The Adventures of Roderick Random

Narrator Corrects Doctor’s Classical Knowledge Errors

Smiling at the doctor’s learned investigation, the narrator seeks to captivate him by observing that the distinctions do not appear in the ancient writers, citing Horace, who uses poto and bibo interchangeably, as in the twentieth Ode of the first Book. He further points out that he has never encountered the verb poteein, and that potamos, potema, and potos are derived from pino, poso, pepoka, which is the word the Greek poets consistently use for festal drinking. To illustrate, he quotes Homer describing Nestor at his cups (“Nestora d’ouk elathen iache pinonta perempes”) and gives several examples from Anacreon. The doctor, who had intended to impress with his erudition, is utterly astonished to be corrected by a man of the narrator’s apparent station; after a long pause he concedes, “Upon my word, you are in the right, sir—I find I have not considered this affair with my usual accuracy.”

Doctor Proposes Introduction to Young Gentlemen

The doctor then accosts the narrator in Latin, which he speaks excellently, and the two maintain a conversation in that language for a full two hours on a variety of subjects. Despite the doctor’s whimsical appearance and attention to trifles, the narrator is convinced he is a man of extensive knowledge, particularly in books. As the narrator later learns from Medlar, the doctor regards him as a prodigy of learning and proposes that very night, if the narrator is unengaged, to introduce him to several young gentlemen of fortune and fashion with whom the doctor has an appointment at the Bedford coffee house.