HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE H02003 1/6/02 "MOULE FAMILY IN HARDY'S WRITING" =================================================================== From: "Michael Barry" Subject: Re: Horace Moule as the model for Boldwood in *FFMC*? Date: 6 Jan 2002 01:45:47 -0000 I had meant to respond to this earlier posting and apologize for the lateness of doing so. I didn't manage to follow the strand at the time, so my comment may be redundant. And anyway, these references are to father Henry Moule and eldest of 7 brothers, Henry Joseph Moule. As Horace Moule is not mentioned, what follows may be irrelevant to Rosemarie? When I was working on the script of "Old Mrs Chundle" (and yes I know - further apologies for inaction on the 4 or 5 orders outstanding for this - I will get going on this very soon!), I became aware that the Curate on the story (written 1888-90) was based on one of the Moule brothers. Editor Pamela Dalziel says in her intro "Hardy's purpose...seems to have been... to realize on paper the possibilities, at once poignant and comic, of an anecdote about a man who had been important to him (the Rev Henry Moule) received - it would appear - from a man who had been dear to him (Henry Joseph Moule, Henry Moule's eldest son). His failure to publish the story presumably derived from a sense that the Henry moule figure appeared in a less than sympathetic light, but he may also have been aware that his treatment of the unnamed curate - like his depiction of the Rev James Clare, another Henry Moule figure, in Tess.... - revealed complexities and possible contradictions in his own attitudes towards religion and the pastoral office". In her notes the Editor backs up the OMC curate- Moule connection - and interestingly refers to "his other Moule story "A Changed Man" - his courageous labours during the Dorchester cholera epidemic...". This may clarify or confuse?! Best wishes Michael (Frivolous Competition Prize-winner) Bar ========== Date: Tue, 08 Jan 2002 00:38:50 -0500 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Horace Moule as the model for Boldwood in *FFMC*? Michael, I'm not quite sure where we are going with this --but no matter: Just to say that to my knowledge Hardy's friendship with Horace was altogether rather different from his friendship with the rest of the Moule family, with whom he was also close. It's hard to judge the degree of anyone's affections -- unless by their actions and to some extent by how others also directly perceive their actions -- but possibly this is Michael Millgate's territory anyway. Just to add one small thing: and it is this. That although we have active indications of Hardy's very deep affection for Horace there is also a strangely -- what-- "fragmented?-- set of occurrences that link Hardy with Henry in a similarly warm and intimate friendship . I discovered these connections when looking through the Purdy papers at the Beinecke some years ago (years ago -- this is why I'm vague, at this point, I'm afraid) and found Hardy's published introduction to (I think it was ) "Dorset Antiquities." This introduction (if I am correct in my citation) gave every indication of a continuous yet at times fragmented (split?) fond relationship with Henry which had overtones of intense engagement and regrets: these two-- Hardy and Henry Moule would, through the years, frequently go water-colour painting together in Dorset. I don't have the papers in front of me however, and cannot, therefore, be precise ( in support of some of your points about Hardy's complicated relationship with Henry). Suffice it to say that there existed a complicated and intense friendship between Henry and Hardy as well as between Horace and Hardy and that I've done absolutely nothing to clarify it! Best wishes Rosemarie ========== From: "Michael Barry" Subject: Re: Horace Moule as the model for Boldwood in *FFMC*? Date: 11 Jan 2002 02:59:05 -0000 Well I must admit I'm certainly confused - as to which Henry you're referring to (re "warm and intimate friendship") - presumably "son"?? And where does Horace fit in? One of the other 6 children presumably? And it would be the father who was the model for OMC and Changed Man and maybe James Clare? There's a book here somewhere! Michael Barry ========== Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 16:53:29 -0500 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Horace Moule as the model for Boldwood in *FFMC*? Sorry about the "confusion," Michael. Henry Joseph (eldest of the seven brothers) would be the watercolorist companion. I'd have to go back and take another look at the archives -- this is all very much off the top of my head (slap me!) -- I inferred a closeness between the two from the frequency of letters and and meetings mentioned by Hardy -- and his tone! The tone is distinctly "brotherly" where Hardy customarily sounds rather formal in his personal writings. Horace (Horatio) Moule, on the other hand, who was I think the fourth brother, was, without a doubt, very close indeed to Hardy. Their friendship seems to have gone back at least as far as Hardy's teen years when Horace (8 yrs older) gave him a copy of Hogg's *Natural Philosophy* and also helped Hardy with his Greek: do we have a Phillotson here? (Sorry purists). Horace, unlike any of Hardy's fictional males, was exceptionally accomplished as a young man -- a literary figure of note, a publishing poet and critic, a musician and philosopher as well as being glamorous and physically attractive. Of deep significance also is the fact that Hardy would often be at Horace's side when the latter was in recovery after heavy drinking bouts. Their friendship was well-tried and enduring. But I'd better stop. Hope this helps to clear up some of the confusion. Cheers Rosemarie ============ From: "James Gibson" Subject: Henry Joseph Moule Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2002 23:04:32 -0000 Just a little addition to the discussion about the Moule family. There is a short book published by the DCM, which accompanied an exhibition of Henry Joseph's paintings a few years ago, which is is an interesting guide to his life and work: *A Victorian's View of Dorset:The life and watercolours of Henry Joseph Moule MA, 1825-1904* by Gwen Yarker. (There is also a list of all the Moule brothers.) The paintings (mostly in the DCM collection) are a fascinating record of C19th Dorset. When H.J. and Hardy came back to live in Dorset in the early 1880s their friendship seems to have been renewed; H.J.referring to Hardy as 'my old and valued friend.' Moule was the first curator of the DCM from 1883. When he was in ill-health towards the end of his life, he stayed at Max Gate in order to be close to a doctor. During this time Hardy went away to London, and H.J. wrote to him from 'The Study, Max Gate'! All best, Helen Gibson ========== From: "Michael Barry" > Subject: Re: Horace Moule as the model for Boldwood in *FFMC*? - and others! Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2002 06:04:21 -0000 ========== This is amazing - though sorry for obviously retreading old ground! So we have Henry Moule, pere, providing a model for: - James Clare - Curate in OMC - Jack Maumbry in Changed Man And 4th son Horace, providing a model for: - Boldwood? - Phillotson (can't remember him, but I'm still a beginner on the novels) - Henry Knight in Blue Eyes (according to intro) With eldest son Henry creating all those lovely water-colours. What a lot of material from one family! Have I missed any other literary connections? Re-reading the intro to Blue Eyes led me on an interesting train of thought: Smith, Elfride and Knight supposedly mirror Hardy, Emma and Horace Moule. (I've just reached the episode on the church tower which I suspect is setting up a later event on a cliff edge which led my Comp co-winner to label the book a "cliff-hanger" - all will be revealed!). The evening before this I'd at last caught up with the film "Pandemonium", shot locally earlier last year (I live in Somerset's Quantock Hills) and dealing with another triangular relationship, that between Coleridge, and William and Dorothy Wordsworth - though possibly with some level of artistic licence! Coleridge lived, for 3 years I think, in the nearby village of Nether Stowey, and the Wordsworths would visit and stay in Alfoxton, a big house in the opposite direction village of Holford. At the end of the day, tradition has it that the Wordsworths would walk Coleridge half-way back to Stowey, parting from him "outside the miners' house" (my own house was head-quarters for 120 years of the old Dodington copper mines). Coleridge was supported by a wealthy and enthusiastic tanner in Stowey, called Tom Poole. Poole told the threesome the story of John Walford, a highly intelligent totally illiterate charcoal-burner, who in 1789 killed his wife of 17 days in such desperation that the judge wept openly at his plight while condemning him to be hanged. The murder occurred alongside the boundary of our house, and the hanging at the opposite side of the same fiel d (Walford's Gibbet is still on current published maps). My theatre company, the Wessex Actors Company, which as you may remember toured Hardy's own Tess last year (did I tell you that the original Liza-Lu, Gertrude Bugler's young sister, came to see our Corn Exchange performance?) - will be touring "Dead Woman's Ditch" in March-April and Sept-Oct this year. This is my own dramatisation of the Walford story. Wordsworth was so affected by Poole's story (Poole, as a boy, having known Walford personally) that he apparently wrote a lengthy poem, which was either lost or destroyed due to being too morbid. In dramatising it myself, it frequently struck me as a story that might have prompted Hardy had he known of it - with his preference for tragic endings and his liking for hangings! To bring this meandering thought full circle, albeit weakly: I guess I ought to stop reading "A Pair of Blue Eyes" for now and put more work into the Walford production! Sorry if this has been too long for etiquette. Thanks for the intriguing news of the role played by the Moules, however - fascinating! Michael Barry ========== Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2002 15:43:55 -0500 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Horace Moule as the model for Boldwood in *FFMC*? - and others! This is marvellous, Michael! -- (aside from the linking of Horace Moule with Boldwood -- had Boldwood been as artistically-talented, poetic, witty and handsome as HM he might have received more than a Valentine from Bathsheba...) Actually, I'm picking up on your comment on Hardy's "liking for hangings"; just to say that if you'd lived where you now live through the 17th -19th centuries you'd have found yourself well-catered-for at the gallows. Following Judge Jeffries' "Bloody Assize" in 1685 hangings featured widely across Dorset. Jeffries (Jeffreys) started the practice of sending those he had condemned to death to be hanged in different parts of the county as a warning to deter others from rebellion (Hardy's antecedents had participated in the Monmouth rebellion). Hence the ubiquitous gallows -- some of them erected at turnpike points to catch the rubber-neckers of the day. It was also required that public executions be entered into parish records and made available to visitors in church vestries. Hardy was about 16 years old when he witnessed the hanging of a young woman (Martha Browne) who had murdered her husband. The execution, in Dorchester, was attended by a crowd of 3-4 thousand who, evidently, also had a "liking for hangings." Good luck with the new play-- Michael. I look forward to seeing it! With every good wish, Rosemarie ========== Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2002 11:46:50 +1100 From: David Cornelius Subject: Re: Horace Moule as the model for Boldwood in *FFMC*? - and others! I don't know whether anyone has pointed out that the Moules - father and son - figure as likely models for the Rev Clare and Angel in "Tess". Michael's comment on Hardy "with his preference for tragic endings and his liking for hangings!" probably needs fine-tuning. Hardy's use of the fictional hanging of Tess, and his article on the hanging of Martha Browne, as a means of highlighting for his reading public the injustices in the English judicial system particularly in regards to its treatment of women. The hanging of the alleged rick-burner in "The Withered Arm" also illustrated his concern with laws that protected property owners at the expense of any concern for social justice. The hangman as a dark representative of wealthy landowners casts a shadow on the jolly company in "The Three Strangers". On the other hand, the smugglers in "The Distracted Preacher" were set free. Just some thoughts. Regards, David Cornelius ========== From: "K Eldron" Subject: Re: Literary Moules Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2002 08:45:41 -0000 I haven't been able to follow all this correspondence so apologies in advance if I'm repeating things already said........ Michael Barry wrote: "Have I missed any other literary connections?" Henry Moule certainly has a modern literary connection - he is one of the leading characters in Entertaining Strangers, David Edgar's superb 1980s "community play for Dorchester" about the 1849 cholera epidemic. Off topic (but still in Wessex): I'm fascinated by Michael Barry's Wordsworth/Coleridge digression and that he lives near Nether Stowey - I'm in the middle of reading the marvellous diaries (1799-1818) of the Revd William Holland, who was the vicar of nearby Over Stowey and no admirer of 'democrats' like the two poets and their patron, Tom Poole! K Eldron ========== From: "Alan Shelston" Subject: Re: Horace Moule as the model for Boldwood in *FFMC*? - and others! Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2002 09:59:11 -0000 David's point about the hanging at the end of the Tess is well-made. The whole novel is about 'injustice' and that should make us think about 'Justice was done'. I have always thought that (i) that the irony here is specific and not generalised and (ii) that somewhere in Hardy's mind at this point may have been the sense of what 'Justice' had invariably meant to working people in the west country - i.e. the kind of justice that was dispensed from the metropolitan centre at the assizes and that was as often as not brutal and absolute. The folk memory would have gone back to the seventeenth century certainly. 'One we knew' is to the point here, if only by analogy (st 6). And Tess's of course is a modern hanging - i.e. behind closed doors - which somehow intensifies the point I think. Incidentally as late as 1923 Hardy wrote his poem on the hanging of Edith (Ethel?) Thompson ('On the Portrait of a Woman About to be Hanged') - I don't think we can avoid the fact that he did have a macabre interest in the topic. Is all this too speculative? Alan Shelston, |University of manchester ========== Resent-Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2002 09:52:04 -0800 X-Authentication-Warning: coyote.csusm.edu: list set sender to HARDY-L-request@coyote.csusm.edu using -f From: "Michael Barry" To: Subject: Re: Horace Moule as the model for Boldwood in *FFMC*? - and others! Date: Wed, 1 Jan 1997 05:41:27 -0000 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 Resent-From: HARDY-L@csusm.edu X-Mailing-List: archive/latest/2118 Reply-To: HARDY-L@csusm.edu X-Loop: HARDY-L@coyote.csusm.edu Precedence: list Reply-To: Status: Yes, Rosemarie, I remember the story that Hardy had witnessed a hanging when young. When I was dramatising the short stories for my proposed TV series, this reverberated when I came to the high melodrama of The Withered Arm and The Three Strangers. And as regards the Monmouth Rebellion, I particularly liked The Duke's Reappearance - one of the earliest date settings amongst the short stories (with Master John Horseleigh, Knight perhaps the earliest). The battle referred to in Duke's Reappearance was, I think, the Battle of Sedgemoor, which occurred very close to us here (and was re-enacted a few years ago by the Sealed Knot). (This is from memory, as there was also I think a Battle of or near Bristol, as well). As regards audiences - I think John Walford had a similar turnout of 3000 approx. Hope they turn out again for the play! Michael Barry PS Just read David C's response. Yes certainly I would agree in finding Hardy a major social campaigner is his general use of events to highlight themes and situations in real life, not least in terms of the status of women. PPS Just read K Eldron's contribution! (I should read first, then respond, I guess!). Yes I'm aware of the Holland diaries, but haven't read them. My favourite are from that splendidly flawed character, John Skinner, Rector of Camerton, near Bath ("Journal of a Somerset Rector 1803-1834") - but that's another story! Certainly "Pandemonium" deals quite explicitly with the Government's concern at Coleridge's "democratic" trouble-making, and does, I think, suggest that Wordsworth "sold his soul" and betrayed Coleridge to the forerunner of MI5, possibly because he got Dorothy hooked on opium. Where fact and fiction diverge, I've no idea! ==========