Here are seven (at least) specific things deleted in revision of the magazine series "Scenes Beyond the Western Border" (1851-1853) that appear in known writings by Herman Melville. Four of the seven deleted expressions occur in Pierre (1852), two in Moby-Dick (1851), and one in "Benito Cereno" (1855).
DECEMBER 1851
| Scenes Beyond the Western Border Southern Literary Messenger 17 - December 1851 |
1. "I submit. But the Reality I think is too darkly, coldly real, the earth very earthy; but, to please you, mark—I now attempt a lower level." --December 1851 - Scenes Beyond the Western BorderThe sentence with "the Reality I think is too darkly, coldly real" does not appear in the 1857 book version:
but the idea and words are present in Melville's Pierre; Or, The Ambiguities (1852):
"But imagination utterly failed him here; the reality was too real for him...."
Also deleted in revision of the December 1851 installment:
2. "Thou knowest not what thou hast done."
Moby-Dick, chapter 119 - The Candles: "Thou knowest not how came ye, hence callest thyself unbegotten; certainly knowest not thy beginning, hence callest thyself unbegun. I know that of me, which thou knowest not of thyself, oh, thou omnipotent. "
More deleted expressions, not in the 1857 book version, that also appear in Moby-Dick:
AUGUST 1852
- "Now, —I feel that we are on the earth."
Moby-Dick chapter 135, The Chase—Third Day "Oh, now I feel my topmost greatness lies in my topmost grief."; " —and I feel now like a billow that’s all one crested comb, Starbuck."- "mark" (Moby-Dick features 12+ instances of mark as a verb in the second person.)
- "old-fashioned" (occurs 7x in Moby-Dick)
"Ah! my good friend, let this wild mountain air have fair play; let us with the desert's freedom joyously float convention and opinion—upstart usurpers!"
--August 1852 Scenes Beyond the Western Border
3. "fair play" has been deleted in revision; the expression does not appear in the 1857 book version but is present in Moby-Dick (1851):
Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me. For could the sun do that, then could I do the other; since there is ever a sort of fair play herein, jealousy presiding over all creations. But not my master, man, is even that fair play. Who's over me? Truth hath no confines. --Moby-Dick - The Quarter-DeckMARCH 1853
"It may result from our profession, that the mind has these fits of morbid activity, as if to revenge itself for seasons of neglect." --March 1853 Scenes Beyond the Western Border
4. "morbid" with "the mind" in context of inactivity, words deleted in revision, not found in the 1857 book version but present in known writing by Melville:
"Well, well; these long calms have a morbid effect on the mind, I've often heard, though I never believed it before." --Benito Cereno in Putnam's Monthly Magazine (November 1855); and The Piazza Tales (1856).
5. "calmness" and "desolation" with a form of brood have been deleted in revision; these words do not appear in the 1857 book version:
F.—"And what was there remarkable in my natural calmness?"
C.—"It was never so! There was a brooding desolation around that could penetrate a sleeping soul! --March 1853 Scenes Beyond the Western Border
but are present in known writings by Melville:
"All the while, her preternatural calmness sometimes seems only made to cover the intensest struggle in her bosom." --Pierre; Or, The Ambiguities
"Oh! ye whose dead lie buried beneath the green grass; who standing among flowers can say—here, here lies my beloved; ye know not the desolation that broods in bosoms like these." --Moby-Dick, The ChapelAs shown in another post, other elements that appear in Pierre were also cut or changed in revision of the same March 1853 passage on silence, specifically the expressions
6. "fearful" and "never so" Neither occurs in the 1857 book version, where "full of awe" replaces both "awful" AND "fearful."
F.—"And what was there remarkable in my natural calmness?"
C.—"It was never so! There was a brooding desolation around that could penetrate a sleeping soul!—There is a re-action of extraordinary excitement,—such as ours of yesterday—that has a power over me which renders a profound silence awful—of all else, fearful! Silence! Then, every sentient of my soul has ears, in which air spirits supernaturally whisper distracting, sonorous thoughts:— in darkness, with long unrest, it verges madness...." --March 1853 Scenes Beyond the Western Border
"Pierre," said Isabel, "this silence is unnatural, is fearful. The forests are never so still."MAY 1853
-- Pierre; Or, The Ambiguities
7. "towns" Reference to sights and insights not perceivable "in cities and towns" has been deleted in revision. The word towns does not appear in the 1857 book version
July 25th.—Last night I was moody and sleepless, and so witnessed several sublime and beautiful changes of weather and sky; such as, indeed, many scarcely notice, and few in houses observe,—as in cities and towns they rarely can.... --May 1853 Scenes Beyond the Western Borderbut is present in Melville's Pierre (1852):
"there came into the mind of Pierre, thoughts and fancies never imbibed within the gates of towns; but only given forth by the atmosphere of primeval forests...." --Pierre; Or, The AmbiguitiesRelated posts:
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