Avram Davidson - The Scarlet Fig - Or, Slowly Through a Land of Stone, Book Three of the Vergil Magus Series

The Doge’s attention, as usual, was slow. He was always at least a bit behind. “The work who ?” he demanded.

“I am obliged to you for your patience with me, Doge. — A learned Greek.”

He had asked me a question about occymy. He had gotten an answer.

And had had his beard wiped too. His noble court, as corrupt as all, or anyway almost all noble courts, sat about scarcely listening, idly picking at the pig and poultry bones which had already been well-picked. The Doge kept open table. Now and then the courtiers turned their backs or raised their hands to sneer. Nothing would make them change their feculent ways, which could only be modified if now and then one of them had his nose broken or his ribs cracked or his throat-box bruised, or was turned into a toad or made to vanish, reappearing under a far-distant sky where the Dog-Star rose at dawn and foul animals were not confined to the arena because, for one thing, there was no arena there, and, for another, foul animals were there at large, wild and not confined; sometimes such people were returned to tell the tale. Then, for a while, landmarks were respected, peasants did not lose their farms to enclosers, and bribes were only moderate and pro forma. Therefore they turned their backs or their faces away before they presumed sneer.

A Greek, a Greek, a learned Greek! Duke Tauro knew where he was not (not where alchymical secrets were learned by murder instead of by experiment and by patient labor). Alpha from Delta he scarcely knew, Gamma from Digamma why certes he did not know; he knew oranges from lemons — at least in the form of juice — he knew tolerable from intolerable corruption — and he knew that Greeks were learned. Why, let him ask the very slave who washed his feet, “Ah, what say the frogs in that show-chorus, slave, what?” — hear the slave at once answer, do you hear? at once! answer, “ Brekekekex koax koax, ‘Your Serenity.’ ” Now, there was learning !

“Then make me gold, Body of Bacchus!” shouted Doge Tauro, why was this withheld from him? Meherc, magno, hornero, caca pudenda! “Make ” A slight, a mysterious thought came unformed to him: “Eh?”

“Ah, Doge. Your Serenity is right to say, eh? The Doge has put the ducal finger upon it. For one thing, do we have the complete Work? The scrolls or codex look complete, but they may have been confected from scraps … scraps and wreckage collected in the wake of the wars which have ravaged Greece and the Grecian lands in all the centuries since ancient times … So that is one problem. And another problem is, in regard to this great Work, although the gist of the text is obvious, as for ensample, the well-wrought vessels and the shining gold, perhaps properly a chapter-heading — but what does it precisely mean ?

“You see … Doge….”

The Doge did not perhaps entirely see. He saw, where he had hoped to see a heap of gold solidi or a pile of glittering golden ducats, he saw Vergil. Called “Magus.” Only Vergil he saw.

He saw me.

“All mage men are mad!” exclaimed the Doge. Then he saw his mage man slightly open the right hand, saw a sparkle, saw the hand come up, come out, extend, open wide. Something there upon the palm: a very small imago of Doge Tauro himself upon his well-known huge horse Troyano, or, rather, on that horse’s imago. It was well-wrought. Was it not well-wrought?

And was it not wrought of gold?

I passed it to him.

He held it up between first finger and thumb. All (all there a-nigh him, that is) might see it. And all did. And a slight stir there was amongst them all, by one, by that particular one, whom all knew would have the golden Duke upon the golden horse, and all moved aside so that the Duke, Dux, the Doge, might let have: he did not move. Only his eyes moved and they moved towards me. They moved again to me.

I made some movements of my own. I moved my mouth. Somewhat sad, my mouth. Not quite absolutely sad, my mouth. Not quite smiling, my mouth. I moved my hand. Hapless, my hand? Empty, my hand. The courtiers murmured. The courtiers moved … a bit … about. And beneath the table and upon the floor, amongst the scraps and spittles and phlegms and bones, the mastives rooted in the reeds and rushes; the servants had not, to be sure, swept out the old such, but had lately added some new: wormwood, its fresh and bitter odor somewhat concealing the ill smell of the others; and amongst all this the mastives rooted and rottled and made all men fear them with their small sharp teeth — all men (including me) save Doge Tauro, that is, who now and then pounded them upon the head and under the chin with his shaggy fists, then see them fawn and grovel.

The Doge was not altogether happy (the Doge was not absolutely unhappy either; the Doge now had a golden horse, and a golden Doge), but the Doge was not the least puzzled. The Doge apprehended perfectly that — for now, at least — there was no more gold.

He turned at once (for him : at once) to move a previous question. “What name this great Work, who? book who ?”

The courtiers rustled and fidgeted, of all things they were not accustomed to hear their duke speak of books; they never spoke of them. Sooner they would speak of the chameleon and the crocodile … but not much sooner. “Ah, that is very curious, Duke,” I said, wondering how much longer this charade must last. I had something in the athenor … almost always I had something in the athenor … “Its name is the same as the oath. Magno Homero. Just so. Great Homer is the name of the mysterious book on occymy. One does not know why.” If I had told him that the name if the mysterious book was Caca Pudenda , he would not have been any more bemused. He would certainly have believed. “Yes,” I said. “Consider, for example, the verse,” I could see that Tynus was listening, “the verse, And Ulysses brought all the treasure thither .” The Bull was wearing a robe of deepest red, and it made his always ruddy face more rufous yet; perhaps, too, the mention of treasure raised a flush. Tauro was not especially greedy as these things go, but he had great expenses — how they robbed him! — “ And Ulysses brought all the treasure thither. The gold and the stubborn bronze and the finely-woven raiment. May raiment, for example, mean the woven filter-cloth? that the bronze be used as a flux for the projection into gold? or that the bronze itself is to be projected into gold? and is stubborn in reduction? But here is the difficulty, that bronze is not all that stubborn in reduction.” Tynus, I saw, standing tall and attent with his halberd, Tynus slightly nodded. “By the way, Dux, they say that Ulysses was the founder of Olisboa, in the land of the Lusitaynes, where, where, tis said, the wild mares oft conceive by the west wind: such colts do not live long, so one hears —”

“And neither doth the wind that gets ‘em,” growled the Duke. This was not merely promising, this was astounding; had the Doge caught a wit, as one may catch an ague? Thus encouraged, I continued. “Another text from the Magno Homero , mi Lord: For a month only I remained, taking joy in my children, my wedded wife, and my wealth — does this mean that the Great Work took but a month? No modern philosophers would consider so short a time possible; Magno Homero gives us much to ponder. — and then to Ægypt did my spirit bid me voyage. The ‘voyage’ of course is the journey into the elaboratory where all works of philosophy and occymy take place; Ægypt, by Ægypt is meant Great Ægypt, another name for the elaboratory: the regressus ad utero , this journey. — when I had fitted out my ships , we may be sure that by ships is meant not mere sea-vessels, but vessels for alchymy; fitted out , baked new clay pipes for the alembic, perhaps — this teaches us not to use twice-used pipes, do you see — Nine ships I fitted out , this may well mean nine vapor-baths, vulgarly called ‘Double-boilers,’ such as those devised by Mary of Ægypt, she who also made a Major Speculum … fitted out, and the host gathered speedily. ”