The Peasants' Fair
Title
The Peasants' Fair
Alt Text Description
Grayscale illustration of a bustling town fair, with animated attendees and a performer holding a chain of three interlocked rings.
Description
At the Peasants’ Fair, Tito gets pulled into a packed crowd laughing at a street performer showing off his rings. In that noisy press, a girl is pushed into the circle, and the fair’s playful chaos leads Tito straight into meeting Tessa and starting the “marriage” joke that complicates his life with Romola.
"In this zigzag way he was carried along to the end of the piazza opposite the church, where, in a deep recess formed by an irregularity in the line of houses, an entertainment was going forward which seemed to be especially attractive to the crowd. Loud bursts of laughter interrupted a monologue which was sometimes slow and oratorical, at others rattling and buffoonish. Here a girl was being pushed forward into the inner circle with apparent reluctance, and there a loud laughing minx was finding a way with her own elbows" (The Peasants' Fair", Chapter 14).
"In this zigzag way he was carried along to the end of the piazza opposite the church, where, in a deep recess formed by an irregularity in the line of houses, an entertainment was going forward which seemed to be especially attractive to the crowd. Loud bursts of laughter interrupted a monologue which was sometimes slow and oratorical, at others rattling and buffoonish. Here a girl was being pushed forward into the inner circle with apparent reluctance, and there a loud laughing minx was finding a way with her own elbows" (The Peasants' Fair", Chapter 14).
Illustrator
Leighton, Frederic (1830-1896)
Contributor
Swain, Joseph (1820-1909), engraver
Publisher
George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett, https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org
Date
1863, 1880
Rights
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Work Illustrated
Romola
Citation
Leighton, Frederic (1830-1896), The Peasants' Fair, George Eliot Illustrations Gallery, George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett, https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/83649
Illustration
