What was it, then, that drove the highly talented and incessantly creative Euripides from a path bathed in the light of those twin luminaries--his great predecessors--and of popular acclaim as well?
What peculiar consideration for the spectator made him defy that very same spectator?
他对观众有甚么稀奇的考虑，以致反对观众呢？How did it happen that his great respect for his audience made him treat that audience with utter disrespect?
他怎能够因为太尊重观众，以致轻视观众呢？
Euripides--and this may be the solution of our riddle-- considered himself quite superior to the crowd as a whole; not, however, to two of his spectators.
关于方才提出的谜，我们的解答是：欧里庇德斯觉得自己，作为一个诗人，比一般群众高明得多，但是只有两个观众他甘拜下风。He would translate the crowd onto the stage but insist, all the same, on revering the two members as the sole judges of his art;
他把群众带上舞台，唯独对这两个观众，他却敬之为他的艺术的合格判官和导师。on following all their directions and admonitions, and on instilling in the very hearts of his dramatic characters those emotions, passions and recognition which had heretofore seconded the stage action,
遵从他们的指导和劝告，他把一切情感，激情，经验之世界，like an invisible chorus, from the serried ranks of the amphitheater.
即以前每次演出坐在观众席上的无形歌队的内心世界，移入剧中人物的心灵中。It was in deference to these judges that he gave his new characters a new voice, too, and a new music.
当他为这些角色寻找新语言和新情调时，他要对他们的要求让步；Their votes, and no others, determined for him the worth of his efforts.
当他一再被观众舆论否决时，唯有从他们的话里。And whenever the public rejected his labors it was their encouragement, their faith in his final triumph, which sustained him.
他听到对他作品的合情合理的宣判，听到胜利在望的鼓励。