音樂與語言共生──論莎劇音樂的哲學屬性

Performance as Well as Discourse: On the Metaphysics of Music Allusions in Shakespeare

音樂在莎劇中俯拾皆是，像是《威尼斯商人》、《羅密歐與茱麗葉》、《馬克白》、 《冬天的故事》與《暴風雨》。尤其是《暴風雨》一劇，當演員不唱歌的時候，舞台 上經常以演奏的背景音樂襯底，對白當中更是充滿了音樂性，不僅用字遣詞傳遞了 韻文的規律節奏，在修辭上，更頻頻以類比暗喻的方式，以音樂比擬人生中的諸多 議題。因此，莎劇中的音樂不僅僅是表演（performative），更透過口說論述的方式加以 表達（discursive）。賈西科恩（Joshua Cohen）曾經表示音樂「在莎劇中極為重要，不僅是 劇場裡的特色，更是一個暗喻，或者甚至是一個哲學法則」。 本篇論文將剖析莎劇 中的音樂概念，論述音樂實乃與語言共生共榮，有時僅以音符暗示文字所能表達的 情境，有時文字與音符彼此烘托，是一個特殊的表意系統，而其意義與歧義的產生 與前後文關連緊密。本文另欲指出一點：如果認為音樂所帶來的必然是幸福感與和 諧，其實是個美麗的錯誤，好比「面對（嚴酷的）現實」（face the music）這個說法中的 「音樂」，就跟幸福與和諧的概念南轅北轍。

Music abounds in many of Shakespearean plays, such as The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest. Particularly in The Tempest, if the stage direction does not require singing, instrumental music is often heard as the aural background. What’s more, when songs or instrumentals are not directly performed, music is verbally employed—either in metric forms or in dictions woven with analogies and metaphors—so much so that music stands out in a two-fold way: performative and discursive. Joshua Cohen has keenly observed that music “plays a central role in Shakespeare’s work, not merely as a feature of theatrical performance, but more significantly as a metaphor, even a metaphysical principle” (70). This paper attempts to elucidate how music often carries a signifying tincture like a metaphor, which is symbiotic to language and context-oriented. In addition, I mean to argue that “music” does not always denote bliss and harmony, which is a general assumption—euphemistic but erroneous—as the phrase “face the music” would readily prove.