The Quest for Corvo: An Experiment in Biography by A.J.A. Symons

Author:A.J.A. Symons [Symons, A.J.A.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Nonfiction, History
ISBN: 9780940322615
Publisher: Penguin UK
Published: 1932-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Rolfe always rolled his own cigarettes, and when in funds had his own ‘Corvo mixture’ made up at a little tobacco shop in Oxford. It had a heavy full flavour, evidently due to Latakia.

He liked the romantic richness of the Italian tongue. I was amused at his praising the Italian version of Ben Hur. He spoke very little of literature in general. He enveloped himself in his own atmosphere, though he would occasionally quote with glee and admiration some happy phrase or purple patch.

He lent me the manuscript of a draft version of his charming story of Don Tarquinio, a day in the life of a Roman nobleman.

Later on he sent me the manuscript of another book, the diary (it pretended to be) of an Italian priest, Dom Gheraldo, in the service of one of the great Renaissance nobles. He had often spoken of it, and quoted from it. Indeed, he announced his intention of dedicating this interesting and extraordinary work to me. The facts about that flower of Rolfe’s patient genius must be narrated by others, but it seemed to me such a marvellous mosaic of apparently authentic detail that it could only have been secreted from intense and persistent observation, and that under very favourable circumstances. Wherever did he get it all? In my letters I cautiously sounded him as to his creative methods.

The rationale of creative art is one of the most fascinating human problems, and Rolfe’s bizarre and elaborate artistry aroused my curiosity. Where did he get his material? He undoubtedly loved, with an almost passionate understanding, that period of life in Italy which formed the setting of Dom Gheraldo and I could not help wondering how much was invention, how much divination, how much a systematic ‘culture’ of such fragments and unconsidered trifles as his reading and research enabled him to pick up. That much he shrewdly kept to himself, but in answer to a letter in which I formulated as nearly as I deemed justifiable the idea of mediumship, I practically got an admission that the divination had to wait on favourable conjunctions.

It is possible that the inception of the Dom Gheraldo book was an incident that Rolfe related to me as occurring in Rome when he was in the town palace of the Duchess Sforza-Cesarini, who was employing workmen to take up the pavement of the ground-floor in connection with the installation of a new calorifer. In the course of the work a deep oubliette was discovered. The household was in a great state of excitement when the workmen who had descended reported the discovery of a skeleton, which was intensified on his remains being brought to light, when the skull was seen to be pierced. ‘That proved him to have been a priest’, said Rolfe, and explained to me that this form of assassination was reserved for the priesthood. The hero in the unpublished book I have mentioned perished by that means.

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