Edgar Lee Masters’ “Hon. Henry Bennett”

Edgar Lee Masters’ “Hon. Henry Bennett”

Henry Bennett is a pathetic character, who realizes too late that he has been played for fool by his wife.

Introduction and Text of “Hon. Henry Bennett”

Edgar Lee Masters’ again allows his Spoon River lamenter to fashion his lament in an American-Innovative sonnet.  Featuring the traditional fourteen lines, the sonnet remain rimeless and without a definite rhythm patters.

In Edgar Lee Masters’ “Hon. Henry Bennett” from the American classic Spoon River Anthology, the speaker laments his rapacious wife’s treachery:  she effectively “loved” him to death, but not out of love.    His wife had in mind to inherit Henry’s fortune and then marry the man of her dreams, the one with big muscles and a small brain.

The Honorable Henry Bennett is one of Spoon River’s more pathetic characters.  His wife, who was much younger than the judge, literally screwed the man to death.  By the time he realized what was happening, he was on his deathbed.   The wife’s treachery rendered the poor man a fool.

Hon. Henry Bennett

It never came into my mind
Until I was ready to die
That Jenny had loved me to death, with malice of heart.
For I was seventy, she was thirty-five,
And I wore myself to a shadow trying to husband
Jenny, rosy Jenny full of the ardor of life.  
For all my wisdom and grace of mind
Gave her no delight at all, in very truth,
But ever and anon she spoke of the giant strength
Of Willard Shafer, and of his wonderful feat
Of lifting a traction engine out of the ditch  
One time at Georgie Kirby’s.
So Jenny inherited my fortune and married Willard—
That mount of brawn! That clownish soul!

Commentary on “Hon. Henry Bennett”

Henry Bennett is a pathetic character, who realizes too late that he has been played for fool by his wife.

First Movement:  “Loved” to Death

It never came into my mind
Until I was ready to die
That Jenny had loved me to death, with malice of heart.

Judge Bennett confesses that it had not occurred to him until he was on his death bed that his young wife, Jenny, had deliberately tried to kill him by engaging him in too much sexual activity. 

The young Jenny literally “loved him to death.”  Euphemizing lascivious marital relations as “love,” the judge, nevertheless, now realizes that her intention had nothing to do with love and affection but with “with malice of heart.”

Second Movement:  Twice Her Age

For I was seventy, she was thirty-five,
And I wore myself to a shadow trying to husband
Jenny, rosy Jenny full of the ardor of life.  

The Honorable Henry Bennett was seventy years old when he married the woman, Jenny, who was half his age.  She was “full of the ardor of life”—another veiled reference to her oversexualized comportment.  

In the judge’s supposed husbandly duties, the poor Henry “wore [himself] to a shadow” attempting to keep Jenny satisfied.  He also describes Jenny as “rosy,” indicating the rush of blood that appears on the skin after a sexual encounter.

Third Movement:  No Interest in His Mind

For all my wisdom and grace of mind
Gave her no delight at all, in very truth,
But ever and anon she spoke of the giant strength
Of Willard Shafer, and of his wonderful feat
Of lifting a traction engine out of the ditch  
One time at Georgie Kirby’s.

Jenny demonstrated no interest in the judge’s “wisdom and grace of mind.”  We have to take Henry’s word for it that he possessed such praiseworthy qualities, but whatever his redeeming qualities might have been, his wife showed no interest in them.

Instead, the wife admired physical strength.  She was always taunting Henry by repeating the story that Willard Shafer had “lift[ed] a traction engine out of the ditch / One time at Geogrie Kirby’s.”  

His wife likely used this story repeatedly to entice Henry to service her sexually in order weaken Henry’s health.  But of course, as Henry said, he did not realize the nasty game Jenny was playing until it was too late.

Fourth Movement:  Rich Enough to Marry Her Stud

So Jenny inherited my fortune and married Willard—
That mount of brawn! That clownish soul!

To make a long story short, Henry quickly sums up his lament by reporting that after his death, Jenny married the man of the “giant strength,” Willard Shafer, after inheriting Henry’s fortune.  Jenny’s scheme succeeded, and Henry is left to name-call Jenny’s new husband, “That mount of brawn!  That clownish soul!”

Lacking the “wisdom and grace of mind” of the Honorable Henry Bennett, the strongman Willard Shafer wins the woman and the judge’s money.  And the Hon. Henry Bennett is not at all happy, definitely not resting in peace.