An imaginary sequel to�Arcadia in which a group of scholars in try to figure out something that happened today would almost certainly involve a lot less paper than Stoppard's version But the big questions how do we know something is true And what counts as proof would still apply whether they're searching for that proof in papers or pixels The method of searching may have changed but the process of�thinkingabout the search isn't all that different and whether you're flipping pages or Feeling Lucky the thrill of discovery is still the same How It All Goes Down Who knew earlynineteenthcentury English country houses could be such hotbeds of gossip and mathematics It's at Sidley Park and thirteenyearold Thomasina is learning about more from her tutor Septimus than algebra and Latin Rest assured however this isn't�Lolita Septimus has been sleeping with one Mrs Chater wife to the notsobright not to mention poetrychallenged poet Ezra Chater Unfortunately for Septimus and Mrs Chater one of their escapades in the gazebo has been spotted by Mr Noakes the landscape architect
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Bernard Nightingale arrives looking for Hannah For some reason he doesn't want Hannah to know his real name Chlo introduces him as Mr Peacock Hannah does not take kindly to his slightly slimy manner but she is more or less civil in helping him with his quest he's trying to find out about poet Ezra Chater Nightingale has found the book that�Chater inscribed to Septimus which has led Nightingale to Sidley Park
Hannah also talks about her own research including her most recent book on Caroline Lamb one of the English poet�Lord Byron's lovers which was torn apart in the press by Byron scholars especially one Professor Bernard Nightingale Hannah's current work takes the Sidley Park mad hermit as illustrated by Thomasina but also mentioned elsewhere as a symbol for the disintegration of eighteenthcentury rational Enlightenment ideals into nineteenthcentury Romantic excess
When Chlo slips up with the name game and Hannah discovers Peacock is really Nightingale Hannah is ready to kick him out of the house But Bernard explains his real aim he's convinced that Byron ed Chater in a duel at Sidley Park and he wants to find any evidence that will support his claim Hannah laughs off this idea but Bernard is hooked when she mentions that Septimus was at college with Byron
Back to Thomasina's lesson for the day is Latin translation but she's more interested in discussing one of their current houseguests Lord Byron and his flirtation with her mother She's also excited about the new kind of geometry she's trying to figure out she's bored with the regular shapes Septimus is teaching her and wants to figure out how to use math to describe the more complex forms of nature They're interrupted again by Chater who has discovered through Byron that Septimus wrote a snarky review of his last poem Chater supported by Captain Brice challenges Septimus to a duel and a weary Septimus agrees to a faceoff the next morning
Flip over to the present day Hannah has some of Thomasina's old math books and is trying to figure out what the heck the girl was up to According to Valentine remember Lady Croom's son what Thomasina was doing is somewhat similar to what Valentine's work trying to describe bird populations mathematically Bernard interrupts them excitedly because he's found some penciled lines referring to Chater in a copy of a book by Byron in the estate library Valentine offers another interesting tidbit Byron is mentioned as a guest in one the gamebooks records of birds shot by the house's hunting parties he's using for his research data Bernard goes off and the earlier conversation resumes
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Keep a civil tongue.