There was a King's (or Queen's)English to be proud of. The Elizabethans blew on it as on a dandelion clock, and its seeds multiplied, and floated to the ends of the earth. "The King's English" was no longer a form of what would now be regarded as racial discrimination.
这样便有了一种值得引以自豪的"标准英语"。伊丽莎白时代的人没费吹灰之力，使其影响日盛，遍及全球。"标准英语"再也不带有今天所谓的种族歧视的性质了。
Yet there had been something in the remark of the Australian. The phrase has always been used a little pejoratively and even facetiously by the lower classes. One feels that even Mistress Quickly-a servant-is saying that Dr. Caius-her master-will lose his control and speak with the vigor of ordinary folk. If the King's English is "English as it should be spoken," the claim is often mocked by the underlings, when they say with a jeer "English as it should be spoke." The rebellion against a cultural dominance is still there.
不过，那个澳大利亚人所作的解释也有一定的道理。下层阶级在用这一名词时总带着一点轻蔑或讥讽的味道。我们会发现，就连快嘴桂嫂这样一个婢女也会说她的主子凯厄斯大夫会管不住自己的舌头，而讲起平民百姓们所讲的那种粗话。如果说标准英语就是所谓"规范英语"，这种看法常常会受到下层人民的嘲笑讥讽，他们有时故意开玩笑地把它说成是"规反英语"。下层人民对文化上的专制仍是极为反感的。
There is always a great danger, as Carlyle put it, that "words will harden into things for us." Words are not themselves a reality, but only representations of it, and the King's English, like the Anglo-French of the Normans , is a class representation of reality. Perhaps it is worth trying to speak it, but it should not be laid down as an edict, and made immune to change from below.
正如卡莱尔所说，始终存在着的一种危险是，"对我们来说。词语会变成具体的事物"。词语本身并不是现实，它不过是用以表达现实的一种形式而已。标准英语就像诺曼底人的盎格鲁法语一样，也是一个阶级用来表达现实的一种形式。让人们学着去讲也许不错，但既不应当把它作为法令，也不应当使它完全不接受来自下层的改变。
I have an unending love affair with dictionaries-Auden once said that all a writer needs is a pen, plenty of paper and "the best dictionaries he can afford"-but I agree with the person who said that dictionaries are instruments of common sense. The King's English is a model-a rich and instructive one-but it ought not to be an ultimatum.
我一向对词典有着始终不渝的酷爱一奥登说过，一个作家的全部所需就是一支笔、够用的纸张和"他所能弄得到的最好的词典"-但我更赞同另一种说法，即把词典看成是一种常识的工具。标准英语是一种典范-一种丰富而有指导作用的典范-但并不是一种最高的典范。