An old man's libido
From Mr Sidney Viness Sir: It is impossible nowadays to read a review (Books, 28 August) about Hardy without the reputed remark by Hardy to Edmund Blunden that he was capable of full sexual intercourse until the age of 84. I do not believe it — either that he said it or, if he did, that it was true. It is much more likely, given the way that Emma went off the rails, that he was impotent. Hardy was, like most Dorset peasants, excessively reserved. He went to the same Dorchester barber for over 30 years. After ten years he unbent sufficiently to talk about the weath- er, but if another customer came in, he would clam up completely.
Hardy may have told Edmund Blunden that sexual desire was a great problem for an old man, for he expressed this in one of his finest poems:
But Time, to make me grieve, Part steals, lets part abide; And shakes this fragile frame at eve With throbbings of noontide.
Sidney Viness 1 Willow Close, Laverstock,
Salisbury, Wilts
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