ABSTRACT
James Marshall had been away from Weimar when Marian Evans and G. H. Lewes first arrived, but returned in the middle of October. Marshall had an unusual history which might explain Marian's paradoxical description of him as 'the sad and lively, the ambitious and resigned' James Marshall. As Marian's description suggests, Marshall was a contradictory character: although a religious free thinker, he was extremely superstitious; politically a liberal, he was also an elegant courtier with nothing but contempt for the masses. If some of John Horrocks's activities seemed peculiar and strange to the people of Weimar, Marian was no less bemused, if not a little shocked, by some of the Weimar ways of doing things. Having been her father's housekeeper, Marian was very experienced in domestic matters. Marian was well aware that the traveller who eats at the table dhote of a good inn has only a limited insight into the way in which people live at home.
