NARRATOR:Listen to part of a lecture in a theater history class. The class is discussing eighteenth-century plays in Europe and the United States.

旁白：听戏剧历史课的一段讲座。课堂正在讨论欧洲和美国的十八世纪戏剧。

MALE PROFESSOR:By far the most popular genre of plays during the eighteenth century was the sentimental comedy.

教授：到目前为止，18 世纪最流行的戏剧类型是感伤喜剧。

Now, in order to sort of get our heads around what a sentimental comedy is, where it came from, and why on earth it was so popular, we need to understand what sentimentality was, as a philosophical movement.

现在，要了解什么是感伤喜剧，从哪发源，以及为什么如此受欢迎，我们需要了解哲学运动：感伤。

So, uh, during the eighteenth century, some thinkers, uh, philosophers, political theorists uh came up with this idea of sentimentality.

在 18 世纪，一些思想家、哲学家、政治理论家提出了这种感伤主义的观点。

The main point in sentimentality is that-that people are inherently good, people are good by nature.

感伤主义主要观点是，人天生就是好人；人的本性是善良的。

In the past, in other times, some people had believed or claimed that men and women are naturally selfish, or naturally evil; during the seventeenth century there was a very popular theory, known as-as the “social contract,” set out by thinkers like Thomas Hobbes, which argued that people are naturally selfish ….

过去一些时期，人们相信不管男人女人天生都是自私或邪恶的。在 17 世纪，托马斯霍布斯等思想家提出了一种非常流行的理论，称为社会契约，认为人天生自私。

Eh, during the eighteenth century, on the other hand, eh thinkers associated with sentimentality came along and said no, no, no, people are naturally good.

在十八世纪，与伤感主义的思想家出现了，他们说，不不不，人天生就是好人。

Yes, Diane, question?

黛安,你有什么问题吗？

FEMALE STUDENT:Yeah, sorry to interrupt, but… why was it called—that first one, uh, the “social contract”—why was it called that?

女学生：是的，很抱歉打断你。但为什么它被称为第一个，社会契约？为什么这么叫？

I mean, if people are supposed to be naturally selfish, isn’t that the opposite of being social?

我的意思是，如果人们本应天生自私，那不就跟融入社会反了吗？

MALE PROFESSOR:Uh, the emphasis was more on the contract part.

男教授：哦，这里的重点在于“契约”。

If people are naturally inclined to do what’s in their own self-interest, then, in order to have people living together in peace, you-you needed to develop some kind of a social contract, a sort of agreement—I won’t hit you over the head and take your stuff if you don’t hit me over the head and take my stuff...

如果人们天生倾向于为自己的利益做事，为了让人们和平相处，就需要发展某种社会契约，一种协议。如果你不打我闷棍，不夺我的东西，我也不会打你闷棍，夺走你的东西。

But, in the eighteenth century, the sentimental theorists came along and said that people are naturally good.

但到了十八世纪，感伤理论家出现了，说人天生好。

FEMALE STUDENT:Hard to believe sometimes if you watch the evening news.

女学生：如果看看晚间新闻，有时很难相信他们说的。

MALE PROFESSOR:Okay. If you try to argue that people are naturally good, you’re going to have to answer the question: “What about the fact that bad things happen? How do we account for the fact that people do bad things?”

教授：好。如果试图争辩说人们天生就是好的，那你不得不回答这个问题：怎么解释有这么多坏事发生？要如何解释人们干坏事的现象？

Sentimental theorists claimed that evil deeds happen because people are led astray by bad influences.

感伤理论家觉得，恶行的发生是因为人们被不良影响误入歧途。

That is, people can be pressured, or seduced, or tricked into doing something wrong.

也就是说，人们可能会受到压力、引诱或诱骗做错事。

And, uh, the other question that comes up in relation to sentimentality is: “If you are led astray, how can you be redeemed? Can you be brought back to your state of natural goodness?”

另一个与感伤主义的问题是，如果你误入歧途，你怎么能被救赎？你能恢复到自然善良的状态吗？

What do you think?

你们怎么看？

MALE STUDENT:I think, yeah, if you think people are basically good, then you probably also think they can be, you know, brought back to being good again.

男学生：我觉得，如果认为人们本质上是好的，那么你可能也会认为他们可以重新变好人。

MALE PROFESSOR:That’s right. And they said you do this by appealing to a person’s natural instincts, trying to return them or connect them to their natural state, especially via the emotions.

教授：是的，他们说你通过诉诸自然本能来做到这一点，尤其是通过情感连接，让他们回归自然状态，或者与自然状态联系起来，

Making someone cry, then, could make them good again.

让人哭泣，这可以使他们再次变回好人。

Uh, picture, for example, uh, the evil villain, smirking at his latest, uh, robbery and theft, who happens to see a lost child, walking down the street, sobbing, and he starts to sniffle and cry and maybe his heart goes out to this, this lost child, and he wants to help the child and somehow he realizes that he’s been bad—or rather, been behaving badly—since according to sentimentalist theory, he was never truly bad to begin with.

例如，恶棍正因他最近的抢劫和盗窃得意窃笑，他碰巧看到一个迷路的孩子走在街上，并委屈地哭泣，然后他开始同情这个迷路的孩子，想帮助这个孩子，然后忽然间，他意识到自己一直很坏，做了不好的行为，因为根据感伤主义理论，他一开始并不是真正的坏人。

Alright, that’s sort of the hallmark of sentimentality, and it’s what became the driving force behind sentimental comedies.

这就是感伤主义的标志，也是感伤喜剧背后的驱动力。

MALE STUDENT:I, I don’t get why they’re comedies—they don’t sound funny …

学生：我不明白为什么它们是喜剧。这剧听起来一点也不好笑。

MALE PROFESSOR:You’re right, a sentimental comedy is not specifically funny.

教授：嗯，你是对的。感伤喜剧并不特别好笑。

The goal isn’t to make the audience laugh; in fact, the goal’s to make the audience cry.

它的目的不是让观众发笑。事实上，它的目标让观众哭泣。

Thus, a sentimental comedy will usually depict someone virtuous, but in some sort of distress.

因此，感伤喜剧通常会描绘一个善良的人，但身处某种痛苦中。

Perhaps a good virtuous man or woman who, who’s suffering financial hardships, and uh, we see them desperate for food, barely able to survive, tempted to, to rob someone.

也许是一个善良的男人或女人囊中羞涩，然后我们会看到他们饥肠辘辘，勉强生存，想抢劫别人来活下来。

But they resist that temptation and still triumph in the end.

但他们抵制住并最终战胜了这种诱惑。

And again, seeing this, the audience is expected to cry, and thus reconnect with their natural emotional state…

看到这些，观众们会流泪，从而重新与他们自然的情绪状态联系起来。