The Life of Thomas Hardy
just as vainly on the meaning, or "point" of the poem itself, and the crudity, both of expression and of technique, is apt to cause some embarrassment to the Hardy-enthusiast. Here is a choice selection of the royal dialogue:
"—Perhaps a scaffold!" Mary Stuart sighed,
"If such still be. It was that way I died."
"If such still be. It was that way I died."
—"Ods! Par more like," said the many-wived,
"That for a wedding 'tis this work's contrived.
"That for a wedding 'tis this work's contrived.
"Ha-ha! I never would how down to Rimmon,
But a had a rare time with those six women!"
But a had a rare time with those six women!"
"Not all at once?" gasped he who loved confession.
"Nay, nay!" said Hal. "That would have been transgression."
"Nay, nay!" said Hal. "That would have been transgression."
"—They build a catafalque here, black and tall,
Perhaps," mused Richard, "for some funeral?"
Perhaps," mused Richard, "for some funeral?"
And Anne chimed in: "Ah, yes: it may be so!"
"Nay!" squeaked Eliza. "Little you seem to know—
"Nay!" squeaked Eliza. "Little you seem to know—
"Clearly 'tis for some crowning here in state,
As they crowned us at our long by gone date. . . ." etc.
As they crowned us at our long by gone date. . . ." etc.
One does not wonder that patriotic British journals did not scramble for Hardy's poetical comment on news of the day;—what would the average Londoner have thought of his morning paper, if, on the day after the coronation, "Eliza" had "squeaked" at him from the printed lines that represented the laureate's celebration of the event? . . . To say nothing of the gracelessness
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