Thomas Hardy by Andrew Norman Read Free Book Online Page B

vocal. As for the names of his characters, Hardy obtained them from a study of the tombstones in Stinsford churchyard. John Morley, who had read Hardy’s The Poor Man and the Lady , had commented in regard to that novel that ‘the opening pictures of Christmas Eve in the tranter’s house are really of good quality’. Drawing strength from this, Hardy decided to begin his new novel with the tranter’s Christmas party.
    The themes of the novel are twofold: the love of Dick Dewy (an honest yeoman) for Fancy Day (a certified teacher), and the destruction of the quire, brought about by the advent of a new vicar, the Revd Maybold – who, of course, is a facsimile of the real-life Revd Arthur Shirley, vicar of Stinsford. Dick proposes to Fancy and she accepts his offer. Nonetheless, she has a momentary flirtation with Farmer Shiner; then accepts a second proposal of marriage from the new vicar. Finally, she confesses to Maybold that she has acted hastily, and she and Dick get married amidst celebratory dances – under the greenwood tree – to the music of the quire.
    Alongside this romance runs the story of the quire, whose members number such colourful characters as the tranter, the shoemaker and the simpleton. Having fallen asleep during a church sermon, they awake and, believing themselves still to be at the local dance which they had attended the night before, spring into life and play not a hymn, but a jig. Episodes like this show the lighter, vibrant side of Hardy’s character, and reveal his keen sense of humour. Subsequently, however, and for reasons soon to become apparent, Hardy’s works would assume a more serious, sombre and introspective dimension.
    The quire have played their music since time immemorial; their previous vicar having left them undisturbed, allowing them to participate in the choosing of the hymns and never troubling them with a visit ‘from year’s end to year’s end’. Now, they have to endure the Revd Maybold who never allows them ‘a bit o’ peace’. When Maybold announces that the musicians are to be replaced with an organ, they see it as a catastrophe; yet they resolve to fall gloriously ‘with a bit of a flourish at Christmas’, rather than be ‘choked off quiet at no time in particular’.
    In view of the real-life trauma which the Revd Shirley had brought to the Stinsford choir, it must have given Hardy enormous pleasure and satisfaction to have Fancy Day turn down the proposal of marriage by the Revd Maybold in favour of Dick Dewy.
    Hardy sent the manuscript to Macmillan, who would probably have published it but for a misunderstanding. When the manuscript was returned to him, Hardy was of a mind to give up writing altogether, but was persuaded by a letter from Emma to persevere with it as she felt sure that authorship was his true vocation. In this, she demonstrated an unselfish side to her nature; after all, a career in architecture would have provided greater security for herself and Hardy in the event of them one day marrying.

    In the spring of 1872, Hardy returned again to London with the aim of furthering his architectural career. He found work with a Mr T. Roger Smith, Professor of Architecture at the Royal Institute of British Architects, and assisted in the design of schools for the London School Board.
    Horace Moule, in a chance meeting with Hardy, also advised him to continue with his writing;one reason being that in the event of his eyesight deteriorating, at some time in the future, and thus halting his architectural career, then this would provide him with an alternative occupation.
    By another coincidence Hardy encountered Tinsley, who asked him whether he had any other manuscripts for him to look at. Hardy accordingly sent him, in April 1872, the manuscript of Under the Greenwood Tree . This was duly published two months later in June. The book was reviewed favourably by both the Athenaeum and the Pall Mall Gazette . On the strength of this, Tinsley asked Hardy