从前有人说过，时间老人是人世间一切不公正的裁判员中最公正的一位，事实上恐怕也只能是如此。古往今来，沽名钓誉者数不胜数，而本应流芳百世反失名姓者亦不在少数。人的命运尚且如此，书的命运就更可想而知了。中国人好说“盛世修典”一类的话，但没有乱世又哪里来什么盛世？身逢乱世，自顾不暇，书籍典册大量失散则成为常态。即便是在盛世，由于种种原因，某些书籍后来不了了之也是常有的事。只是，在一般人看来，进入了20世纪，书籍和资料保存条件大为改观，人们的保护意识也大为增强，20世纪新出版的书大概不会惨遭相同命运了吧（个别禁毁书目除外）？事与愿违，同样的事每天都在上演，一个 Walter Ripman 永远不会像那只华南虎那样牵动众人的神经，然而，Walter Ripman 著作几近不传所折射出的人世代谢普遍规律同样令人唏嘘。

自Internet兴起后，如果某些资料已经被数字化了，那么查询该资料变得史无前例地容易。数字化的一项伟大成就就是JSTOR 的出现。JSTOR 是Journal Storage的缩写，汇集19世纪以来各种专业期刊杂志并数字化，极大地便利了专业期刊杂志利用和复核。本贴的写作，离开JSTOR是不可能任务。

谷歌 Walter Ripman 这个人名，有用的信息实在不多，ODNB 也没有收录，唯WorldCat 上说Ripman 生于1869年，除此之外 可以说Curculio 对其生平一无所知。对Walter Ripman 的更多了解仅限于他的几部和拉丁语入门有关的书。 这些书似乎北大、国图也未见收录。当然中国太大，北大、国图没有，旁的地方或许还会有。但毫无疑问，Walter Ripman 这个人和他的书在中国的影响不可能太大。利用JSTOR, 可知他的A Handbook of the Latin Language有两篇简短书评：

A Handbook of the Latin Language by Walter Ripman

A Handbook of the Latin Language: Being a Dictionary, Classified Vocabulary, and Grammar by Walter Ripman

         这两本期刊分别是University of Chicago 和 Johns Hopkins 大学出版物，属于该领域Top 5 journals之一。 W.P. Mustard 是何许人，无从查考， 但Paul Shorey （1857-1934）却是当年芝大著作等身的明星教授，同时也是 Classical Philology 的主编。 据信此人有将荷马史诗《伊利亚特》全部12，000余行倒背如流的功夫。（cf. WIKI: Paul Shorey). 他的Horace 诗注至今仍在出版。 Paul Shorey 写这篇简短述评时（in or before Jan 1931) 已有73/4岁的高龄，并以“不得不评价”作为论述出发点时，他的高度评价分量自然不同凡响。值得注意的是：Paul Shorey 和 Walter Ripman 没有任何利益关系，甚至彼此素不相识，因此这份评价可以说是as objective as humanly possible.这两份独立“鉴定”本身又有什么特点呢？粗略比较一下，可以看出，Paul Shorey 重在整体把握，因而比较紧凑，而W.P. Mustard 卷入了某些具体细节，显得相对比较松散。

然而， 更能显示Walter Ripman 在拉丁语启蒙教育方面独到而富有智慧和启迪作用的还不是上述 A Handbook of the Latin Language， 而是A Rapid Course in Latin。稍有拉丁语最基本常识的人都知道，能查拉丁语字典就可以肯定算是“入过门”了，尚未入门的根本无法使用拉丁语字典， 就像绝大多数小学1-3年级的学生根本没有使用普及本《康熙字典》的可能性，后者的门槛太高太高， 完全和《新华字典》没有什么可比性。只是 A Rapid Course in Latin 的流传似乎更少，连一篇Journal review 都没有，退而求其次，不得已摆出上述两篇关于 A Handbook of the Latin Language 的述评， 实非初衷。

就1800年已降用英语撰写出版的总数不少于三、四百种各类拉丁语 蒙学书来看（蒙学书 = high school Latin textbooks, Latin primers for the general public, first year college-level Latin textbooks)， Ripman 的A Rapid Course in Latin可谓是真正的大智慧， in a class by itself. 然而命运多舛，A Rapid Course in Latin 至今鲜为人知，处境尴尬。原因似乎有这么几条：

1. Walter Ripman 虽然精通多国欧洲语言，著作甚多，本人却并不甚出名，一贯low profile；

2. 出版 Walter Ripman 大部分著作的伦敦 London, J. & I.Dent and Sons/ New York, E. P. Dutton &Co. 也都不是财力雄厚的大公司，推介费、行政费有限，做不起很多广告，请不起客吃不起饭，图书销量有限。

3. WorldCat 里收录了 A Rapid Course in Latin (RCL) 一书的大型公立藏书机构全球只有13家，且统共只有两个版次纪录在案。虽说WorldCat有时难免仍然挂一漏万，但通常已经非常接近西方主要国家和南非以及亚洲香港、新加坡外加日本国公立藏书机构馆藏的真实情形，数量如此稀少， 够得上“稀世”的标准了吧。(Clinton 的My Life 一书 于 2004年 6月22日正式出版， 迄今WorldCat 已经收录了95个各语种版次，已被全球近万家藏书机构收藏了好几万本个不同版本）

So what's the big deal about RCL?

1. RCL 没有走direct/natural method 这个极端。wikipedia Direct_method, cf. Direct Method 集大成者 (共上下两册）：

http://www.lingua-latina.dk/ （上面有多语种介绍）；Amazon: Lingua Latina: Pars I: Familia Romana, Lingua Latina: Part II:

Roma Aeterna (Lingua Latina)

2. WR 有丰富的一线教学经验，特地将此书奉献给13-14岁的英国中学生(大体相当于中国的初二/三或美国的high school freshmen).

3. 短小精悍，简明实用，以“读”为主，“语法”为辅，便于自学 （尤其是有一定生活体验因而“情商”较高的成年人自学），这和绝大多数把拉丁语语法上死的条条框框作为拉丁蒙学第一要义的旨趣大相径庭，后者以 Wheelock's Latin (Wheelock's Latin) 为目前仍然再版的英语拉文蒙学书总代表，他们的势力是很强大的，还有诸如 Latin: An Intensive Course，Benjamin L. D'Ooge ：Latin For Beginners， Collar and Daniell：Beginner's Latin Book。 共同的优点是：便于“考核”，便于将各种学生的自信心、主观能动性全部彻底地消磨溶解， 直到有一天（不会太遥远的）几乎所有学生都跪地求饶，口中念念有词：再也不敢奢望一辈子能搞懂拉丁语了，就是被活活被打死也不敢翻这个案了。台上的老师也是老泪纵横，能说出这般话，孩子们，你们真地是大有长进了！俺的心血没白化，不枉教你们一趟！这种把抽象的纯拉丁语法当成拉拉丁语本身挂羊头卖狗肉到底错在哪儿，为什么这么有市场？把拉丁语法当成拉丁语本身犹如将植物学和园艺学或农学混为一谈。尤其是园艺学， 是一门实践性很强的学科，不是端坐在那里纸上谈“兵”（grammar)就成的。闻香（美丽的花朵）和闻臭（有机肥料）的几率同在，而且闻臭不能guarantee闻香的最终结果。如果 以最终能多快好省地培育出“香花”(ability to read and write fluently in Latin)这个结果来看，又何必在意这个园丁是否懂得这些花草在植物学上的分类归属，后者只不过是个人为的classification/explanation. 把这些 植物学上的分类归属 搞得一清二楚、滚瓜烂熟的难道实践动手能力一定就强了吗？既是植物学家又是园艺学家固然可嘉，but most people can only or would noly want to concentrate on one and only one area. 数百年的西方教学实践的本身也表明，先制造植物学家再通过不断改造努力成为园艺学家曲线拉丁语学习法事半功倍，投入产出极不成比例。然而由于惰性或者其他什么原因，70-80%的蒙学课本依然脱不了这套思路/教学理念。用中国话来说就是摆脱不了“极左思潮”的影响。不可否认，植物学家的社会地位也许较高，而 园艺学家 在日常用语中很可能和“那个会养花的”混为一谈。可是一个“古植物”研究家的成果再为国争光也改变不了一个基本事实：对于美化生活环境，增加生活情趣（美）来说，一个二流园丁的贡献要贴近大众得多。如果只为“养好花草”这一单纯目的，何必非先苦心经营“植物学”？

4.这大概是一些深层次的原因，Ripman 没有拘泥于繁琐语法和理论教条，相反他才是一个超一流的园丁，一笔一划，切切实实从第一课起就教授如何养一些简单易活的花草，如何选种、发芽、移盆、拔草（含杂草鉴别），每种花草有何不同之处。简单易活的花草很快种出来之后，自然信心大增，可以逐渐过渡到复杂多病的品种，循序渐进，渐入佳境。在teach how to read Latin on a fast track 上，Ripman 采用了特殊的材料：全部语言材料都是他自己编写组织的。这在其他School Latin textbooks 当然也不鲜见，但Ripman 要比他们体大思精得多。其他School Latin textbooks 编者自拟的school Latin 99%属于“四平八稳”，语法上“绝对正确”的那种，机械呆板，看不出有任何“语言特色”，平铺直叙缺乏变起伏变化，除了宣扬“高大全”的古代英雄事迹外，再也看不出有什么鲜明的人物个性，总之和平常心、平常人距离遥远。在不就是在保证“舆论导向”的前提下，弄几个一眼就可以被识破的“希腊奸”、“罗马奸”的弱智型反面典型，让中学生“划清界限”，牢牢树立敌情意识，树立民族主义、保家卫国的爱国情操。如果说在这方面和中国式的教育理念还有什么不同的话，可能“吃相”上的细微差别是其中最主要的差异。其他同样强调reading的Latin primers 和Wheelock 的主要差别就是：在他们的书里，Latin Grammar 是为Latin reading text 服务的，而且这些reading text 多半是 CONNECTED PASSAGES, 有连贯性，而不是Wheelock里孤零零的sentences. CONNECTED

PASSAGE 是一个异常重要的feature, 以 CONNECTED PASSAGE 为主和以disconnected sentences 为主的Latin reading 之间关乎reading 本身地位的关键，这两种 approaches 存在不可调和的矛盾， 也是两者之间的根本分歧（分水岭）, 而 Ripman 将 CONNECTED PASSAGE approach 推向了更高的新台阶：整部RCL 正文部分仅有18课，确是前后连贯的一部中篇小说！或者说，Walter Ripman 比较成功地借鉴了中篇小说这种文学形式创作了一部以少男少女为主的“小说”，有高低起伏，有人物对话，喜怒哀乐，想象基本合理，学习生活应有尽有，诗词歌赋无所不包， 把公元二世纪罗马生活的细节自然贯穿在所有情节之中，这在众多蒙学著作中可以说是绝无仅有的。最令人骇异的是，这18课，以词汇较为丰富简化仅用了200页左右的篇幅（32开的书，字体比较小）， 是9个月的教学量，就完成了一般High School Latin 两年的内容! 而使用RCL的成就感是使用其他primers 望尘莫及的。或许，RCL的最主要贡献是：让读者切实感到 Latin is forever within one's reach. 这恰恰是绝大多数Latin primers in English 的终极软肋。

Wilfred Pirt Mustard: February 18, 1864-July 30, 1932

C. W. E. Miller, Vol. 53, No. 3. (1932), pp. 287-296， 共十页， 一位书斋学者型的人物。写A Handbook of the Latin Language书评时， Prof. Mustard 体弱多病，已经66岁高龄了，离他本人去世不过一年半多一点点时间而已。

The American Journal of Philology

Excerpts:

It would not be fair to the memory of Professor Xustard not to make especial mention of the cooperation accorded by him to this Journal. In addition to the contribution of many original papers, he was faithful and proinpt in reporting the contents of various foreign periodicals, and from 1916, certainly, his name figures as a reviewer more frequently than that of any other person.

...

When one scans the list hereto attached of Professor Mustard's publications, one marvels at the amount of work achieved. And there was nothing hasty about Professor llustard's work. Everything that he wrote was well-considered, and in the preparation of his manuscript or typescript he was a man after the heart of the editor. He was not given to amplification, nor to the use of superlatives. In fact, his style was free from all exuberance of expression. It was plain, but elegant, and the elegance was derived from long and close contact with that which was best in literature. He never reviewed a book without reading it.

His notices were usually brief. In some respects he was an ideal reviewer. There was always an appraisal of the work reviewed and a statement of the features that were praiseworthy or otherwise. He was frank in his criticism, but fair and genial. And as he was in his work, he was in life. I honored him for his frankness, I loved him for his friendship, I admired him for his scholarship.

今年还刚巧是他六十周年祭，权且算作是对Mr. Ripman一线哀思吧。此公生前最大的“官”也就是做到了地方“教育局长”之类，不过， in the opinion of this author, 是真正有独立思想、懂教育的。除了为人热情之外，单就RLC来看， 还非常热爱戏剧（比如第1课作业第6项要求就是：Dramatise any part of the chapter [pp. 21]， 此类作业在其他人的Latin primers中几乎从未有过）。他的女儿朝戏剧方面发展，可以说是丝毫不令人感到意外。老年得子，也算人生一大幸事。女承父业，继续关爱英国的花朵，终身未婚，为英国教育做出了各自的贡献。

（Jenner, Caryl [real name Pamela Penelope Ripman] (1917–1973), theatre director and manager by Michael Patterson ）

Jenner, Caryl [real name Pamela Penelope Ripman] (1917–1973), theatre director and manager, was born on 19 May 1917 at 45

Ladbroke Grove, London, the daughter of Walter Ripman (1869–1947), an inspector of schools and author of many school textbooks in French and German, and his wife, Constance Brockwill Grier. She was educated at Norland Place School and at St Paul's Girls' School. She studied for the theatre at the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art in London, gaining the Central School and London University diplomas in dramatic art in 1935.

Caryl Jenner, to use the name she adopted, began her professional career as an actress and assistant stage manager at the Gate Theatre, London. From 1936 to 1938 she worked as a stage manager for various companies in London and the provinces. In December 1938 she became director of the Amersham Repertory Company, where until its closure in March 1949 she worked with the actress Sally Latimer on over 200 productions. During this time she showed a particular gift for creating theatre for young people, in 1948 becoming co-director of the Amersham Playhouse Schools Mobile Unit.

In November 1949 Caryl Jenner launched her first independent theatrical enterprise, Mobile Theatre Ltd, which was committed to bringing live performance to towns and villages otherwise denied the chance to see theatre. This proved so successful that by 1960 she was managing five touring companies, four of which, jointly named the English Theatre for Children, were exclusively devoted to children's theatre. She ran summer theatre seasons in Seaford, Southwold, Cornwall, and Ayr and toured tirelessly: she visited schools for over fifty education authorities in Britain, extending her tours to include Northern

Ireland (January 1960) and Malta (May 1960). She also directed children's plays at various major venues: Sam Wanamaker's New Shakespeare Theatre, Liverpool; the Lyric, Hammersmith; the Yvonne Arnaud, Guildford; the Coventry, Belgrade; and the Toynbee, Questors, and Garrick in London.

Caryl Jenner's performances for children were distinguished by an appeal to the imagination (e.g. using a simple stepladder for a mountain). They did not involve any physical participation by the children nor post-show discussion, for she believed that this was the task of the teacher. She never avoided confronting difficult topics: one of her productions of this period, The Tingalary Bird by Mary Mellwood, was an absurdist piece, in which an old couple argue their lives away. Many adults thought it too advanced for a child audience, yet it was watched attentively by the children themselves.

In October 1962 Caryl Jenner renamed her organization Caryl Jenner Productions Ltd, and launched the Unicorn Theatre Club for Young People. It is for her pioneering work with the Unicorn Theatre that she is now best remembered. In October 1964 the Unicorn became a permanent London company of some eight to ten actors, but it almost failed two years later when it ran into serious financial difficulties. It was saved by support from the Gulbenkian Foundation, the Leche Trust, and members of the Unicorn itself. Most importantly, it began to receive grants from the Arts Council, establishing for the first time the principle of subsidizing children's theatre in Britain. The improved financial situation allowed her in July 1967 to take a six-year lease on the Arts Theatre in London. She would present plays and run workshops for children during the day, and let out the theatre for adult performances in the evening. By now she had abandoned touring and could rely on audiences' coming to her: from 1970 to 1973 her audiences at the Arts Theatre averaged 93 per cent, coming from 100 of London's 114 postal districts and from 308 towns outside London. In 1973 the annual audience was over 56,000, with 14,000 children from the inner London education authority attending forty term-time performances a year. In addition to her own productions she invited into the theatre puppet shows, dance pieces, films, and chamber music concerts.

From 1967 to 1969 Jenner served on the young people's theatre panel of the Arts Council, and in 1970 she became chairman of the young people's theatre executive of the Council of Repertory Theatres. She was also the British representative for the Association Internationale du Théâtre pour l'Enfance et la Jeunesse, attending its five-week assembly in Canada and the United States shortly before her death. Gaunt and mannish in appearance, a chain-smoker and extremely active to the point of being domineering, she died, unmarried, of lung cancer at the Middlesex Hospital, London, on 29 January 1973.

Michael Patterson

Sources

J. Parker, ed., Who’s who in the theatre, 15th edn (1972) · The Times (30 Jan 1973) · private information (2004) · E.

Smythe, ‘Anniversary time’, Plays and Players (Oct 1996), 24 · M. Ford and D. Wooder, ‘Is it in colour, miss?’: the first fifty years of the Unicorn Theatre for children (1997) · WWW [Walter Ripman] · b. cert. · d. cert. · CGPLA Eng. &

Wales (1973)

经查证，Michael Patterson 总共为ODNB 贡献了以下三篇人物传记:

Benthall, Michael Pickersgill (1919–1974), theatre director

Jenner, Caryl [real name Pamela Penelope Ripman] (1917–1973), theatre director and manager

Reinhardt, Max [real name Max Goldmann] (1873–1943), theatre director and manager

curculio:

The word interest is so general that for all practical purposes it really doesn't mean much. From mere wishful thinking to purposeful investigation, there exist many levels of interest, action plans, approaches and speeds, small wonder they are linked to different outcomes .

In this day and age, access to information is getting ever easier, because the world is supposedly getting ever flatter, but levels of understanding remain very much the reality. Online sources for Greek and Latin lovers include first and foremost: www.textkit.com, 全球古希腊语和拉丁语共同的网络精神家园， with numerous links , pdf books and various forums.

Other useful sites:

Latin dictionary:

http://www.perseus.org/cgi-bin/ptext? ... eus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059 (Yale Univ. has also published a cd-rom

version of Perseus: Perseus 2.0: Interactive Sources and Studies on Ancient Greece ...

(http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300059366), occasionally one can find a second-hand copy at a very low price somewhere on the internet)

Latin morphology analysis tool (in English):

http://www.perseus.org/cgi-bin/morphindex?lang=la

Latin conjugation tool:

http://www.verbix.com/languages/latin.shtml

Latin declensions:

http://la.wiktionary.org/wiki/Pagina_prima (limited vocabulary)

Latin literature:

http://www.ancientlibrary.com/

http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/classics.html

http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/

To download the huge Lewis and Short Latin Lexicon, the last big Latin English dictionary edited by Americans and published in USA, that is 128 years ago, copyright renewed in 1907 by American Book Company (for book review: Latin Dictionary Founded on Andrew's Edition of Freund's Latin Dictionary:

http://www.amazon.com/Latin-Dictionar ... oks&qid=1196745573&sr=1-1)，in DjVu format:

C.T. Lewis & C. Short, A Latin Dictionary:

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/resolveform?lang=la

[to download a copy in DjVu format]:

http://meta.montclair.edu/latintexts/dictionary/harpers/INDEX.djvu

As mentioned before: "还有一些有心人做了google book 分类download, 如：http://www.edonnelly.com 只是缺了些最基本的书目提要。"

As for Latin pronunciation, it's usually considered very simple or straight forward, because each Latin letter has ONE and only one sound, plus a few diphthongs. There are no liasions and very few exceptions to the general pronunciation rules.

Because Latin is no longer a spoken language, deviations from pronunciation, however bad, is unlikely to attract attention.

The recording at Latin proverbs is, in the opinion of this author, too rigid or artificial, whereas

Carmen 101 (in Latin by Catullus: http://rudy.negenborn.net/catullus/spoken/l101.mp3) (there is a Chinese version there too:

Chinese: http://rudy.negenborn.net/catullus/text2/m101.htm )

The guy reads with much more fervor/flavor, and with very nice thrills! (In carmen #2

http://rudy.negenborn.net/catullus/text2/l2.htm, he missed 2 lines in between, ie： et solaciolum sui doloris, credo ut tum gravis acquiescat ardor）

curculio:

Recommended: "一本等了20多年的书"