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莎士比亚正在剧院里创作《亨利六世》第二部分，而他的演员朋友托马斯·斯旺正在修补一扇坏了的门，锤子把门钉 doornail 敲得一动不动，像“死了”一样。这给了莎士比亚灵感，于是他写出短语 as dead as a doornail 用在剧本中。As dead as a doornail 在莎士比亚时期是一个常用的短语，意思是“死得非常彻底”。在现代英语中，这个短语的意思也没有发生变化，它可以用来形容哪类事物呢？
Narrator
It was a cold morning. William Shakespeare is in the theatre, working on Henry VI part II, whilst his actor friend Thomas Swann is mending a broken door.
Will
Thomas! Can you stop that banging? I'm trying to write here!
Thomas
Will, this door needs fixing properly. I have to hit this doornail hard… there. That will never come out.
Will
What's that about a doornail? Hmmm… you've just given me an idea… dead as a doornail… dead as a doornail!
Thomas
Who's dead?! Will?
Will
Thomas, I have the perfect line for your character… Jack Cade, the rebel leader, strong and proud. But in this scene, he's on the run, hiding from his enemies. He hasn't eaten anything for five days, except herbs… even grass… he's weak… alone… and suddenly, six of his enemies find him.
Thomas
So he's in danger…
Will
Yes, but he doesn't show any fear: in fact, he threatens to kill all of them dead as a doornail. Come Thomas, let's read your lines. Look on me well: I have eat no meat…
Thomas as Jack Cade
Look on me well: I have eat no meat these five days; yet come thou and thy five men, and if I do not leave you all as dead as a doornail, I pray God I may never eat grass more.
Will
You have it! Well done Thomas: there's another classic Shakespeare line.
Thomas
I don't know how you do it, Will.
Narrator
We'll leave them there for now. The phrase as dead as a doornail was in common use in Shakespeare's day. It means the same today as it did back then: Dead. Very dead. Totally dead. It's a very well-known English expression - for example, novelist Charles Dickens used it to describe the character Marley in A Christmas Carol:
Clip 1
Old Marley was as dead as a doornail.
Narrator
These days we can use it for electrical gadgets that aren't working.
Clip 2
Oh no - I forgot to charge my phone. It's as dead as a doornail.
Will
Right! All that writing has made me thirsty. Let us go to the Duck and Whistle. Come on Thomas, close the door behind you… Hmmm… perhaps you should put another couple of nails in that door before we go, Thomas?
Thomas
Ahh… To nail, or not to nail: that is the question.
Edited by: geilien.cn
as dead as a doornail 肯定死了，死僵了; 死寂无声;
He drove into a tree at over a hundred miles an hour and was as dead as a doornail.
他以每小时100英里的速度驾车，结果撞在一棵树上，一命呜呼。
It lay there with its eyes closed, dead as a doornail.
它躺在那里眼睛闭著，确实死了。
After my long illness, any hopes I might have had of going to college next year were as dead as a doornail.
由于长期生病，我明年上大学的一切希望都落空了。
as dead as a doornail 于公元1350年左右出现在英语中。因为这个短语使用了头韵（dead 和doornail），莎士比亚非常喜欢它，在他的几部剧作中都曾用到。这可能也是这个俚语沿用至今的原因。在《牛津英语大词典》中，表示类似意思的还有dead as a herring和dead as mutton等，但是也只有dead as the dodo与这个短语有相同的诗歌节拍。
至于为什么用doornail来形容死亡，说法不一。一种理论认为该短语中的doornail与我们今天所用的钉子不同。它是一种宽宽的金属薄片，安装在门的外面，这样客人来访时就可以敲它以告知主人。这样的门钉当然是“死”的，因为它被紧紧地钉在屋门的木头上，而且敲击时只能发出沉闷的声响。但大多数权威人士认为，这种说法并不可靠。
另外一种比较可信的说法是，在十九世纪以前，因为金属钉比较昂贵，人们普遍使用木头钉。但是在建造门的时候，人们为了安全起见却使用金属钉。工匠用金属钉穿过木门，在另一边把它弯过来，这样就把钉子固定住了。在那个年代，用木匠术语来讲，这种钉子就是死钉，因为它们松动不了，也掉不下来。所以，dead as a doornail不仅仅是一个古老的俗语，也是一个相当古老的双关语。