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Clare came down from the landing above in his shirt-sleeves, and put his arms across the stair-way.
D. A. Wehrschmidt
26 September 1891
30.5 cm high x 19 cm wide (12 ½ by 7 ⅝ inches)
Plate 12 in for the weekly serialisation of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, in The Graphic, Chapter XXXVIII, p. 357
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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His manner was — what man’s is not? — so much that of one who would love and cherish and defend her under any conditions, changes, charges, or revelations, that her gloom lessened as she basked in it. The season meanwhile was drawing onward to the equinox, and though it was still fine, the days were much shorter. The dairy had again worked by morning candlelight for a long time; and a fresh renewal of Clare’s pleading occurred one morning between three and four.
She had run up in her bedgown to his door to call him as usual; then had gone back to dress and call the others; and in ten minutes was walking to the head of the stairs with the candle in her hand. At the same moment he came down his steps from above in his shirt-sleeves and put his arm across the stairway.
“Now, Miss Flirt, before you go down,” he said peremptorily. “It is a fortnight since I spoke, and this won’t do any longer. You must tell me what you mean, or I shall have to leave this house. My door was ajar just now, and I saw you. For your own safety I must go. You don’t know. Well? Is it to be yes at last?” [Chapter XXXVIII, p. 358, top of column 2; in the 1897 volume edition, Phase the Fourth, "The Consequence," Chapter XXIX, 238]
The would-be lovers' relationship has now advanced considerably since the September 19th instalment. We are now at the head of what was the Graphic's twelfth weekly instalment (Book Three: Chapters XXVIII to XXX). Tess is above (centre) in the early morning hours, seemingly unalarmed to be alone with Angel, back towards the viewer. N. N. Feltes is critical of the illustrator's adjusting the situation from the letter-press's "he" to "Clare" in the caption because doing so fixes
the male figure not as "Angel" and certainly not as the object of Tess's intimate consciousness, which is the vantage point in Hardy's description of the encounter. Indeed the illustration presents not Tees's perspective on Angel at all but rather a view of Tess by candlelight at the top of the stairs, from a vantage point behind Angel's back. [Feltes, 72]
The illustration, does, however, give the reader an alternate perspective. Angel now blocks her way in order to compel a positive reply to his proposal. Tess, despite her reservations, gazes at Clare "brim-full, pent up" (a description which Hardy dropped in the volume) as, "holding the candle sideways, she turned up her face and rounded eyes, and tried to smile away the seriousness of her words."
The disposition in the plate implies that Angel has placed Tess on a pedestal, both romantically and figuratively. Her expression reveals her love and none of her distress. Wehrschmidt gives up Angel's resolute pursuit without much psychological complexity, showing Tess's equivocation. It admirably sums up the chance nature of the romantic relationship as the close proximity of the young, educated man of the upper-middle class and the dairymaid has led up to this moment. Their poses clarify their attitudes towards one another at Talbothays: she, the hunted in an oxymoron of clashing feelings, "a terrifying bliss" (XXVIII: 358), wishing and yet not wishing to be caught; he, the pursuer, not really knowing the inner nature of his amatory prey. The pursuit continues.
Note: The next illustration is by a different illustrator. For the full sequence, please consult the complete list of illustrations.
Allingham, Philip V. "The Original Illustrations for Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles Drawn by Daniel A. Wehrschmidt, Ernest Borough-Johnson, and Joseph Sydall for the Graphic (1891)." The Thomas Hardy Year Book, No. 24 (1997): 3-50.
Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the D'Urbervilles in the Graphic, 1891, 4 July-26 December, pp. 11-761.
Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the D'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman. Vol. I. The Wessex Novels. London: Osgood, McIlvaine, 1897.
Jackson, Arlene M. Illustration and the Novels of Thomas Hardy. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1981.
Feltes, Norman N. "Lateral Advance: Tess and the Necessities of Magazine Publication." Modes of Production of Victorian Novels. Chicago: U. Chicago Press, 1986, pp. 57-75.
Vann, J. Don. "Tess of the D'Urbervilles in the Graphic, 4 July 26 — December 1891." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985, pp. 88-89.
Created 5 December 2000
Last updated 9 May 2025