Greetings Middlemarchers! This week we meet Mrs. Busybody Cadwallader. We also observe the awkward courtship of Dorothea and Casaubon. (Summary and prompts liberally recycled from last year.)

Summary:

Chapter 6

My lady’s tongue is like the meadow blades,

That cut you stroking them with idle hand.

Nice cutting is her function: she divides

With spiritual edge the millet-seed,

And makes intangible savings.

-George Elliot

As Casaubon leaves the Grange, we meet Mrs Cadwallader - a new character! She’s an obvious busybody and she chastises Mr Brooke about his politics and, after learning that Dorothea is to marry Casaubon, his household. She had been trying to put Dorothea and James together, so she turns her attention to Celia as a potential match. James is disappointed by the news, but he goes to the Grange to congratulate Dorothea anyway (and maybe take another look at Celia while he’s there…).

Chapter 7

“Piacer e popone la sua stagione.”

(Pleasure and melons want the same weather) -Italian Proverb

Next up, Casaubon is spending a lot of time at the Grange, even though it hinders his work on The Key to All Mythologies. He can’t wait till the courtship phase is over. Dorothea is also keen to get married, and plans to learn Classical languages to help him in his work, but her uncle advises her to stick to more ladylike studies. While Dorothea gets stuck in, Mr. Brooke reflects that Casaubon might well become a bishop someday. Perhaps the match isn’t as objectionable as he first thought?

Context & Notes:

A tithe is a percentage tax on income to the Church.

The thirty-nine articles refers to the documents that define the practices and beliefs of the Anglican church.

Cicero was a Roman philosopher-statesman who tried to uphold the standard principles of Rome during a time of great upheaval.

The Catholic Bill refers to the Catholic Relief Act 1829 which made it legal for Catholics to become MPs.

Guy Faux, more commonly spelled Guy Fawkes, attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605 in order to install a Catholic monarch.

Varium et mutabile semper is a quotation from the Aeneid, roughly meaning “a woman is always fickle and changeable.”

A Cheap Jack is a person who hawks cheap, shoddy goods.

In Greek mythology, the Seven Sages are a group of renowned 6th century philosophers.

Interestingly other mythological traditions have their own versions of this. (TIL: there are Seven Sages in Pokémon!)

Sappho was a sixth century Greek poet from the Isle of Lesbos; she wrote about love between women and the modern words ‘Sapphic’ and ‘Lesbian’ come from her life and works.

Sir James thinks of ‘The Grave)’, a 1743 poem by the Scottish Poet Robert Blair.