开场白
作者：威廉•梅克比斯•萨克雷
(1811 – 1863)
木偶戏班的班头正坐在舞台幕前，面对着眼前的集市，仔细审视着这个熙熙攘攘的地方，心头不禁涌起一股深沉的惆怅之情。这里有胡吃海塞、有猜拳行令、有打情骂俏、有出轨被甩、有欢声笑语、有连哭带闹；有抽烟的、有行骗的、有打架的、有跳舞的、有拉琴的；有恃强凌弱之徒在人群中推来搡去，有纨绔子弟在向女人挤眉弄眼，有地痞无赖在扒窃钱包，有衙门捕快在巡逻观瞧，有江湖郎中（那些除我之外的其他江湖郎中，但愿他们得瘟疫都去死吧！）在自己摊子前高声吆喝，有把全身打扮得闪闪发光、俗不可耐的舞者，有年迈可怜的翻筋斗艺人，脸上涂着红红的胭脂水粉，引得乡巴佬们抬头张望，而三只手们正从身后伸向这些乡下人的口袋。没错，这里就是虚幻场！这的确是个人心不古之地，尽管非常热闹，但并非令人感到心旷神怡。看看刚表演完的艺人和小丑的脸吧，傻子汤姆把腮帮子两边的油彩洗掉，然后来到帆布后面，坐下来和老婆以及他俩那一堆小崽子共进午餐。幕布马上就要升起，汤姆又会一个劲地翻筋斗，并向观众大喊道：“大家都好吗？”
我认为，一个能够自省其身之人，穿行于这样的集市展览中，不但不会压抑自己内心的喜悦，而且也不会因为别人的狂欢而感到心情郁闷。这儿上演的一出幽默喜剧使他心情愉悦，那儿一个善良义举令他深受感动——看吧，一个模样可爱的小孩正眼巴巴地瞅着姜饼摊；一个漂亮姑娘的相好正在和她一边拉着话，一边给她挑选着廉价礼物，而姑娘的脸颊羞得绯红；可怜的傻子汤姆，和老实巴交的妻小们正躲在马车后面，但见他啃着一根骨头，这一大家子的生活还得靠他一个人翻筋斗。但集市给人的总体印象是愁云惨淡盖过欢声笑语。当你回到家中，坐下来，保持头脑清醒，苦思冥想刚才所见到的一幕幕，心里就不会那么损地评判别人，然后一门心思投入看书或者干正经事情。
对于目前的这部小说《虚幻场》，我没有要附加任何其他比这更多说教的意思。有些人认为集市这种场所道德完全沦丧，应该尽量避开，包括自己的家奴和家眷也不要去——他们的这种想法很可能正确。但是，另外一些人不这么想，他们或许性格懒散，或许心地善良，或许爱说风凉话，这些人也许可能会喜欢到集市逗留半个钟头，观看各种演出节目。这里的节目场面各式各样，应有尽有——有心惊胆颤的打架斗殴，有气势恢宏的马术表演，有上流社会的某些情景，有平民百姓的生活写照，有浪漫煽情的爱情画面，有轻松愉快的喜剧剧情；整部小说配有适当的自然风景描写以及作者亲笔绘制的各种插图，为本作品增添了一些闪亮的色彩。
班头还有什么要说的呢？——戏班子穿梭于英格兰各主要城镇演出，承蒙各位惠顾，公共新闻界德高望重的编辑们给予最高的评价，又蒙名流绅士的抬爱，班头真是感激不尽。木偶戏令大英帝国最优秀的精英感到满意，班头感到非常自豪。其中有个著名的小木偶稗姬，大家称赞她关节灵活，非同寻常，提线一拉就能活蹦乱跳；洋娃娃阿美丽雅，虽然喜欢她的观众不是很多，但是艺人雕刻她确实费了一番心血，并且给她设计了服饰；那个叫道宾的木偶，尽管动作看上去明显很笨拙，但跳起舞来却自然生趣；有些人喜欢看小男生舞蹈；请大家注意了，那个衣着华丽的“邪恶贵族”木偶，我们确实是不惜成本，单单这一场演出结束后，“尼克老鬼”就会将他拖走。
班头就说这么多，在此向各位衣食父母深鞠一躬，然后退到后台，接着幕布升起。
1848年6月28日于伦敦
英文原文：
Before the Curtain
By William Makepeace Thackeray
(1811 – 1863)
As the manager of the Performance sits before the curtain on the boards and looks into the Fair, a feeling of profound melancholy comes over him in his survey of the bustling place. There is a great quantity of eating and drinking, making love and jilting, laughing and the contrary, smoking, cheating, fighting, dancing and fiddling; there are bullies pushing about, bucks ogling the women, knaves picking pockets, policemen on the look-out, quacks (OTHER quacks, plague take them!) bawling in front of their booths, and yokels looking up at the tinselled dancers and poor old rouged tumblers, while the light-fingered folk are operating upon their pockets behind. Yes, this is VANITY FAIR; not a moral place certainly; nor a merry one, though very noisy. Look at the faces of the actors and buffoons when they come off from their business; and Tom Fool washing the paint off his cheeks before he sits down to dinner with his wife and the little Jack Puddings behind the canvas. The curtain will be up presently, and he will be turning over head and heels, and crying, “How are you?”
A man with a reflective turn of mind, walking through an exhibition of this sort, will not be oppressed, I take it, by his own or other people’s hilarity. An episode of humour or kindness touches and amuses him here and there—a pretty child looking at a gingerbread stall; a pretty girl blushing whilst her lover talks to her and chooses her fairing; poor Tom Fool, yonder behind the waggon, mumbling his bone with the honest family which lives by his tumbling; but the general impression is one more melancholy than mirthful. When you come home you sit down in a sober, contemplative, not uncharitable frame of mind, and apply yourself to your books or your business.
I have no other moral than this to tag to the present story of “Vanity Fair.” Some people consider Fairs immoral altogether, and eschew such, with their servants and families: very likely they are right. But persons who think otherwise, and are of a lazy, or a benevolent, or a sarcastic mood, may perhaps like to step in for half an hour, and look at the performances. There are scenes of all sorts; some dreadful combats, some grand and lofty horse-riding, some scenes of high life, and some of very middling indeed; some love-making for the sentimental, and some light comic business; the whole accompanied by appropriate scenery and brilliantly illuminated with the Author’s own candles.
What more has the Manager of the Performance to say?—To acknowledge the kindness with which it has been received in all the principal towns of England through which the Show has passed, and where it has been most favourably noticed by the respected conductors of the public Press, and by the Nobility and Gentry. He is proud to think that his Puppets have given satisfaction to the very best company in this empire. The famous little Becky Puppet has been pronounced to be uncommonly flexible in the joints, and lively on the wire; the Amelia Doll, though it has had a smaller circle of admirers, has yet been carved and dressed with the greatest care by the artist; the Dobbin Figure, though apparently clumsy, yet dances in a very amusing and natural manner; the Little Boys’ Dance has been liked by some; and please to remark the richly dressed figure of the Wicked Nobleman, on which no expense has been spared, and which Old Nick will fetch away at the end of this singular performance.
And with this, and a profound bow to his patrons, the Manager retires, and the curtain rises.
LONDON, June 28, 1848