I n t e r p r e t a t i o n1 4 7There is no single correct interpretation of ‘Baa Baa Black
Sheep’, or for that matter of any other literary work. Even so, there
are more and less plausible ways of making sense of it. A persuasive
reading must take account of the textual evidence, though estab-
lishing this evidence itself involves interpretation. Someone might
always protest ‘I don’t regard that as evidence!’, or ‘Where on earth
do you get the idea that the Macbeth witches are meant to be evil?’
Textual evidence can usually be construed in a variety of ways, and
conflicts can arise between these versions. There may be no defini-
tive way of deciding among them. Nor may we feel the need to do
so. Could there be a convincing reading of a literary work that
nobody has yet come up with, or that nobody ever will? Why not?
Perhaps there are works which are standing by to be read in star-
tlingly new ways, waiting to be brought to their full potential by
some reader as yet unborn. Perhaps only the future will put us in
firmer possession of the past.
* * *Unless a reader continually makes assumptions, a literary text will
not work. Take, for example, the deliciously deadpan first sentence
of Evelyn Waugh’s short story ‘Mr Loveday’s Little Outing’: ‘ “You
will not find your father greatly changed,” remarked Lady Moping,
as the car turned into the gates of the County Asylum.’ Like any
piece of language, this sentence presents us with a number of
blanks that we must fill in, however unconsciously, in order to
make sense of it. In this sense, a fictional sentence is a bit like a
scientific hypothesis. Like a hypothesis, we have to test it out in
different ways until we find a way that works. We assume that the
father to whom Lady Moping refers is her husband (though we
have no evidence for this so far); that Lady Moping is visiting him