In "Far From the Madding Crowd," Thomas Hardy's chief male protagonist, Gabriel Oak, at one points finds himself in a drinking establishment called Warren's Malthouse, getting to know the locals and in the process, trying to find out more about his former neighbor and now prospective employer, Bathsheba Everdene to whom he had once unsuccessfully proposed marriage.
The other men first claimed not to know much about Bathsheba, who only a few days earlier had taken over a nearby farm that had been owned by her recently deceased uncle, but after Oak persisted, asking if anyone knew her father and mother, one man, Jacob Smallbury, said he had known them a little before both had died some years earlier. Smallbury then pressed the maltster for details, a request that prompted various others to weigh in as well.
In a nutshell Bathsheba's father had married a very attractive woman whom he adored; he may or may not have been wealthy between bankruptcies, and, most interestingly, he apparently had a certain weakness: a rather strong desire to chase after pretty girls despite his good fortune in marriage.
"Well, now, you'd hardly believe it, but that man -- our Miss Everdene's father -- was one of the ficklest husbands alive, after a while," said a man named Mr. Coggan. "Understand, 'a didn't want to be fickle, but he couldn't help it. The poor feller were faithful and true to her in his wish, but his heart would rove, do what he would."
Among other things, this brings to mind Dante's "Commedia" in which he postulates that man is endowed with love and intellect, or desire and reason, and that they need to be harmonized.
In this case, Levi Everdene's desire was pointed in one direction and his will in another.
It could have been a disaster in the making, but according to Mr. Coggan, Everdene came up with what might be thought of as a rather ingenious if somewhat problematic workaround.
After his shop closed for the day and they sat together, Everdene made Bathsheba's mother take off her wedding ring. He then called her by her maiden name and pursued her as if he were enjoying the transgressive delights of adultery.
"As soon as he could thoroughly fancy he was doing wrong and committing the seventh, 'a got to like her as well as ever and they lived on a perfect picture of mutel love," Coggan said. The reference, of course, is one of the 10 Commandments.
"Well, 'twas a most ungodly remedy," murmured Joseph Poorgrass (another one of the locals); "but we ought to feel deep cheerfulness that a happy Providence kept it from being any worse. You see, he might have gone the bad road and given his eyes to unlawfulness entirely -- yes, gross unlawfulness, so to say it."
"You see," said Billy Smallbury, "the man's will was to do right, sure enough, but his heart didn't chime in."
And, as the years went by, Levi Everdene apparently became "quite godly," by among other things, copying verses from tombstones and serving as a godfather "to poor little come-by-chance children."
Well, that was a narrow escape, wasn't it? Good thing his wife was apparently a very fetching woman who evidently found pleasure in the game as well.
,
No comments:
Post a Comment