"Hugh laid a hand on [Lucas'] arm, and then released it as he felt the muscles go rigid under his palm.
"'What's happened?' he asked, a little alarmed.
"Lucas raised his head and stared into emptiness. The hair stirred on his scalp.
"'Dear Mother Mary!' said Hugh. 'What are you seeing?'
"Lucas drew a slow breath. His eyes focused on the knight, as if he were awakening from dreams." (pp. 252-253)
Regular readers recognize the signs. Lucas has just had an Andersonian moment of realization about how to address his current problem.
His first step is to enquire in some harbour taverns so Anderson describes yet another of those:
the Sea Horse;
dingy;
near warehouses and Famagusta harbour;
bad reputation;
cheap;
frequented by Western oarsmen and dockers;
a rendezvous known across the Mediterranean;
a blind eye turned to killings;
bad food;
sour wine;
bedbugs;
a dull heathfire;
darknesses relieved by a few lamps;
floor rushes overdue for change;
smoke haze;
moving shadows;
rough, pigtailed, bearded Genoese, Sclavonians, Frenchmen, Iberians and a Swede drinking, dicing, yarning and squabbling;
a harlot who reminds Lucas' companion of his mother.
Quite a detailed description can be extracted from Anderson's text.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
We see many such taverns in Anderson's stories, some of them as nasty as this one. And we see a pretty good tavern called The Golden Cockbeetle on Imhotep in THE GAME OF EMPIRE.
Ad astra! Sean
There's an element of economics there. Taverns -- and inns -- were for poor people, and that was a low-productivity economy. They couldn't afford to be better.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Granted, what you said about low productivity economies. Even so my thought was the proprietor of The Sea Horse could have done things like keeping this dump cleaner--which might have brought in some more money for him. Then he might have offered better food and drink.
Ad astra! Sean
Medieval West Europeans had a poor sense of personal hygiene -- much worse than Romans, for example. Only wealthy people took baths, and then infrequently. The Church strongly disapproved of anything that made the body more attractive, too. That was one important reason they'd opposed Roman bathing habits.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I'm seeing a lot of that bad hygiene in your Antonine Rome books, esp. in the cities!
Ad astra! Sean
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