Hi Middlemarchers. I hope you are all doing well. This week's reading was for chapters 50 and 51 - aka the fallout that came from Casaubon's Codicil.

Summary:

Chapter 50

Dorothea is very unwell following Casaubon’s death, so the family moves her to temporarily stay with Celia and Sir James. While there, Dorothea spends most of her time with Celia. Mr. Brooke’s prediction that she wouldn’t stay idle or ignorant of Casaubon's will comes to fruition when Dorothea asks about his wishes concerning Lowick village and herself. Celia tells her about the codicil. Dorothea is surprised because she had never considered Ladislaw in the way Casaubon suggested in the will. It seems that, for Dorothea, the main issue is that she now learns the extent of her husband’s lack of trust towards her. She considers what brought on Casaubon’s suspicions and seems to conclude that it started with her advocating for Ladislaw getting some share in the inheritance in earlier chapters. She decides not to bring this up to her family as it could make them suspicious about her relationship with Ladislaw. She thinks back over her interactions with Ladislaw, and we see that there are now the beginnings of a crush on him brewing in her heart. By the end of the chapter, we see her returning to Lowick to begin sorting through the estate and her inheritance of it. She wants to appoint a new Vicar for the area and Lydgate suggests Mr. Farebrother.

Chapter 51

Mr. Brooke makes his play for a seat in the election. He wants to run as an independent, playing most sides while identifying as broadly liberal. Ladislaw encourages him to campaign for Reform and for the most part Mr. Brooke goes along with it, because it seems to be potentially popular with voters. However, the more established conservative politicians in the area, like Mr. Hawley, make it their business to end Mr. Brooke’s campaign. During his first proper campaign speech, Hawley does just that by getting members of the crowd to hold up an effigy of Brooke and throw eggs at it while someone else ruins Brooke’s speech by imitating him as he speaks. Mr. Brooke is mostly oblivious to it because he is tipsy, until it becomes obvious that he is being mocked. Afterwards, Brooke gives up the race and suggests that Ladislaw leave the locality and branch into another area of work.

As the chapter progresses, we see that Ladislaw doesn’t really believe that Mr. Brooke is a good candidate, but he’s tied to him and makes Brooke half-pledge to vote for reform if he gets in. Ladislaw senses that Mr. Brooke is putting some distance between them, even while the campaign is still on. Ladislaw correctly guesses that it is Brooke’s (and more importantly Dorothea’s) family that are behind this. He thinks its because they see him as too unaccomplished to marry Dorothea and he resolves to leave Middlemarch for some time, develop his career as a political writer and then return and ask for her hand. This seems to be his plan up until the end of the chapter, when Brooke heavily suggests that he leaves Middlemarch and take up another career. This advice makes Ladislaw furious and defensive. He decides to stay, without knowing the truth behind the situation

References:

• Chapter 50's epigraph comes from Chaucer’s ‘The Shipman’s Prologue’ in ‘The Canterbury Tales (1177-82)
• Hugh Latimer (1485 – 1555) was a Protestant preacher and martyr.
• Imputed Righteousness is the doctrine that righteousness in God’s eyes is the result of faith rather than works (Romans 4: 6)
• A ‘dry election’ was an election where voters were not bribed with liquor.
• 'Plumpers’ refers to voters who chose to vote for only one candidate, leaving the rest of their votes unused.
• The Reform Bill proposed that the basic qualification for voters was occupancy of a property that cost a minimum of £10 per year.
• “Fallings from us, vanishings” is a quote from Wordsworth’s ‘Immortality Ode’
• ‘“Observation with extensive view” must look everywhere “from China to Peru”’ Mr. Brooke misquotes this line. It is, in fact, from ‘The Vanity of Human Wishes’ also by Dr. Johnson
• William Pitt was a name shared by a prominent father and son. The father was 1st Earl of Chatham and a Whig Prime Minister (1766-68). The son was a Tory Prime Minister twice between 1783 and 1806.
• ‘At one of the Inns of Court’ means studying for the legal bar.
• John Spencer, Viscount Althorp (1782-1845). Spencer led opposition to Wellington between 1828-30. He was also Grey’s Chancellor of the in 1830.