Horned Man In The Smoky House

Context: Buck's Head Inn, in Chapter 42 of Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy.

Joseph Poorgrass has been carrying the coffin of Fanny Robin in a wagon, and he stops the wagon before Buck's Head inn, enters it for a mug of ale. There he meets his neighbours Jan Coggan and Mark Clark at a round table enjoying liquor.  The present dialogue is taken from their conversation.

"Horned man in the smoky house" is a rustic proverbial expression used by farm folks in their dialect.

A horned man means a cuckold - a husband whose wife has been unfaithful.  In old European folklore and local dialect horns means sexual betrayal.  To wear horns means publicly shamed by wife's infidelity.

The smoke house is a poor, dark, uncomfortable cottage, leading to confusion, misery, or unhappiness. The phrase reflects villagers earthy humour through proverbs drawing images. The idiom shows the nineteenth century tradition of Wessex.  It warns a man against the infidelity of his partner.




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