Classics Retold

Rembrandt Harmenszoom Van Rijn, known mononymously as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, who lived between 16th July 1606 to 4th October 1669. He is one of the great painters of the 17th century. He was born into a well-to-do family; his father was a miller and mother was daughter of a baker.  He was apprenticed to Jacob Isaacsz. van Swanenburg, a Dutch painter, and then to Pieter Lastman, and with Jacob Pynas  In 1625, Rembrandt, together with his friend and colleague Jan Lievens began to accept students   At the end of 1631 he moved to Amsterdam, and began to practice as a professional portraitist. In Amsterdam he stayed with an art dealer, Hendrick van Uylenburgh, who helped him to launch his career. Later he married Saskia van Uylenburgh, the cousin of Hendrik Van Uylenbirhurgh. She was his model for some of his paintings.  Later, the couple moved to Jodenbreestraat, a street in Amsterdam.  The mortgage to finance the purchase of the house in Jod...

Prancing is the action of moving with energetic springy steps, often characterised by high kicks lively bounding, or a proud, strutting gait. The word is most frequently used to describe animals such as horses, but can also refer to spirited human movement.  The term stems from the 14th century Middle English word "prauncen" and is often related to the Old Danish "pransk" (lively/spirited) or German "prangen" (to show off or be in a splendour) In Chapter 50 of Far From The Madding Crowd, Boldwood use this in his dialogue to Bathsheba, "Hark! What's that prancing?" It merely means: "What's that galloping or stamping about outside?"  Hardy often uses horse related verbs very precisely, and here prancing  evokes the image of an animal stepping high and energetically, drawing attention by its movement and noise.

In Chapter 50 of Far From The Madding Crowd, the word brig refers to a two-masted sailing vessel.  A brig was a common merchant and naval ship in the 18th and 19th centuries, having square sails on both masts.  To Victorian readers, a brig would immediately suggest a vessel engaged in coastal or overseas trade.  Since Troy is believed to have drowned after entering the sea, references to ships and seafaring matters help create the uncertainty surrounding whether he is dead or alive.  In modern usage the word brig can also mean a naval prison.  Hardy is using it in the nineteenth-century sense.  A small two-masted sailing ship. 

In Chapter 50 of Far From The Madding Crowd, when Jan Coggan says:  ".... if only I could get out of this cheese-wring ....", he is using a dialect for an extremely tight squeeze or a crush of people.  A cheese-wring (more commonly spelled cheesewring or cheesering) originally meant a device used in cheese making.  After curds were placed in a mould, a press squeezed them to force out the whey and compact the cheese.  By extension the word came to mean any situation in which a person is compressed from all sides.  In Chapter 50 Jan Coggan and Joseph Poorgrass are being pushed forward by the crowd trying to enter the circus tent at Greenhill Fair.  Hardy describes Coggan as being "Jammed as in a vice."  Surrounded by people and unable to move, Coggan humurously compares the crowd to a cheese press.  The image is particularly impressive. Hardy often gives rustic characters vivid farming and dairy-farming metaphors drawn from village life.  The ...

Turpin's Ride to York, formally stylized as The Royal Hippodrome Performance of Turpin's Ride to York and the Death of Black Bess -- is a legendary 19th century Equestrian melodrama written by Henry M Milner.  It dramatized the real life 1738 legend of English Highwayman Dick Turpin, who rode his mare, Black Bess, on the epic 200 mile escape from London to York.  Equestrian Origin  Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was a staple of travelling circuses, Hippodromes, and amphitheatres across UK including Leeds, Cambridge and Coventry.  The performance was renowned for its thrilling acts of horsemanship performed in circular rings, including heart-pounding scenes like Turpin  leaping over a tollgate to avoid pursuing vigilantes.  The play was captured in Thomas Hardy's classic novel Far From The Madding Crowd, where Sergeant Troy performs as Turpin at the Greenhill Sheep Fair.  While travelling Hippodromes and 19th century equestrian melodra...

In Chapter 50 of Far From The Madding Crowd, Hardy's phrase "vermiculated horns" refers to horns that are twisted, coiled, or marked with winding worm-like curves. The adjective vermiculated comes from Latin vermiculus  meaning little worms.  In art and natural descriptions it means having irregular winding lines, convolutions, or worm-like patterns. When Hardy speaks of sheep or rams with vermiculated horns, he is drawing attention to the intricate special shape of their horns, which seem to curl and twist like worms or tendrils.  The word adds a vivid visual detail and reflects Hardy's habit of describing rural life with almost scientific precision. The description is characteristic of Hardy's rich descriptive vocabulary, turning an ordinary feature of sheep into a striking visual image.

In Chapter 50 of Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy qualifies Greenhill as Nishni Novgorod of Wessex. Nijni or Nishni means lower, and Novgorod means Newtown. There is Veliky Novgorod, meaning Upper Newtown in Russia. Nishni Novgorod Fair was very famous in Europe during the days of Thomas Hardy. The Fair was also called Makaryev Fair.  The fair is held annually every July on the banks of River Volga. Hardy compares  Greenhill Fair humourously with Nishni Novgorod Fair.  Greenhill Fair is much smaller than the Nishni Novgorod Fair. During 18th and 19th century, the fair was one of the largest trading events in Europe and Russia, attracting merchants, goods, livestocks, and buyers from distant places.