I must’ve been about twelve, maybe even eleven when I first encountered “Billy Budd”. It was not in Herman Melville’s novella which I did not read until much later. It certainly wasn’t in Benjamin Britten’s opera, which was not even composed at that time. Grand Army Plaza has a play version of the novella listed in the computer. I didn’t even note the authors or more properly the adapters; yet I’m sure it was in that play version that I first encountered “Billy Budd.” In the early days of television there was no video tape. Plays and operas were done live. The invention of videotape extended the boundaries of television, but robbed it of it’s spontaneity. Gone are the days when the medium was truly the message. Anyhow I remember seeing that (or a) play version live. I believe the program was called Schaefer (as in used-to-be Brooklyn beer) Playhouse, and that it was on channel 2. Those are pleasant reminisces. However, when they hung “Billy Budd” I remember crying uncontrollably. I do not remember if I was angry at Captain Edward Fairfax Vere for letting them hang him and for refusing to intervene to save him.
I recently attended the matinee performance of Britten’s “Billy Budd” at the Met. All the old memories flooded back. In both Melville’s “Billy Budd” and Britten’s “Billy Budd” Billy blesses Captain Vere before he dies. Does Vere deserve this? I kept thinking that Vere represents those ( not unlike myself ) who live by the letter of the law, and fear to bend it to obtain a just result. If I didn’t condemn Vere as a boy, I did as a man in spite of Britten’s best efforts to exonerate him.
I had determined to do no research for this article, but to merely try to recapture those youthful feelings of anguish that evil triumphs over good. That resolution didn’t hold, and I did some research. Besides I feel that I’ve already failed to get across the horror of evil triumphant and how bad I felt on that first encounter when I did not know how the play would end. I Certainly did not know the term, but I guess I was hoping for a “Deus ex Machina” to save “Billy Budd” certainly Captain Vere wouldn’t.
Let’s back up for a slight synopsis, Just in case ! you don’t recall the Characters and the story. Captain Edward Fairfax Vere nicknamed “Starry Vere” is the captain of his majesty’s ship “indomitable” III 1797. England is at war with France. There has just been a mutiny in the British Navy. The high command is very frightened, and discipline is very strict. Billy Budd is impressed to Vere’s ship from a merchantman “Rights Of Man.” Billy bids farewell to his old ship singing out “Farewell, rights of man” which naturally sounds seditious. After all France has killed her king, and denied God. Claggart, the master-at-arms, represents pure evil. As such he cannot co-exist with Billy. who is pure good. Claggart accuses Billy of stirring up mutiny. Vere knows Claggart is a liar. but Billy must answer the charge. Billy is a stammerer. When speech fails him he kills Claggart with one blow. Vere says that this is the justice of heaven, but not of men. A court martial sentences Billy to hang. Vere will not intervene. Billy realizing Vere had to do this blesses him as he dies. In old age Vere sings: “what have I done?” In answer I say that when good men do nothing, evil will triumph.
Opera News had a wonderful article on the mutiny. and the times. Unfortunately. I didn’t save it, but I believe the British Government first tried to negotiate with. the mutineers.making matters worse. Obviously, after that only a tough hand and the cat-of-nine tails or the yardarm were thought the appropriate method of dealing with mutineers. In the opera and the novella Vere is portrayed as somewhat otherworldly Starry-Vere, but he is more than just a naval officer. He reads Plutarch and he knows something of the ways of the world. In fact he knows Claggart. and he tells him to his face that he is evil, and Billy is good. The fact that he must employ a Claggart on his ship is glossed over, but no navy runs on love.
In the playbill Herbert Kupferberg says that Billy’s tragedy is Vere’s tragedy too. Now in all the commentaries Billy and Claggart are considered Archetypes; one good, one evil. The question is Vere a person or an archetype? He is neither all good nor all evil. He is an intellectual who can not bend the rules for true justice.
I went to the books to try to see what, if anything, Melville said or thought about “Billy Budd.” At the same time, Melville himelf has been the. subject of two mammoth new biographies. They may be laudatory, as well they should about Melville the artist, but less so as to Melville the man. In a review in the Times it appears that one or both of the biographers believe that Melville beat his wife, and children. Certainly, from all that is known Melville was not a good father. Therein you have the first of the commentaries on “Billy Budd.” Billy was a foundling; Vere a substitute father. Abraham-Isaac, but this Abraham let his son be sacrificed. In “Melville: A biography” Laurie Robertson Lorant says. Amongst other rationales, that “Billy Budd” is a strangled cry from a child abandoned by his father, not only ritual enactments of the perversions of patriarchy, with Billy’s unsexed body the altar on which the lamb is split, and a confession of guilt by a father whose “abandonment” of his own son led to the son’s suicide.” Melville’s own son Malcolm committed suicide. Was “Billy Budd” an act of expiation by Melville? Did Melville want Malcolm’s blessing before Malcolm died? If Billy’s death is Vere’s disgrace: Is Malcolm’s death Melville’s? Alas! Certainly. Ms. Lorant believes Melville beat his wife and children.
Kupferberg and several of the other writers keep emphasizing that Vere’s actions must be judged in light of the times. and that “Great Mutiny in the Nore.” Billy not only strikes a superior officer; he kills him. Lewis Mumford in his 1929 study “Herman Melville: A study of his life and vision” says each character, Vere, Claggan, and Billy, has a Platonic clarity of form. Vere urbane, Claggart evil, and Billy good. Vere judges Billy guilty under earthly law. but then the burden now lies on Captain Vere. Billy Budd is the story of three men in the British Navy, but it is also the story of the world, the spirit, and the devil. Melville said the story was not unwarranted by our incongruous world. Vere must employ a Claggart, and suffer the consequences of such employment.
Other theories of Billy Budd are that the ship is a totalitarian state and as such justice does not exist, and cannot exist. Billy must die. In the opera the novice, who has been whipped, cries that he is lost on this infinite sea. Later Vere will acknowledge that he was lost on the infinite sea. but it was Billy that saved him. Does the son redeem the father? Let’s face it in all Melville, especially “Moby Dick” symbolism abounds. It does for Britten as well. I thought of “Lost in the Stars” not the content, but just for title. Britten’s opera is fraught with symbolism. The sea plays its part in both “Billy Budd” and “Peter Grimes.”
Evidently if I titled this piece “Captain Vere’s Disgrace” I’m not buying any, of the theories except my own. When good men do nothing evil will triumph. I fear me that had I been in Vere’s position, I’d have done nothing. It is difficult to take arms against a sea of troubles. Somewhere as a youth I must’ve said: “save him,” “save him.” I’ve never really believed that good will triumph. Did I get that way back then in a Schaefer Playhouse version of “Billy Budd” or did that just confirm my youthful feelings? I know when I’m in trouble even to this day – I say “save me” “save me”, but it says in the Bible that the harvest is in and we are not saved. Enough of this gloom. I did truly love the performance of the opera at the Met. Once again I must compliment all those involved in the production. Philip Langridge’s Vere was magnificent even if you compare him to Peter Pears. James Morris was a fine Claggart, and Dwayne Croft, a fine Billy. Steuart Bedford put the Met orchestra through it’s paces. And he can well compare himself to Benjamin Britten who was an excellent conductor. New Yorkers, so I am told, feel better about the city. Why not? The Met’s better than ever.