The Adventures of Roderick Random

The Fight with the Blacksmith

The blacksmith refuses Strap’s monetary offer, declaring he will fight him “for love.” A crowd quickly gathers around them. Strap removes his outer clothes for safekeeping and attacks with great violence, quickly exhausting himself. The blacksmith withstands the assault calmly before counterattacking with such force that Strap suffers three falls on the hard pavement and concedes defeat. After the victory, the blacksmith suggests they share drinks, but Strap discovers his shirt, neckcloth, hat, and wig have been stolen by onlookers during the fight. He escapes with great difficulty, bloodied and filthy, to find the narrator.

Strap’s Return

Strap appears before the narrator covered in blood and dirt, having lost his possessions to thieves who took advantage of the fight’s distraction. His joy at finding the narrator safe overwhelms any concern for his misfortune, and he nearly suffocates him with embraces. After cleaning up and borrowing one of the narrator’s shirts and a woollen nightcap, Strap listens to the narrator’s account of the previous night’s adventures with amazement. The two share a meager meal of milk and bread, and Strap divides his remaining eighteen-pence with the narrator before leaving to borrow a wig and hat from his friend the schoolmaster.

Resolution to Enlist

Alone after Strap departs, the narrator reflects painfully on his dependence on the poor barber’s boy. His pride stings him as he reviews possible schemes for self-support. With no hope of succeeding at the Navy Office, he resolves to enlist in the foot-guards the following day, whatever the consequences. The imagined glory of military service pleases him, and he fancies himself charging at the enemy at the head of his regiment, until Strap’s return interrupts these martial fantasies.

The Schoolmaster’s Recommendation

Strap returns with a gift from the schoolmaster—a wig and an enormous hat that had been reduced to a more manageable size. As Strap works on the garments, he delivers a rambling speech about their respective stations, noting their distant kinship through an amusingly confused genealogical explanation. When the narrator’s impatience prompts him to demand the point, Strap reveals that the schoolmaster has spoken on his behalf to a French apothecary seeking a journeyman. The position offers fifteen pounds annually plus room and board. The narrator seizes upon this opportunity immediately, demanding to be taken to the apothecary without delay.

Meeting the French Apothecary

The narrator and Strap find the schoolmaster at a nearby public house with the apothecary himself. The schoolmaster jokes about the narrator’s eagerness to escape through the window. The apothecary, Mr. Lavement, is a peculiar figure: a small, withered old man with an extremely low forehead, an upturned nose, prominent cheekbones, and loose, wrinkled skin. His mouth constantly contracts into a grin, revealing only four yellow fangs. Despite these eccentricities, he welcomes the narrator cordially, offers him beer, and tells him to come to his house the next morning.

Accepting the Journeyman Position

The narrator visits the apothecary’s establishment the following morning, where he accepts the journeyman position with its compensation of fifteen pounds per year plus lodging and meals. He plans to conceal his previously-acquired French language skills, gained while serving under Crab, hoping to overhear potentially useful or amusing information from the French household. The schoolmaster then arranges for a tailor to provide the narrator with clothes on credit and supplies him with a new hat, both to be paid from his first wages.

New Accommodations

Strap transports the narrator’s belongings to his new quarters: a back room on the third floor. The room contains only a pallet bed, a backless chair, a bottle repurposed as a candlestick, and a small triangular mirror. Its remaining furnishings have been moved to a garret to accommodate an Irish captain’s servant on the floor below. Despite the meager accommodations, the narrator looks forward to soon appearing respectably dressed in his new clothes, marking a fresh beginning despite the humble circumstances.

CHAPITRE XIX.

This chapter centers on the Lavement family of London, including Mr. Lavement, his high-spirited English wife, and their beautiful, wealthy daughter, as well as the narrator’s own misstep that grants him short-term pleasure but leads to ongoing complications for him within the household.