Hardy and Drayton: A Contribution to Pastoral and Georgic Traditions

Abstract

Drayton’s Polyolbion which Hardy read and marked, had an important influence on both his novels and poems. It helped him to achieve a unique synthesis of pastoral and georgic traditions. This essay will explore how these traditions interpenetrate in Hardy’s works. My particular argument is that, under Drayton’s influence, Hardy achieved a distinctive way of devising literary forms which seem to be moulded by the natural world. In so shaping his novels to the contours of the natural world, Hardy achieved an interesting development of regional fiction. When he wrote lyrics, he in turn achieved an important development of the tradition of topographical lyricism. Before discussing Drayton’s key contribution to the idea of regional fiction and topographical lyric, I will sketch briefly the convergence, in Hardy, of pastoral and georgic traditions.