经济学人:厚葬理查德三世 大力出效益

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　　厚葬理查德三世

　　The hunch¹ paid off

　　大力出效益

　　Leicester does a better job of burying a Plantagenet king at the second attempt

　　二葬金雀花王朝国王，莱斯特市更胜一筹

　　Top this, Tudors

　　看看人家，都铎王朝

　　IT WAS reckoned to be Leicester's biggest turnout in decades—maybe since the footballer Gary Lineker was made a freeman of the unfashionable Midlands city in 1995. But the 35,000 people who lined its streets on March 22nd had not come to honour a living son of Leicester. They were honouring the bones of a medieval king, Richard III, dug up in a car park in 2012.

　　据预计，重新安葬理查德三世，会是莱切斯特市数十年来最大的集会，有可能是暨加里·莱因克尔在1995年结束足球生涯，选择在不知名的米德兰市做一个普通人这件事之后最大的集会。但3月22日街边成排的3.5万名民众，并不是来敬仰某个莱斯特市的大活人的。他们是来瞻仰中世纪国王—理查德三世的遗骨的，他的骨骸于2012年在一个停车场被挖出。

　　厚葬理查德三世.jpg

　　Wearing expressions of curiosity, respect, even grief, and in a few cases also doublet-and-hose, the mourners watched as the remains² of a king who had ruled England over half a millennium³ ago were transported in splendour beyond the city to Bosworth Field; which was perhaps the last place Richard would have wanted to revisit. That was where, in 1485, he became the last English king to die in battle, thus ending his Plantagenet dynasty and ushering⁴ in the Tudor age. After a further three days of pageantry and public prayer in Leicester Cathedral—which 20,000 visited to see Richard's coffin⁵ lying in state—the bones were reinterred there on March 26th. The ceremony was televised live and attended by bishops⁶, royals and celebrities⁷, including the actor Benedict Cumberbatch, a second cousin of Richard's, 16 times removed.

　　来悼念的人群或是脸上带着好奇、或是尊敬，甚至是悲痛的表情，还有一些人兼具这些情绪。送葬者们看着这位曾在五百多年前统治过英国的君主的遗骨，在恢弘显赫的仪式中，从城市之外运送到博士沃斯原野，这也许是理查德三世最想重返的地方。1485年，在博士沃斯原野，理查德三世在玫瑰战争中阵亡，成为金雀花王朝的“亡朝”国王，由此也迎来了都铎王朝时代。安葬盛典举行了三天多，有约2万名公众进入莱斯特大教堂，来瞻仰理查德三世的灵柩，他的遗骨于3月26日改葬于此。这场安葬仪式有电视直播，与会人物有主教，王室成员，名人等，包括演员本尼迪克特·康伯巴奇，据传是理查德三世的远方十六世侄。

　　The discovery of the bones was even weirder⁸. The dig was partly instigated⁹ by a group of enthusiasts¹⁰ who consider Richard, depicted¹¹ by Shakespeare as a nephew-killer and “poisonous bunch-backed toad”, to have been slandered¹² by Tudor propagandists. They point to his achievements, including making courts use English. They also pointed¹³, absurdly, of course, to a large letter “R”, randomly¹⁴ painted onto the tarmac of the car park, which was thought possibly to be the site of a Medieval abbey, in which Richard's corpse¹⁵ was thought possibly to have been buried. The king's skeleton—complete with a staggeringly telltale scoliosis—was discovered in the first exploratory trench¹⁶, right under the letter “R”. It was authenticated¹⁷ by DNA¹⁸ testing, through a link to one of Richard's living relatives, a Canadian furniture-maker, who then made the king's coffin.

　　遗骨的发现更不寻常。挖掘是由一群爱好者发起，他们认为理查德被莎士比亚描绘成了一个杀害外甥的凶手，以及“有毒的驼背蛤蟆”，这些话支持都铎王朝的人造谣中伤他的。他们指出了理查德三世的成就，包括要求法庭使用英语。他们还荒谬地指出，有一个大写字母R被胡乱写在停车场的沥青地面上，这里疑似一中世纪修道院的遗址，而理查德三世的遗骸有可能正是被埋葬于此。在第一条考古沟中发现，国王的骨骸非常完整，而且有非常严重的、辨认度极高的脊椎侧弯，就在字母“R”的下方。遗骨已通过国王还在世亲属的DNA检测证实，确实是理查德三世。这位亲属是一位加拿大家具制作商，后来还参与了国王灵柩的制作。

　　There followed a legal battle involving Leicester's authorities and another group of enthusiasts, The Plantagenet Alliance, who said the bones should be buried in Richard's ancestral city of York. “Over my dead body!” said the mayor of Leicester, Peter Soulsby, scenting¹⁹ a terrific tourism opportunity. Leicester does not have too many of those. One of its main historical attractions, hitherto, was a suit of clothes belonging to Daniel Lambert, an early-19th-century jailer, who was considered the fattest man in England and is still feted as “one of the city's most cherished icons”. Happily for Leicester, it got the nod. There is now hope that tourism will rekindle²⁰ interest in Bosworth Field and other nearby historic places—including the battlefield at Naseby, in Northamptonshire, which marks one of the main clashes of the English Civil War, or the ruined castle of Lady Jane Grey, who ruled for nine days in 1553. More important for Leicester City Council, it reckons Richard has already made ￡45m ($67m) forthe local economy—and is advertising²¹ city breaks to discover the “dynasty, death and dramatic discovery of the king's remains”, for ￡129 for two.

　　这引起了涉及莱斯特市政官员，及某爱好者组织的法律官司，这个组织名为金雀花王朝联盟，他们认为国王的遗骸应该被葬于理查德三世的祖籍约克市。莱斯特市长彼得·索尔斯嗅到这将是吸引游客千载难逢的机会，他说：“除非从我的尸体上踩过去。”莱斯特市并没有很多旅游资源。目前为止，主要历史景点之一还是丹尼尔·兰博托的一套衣服，他是十九世纪早期的一个狱卒，被认为是英格兰最胖的人，而且现在还被供成“城里最珍贵的形象之一”。莱斯特市愉快的得到了批准。现在就希望游客能够重燃对博士沃斯原野的旅游兴趣，北安普敦郡的博士沃斯原野记录了英国内战的主要战役，或是简·格雷夫人废弃的城堡，她登基成为英女王仅仅九天就遭处决。对莱斯特市议会更为重要的是，据估计，理查德已经为当地创造了4500万英镑（约合6700万美元）的经济效益，并且宣传人们出城去探索“王朝，死亡以及国王遗骨戏剧化的发现历程”，双人票129英镑。

　　1.want to 应该；想要

　　例句:The difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do.

　　你是什么样的人和你想成为什么样的之间的差距就是，你做了什么。

　　2.link to 与…连接，联系

　　例句:They have yet to break the link with the trade unions.

　　他们还必须断绝与工会组织的联系。

　　3.dig up 发现；掘起

　　例句:You would have to dig up the plant yourself.

　　你得自己把那株植物挖出来。

　　4.visit to 访问

　　例句:His visit to Paris was anything but a success.

　　他的巴黎之行根本不成功。

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