Chapter 24
CHAPTER 24
In a seventy-four of the old order the deck known as the upper gun-deck was the one covered over by the spar-deck which last though not without its armament was for the most part exposed to the weather. In general it was at all hours free from hammocks; those of the crew swinging on the lower gun-deck, and berth-deck, the latter being not only a dormitory but also the place for the stowing of the sailors' bags, and on both sides lined with the large chests or movable pantries of the many messes of the men.
On the starboard side of the Indomitable's upper gun-deck, behold Billy Budd under sentry lying prone in irons in one of the bays formed by the regular spaceingspacing of the guns comprising the batteries on either side. All these pieces, (remnant comma in MS)pieces were of the heavier calibre of that period. Mounted on lumbering wooden carrigescarriages they were hampered with cumbersome harness of breechen and strong side-tackles for running them out. Guns and carriages, together with the long rammers and shorter lintstocks lodged in loops overhead–all these, as customary, were painted black; and the heavy hempen breechens tarred to the same tint, wore the like livery of the undertakers. In contrast with the funereal hue of these surroundings the prone sailor's exterior apparel, white jumper and white duck trousers, each more or less soiled, dimly glimmered in the obscure light of the bay like a patch of discolored snow in early April lingering at some upland cave's black mouth. In effect he is already in his shroud or the garments that shall serve him in lieu of one. Over him but scarce illuminating him, two battle-lanterns swing from two massive beams of the deck above. Fed with the oil supplied by the war-contracterswar-contractors (whose gains, honest or otherwise, are in every land an anticipated portion of the harvest of death) with flickering splashes of dirty yellow light they pollute the pale moonshine all but ineffectually struggling in obstructed flecks throthrough the open ports from which the tompioned cannon protrude. Other lanterns at intervals serve but to bring out somewhat the obscurer bays which like small confessionals or side-chapels in a cathedral branch from the long dim-vistaed broad-aisle between the two batteries of that covered tier.
Such was the deck where now lay the Handsome Sailor. Through the rose-tan of his complexion, , (remnant double comma in MS)complexion, no pallor could have shown. It would have taken days of sequestration from the winds and the sun to have brought about the effacement of that, (remnant comma in MS)that. But the skeleton in the cheek-bone at the point of its angle was just beginning delicatlydelicately to be defined under the warm-tinted skin. In fervid hearts self-contained some brief experiences devour our human tissieutissue as secret fire in a ship's hold consumes cotton in the bale.
But now lying between the two guns, as nipped in the vicevice] MEL retains Melville's British spelling for the clamping tool usually spelled "vise" in the US. of fate, Billy's agony, mainly proceeding from a generous young heart's virgin experience of the diabolical incarnate and effective in some men—the tension of that agony was over now. It survived not the something healing in the closeted interview with Captain Vere. Without movement, he lay as in a trance. Thattrance, thattrance, that] Originally, Melville composed two sentences: the simple sentence "he lay in a trance" followed by a heavily nested complex sentence, "That adolescent expression ... took on something, etc." Later, in pencil, he deleted the second sentence's predicate "took," revising it to the participle "taking," with the idea of converting the complex sentence into a long-running participial clause, and attaching it to the previous simple sentence. However, Melville neglected to combine the two parts of his new sentence with a comma. MEL supplies the necessary comma and decapitalizes "That." NN offers two sentences. adolescent expression previously noted as his, taking on something akin to the look of a slumbering child in the cradle when the warm hearth-glow of the still chamber at night plays on the dimples that at whiles mysteriously form in the cheek, silently coming and going there. For now and then in the gyved one's trance a serene happy light born of some wandering reminiscence or dream would diffuse itself over the hishis face, and then wane away only anew to return.
The Chaplain coming to see him and finding him thus, and percievingperceiving no sign that he was conscious of his prescencepresence, attentively regarded him for a space, then slipping aside, withdrew for the time, peradventure feeling that even he (no comma in MS)he,he,] MEL adds a comma here and after "Mars" below to set off the apposition regarding the Chaplain in this well-balanced nesting of clauses. the minister of Christ tho'though receiving his stipend from Mars (no comma in MS)MarsMars,] See note on "he" above., had no consolation to proffer which could result in a peace transcending that which he beheld. But in the small hours he came again. And the prisoner now awake to his surroundings noticed his approach and civilly, all but cheerfully, welcomed him. But it was to little purpose that in the interview following (no comma in MS)following, the good man sought to bring Billy Budd to some godly understanding that he must die, and at dawn. True, Billy himself freely referred to his death as a thing near / closecloseclose] Melville originally wrote "near at hand," but in revision inscribed "close" at the end of the line preceding "near." However, he did not delete "near," leaving an uncompleted and oscillating revision. MEL emends to "close." at hand; but it was something in the way that children will refer to death in general, who yet among their other sports will play a funeral with hearse and mourners.
Not that like children Billy was incapable of concivingconceiving what death really is. No, but he was wholly without irrational fear of it, a fear more prevalent in highly civilized communities than those so-called barbarous ones which in all respects stand nearer to unadulterate Nature. And, as elsewhere said, a barbarian Billy radically was; as much so, for all the costume, as his countrymen the British captives, living trophies, made to march in the Roman triumph of Germanicus. Quite as much so as those later barbarians, young men probably, and picked specimens among the earlier British converts to Christianity, at least nominally such and taken to Rome (as to daytoday converts from lesser isles of the sea may be taken to London) of whom the Pope of that time, admiring the strangnessstrangeness of their personal beauty so unlike the Italian stamp, their clear ruddy complexion and curled flaxen locks, exclaimed, "Angles" (meaning English the modern derivative) (no comma in MS)derivative), "Angles do you call them? And is it because they look so like angels?" Had it been later in time one would think that the Pope had in mind Fra Angelico's seraphs some of whom, plucking apples in gardens of the Hesperides have the faint rose-bud complexion of the more beautiful English girls.
If in vain the good Chaplain sought to impress the young barbarian with ideas of death akin to those conveyed in the skull, dial, and cross-bones on old tombstones; equally futile to all appearance were his efforts to bring home to him the thought of salvation and a Saviour. Billy listened, but less out of awe or reverence perhaps than from a certain natural politeness; doubtless at bottom regarding all that in much the same way that most mariners of his class take any discourse abstract or out of the common tone of the work-a-day world. And this sailor-way of taking clerical discourse is not wholly unlike the way in which the primer / pioneerpioneerpioneer] Melville originally wrote "primer of Christianity" to refer to a missionary. In pencil, Melville inscribed "pioneer" above "primer" but did not delete "primer," thus creating an uncompleted oscillating revision. MEL emends to "pioneer." NN emends to "primer." of Christianity full of transcendent miracles was recievedreceived long ago on tropic isles by any superior savage so called—a Tahitian say of Captain Cook's time or shortly after that time. Out of natural courtesy Hehe recievedreceived, but did not appropriate. It was like a gift placed in the palm of an outreached hand upon which the fingers do not close.
But the "Indomitable"s (underlined)Indomitable's Chaplain was a discreet man possessing the good sense of a good heart. So he insisted not in his vocation here. At the instance of Captain Vere, a lieutenant had apprised him of pretty much everything as to Billy; and since he felt that innocence was even a better thing than religion wherewith to go to Judgement, he reluctantly withdrew; but in his emotion not without first performing an act strange enough in an Englishman, and under the circumstances yet more so in any regular priest. Stooping over, he kissed on the fair cheek his fellow-man, a felon in martial law, one who though on the confines of death he felt he could never convert to a dogma; nor for all that did he fear for his future (no period in MS)future.
Marvel not that having been made acquainted with the young sailor's essential innocenseinnocence the worthy man lifted not a finger to avert the doom of such a martyr to martial discipline. So to do would not only have been as idle as invoking the desert, but would also have been an audacious transgressontransgression of the bounds of his function, one as exactly prescribed to him by military law as that of the boatswain or any other naval officer. Bluntly put, a chaplain is the minister of the Prince of Peace serving in the host of the God of War—Mars. As such, he is as incongruous as that musket of Beecher etcas that musket of Beecher &c] Originally, Melville wrote in ink "as a musket would be on the altar at Christmas." In pencil, Melville deleted "a" and "would be on the altar" and inserted "that" and "of Beecher &c" above. The allusion is to abolitionist Rev. Henry Ward Beecher's pledge to send rifles in support of making Kansas a free state. Melville's "etc" seems to be a reminder that he planned to return to this site and add more in revision. HS and NN restore the original ink inscription. Arguing that, while the revision is uncompleted, it is nevertheless coherent, MEL retains the pencil inscription. at Christmas. Why then is he thereWhy then is he there?] Revisions to the last two leaves of Ch. 24 reveal Melville’s growing antipathy toward the chaplain’s dilemma. The awareness that he is a “minister of the Prince of Peace” serving “the God of War” should lead the chaplain to acknowledge his self-contradiction. At the end of the previous leaf, the chaplain—immediately discerning that the condemned sailor is not in need of salvation or any sacramental ritual based on “dogma”—kisses Billy and backs away. The narrator then encourages the reader to “marvel not” at the chaplain’s further non-action. At this point, Melville inscribed in pencil a bracketed note registering an idea for further development, which states that an “irruption of heretic thought [would] be hard to suppress”. The implication that Billy’s unwarranted execution might challenge the chaplain’s religious belief would, in context, humanize the chaplain. Though he did not delete this bracketed note, Melville left the chaplain’s sympathizing doubt undeveloped. Instead, on the following leaf, he explains that the chaplain “lifted not a finger” on Billy’s behalf because his allegiance is to the machinery of war and not the principles of peace. Revising further, and asking more petulantly “Why then is he there?” with Billy, Melville squeezed five lines in ink, in the remaining blank space of the leaf to finish the chapter, condemning the chaplain, who (like Rev. Beecher, see above) uses religion to sanction "brute force."? Because he indirectly subserves the purpose attested by the cannon; because too he lends the sanction of the religion of the meek to that which practically is the abrogation of everything but brute Force (no period in MS)Force.