur’s people were slaves and wore iron collars on their necks. The others were really slaves, but they were called freemen. The nation had to work for the king, the church and the barons.

One day we came upon2 a group of poor people who were repairing a road. They were as humble as animals to me; and when I told them that I was going to have breakfast with them, they could not believe their ears. And yet they were not slaves, but freemen. They were freemen, but they could not leave the land of their baron or their bishop without his permission; they had to work on his field. And in autumn, when the crops were gath- ered, the robbers came: first the Church took its tenth part, then the king took the twentieth part; then the lord took his part; there were taxes and taxes and taxes, and more taxes, and taxes again, and yet other taxes — upon this free peasant, but no taxes upon his lord, the baron or the bishop, or the Church.

When breakfast was over, I got on my horse and lit my pipe. When these people saw smoke which was coming out of my mouth, they ran to the woods. They thought I was a dragon.

1nothing but rabbits — (зд.) как кролики

2came upon — набрели на

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It was very difficult for me to stop them. Then

I told them that this smoke was dangerous only to my enemies. And I promised these big children, with my hand on my heart, that nothing would happen to them.

III

We were approaching a large castle. A knight who was passing by told us that the castle belonged to Morgan le Fay1 sister of King Arthur and queen of a little kingdom. You could stand in the middle of it and throw stones into the next kingdom. There were very many “kings” and “kingdoms” in Britain at that time.

I have nothing pleasant to tell about that visit. I had heard about Mrs. le Fay. Everybody was afraid of her. She was a wicked woman. All her history was black with crime, and among her crimes there were many murders. But I thought it would be interesting to see her.

We were invited into the castle. To my surprise, the queen was beautiful. She asked us to sit down and at once began to speak. Dear me, it was like a bird or a flute, or something, talking2. I thought that people had told me lies about her.

When we were talking, a handsome young page came in with something on a golden tray. When

1Morgan le Fay ['mD:MAn lA'feI] — Морган ле Фей

2it was like a bird or a flute, or something, talking —

она говорила так, как будто щебетала птичка, или пела флейта, или что-нибудь подобное

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he was bending to give it to her, he lost his balance and touched her knee. She immediately stabbed him with a knife.

Poor child! He fell to the floor, dead. Meanwhile madam went on with her talk, as quietly as before.

We had dinner in a great hall, and everything was fine. There were many people at the table, more than a hundred. A lot of servants stood behind the chairs. The dinner began; a lot of food was eaten, a lot of wine was drunk. All were happy and made a great noise. Men and women told funny stories and laughed. By midnight everybody was tired.

Suddenly a very old lady with a stick entered the hall. She lifted her stick, pointed it towards the queen and cried out:

“The curse of God fall upon you1, woman without pity, who have killed my grandchild, who was my only friend in this world!”

Everybody crossed himself; all were frightened, because a curse was a terrible thing to those people; but the queen stood up and commanded:

“Seize her! To the stake with her!2”

It was a shame; it was a cruel thing to see. But what could I do? Sandy looked at me. I said: “Do what you like.”

She stood up and looked at the queen. She said:

1The curse of God fall upon you — Да падет на тебя проклятье Бога

2To the stake with her! — К столбу ее!

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