1. This was letter 786.

a. Van Gogh’s choice of words is an allusion to Jo’s ‘grossesse’ (pregnancy).

2. Marcelle, the daughter of Joseph and Augustine Roulin, was born on 31 July 1888. See letter 653. Van Gogh responds here to what Jo wrote in her letter about the portrait of Marcelle (F 441 / JH 1641

) (see letter 786).

3. Derived from Luke 21:19.

4. Regarding this consignment, see letter 789.

6. Van Gogh had stored his furniture in a room he rented from Mr and Mrs Ginoux. See letter 760, n. 4.

7. This is a pun on the French word ‘gris’, which can mean both ‘grey’ and ‘tipsy’.

8. Van Gogh had ordered paint in letter 783.

9. After ‘egal’ Van Gogh crossed out ‘je ne cherche pas a contenter tout le monde’ (‘I don’t seek to please everyone’).

10. Shakespeare’s Measure for measure (1604-1605) is a complicated tragi-comedy with several sub-plots. The Duke of Vienna temporarily relinquishes his power in order to investigate, in disguise, the deterioration of morals – in particular the laxity in sexual morals – in his duchy.

11. Shakespeare’s Henry viii (1623), act 2, scene 1, is a ‘mirror for magistrates’. While Henry viii tries to overcome the problems created by his divorce, the fallen characters comment on their own ruin. Thus Henry, Duke of Buckingham and Earl of Stafford (1454-1483), is accused of high treason and sentenced to death. On the scaffold he addresses the crowd that has quickly gathered to witness his execution:

‘You few that lov’d me,

And dare be bold to weep for Buckingham,

His noble friends and fellows, whom to leave

Is only bitter to him, only dying;

Go with me like good angels to my end,

And as the long divorce of steel falls on me,

Make of your prayers one sweet sacrifice

And lift my soul to heaven. Lead on a’ God’s name.’

The manipulative Cardinal Wolsey (1471-1530), Archbishop of York, loses his wealth and power when his crimes are revealed. He forfeits his royal protection and is attacked from all sides. Full of remorse, Wolsey addresses his servant with great emotion (act 3, scene 2):

‘And when I am forgotten, as I shall be,

And sleep in dull cold marble, where no mention

Of me more must be heard of, say I thaught thee;

Say Wolsey, that once trod the ways of glory,

And sounded all the depths and shoals of honour,

Found thee a way (out of his wrack) to rise in ...

Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition,

By that sin fell the angels; how can man then,

The image of his maker, hope to win by it?

Love thyself last, cherish those hearts that hate thee;

Corruption wins not more than honesty.’

See Henry viii. Ed. R.A. Foakes. 3th ed. London 1957, pp. 55, 124.

12. Until the mid-eighteenth century, such Zuiderzee towns as Monnickendam, Edam, Hoorn, Enkhuizen and Medemblik were prosperous centres of trade. After this, they faced a period of economic decline. See Almere historisch. Gemeente Almere 1993.

13. Reference to the dialogue in Plato, Phaedrus, 230c and 259b-e, in which Socrates recounts the myth of the cicadas, devoted to the Muses. Enjoying the peace and quiet of nature, the philosopher is pleasantly accompanied by the chirring of the insects: ‘How lovely and perfectly charming the breeziness of the place is! and it resounds with the shrill summer music of the chorus of cicadas’. See Plato. With an English translation by H.N. Fowler and an introduction by W.R.M. Lamb. London and New York. 1919, pp. 422-423, 510-513.

14. Vincent is probably responding to something Theo wrote to him about Isaäcson.