Happy Saturday and welcome back to Dodo's inner drama in Middlemarch!

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Summary:

"Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear The Godhead's most benignant grace; Nor know we anything so fair As is the smile upon thy face: Flowers laugh before thee on their beds And fragrance in thy footing treads; Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong; And the most ancient heavens, through Thee, are fresh and strong"

- From Ode to Duty by William Wordsworth

Chapter 80 finds Dorothea on her rounds to redeem Lydgate's reputation at Farebrother's home. After a nice afternoon on her land and with his family, Dodo is confronted with a mention of Will Ladislaw when Henrietta Noble, Mrs. Farebrother's sister, loses her tortoise shell lozenge box. She leaves quickly and has a dark night of the soul which finds her lying on her bedroom floor, thinking of Ladislaw's duplicity. In the morning, she casts off her widow's garments and has a renewed urge to see Rosamund and fix things between the three of them.

“Du, Erde, warst auch diese Nacht beständig
Und atmest neu erquickt zu meinen Füßert,
Beginnest schon mit Lust mich zu umgeben,
Du regst und rührst ein kräftiges Beschließen,
Zum höchsten Dasein immerfort zu streben.
This night, thou, Earth! hast also stood unshaken,
And now thou breathest new-refreshed before me,
And now beginnest, all thy gladness granting,
A vigorous resolution to restore me,
To seek that highest life for which I'm panting.”

-From Faust by Johann Wolfgang van Goethe

Chapter 81 opens with Dorothea at the Lydgate front door. Lydgate welcomes her and has to run off on an appointment but assures her Rosamund will see her. Rosie is, as usual, full of her own feelings and ready to have an unpleasant encounter about Will. Instead, she is disarmed by Dodo's gentleness and kindness to her, and they have a crying session. Dodo almost says too much, and Rosie suddenly blurts out that she and Will are just friends, which is complicated for Dorothea. Lydgate comes back early, and Dodo leaves the Lydgates together. Rosamond is suddenly jealous of Dodo but goes back into Lydgate's arms.

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References and Notes:

Mr. Farebrother is another White of Selborne- reference to another parson who loved the natural world!

Tortoise Shell has been used for decorations from Ancient Egyptian time until the 1973 CITES treaty (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species). Now there are plenty of other lookalike substitutes.

More about Faust-the pact with the devil for knowledge is a perennial theme.

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