聽說莎士比亞是偉大的劇作家，寫的故事如何精采，又有人把曹雪芹喻為中國的莎士比亞。我素來對Romeo and Juliet的印象不錯，看過三、四個版本的演出，亦聽聞仲夏夜之夢是其佳作。
以下節選自A Midsummer Night's Dream：（如果沒耐性看請跳過這部分看我的概述）
Oberon the king, and Titania the queen of the fairies, with all their tiny train of followers, in this wood held their midnight revels.
Between this little king and queen of sprites there happened, at this time, a sad disagreement; they never met by moonlight in the shady walks of this pleasant wood, but they were quarrelling, till all their fairy elves would creep into acorn-cups and hide themselves for fear.
The cause of this unhappy disagreement was Titania's refusing to give Oberon a little changeling boy, whose mother had been Titania's friend; and upon her death the fairy queen stole the child from its nurse, and brought him up in the woods.
The night on which the lovers were to meet in this wood, as Titania was walking with some of her maids of honour, she met Oberon attended by his train of fairy courtiers.
'Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania,' said the fairy king. The queen replied: 'What, jealous Oberon, is it you? Fairies, skip hence; I have foresworn his company.' 'Tarry, rash fairy,' said Oberon; 'am not I thy lord? Why does Titania cross her Oberon? Give me your little changeling boy to be my page.'
'Set your heart at rest,' answered the queen; 'your whole fairy kingdom buys not the boy of me.' She then left her lord in great anger. 'Well, go your way,' said Oberon: 'before the morning dawns I will torment you for this injury.'
'Come hither, Puck,' said Oberon to this little merry wanderer of the night; 'fetch me the flower which maids call Love in Idleness; some of the juice of that flower I will drop on the eyelids of my Titania when she is asleep; and the first thing she looks upon when she opens her eyes she will fall in love with, even though it be a lion or a bear, a meddling monkey, or a busy ape; and before I will take this charm from off her sight, which I can do with another charm I know of, I will make her give me that boy to be my page.’
＊ ＊ ＊
Titania was still sleeping, and Oberon seeing a clown near her, who had lost his way in the wood, and was likewise asleep: 'This fellow,' said he, 'shall be my Titania's true love'; and clapping an ass's head over the clown's, it seemed to fit him as well as if it had grown upon his own shoulders. Though Oberon fixed the ass's head on very gently, it awakened him, and rising up, unconscious of what Oberon had done to him, he went towards the bower where the fairy queen slept.
'Ah! what angel is that I see?' said Titania, opening her eyes, and the juice of the little purple flower beginning to take effect: 'are you as wise as you are beautiful?'
'Why, mistress,' said the foolish clown, 'if I have wit enough to find the way out of this wood, I have enough to serve my turn.'
'Out of the wood do not desire to go,' said the enamoured queen. 'I am a spirit of no common rate. I love you. Go with me, and I will give you fairies to attend upon you.'
She then called four of her fairies: their names were Pease-blossom, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustard-seed.
'Attend,' said the queen, 'upon this sweet gentleman; hop in his walks, and gambol in his sight; feed him with grapes and apricots, and steal for him the honeybags from the bees. Come, sit with me,' said she to the clown, 'and let me play with your amiable hairy cheeks, my beautiful ass! and kiss your fair large ears, my gentle joy!'（來，跟我一起坐。讓我把玩你這可愛的毛茸茸臉頰，我親愛的美麗驢子！我要吻你的美麗的大耳朵，我溫柔的寶貝！）
'My sweet love,' said the queen, 'what will you have to eat? I have a venturous fairy shall seek the squirrel's hoard, and fetch you some new nuts.' 'I had rather have a handful of dried pease,' said the clown, who with his ass's head had got an ass's appetite. 'But, I pray, let none of your people disturb me, for I have a mind to sleep.'
'Sleep, then,' said the queen, 'and I will wind you in my arms. 0 how I love you! how I dote upon you!' When the fairy king saw the clown sleeping in the arms of his queen, he advanced within her sight, and reproached her with having lavished her favours upon an ass.
This she could not deny, as the clown was then sleeping within her arms, with his ass's head crowned by her with flowers.
When Oberon had teased her for some time, he again demanded the changeling boy; which she, ashamed of being discovered by her lord with her new favourite, did not dare to refuse him.
Oberon, having thus obtained the little boy he had so long wished for to be his page, took pity on the disgraceful situation into which, by his merry contrivance, he had brought his Titania and threw some of the juice of the other flower into her eyes; and the fairy queen immediately recovered her senses, and wondered at her late dotage, saying how she now loathed the sight of the strange monster.
Oberon likewise took the ass's head from off the clown, and left him to finish his nap with his own fool's head upon his shoulders.
Oberon and his Titania being now perfectly reconciled…
仲夏夜之夢有一主線一副線，以上節錄了副線情節：
仙王要向仙后取一男孩作為僮僕，仙后不肯，因那是她朋友（後來卻道是她神壇前一個信徒）的遺孤。仙王便以此事為對他的莫大恥辱，非要得到那男孩不可，於是吩咐手下取得一種花汁，用來趁仙后睡下滴在她眼皮上，使她一睜開眼看見什麼山野醜動物都會瘋狂愛上。後來仙后睜開眼看見的是被仙王手下套上驢頭的鄉巴佬，然後肉麻地迷戀那傢伙，仙王很是得意，上前撞破「姦情」，羞辱仙后並趁火打劫再次要求仙后把那男孩給他作為僮僕（奇哉怪也，他竟把一名僮僕看得比妻子的貞潔還重要……）。仙后在此屈辱情況下只好就範，然後仙王便替他解咒，結果兩人和好如初。仙王的腦筋是否有毛病？然而主線中人物的命運竟全由副線的仙王操控，根本是鬧劇一場，莎翁在結尾還跳出來說：
And now, if any are offended with this story of fairies and their pranks, as judging it incredible and strange, they have only to think that they have been asleep and dreaming, and that all these adventures were visions which they saw in their sleep: and I hope none of my readers will be so unreasonable as to be offended with a pretty harmless Midsummer Night's Dream.
我不是指責故事怪力亂神，紅樓夢裡也有仙界人物，然而其意義何在？紅樓夢藉神仙點化世人不要執著榮華富貴，正如過眼雲煙同屬虛幻。仲夏夜之夢空有「浪漫」格調，華麗詞藻，然而思想內容是如斯貧瘠！
好，以鬧劇來與中國最經典的悲劇相比是不公平的，也辱沒了文學。莎翁的四大悲劇──哈姆雷特、奧賽羅、馬克白、李爾王，現拿其中兩部析述。
哈姆雷特──就是人稱「王子復仇記」的底本，整個故事只有一個目的，便是復仇，當大仇得報，仇人死了，幫兇死了，主角的情人、母親也了，主角也死了，反正主要人物全部死掉然後故事結束。過程是，主角懷疑父皇被叔父害死，叔父奪位佔嫂（皇后），然後父皇鬼魂出現，證實主角的猜測。主角處心積累報仇，但當他衝動過後，開始懷疑所謂父皇的鬼魂是否自己幻覺所致。看到這裡好像有點看頭了，我想會不會是整件事並非主角所想，又或者主角母親只是忍辱負重才改嫁給小叔。結局是，主角母親不過是個無知且無恥的人，最後不小心喝了主角叔父倒給主角的毒酒，她的理由是「我口渴了」（改編成「王子復仇記」電影後，說她是良心過不去才替兒子喝下毒酒）。主角終於與情人的哥哥冰釋前嫌，然而哥哥轉眼又要與主角決鬥了，約好時間在競技場進行，本來規定用的是圓劍，眾目睽睽下沒人發現哥哥用了尖劍，劍上餵了劇毒。主角中了劍，後來「巧合地」與哥哥調換了劍，哥哥中劍不久即死，主角先於哥哥中劍反而還能把身為國王的叔父殺掉，再說了一堆話才死。
李爾王──這比起哈姆雷特那故事宗旨只是復仇好多了，寓意是聽信花言巧語而不体察人心，親小人、遠賢人最終必定追悔莫及。年老昏聵的李爾王把王國分給了虛僞的大女兒與二女兒，卻把誠實率直不會取悅父王的小女兒驅逐到國外。李爾自己僅保留國王的尊號和一百名侍從，準備輪流住在兩個女兒家中安享晚年。誰料兩個大女兒達到目的後卻原形畢露，把老父趕出家門，李爾王飽受顛沛流離之苦。小女兒得知李爾王的遭遇，起兵討伐兩個姐姐，被俘被殺，李爾王也在悲痛瘋癲中死去。
兩部劇作有很大的共通點，便是情節上太多巧合，人物思想行為不合情理（還是當時的人便是如此？可是最好的文學作品應能兼收並蓄，古今同證），彷彿整個故事的人物與情節便是為了配合作者欲表達的一己思想而生，缺乏獨立的生命，因此形象扁平沒有立体效果。以我個人愚見，這與魯迅的小說有點相類，也往往流於「一察」，然而魯迅一來不雕飾文字（這並不代表他的文字好），二來不會有太多巧合情節（卻也會刻意平添情節以達到各種目的），魯迅最偉大之處在其思想而不在文字上的修為。同為表達一己之思想而寫作，相形之下莎劇可貧乏多了。
雖然我素來很喜歡Romeo and Juliet的故事，可是隨著年齡增長，越來越難認同一見鍾情的戀情，沒有經過時間的考驗，竟然還一夕定情跑去結婚。不過「生死相許」對我來說還是很有感動效果，卻還是那句，太巧合了。人生沒錯是有巧合，卻不會是「以巧合為主」吧？雖有「聽故事不要反駁」的說法，但這須建基於不違人情事理，情節可以虛構誇張，但道理不能淺陋。我真不明白莎翁的偉大在哪裡，難道十六至十七世紀英國人的思維便是這樣的？還是因為西方文化是文史哲各自分家？若以思想價值而論，不過相當於南北朝（公元４１０－５８９）小說而已。不過，歌劇始終是西方獨有的文化活動，主要是用來娛樂吃飽飯沒事做的貴族與教育水平不高的平民，很難要求藉歌劇道出甚麼哲學思想，一般做人道理、公民意識倒是有的，莎劇其實已比當時其他的劇作高明許多了，卻遠遠談不上「博大」或「偉大」。
文章定位：
