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Rasselas (Johnson: XI)
I never imagined Pekuah would get this much screentime, but here we go. More ship fodder!
Continued from this.
Ch 37:
Seven months later (hasn't the emperor noticed that this children have been missing for ... like, four years?). a messenger shows up with news of Pekuah. The Arab who captured her turns out to be willing to make the exchange for a price, after a certain amount of diplomatic maneuvering. They agree on a meeting spot (which turns out to be a Christian monastery, I'm sure this is not significant at all) and Pekuah and Nekayah are reunited. The Arab turns out to be pretty damn nice, incidentally; he brings Pekuah and her maids by easy journeys, returns her respectfully, and escorts them to Cairo until they're safe. Whoa.
Ch 38:
Pekuah tells her story. She and her maids were naturally terrified, but she reminded them they were being treated reasonably well, and they were brought to a chief known to be beloved by his people. As her maids were undressing her, the Arab women noticed the incredibly high quality of Pekuah's clothes and promptly had her moved to a nicer tent. It turns out they thought she's a princess. The chief showed up, Pekuah tried to explain, and he told her that his driving motive was money, so while this was all regrettable, he was happy to send out a messenger to demand the ransom and this could all be handled gracefully. Once they knew Pekuah's value, she was treated with enormous deference, and the chief (who turned out to be highly intelligent and educated) essentially doubled as tour guide.
Ch 39:
They wandered about, Pekuah no longer terrified once she realized the Arab's real vice was simply avarice. Johnson treats that one pretty kindly, lol: "that which soothes the pride of one will offend the pride another; but to the favour of the covetous there is a ready way, bring money and nothing is denied." A bit different from "The Vanity of Human Wishes"! Pekuah was placed in the Arab's fortress/harem, and his women were obsequious once they realized she wasn't a rival. So Pekuah just passed the time, and the Arab educated her in...
Astronomy. Yep! She tried to be interested because he was obviously an expert and it was at least something new, but she was often thinking wistfully about Nekayah when other people thought her contemplating the sky.
Nekayah asks why she didn't make friends with the women, but they were like children, and frivolous, petty ones at that. They didn't know how to do anything but embroider, which hardly distracted her from missing Nekayah (...), and their conversation was boring. I expected this to be another Not Like The Other Girls thing, but Johnson actually gives Pekuah a long speech aboutwomen's education the condition of wives in a harem:
for of what could they be expected to talk? They had seen nothing; for they had lived from early youth in that narrow spot: of what they had not seen they could have no knowledge, for they could not read. They had no ideas but of the few things that were within their view, and had hardly names for anything but their clothes and their food. ...As they had no knowledge, their talk could take nothing from the tediousness of life: as they had no choice, their fondness, or appearance of fondness, excited in him neither pride nor gratitude; he was not exalted in his own esteem by the smiles of a woman who saw no other man.
This is ... unexpectedly Wollstonecraftian.
Anyway, she explains that the Arab was profoundly bored by the women, with no pleasure from them but the physical, which was why it took so long to get information. He liked having smart, well-educated Pekuah around so much that he kept procrastinating getting the hostage money. He even left her in charge when he was often on his ... uh, money-making ventures. Even her maids were better conversationalists than the wives, so when she grew listless, he'd talk to them. She was deeply worried that he'd fall in love with any of them out of sheer novelty, but thankfully the messenger found them, and he couldn't refuse the outright offer of money, and prepared for departure "like a man delivered from the pain of an intestine conflict." Hehehehe. They give the Arab double what was promised.
Best line: "my heart was always with Nekayah" OTPPPPPP
Continued from this.
Ch 37:
Seven months later (hasn't the emperor noticed that this children have been missing for ... like, four years?). a messenger shows up with news of Pekuah. The Arab who captured her turns out to be willing to make the exchange for a price, after a certain amount of diplomatic maneuvering. They agree on a meeting spot (which turns out to be a Christian monastery, I'm sure this is not significant at all) and Pekuah and Nekayah are reunited. The Arab turns out to be pretty damn nice, incidentally; he brings Pekuah and her maids by easy journeys, returns her respectfully, and escorts them to Cairo until they're safe. Whoa.
Ch 38:
Pekuah tells her story. She and her maids were naturally terrified, but she reminded them they were being treated reasonably well, and they were brought to a chief known to be beloved by his people. As her maids were undressing her, the Arab women noticed the incredibly high quality of Pekuah's clothes and promptly had her moved to a nicer tent. It turns out they thought she's a princess. The chief showed up, Pekuah tried to explain, and he told her that his driving motive was money, so while this was all regrettable, he was happy to send out a messenger to demand the ransom and this could all be handled gracefully. Once they knew Pekuah's value, she was treated with enormous deference, and the chief (who turned out to be highly intelligent and educated) essentially doubled as tour guide.
Ch 39:
They wandered about, Pekuah no longer terrified once she realized the Arab's real vice was simply avarice. Johnson treats that one pretty kindly, lol: "that which soothes the pride of one will offend the pride another; but to the favour of the covetous there is a ready way, bring money and nothing is denied." A bit different from "The Vanity of Human Wishes"! Pekuah was placed in the Arab's fortress/harem, and his women were obsequious once they realized she wasn't a rival. So Pekuah just passed the time, and the Arab educated her in...
Astronomy. Yep! She tried to be interested because he was obviously an expert and it was at least something new, but she was often thinking wistfully about Nekayah when other people thought her contemplating the sky.
Nekayah asks why she didn't make friends with the women, but they were like children, and frivolous, petty ones at that. They didn't know how to do anything but embroider, which hardly distracted her from missing Nekayah (...), and their conversation was boring. I expected this to be another Not Like The Other Girls thing, but Johnson actually gives Pekuah a long speech about
for of what could they be expected to talk? They had seen nothing; for they had lived from early youth in that narrow spot: of what they had not seen they could have no knowledge, for they could not read. They had no ideas but of the few things that were within their view, and had hardly names for anything but their clothes and their food. ...As they had no knowledge, their talk could take nothing from the tediousness of life: as they had no choice, their fondness, or appearance of fondness, excited in him neither pride nor gratitude; he was not exalted in his own esteem by the smiles of a woman who saw no other man.
This is ... unexpectedly Wollstonecraftian.
Anyway, she explains that the Arab was profoundly bored by the women, with no pleasure from them but the physical, which was why it took so long to get information. He liked having smart, well-educated Pekuah around so much that he kept procrastinating getting the hostage money. He even left her in charge when he was often on his ... uh, money-making ventures. Even her maids were better conversationalists than the wives, so when she grew listless, he'd talk to them. She was deeply worried that he'd fall in love with any of them out of sheer novelty, but thankfully the messenger found them, and he couldn't refuse the outright offer of money, and prepared for departure "like a man delivered from the pain of an intestine conflict." Hehehehe. They give the Arab double what was promised.
Best line: "my heart was always with Nekayah" OTPPPPPP