The Dreadful Story of Stephen and his Aunt Matilda (or Maud)

史蒂芬和他姑妈玛蒂尔达（或叫莫德）的糟糕往事

THE moment Stephen came to the throne it was realized that he was a mistake and had been christened wrong; thus everything was thrown into confusion. Stephen himself felt quite uncalled for, and even his Aunt Matilda was able to take him in when she began announcing that she was the real King. Stephen, however, soon discovered that she had been malchristened, too, and was unable to say for certain whether her name was Matilda or Maud.

当史蒂芬即位的时候，大家便意识到加冕他为王是一个错误，随后一切事物都陷入了混乱之中。史蒂芬感到自己不受拥戴，甚至连他的姑妈玛蒂尔达也打算取而代之，开始宣布她才是真正的王位继承人。但斯蒂芬很快发现玛蒂尔达也没有得到正确的加冕，甚至不确定姑妈的名字到底是玛蒂尔达还是莫德。

After this Stephen and Matilda (or Maud) spent the reign escaping from each other over the snow in nightgowns while ‘God and His Angels slept’.

在这之后，当上帝和他的天使们闭上眼睛的时候，斯蒂芬和玛蒂尔达（或莫德）便穿着睡衣，在雪地上各自统治，互相回避。

Taking advantage of this lax state of affairs, the Barons built a surfeit of romantic castles, into which they lured everybody and then put them to the torture; nor is it recorded that the Sword was once sheathed right to the bottom, during the whole of this dreadful reign. Hence the memorable greeting so common among the Barons of the time – ‘Merrie Englande!’

得益于这种松散的治理环境，伯爵们趁机建造了一大批浪漫的城堡，他们将人引诱其中，施加虐待。在这段可怕的统治期间，没有任何记录显示有宝剑出鞘，直插底部。因此伯爵们流行着一句著名的问候语：“快活英格兰！”