Tess in Dairyman Dick's yard by Joseph Syddall. [unsigned likely Syddall]. Format: half-page, horizontal, Book Third, "The Rally," Ch. XV, 16.5 cm high x 22.5 cm wide (8 ⅝ inches by 12 inches wide), p. 161. This plate, which is number 5 in the serialisation of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the Durbervilles illustrated by various artists, appeared in the 8 August 1891 issue of the London Graphic. Its caption is not a direct quotation, but seems intended to summarize the situation described at end of the fifth serial instalment p. 162, mid-column 3, last two paragraphs. [Click on image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated from the Conclusion of Serial Chapter XV
From the furthest east to the furthest west the cries spread as if by contagion, accompanied in some cases by the barking of a dog. It was not the expression of the valley’s consciousness that beautiful Tess had arrived, but the ordinary announcement of milking-time — half-past four o’clock, when the dairymen set about getting in the cows.
The red and white herd nearest at hand, which had been phlegmatically waiting for the call, now trooped towards the steading in the background, their great bags of milk swinging under them as they walked. Tess followed slowly in their rear, and entered the barton by the open gate through which they had entered before her. Long thatched sheds stretched round the enclosure, their slopes encrusted with vivid green moss, and their eaves supported by wooden posts rubbed to a glossy smoothness by the flanks of infinite cows and calves of bygone years, now passed to an oblivion almost inconceivable in its profundity. Between the post were ranged the milchers, each exhibiting herself at the present moment to a whimsical eye in the rear as a circle on two stalks, down the centre of which a switch moved pendulum-wise; while the sun, lowering itself behind this patient row, threw their shadows accurately inwards upon the wall. Thus it threw shadows of these obscure and homely figures every evening with as much care over each contour as if it had been the profile of a court beauty on a palace wall; copied them as diligently as it had copied Olympian shapes on marble façades long ago, or the outline of Alexander, Caesar, and the Pharaohs.
They were the less restful cows that were stalled. Those that would stand still of their own will were milked in the middle of the yard, where many of such better behaved nes stood waiting now — all prime milchers, such as were seldom seen out of this valley, and not always within it; nourished by the succulent feed which the water-meads supplied at this prime season of the year. Those of them that were spotted with white reflected the sunshine in dazzling brilliancy, and the polished brass knobs of their horns glittered with something of military display. Their large-veined udders hung ponderous as sandbags, the teats sticking out like the legs of a gipsy’s crock; and as each animal lingered for her turn to arrive the milk oozed forth and fell in drops to the ground. [In the 1897 volume, end of Chapter XVI, p. 137; in the 8 August 19891 instalment, 162]
Commentary: "The Rally" omits the Birth and Death of Sorrow — "slight modifications"
In order to make this novel suitable for the reading audience of the Graphic, Hardy had to make many revisions and omissions, the most significant omissions being chapters 10 and 11 (the seduction of Tess) and chapter 14 (the baptism and death of Tess's baby). [Vann, 88]
Thus as Vann notes in his chapter on the novel, Part 5 (8 August) contains what are now Chapters 13, 15, and 16), which, however, the Graphic denotes as XII, XIII, and XIV since the tenth, eleventh, and fourteenth chapters which Hardy restored for the volume edition are missing. In other words, with its twenty-five illustrations, many of which underscore the idyllic, pastoral setting, and its omission of Tess's sexual past, the serial version of the novel is both shorter and significantly different from the 1895 and 1897 volumes, which contain only the three Henry Macbeth-Raeburn illustrations: a frontispiece featuring the novelist, the Wessex map, and, on page 280, a stately manor (1894).
- Thomas Hardy
- The Wessex of the Novels
- The Wellbridge Manor House of the Story: "Immediately behind the bridge stood the house . . . once a fine manorial residence."
Once again, the caption is not a direct quotation, as the serial reader would have been quick to note as Dairyman Crick is never called "Dick." Tess's figure, slightly smaller in scale that in Sydall's previous picture, occupies the same place in the composition (stage right), but the dairyman himself is up centre; to stage left are the three young women who will become Tess's friends at the idyllic Talbothays (Izz, Marian, and Retty), whom Herkomer will study in Plate 13 (3 October), "You be going to marry him?" asked Marian. Behind Tess, a fence and cow-barns have replaced the bramble bushes of Syddall's previous illustration, signalling Tess's having found a secure, safe social environment. Syddall makes his detailing here, as if to reassure the reader of the reality of the cows, the outbuildings, and the friendly companions. Everything seems more in focus, contrasting with the melancholy figure of the isolated Tess, sounding a muted, anti-pastoral note.
Note: The next few illustrations for Tess of the D'Urbervilles in this serialisation are by different hands. For commentaries on all the illustrations of the serial, please consult the complete list.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. Formatting by George P. Landow. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Allingham, Philip V. "The Original Illustrations for Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles Drawn by Daniel A. Wehrschmidt, Ernest Borough-Johnson, and Joseph Sydall for the Graphic (1891)." The Thomas Hardy Year Book, No. 24 (1997): 3-50.
Allingham, Philip V. "Six Original Illustrations for Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles Drawn by Sir Hubert Von Herkomer for the Graphic (1891)." The Thomas Hardy Journal, Vol. X, No. 1 (February 1994): 52-70.
Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the D'Urbervilles in the Graphic, 1891, 4 July-26 December, pp. 11-761.
Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the D'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman. Vol. I. The Wessex Novels. London: Osgood, McIlvaine, 1897.
Jackson, Arlene M. Illustration and the Novels of Thomas Hardy. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1981.
Vann, J. Don. "Tess of the D'Urbervilles in the Graphic, 4 July — 26 December 1891." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985, pp. 88-89.
Created 21 January 2001
Last modified 11 May 2024