Lavengro · Chapter
I explained
The narrator introduces his birth in East D—, East Anglia, and his Cornish gentillâtre lineage.
What happens
The narrator introduces his birth in East D—, East Anglia, and his Cornish gentillâtre lineage. He contrasts his melancholy, solitary nature with his brother's cheerful brilliance, using an Alpine lake and river as emblems. He recounts a Jew's visit who, contrary to the maid's claim of the child's weakness, praised his sense and prophetic look, noting the 'holy letters' he traced. The narrator also describes his father's military career and his single combat with Big Ben Brain in Hyde Park.
Themes in this chapter
Identity and Belonging
The narrator contrasts his own melancholy, solitary nature with his brother's cheerful brilliance, using the Alpine lake and river as emblems of their differing identities.
Social Class and Gentility
The narrator emphasizes his Cornish gentillâtre lineage and coat of arms, asserting his aristocratic origins.
Characters to notice
- Lavengro
The narrator describes his birth, his melancholy and solitary childhood, and his contrast with his brother.
- Sergeant Broughton
Mentioned as the champion Johnson whom Brain conquered.
- Ben Brain
Father's antagonist in a Hyde Park combat; later champion of England who died from combat blows.
- Captain Thomas Borrow
The narrator's father, a posthumous child, a Cornish gentillâtre, and a captain in the militia.
Key passages
“Perhaps no two individuals were ever more unlike in mind and disposition than my brother and myself. As light is opposed to darkness, so was that happy, brilliant, cheerful child to the sad and melancholy being who sprang from the same stock as himself, and was nurtured by the same milk.”
The narrator and his brother were complete opposites in temperament—one cheerful and bright, the other sad and gloomy—despite sharing the same parents and upbringing.
This contrast sets up the narrator's introspective character.
“The Jew looked at me again, and then said: '...It is not my habit to speak to children, inasmuch as I hate them, because they often follow me and fling stones after me; but I no sooner looked at that child than I was forced to speak to it. His not answering me shows his sense...The child is a sweet child, and has all the look of one of our people's children.'”
The Jew, who usually dislikes children, felt compelled to speak to the narrator, interpreting his silence as wisdom and noting his resemblance to Jewish children.
This encounter foreshadows the narrator's special destiny and connection to learning.