Classics Retold

Boldwood passed into the high road and turned in the direction of Casterbridge.  He passed the Buck's Head,  Casterbridge hill and descended down into the town. It was midnight.  The streets were deserted, the waving lamp-flames only lighted up the rows of gray shop shutters, and strips of white paving, upon which his steps echoed as he passed along.  He turned to the left and halted before an arching of old brown bricks, which was closed by an iron studded pair of doors.  This was the entrance to the jail, and over it a lamp was fixed, the light enabling him to find a bell-pull.  A small wicket at length opened, and a porter appeared.  Boldwood stepped forward and said something in a low tone, when after some delay, another man came. Then Boldwood entered, and the door was closed behind him, and he walked the world no more.  Weatherbury had been thoroughly shaken by the catastrophe.  Gabriel Oak was one among the first to come to the scene o...

In Chapter 54 of Far From The Madding Crowd Hardy describes Bathsheba opening the door of her room, where the dead body of her murdered husband sergeant Troy had been waiting for his last rites. Troy was murdered at the party hosted by Boldwood, and Bathsheba brought her dead husband to her house contravening the law;  Parson Mr Thirdly, surgeon Granthead, Gabriel Oak and others led by maid Liddy walked upstairs and were on the landing, while Liddy knocked the door. Bathsheba's footsteps were heard, the key turned in the lock and Bathsheba opened the door and stood before them like a slightly animated Melpomene.  Melpomene was one of the Nine Muses, being daughters of Zeus, and Mnemosyne. Nine Muses mean nine sisters. Originally associated with music, she later became the Muse of Tragedy. She is traditionally depicted as holding a tragic mask, a sword or club, and wearing tragic high boots (cothurnus) worn by actors in Greek Tragedy. Chapter 53 narrates the Christmas party hos...

Outside the front of Boldwood's house.  A group of men stood in the dark, their faces turned towards the door. It occasionally opened and closed again for the passage of guests or servants, a golden rod of light striping the gravel for the moment, and vanishing again, leaving nothing outside but the glow worm shine of the pale lamp amid the evergreens over the door.  "He was seen in Casterbridge this afternoon, so the boy said," whispered one of them.  "And I for one believe it.  His body was never found, you know."  "A strange story."  "You may depend upon it, that she knows nothing."  "Not a word."  "Perhaps he doesn't mean that she shall," said another man. "If he's alive, and here in the neighborhood, he means mischief," said the first.  "Poor girl, I do pity her. He'll drag her to the dogs."  "Oh, no, he'll settle down quiet enough," said one disposed to take a more hopefu...

In Chapter 53 of Far From The Madding Crowd, Hardy writes of Bathsheba: She was in a state of mental gutta Serena, her mind was totally deprived of light at the same time no obscuration was apparent from without.  Gutta serena is a Latin medical term, meaning clear drop or serene drop. In early medicine, it referred to a form of blindness in which the eyes appear perfectly clear and healthy, yet the person could not see.  Physicians believed the blindness arose from damage to the optic nerve rather than from any visible clouding of the eye.  Hardy uses the term metaphorically. Bathsheba has not become physically blind.  But the shock of Troy's sudden appearance overwhelms her mind.  She is so stunned that she cannot thank or act.  She seems incapable of responding, outwardly she remains conscious and her eyes are open. Inwardly, her mind had momentarily lost its light.  The phrase is an excellent example of Hardy borrowing medical terms to  descri...

Chapter 53 of Far From The Madding Crowd is titled "Concurritur Horaemomento". The meaning of the Latin phrase is "the battle is joined in a moment of time." There is a difference of opinion whether the line is from Horace's Satires or from Virgil's Aeneid. The text is often attributed to both authors. The meaning of the expression is "people came running together in the space of a moment.  Hardy was fond of drawing phrases from Latin and this is quoted from Virgil or Horace. Both Virgil and Horace wrote in Latin and use similar vocabulary such as concurritur and horae momento.  Some older editions and secondary sources have mistakenly attributed Hardy's title to Horace's Satires.  Scholarly consensus is that Hardy's title is Virgilian fitting the epic tone of catastrophe in chapter 53.  Hardy often invokes Virgil at moments when ordinary rural events take on grandeur and inevitability of classical tragedy.  The chapter contains the shocking...

Christmas Eve.  Boldwood was to arrange a party, and it became the talk of Weatherbury.  Parties were not rare in the parish; but Boldwood was the giver made it a wonder.  The announcement was incongruous and abnormal as if  a croquet playing in a cathedral , or that some much respected judge was going on the stage.  The party was intended to be a truly jovial one.  A large bough of   mistletoe  had been brought from the woods that day and suspended in the hall of bachelor's house.  Holly and Ivy had followed in armfuls. From the early morning till past noon the huge wood fire in the kitchen roared and sparkled at its highest, the kettle and the saucepan and the three legged pot appearing in the midst of the flames like  Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego ; while in addition, roasting and basting operations were continued in front of the genial blaze.  As it grew later, the fire was made up in the large, oblong hall into which th...