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"I don't drink now — I haven't since that night."
Robert Barnes
30 January 1886 (Part Five)
Composite Woodblock Engraving
17.6 cm high by 22.7 cm wide — 6 ¾ by 8 ¾ inches
Dickens's The Mayor of Casterbridge, Chapter XI, p. 133.
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See below for passage illustrated and commentary.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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Just before eight he approached the deserted earth-work and entered by the south path which descended over the débris of the former dens. In a few moments he could discern a female figure creeping in by the great north gap, or public gateway. They met in the middle of the arena. Neither spoke just at first — there was no necessity for speech — and the poor woman leant against Henchard, who supported her in his arms.
“I don’t drink,” he said in a low, halting, apologetic voice. “You hear, Susan? — I don’t drink now — I haven’t since that night.” Those were his first words.
He felt her bow her head in acknowledgment that she understood. After a minute or two he again began:
“If I had known you were living, Susan! But there was every reason to suppose you and the child were dead and gone. I took every possible step to find you — travelled — advertised. My opinion at last was that you had started for some colony with that man, and had been drowned on your voyage. Why did you keep silent like this?” [Chapter XI in volume, 53]
From the high embankment behind the middle-aged lovers we may deduce that the scene is the grass-covered Roman amphitheatre. And what better place for a clandestine meeting than in the Ring at Casterbridge on the Budmouth Road? In Susan Henchard's fourth and final appearance in Robert Barnes's narrative-pictorial sequence in the fifth weekly illustration Susan now seems different in both function and appearance: cherished and happily reunited, she collapses into Henchard's embrace amidst the growing shadows of the ancient arena; an older figure yet echoing still the maternal one of the initial illustration. Here at least, after weary miles on foot, an older woman, now bent in figure, finds support and comfort in the arms of her first, reformed husband. Her conventional womanliness Barnes emphasizes "by her physically submissive posture as she leans upon Henchard (grown seemingly several inches taller for the occasion) in a highly romanticized rendering of their meeting in the Ring" (Dalziel, 68). Black, the colour of the mourning that Susan wears for the common-law husband lost at sea, marks her for death, which the February 20th illustration of Elizabeth-Jane and Henchard in deep mourning signals has occurred. Henceforth, the figures of her daughter and her husband dominate the pictorial sequence: Henchard appears in nine illustrations, Farfrae in eight, and Lucetta Templeman (about to be introduced) in five.
Although the reunion scene serves as the headpiece for the fourth weekly instalment, that number opens with Chapter X, so that the moment realised occurs towards the conclusion of the instalment. Consequently, the placement of the picture leaves the reader in considerable suspense, although Susan's gamble appears to have achieved the desired result: reunion with her first husband, and economic relief for her daughter and herself.
Allingham, Philip V. "A Consideration of Robert Barnes' Illustrations for Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge as Serialised in the London Graphic: 2 January-15 May, 1886." Victorian Periodicals Review 28, 1 (Spring 1995): pp. 27-39.
Dalziel, Pamela. "Whatever Happened to Elizabeth Jane?: Revisioning Gender in The Mayor of Casterbridge." Thomas Hardy: Texts and Contexts, ed. Philip Mallett. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. Pp. 64-86. https://doi.org/10.1057/97881403919335_5.
Hardy, Thomas. The Mayor of Casterbridge. The Graphic 33 (2 January-15 May 1886).
Hardy, Thomas. The Mayor of Casterbridge: A Story of a Man of Character. London: Osgood McIlvaine, 1895.
Jackson, Arlene. "The Mayor of Casterbridge: Realism and Metaphor."Illustration and the Novels of Thomas Hardy. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1981. Pp. 96-104.
Created 28 July 2001
Last modified 19 March 2024