Thanks! I did do a bit of googling to see how distinctive it is for a novelist to tag "I beg your pardon" as specifically the words of or the behavior of a gentleman -- etiquette books like to point out that a gentleman always says "I beg your pardon", but I couldn't find any other novelistic situation where one character unexpectedly says "I beg your pardon" to another and the author intervenes to gloss this as specifically gentlemanly behavior that is at odds with the situation the characters are in. (That's not to say that others don't exist, of course, but I don't think it's a common trope in quite this form.)
This combined with the shared themes of disability (a concern in both immediate contexts) and loyalty/kingship (a concern of both books as a whole), makes me suspect a closer connection. The question of intention I can't answer, of course, but MWT is a very careful writer, and her books frequently include playful allusions to other works.
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Date: 3/31/15 12:01 am (UTC)This combined with the shared themes of disability (a concern in both immediate contexts) and loyalty/kingship (a concern of both books as a whole), makes me suspect a closer connection. The question of intention I can't answer, of course, but MWT is a very careful writer, and her books frequently include playful allusions to other works.
But that's just my inclination!