I am happy to accept Casaubon as a compound of George Eliot’s self-knowledge,
self-criticism, elements from other difficult temperaments with which she
was acquainted, and material fresh from her own mint. The choice of the name
Casaubon for her character is not commented on in her extant writings. Like her
Mr Casaubon, the Elizabethan Isaac Casaubon was a theological and
classical scholar; unlike his fictional namesake, Isaac published many
scholarly works of exegesis and was what Middlemarch’s Mr Casaubon
aspired in vain to be, namely an internationally acclaimed scholar (his
contemporary Joseph Scaliger described him as “the most learned man alive”).
A subtle and not completely unsympathetic irony is observable in George
Eliot’s gift of the name to her troubled character.
- Rosemary Ashton
descensus Averno facilis est