2. As appears from a letter from Mr van Gogh to Theo, the previous allowance on 10 November had been larger than usual, evidently because Theo foresaw that around the 20th he would not be in a position to send the customary amount (FR b2247). Vincent had apparently failed to understand this. See further letter 408, n. 8.

3. Van Gogh is referring to letter 406.

4. The source of this quote has not been found. ‘Enchanted Ground’ is a key concept in Bunyan’s A pilgrim’s progress and is a metaphor for sham, deceit, the wrong way. ‘Don’t fear the storm’ is the title of a gospel song. Cf. also the phrases ‘terre enchantée’ (letter 507) and ‘terrain enchanté’ (letter 822).

a. Means: ‘geworden’ (become).

5. In view of what follows, this means a new idea for financial investment or speculation.

6. This is a reference to Homer’s Odyssey. Odysseus’s ship is wrecked and he is washed ashore, clinging to a spar, on the island of Ogygia, where he is held captive and seduced by the nymph Calypso. Although she gives him everything he might be supposed to desire, the hero spends most of his time bemoaning his fate and proclaiming his homesickness for his native land. On the orders of the gods he is given the chance to build a raft of tree trunks and take to the sea. Poseidon sends fierce storms to test him, but his courage does not fail and, after twenty days, he reaches the land of the Phaeacians. See Odyssey, book 5.

7. Van Gogh writes about ‘fatality’ in this context in letters 397 and 401.

8. Theo’s employers in Paris.

b. Read: ‘zal’ (will). The error was caused by the ‘gij’ (you) in the brackets.

9. This may be an allusion to What will he do with it? (1859) by Edward Bulwer-Lytton; cf. also Shakespeare, Othello, act 3, scene 3: ‘What he will do with it / Heaven knows, not I’. See Shakespeare 1882, p. 91.

10. Cf. Matt. 13:25.

11. Van Gogh queries Marie’s motives, and fears that she could have the same malign influence on Theo as Lady Macbeth had on her husband. For Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare’s Macbeth (c. 1606-1607), see letter 388, n. 14.

12. Macbeth was bewitched and allowed his wife to persuade him to murder the king so that he could become king himself. In the end, he is murdered too. (Shakespeare, Macbeth).

13. Van Gogh means the six studies that he said he had sent in letter 406.

14. The two painted studies are not known; the ‘large drawing’ is the watercolour Drawbridge in Nieuw-Amsterdam (F 1098 / JH 425

), which measures 38.5 x 81 cm. Details of the location in: Dijk and Van der Sluis 2001, pp. 242-245.

15. While he was in The Hague, Van Gogh had given lessons to the surveyor Antoine Philippe Furnée, the son of a paint supplier, see letter 362.