英漢對照 Widowed queen's devotion to manservant and grief at his death revealed by letter in which she tells of 'so warm and loving a friendship'. Ben Fenton reports The extent of Queen Victoria's love for John Brown, her Highland manservant, is revealed in a letter published today in which she likens her feelings at his death to becoming a widow for the second time. Victoria's relationship with the unconventional Scot was the subject of profound gossip in the Royal Family and court circles from the time that he began to console her after the death of her husband, Prince Albert, in 1861. Her daughters referred to Mr Brown as "Mama's lover" and he was also known in the royal household as her "stallion", while her popular nickname became Mrs Brown after a rumour that she had secretly married the man who had been her husband's favourite ghillie. Until now nothing substantiated the rumours. The Queen's own journal described her reaction to Brown's death in March 1883 merely as being "terribly upset by this loss". But in the recently discovered letter, written to Viscount (later Earl of) Cranbrook, a close friend and former Secretary of State for India, she wrote of "her present unbounded grief for the loss of the best, most devoted of servants and truest and dearest of friends". Victoria, who usually wrote about herself in the third person, went on: "Perhaps never in history was there so strong and true an attachment, so warm and loving a friendship between the sovereign and servant as existed between her and her dear faithful Brown." It is thought the phrase "between the sovereign and servant" was added as an afterthought. The letter goes on to praise Brown in a most personal way: "Strength of character, as well as power of frame - the most fearful uprightness, kindness…combined with a tender warm heart…made him one of the most remarkable men who could be known." It adds: "And the Queen feels that life for the second time is become most trying and sad to bear deprived of all she so needs... "The shock too was so sudden that the Queen is quite stunned." The letter, written two days after Brown died from an attack of the skin disease erysipelas, is published in the latest edition of History Today magazine. It was discovered in the Suffolk Record Office by Bendor Grosvenor, a PhD student at the University of East Anglia, while writing a thesis on Disraeli's government. It had been lent to the archive by the current Earl of Cranbrook. "In terms of evidence of a sexual relationship between them from her own pen, I think this is as close as we are going to get," Mr Grosvenor said. "It's not a billet doux which says 'Darling, you were marvellous last night', but it is a letter to a very close friend of hers in which she compares the death of someone to the death of her husband. "I suspect that there was a sexual side to their relationship. "We know that she had oodles of children with Albert and, according to her own account, lots of sex, and she was a young widow (at 42)." 維多利亞女王與男僕的祕密戀情(圖) 英國12月15日出版的《今日曆史》雜誌上刊登了一封維多利亞女王寫給其密友的信，信中內容透露了女王與宮廷男僕的祕密戀情。 據英國《每日電訊報》12月15日報道，在這封被公之於衆的信件中，女王表達了她在男僕約翰·布朗去世後悲痛欲絕的心情，並稱自己在感情上如同經歷了第2次守寡的痛苦。 1861年，維多利亞女王的丈夫艾伯特親王去世。之後，艾伯特親王生前喜歡的宮廷男僕、蘇格蘭人布朗因時常勸慰傷心的女王而和女王走得很近。當時，女王與男僕的親密關係已成爲王宮內人們偷偷談論的話題。女王的女兒們稱布朗爲“媽媽的情人”，其他人也暗暗稱他是“女王的種馬”，女王甚至還被人起了個“布朗太太”的綽號，因爲有傳聞說女王當時已祕密下嫁給了布朗。 然而，到目前爲止，沒有任何證據證明這些傳聞屬實。1883年3月，布朗先生因皮膚疾病丹毒去世，女王在她的日記中僅用“他的離去讓人很難過”這樣輕描淡寫的字句記錄下她當時的心情。但最近，在被發現的女王寫給其密友、印度前國務卿格蘭布魯克子爵的一封信中，人們纔看到女王對於男僕布朗的真實感情。 喜好用第三人稱來描述自己內心世界了女王在這封信中寫到：“她因失去最忠誠的僕人和最真誠、最親愛的朋友而痛不欲生。”她還寫道：“在歷史上，恐怕沒有一位女王與僕人之間的感情能像她與她親愛的布朗之間的感情那樣激烈、真誠和溫馨。”在信中，女王更是不吝溢美之詞對布朗先生讚賞有加：“堅毅、正直、善良和一顆溫柔的心使他成爲世上那些最非凡的男人中的一個。”信的末尾寫道：“女王倍感傷痛，因爲她在這一生中已是第2次被剝奪掉她所需要的一切。這個突如其來的打擊，令女王悲痛欲絕。” 這封信寫在布朗先生去世兩天之後。120多年後，它被刊登在了英國著名的《今日曆史》雜誌上。 英國東安格里亞大學的一位名叫格羅夫納的博士生，在英國薩福克檔案館發現了這一塵封百年的信件。當時，格羅夫納爲了撰寫有關英國迪斯雷利政府的論文來到薩福克檔案館收集資料時發現了該信件。格羅夫納表示：“這封信是我們所能瞭解到女王與男僕之間關係的最直接的資料。信是女王寫給自己最好的朋友的。從信的內容來看，她把一個人的死看成是丈夫的死，可見他們之間的關係何等親密。我懷疑他們之 間有性關係。我們知道，女王與艾伯特親王有許多孩子，就像女王所說的，他們的夫妻生活很和諧。而當艾伯特親王去世後，女王年僅42歲，是個年輕的寡婦。”
