Document I
Bathsheba Talks With Her Outrider (Hardy 1986, 273)
’I once seriously injured him in sheer idleness. If I had never played a trick upon him, he would never have wanted to marry me. O if I could only pay some heavy damages in money to him for the harm I did, and so get the sin off my soul that way! . . . Well, there’s the debt, which can only be discharged in one way, and I believe I am bound to do it if it honestly lies in my power, without any consideration of my own future at all. When a rake gambles away his expectations, the fact that it is an inconvenient debt doesn’t make him the less liable. I’ve been a rake, and the single point I ask you is, considering that my own scruples, and the fact that in the eye of the law my husband is only missing, will keep any man from marrying me until seven years have passed—am I free to entertain such an idea, even though ’tis a sort of penance—for it will be that? I hate the act of marriage under such circumstances, and the class of women I should seem to belong to by doing it!’
‘It seems to me that all depends upon whe’r you think, as everybody else do, that your husband is dead.’
‘I shall get to, I suppose, because I cannot help feeling what would have brought him back long before this time if he had lived.’
‘Well, then, in religious sense you will be as free to think o’ marrying again as any real widow of one year’s standing. But why don’t ye ask Mr. Thirdly’s advice on how to treat Mr. Boldwood?’
‘No. When I want a broad-minded opinion for general enlightenment, distinct from special advice, I never go to a man who deals in the subject professionally. So I like the parson’s opinion on law, the lawyer’s on doctoring, the doctor’s on business, and my business-man’s—that is, yours—on morals.’
‘And on love——’
‘My own.’
‘I’m afraid there’s a hitch in that argument,’ said Oak, with a grave smile.
She did not reply at once, and then saying, ‘Good evening Mr. Oak,’ went away.
She had spoken frankly, and neither asked nor expected any reply from Gabriel more satisfactory than that she had obtained. Yet in the centremost parts of her complicated heart there existed at this minute a little pang of disappointment, for a reason she would not allow herself to recognize. Oak had not once wished her free that he might marry her himself—had not once said, ‘I could wait for you as well as he.’ That was the insect sting. Not that she would have listened to any such hypothesis. O no—for wasn’t she saying all the time that such thoughts of the future were improper, and wasn’t Gabriel far too poor a man to speak sentiment to her? Yet he might have just hinted about that old love of his, and asked, in a playful off-hand way, if he might speak of it. It would have seemed pretty and sweet, if no more […]. (emphases added)
A. “And on love——”= 2-m rule or 2-em rules (‘double cadratin’); unspaced before and after.
B. “that way! . . . .”= ellipsis: also, spaced dots (‘ellipse ajourée’); dot, dot, dot or ellipsis dots (normal typographical form: flush dots).
C. “passed—am I free to entertain such an idea, even though ’tis a sort of penance—for it will be that?”= m dash or m rule (‘cadratin’); here unspaced before or after.
D. Other signs to be noted: italics, and contractions suggesting reported speech.
Document II
A. ‘2-m rule’ / ‘double tiret cadratin’= ——
1. Conventional:
– ‘I believe you saved my life, Miss——I don’t know your name.’ (missing name - 22)
– ‘Farmer Oak—I——’ she said, pausing for want of breath […] (mimetic - 26)
– ‘——And so ’a lost himself quite’ (diegetic – 49; also 51)
– ‘Why, upon my s——’ / ‘Don’t—don’t I wont listen to you—you are so profane!’ (blasphemy) – 134; in all, four cases: pp. 31, 134, 202, 284)
2. Interruption:
– ‘I wasn’t thinking of any such thing,’ said Gabriel simply; ‘but I will——’ ‘That you won’t.’(bantering – 23)
– ‘I can’t do what I think would be—would be——’ / ‘Right?’ / ‘No, wise.’ (29 – looking for the right word)
–‘We thought——’ began Gabriel / ‘I am driving to Bath.’ (precedence – 166)
Also: ‘[…] a face as big as a baking trendle——’ / ‘But that’s nothing to do with mistress!’ (172) (similar cases with Liddy: 154)
– ‘I love Fanny best now,’ said Troy; ‘But Bathsh——Miss Everdene inflamed me […]’ (slip of the tongue – 178)
– ‘Think if you will, and be d——’ The sentence was completed by a smart cut of the whip […].’ (interruption & erasure – 202)
– ‘[…] why I—I will——’ / ‘Promise!’ / ——Consider, if I cannot promise soon.’ (solicitation & prevarication – 271)
3. Aposiopesis:
– ‘People disturbing women at this time of night ought——’ / Gabriel took the key […]. (frustration – 191)
– […] ‘he was fighting against water now—and for the futile love of the same woman. As for her—— But Oak was generous and true, and dismissed his reflections. (actorial – 197)
– ‘And, Joseph——’ / ‘Yes, ma’am.’ (tragedy – 213)
– ‘I am sorry you thought I——’ / ‘I have always this dreary pleasure in thinking over those past times with you […]’ (unease, repression – 269)
– ‘I wish Troy was in——. Well God forgive me for such a wish!’ (blasphemy & self-reproach – 284)
– ‘A woman’s good name is such a perishable article that——’ / Bathsheba laughed with a flushed cheek […]. (teasing – 306)
All cases:
Fifty-seven occurrences: 10, 22, 23, 26, 28, 29 (two cases), 31, 42, 43 (two cases), 49, 51 (two cases), 56, 65, 72, 86, 101, 108, 125, 129, 134, 143, 149, 154, 166, 170, 172, 177, 178, 180, 181, 191, 197, 201, 202, 213, 215, 221, 234, 236, 251, 256, 269, 270, 271 (two cases), 272, 273, 279, 284, 286, 302 (two cases), 303, 306.
B. Ellipsis: spaced dots / ‘ellipse ajourée’= . . .
1. Conventional (suspension dots)
– ‘Never had such a struggle in my life. . . .’ (suggestion & emphasis – 198; also 154)
– ‘[…] and I can’t fend off my miserable grief! . . .’ (self-pity – 199)
2. Actorial and auctorial
– ‘I don’t like your concerns going to ruin, as they must if you keep in this mind. . . . I hate taking my own measure so plain […].’ (Oak’s daring & self-defence – 151)
– ‘Unfeeling thing that you are. . . . But I’ll see if you […] dare do such a thing.’ (154)
– ‘Did she walk along our turnpike-road?’ she said, in a suddenly restless and eager voice. / ‘I believe she did. . . . Ma’am, shall I call Liddy?’ (Joseph’s unease & panic – 214)
– ‘O if I could only pay […] and so get the sin off my soul that way! . . . Well there’s the debt […].’ (naivety & dramatic irony – 273)
3. Plot (v. story)
– ‘I do hope she has come to no harm through a man of that kind. . . .’ (double prolepsis – 58)
– ‘Would to God you would speak and tell your secret, Fanny! . . . O, I hope, I hope it is not true that there are two of you! . . . If I could only look in upon you for one little minute […].’ (suspense & climax – 227)
– ‘I am not sure of that. . . . She’s a handsome woman, Pennyways, is she not?’ (suspense – 277)
4. Aposiopesis
‘[…] and that his constancy could not be counted upon unless I at once became his. . . . And I was grieved and troubled——’ She cleared her voice […]. (two typographical forms of aposiopesis – 196)
All cases:
Thirty occurrences: 26 (two cases), 50, 51, 58, 118, 121, 129, 151, 154 (three cases), 158, 160, 161, 171, 196, 198, 199, 213 (two cases), 214, 222 (three cases), 227 (two cases), 229, 273, 277.
C. ‘m rule’ / ‘tiret cadratin’= —3
1. Conventional
– ‘[…] and my businessman’s—that is, yours—on morals.’ (interpolated – 273)
– WHO DIED OCTOBER 9, 18— […] (cancelled date & “effet de réel” – 297)
– First came the words of Troy himself:— / ERECTED BY FRANCIS TROY […]. (introductory – 297). Simpler forms (not preceded by a colon): “[…] when Boldwood said suddenly and simply— / ‘Mrs. Troy, you will marry again some day?’(269); many other similar cases: cf. p. 41, l. 35 & 41).
2. Mimetic
– ‘And your said lots of times you would marry me, and—and—I—I—I——’ ‘Don’t cry, now!’ (72)
– ‘Because it—it isn’t the correct one,’ she femininely murmured. / ‘O, fie—fie!’ (135)
– ‘That’s unjust—but I won’t repeat the remark.’ (slight interruption – 137)
– ‘O no—I don’t think that.’ / ‘—But the real truth of the matter is that there was not, as some fancy, any jilting on—her part.’ (199)
– ‘If she’s—that,—what—am I?’ (231)
3. Plot
– Figures stepped singly and in pairs through the doors—all walking awkwardly, and abashed […]. (auctorial: descriptive & evidential – 197)
– ‘Good-bye till then. I am a brute—but good bye!’ (actorial – 202)
– […] her bitter voice being strangely low—quite that of another woman now. (auctorial & actorial – 231)
– He uttered a long guttural sigh—there was a contraction—an extension—then his muscles relaxed, and he lay still. (climax, descriptive – 290)
4. Aposiopesis
– ‘Maryann—O you perjured woman!’ (indignation – 153)
– Instead of being a man trained to repression he was—what she had seen him. (auctorial & actorial: revelation – 161)
– ‘Her meaning may be good; but there—she’s young yet’ (277)