Much more famous than this political explanation of the chorus is the notion of A. W. Schlegel,
奥·威·希勒格尔(A.W.Sohlegel)的原理,比歌队政治根源说更有名;
who advises us to regard the chorus as the quintessence of the audience, as the "ideal spectator."
他劝说我们不妨把歌队看作观众的精华,即所谓理想的观众。
If we hold this view against the historical tradition according to which tragedy was, in the beginning, nothing but chorus, it turns out to be a crude, unscholarly, though dazzling hypothesis--dazzling because of the effective formulation,
这种见解,同向来谓悲剧本来不过是歌队的传统说法对照起来,就真相毕露,显得是粗浅的、不科学的、但是堂皇醒目的学说。然而,这一说之所以堂皇醒目,不过是由于它的概括的警句形式,
the typically German bias for anything called "ideal," and our momentary wonder at the notion.
而且德国人对于所谓的“理想的”一切怀有真正的偏爱,所以使人骤然惊愕。
For we are indeed amazed when we compare our familiar theater audience with the tragic chorus and ask ourselves whether the former could conceivably be construed into something analogous to the latter.
但是,我们一旦拿我们熟识的剧场观众同古希腊歌队比较一下,看看能否从今日的观众想象出类似悲剧歌队的情形来,我们定必惶惑不解。
We tacitly deny the possibility, and then are brought to wonder both at the boldness of Schlegel's assertion and at what must have been the totally different complexion of the Greek audience.
我们将默然否定这一说,我们不但怀疑希勒格尔的假设未免大胆,而且不相信希腊观众会有完全不同于今人的特点。