The Adventures of Roderick Random

Vandal’s Initial Agreement and Subsequent Rejection of the Play

Vandal acknowledges receiving the manuscript from Marmozet but denies that any mention of Earl Sheerwit was made; after learning the circumstances, he agrees to read the tragedy forthwith, professing he would not reject it against the earl’s opinion, but when the narrator returns at the appointed time, the manager pronounces the play improper for the stage and rejects it with groundless and unintelligible objections.

Narrator’s Growing Suspicion of Marmozet’s Betrayal

Plunged from hope into despondence, the narrator begins to entertain doubts of Marmozet’s integrity upon recollecting and comparing the circumstances of his conduct, a suspicion strengthened by reports that Earl Sheerwit has spoken of Marmozet’s character with contempt and resented his opposing his own taste to his lordship’s concerning the tragedy.

Friend’s Condemnation of Marmozet’s Hypocrisy and Avarice

The hot-headed friend visits, denounces Marmozet as the sole cause of the disappointment acting throughout with perfidious dissimulation, condemns his hypocrisy and avarice, and accuses him of betraying the narrator’s inexperience and undermining another established author whose tragedy might compete with Marmozet’s own recently purchased comedy.

Narrator’s Defense of Marmozet’s Innocence

The narrator, shocked by such a portrait, argues against his friend’s asseverations by demonstrating the bad policy of Marmozet’s supposed behavior and the unlikelihood that a man of his standing would stoop to such practices; he credits Marmozet’s continued favor with the earl as proof of his vindicated innocence and refuses to believe the degrading assertions.