V.V. (3) "Young Stencil the world adventurer"

[Don Corathers]

Is it possible that Stencil d o e s believe the V. described in his father's journals might be his mother? His response to the Margravine when she asks if it is V. he is pursuing has a studied, structured ambiguity about it. He denies it by comparing it to another absurdity, that he might believe V. is the mother he never knew. One could speculate that if in fact the first proposition is true, and it is, then perhaps the second one is too.

On Stencil's use of his father's journals: I read that more benignly than you, jbor. I took it to mean he used the information he found in the journals to endear himself to his father's friends--by, for example, pretending to share an interest in some passion of theirs, or showing up on the doorstep with just the right bottle of wine. I acknowledge there could be a more sinister interpretation, but I imagine Stencil to be more of a harmless freeloader than somebody who would employ Sidney's spookcraft in blackmail or coercion. Now, pandering to the unique and meticulously recorded sexual requirements of the Margravine or others? I suppose that might be within what Herbert considers to be his scope of work.

Don