Under the Greenwood Tree
Encyclopedia
Under the Greenwood Tree or The Mellstock Quire: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School is a novel by Thomas Hardy
, published anonymously in 1872. It was Hardy's second published novel, the last to be printed without his name, and the first of his great series of Wessex
novels. Whilst Hardy originally thought of simply calling it The Mellstock Quire, he settled on a title taken from a song in Shakespeare's As You Like It
(Act II, Scene V).
, the Mellstock parish choir, one of whom, Dick Dewy, becomes romantically entangled with a comely new school mistress, Fancy Day. The novel opens with the fiddlers and singers of the choir—including Dick, his father Reuben Dewy, and grandfather William Dewy—making the rounds in Mellstock village on Christmas Eve. When the little band plays at the schoolhouse, young Dick falls for Fancy at first sight. Dick, smitten, seeks to insinuate himself into her life and affections, but Fancy's beauty has gained her other suitors, including a rich farmer and the new vicar
at the parish church.
The vicar, Mr. Maybold, informs the choir that he intends Fancy, an accomplished organ player, to replace their traditional musical accompaniment to Sunday services. The tranter and the rest of the band visit the vicar's home to negotiate, but reluctantly give way to the more modern organ. Meanwhile, Dick seems to win Fancy's heart, and she discovers an effective strategem to overcome her father's objection to the potential marriage. After the two are engaged secretly, however, vicar Maybold impetuously asks Fancy to marry him and lead a life of relative affluence; racked by guilt and temptation, she accepts. The next day, however, at a chance meeting with the as-yet-unaware Dick, Maybold withdraws his proposal; and Fancy, simultaneously, has withdrawn her acceptance.
The novel ends with a humorous portrait of Reuben, William, Mr. Day, and the rest of the Mellstock rustics as they celebrate the couple's wedding day. The mood is joyful, but at the end of the final chapter, the reader is reminded that Fancy has married with "a secret she would never tell" (her final flirtation and brief engagement to the vicar). While Under the Greenwood Tree is often seen as Hardy's gentlest and most pastoral novel, this final touch introduces a faint note of melancholy to the conclusion.
Fancy Day, the new teacher at the parish schoolhouse.
Reuben Dewy, Dick's father, a "tranter" or carrier, and the de facto leader of and spokesman for the Mellstock Choir. A heavy-set, bluff, and talkative man, Reuben is at the heart of much of the rustic comedy in the novel.
William Dewy, Dick's grandfather, a quiet, religious and deeply musical man who is a sort of spiritual anchor for the Choir. William Dewy also makes a brief appearance in Hardy's later novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles
: he is featured in a brief anecdote about 'old Wessex' that Dairyman Crick shares with Tess, Angel Clare and the rest of the dairymen and milkmaids.
Geoffrey Day, Fancy's father, the gamekeeper and steward at one of the Earl of Wessex's outlying estates. A man reputed for his eloquent silences, Geoffrey initially opposes Fancy's marriage to Dick, but eventually relents when he thinks his daughter's health is in question.
Frederic Shiner, a rich farmer in Mellstock, and Dick's rival in the courtship of Fancy.
Vicar Maybold, the new vicar at Mellstock. Maybold brings a gently modernizing spirit to the church life of Mellstock, replacing the choir with Fancy's organ playing, and generally paying much more attention to the moral and religious affairs of the community than his benignly neglectful predecessor. At the end of the novel, he impetuously proposes to Fancy, and is gratified by her acceptance; but a chance encounter with Dick Dewy convinces him to rescind his proposal. He ends his correspondence with Fancy by urging her to tell Dick everything, and that he will forgive her; but Hardy implies that Fancy does not follow this advice.
, one of Hardy's mentors and friends, called it a "prose idyll"; that judgement has stuck. Hardy's amiable, mildly ironic portrait of rural town life in the middle of the nineteenth century is perhaps the strongest aspect of the work. The Wessex rustics who play critical but generally secondary roles in Hardy's later novels, like The Return of the Native
and The Mayor of Casterbridge
, claim the centre stage in Under the Greenwood Tree.
While the novel closes on an ambiguous and even sceptical note, it is nevertheless distinguished among Hardy's fiction—particularly his Wessex novels—for its relative happiness and amiability. For the critic Irving Howe
, Under the Greenwood Tree served as a kind of necessary prequel and establishing myth for the world of Wessex that Hardy depicted in subsequent tragic works: the novel, he argued, "is a fragile evocation of a self-contained country world that in Hardy's later fiction will come to seem distant and unavailable, a social memory by which to judge the troubled present."
and 1930 in both the silent and sound eras. In 2006 Under the Greenwood Tree was adapted for television by the British writer and producer Ashley Pharoah
. It starred Keeley Hawes
as Fancy Day and James Murray
as Dick Dewy. Much of the filming took place at Hamptonne in Jersey
.
The story was adapted for the stage by Patrick Garland
for a 1970 production. Patrick Garland
also directed his adaption of Under the Greenwood Tree at Salisbury Playhouse in 1978.This transferred to the West End Vaudeville theatre in 1979, with Frank Shelley as Geoffrey Day, Charmian May
as Mrs Dewy, Geoffrey Kirkness as Dick Dewy, David Bacon
as Reuben Dewy, Suzan Crowley as Fancy Day and Gilbert Wynne as Parson Maybold, George gabriel
as Leaf. John gale was impresario at the Vaudeville. HRH princess Margaret kindly attended one performance.
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
, published anonymously in 1872. It was Hardy's second published novel, the last to be printed without his name, and the first of his great series of Wessex
Thomas Hardy's Wessex
The English author Thomas Hardy set all of his major novels in the south and southwest of England. He named the area "Wessex" after the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom that existed in this part of that country prior to the Norman Conquest. Although the places that appear in his novels actually exist,...
novels. Whilst Hardy originally thought of simply calling it The Mellstock Quire, he settled on a title taken from a song in Shakespeare's As You Like It
As You Like It
As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...
(Act II, Scene V).
Plot
The plot concerns the activities of a group of church musiciansWest gallery music
West Gallery Music, also known as "Georgian psalmody" refers to the sacred music sung and played in English parish churches, as well as nonconformist chapels, from 1700 to around 1850...
, the Mellstock parish choir, one of whom, Dick Dewy, becomes romantically entangled with a comely new school mistress, Fancy Day. The novel opens with the fiddlers and singers of the choir—including Dick, his father Reuben Dewy, and grandfather William Dewy—making the rounds in Mellstock village on Christmas Eve. When the little band plays at the schoolhouse, young Dick falls for Fancy at first sight. Dick, smitten, seeks to insinuate himself into her life and affections, but Fancy's beauty has gained her other suitors, including a rich farmer and the new vicar
Vicar
In the broadest sense, a vicar is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior . In this sense, the title is comparable to lieutenant...
at the parish church.
The vicar, Mr. Maybold, informs the choir that he intends Fancy, an accomplished organ player, to replace their traditional musical accompaniment to Sunday services. The tranter and the rest of the band visit the vicar's home to negotiate, but reluctantly give way to the more modern organ. Meanwhile, Dick seems to win Fancy's heart, and she discovers an effective strategem to overcome her father's objection to the potential marriage. After the two are engaged secretly, however, vicar Maybold impetuously asks Fancy to marry him and lead a life of relative affluence; racked by guilt and temptation, she accepts. The next day, however, at a chance meeting with the as-yet-unaware Dick, Maybold withdraws his proposal; and Fancy, simultaneously, has withdrawn her acceptance.
The novel ends with a humorous portrait of Reuben, William, Mr. Day, and the rest of the Mellstock rustics as they celebrate the couple's wedding day. The mood is joyful, but at the end of the final chapter, the reader is reminded that Fancy has married with "a secret she would never tell" (her final flirtation and brief engagement to the vicar). While Under the Greenwood Tree is often seen as Hardy's gentlest and most pastoral novel, this final touch introduces a faint note of melancholy to the conclusion.
Characters
Dick Dewy, a young member of the Mellstock Choir, in love with Fancy Day.Fancy Day, the new teacher at the parish schoolhouse.
Reuben Dewy, Dick's father, a "tranter" or carrier, and the de facto leader of and spokesman for the Mellstock Choir. A heavy-set, bluff, and talkative man, Reuben is at the heart of much of the rustic comedy in the novel.
William Dewy, Dick's grandfather, a quiet, religious and deeply musical man who is a sort of spiritual anchor for the Choir. William Dewy also makes a brief appearance in Hardy's later novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented, also known as Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman, Tess of the d'Urbervilles or just Tess, is a novel by Thomas Hardy, first published in 1891. It initially appeared in a censored and serialised version, published by the British...
: he is featured in a brief anecdote about 'old Wessex' that Dairyman Crick shares with Tess, Angel Clare and the rest of the dairymen and milkmaids.
Geoffrey Day, Fancy's father, the gamekeeper and steward at one of the Earl of Wessex's outlying estates. A man reputed for his eloquent silences, Geoffrey initially opposes Fancy's marriage to Dick, but eventually relents when he thinks his daughter's health is in question.
Frederic Shiner, a rich farmer in Mellstock, and Dick's rival in the courtship of Fancy.
Vicar Maybold, the new vicar at Mellstock. Maybold brings a gently modernizing spirit to the church life of Mellstock, replacing the choir with Fancy's organ playing, and generally paying much more attention to the moral and religious affairs of the community than his benignly neglectful predecessor. At the end of the novel, he impetuously proposes to Fancy, and is gratified by her acceptance; but a chance encounter with Dick Dewy convinces him to rescind his proposal. He ends his correspondence with Fancy by urging her to tell Dick everything, and that he will forgive her; but Hardy implies that Fancy does not follow this advice.
Criticism and analysis
Sometimes grouped with Hardy's lesser novels, Under the Greenwood Tree is also occasionally recognized by critics as an important precursor to his major works. In his 1872 review of the novel for the Saturday Review, the critic Horace MouleHoratio Mosley Moule
Horatio Mosley Moule was the fourth son of Henry Moule, and is best remembered as a friend of Thomas Hardy. He was generally known as Horace, to distinguish him from his Uncle Horatio, after whom he was named....
, one of Hardy's mentors and friends, called it a "prose idyll"; that judgement has stuck. Hardy's amiable, mildly ironic portrait of rural town life in the middle of the nineteenth century is perhaps the strongest aspect of the work. The Wessex rustics who play critical but generally secondary roles in Hardy's later novels, like The Return of the Native
The Return of the Native
The Return of the Native is Thomas Hardy's sixth published novel. It first appeared in the magazine Belgravia, a publication known for its sensationalism, and was presented in twelve monthly installments from January to December 1878...
and The Mayor of Casterbridge
The Mayor of Casterbridge
The Mayor of Casterbridge , subtitled "The Life and Death of a Man of Character", is a tragic novel by British author Thomas Hardy. It is set in the fictional town of Casterbridge . The book is one of Hardy's Wessex novels, all set in a fictional rustic England...
, claim the centre stage in Under the Greenwood Tree.
While the novel closes on an ambiguous and even sceptical note, it is nevertheless distinguished among Hardy's fiction—particularly his Wessex novels—for its relative happiness and amiability. For the critic Irving Howe
Irving Howe
Irving Howe was an American literary and social critic and a prominent figure of the Democratic Socialists of America.-Life and career:...
, Under the Greenwood Tree served as a kind of necessary prequel and establishing myth for the world of Wessex that Hardy depicted in subsequent tragic works: the novel, he argued, "is a fragile evocation of a self-contained country world that in Hardy's later fiction will come to seem distant and unavailable, a social memory by which to judge the troubled present."
Adaptations
The story has been filmed in 1918Under the Greenwood Tree (1918 film)
Under the Greenwood Tree is a 1918 silent film feature directed by Emile Chautard and starring Elsie Ferguson. The movie was based on a play by Henry V. Esmond. An unrelated British film with this title based on a Thomas Hardy story was made in 1929. Film possibly has a scene where Ferguson swims...
and 1930 in both the silent and sound eras. In 2006 Under the Greenwood Tree was adapted for television by the British writer and producer Ashley Pharoah
Ashley Pharoah
Ashley Pharoah is a British Television writer, co-creator of the successful drama series Life on Mars, which began on BBC One in 2006....
. It starred Keeley Hawes
Keeley Hawes
Keeley Hawes is an English actress and model, known for many television roles. She is best known for her roles as Zoe Reynolds in Spooks and Alex Drake in Ashes to Ashes and Lady Agnes in the remake of Upstairs, Downstairs...
as Fancy Day and James Murray
James Murray (English actor)
James Murray is an English actor.-Early life :Murray was born in Greater Manchester; his great-grandfather, Richard Hollins Murray, invented the reflecting lens in 1927.-Career:...
as Dick Dewy. Much of the filming took place at Hamptonne in Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
.
The story was adapted for the stage by Patrick Garland
Patrick Garland
thumb|right|200pxPatrick Garland is a British actor, writer, and director.Garland started Poetry International in 1963 with Ted Hughes and Charles Osborne. He was a director and producer for the BBC's Music and Arts Department , and worked on its Monitor series...
for a 1970 production. Patrick Garland
Patrick Garland
thumb|right|200pxPatrick Garland is a British actor, writer, and director.Garland started Poetry International in 1963 with Ted Hughes and Charles Osborne. He was a director and producer for the BBC's Music and Arts Department , and worked on its Monitor series...
also directed his adaption of Under the Greenwood Tree at Salisbury Playhouse in 1978.This transferred to the West End Vaudeville theatre in 1979, with Frank Shelley as Geoffrey Day, Charmian May
Charmian May
Charmian May was an English actress who appeared in The Good Life, Keeping Up Appearances and Bridget Jones's Diary....
as Mrs Dewy, Geoffrey Kirkness as Dick Dewy, David Bacon
David Bacon
David Bacon was an American film actor.-Biography:He was born Gaspar Griswold Bacon, Jr. in Barnstable, Massachusetts, and his family was one of the prominent, politically active Boston Brahmin families. His father, Gaspar G...
as Reuben Dewy, Suzan Crowley as Fancy Day and Gilbert Wynne as Parson Maybold, George gabriel
George Gabriel
George Gabriel is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and musician who melded his artistic talents over the past two decades composing and scoring music for television and film. His television composing career began in 1996 when he started working with the news music company Gari Communications...
as Leaf. John gale was impresario at the Vaudeville. HRH princess Margaret kindly attended one performance.