Hermits and hermitages

Karl Beggrov, The Hermitage, St Petersburg, 1826
Karl Beggrov, The Hermitage, St Petersburg, 1826

LADY CROOM

What is that cowshed?

NOAKES (a landscape gardener)

The hermitage, my lady?

LADY CROOM

It is a cowshed.

NOAKES 

Madam, it is, I assure you, a very habitable cottage, properly founded and drained, two rooms and a closet under a slate roof and a stone chimney - 

LADY CROOM

And who is to live in it?

NOAKES

Why, the hermit.

LADY CROOM

Where is he?

NOAKES

Madam?

LADY CROOM

You surely do not supply a hermitage without a hermit?

NOAKES

Indeed, madam - 

LADY CROOM

Come, come, Mr Noakes. If I am promised a fountain I expect it to come with water. What hermits do you have?

NOAKES

I have no hermits, my lady.

LADY CROOM

Not one? I am speechless.

NOAKES

I am sure a hermit can be found. One could advertise.

LADY CROOM

Advertise?

NOAKES

In the newspapers.

LADY CROOM

But surely a hermit who takes a newspaper is not a hermit in whom one can have complete confidence.

* * *

Tom Stoppard, Arcadia (Act Two) 1993

☙

Descendant of: 

HUMAN SOCIETY   RELIGION  


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