The Adventures of Roderick Random

Despair After Play Rejection and Consideration of Menial Work

Baffled in all attempts to have his play staged, the narrator despairs of ever seeing it acted and begins to consider choosing some mean employment that might afford a sure subsistence.

Landlord’s Successful Intercession for Play Production

The narrator’s landlord, considerably in debt and having counted on payment from the profits of the third night, makes another effort in the narrator’s behalf and, through his interest, procures a message from a lady of fashion to Mr. Brayer requesting that the play be set up forthwith, an intercession so effective that the play is once again received and hopes revive.

Brayer’s Conditional Promise to Stage the Revised Play

Brayer, engrossed by matters of apparent importance, delays reading the play until the season advances; having finally read it and proposed alterations, he sends his duty to the patroness and promises on his honor to bring it on next winter provided the alterations are made and the copy delivered before the end of April—conditions the narrator accepts and fulfills with an aching heart.

Marmozet’s Appointment as Joint Patentee Blocking Production

During the summer, Marmozet becomes joint patentee with Brayer, so when the narrator claims performance of the articles, he is told that nothing can be done without the partner’s consent, who is already pre-engaged to another author, delivering yet another unforeseen mortification.

Narrator’s Eviction, Arrest, and Imprisonment

The narrator’s ruin is completed by the death of his good friend and landlord, whose executors obtain a judgment against his effects, seize them, and turn him out naked, friendless, and forlorn into the streets; he is there arrested at the suit of his tailor, thrown into prison, and subsists for five weeks on the charity of fellow prisoners until Mr. Random’s benevolence provides him with comfort.