Middlemarch

The Hardships of Marriage

Rosamond finally speaks, saying she cannot make admissions in response to such harsh words. She cites the language Lydgate used—her “secret meddling,” “interfering ignorance,” and “false assent”—as requiring an apology. She points out that he spoke of living with her being impossible and that he has not made her life pleasant. When Lydgate softens and asks her to consider his disappointment and provocation, she weeps and speaks of how hard it is to be disgraced among their acquaintances and to live in such misery. She wishes she had died with the baby.

She Had Mastered Him

Rosamond weeps with gentleness that makes her tears omnipotent over her husband. Lydgate draws his chair close and presses her delicate head against his cheek, offering only caress and silent comfort. He tells himself it is ten times harder for her than for him, since he has a life away from home and constant appeals to his activity. Though he wishes to excuse everything in her, he cannot help but think of her as an animal of another, feebler species. The chapter ends with the undeniable truth: she had mastered him.

CHAPITRE LXVI.

Chapter LXVI opens with an epigraph from Measure for Measure distinguishing temptation from moral fall, and centers on Lydgate’s increasing vulnerability to gambling as a means of quick money. His medical practice temporarily sustains him, but financial pressure draws him to the Green Dragon billiard room, where a winning streak becomes a losing one under Hawley’s challenge. Fred Vincy, present in the room and struggling with his own resolve not to bet, is shocked by Lydgate’s behavior and attempts an awkward intervention. The chapter closes with Farebrother drawing Fred aside for a private walk, in which he confesses his own temptation to remain silent about Fred’s renewed billiard-room visits, exposing his conflicted feelings for Mary Garth.

Temptation and Moral Fall

The chapter opens by distinguishing temptation from the act of falling, citing Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. Lydgate reflects that his medical practice serves as a vital counterweight to his personal anxieties, drawing him out of himself through the direct demands of patients’ needs. The narrator praises the unique beneficence of medical men, suggesting that this purposeful work sustains Lydgate better than any opiate would.

Lydgate’s Medical Practice as Emotional Anchor

Lydgate’s bedside work at the Hospital and in private practice functions as an emotional anchor during his marriage’s strain. The perpetual demands on his judgment and sympathies provide a “fresh application of thought” that lifts him above his private cares. The narrator compares this work favorably to opiates, suggesting it offers Lydgate a healthier form of relief from his mental degeneracy.

Farebrother’s Correct Suspicion of Lydgate’s Opium Use

Farebrother’s suspicion about Lydgate’s opium use is confirmed. Under the early pressure of foreseeing marital difficulties, Lydgate had once or twice tried opium. However, he lacked any hereditary craving for such artificial escapes. The detail establishes that his earlier self-medication was an isolated experiment rather than a deepening habit.

Lydgate’s Disinterest in Alcohol and Gambling

Lydgate is characterized by a striking indifference to common male vices. He could drink large quantities of wine without caring for it, and when others drank spirits he took only sugar and water out of pitying contempt for intoxication. Likewise, having observed gambling in Paris as one would observe a disease, he considered himself immune to its lure, valuing only the kind of winning achieved through disciplined, beneficial effort.

Lydgate’s Growing Temptation to Gamble for Easy Money

Despite his principled stance, Lydgate’s thoughts now begin to turn toward gambling—not from appetite for excitement but from a wistful longing for an easy way to obtain money without asking or bearing responsibility. Had he been in London or Paris, this airy notion might well have driven him into a gambling house. A subsequent incident demonstrates how readily such temptation might take hold given the right opportunity.

Green Dragon Billiard Room Background and Reputation

The Green Dragon’s billiard room is described as the established haunt of a pleasure-seeking set including Bambridge, the very place where Fred Vincy had earlier accumulated his memorable gambling debt. The room’s reputation as a place of dissipation was well known in Middlemarch, drawing both regulars and curious onlookers, including Lydgate in his early days, though he later ceased visiting for lack of leisure and inclination.