# XXXVII explained — Lavengro

> Chapter companion for Lavengro by George Borrow.

## What happens

The narrator's brother visits him in London, explaining that he has come not to see him but to commission a painter for the mayor's portrait. The brother recounts how the town's committee initially offered him the commission, but he recommended his own teacher, the painter of Lazarus, as a greater master of the heroic. After some debate, the committee agreed to let him bring the painter to town.

## Themes in this chapter

### Honor and Morality

The brother's decision to recommend a more skilled painter rather than accept the commission himself reflects a sense of artistic integrity and honor.

### Social Class and Gentility

The mayor's portrait commission and the committee's concern with the painter's loyalty to Church and State highlight themes of social status and respectability.

## Character check-ins

### Lavengro

The narrator, who is visited by his brother and learns of the mayor's portrait commission.

### Brother

The narrator's brother, a painter who comes to London to hire the painter of Lazarus for the mayor's portrait.

## Key lines

> I never talked so well in my life, and said so many flattering things to the hunchback and his friends, that at last they said that I should have my own way; and that if I pleased to go up to London, and bring down the painter of Lazarus to paint the mayor, I might; so they then bade me farewell, and I have come up to London.

The brother's persuasive speech convinced the committee to let him travel to London to hire the painter of Lazarus for the mayor's portrait.

_The brother's eloquence secures the committee's approval._

> The dog, said my brother, is, I am afraid, in a very poor way; ever since the death he has done nothing but pine and take on.

The dog has been grieving and losing weight since the death of a family member.

_The dog's decline mirrors the family's mourning._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/xxxvii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/lavengro_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/lavengro_se/chapters