I Came, I Saw
Page 33
During the war I had spent a year in Naples within the sight of the tomb of the poet Horace. Notwithstanding his doubts on the topic of immortality he had chosen to be buried in this spot on a hillside overlooking the sea, corresponding then as now to the average citizen’s view of it as a foretaste of the heaven in which the poet could not quite bring himself to believe. Even men of education among my Neapolitan friends, all of them devourers of marvels, believed in the leakage of mysterious influences from the tomb, fostering an even more relaxed view of life in its vicinity than that prevalent elsewhere in this wonderful city. It was a compliment of the sincerest kind when my neighbours assured me of my inclusion in these benefits.
Of Horace it has been said that he rode to a fame not of his seeking on the back of his poems. As a follower of Epicurus he devoted himself apart from the pursuit of his muse to the cultivation of reasonable and easily obtained satisfactions. The Emperor Augustus, whose secretary he laughingly refused to become, took strongly to him. He sat at the Emperor’s left hand at table when in Rome, and they sipped Falernian wine together and discussed ways of dodging the stings and arrows of fortune. Of the poet’s literary work what remains most in my memory is his chiding in verse of a friend whose continual journeyings he found too restless for his own good. This, having spent half a lifetime in endless peregrinations, I was inclined to apply to my own case. ‘You go in ships in search of bliss,’ Horace wrote. ‘Yet what you seek is here at Ulubrae, you’ll find, if to your search you bring a balanced mind.’
Could it be that Essex was my Ulubrae?
About the Author
Norman Lewis (1908—2003) was one of the greatest English-language travel writers. He was the author of thirteen novels and fourteen works of nonfiction, including Naples ’44, The Tomb in Seville, and Voices of the Old Sea. Lewis served in the Allied occupation of Italy during World War II, and reported from Mafia-ruled Sicily and Vietnam under French-colonial rule, among other locations. Born in England, he traveled extensively, living in places including London, Wales, Nicaragua, a Spanish fishing village, and the countryside near Rome.
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First published 1985 by Hamish Hamilton Ltd under the title Jackdaw Cake.
Copyright © 1985, 1994 by Norman Lewis
Cover design by Kelly Parr
978-1-4804-3332-8
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