Lavengro · Chapter
The Servant's Tale explained
A former servant recounts his life story to Lavengro and Belle, detailing his service with a young baronet, his role in teaching oratory that launched a political career, his subsequent fall from grace due to a duel, and his eventual employ
What happens
A former servant recounts his life story to Lavengro and Belle, detailing his service with a young baronet, his role in teaching oratory that launched a political career, his subsequent fall from grace due to a duel, and his eventual employment as a postillion at an inn. The tale ends with a mysterious sighting of a red-haired priest from Rome.
Themes in this chapter
Social Class and Gentility
The servant's loss of caste due to association with literature and the rigid class distinctions among servants.
Honor and Morality
The servant's duel to defend his veracity, mirroring his master's duel, and the consequences of such actions.
Characters to notice
- Lavengro
Listener to the servant's tale, present in the dingle.
- Belle
Listener to the servant's tale, present in the dingle.
- The Postillion
The former servant who narrates his life story, now working as a postillion.
- The Priest
The red-haired priest seen at Rome, glimpsed by the postillion at an old mansion.
Key passages
“We arrived in England, and went to our country seat, but the peace and tranquillity of the family had been marred, and I no longer found my place the pleasant one which it had formerly been; there was nothing but gloom in the house, for the youngest daughter exhibited signs of lunacy, and was obliged to be kept under confinement.”
Upon returning to England, the family's country home was filled with sorrow because the youngest daughter had gone mad and was locked away.
The servant describes the family's decline after their return from abroad.
“My master, partly by his own qualifications, and partly by the assistance which he had derived, and still occasionally derived, from me, cut a wonderful figure in the House, and was speedily considered one of the most promising speakers; he was always a good hand at promising.”
Thanks to his own talents and my secret lessons, my master became a brilliant orator in Parliament, quickly seen as a rising star—though he was better at making promises than keeping them.
The servant's ironic commentary on his master's political success.
“I lost caste terribly amongst the servants for entering the service of a person connected with a profession so mean as literature; and it was proposed at the Servants’ Club, in Park Lane, to eject me from that society.”
I fell in the eyes of other servants for working for a literary man, and they even tried to expel me from the Servants' Club in Park Lane.
The low status of literary work among the servant class.
“We fired three times without effect; but this affair lost me my place, my master on hearing it forthwith discharged me; he was, as I have said before, very sensitive, and he said this duel of mine was a parody of his own.”
After three shots missed, my master fired me because he thought my duel was a ridiculous imitation of his own.
The servant's duel leads to dismissal, seen as a mockery of his master's earlier encounter.
“If it was not the identical face of the red-haired priest whom I had seen at Rome, may I catch cold!”
I swear that face was the same as the red-haired priest I saw in Rome, or else may I fall ill!
The postillion's dramatic oath identifying the mysterious figure.