Hello Col Klink,

That is a very interesting question that I had never thought about before! I think that there could be an additional reason as to why none of the Telmarines were kind to Doctor Cornelius. Doctor Cornelius is described as “the smallest, and also the fattest, man Caspain had ever seen…” (PC chapter 4). Doctor Cornelius’s strange appearance alone may have warranted ill treatment directed towards him. In any society, misfits are treated with curiosity (even in Narnia). Often, they are treated with contempt if the society is particularly cruel. From what I gather, Telmar is more brutal than Narnia but less so than Calormen. What Lewis tells us of Telmarine society seems to indicate that it is extremely dull and that everyone is encouraged to play their part and nothing more, as evidenced by the reprimand Gwendolen receives for even daring to mention something fantastical (But Miss Prizzle, there’s a LION!”). Doctor Cornelius is anything but dull, and although he hides his lineage and plays the part of a boring Telmarine tutor relatively well, his appearance and the merriment in his eyes were probably enough to garner ill treatment.

As to why Miraz hired Corenelius in the first place, Miraz needed a tutor for Caspian and perhaps Doctor Cornelius was either the most knowledgeable or the most convenient tutor around. Miraz already despised Caspian, and he strikes me as the kind of person who wouldn’t care about who tutored his nephew, just as long as Caspian was kept out of the way, taught to be a good little Telmarine boy, and forgot Old Narnia.

While Lewis still might be trying to establish Caspian’s family as unusually good, there could be other reasons for the dislike of Doctor Cornelius. These are just my thoughts on why the Telmarines may have hated Dr. Cornelius although maybe I’m reading into it a bit too much!