In stagnant blackness they waited through an interval which seemed endless by D. A. Wehrschmidt. Plate 2 in the London Graphic, 18 July 1891, p. 73, from for the monthly serialisation of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the Durbervilles, Chapter IV: The Death of Prince, the Durbeyfield horse. 22.5 cm high x 29 cm long (9 by 11 ⅝ by inches). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: A Disastrous Accident with the Mail-car
He mounted and sped on his way; while Tess stood and waited. The atmosphere turned pale, the birds shook themselves in the hedges, arose, and twittered; the lane showed all its white features, and Tess showed hers, still whiter. The huge pool of blood in front of her was already assuming the iridescence of coagulation; and when the sun rose a hundred prismatic hues were reflected from it. Prince lay alongside, still and stark; his eyes half open, the hole in his chest looking scarcely large enough to have let out all that had animated him.
“’Tis all my doing — all mine!” the girl cried, gazing at the spectacle. “No excuse for me — none. What will mother and father live on now? Aby, Aby!” She shook the child, who had slept soundly through the whole disaster. “We can’t go on with our load — Prince is killed!”
When Abraham realized all, the furrows of fifty years were extemporized on his young f ace.
“Why, I danced and laughed only yesterday!” she went on to herself. “To think that I was such a fool!”
“’Tis because we be on a blighted star, and not a sound one, isn’t it, Tess?” murmured Abraham through his tears.
In silence they waited through an interval which seemed endless. At length a sound, and an approaching object, proved to them that the driver of the mail-car had been as good as his word. A farmer’s man from near Stourcastle came up, leading a strong cob. He was harnessed to the waggon of beehives in the place of Prince, and the load taken on towards Casterbridge. [Book First, Chapter III, pp. 74-76; 1897 volume edition, pp. 37-38]
Note: The first illustration of this serialised version, and the next few, are by different illustrators. For the full sequence, please consult the complete list of illustrations.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
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.
Jackson, Arlene M. Illustration and the Novels of Thomas Hardy. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1981.
Created 5 December 2000
Last modified 5 May 2024