HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE H0088 10/30/00 "PONY'S NAME IN A PAIR OF BLUE EYES" ============================================================ From: "Patrick Roper" Subject: Why Pansy?--Renamed " Pony's name in A pair of blue Eyes Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 17:59:21 -0000 We have recently discussed a number of aspects of Hardy's novel 'A Pair of Blue Eyes' and I wonder if there is any theory (or known fact) as to why TH called Elfride Swancourt's pony 'Pansy'? Was it because he knew of a pony of that name, or was it, perhaps, the name of Emma Gifford's pony? Whatever the case, I do like to look for shadows behind every tree. Mention of pansies crops up in Poe's poem 'For Annie' but, rather more interestingly, in Thomas Ashe's (1836-1889) 'Meet we no angels Pansie?: Came, on a Sabbath noon, my sweet, In white, to find her lover; The grass grew proud beneath her feet, The green elm-leaves above her:-- Meet we no angels, Pansie? She said, 'We meet no angels now'; And soft lights stream'd upon her; And with white hand she touch'd a bough; She did it that great honour:-- What! meet no angels, Pansie? O sweet brown hat, brown hair, brown eyes, Down-dropp'd brown eyes, so tender! Then what said I? Gallant replies Seem flattery, and offend her:-- But--meet no angels, Pansie? This, self-evidently, has nothing to do with ponies and I cannot find the date it was written so TH may not have been aware of it when he was writing APOBE. Having recently read Meg Cronin's fascinating paper '"As a Diamond Kills an Opal": Charm and Countercharm in Thomas Hardy's A Pair of Blue Eyes', the allusion to eyes in the last stanza may be relevant in the sense that many writers of that period were conscious of 'eye magic'. It also occurred to me that Pansy might have been a popular equine name. By web searching I have found horses so-named, but all post-Hardy, so perhaps their owners are simply using the precedent he set. Patrick Roper ========== Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 11:46:17 -0800 From: Betty Cortus Subject: Re: Why Pansy? Dear patrick, I just looked at Martin Ray's poetry concordance, and the word pansy only occurs once, in line thirteen of the poem "The Unplanted Primrose." The flowers "pansies, pinks, and hollyhocks" describe a garden setting, but poem has nothing to connect it to PBE. Hardy's note states that the story comes from an old MS. Not much help I'm afraid. Betty Cortus hardycor@mailhost2.csusm.edu ========== From: erb@segr.demon.co.uk (Roy Buckle) Subject: Re: Why Pansy? Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 21:25:09 GMT In Emma's 'Some Recollections' she refers to her pony as 'Fanny'. 'Pansy' sounds a little similar and one feels perhaps the resemblance was no accident! -- Roy Buckle ========== From: Martin Ray Sender: enl090@abdn.ac.uk Subject: Re: Pansy Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2000 11:39:14 -0500 (EST) P According to Emma's "Some Recollections", her pony was called Fanny. One can see how this might have mutated into Pansy, but I don't wish to speculate further. All the best Martin Department of English University of Aberdeen Aberdeen Scotland, UK m.ray@abdn.ac.uk ==========