ポリドリ。POLIDORI.
……ポリドリが一行に加わっていたときは、（彼が他の場所に魅かれるようになるまでは、たいていそうだったのだが）その虚栄心のために、バイロン卿の皮肉と玩弄のネタにされ続けたこの風変わりな青年の奇妙な突っ込みによって、高尚な話題は、ほとんどいつも蚊帳の外だった。非常に立派なイタリア紳士の息子で、若くしてアルフィエリの秘書を務めたと聞いており、生き永らえていれば、職業上も社会的にも有用な人物であったに違いない。 しかし、今話している当時に於ては、名声を得たいという彼の野心に、それを達成する実力も機会も遠く及ばない有り様であった。そして高貴な雇い主を挑発したり、楽しませたりし続け、怒りを笑いで晴らさずに置くことはほとんどなかったようだ。ポリドリは、作家として輝くことを心に決めていたようで。 ある晩には、シェリー氏宅で自作の悲劇を上演し、彼らにそれを聞かせるよう主張した。その苦痛を和らげようと、バイロン卿は自ら読者の役を買って出たものの、その一部始終は、私が聞いたところでは、重力に少しも耐えられなかったに違いない。作者がすべての表情に嫉妬の目を光らせていたにもかかわらず、読者の目に潜む笑いを抑えることはできず。そんな読者にとって、自分の笑いの発作に対抗する唯一の手段は、詩句の崇高さを時折、わざとらしく称賛することであった……甚だしくは「アルプスの甲状腺腫のバカはこうして生まれた」などと始まり、「私がドゥルリー・レーン委員会にいたころは、もっと酷いものが差し出されたものだ。」とか何とかの賛辞を以て締め括られる詩句など。
― When Polidori was of their party, ( which, till he found attractions elsewhere, was generally the case, ) their more elevated subjects of conversation were almost always put to flight by the strange sallies of this eccentric young man, whose vanity made him a constant butt for Lord Byron's sarcasm and merriment. The son of a highly respectable Italian gentleman, who was in early life, I understand, the secretary of Alfieri, Polidori seems to have possessed both talents and dispositions which, had he lived, might have rendered him a useful member of his profession and of society. At the time, however, of which we are speaking, his ambition of distinction far outwent both his powers and opportunities of attaining it. His mind, accordingly, between ardour and weakness, was kept in a constant hectic of vanity, and he seems to have alternately provoked and amused his noble employer, leaving him seldom any escape from anger but in laughter. Among other pretensions, he had set his heart upon shining as an author; and one evening at Mr. Shelley's, producing a tragedy of his own writing, insisted that they should undergo the operation of hearing it. To lighten the infliction, Lord Byron took upon himself the task of reader; and the whole scene, from the description I have heard of it, must have been not a little trying to gravity. In spite of the jealous watch kept upon every countenance by the author, it was impossible to withstand the smile lurking in the eye of the reader, whose only resource against the outbreak of his own laughter lay in lauding, from time to time, most vehemently, the sublimity of the verses; —particularly some that began " 'Tis thus the goiter'd idiot of the Alps, " and then adding, at the close of every such eulogy, " I assure you, when I was in the Drury Lane Committee, much worse things were offered to us. "
セシュロンでバイロン卿と同じ屋根の下で2週間を過ごした後、シェリー夫妻は湖のモンブラン側にある小さな家に移り住んだ。高貴な友人であるバイロン卿の別荘から歩いて10分ほどの距離で、すぐ背後に聳えるベル・リーブと呼ばれる高い堤防に乗っていた。バイロン卿がセシュロンに滞在していた2週間の間、天候は変わり、風が強く曇りがちであったが、バイロン卿は毎晩、ポリドリとともに湖を渡り、彼等を訪ねた。そして「（情報提供者によれば）彼が再び暗い水面を渡って引き揚げる際、はるか向こうから風が吹いてきて、チロルの自由の歌を歌う彼の声を届けてくれた。この歌は、そのとき初めて耳にしたもので、私にとって彼の思い出と切っても切れない関係にある。」
After passing a fortnight under the same roof with Lord Byron at Sécheron, Mr. and Mrs. Shelley removed to a small house on the Mont-Blanc side of the Lake, within about ten minutes' walk of the villa which their noble friend had taken, upon the high banks, called Belle Rive, that rose immediately behind them. During the fortnight that Lord Byron outstaid them at Sécheron, though the weather had changed and was become windy and cloudy, he every evening crossed the Lake, with Polidori, to visit them; and " as he returned again ( says my informant ) over the darkened waters, the wind, from far across, bore us his voice singing your Tyrolese Song of Liberty, which I then first heard, and which is to me inextricably linked with his remembrance. "*2
その間にポリドリは、彼の高貴なパトロンがシェリーと親密さを増していることに嫉妬するようになり、湖を周遊する計画から除け者にされたと思い込んだ。この問題に対する彼の感情的な憤りは、バイロン卿の憤慨を招くに至った。双方とも、お決まりの礼儀作法は守っており、ポリドリの解任は、彼自身にとっても避けられないことのように思われた。破滅以外の何物でもないこの展望を目の前にして、哀れな若者は、2、3年後に実際に実行に移したあの致命的な行為を犯そうとしていたようだ。自分の部屋に引きこもり、すでに薬箱から毒を取り出し、それを飲む前に手紙を書くべきかどうか考えていたとき、バイロン卿が（しかし彼の意図を少しも疑うことなく）ドアを叩き、和解の印に手をかざして入ってきた。突然の衝撃に、哀れなポリドリは涙を流した。その後、この出来事の経緯をすべて話したところ、バイロン卿のやさしさに勝るものはなく、心をなだめ、平静を取り戻したという。
In the mean time, Polidori had become jealous of the growing intimacy of his noble patron with Shelley; and the plan which he now understood them to have formed of making a tour of the Lake without him completed his mortification. In the soreness of his feelings on this subject he indulged in some intemperate remonstrances, which Lord Byron indignantly resented; and the usual bounds of courtesy being passed on both sides, the dismissal of Polidori appeared, even to himself, inevitable. With this prospect, which he considered nothing less than ruin, before his eyes, the poor young man was, it seems, on the point of committing that fatal act which, two or three years afterwards, he actually did perpetrate. Retiring to his own room, he had already drawn forth the poison from his medicine chest, and was pausing to consider whether he should write a letter before he took it, when Lord Byron ( without, however, the least suspicion of his intention ), tapped at the door and entered, with his hand held forth in sign of reconciliation. The sudden revulsion was too much for poor Polidori, who burst into tears; and, in relating all the circumstances of the occurrence afterwards, he declared that nothing could exceed the gentle kindness of Lord Byron in soothing his mind and restoring him to composure.
*2 [" The song of war shall echo through our mountains,
Till not one hateful link remains
Of slavery's lingering chains—
Till not one tyrant tread our plains,
Nor traitor lip pollute our fountains, " & c. ]
訳者に於て探したところ、歌詞違いのものばかりが見つかった。Merrily, o! or, The Tyrolese song of liberty - Patriotism - English ballads - National Library of Scotland https://digital.nls.uk/english-ballads/archive/74894362
