1. Van Gogh had asked for this money in letter 183.

2. Cf. Hos. 11:5 and Luke 15:7.

3. In La femme Jules Michelet uses the phrase ‘something that beats under the left breast’ (quelque chose qui batte sous la mamelle gauche) (Michelet 1863, p. 13).

4. Deut. 28:23.

5. Song of Sol. 2:17.

6. Acts 7:1.

7. Heb. 11:9.

8. Ironical reference to a remark made by Uncle Stricker; see letter 180.

9. Biblical. Cf. Col. 1:16.

10. The same analogy occurs in letter 183.

11. Vincent calls Theo a ‘lucky dog’ in letter 182 as well.

12. Biblical.

13. This phrase also occurs in letter 183.

14. Possibly an allusion to the ‘armour of God’ in Eph. 6:11-13.

15. Taken from La Fontaine, Fables (ii, 18): ‘If you shut the door in its face, it will come back through the windows’ (Qu’on lui ferme la porte au nez, il reviendra par les fenêtres).

16. Cf. Isa. 35:1.

17. Taken from Michelet’s L’amour and La femme; see letter 180, n. 2. In My wife and I (1872) and its sequel, We and our neighbours (see RM12, n. 1), Beecher-Stowe spoke up for women as a disadvantaged group in society. For Jane Eyre and Shirley by Currer Bell (pseudonym of Charlotte Brontë), see letter 170, n. 5.

18. Cf. the ‘désolation’ passage quoted from Michelet in letter 181, n. 8.

19. Taken from Michelet’s L’amour; see letter 180, n. 5.

20. Luke 9:62.

21. Cf. Jer. 17:4 and Micah 7:18.

a. Meaning ‘er slecht voorstaan’ (to be in bad shape, to be in a bad way).

22. Read: ‘God’.

23. Comparing being in love to eating strawberries is something that originated with Theo (see letter 182).

24. On 15 November 1881 Willemien had moved to Haarlem with the family she worked for as a governess (see letter 168 and GAW).

b. Read: ‘legde’ (laid).

25. This drawing has probably not been preserved. For the extant drawings of diggers made by Van Gogh in Etten, see letter 172, n. 2.