SOURCE: Wilson, Keith. “Thomas Hardy's ‘The Ruined Maid,’ Elsa Lanchester's Music Hall, and the Fall into Fashion.” Thomas Hardy Journal 15, no. 2 (May 1999): 41-8.

In the following essay, Wilson asserts Hardy's poem was adapted from a popular music-hall song. Wilson examines how these works, along with works like Tess of the d'Urbervilles, characterize compromised women and use of fashion in making statements about power.

In 1941, the actress, comedienne and singer Elsa Lanchester (then best known for her film rôles in The Bride of Frankenstein [1935] and as supporting actress to her husband, Charles Laughton, in his career-defining performances in The Private Life of Henry VIII [1933] and Rembrandt [1936]) joined forces with a group called the Yale Puppeteers to stage a review at the Turnabout Theatre on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles.¹ She continued to appear there periodically for more than ten years, performing songs that were a combination of...