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There are some few things more about which I must write to you. The first is about my Bankruptcy. I heard some days ago, with great disappointment I admit, that it is too late now for your family to pay your father off, that it would be illegal, and that I must remain in my present painful position for some considerable time to come. It is bitter to me because I am assured on legal authority that I cannot even publish a book without the permission of the Receiver to whom all the accounts must be submitted. I cannot enter into a contract with the manager of a theatre, or produce a play without the receipts passing to your father and my few other creditors. I think that even you will admit now that the scheme of “scoring off” your father by allowing him to make me a bankrupt has not really been the brilliant all-round success you imagined it was going to turn out. It has not been so to me at any rate, and my feelings of pain and humiliation at my pauperism should have been consulted rather than your own sense of humour, however caustic or unexpected. In point of actual fact, in permitting my Bankruptcy, as in urging me on to the original trial, you really were playing right into your father’s hands, and doing just what he wanted. Alone, and unassisted, he would from the very outset have been powerless[160a]. In you—though you did not mean to hold such a horrible office—he has always found his chief ally.
还有几件事我必须在信中说明。 第一件是关于我的破产。前些日子听说了，现在你家人要出钱偿还你父亲已经太迟了，并且是非法的，而我还得再这样受苦受难好长一段时日。老实说，这消息令我大失所望。 我很伤心，因为法庭命令，我所有帐目都得上交破产管理人，没有他的许可，哪怕出一本书都不行。我不能与剧院经理签合同，就是演出个剧本，收据都得转给你父亲还有其他几个债权人。我想就是你现在也会承认，让你父亲把我搞成破产，以此来使他丢分难堪，这计谋并非如你想像的那样会是大获全胜的高招。至少对我不是这样。要把我弄得一贫如洗，本来首先应该考虑的是我感情的痛苦和羞辱，而非你的幽默感，不管那有多么刻薄、多么出人意表。事实上，任由我被判破产，就像催我打最初那场官司一样，你这真是正中你父亲下怀，正是他求之不得的。要是他单枪匹马的，那从一开始就成不了气候[160a]。而你——尽管本意不想为虎作伥——却从来都是他的主要同盟军。
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