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莎士比亚的毒药系列:它因谁而臭名昭著

(2022-11-26 13:53:42) 下一个

我在温哥华户外散步时,经常在公路边、荒地里见到野胡萝卜(wild carrot,学名Daucus carota)和峨参(cow parsley),却从未发现毒芹(poison hemlock,学名Conium maculatum)。网站上有不少热心人士提醒:小心外表与前两者相似的毒芹,千万不要误食了毒芹。

从欧洲引进北美大陆的毒芹已在多处归化,甚至上了杂草清单。

我仔细阅读了相关文章,总结出了几条辨别毒芹的最佳方法。

首先观茎,毒芹的空心茎是光滑的,上面有紫色的斑点与条纹,揉碎了叶子,有一股类似死老鼠的腐臭味。开花时,植物被无数伞状小花覆盖,这些花蔟由五瓣白色小花组成。峨参的茎虽然也有浅紫色的斑块,茎上却有细毛,叶子揉碎了发出类似香菜和八角的混合香。野胡萝卜最好认,茎被细毛,无紫色斑块,叶子揉碎时散发出胡萝卜味道。扁平的伞型花像个圆圆的扁盘,中心有一朵粉红花,据传是安妮女王在编织蕾丝时不小心刺破手指而留下的血滴,故又名“安妮女王的蕾丝”(Queen Ann’s Lace)。花期末季,伞形花序变成鸟巢的形状,十分美丽。

(从其他网站下载的毒芹图片)

(野胡萝卜)

 

(峨参)

 

 

新鲜的野胡萝卜花可生吃或拌着面粉做花煎,味道可口,可是如果你误把毒芹花当成野胡萝卜花吃掉了,小命很可能就“挂掉”了。其实两者的花期不一致,毒芹四月至七月开花,野胡萝卜七、八月开花。毒芹植株可高达两三米,分枝很多,而野胡萝卜则比较秀气,身高往往不超过一米,分枝较少。记住了两种植物的花期,也就减少了犯错的机会。

个别调皮的孩子不认得毒芹,摘了一节毒芹中空的茎当哨子吹,也导致中毒。

在历史上,关于毒芹的最有名的故事是苏格拉底之死。公元前399年苏格拉底被判处死刑,他选择了毒芹汁为死刑工具。他的学生柏拉图记载了老师的死亡过程,“那个男人(给他毒药的人)……把手放在他身上,过了一会儿检查了他的脚和小腿,然后用力捏了捏他的脚,问他是否有感觉。他说‘没有’;然后,他又按他的大腿,逐步往上移,向我们展示了苏格拉底的身子变得越来越冷和僵硬。然后他又摸了一下,说等到冷抵达他的心脏时,他就走了。当苏格拉底的腹股沟变冷时,他掀开了蒙着脸的盖头,说了最后的话。他说:“克里托,我们欠阿斯克勒庇俄斯一只公鸡,别忘了还债。” 克里托说:“我们会做的,但是您还有其他什么话要说的。”苏格拉底没有回答,过了一会儿他动了一下。监刑人揭开他的盖头,他的眼睛不动了。克里托看到这幅情形,闭上了嘴和眼睛。 ”("The man … laid his hands on him and after a while examined his feet and legs, then pinched his foot hard and asked if he felt it. He said ‘No’; then after that, his thighs; and passing upwards in this way he showed us that he was growing cold and rigid. And then again he touched him and said that when it reached his heart, he would be gone. The chill had now reached the region about the groin, and uncovering his face, which had been covered, he said—and these were his last words—'Crito, we owe a cock to Asclepius. Pay it and do not neglect it.' 'That,' said Crito, 'shall be done; but see if you have anything else to say.' To this question he made no reply, but after a little while he moved; the attendant uncovered him; his eyes were fixed. And Crito when he saw it, closed his mouth and eyes." )

后世的专家普遍认为,柏拉图把苏格拉底的死浪漫化了,毒芹中毒的过程是很痛苦的。喝下大量的毒芹汁,会导致痉挛、血压升高、呼吸加快,最后呼吸衰竭而亡。

毒芹也出现在基督教传说中,耶稣受难时,他的血滴落于山坡上的毒芹丛,从此这种植物就永远中毒了。某些基督教徒还认为毒芹茎上的紫斑就是上帝给该隐的记号(Cain’s mark)。古欧洲的女巫以毒芹为一道主要原料制成飞行药膏(flying oinment),用于巫术,这一点在莎士比亚的《麦克白》中有所体现。第四幕第一场,女巫丙有一段独白:“龙鳞,狼牙,木乃伊巫尸、海里贪婪的鲨鱼的食道和胃,在黑暗中挖出的毒芹根,亵渎神明的犹太人的肝脏, 山羊胆和月食期间采集的红豆杉树枝, 土耳其人的鼻子和鞑靼人的嘴唇,一个由妓女在沟里产下后被勒死的婴儿的手指,这些材料让粥更加粘稠。再往我们的大锅加入老虎的腑脏,作为食材。”这些包括毒芹在内的稀奇古怪的玩意都是女巫浓汤的素材。

(THIRD WITCH

Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,

Witches’ mummy, maw and gulf

Of the ravined salt-sea shark,

 Root of hemlock digged i’ th’ dark,

Liver of blaspheming Jew,

Gall of goat and slips of yew

Slivered in the moon’s eclipse,

Nose of Turk and Tartar’s lips,

Finger of birth-strangled babe

Ditch-delivered by a drab,

Make the gruel thick and slab.

Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron,

For the ingredients of our cauldron. )

莎士比亚并未在他的作品里描述毒芹的毒性,以下两部戏剧中,他只提及了毒芹的自然生长环境:

一:《亨利五世》第四幕第二场,亨利五世与几位重臣来到法国王宫,与法国国王和王后进行和平谈判。英国的勃艮第公爵(Duke of Burgundy)在英法两国的国君面前发表了一番感言:“为什么可怜的、一丝不挂的、任人宰割的艺术女神,那位保佑艺术、丰衣足食和人丁兴旺的亲爱保姆,不应该呆在这个世界上最好的花园里 — 我们肥沃的法兰西,摆出她可爱的面容?哎,她被驱逐出法兰西很久很久了,她所有的庄稼堆积如山,全都腐烂。她的使人心灵快乐的葡萄藤,无人剪枝,全都死去。她的向来修剪整齐的树篱,像披头散发的囚犯,枝桠乱长。她的休耕草地上,毒麦、毒芹、恶臭的地烟草扎下了根,那本应用来铲除这些恶草的犁刀却生了锈。那平坦的草地,从前长着芬芳的雀斑脸母牛唇报春花、地榆和绿三叶草,却因为缺乏镰刀的整顿,并疏于打理养护而荒芜,可恶的酸模、粗糙的蓟、野芹、牛蒡泛滥 – 失去了美感和实用性……”

(Why that the naked, poor, and mangled peace,

Dear nurse of arts, plenties, and joyful births,

Should not in this best garden of the world,

Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage?

Alas, she hath from France too long been chased,

And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,

Corrupting in its own fertility.

Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart,

Unprund, dies. Her hedges, even-pleached,

Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair,

 Put forth disordered twigs. Her fallow leas

The darnel, hemlock, and rank fumitory

Doth root upon, while that the coulter rusts

That should deracinate such savagery.

The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth

The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover,

Wanting the scythe, withal uncorrected, rank,

Conceives by idleness, and nothing teems

But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burrs,

Losing both beauty and utility.)

二:《李尔王》第四幕第四场,李尔王的小女儿考狄利娅(Cordelia)带着一群士兵在野外寻找父亲。她说:“正是他。刚才还有人看见他,疯狂得像怒海,大声歌唱,头上插满了恶臭的地烟草和田间杂草,牛蒡、毒芹、荨麻、布谷花、毒麦和各种生长在农田间的野草。”

(CORDELIA

Alack, ’tis he.

Why, he was met even now

 As mad as the vexed sea, singing aloud,

 Crowned with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds,

With burdocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers,

 Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow

 In our sustaining corn.)

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评论
南小鹿 回复 悄悄话 回复 '说谁谁' 的评论 : 接骨木是灌木,完全不像
说谁谁 回复 悄悄话 看照片像是欧洲很多的接骨草。有什么区别吗?在欧洲,接骨草是很popular的饮料
雪中梅 回复 悄悄话 博主对植物观察很细,谢谢介绍,平安是福。
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