The Black Tulip · Chapter
The Rival explained
This chapter reveals that Jacob is actually Isaac Boxtel, Cornelius's envious rival.
What happens
This chapter reveals that Jacob is actually Isaac Boxtel, Cornelius's envious rival. Boxtel has followed Cornelius and Rosa to Loewestein, disguised as Jacob, and has been spying on them. He has cultivated Gryphus's friendship with gin and feigned interest in marrying Rosa to gain access. After suspecting Cornelius has a second black tulip bulb, Boxtel hires an attic opposite Rosa's window to watch her. He observes her caring for the flowerpot containing the bulb. Boxtel makes a false key to Rosa's room and, on the night the tulip flowers, he sees Rosa show the open black tulip to Cornelius. After Rosa locks her room and leaves, Boxtel uses his false key to enter and steal the tulip.
Themes in this chapter
Jealousy and Revenge
Boxtel's envy drives him to spy on Rosa, craft a false key, and steal the black tulip, escalating his criminal acts to claim the prize for himself.
Obsession and Ambition
Boxtel's obsessive pursuit of the black tulip and his ambition to name it after himself (Tulipa nigra Boxtellensis) consume him, leading to theft and deception.
Characters to notice
- Cornelius van Baerle
The imprisoned tulip-grower who has entrusted his second black tulip bulb to Rosa's care and meets her nightly at his cell window.
- Rosa Gryphus
The jailer's daughter who lovingly tends the black tulip bulb in her room and shows the flowered tulip to Cornelius before returning to lock her chamber.
- Isaac Boxtel
Cornelius's envious rival, disguised as Jacob, who has followed the lovers to Loewestein, spied on Rosa, made a false key, and steals the black tulip after it flowers.
- Gryphus
Rosa's father and the jailer, who is befriended by Boxtel with gin and becomes dead drunk, allowing Boxtel to carry out his theft.
Key passages
“The reader cannot but have recognized in Jacob our old friend, or rather enemy, Isaac Boxtel, and has guessed, no doubt, that this worthy had followed from the Buytenhof to Loewestein the object of his love and the object of his hatred—the black tulip and Cornelius van Baerle.”
The reader has likely realized that Jacob is actually Isaac Boxtel, who has followed both the black tulip and Cornelius van Baerle from the Buytenhof to Loewestein.
Reveals Boxtel's true identity and his dual motives of love for the tulip and hatred for Cornelius.
“He saw Rosa conveying a large flowerpot of white earthenware from her father's kitchen to her bedroom. He saw Rosa washing in pails of water her pretty little hands, begrimed as they were with the mould which she had handled, to give her tulip the best soil possible.”
Boxtel observed Rosa carrying a white earthenware pot to her room and washing the dirt from her hands after preparing the soil for the tulip.
Shows Boxtel's surveillance of Rosa's actions to confirm the tulip's location.
“Thus envy urged Boxtel on with rapid steps in the career of crime. Boxtel, as we have said, was alone with the tulip. A common thief would have taken the pot under his arm, and carried it off. But Boxtel was not a common thief, and he reflected.”
Envy drove Boxtel deeper into crime; though alone with the tulip, he refrained from stealing it immediately, planning instead to wait until it flowered to ensure the prize.
Highlights Boxtel's calculated criminal nature, contrasting him with a common thief.