12 Middlemarch - Read By Stephanie Poppins

Middlemarch by George Eliot explores the lives of its inhabitants as they navigate societal expectations, personal aspirations, and the changing world around them. The story centres on Dorothea Brooke, a young, idealistic woman who marries an older scholar.

In this episode, Mr Brooke has his doubts.

Transcript

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Chapter 7 Mr Cassebon,

As might be expected,

Spent a great deal of his time at the Grange in these weeks and in the hindrance which courtship occasioned to the progress of his great work naturally made him look forward more eagerly to the happy termination of courtship.

He had deliberately incurred the hindrance having made up his mind it was now time for him to adorn his life with the graces of female companionship,

To irradiate the gloom which fatigue was apt to hang over the intervals of studious labour with a play of female fancy,

And to secure in this his culminating age the solace of female tendance for his declining years.

Hence he determined to abandon himself to the stream of feeling and perhaps were surprised to find what an exceedingly shallow reel it was.

As in droughty regions baptism by immersion could only be performed symbolically,

So Mr Cassebon found that sprinkling was the utmost approach to a plunge which his stream would afford him,

And he concluded that the poets had much exaggerated the force of masculine passion.

Nevertheless,

He observed with pleasure that Miss Brooke showed an ardent submissive affection which promised to fulfil his most agreeable provisions of marriage.

It had once or twice crossed his mind that possibly there was some deficiency in Dorothea to account for the moderation of his abandonment,

But he was unable to discern the deficiency or to figure to himself a woman who would have pleased him better.

So there was clearly no reason to fall back upon but the exaggerations of human tradition.

Could I not be preparing myself now to be more useful,

Said Dorothea to him one morning early in the time of courtship?

Could I not learn to read Latin and Greek aloud to you,

As Milton's daughters did to their father,

Without understanding what they read?

I fear that would be wearisome to you,

Said Mr Cassebon,

Smiling,

And indeed,

If I remember rightly,

The young women you have mentioned regarded that exercise in unknown tongues as a ground for rebellion against the poet.

Yes,

But in the first place,

They were very naughty girls,

Else they would have been proud to minister to such a father,

And in the second place,

They might have studied privately and taught themselves to understand,

And then it would have been interesting.

I hope you don't expect me to be naughty and stupid.

I expect you to be all that exquisite young ladies can be in every possible relation of life.

Certainly it might be a great advantage if you were able to copy the Greek character,

And to that end it were well to begin with a little reading.

Dorothea sees this as a precious permission.

She would not have asked Mr Cassebon at once to teach her the languages,

Dreading of all things to be tiresome instead of helpful,

But it was not entirely out of devotion to her future husband she wished to know Latin and Greek.

Those provinces of masculine knowledge seemed to her a standing ground from which all truth could be seen more truly.

As it was,

She constantly doubted her own conclusions because she felt her own ignorance.

How could she be confident that one-room cottages were not for the glory of God,

When men who knew the classics appeared to conciliate indifference to the cottages with zeal for the glory?

Perhaps even Hebrew might be necessary,

In order to arrive at the core of things and judge soundly on the social duties of the Christian.

And she had not yet reached that point of renunciation at which she would have been satisfied with having a wise husband.

She wished poor child to be wise herself.

Miss Brooke was certainly very naive with all her alleged cleverness.

Celia,

Whose mind had never been thought too powerful,

Saw the emptiness of other people's pretensions much more readily.

To have in general but little feeling seems to be the only security against feeling too much.

However,

Mr.

Cassapone consented to listen and teach for an hour together,

Like a schoolmaster of little boys,

Or rather like a lover to whom a mistress's elementary ignorance and difficulties have a touching fitness.

Few scholars would have disliked teaching the alphabet under such circumstances,

But Dorothea herself was a little shocked and discouraged at her own stupidities and the answers she got as some timid questions about the value of the Greek accents.

She suspected here,

Indeed,

There might be secrets not capable of explanation to a woman's reason.

And Mr.

Brooke had no doubt on that point.

He expressed himself with his usual strength upon it one day when he came into the library while the reading was going on.

Well,

But now,

Cassapone,

Such deep studies,

Classics,

Mathematics,

That kind of thing,

Are too taxing for a woman,

Too taxing,

You know.

Dorothea is learning to read the characters simply,

Said Mr.

Cassapone.

She had the very considerate thought of saving my eyes.

Without understanding,

You know,

That might not be so bad,

Mr.

Brooke replied.

A woman should be able to sit down and play or sing a good old English tune,

In a light way,

You know.

That's what I like,

Though I have heard most things,

But I'm a conservative in music and I like to stick to the good old tunes.

Mr.

Cassapone is not fond of the piano,

Said Dorothea,

And I'm very glad he is not.

If he'd been asking her to play The Last Rose of Summer,

She would have required much resignation,

She thought.

Ah,

There you are behind Celia.

My dear Celia now plays very prettily,

Said Mr.

Brooke.

She's always ready to play.

However,

Since Cassapone does not like it,

You are all right,

But it's a pity you should not have little recreations of that sort.

The bow always strung,

That kind of thing,

You know,

Will not do.

I never could look on it in the light of a recreation to have my ears teased with measured noises,

Said Mr.

Cassapone.

A tune much iterated has the ridiculous effect of making the words in my mind perform a sort of minuet to keep time,

An effect hardly tolerable after boyhood.

As to the grander forms of music,

Worthy to accompany solemn celebrations,

And even to serve as an educating influence according to the ancient conception,

I say nothing,

For with these we are not immediately concerned.

No,

But music of that sort I should enjoy,

Said Dorothea.

My uncle took us to hear the great organ recital,

And it made me sob.

That kind of thing is not healthy,

My dear,

Said Mr.

Brooke.

Cassapone,

She will be in your hands now.

You must teach my niece to take things more quietly,

Eh,

Dorothea?

He ended with a smile,

Not wishing to hurts his niece,

But really thinking it was better perhaps for her to be early married to so sober a fellow since she would not hear of Chetham.

It is wonderful,

Though,

He said to himself as he shuffled out of the room,

That she should have liked him.

The match is good.

I should have been travelling out on my brief to have hindered it.

Let Mrs.

Cadwallader say what she will.

He is pretty certain to be a bishop,

Is Cassapone.

That was a very sensible pamphlet of his on the Catholic question.

A deanery,

At least.

They owe him a deanery.

And here I must vindicate a claim to philosophical reflectiveness by remarking that Mr.

Brooke on this occasion little thought of the radical speech,

Which at a later period he was led to make on the incomes of the bishops.

What elegant historian would neglect a striking opportunity for pointing out his heroes did not foresee the history of the world or even their own actions?

But of Mr.

Brooke,

I make a further remark,

Perhaps less warranted by precedent,

Namely that if he had foreknown his speech,

It might not have made any great difference.

To think with pleasure of his niece's husband having a large ecclesiastical income was one thing.

To make a liberal speech was another.

And it is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.