When two gentlemen, one of whom seemed to be the well known Mr A.Z. Fell and a tall dark gentleman whom he has regularly been seen meeting with at St James park broke the calm of the afternoon one day with a rip-snorter of a barney and were seen dramatically declaring what seems to be the end of a friendship. Several ducks exploded.
I was a little interested why “Cortese” out of the Warlock tutors Mr Harrison and Mr Cortese, but can i just say.
Oh. Apt.
Also, guess how Aziraphale chose his name. And probably who he was with.
Ashgfhj
Cortese is an Italian word that means “kind”. No, I am not joking. The word is an adjective meaning something (or someone) kind, very polite, perhaps old fashioned. It has a very specific meaning.
BUT
The REALLY INTERESTING PART IS
Cortese is quite an outdated word, but there is one field where it’s always used: the term “amor cortese”, the field of literature known in English as “courtly love” (more or less literal translation here). The genre about love and romantic desire elevating the lover to an higher degree of nobility. Isn’t that interesting.
Overall, it’s a very apt name if Mr Cortese is in fact Aziraphale, as I believe he is in the book.
As for Mr Harrison, I am assuming it’s either the Beatles, or Harrison Ford. Because Crowley is a nerd
Italian GO Fandom getting a MUCH clearer view of the unsubtlety of Tutor Aziraphale in his name choice, and how bloody on the nose it was.
Crowley maintains despite his derisive snort heard all the way to Mayfair and Aziraphale’s thin excuses- that Aziraphale had quickly chosen it off the label of the Italian wine they’d been drinking that night while discussing their next stage in Operation Antichrist. Az just hopes Crowley doesn’t understand the rest of the the meanings, but frankly, they both spent rather a lot of time around Rome and Venice at certain points in history for it to totally fly over his head.
