Having no particular excitement on his hands after this great defeat of the Lancaster party, and being perhaps desirous to get rid of some of his fat (for he was now getting too corpulent [肥胖的] to be handsome), the King thought of making war on France. As he wanted more money for this purpose than the Parliament could give him, though they were usually ready enough for war, he invented a new way of raising it, by sending for [派人去叫/请] the principal citizens of London, and telling them, with a grave [严肃的] face, that he was very much in want of cash [缺钱], and would take it very kind in them if they would lend him some. It being impossible for them safely to refuse, they complied, and the moneys thus forced from them were called - no doubt to the great amusement of the King and the Court - as if they were free gifts, 'Benevolences [being kind and generous].' What with grants from Parliament, and what with Benevolences, the King raised an army and passed over to Calais. As nobody wanted war, however, the French King made proposals of peace, which were accepted, and a truce was concluded for seven long years. The proceedings [进程] between the Kings of France and England on this occasion, were very friendly, very splendid, and very distrustful. They finished with a meeting between the two Kings, on a temporary bridge over the river Somme, where they embraced through two holes in a strong wooden grating [栅栏] like a lion's cage, and made several bows and fine speeches to one another.

what with sth - 用于列举原因。passed over to: 此处over是副词，across.

It was time, now, that the Duke of Clarence should be punished for his treacheries; and Fate had his punishment in store. He was, probably, not trusted by the King - for who could trust him who knew him! - and he had certainly a powerful opponent in his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who, being avaricious [greedy] and ambitious, wanted to marry that widowed daughter of the Earl of Warwick's who had been espoused [marry] to the deceased [died, dead] young Prince, at Calais. Clarence, who wanted all the family wealth for himself, secreted [secrete, conceal, steal] this lady, whom Richard found disguised as a servant in the City of London, and whom he married; arbitrators [仲裁人] appointed by the King, then divided the property between the brothers. This led to ill-will and mistrust between them. Clarence's wife dying, and he wishing to make another marriage, which was obnoxious to the King, his ruin was hurried by that means, too. At first, the Court struck at his retainers [servant] and dependents, and accused some of them of magic and witchcraft, and similar nonsense. Successful [ Having obtained sth desired/intended {successive}] against [next to] this small game, it then mounted to the Duke himself, who was impeached by his brother the King, in person, on a variety of such charges. He was found guilty, and sentenced to be publicly executed. He never was publicly executed, but he met his death somehow, in the Tower, and, no doubt, through some agency of the King or his brother Gloucester, or both. It was supposed at the time that he was told to choose the manner of his death, and that he chose to be drowned in a butt [大酒桶] of Malmsey wine. I hope the story may be true, for it would have been a becoming [suitable] death for such a miserable creature.

The King survived him some five years. He died in the forty-second year of his life, and the twenty-third of his reign. He had a very good capacity [mental ability] and some good points, but he was selfish, careless, sensual [喜欢感官享受], and cruel. He was a favourite with the people for his showy manners; and the people were a good example to him in the constancy [坚定性] of their attachment [依恋]. He was penitent [忏悔的] on his death-bed for his 'benevolences,' and other extortions, and ordered restitution [物归原主] to be made to the people who had suffered from them. He also called about his bed the enriched members of the Woodville family, and the proud lords whose honours were of older date, and endeavoured to reconcile them, for the sake of the peaceful succession of his son and the tranquillity of England.

-ville
1. used in the names of places to mean city or town
2. used humorously with adjectives or nouns followed by 's' to show that sb/sth has a quality

"Head First Design Patterns"里的Objectville is a fictional place (think Smallville) that they use to describe the concept of object oriented items.

headfirst
1. with the head foremost
2. rashly or carelessly

六级/考研单词: desire, handsome, parliament, headmaster, grave, comply, thereby, amuse, splendid, embrace, cage, bow, punish, fate, probable, potent, ambition, princess, conceal, disguise, ruin, haste, magic, witch, nonsense, mount, guilt, execute, drown, butt, wretched, reign, enrich, endeavor, reconcile, adjective, noun