Lavengro · Chapter
The Landlord's Tale: Despair and Deliverance explained
The landlord recounts his spiritual crisis after discovering a damning biblical passage, his subsequent flight into the Welsh wilderness, his rescue by a Methodist minister, his marriage to Winifred, and the return of his despair when he ag
What happens
The landlord recounts his spiritual crisis after discovering a damning biblical passage, his subsequent flight into the Welsh wilderness, his rescue by a Methodist minister, his marriage to Winifred, and the return of his despair when he again encounters the fatal scripture.
Themes in this chapter
Religion and Priestcraft
The landlord's intense religious anxiety, his search for spiritual comfort, and the contrast between established church neglect and Methodist fellowship.
Identity and Belonging
The landlord's pride in his Welsh identity and language, and his longing for a companion who shares his intellectual and cultural pursuits.
Characters to notice
- The Landlord
Narrates his own story of religious despair, wandering, and eventual marriage to Winifred.
- Winifred
The landlord's wife, who encourages him to read the Bible and remains devoted despite his secret.
- Lavengro
The listener to the landlord's tale, addressed as 'friend' and 'young man'.
- Ab Gwilym
Mentioned as a Welsh poet whose odes the landlord read during his period of study.
- Master Ellis Wyn
Author of a book on hell torments that the landlord read and later shared with Winifred.
Key passages
“I wanted every Sunday to hear from the pulpit words of consolation and encouragement, similar to those which I had heard uttered from the pulpit by my good and venerable friend, but I was debarred from this privilege.”
The landlord longed for the kind of uplifting sermons he had once heard from his old Methodist friend, but the local church offered no such comfort.
Highlights the landlord's spiritual hunger and the inadequacy of the established church.
“I could not bear my feelings; so, bidding my friends a hasty farewell, I abandoned myself to horror and despair, and ran wild through Wales, climbing mountains and wading streams.”
Overwhelmed by guilt and terror after reading the damning passage, the landlord fled into the Welsh wilderness, wandering aimlessly.
Describes the onset of his three-year period of mental and physical wandering.
“I suddenly felt myself seized by the coat. I strove to tear myself away, but in vain; looking round, I perceived a venerable, hale old man, who had hold of me.”
As the landlord was about to throw himself into the sea, an old man grabbed him and prevented his suicide.
The pivotal rescue that leads to the landlord's encounter with the Methodist minister.
“It is hard to keep a secret from a wife, especially such a wife as mine, so I told my wife the tale, as we sat one night—it was a midwinter night—over the dying brands of our hearth, after the family had retired to rest, her hand locked in mine, even as it is”
The landlord finally confessed his secret sin to Winifred during an intimate winter evening by the fire.
The moment of revelation that brings the landlord's hidden guilt into the open within his marriage.