英语词汇bard的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

bard; bardolatry. Originally a wandering Celtic minstrel, a bard wrote and recited epic and heroic poems, often while playing a harp or lyre. But the Celtic word came to mean any poet or writer, although The Bard or The Bard of Avon or The Bard of All Time are titles reserved for William Shakespeare. There are at least a dozen titles like Shakespeare’s, including The Bard of Twickenham (Alexander Pope), The Bard of Ayrshire (Robert Burns), The Bard of Prose (Boccaccio), and The Bard of Democracy (Walt Whitman). Bardolatry is excessive admira- tion of Shakespeare. Wrote H. G. Wells in The Outline of History (1920): “Bards were once blinded so they would not wander from the tribe. In recent memory a writer describes such a blindman in Rhodesia. The Slav word for bard was blind.” Few modern societies place such a value on bards. The greatest blind authors in history are doubtless Homer and Milton, whose stories are well known. Louis Braille, who invented the Braille system of printing, and Helen Keller, the author of 10 books, are also familiar figures. Not so familiar are publisher Joseph Pulitzer, for whom the Pulitzer Prize is named, who went blind at age 40; blind historian William Hickling Prescott, who had secretaries to read source material to him; and blind Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. James Thurber was blinded in one eye in a childhood accident and went all but completely blind in his later years, while James Joyce, Charlotte Brontë, and Aldous Huxley all had extremely poor eyesight. See swan song.

词汇	bard
词源	bard; bardolatry. Originally a wandering Celtic minstrel, a bard wrote and recited epic and heroic poems, often while playing a harp or lyre. But the Celtic word came to mean any poet or writer, although The Bard or The Bard of Avon or The Bard of All Time are titles reserved for William Shakespeare. There are at least a dozen titles like Shakespeare’s, including The Bard of Twickenham (Alexander Pope), The Bard of Ayrshire (Robert Burns), The Bard of Prose (Boccaccio), and The Bard of Democracy (Walt Whitman). Bardolatry is excessive admira- tion of Shakespeare. Wrote H. G. Wells in The Outline of History (1920): “Bards were once blinded so they would not wander from the tribe. In recent memory a writer describes such a blindman in Rhodesia. The Slav word for bard was blind.” Few modern societies place such a value on bards. The greatest blind authors in history are doubtless Homer and Milton, whose stories are well known. Louis Braille, who invented the Braille system of printing, and Helen Keller, the author of 10 books, are also familiar figures. Not so familiar are publisher Joseph Pulitzer, for whom the Pulitzer Prize is named, who went blind at age 40; blind historian William Hickling Prescott, who had secretaries to read source material to him; and blind Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. James Thurber was blinded in one eye in a childhood accident and went all but completely blind in his later years, while James Joyce, Charlotte Brontë, and Aldous Huxley all had extremely poor eyesight. See swan song.
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