This chapter's epigraph comes from a famous poem by the famous poet and poetess Madame Bovary. It is a poem in which Bovary laments the fact that he has been deprived of a chance to express his love for his son. She tells him that he must work hard in order to be worthy of his father's love. He tells her that he is a disciple of the "heavenly snake" and that he can control the beasts in the snake's hall.