At the beginning of this chapter, Prince Humperdinck, the Count, the King and the Queen meet to discuss Humperdinck's courtship. Since his father is dying and Humperdinck needs to find a future queen in order to produce a new heir, everybody is brainstorming. Bella, the queen, is Humperdinck's “Evil Stepmother.” Since King Lotharon has began mumbling, Queen Bella pretends to be able to decipher the his mumblings so that she can twist his words to her favor. The King is pretty pathetic and helpless while his manipulative wife's shiftiness goes unnoticed.
“The King” says that the Prince can't marry just any princess, so the Prince suggests Princess Noreena of Guilder. This political marriage could end years of feuding and warring between Florin and Guilder. At first, Humperdinck says that all he cares about is that his wife can hunt well, nothing else, not even personality, matters to him. That changes later in the chapter.
Queen Bella describes the Princess and she sounds alright so they Humperdinck asks to establish a meeting. The Queen basically volunteers to leave immediately to fetch the princess by saying that it is the King's wishes.
It only took one moment during their first dinner together to ruin all hopes of marriage between Noreena and Humperdinck. Noreena is as known for her enormous hat collection as the Great hall in King Lotharon's castle is known for its high winds. During a particularly large gale, as the king enters from the King's Door and the servants bring Alcohol for their brandied pig main course, some candles go out as many other candles fall over. The alcohol caught fire from the candles and as the servants rushed to put out the flames, Noreena's hat flew off. She put it on quickly, but Humperdinck saw that she was bald and then told her to leave.
Humperdinck revealed in this scene that he does care about more than hunting. He now admits that he wants a woman who is beautiful, no matter who she is or where she is. Count Rugen asks if he would even marry a commoner if she fit the description and the Prince said yes. The Count then took him to see Buttercup.
As Count Rugen told Humperdinck about her, he began to have doubts about seeking the hand of a mere milkmaid. This reveals Humperdinck's shallow and fickle character. All doubts and misgivings fade away, however when Humperdinck first lays eyes on Buttercup. He demands her hand in marriage but she refuses. He threatens death if she doesn't comply and she still refuses. He asks why and she tells him she can't ever love him. The Prince replies that love has nothing to do with it and tells of the situation and his need to provide a future heir. They agree that as long as love isn't a factor, they will get married.
Yet again, the vocabulary wasn't all that difficult, however the old-timey wording is still appreciated and makes reading this piece very interesting. There's plenty of imagery, but everything is very straight forward without a lot of hidden meaning. Also, rather than developing, Humperdinck's character seemed to diminish. He's so impatient and so picky, yet he didn't even want to get married in the first place. It'll be interesting to see where this goes. To tell the truth it was pretty obvious that the Count wanted Buttercup for something in the earlier chapter. It is a little disappointing though that Buttercup succumbed so willingly, but I guess she didn't really have much of a choice. At least her heart is still locked.
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