DISSENT ON BILLY
BUDD
In
Billy Budd,
the handsome Sailor
is
once again symbolized:
In the time before steamships, or then more frequently than now,
a stroller along the docks of any considerable seaport would occasion–
ally have his attention arrested by a group of bronzed marines, man–
of-war's men or merchant sailors in holiday attire ashore on liberty.
In certain instances, they would flank, or, like a bodyguard, quite sur–
round some superior figure of their own class, moving along with them
like Aldebaran among the lesser lights of his constellation. That signal
object was the "Handsome Sailor" of the less prosaic time, alike of
the military and merchant navies. With no perceptible trace of the
vainglorious about him, rather with the offhand unaffectedness of na–
tural regality, he seemed to accept the spontaneous homage of his
shipmates. A somewhat remarkable instance recurs to me. In Liverpool,
now half a century ago I saw under the shadow of the great dingy
street-wall of Prince's Dock (an obstruction long since removed) a com–
mon sailor, so intensely black that he must needs have been a native
African of the unadulterated blood of Ham. A symmetric figure, much
above the average in height. The two ends of a gay silk handkerchief
thrown loose about the neck danced upon the displayed ebony of his
chest; in his ears were big hoops of gold, and a Scotch Highland bon–
net with a tartan band set off his shapely head....
The emblem of Lucy Tartan (the symbol
in
Pierre
of the illuminat–
ing grace of consciousness) enlightens the forehead of the Hand–
some Sailor as he emerges from the depths of Night into the con–
sciousness of Day. He moves as ponderously, but with as much
strength and beauty, as Bulkington
in
M oby
Dick,
or as revolution–
ary
America itself, setting forth on the path of civilization.
Still, this magnificent and momentous figure does not appear
at full scale in any of Melville's books. But Melville made two at–
tempts to portray him fully: one
in
Pierre
and one in
Billy Budd.
Not the least part of the wisdom which Melville had achieved at
the end of
Pierre
(
1852) was his realization that he could not por–
tray this heroic figure, except as a perpetual adolescent whose sui–
cide was entirely justified by the fact that he was no match for the
realities of the world. At the end of
Pierre,
civilization was shown
to be
in
the hands of conventional society, military power, and Lao–
dicean liberalism. In
Billy Budd
civilization is shown to be in ap–
proximately the same hands. And the hero who opposes these forces
is no more capable of doing so than Pierre. Indeed, Billy Budd is
a less effective hero than Pierre, for he has not even the humanity
of adolescence.
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