HO4079 DECEMBER 2004 NOTES AND QUERIES- 12/01/04 - HARDY FORUM ARCHIVES
DEFINITION OF "BADGERED" 3
QUAOTATION QUERY
WELCOME NEW MEMBER
FANNY ROBIN -RELATED POEM
HELP WITH COMMENTARY 4
ARTICLE IN JOURNAL REQUESTED 4
HARDY'S POEM "THE KITTEN"
WASSAILING
CHRISTMAS MUSIC
POEM "THE OXEN"
HAPPY NEW YEAR MESSAGE
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From: Rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu
Subject: Re: New on the Reviews Page
Date: November 30, 2004 2:19:02 PM PST
Shannon-- many thanks for the diligent work - The *Reviews* page is positively bulging at the seams with goodies -- bravo!
( hmm.. mm just pondering "badgered" -- why do we use this word when badgers keep very much to themselves and are not only nocturnal & stealthy but secretive, underground sett-builders?)
Glad to hear you have come through the black hole of the computer crash!
Good Luck!
Rosemarie
_____________
At 03:40 PM 11/30/2004, you wrote:
Just posted to the Reviews Page is Jeanie Smith's review of Thomas Hardy's Vision of Wessex by Simon Gatrell.
I want to thank Jeanie (as well as other reviewers I've badgered to stay on schedule) for her patience with me while I recovered from two computer crashes.
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From: harrybatt@mn.rr.com
Subject: Re: New on the Reviews Page
Date: November 30, 2004 2:58:20 PM PST
Hello Rosemarie: Hells Bells! ! You have badgered me into explaining
why why the trial attorney badgers rather than weasels, rabbits, or foxes a
witness. Credit for the answer that I have goes to "Word Detective" where
just about all the idioms of the English world are explained except Hells
Bells.
To wit: The verb "to badger," meaning "to persecute, pester or tease,"
appeared in the late 18th century, and reflects the once-common "sport" of
badger-baiting, when dogs would bet set to draw a badger from its burrow and
then fight with and eventually kill it. Thus, to "badger" a witness would
be to question him or her in a forceful, tenacious and hostile manner,
something Perry Mason would do only if the show had reached the point where
it was time for the guilty party to leap up and confess.
John Bridell, Minneapolis
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From: Rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu
Subject: Re: New on the Reviews Page
Date: November 30, 2004 3:21:41 PM PST
Oh -- ouch -- (ugh!) . .
Wish I'd never asked ...
Rosemarie
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From: helengibson@clara.co.uk
Subject: a Hardy quotation?
Date: December 2, 2004 11:33:26 AM PST
We have had a query about a Hardy quotation and I would be most grateful if anyone can tell me where it comes from - it sounds so familiar, but we have not yet located it:
The quotation is this: "It is better to know a little bit of the world remarkably well, than to know a great part remarkably little."
Thanking you in advance,
Helen Gibson
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From: hardycor@owl.csusm.edu
Subject: RE: Hardy and Somerset Maugham
Date: December 7, 2004 12:40:27 PM PST
Welcome to the Forum Robin. You may have joined after our annual Seasonal
Frolics began. We are awarding a prize for the best limerick on a Hardy
theme. My Dutch husband just reminded me that everyone in Holland writes
verse around Sinterklaas time, so how about a limerick from you?
Best Wishes,
Betty Cortus
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From: r.n.kok@chello.nl
Subject: RE: Hardy and Somerset Maugham
Date: December 8, 2004 6:51:38 AM PST
Oh dear, I thought I wittily evaded the sinterklaaspoems this year.
I'll try to think of something but I'm not sure I'll have the time, my car
just broke down and I'm quite busy for school, so I'm off for the rest of
the week.
This being, and before I bid you farewell for the weekend, I'm just
listening to Johnny Cash's "Mary of the wild moor" (American III) and it
sounds just like the song that would have fitted poor pregnant Fanny Robbin
when she made her last walk down from the city (sorry if it's too long
folks, I haven't quite found out the mailing list rules yet)
"Was on one cold winter's night
And the wind blew across the wild moor
Poor Mary came wand'ring with a child in her arms
And she stopped at her own father's door.
Oh, father, oh father, she cried
Come down and open the door
Or this child in my arms, will perish and die
From the winds that blow across the wild moor.
Oh why did I leave this fair spot
Where once I was happy and free
This wide world to roam, with no friends or no home
And no one to have pity on me.
But the father was deaf to her cry
Not the sound of her voice, did he hear
For the watch dogs did howl and the village bells tolled
And the winds blew across the wild moor.
Oh, how the old man must have felt
When he opened the door, the next morn'
And found Mary dead, but the child still alive
Clasped close in it's dead mother's arms.
In anguish, he pulled his gray hair
And the tears, down his cheeks, they did pour
When he saw how that night, they had perished and died
From the winds that blow across the wild moor.
The old man, his life, pined away
And the child, to it's mother, went soon
And no one they say, lives there to this day
And the old house, to ruin, has gone.
But the villagers point out the spot
And the willows droop over the door
Where poor mary died, once a sweet village bride
From the winds that blow across the wild moor."
Cheers,
Robin
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From: jackfar@mail.utexas.edu
Subject: help with commentary
Date: December 11, 2004 7:05:54 PM PST
I seem to have lost the citation to a passage on Hardy's style the first part of which is quoted below. Can anyone identify the source. I've looked in a number of likely places but have been unable to spot it.
Many thanks,
Jack Farrell
Hardy's scouring of the English language, his seeing all the words in the dictionary on one plane, entailed a deliberate restoration of good old English words, whether in dialect or in received literary usage, all testifying to his tireless quest for the right word. That this applies even more to his poetry than to his prose is easily explained by the requirements of metre and rhyme, for Hardy was a careful, if not fastidious, craftsman in verse, as his frequent revisions testify. But in prose, too, he was anxious not merely to display his word-hoard, as in the early novels, but to explore the resources of a millennium of English history to get his meaning across in the manner which best suited his aim and his ear.
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From: hardycor@owl.csusm.edu
Subject: Re: help with commentary
Date: December 12, 2004 2:24:31 PM PST
I was hoping someone would come forward by now with the citation you are
seeking Jack. This is not a passage I remember. I've looked through some
likely sources to no avail, so I hope some other member has the answer.
Good Luck
Betty
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From: wwmorgan@ilstu.edu
Subject: Re: help with commentary
Date: December 12, 2004 3:29:47 PM PST
Hi, John--
I'm on holiday in Key West (attending a son's wedding), so I don't have my
books around me, but I think the concept of Hardy's "single-plane dictionary"
orginates with Ralph Elliott in his *Thomas Hardy's English*. It's work
looking. Good luck.
Bill Morgan
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From: Rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu
Subject: Re: help with commentary
Date: December 12, 2004 7:36:26 PM PST
I have replied to this email privately, to John Farrell, because my opinion of the citation is not really for public consumption/
Thanks,
Rosemarie
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From: schweikr@localnet.com
Subject: Article in *English*
Date: December 14, 2004 10:27:03 AM PST
Dear Forum Members,
I recently dug up a reference to a newly-published article:
Edward Neill, Edward. '"Genetically Unmodfied': The Well-Beloved"
English 53: 2007 (2004), pp. 191-202.
I've entered that in TTHA's Checklist, but, of course, I wanted to read
the article so that I could provide a descriptive summary of it.
Unfortunately, our library tells me that it's far too new to get it on
interlibrary loan. Is there anyone out there who has access to
the journal *English* who can provide me with a brief description
of the argument it makes? You will, of course, be credited for that
information.
Many thanks!
Bob
Robert Schweik
University Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus
Department of English
State University of New York
Fredonia, NY 14063
USA
schweik@fredonia.edu
schweikr@localnet.com
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From: NHardyboy@aol.com
Subject: Re: Article in *English*
Date: December 14, 2004 6:10:23 PM PST
I believe this is chapter 12 of Neill's book, _The Secret Life of Thomas Hardy_ (Ashgate, 2004), which I've been reading in order to review for this site. Perhaps it's an earlier version of the chapter or the chapter in somewhat altered form? Anyway, hope this helps, Bob.
Paul Niemeyer
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From: schweikr@localnet.com
Subject: Re: Article in *English*
Date: December 15, 2004 5:53:02 AM PST
Many thanks, Paul!
Bob
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Resent-From: HARDY-L@csusm.edu
From: hardycor@owl.csusm.edu
Subject: Re: Article in *English*
Date: December 15, 2004 1:38:51 PM PST
To: HARDY-L@csusm.edu
Reply-To: HARDY-L@csusm.edu
Dear Fred Siedow,
Welcome to the Hardy Forum.
Here is a cat poem originally written for a children's book. It can be
found in the volume *Fifty-Seven Poems by Thomas Hardy.* I hope you will
enjoy it as much as I do.
THE KITTEN
I like warm milk, and fires aglow
On hearths; for I am, as you know,
A kitten.
I like to jump at your two feet,
Or clutch the inky letter sheet
Just written.
Or something hanging from above,
A bobbin, say; or claw your glove,
Or mitten.
Or handkerchief, or anything
That can without much damaging
Be bitten.
While, if you enter at the door,
And stroke me, I shall like you more,
For I am, as I said before,
A kitten.
Best Wishes,
Betty Cortus
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From: patrick@prassociates.co.uk
Subject: Wassailing
Date: December 17, 2004 9:23:16 AM PST
Having enjoyed all the limericks in the annual seasonal frolics, I feel
moved to report a seasonal frolic of my own, namely an attempt to organise a
wassailing evening in a local orchard.
Needless to say I have had a quick look to see if Thomas Hardy makes any
reference to this time-honoured custom and have come across the following in
The Dynasts when 'a spectator' says: "What a mampus o' folk it is here
to-day! And what a time we do live in, between wars and wassailings, the
goblin o'Boney, and King George in flesh and blood!"
This seems to be one of Hardy's lines that require some effort on the part
of the reader. I happen to know what wassailing is and who Boney was.
'Mampus', I eventually discovered, is a Dorset word for a crowd (as one
might guess) as well as a very rude word in Malay or Jamaican dialect and,
in the latter two instances, not one, I am sure, that Hardy knew or intended
to use. The sort of people who would have bought The Dynasts when it
appeared would, obviously, have been unfamiliar with the English dialect
word unless they came from Dorset.
'Wars and wassailings' is an interesting expression akin, I suppose to 'boom
and bust' (or 'bust and boom') and I wonder if it is pure Hardy or an
expression that was common at the time.
However, so far I have failed to unearth any other TH references to
wassailing and would be grateful to hear from anyone who knows of any. I am
sure it is a custom he would have been familiar with and akin to the mumming
plays he liked so much.
At least my pursuit has brought me to TH's poem Great Things which starts:
Sweet cyder is a great thing,
A great thing to me,
Spinning down to Weymouth town
By Ridgway thirstily,
And maid and mistress summoning
Who tend the hostelry:
O cyder is a great thing,
A great thing to me!
Sweet (and dry) cyder will indeed, I hope, be a great thing when we do our
wassailing here in Sussex early in the New Year.
Happy Christmas everyone.
Patrick Roper
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From: segr@segr-music.net
Subject: Christmas Music!
Date: December 21, 2004 3:15:58 PM PST
Hardy once said he would like to have been a cathedral organist.
Who wouldn't!
I recall sitting in the choir during a special recital in Kings Chapel at
Cambridge
when a very young man (Thomas Trotter the organ scholar) came leaping down
the stairs from the organ loft, after treating us visitors to
a tour de force, to explain that unlike in our old church organs the
action was electrically operated and required only moderate finger pressure
on the keys of the manuals whatever the extent of the coupling of stops
employed.
(Try it on a country church organ, especially when a tired choirboy (or
girl) is
hand-pumping round the back trying to keep the brass weight lowered and air
in the tank!)
Some of the recital items are included on my website (see "NEWS").
Perhaps Hardy was familiar with the Passacaglia and Fugue (JSBACH),
which would inspire anybody with the necessary fitness to operate the pedals
as well!
A joyful holiday to all!.
RB.
www.segr-music.net
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From: hardycor@owl.csusm.edu
Subject: Christmas Eve
Date: December 24, 2004 10:53:07 AM PST
I would like to share with you all one of Hardy's best-known, and most
poignant poems on this particular Eve.
Wishing you all you desire in the New Year,
Betty
THE OXEN
Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock.
'Now they are all on their knees,'
An elder said as we sat in a flock
by the embers in hearthside ease.
We pictured the meek mild creatures where
They dwelt in their strawy pen
Nor did it occur to one of us there
To doubt they were kneeling then.
So fair a fancy few would weave
In these years! Yet, I feel,
If someone said on Christmas Eve,
'Come; see the oxen kneel
'In the lonely barton by yonder coomb
Our childhood used to know,'
I should go with him in the gloom,
Hoping it might be so.
1915
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From: vinvivo@tin.it
Subject: Happy new Hardy Year
Date: December 31, 2004 2:44:46 PM PST
Happy New Hardy year
from Vincenzo Vivona
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