Free The Quest for Corvo: An Experiment in Biography (Valancourt eClassics) by A.J.A. Symons

was an obvious source: he must have made inquiries over the whole ground before writing his biographical survey. Perhaps he had notes which would set me on fresh paths. I wrote to him.

CHAPTER 5: THE THEOLOGICAL STUDENT
     
    In reply I received an amiably worded invitation to lunch a week later. I wished that the interval had been briefer; but, as there was no way of abridging it, I occupied myself meanwhile in reviewing the notes I had gathered. Up to 1894 my information covered most of Rolfe’s movements; he was never out of sight for long. From his birth in 1860 till the end of his schooldays in 1875 I had only his brother’s brief description, it is true; but it seemed to me sufficient: sufficient for the moment, at least. My interest in the early years of the eminent is far less than that which the tradition of biographical writing painfully imposes on its devotees. The facts of infancy may be vital when they refer to a prodigy such as Mozart, interesting when relevant to a rebel such as Shelley, valuable when they show the growth of a man out of his place, as Poe; but in Rolfe’s case I felt that his childhood was by much the least interesting part of his life. Moreover, it is possible to reason backwards as well as forwards, to infer the child from the man; and I proposed to do so. I knew enough to picture the bright attractive boy, a natural Catholic in a household of Dissenters, interested in drawing, music and the arts, not over-given to sport, and with that love of experiment which so frequently seems instability in youth. I could well understand his cutting short his schooldays from a desire to be in, and to see, the world; he was precocious, not in ability to pass examinations, but in the general development of his personality. On the other hand, the period between leaving school and becoming a schoolmaster was more interesting; and I hoped that later I should learn more of those formative years. But here again one can to some extent reason backwards; the choice of schoolmastership is significant, particularly in one whose own schooldays were cut short. What sort of master, I wondered, had he made? A good one, at least so far as Grantham was concerned, or his headmaster Hardy would not have spoken so highly of him in later years. No doubt I should find traces at his other schools.
    His becoming Catholic I could easily understand. The attraction of the Catholic Faith for the artistic temperament is a phenomenon which has been the subject of many novels, and is one of the facts of psychology. Even among Rolfe’s immediate contemporaries, Francis Thompson, Aubrey Beardsley, Ernest Dowson and Lionel Johnson had followed the same path, a path which has been charted by Joris Karl Huysmans. Rolfe had become a Catholic at twenty-six; and, shortly afterwards, aspired to priesthood. That, undoubtedly, was more unusual than his conversion; and yet perhaps it is not surprising that one in whom nature had not implanted a love for women should embrace a celibate career. And then Rolfe, as his books showed, was a mediaevalist, an artist, and a scholar in temperament; so that to him the tradition of the Catholic Church, with its championship of learning and beauty, must have been a real and living thing. On reflection it seemed reasonable enough that he should have desired to ally himself more intimately than as a layman with an institution that represented the best side of his character and his hopes. Yet somehow he had met squalls at Oscott, which he had left hurriedly; though squalls clearly not severe enough to deprive him of the chance of ordination, or he would never have been sent to Rome. His expulsion from the Scots College was plainly a matter that I must investigate. As for his assumption of baronial rank, it might have been a bad joke, as his brother said, inspired by an impish sense of humour and a desire for picturesque; or the story he had told Mr Kains-Jackson might be true. At all events, his clerical career