The Adventures of Roderick Random

Schoolmaster’s Classical Hospitality

The schoolmaster regales his guests with advice and recountings of his own life while his daughter prepares a fowl for supper. They fare sumptuously and drink several bottles of his fine ale, discussing literature and the world. The host assures them they will overtake the London waggon by noon the next day and that sufficient room awaits. Strap, admiring the old man’s benevolence, expects their lodging and entertainment will be complimentary—though Roderick, more worldly, reserves judgment until morning.

Lodging Bill Dispute with the Schoolmaster

Morning brings a disappointing reckoning: eight shillings and seven pence. Strap protests the seemingly extortionate bill, but the schoolmaster merely consults his slate and confirms the amount. The itemized bill includes bread, beer, a fowl with sausages, four bottles of quadrimum, fire and tobacco, lodging, and breakfast. When Strap demands a reduction, the daughter slips out and returns with two stout fellows posing as morning patrons but clearly intended to intimidate. Roderick pays the full amount, and departing Strap quotes Horace at the schoolmaster—“Semper avarus eget” (the miser is always wanting)—to which the pedant replies with a malicious smile: “Animum rege, qui, nisi paret, imperat” (rule your passions, for unless they obey, they command).

第十一章

The narrator and his companion Strap, having suffered financial losses, join three other passengers—Miss Jenny, an elderly usurer, and Captain Weazel with his wife—in a waggon. The journey is marked by Strap’s grievances, the captain’s bluster, and a heated dispute over accommodations. After supper at an inn, a midnight mistake leads Strap into the captain’s bedchamber, where a series of comic misunderstandings involving a chamberpot, a false accusation of rape, and violent confrontations among the travelers eventually give way to reconciliation and sleep.