Middlemarch

Journey Back to Middlemarch

Lydgate is in a rare state of hopefulness that morning, grateful for Bulstrode’s past support, though quietly uneasy about the unexpected end to Raffles’ case. The two men ride back to Middlemarch together, discussing the threat of cholera, the Reform Bill’s chances in the House of Lords, and the resolve of political unions. They only reference Raffles briefly, with Bulstrode noting Raffles has no known connections besides the unfriendly Rigg, and that he will arrange for Raffles to be buried in Lowick churchyard.

Farebrother’s Concerned Visit

After returning home, Lydgate is visited by Mr. Farebrother, who learned of the debt execution carried out at Lydgate’s house via local gossip. Farebrother had grown increasingly worried in prior months that Lydgate was drifting from his former values, due to reports of his mounting debts and his occasional visits to the Green Dragon billiard room, and decided to overcome his hesitation to check on Lydgate after hearing the execution news.

Lydgate Discloses Bulstrode’s Loan

Farebrother gently asks Lydgate if he took on a new, unmanageable debt to settle his old ones. Lydgate confirms he received a £1000 advance from Bulstrode, which he can repay gradually, and that his immediate debt crisis is fully resolved. Farebrother praises Bulstrode’s generosity, though Lydgate feels uncomfortable under the Vicar’s kind assumptions: he is haunted by doubts that Bulstrode’s loan was motivated by selfish, controlling aims rather than goodwill, and regrets his dependence on Bulstrode, a situation he had long resolved to avoid.

Lydgate’s Future Economic Plans

To redirect the conversation, Lydgate shares his revised career plans: he will open his own independent surgery, and take on an apprentice if his wife Rosamond agrees, framing these changes as necessary steps to rebuild his life after his recent hardships. Farebrother leaves him with warm, affectionate congratulations, unaware of the underlying tensions in Lydgate’s situation.

CHAPITRE LXXI.

Chapter LXXI opens with a Shakespearean epilogue from Measure for Measure before plunging Middlemarch into its most scandalous week. Five days after Raffles’s death, gossip about Bulstrode’s past erupts in the town, and the chapter traces how the rumor spreads from the Green Dragon through every social stratum, ultimately linking Bulstrode’s charity to Lydgate with suspicions of foul play at Stone Court.

Opening Measure for Measure Excerpt

The chapter begins with a quoted exchange between the Clown and Froth from Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, set in the Bunch of Grapes, with the Clown’s punning hope that “here be truths.” This epigraph frames the chapter as a meditation on tavern talk, the desire for “truths,” and the mingling of public discourse with the apprehension of hidden realities.

Bambridge Gossips at the Green Dragon

Five days after Raffles’s death, Mr. Bambridge loiters under the archway of the Green Dragon in the early afternoon. The draper Mr. Hopkins, hungry for masculine conversation, initiates contact, and a small cluster of townsfolk gathers to hear Bambridge boast of his recent horse-buying trip to the north—describing a bay mare rising four at Doncaster and recalling a pair of blacks he sold to Faulkner in 1819 for a hundred guineas that resold for a hundred and sixty.

Hawley and Bambridge Discuss Bulstrode

Mr. Frank Hawley crosses the High Street to ask Bambridge about a gig-horse. As they discuss a gray selected at Bilkley, Bulstrode rides slowly past. The group names him reflexively, and Bambridge pulls a sarcastic grimace. Lowering his voice, he tells Hawley he has “picked up a fine story about Bulstrode” at Bilkley—from an old chum of the banker who “can tap Bulstrode to any amount” and who “takes a stiff glass.” The informant’s name, Bambridge reveals, is Raffles. The draper Hopkins then announces that he furnished Raffles’s funeral yesterday at Lowick, that Bulstrode himself followed the bier, and that the deceased died at Stone Court on the third morning of his illness, attended by Lydgate.

Raffles’s Death Revealed

Hawley demands details, and Bambridge obliges the now-grown group of seven listeners—including the town-clerk—with his narrative of Raffles’s revelations about Bulstrode’s past, including the Will Ladislaw connection. The text reminds us that this is precisely the secret Bulstrode “had dreaded the betrayal of—and hoped to have buried forever with the corpse of Raffles.” Bulstrode has not yet confessed to himself any contrivance to silence Raffles, accepting what seemed to have been offered and trusting to Providence, though “it was impossible to prove” he had hastened the man’s death.