Ferment (1863-1870)
the then popular manner of Dickens and Wilkie Collins, added to a brave tableau of paragraphs which set themselves to mention all the things that had come under the Victorian taboo.
Hardy sent it first to Constable's, where Meredith read it and returned it promptly. Undiscouraged, Hardy forwarded it to Chapman and Hall without delay. There it was accepted for publication. Meanwhile, however, Meredith had sent for the author, and in a memorable conference advised Hardy not to publish this Poor Man—at least not in its original form. He urged the inclusion of still more incident and a rigid elimination of all propaganda-talk—curious advice from such a source. The young novelist was later to recall the impression of that fruitful first interview, in the verses which he composed on the occasion of Meredith's death. They were published in Time's Laughingstocks under the title G. M., 1828-1909:
That since has perished out of mind,
I heard that voice and saw that face.
A morning horn ere men awake;
His note was trenchant, turning kind.
And riddle to the very core
The counterfeits that Time will break. . . .
The luminous countenance and rare
Shone just as forty years before.
[147]
