IV
In addition to the passages already cited, which undergo only one
alteration, a relatively sizable number of passages with multiple variants
offer further evidence of what I have asserted about Hardy's creative
methods; that is, they represent his perpetual desire to improve upon what
he had once done. After one or more readings, during which he would
make a number of changes, he sent each of the two sets of advance proofs
to America. Then he would proofread again for the English serial, making
new changes and rechanging passages already altered in the America-bound
sheets. There are several of these "double-variants" which indicate Hardy's
tentative, experimental approach to revision. For the purpose of more
clearly distinguishing between the two American texts, I discuss in turn the
passages that were first affected in the Harper's Bazar text
and
then those whose first alteration occurs in the Harper book text.
The variants in Harper's Bazar which are mentioned
below remain in the Harper book, as did those mentioned in Section I of
this article; i.e., they receive their second revision in Macmillan's
Magazine. In the manuscript, nature has "a curious perversity," in
the Harper text "a serious apparent perversity," and in Macmillan's
Magazine "an apparent perversity" (p. 136). In the manuscript,
Fitzpiers "went to the door" to listen to Melbury's men talk about Mrs.
Charmond's fretfulness, in the Harper text he "half opened the casement,"
and in Macmillan's Magazine he "half opened the window"
(p.
298). An unconsciously half-humorous image in the manuscript, presenting
Melbury "drawing the skin of his face together" before he whips away his
arm from Fitzpiers' waist at hearing his son-in-law's drunken confessions
of indifference to his wife, evolves into a slightly more realizable image in
the Harper text, "the skin of his face compressed" (p. 307). Still,
the omission of the description altogether for Macmillan's
Magazine is probably to be preferred, since neither image can be
readily pictured by the reader.
The Harper book text also contains textual phenomena showing that
Hardy "tested" revisions, altering or rejecting initial revisions. In the
following discussion, it is understood that the manuscript reading is also in
Harper's Bazar — that is, that the Harper book text
alone contains the American variant. Again, the second revision is in
Macmillan's Magazine. These revisions, while fairly
numerous,
are minor. They include both additions to the text and revisions of extant
passages. For example, to the Harper book text is added a Shakespearean
allusion, "like Horatio," which in
Macmillan's Magazine is
revised further to "like Hamlet's friend" (p. 264). An animistic description
added in the second set of proof sheets about "funereal trees" singing dirges
occurs in a different context in
Macmillan's Magazine than
it
had in the Harper book text, and it also acquires a slightly different
wording in the English serial. In the Harper book the passage is: "Deep
darkness circled her about,
the funereal trees rocked and chanted
their
diriges and placebos around her and she [Grace] did not know which
way to go" (p. 293; italics mine). Feeling perhaps that "placebos" was too
esoterically ironic, Hardy deleted the ingratiating
quality of the sound of wind in the trees for
Macmillan's
Magazine, and corrected the spelling of "dirges:" "Mrs. Charmond's
furs consoled Grace's cold face; and each one's body, as she breathed,
alternately heaved against that of her companion; while the funereal trees
rocked, and chanted dirges unceasingly" (p. 292). Plants crushed by the
wheels of Melbury and Grace's gig are "strange" in the manuscript,
"strange and ordinary" in the Harper book, and "strange and common" in
Macmillan's Magazine (p. 164). In the manuscript Melbury
tells
Grace that if she marries Fitzpiers she will have "a blithe romantical life;"
in the Harper book it is "a high intellectual life," and in
Macmillan's
Magazine "a high, perusing life" (p. 192). Mrs. Charmond's noble
spirit is subject to "fierce assaults of introspection" in the manuscript, to
"fierce periods of stress and storm" in the Harper book, and to "fierce
periods of high-tide and storm" in
Macmillan's Magazine
(p. 281). Giles "said" in the manuscript, "said . . . within himself" in the
Harper book, and "said . . . to himself" in
Macmillan's
Magazine (p. 350). In order to prevent her from realizing the
sacrifice he is making by sleeping outside while giving her his hut, Giles
hides from Grace his "pallor" in the manuscript, his "color" in the Harper
book, and his "sickliness" in
Macmillan's Magazine (p.
367).
