...Robert Merrill Copyright © 1973 by Duke University Press 1973 THE NARRATIVE VOICE IN BILLY BUDD By ROBERTMERRILL The possible interpretations of Billy Budd have been argued and reargued for more than forty years.’ New readings must...

...Phil Withim Copyright © 1959 by Duke University Press 1959 BILLY BUDD: TESTAMENT OF RESISTANCE By PHILWITHIM When E. L. G. Watson wrote his famous article, “Melville’s Testament of Acceptance,” he made no attempt to prove his view. All...

... to the Clementines. If nobody saw the bishop’s ball coming, nobody could have seen the outcome, either: the bishop’s leaving the Clementines’ property alone. The list of such counterevents goes on. Billy, Mrs. Thwaites, and Sally may “get away” from Father Urban, but the tally sheet indicates...

... mastered the com- mon techniques of fiction.“lHis early works were strongly autobio- graphical, and, once he had found his theme, his knowledge of the craft of fiction was no match for his vision of metaphysical immensity. His later works, from Moby-Dick to Budd,Billy provide ample evidence...

... began the book “with loud public praises of universal Progress echoing in his ears and a quiet convic- tion . . . that very much had been lost” (p. 208). In Dekker’s view, “Nelson, Billy, and even Vere reincarnate the heroic ideal . . .” (p. 209). He also concludes that DAVID H. HIRSCH...

... in seeing mythic formulas make one realize how special a grace dependable humor may be, “The real theme of Billy Brtdd is castration and cannibalism. the ritual Harry H. Burns 219 murder and eating of the Host. . . . The psychoanalyst...

..., although he cannot keep away from them, Melville is so little interested in them. The death scene of Billy Budd is related to Under the Rose, the last of the sketches to be discussed here, in theme but not in imagery. Nor, except for The Lightning-rod Man and the description (in The Encantadus...

... protagonists are suicidal, from Tommo to Billy Budd. Such characters as Taji, Ahab, and Pierre are obviously suicides, but the death urge is apparent in all of Mel- ville’s other protagonists, even if it shows itself symbolically or in an oblique manner. Benito Cereno, Bartleby, and Billy Budd...

.... Whitehead, Alfred North. Symbolism: Its Meaning and Effect. New York: Capricorn Books, CAP 13, 1959. Pp. viii + 88. $0.95. CORRECTION The correct title for the article by Phil Withim (see the June, 1959, issue) is “Billy Budd: Testament...

... of Billy, a middle-aged black shoeshine man he knew in his college days. Billy “professed a genuine love for shoes” and appeared to enjoy the ser- vice he provided his patronizing white customers. But one morning, following “a student escapade,” Bennell awoke to find himself in his car...

.... Such an analysis is not only urgent, in the absence of any known solution, but may itself point the way to an explanation. A glance at the ktat prksent of the problem reveals much con- fusion in critical opinion. Modern historians-such as J.-P. Belin, AndrC Billy, Joseph Legras, various writers...

.... Such an analysis is not only urgent, in the absence of any known solution, but may itself point the way to an explanation. A glance at the ktat prksent of the problem reveals much con- fusion in critical opinion. Modern historians-such as J.-P. Belin, AndrC Billy, Joseph Legras, various writers...

... a hill-billy dialect and the vaporings of Greenwich Village. Similarly, one suspects that the reason for Matthiessen’s richly detailed analysis of the seventeenth-century English influences and in comparison the rather limited treatment of the nineteenth-century influences upon these men...

... hero, some Sut Lovingood or Paul Bun- yan, plus a struggle to coin some new language that at times seems to be a cross between a hill-billy dialect and the vaporings of Greenwich Village. Similarly, one suspects that the reason for Matthiessen’s richly detailed analysis...

... University Press, 1980). 3 Billie Andrew Inman argues that Marius progresses toward a recognition of “sympathy” as “the redeeming principle of existence” (“The Organic Structure of Marius the Epicurnan,” Philological Quarterly, 41 [ 19621 : 488). Moral arguments similar to Inman’s can be found...

... towards rebellion. In the Preface to Billy Rudd he speaks of the French Revolution in these words : The opening proposition made by the Spirit of that Age involved rectification of the Old World’s hereditary wrongs. In France, to some extent, this was bloodily effected. But what...

..., but there are passages-not infrequent-where his bland readiness to use psychoanalytical patter and his terrible ease in seeing mythic formulas make one realize how special a grace dependable humor may be, “The real theme of Billy Brtdd is castration and cannibalism. the ritual ...

... been found in MDu. It is identical with strong OGH wuofan “to cry, to weep” or the weak Goth. z&pjun, ON crpa “to scream, to cry.” In another interesting essay Gosta Langenfelt investigates the origin of the hypocoristic English suffix -3’ in Billy, etc. Taking issue with other...

... the movement that André Billy referred to as “Sapho 1900, Sapho cent pour cent,” Théodore Reinach gave the French Sappho tradition the national definition it had lacked from the time of the simultaneous rise of philology and nationalism.18 The proof that his message was understood and that the union...

... observed. According to Flaubert, “There are three things required for happiness—good health, selŽshness, and stupidity—and without stupidity the others are useless.” Billy Budd was stupid. So, of course, were Dostoevsky’s Idiot and Wordsworth’s Idiot Boy. “I don’t know what...