Description

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Spisateljska saradnja Fransisa Bomonta i Dzona Flecera podarila je istoriji engleske i svetske knjizevnosti preko pedeset dramskih dela's kojima se njihova imena dovode u vezu na ovaj ili onaj nacin, u manje ili vise razlucenoj meri. Najnoviji stavovi proucavalaca govore, medjutim, da su njih dvojica zajedno u potpunosti stvorili ne vise od deset komada, a da je Fransis Bomont samostalno napisao samo jedan ili dva, pri cemu se danas sa dosta sigurnosti moze uzeti da je on jedini autor cuvenog Viteza Plamenog Tucka. Ako po pitanju autorstva, medjutim, jos mozda preostaju neke neizvesnosti i nedoumice, teoreticari se savrseno slazu da prava elasticna prilagodljivost i odredjeni modernizam dramskog stvaralastva u Engleskoj u drugoj polovini sesnaestog i pocetkom sedamnaestog veka ne mogu da se shvate i sagledaju bez dobrog poznavanja upravo ove komedije. Delom to jeste burleska, delom parodija, ali je sveukupno rec o proizvodu koji je tesko strogo definisati, cemu su doprineli mnogi raznovrsni elementi. Uzeti zajedno, oni sluze da prikazu stvaralacko umece i ishoduju jednom veoma neobicnom i veoma razigranom komedijom, zivom i zivotu vernom iako joj nedostaje dubine, ali koja je svakako, po mnogo cemu, tvorevina kakva je lako mogla da nastane juce, ovih dana. A napisana je pre cetiri stotine godina. Prevod je uradjen prema tekstu na engleskom jeziku pod originalnim naslovom THE KNIGHT OF THE BURNING PESTLE koji je izlozen u knjizi Beaumont and Fletcher - Select Plays izdavaca J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.,'s naznakama First included in Everyman's Library 1911; Last reprinted 1970. Napomene i objasnjenja koja prate prevod namenjeni su laksem i potpunijem shvatanju sadrzine i poruka ovog dramskog dela, pre svega u smislu docaravanja istorijskih i drustveno-ekonomskih okolnosti u kojima se radnja odvija, ali koje imaju traga i u svemu sto izgovaraju likovi komedije - eksplicitno ili, vrlo cesto, u vidu najrazlicitijih aluzija. Od narocitog su znacaja napomene koje se odnose na glumce i publiku toga vremena, na pozoriste, obicaje u vezi's tumacenjem, pripremanjem i izvodjenjem tekstova odnosno pozorisnih predstava, na London i svakodnevni zivot njegovog gradjanstva. Koliko god da je znacenje pojedinih komentara ocigledno vec iz's mog teksta prevoda, napomene su na velikom broju mesta, tamo gde se to cinilo svrsishodnim i korisnim, dopunjene prevodiocevim opaskama i prosirenim objasnjenjima. Prevodilacka resenja i prevodne varijante koje se ponegde nude i kroz nizanje veceg broja mogucnosti u najvecoj meri su plod konsultovanja i koriscenja Enciklopediskog englesko-srpskohrvatskog recnika (Ristic, Simic, Popovic; Beograd: Prosveta, 1973). Cetiri stotine godina posle svoga nastanka Vitez Plamenog Tucka danas je spreman da zakoraci u srpsku kulturnu javnost. Divno bi bilo da u njoj postane poznat, da se zadrzi, da pruzi podlogu za dalje primene i razrade, pre svega na pozornici - samim tim sto nije poznat i iskoriscen ni u mnogo sirem okruzenju. Slobodan Jovanovic.

About the Author

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Francis Beaumont (1584. 6 March 1616) was a dramatist in the English Renaissance theatre, most famous for his collaborations with John Fletcher. Beaumont was the son of Sir Francis Beaumont of Grace Dieu, near Thringstone in Leicestershire, a justice of the common pleas. He was born at the family seat and was educated at Broadgates Hall (now Pembroke College, Oxford) at age thirteen. Following the death of his father in 1598, he left university without a degree and followed in his father's footsteps by entering the Inner Temple in London in 1600. Accounts suggest that Beaumont did not work long as a lawyer. He became a student of poet and playwright Ben Jonson; he was also acquaine his passion lay. His first work, Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, appeared in 1602. The 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica describes the work as "not on the whole discreditable to a lad of eighteen, fresh from the popular love-poems of Marlowe and Shakespeare, which it naturally exceeds in long-winded and fantastic diffusion of episodes and conceits." In 1605, Beaumont wrote commendatory verses to Jonson's Volpone. Beaumont's collaboration with Fletcher may have begun as early as 1605. They had both hit an obstacle early in their dramatic careers with notable failures; Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning Pestle, first performed by the Children of the Blackfriars in 1607, was rejected by an audience who, the publisher's epistle to the 1613 quarto claims, failed to note "the privie mark of irony about it;" that is, they took Beaumont's satire of old-fashioned drama as an old-fashioned drama. The play received a lukewarm reception. The following year, Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess failed on the same stage. In 1609, however, the two collaborated on Philaster, which was performed by the King's Men at the Globe Theatre and at Blackfriars. The play was a popular success, not only launching the careers of the two playwrights but also sparking a new taste for tragicomedy. According to a mid-century anecdote related by John Aubrey, they lived in the same house on the Bankside in Southwark, "sharing everything in the closest intimacy." Beaumont died in 1616 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Although today Beaumont is remembered as a dramatist, during his lifetime he was also celebrated as a poet.