Arcadia: Act 1, Scene 1 Summary & Analysis

The curtain rises on a stately English room in the manor of Sidley Park, where a lesson is taking place. A tortoise, named Plautus, sits on the stack of papers on the simple, large table. Thomasina, the 13-year-old student, asks Septimus, her tutor, what “carnal embrace” means. Septimus doesn’t give her the real answer (that is, sex), but says instead that “carnal embrace” means hugging meat, and mentions that Mr. Chater has written a bad poem, “The Couch of Eros.” Thomasina comments that she overheard Jellaby, the butler, gossiping that Mrs. Chater had engaged in carnal embrace in the garden’s gazebo. Septimus is immediately curious about the news.

Thomasina explains to Septimus the gossip chain—Mr. Noakes, the gardener, witnessed the carnal embrace from afar, then told Chater, Mrs. Chater’s husband. A groom overheard this and told Jellaby, and now many others in the household have overheard as well. After her explanation, Thomasina calls Septimus out on his definition of “carnal embrace,” pointing out that a gazebo “isn’t a meat larder.” She guesses correctly that carnal embrace involves kissing and hugging. At last, Septimus gives her a real definition, describing genitals, and then quickly returns to the lesson on Fermat’s Last Theorum, which relates to exponents.

Thomasina won’t be dissuaded from the topic of sex. She is disgusted but intrigued. She asks if sex is the same as love, and Septimus responds, “Oh no, it is much nicer than that.”

Jellaby enters with a letter for Septimus from Chater. Mr. Chater wants to meet with Septimus in the gunroom—a detail which suggests (along with Septimus’s behavior so far) that Septimus was the other person with Mrs. Chater in the gazebo. Septimus says that Noakes, whose job as the gardener is about creating picturesquely beautiful gardens, is more like a snake. Thomasina is otherwise engaged, wondering why you can stir jam into a pudding, but not stir the jam out.

Thomasina wonders if God is a Newtonian—that is, if God agrees with Newton’s laws of physics. Septimus begins to pose the question he thinks she’s asking—if all of nature moves by the laws of Newton’s physics, is there free will? But Thomasina has other things in mind. She’s wondering if it might be possible to predict the future using very complex algebra. Septimus acknowledges that her question is original. He begins to describe how Fermat actually had a proof for his last theorum, but didn’t write it down before his death, but the lesson is again interrupted.

Chater enters angrily. Septimus sends Thomasina away. She guesses that Fermat’s note about having a proof for his theorem was a joke. Mr. Chater blames Septimus for “insulting” Mrs. Chater in the gazebo. Septimus talks circles around the slow but outraged Chater. Septimus explains that Mrs. Chater asked him to meet her, and that she is known for her sexual appetites. Just as Septimus appears to have totally enraged Chater, who wants to duel, Septimus begins to compliment Chater’s poetry.

Chater is pleased with the compliment, and forgets momentarily that he’s supposed to be angry at Septimus. Septimus cunningly explains that he’s been tasked with writing a review of “The Couch of Eros,” Chater’s poem, and that the review will take some time to complete. Chater imagines that Mrs. Chater had sex with Septimus in order to ensure a good review, and feels proud of what a devoted wife she is. Chater writes a friendly inscription in Septimus’s copy of “The Couch of Eros.”

Noakes enters, distressed to find Septimus and Chater together. Chater reads out his friendly inscription to Septimus, surely the opposite of the scene Noakes expected to find. Lady Croom, Thomasina’s mother and the mistress of Sidley Park, and her brother Brice enter. Brice lists features of the Sidley Park garden—the gazebo, the Chinese bridge—and a moment of comic misunderstanding ensues, with Chater and Septimus thinking Brice might be talking about locations of carnal embrace, and Brice and Lady Croom intending to discuss something else garden-related. Thomasina returns.

Noakes lays out his plans for garden renovations. Brice hates them, but Noakes explains this is what’s in fashion. The drawings apparently show a completely wild, Romantic landscape which as been stripped of the pleasantly decorative elements like the gazebo and the bridge. Lady Croom asks for Septimus’s opinion. As usual, Septimus enjoys himself, hyperbolically criticizing the garden and exposing everyone else’s ridiculousness. He mentions “carnal embrace” again, and Thomasina mentions that she knows what that is now. Just as everyone is getting upset about her lost innocence, Thomasina gives the definition of “carnal embrace” involving embracing meat.

Lady Croom returns to the garden renovation plans. She describes how the gentle and carefully cultivated countryside look has given way to “gloomy forest and towering crag,” filled with fallen ruins and creepy, wild-looking crannies. She notes in particular the hermitage, a little hut meant to look like an antiquated dwelling for a recluse, designed in an “irregular,” non-symmetrical style, which Noakes asserts is what’s in fashion. Lady Croom praises the garden’s current layout, with pleasant slopes, a few sheep, and a pleasant river and lake. She describes it as “Nature as God intended,” and then says the Latin phrase from which the play derives its name—“Et in Arcadia ego!” She translates this as “Here I am in Arcadia.”

Lady Croom blames the garden plans on Romantic literature like The Castle of Otranto. She hears shots from the men hunting on the grounds, and mentions that maybe Septimus’s schoolmate has managed to shoot a pigeon. Brice thinks, rather, that it was Thomasina’s brother Augustus who shot the pigeon. She exits with the other men. Thomasina muses about how she’s been hearing gunshots from hunting her whole childhood, and mentions that her father could track his whole life in the game book, a record of what was shot on which day. Septimus quotes the Latin again, saying, “Even in Arcadia, there am I,” referring to death’s presence in the garden. (The death theme, present in the original Latin poem, was missing from Lady Croom’s out-of-context translation.)

Thomasina begins to sketch in a little hermit on Noakes’s plans for the hermitage. Thomasina asks if Septimus is in love with Lady Croom, and Septimus accuses her of being too clever for her age. Thomasina hands Septimus a letter from Mrs. Chater, and exits. Septimus reads the letter and slips it into his copy of “The Couch of Eros.”