"He looked at his watch by the aid of a light" by Walter Paget (1863-1935)

He looked at his watch by the aid of a light

Walter Paget (1863-1935)

1860

20.3 cm high by 14.4 cm wide.

Illustrated London News (8 October 1892): 457

Scene from Chapter IV (continued), "The Lonely Pedestrian" (p. 457) of Thomas Hardy's The Pursuit of The Well-Beloved: A Sketch of a Temperament.

Scanned image, caption, and commentary by Philip V. Allingham.

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Commentary

Here Jocelyn Pearston accidentally meets Marcia Bencomb, daughter of his father's rival in the stone business, as she is running away from home in a fit of pique with her dictatorial father (whose chief criticism,that she over-spends her allowance when shopping, may well be justified). Hardy, ever ready to allude to the classics, has probably patterned the couple's taking refuge under the fishing-boat during the storm upon Virgil's having had his hero, Æneas, seek the shelter of a cave with Dido, Queen of Carthage (and a favourite of the goddess Juno, whom Marcia resembles in Jocelyn's estimation) in the fourth book of the Æneid. After the shared intimacy of the cramped space under the boat, despite the Capulet-Montague rivalry between their families, Marcia completely displaces Avice Caro in his affections in the instant. The two travel together from Weymouth to Waterloo Station, London, and decide to marry--which, in the original (serial) version they do.

Although Jocelyn's suit and shoes in plate 3 are consistent with those he is wearing in plate 2, the hat in the earlier plate is a squared off, wider brimmed "sporting" hat (complete with ribband) while that in the later plate is a more business-like bowler. Despite the chronological setting circa mid-century, Jocelyn, Avis, and Marcia are wearing the fashions of 1890s -- note in particular Avis's stylish straw hat and skirts in plate 2.

References

Hardy, Thomas. The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved. The Illustrated London News, 8 October--17 December, 1892. Pp. 426-775.

Hardy, Thomas. The Well-Beloved with The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved (1892). Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Classics, 2000.

Jackson, Arlene M. Illustration and the Novels of Thomas Hardy. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1981.

Last modified 25 August 2002