The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Chapter 27 (1)
Chapter 21 (1)
The sun has risen, but we didn't stop and continued sailing.Presently the king and the duke came out of the shack looking listless.They jumped into the water and swam for a while, and their spirits improved.After breakfast the King took off his boots, rolled up his trousers, and sat down on a corner of the raft, and stretched his legs into the water for comfort.He lit his pipe and began reciting his lines from Romeo and Juliet.When he remembered it fairly well, he began rehearsing with the Duke.The Duke had to teach him over and over again how to say every line; taught him to put his hand to his chest and sigh.After a while he said the king had done a pretty good job. "But," said he, "you mustn't growl like a bull, 'Romeo!' It has to be soft, and you have to look weak. You have to--'Romeo!' All right, because Juliet's a sweet little girl, see? She's not going to scream like a donkey."

Then they took out the two longswords which the duke had made of oak planks, and rehearsed the sword-fight - the duke called himself Richard III.The way they fought and stabbed on the raft looked really exciting.At last the King's foot tripped and fell into the river, and they stopped to rest, and talked of all their adventures on the river.

After lunch the duke said:
"I said, Gabe (Gabe: a surname inherited from the French Dynasty from the Middle Ages.-- original note.), we have to make this show first-rate, right, so I think we need to prepare something more , so that it can be dealt with when the audience calls 'one more'."

"What's 'one more' Bridgewater?"

The duke explained it to him.Then he said:
"I'll give them a Scotch dance or a sailor dance for a while; and you—let me see—oh, there it is—you'll read to them Hamlet's soliloquy."

"What is Hamlet?"

"You know, Hamlet's monologue in Shakespeare's most famous play, 'Hamlet. No—that’s the only book I have with me—but I’m sure I’ll remember. I’ll take a few walks, reminiscing.”

He began to walk back and forth on the wooden raft, thinking while walking, sometimes frowning, sometimes raising his eyebrows vigorously, sometimes pinching his forehead, stepping back a few times, moaning a few times, sometimes sighing, sometimes pretending to be sad. Looks like she's about to cry.It was a very nice look.Later, he remembered everything and asked us to pay attention to his recitation.So he assumed a very dignified posture, with one leg stretched out in front of him, his arms stretched upwards, his head thrown back, and his eyes looking at the sky.Then, gritting his teeth, he began to growl loudly.Throughout the ensuing monologue, he puts on airs, puffs out his chest and roars like hell.This performance beats the best I've ever seen in my life.I memorized that part of the play when he taught the king, and here is the line:

To be or not to be, this is a dagger drawn,

A long life thus becomes a disaster;
Bernan?Wood not coming to Doncina,

Who can bear the tyranny of fate;

Fear of unknown encounters after death,

Slaughtered innocent sleep;

The second law of nature,

Let us rather throw the poisoned sword of bad luck
Don't want to venture into unknown territory.

We cannot help but hesitate:
I would be very grateful if you could awaken Duncan,

For who would bear the lashes and taunts of the world,

The insult of the oppressor, the indifference of the arrogant,

The law's delay, and pain's relief,
In that desolate dead midnight,
The churchyard yawned in black,
The mysterious kingdom from which no traveler returns,

Breathe out poisonous breath into the world,

Our decisive nature is like the proverbial cat,
Wracked with anxiety into a pathetic cowardice,
The haze that hangs over our roofs,
also changed the direction of drift,
Thus losing its reputation for decisive action.

It is a long sleep for which all prayers are made.Wait, fair Ophelia,
Open not your heavy marble mouth,
Go into the nunnery--go! (This poor mishmash of one of Shakespeare's most beloved lines is in the tradition of the American Southwest.—Note.)

The old man liked this monologue very much, and he soon learned it by heart, and he recited it very well.He seems to be born to do this. When he has practiced hard, he will lean forward and back, shouting at the top of his lungs, and that look is really funny.

The Duke printed many acting posters at the first printing workshop he encountered.During the two or three days after that, the raft was a most unusual scene of excitement, for the two of them spent all their time fighting swords or rehearsing, as the Duke called it.One morning, when we reached the southernmost tip of Arkansas, we saw a small town in a rather large bend of the river, and we moored the raft about three-quarters of a mile upstream, at the mouth of a small river.The cypress trees on both sides of the river covered the mouth of the river like a tunnel opening.Except for Jim, who remained alone on the raft, we all got into the boat and rowed to the town, looking for a chance to perform.

We were lucky, there was a circus performance that afternoon, and the country folks began to arrive in various old wagons or on horseback.The circus will start before dark, so our show just happened to be staged at this good time.The duke rented the court hall as a theater, and we put up posters here and there.Printed on the poster is: Shakespeare's famous plays are back on stage! ! !

Wonderful and tempting!

Just for one night!
World Famous Tragedy Characters:

Little David at the Jury Theater in London?Garrick

And

Royal Haymarket Theater, Whitechapel, Pickleigh, Pudding Lane, London

And old Edmund of the Royal Continental Theatre?Keane

Co-starred in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet"
A "Love Talk on the Balcony"! ! !
Exquisite skills are extraordinary
Romeo………………………………………Mr. Garrick
Juliet………………………………………Mr Keene

The whole cast assists!

New costumes, new sets, new props!
Same show:

A "sword fight" in "Richard III"! ! !
Thrilling and overwhelming

Richard III……………………………………Mr. Garrick
Richmond………………………………………Mr. Keene

Invited extras:

Hamlet's Immortal Soliloquy! !

Starring the famous actor Keane!
He performed [-] consecutive performances in Paris!

Due to an urgent invitation to perform in Europe,
Only one show!
Tickets cost [-] cents each; child servants cost [-] cents each

After we were done, we wandered around town.The shops and houses in the street were dilapidated, cracked wooden houses that hadn't been painted at all, and these houses were erected three or four feet on wooden posts to prevent them from being flooded when the river rose.There are small gardens around the house, but people seem to have planted nothing, only patches of poisonous datura and sunflowers, piles of ashes are dumped, and they are full of shapeless broken shoes, rotten bottles, broken Pieces of cloth, unusable empty cans.The walls are pieced together with different kinds of wooden boards, all of which are crooked and out of shape, and the gate of the courtyard often has only one hinge—it is still made of leather.Some of the walls had been painted a long time ago, the duke said it must have been painted in the time of Columbus, and it certainly looked like it.Pigs often ran into those gardens, and people drove them out from time to time.

All the shops in the town are concentrated on one street, with white homespun awnings in front of the doors, and the locals tie their horses to the posts of the awnings.Empty boxes of goods were piled up under the awning.There are idlers sitting on top of the boxes all day long, chipping away at the boxes with single-edged knives, chewing tobacco leaves, yawning and stretching with their mouths open—a bunch of real bums.These people wore yellow straw hats the size of umbrellas on their heads, but they wore neither coats nor vests.They called each other Bill, Buck, Hank, Joe, Andy, and so on, and talked in a drawn-out, swearing way.The bum was everywhere, there must have been one by every awning post.They always put their hands in their trouser pockets, and they only stretch out their hands when they take out tobacco leaves and stuff them into their mouths, or when they tickle them.People always hear them say the same two things:

"Hank, give me a bite of tobacco."

"No, I only have one bite left. Ask Bill."

That Bill guy might give him a sip, or lie and say he didn't have any left.Some of these bums never had a penny, and never had a chewing tobacco themselves.The tobacco they chew is all borrowed.They often say to people like this: "Jack, can you lend me a cigarette, I just gave Ben Thompson the last cigarette"-of course, it is a lie, and it is a lie every time, except for strangers. Can't be fooled either.But Jack is not a stranger, he said:

"You actually gave him back a cigarette. Is this really the case? I'm afraid the grandma of your sister's cat gave it to him too. Leif? Buckner, first return all the cigarettes you lent me, Then I am willing to lend you a ton or two of tobacco without your interest."

"I said, I paid it back once."

"Yes, you did pay it back. But you borrowed good store-bought cigarettes, and you returned junk chewed by niggers."

The cigarettes bought in the store are all dark black flat pieces, but these people roll up the raw tobacco leaves and chew them, and usually don’t cut them open with a knife. Tear hard at the other end, breaking it in half.Sometimes, the owner of the tobacco leaf looks sad at the leftover part, and says sarcastically:

(End of this chapter)