[hardy-l] Satirical President

[Richard Nemesvari]

According to the Grindle/Gatrell Clarendon edition of *Tess,* Hardy made
the change from "Time, the Arch-Satirist" having his "joke" with Tess to
the "President of the Immortals (in AEschylean phrase)" ending his
"sport" with her in the 1892 single-volume version of the novel (the
so-called "Fifth Edition").  This is also the edition in which he added
a Preface specifically quoting the lines from *King Lear*: "As flies to
wanton boy are we to the gods; / They kill us for their sport."  It
seems to me that Hardy went out of his way in this version of the book
(through an addition and a revision) to invoke two connected traditions
in tragedy so as to place his text within that lineage.  He also, of
course, managed to give an additional poke in the eye to critics
(already) scandalized by the novel by providing an even more aggressive
rejection of a providential, all-loving deity.

 

 

Richard Nemesvari

Department of English

St. Francis Xavier University

rnemesva at stfx.ca

 

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