Arcadia Read Online Free PDF Page B

geometry. But the hermit is very very good. The genius of the
place. Hannah: (Pleased) That’s my title! Bernard: Of course. Hannah: (Less
pleased) Of course? Bernard: Of course. Who was he when he wasn’t being a symbol?
Hannah: I don’t know.
    Bernard: Ah.
    Hannah: I mean, yet.
    Bernard: Absolutely. What did they do with all the paper?
    Does Peacock say? Hannah: Made a bonfire. Bernard: Ah, well.
Hannah: I’ve still got Lady Croom’s garden books to go through. Bernard:
Account books or journals? Hannah: A bit of both. They’re gappy but they span
the period. Hannah: Really? Have you come across Byron at all? As a matter of
interest. Hannah: A first edition of ‘Childe Harold’ in the library, and
    English Bards, I think. Bernard: Inscribed? Hannah:
No.
    Bernard: And he doesn’t pop up in the letters at all? Hannah:
Why should he? The Crooms don’t pop up in his. Bernard: (Casually) That’s
true, of course. But Newstead isn’t so far away. Would you mind terribly if I
poked about a bit? Only in the papers you’ve done with, of course.
    (Hannah twigs something.)
    Hannah: Are you looking into Byron or Chater?
    (chloE enters in stockinged feet through one of the side
doors?
    laden with an armful of generally similar leather-covered
ledgers.
    She detours to collect her shoes.) CHLOE: Sorry—just
cutting through—there’s tea in the pantry if you don’t mind mugs—Bernard: How
kind. chloE: Hannah will show you. Bernard: Let me help you. chloE: No, it’s
all right—
    (Bernard opens the opposite door for her.)
    Thank you—I’ve been saving Val’s game books. Thanks.
    (Bernard closes the door.) Bernard: Sweet girl. Hannah:
Mmm. Bernard: Oh, really? Hannah: Oh really what?
    (CHLOfi’s door opens again and she puts her head round it.) chloE: Meant to say, don’t worry if father makes remarks about your car, Mr
Nightingale, he’s got a thing about— (and the
    Nightingale now being out of the bag) ooh—ah, how was
the surprise?—not yet, eh? Oh, well—sorry—tea, anyway—so sorry if I— (Embarrassed,
she leaves again, closing the door.
    Pause.) Hannah: You absolute shit.
    (She heads off to leave.) Bernard: The thing is,
there’s a Byron connection too.
    (Hannah stops andfaces him.) Hannah: I don’t care.
Bernard: You should. The Byron gang are going to get their dicks caught in
their zip. Hannah: (Pause) Oh really? Bernard: If we collaborate. Hannah:
On what? Bernard: Sit down, I’ll tell you. Hannah: I’ll stand for the moment.
Bernard: This copy of The Couch of Eros’ belonged to Lord
    Byron.
    Hannah: It belonged to Septimus Hodge.
    Bernard: Originally, yes. But it was in Byron’s library
which was sold to pay his debts when he left England for good in 1816. The
sales catalogue is in the British Library. ‘Eros’ was lot 74A and was bought by
the bookseller and publisher John Nightingale of Opera Court, Pall Mall ...
whose name survives in the firm of Nightingale and Matlock, the present
Nightingale being my cousin. (He pauses. H ANN ah hesitates and then
sits down at the table.) I’ll just give you the headlines. 1939, stock
removed to Nightingale country house in Kent. 1945, stock returned to bookshop.
Meanwhile, overlooked box of early nineteenth-century books languish in country
house cellar until house sold to make way for the Channel Tunnel rail-link. ‘Eros’
discovered with sales slip from 1816 attached—photocopy available for
inspection.
    (He brings this from his bag and gives it to Hannah who
inspects it.)
    Hannah: All right. It was in Byron’s library.
    Bernard: A number of passages have been underlined. (Hannah picks
up the book and leafs through it.) All of them, and only them—no, no, look
at me, not at the book—all the underlined passages, word for word, were used as
quotations in the review of ‘The Couch of Eros’ in the Piccadilly Recreation of April 30th 1809. The reviewer begins by drawing attention to his
previous notice in the same periodical of ‘The Maid of