Havruta for Chapter 13
Sep. 3rd, 2020 10:27 pmWe’re back to Havruta as our Sacred Reading Practice - it’s a Jewish discussion based practice where partners read together and ask questions to try to get closer to the truth. The way that works here is that I’ll ask a question and come up with my own answer for it and the hopefully you will join in with your answers (and ask questions of your own)
So my question about this chapter is Does Lady Alice want Rosabel, the maid, to tell the Sad Knight and the Black Baron about each other’s gifts? Does she even realise that it is Rosabel who is leaking the information rather than the men being amazingly good guessers?
The only interaction we see between Lady Alice and Rosabel about the gift guessing is when the Black Baron is arriving the day after the Kight has brought Lady Alice Gobbolino and she says
Should we take that at face value or have Alice and Rosabel agreed that the maid will always give away the answer no matter what her mistress says publicly? At this point Gobbolino doesn’t know that Lady Alice wants to keep both suitors guessing for ever and he definitely thinks that she means what she says. So it’s not obviously a code to provide playable deniability or delivered with a noticeable wink or crossed fingers etc. With only the three of them in the Tower it would seem silly not to be direct - but Lady Alice is looking out of the window when she speaks so maybe she is expecting him to overhear?
Does Rosabel tell the rivals about each other’s gifts to protect Lady Alice (whether Alice has instructed her to or on her own initiative), so that she can keep getting the bribes to stay silent from both of them or because she blurts it out without realising?
I assume that Lady Alice has confided in a Rosabel at some point about her lack of desire for either the Sad Knight or the Black Baron - but it is possible that she hasn’t. She doesn’t tell Gobbolino straight away, only when it looks like she will have to marry the Knight. It’s possible that the class barrier between them (and possible a difference in age as well), and her knowledge of Rosabel tendency to gossip, makes it hard for her to treat Rosabel as a confidante...,
When the Sad Knight and Gobbolino first arrive and Rosabel tells them about the Black Baron’s latest gift it seems like something she just blurts out and later Gobbolino describes her as
Rosabel doesn’t seem to be afraid that she will get into trouble if Lady Alice finds out she has given away the secret of the gifts. She is afraid of Gobbolino’s threats. Is that just because she is afraid of magic or does she not think that Lady Alice will actually be angry that she has told? If the “don’t tell” instruction is not real then she obviously has nothing to fear. But even if Lady Alice will be upset/angry at being disobeyed maybe Rosabel knows (or guesses) that she won’t actually punish her.
I haven’t really come any closer to finding my own answer and I’m not sure what to think. Do you have any thoughts about this?
So my question about this chapter is Does Lady Alice want Rosabel, the maid, to tell the Sad Knight and the Black Baron about each other’s gifts? Does she even realise that it is Rosabel who is leaking the information rather than the men being amazingly good guessers?
The only interaction we see between Lady Alice and Rosabel about the gift guessing is when the Black Baron is arriving the day after the Kight has brought Lady Alice Gobbolino and she says
”I can see the baron crossing the ford! Go down and let him in, Rosabel, and mind you do not let him know what present the Knight has brought me!”
Should we take that at face value or have Alice and Rosabel agreed that the maid will always give away the answer no matter what her mistress says publicly? At this point Gobbolino doesn’t know that Lady Alice wants to keep both suitors guessing for ever and he definitely thinks that she means what she says. So it’s not obviously a code to provide playable deniability or delivered with a noticeable wink or crossed fingers etc. With only the three of them in the Tower it would seem silly not to be direct - but Lady Alice is looking out of the window when she speaks so maybe she is expecting him to overhear?
Does Rosabel tell the rivals about each other’s gifts to protect Lady Alice (whether Alice has instructed her to or on her own initiative), so that she can keep getting the bribes to stay silent from both of them or because she blurts it out without realising?
I assume that Lady Alice has confided in a Rosabel at some point about her lack of desire for either the Sad Knight or the Black Baron - but it is possible that she hasn’t. She doesn’t tell Gobbolino straight away, only when it looks like she will have to marry the Knight. It’s possible that the class barrier between them (and possible a difference in age as well), and her knowledge of Rosabel tendency to gossip, makes it hard for her to treat Rosabel as a confidante...,
When the Sad Knight and Gobbolino first arrive and Rosabel tells them about the Black Baron’s latest gift it seems like something she just blurts out and later Gobbolino describes her as
very headlesswhich gives us the impression that she speaks without thinking. But are we underestimating her? I am concerned that it’s easy for me to think of her as a bit clueless because of tropes about young servant girls in stories. It’s certainly possible that she is more thoughtful and cunning than she seems on the surface and her apparently artless honesty is actually a deliberate act.
Rosabel doesn’t seem to be afraid that she will get into trouble if Lady Alice finds out she has given away the secret of the gifts. She is afraid of Gobbolino’s threats. Is that just because she is afraid of magic or does she not think that Lady Alice will actually be angry that she has told? If the “don’t tell” instruction is not real then she obviously has nothing to fear. But even if Lady Alice will be upset/angry at being disobeyed maybe Rosabel knows (or guesses) that she won’t actually punish her.
I haven’t really come any closer to finding my own answer and I’m not sure what to think. Do you have any thoughts about this?
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