Book 2, Chapter 19

⁠​​​‌​​​​​​​​‌‌‌‌​​​‌​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌​​​​​‌‌‌​​​‌‌‌‌​‌​​​​‌​‌​​​‌​​‌‌​⁠“L’ altra vedete ch’ha fatto alla guancia Della sua palma, sospirando, letto.”—Purgatorio, vii.

When George the Fourth was still reigning over the privacies of Windsor, when the Duke of Wellington was Prime Minister, and Mr. Vincy was mayor of the old corporation in Middlemarch, Mrs. Casaubon, born Dorothea Brooke, had taken her wedding journey to Rome. In those days the world in general was more i