Thomas Hardy and Arthur Symons: A Biographical Footnote

93 THOMAS HARDY AND ARTHUR SYMONS: A BIOGRAPHICAL FOOTNOTE By John M. Munro (American University of Beirut) Although Arthur Symons was an admirer of Thomas Hardy, and In his later years author of a sympathetic but admittedly superficial study of him,1 the two men never became close friends. Indeed, It is doubtful whether they met more than a couple of times.. It is possible, however, that the following may be of interest to future Hardy biographers, or to would-be editors of his correspondence . The two men probably became acquainted during the eighteen-nlneties , but the first recorded meeting between them took place In August I9OO, when Symons spent several days as a guest of the Hardys at their home in Dorchester. Symons evidently enjoyed his stay, and writing to Rhoda Bowser, his future wife, he gave an account of his visit, describing the novelist as not "quite a man of genius," but having "some of the characteristics of one especially a simple childlike quality, united to a very keen observation and a curious, interesting, rather painful quality of thought."2 During the early nineteen-hundreds the two men kept up a desultory correspondence, and In April 1905 Symons attended a ceremony at Aberdeen University at which Hardy was awarded an honorary LL.D.3 in I906 Symons wrote to Hardy, acknowledging the receipt of volume two of The Dynasts, and asked whether his friend Edward Hutton, the novelist and travel writer, could call on him during an Intended visit to Dorchester. In I9O8 Symons suffered his mental breakdown, and Hardy wrote a sympathetic letter to Rhoda, published here for the first time: Max Gate, Dorchester, Nov. 4, I9O8 Dear Mrs. Symons: I am so shocked & distressed by your tidings; & unhappily the consolations that suggest themselves are of a very meagre kind. Till you wrote I knew nothing whatever of anything serious the matter with your husband: all I knew was what I saw In one of the papers: that he had gone to Italy for rest, & thought it was merely a case of his being temporarily pulled down by overwork, 4 that he would come back quite restored. You seem to have been told that his state is quite hopeless . But I wonder If it is really so. He is not old, ft I have supposed hitherto that the only hopeless cases are when the patient Is getting on in years. Also I have supposed that the disease 94 comes on very gradually when It is going to be permanent, yet I gather that this has come quite suddenly; so that I cannot quite understand as yet that there can be no hope for him. However, all that is hidden in the breast of Time. You will not misunderstand my meaning if I say that, assuming it to be certain that he cannot recover, a rapid release would be preferable to a slow one. Death in itself is nothing to be feared: It is the steps to It that make us wince. This is a feeble letter; I wish it could be more consoling. As you well know, you have my deep sympathy, 4 my wife's, in your trouble. You must try to be content with what alleviations are practicable - all there Is to content, - that he is in a proper place, 4 well taken care of. You probably know that he came down here once 4 stayed some days. Let me know when any serious chang-e takes place, 4 if It is for good or for ill. Believe me that I feel much for you, 4 am Sincerely yours, Thomas Hardy5 Symons recovered two years later, and in 1918 we find him writing to Hardy again, asking him to autograph an enclosed copy of Tess of the D'urbervilles. which Hardy did, returning it the same day.0 In 1921 Symons wrote to Hardy again, saying that he had Just seen a performance by the actress Gertrude Bugler who he felt Has the very incarnation of Eustacia Vye In Return of the Native.' and In 1926 he wrote to the novelist, probably for the last time, asking him whether Madeleine Mason Manheim, a young American...