The Manuscript "Nethermere II": General
Features
Andrew Robertson states that "Nethermere II" is entirely written on
Boot's exercise paper (see WP xxiv). The list of paper types
in
the Appendix shows that this is not the case. Robertson also says that the
manuscript's pages were originally in 'gatherings of six pages folded once,
but these have been cut at the fold; the resulting sections of twelve written
pages (8 x 6.5 inches) are numbered consecutively by DHL in roman
numerals' (WP xxiv n.19). This is true of the entirely
rewritten
Part III, but the earlier parts have quires of various sizes. The manuscript
consists of long stretches of one particular paper type, interspersed with
pages of different paper types which appear to have been written after the
main body of the text. This suggests that Lawrence would tend to buy a
batch of paper of a particular type, use it up, and then buy a new batch
which was sometimes made by a different manufacturer.
One way of dating the pages would be to compare the paper with the
types of paper used for Lawrence's letters between 1906 and 1910. Helen
Baron's paper analysis of Sons and Lovers shows that during
1911-14 Lawrence often used the same paper for writing his novels and his
letters. Comparatively few letters survive from 1906-10 but they show that
Lawrence usually wrote his letters on special sheets of writing paper. He
only occasionally used paper types similar to those used in "Nethermere II".
These are recorded in the Appendix of this article, but in view of their
scarcity there is insufficient evidence to establish that letters from a certain
period were being written at the same time as certain pages of "Nethermere
II".
There are five different types of handwriting in "Nethermere II".
Lawrence's hand forms the bulk of the script. Twelve pages are in an
unknown hand. The hands of Agnes Mason, Agnes Holt and Helen Corke
appear on pages which they copied out neatly, and Corke also wrote
revisions throughout the manuscript. All three women were Croydon
school-teachers. Mason worked at the same school as Lawrence and
remained his friend throughout his Croydon years; Holt, whom Lawrence
briefly contemplated marrying in the autumn of 1909, met him at an
unknown date and continued their relationship until she moved to the Isle
of Man in mid-1910; Corke met Lawrence briefly through Mason in late
1908, but was intimate with him only from September 1909 until he left
Croydon in March 1912.
It is unclear exactly when Mason and Holt did their copying. Andrew
Robertson suggests that Holt copied her seventy-six pages during the
revision period which he believes Lawrence undertook in between Hueffer's
appraisal of the novel during November 1909 and the manuscript being sent
to Heinemann in December (see WP xxvi-xxvii). He dates
Mason's writing in the final revision period of February-April 1910. John
Worthen suggests, however, that
although Agnes Holt had been DHL's unofficial fiancée in the
autumn of 1909— she copied into his poetry notebook those of the
poems
published in the November 1909
English Review—they
agreed not to marry sometime in the winter of 1909: almost certainly before
Christmas. Although they remained friendly, this cooling of their
relationship suggests that she might not thereafter have been so available (or
willing) to copy, and that she may well have done her stint earlier. . . . As
Agnes Mason's first 6 pages of copying (and some thereafter) clearly
followed on from Agnes Holt's 76 pages, that part of their work almost
certainly represents DHL's attempt to get the manuscript into a presentable
form for Hueffer in the second half of 1909.
[8]
Datings must remain tentative, owing to the lack of biographical
evidence, but Worthen's judgment concerning the probabilities is
persuasive. Agnes Mason's involvement appears to be more complicated
than that of Holt's; her pages are not in a single block of text and may have
been written at different times through the autumn of 1909 and spring of
1910.
Most of Helen Corke's accounts say that she became involved with
the revision of the novel in 1910, when her relationship with Lawrence
developed into a closer intimacy. Her diary of the period has an entry dated
25 March 1910 which refers to 'some folios of David's story which [she
was] revising for him' (CY 6). She remembers that in
February
Lawrence asked her to 'read the manuscript and make suggestions,
especially marking passages showing prolixity'.[9] They also worked together on the
manuscript at her home, when she may have written corrections according
to Lawrence's direct instructions, although she does not say who did the
actual writing. Five pages of the final manuscript are in her hand, but there
are also corrections and re-wordings
scattered throughout the work, confirming her memory of the extent of her
involvement.
