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[49-51]   [55-57]

Chapter 52
The First Visit to the Guestwick Bridge

He had wandered about the lanes of Guestwick as his only amusement, and had composed hundreds of rhymes in honor of Lily Dale
This image of John Eames invokes the bucolic images of love-lorn shepherds singing of their loves in the pastoral poetry of Vergil's Eclogues and Theocritus' Idylls.  [AM]    

There, rudely caved in the wood, was still the world LILY
John Eames' carving of Lily's name into the wood of the bridge recalls Vergil's Eclogue 10 in which Gallus resolves to carve the name of his love on "tender trees". Trollope's allusion to this Eclogue further emphasizes John Eames' pastoral love for Lily Dale. Through this allusion, John Eames is being likened to the wandering shepherd who is consumed of thought of his love who is out of his reach.  [AM & RR] 

Chapter 53
Loquitur Hopkins

Loquitur
A 3rd person singular present tense Latin verb meaning "he, she, or it speaks." This chapter title is appropriate because it reveals the primary action of the chapter:  the gardener Hopkins begins to speak and makes known to the Dale women the truth of the squire's devastated feelings concerning their plans to leave the Small House.  [AM] 

Chapter 54
The Second Visit to the Guestwick Bridge

Lord De Guest…had offered himself up as a sacrifice at the shrine of a serious dinner-party, to say nothing of that easier lighter sacrifice which he had made in a pecuniary point of view in order that this thing might be done
This is an insight into the guilt John Eames feels regarding Lord De Guest's efforts to bring him and Lily Dale together. Trollope uses sacrificial language to refer to how Lord De Guest has put on a dinner-party at the expense of his enjoyment for the greater benefit of John Eames. Lord De Guest's "lighter sacrifice" is his financial promise to John Eames that if he is married, he will receive a sum from him.  At Lord De Guest's expense of his happiness and finances, he hopes to achieve a greater good by enhancing John Eames' life situation. See commentary on "A calf at the altar, ready with a knife, with blue ribbons round its horns and neck" in Chapter 7.  [AM]

With deep, rough gashes in the wood, cut out Lily's name from the rail
This is the reversal of the pastoral imagery of Vergil's Eclogue 10 in which the love-lorn Gallus carves the name of his loved one into the wood of a tree so as to immortalize his love. By cutting out out Lily Dale's inscribed name, John Eams signals the end of his pastoral dream of unrequited love and desire.  See commentary for Chapter 52 above.  [AM]

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