Lavengro · Chapter
XCVIII explained
The postillion recounts his family's journey to Italy, where a priest gains influence over the governor's household, leading to financial exploitation and religious manipulation.
What happens
The postillion recounts his family's journey to Italy, where a priest gains influence over the governor's household, leading to financial exploitation and religious manipulation. He contrasts the superstitious practices he witnesses with those of the Barbary coast, and describes the family's eventual travel to the Eternal City.
Themes in this chapter
Religion and Priestcraft
The priest's manipulation of the governor's family and the comparison of Catholic relics and practices to African fetish worship highlight the theme of religious exploitation and superstition.
Freedom vs. Convention
The postillion's critique of the priest's control over the household and his preference for the 'merry hum' of London over the sepulchral Eternal City underscores a tension between conventional religious authority and personal liberty.
Characters to notice
- The Postillion
Narrates his personal story of serving an English family in Italy, describing the priest's manipulation and his own observations of religious hypocrisy.
- The Priest
The Italian priest who rules the governor's household, persuades the young ladies to drop English acquaintances, and extracts money from the governor and servants.
- The Landlord
Mentioned as the 'old governor' who is manipulated by the priest and his daughters, eventually becoming frightened by the financial demands.
- Lavengro
Interjects briefly to supply the rhetorical term 'exordium' when the postillion falters.
Key passages
“I am a poor postillion, as you see; yet, as I have seen a thing or two, and heard a thing or two of what is going on in the world, perhaps what I have to tell you connected with myself may not prove altogether uninteresting.”
Though I am just a humble postillion, I have witnessed and heard enough about the world that my story might be worth your time.
The postillion modestly introduces his tale, hinting at its value despite his lowly station.
“My brother frequently said that nothing whatever prevented him from running away from his ship, and never returning, but the hope he entertained of one day being captain himself, and able to torment people in his turn, which he solemnly vowed he would do, as a kind of compensation for what he himself had undergone.”
My brother stayed on his brutal ship only because he hoped to become captain and inflict the same torment on others, as recompense for his own suffering.
Reveals the cycle of abuse and the desire for revenge as a motivator for enduring hardship.
“I could not help comparing the whole with what my poor brother used to tell me of the superstitious practices of the blacks on the high Barbary shore, and their occasional rage and fury at the things they worshipped; and I said to myself, if all this here doesn't smell of fetish may I smell fetid.”
I couldn't help but compare these Catholic practices to the fetish worship my brother described among Africans, and I concluded that they are essentially the same superstition.
The postillion draws a direct parallel between Italian Catholic rituals and African fetishism, criticizing both as irrational.