Nativity of Thomas Hardy (1840)

Like many great people, Hardy had a nativity story. It was believed he was stillborn. An alert midwife saved him when she noticed tiny amounts of movement.

Yokel 1: That Tommy Hardy's birthday today, then.

Yokel 2: Not that he'll care much.

Yokel 1: Being dead and gone.

Yokel 2: As we all shall be.

Yokel 1: Shall us sing him a Birthday Psalm?

Yokel 2: He'd like that. Though he won't know.

Yokel 1: Being dead and gone.

Yokel 2: As we all shall be.

They sing, one-voiced, a Tate and Brady psalm, to the tune of "Cambridge New".

Yokel 1: Is it time fer a drap o' drink?

Yokel 2: I'm as dry as a kex mesel', having' just Small since last nammet-tide.

Yokel 1: Shall us sing Tommy Hardy another song?

Yokel 2: Wi' all my heart. Though we martels marn as well dig on his grave, for all he cares.

Yokel 1: Being dead and gone.

Yokel 2: As we all shall be.

Yokel 1: Psalm 4 to Samuel Wakely's tune, as improved by me?

Yokel 2: Nay, Psalm 109 to "Old Wiltshire". 'Tis the only Psalm worth singing.

They sing Psalm 109 to "Old Wiltshire".

Yokel 1: He'd nay gainsay that to warm his heart wi' its irony.

Yokel 2: Though he now knows no more o' music than the Giant o' Abbot's Cernel.

Yokel 1: Being dead and gone.

Yokel 2: As we all shall be. 

Henchard and Saul, Farfrae and David

You know how it is. You're reading one of your favourite passages for the thousandth time, and the truth leaps out at you.

I refer, of course, to that passage in The Mayor of Casterbridge where Henchard forces the choir, with the threat of a poker, to sing Pps 109 to the tune, "Wiltshire". And it struck me.

Henchard is Saul - Farfrae is David.

Googling around the Web, I find that I am by quite a long way not the first to notice this. In fact, you're probably all sat there reading thhis, thinking "Well, Duh.".

But you see the way it is. Henchard is the older man, already ruler of his domain. Farfrae is the young man - taken under Henchard's wing because of his energy and his ability to calm the older man's black moods.

Saul disobeys a divine command and spoils a city rather than destroying it. Henchard cocks up over his dealiing - ignores the wisdom of the conjurer (think of Saul and Samuel) and is ruined financially.

David becomes close to Saul's son: Farfrae becomes close to Henchard's former mistress. Both younger men marry the older one's daughter. The crowds run after the younger - Farfrae's triumph at the fair echoing the songs about the numbers David has slain.

Both older men have their black moods, and both their fatal weaknesses. Both dabble in the black arts. Both die prematurely (as do the beloveds of the younger men) - and in both cases the younger men inherit, thus achieving all the older men tried to prevent.

As I say, apologies if I've bored you. Sometimes you just have to share.

Now I'd better get down to the Moot House for Pouring out of Beakers and Wringing out of Bell-bottoms. Charlii's singing a solo version of Caribbean Blue. She may be after my job, but she's got a lovely voice.