If it’s anything like the historical traditions of Renaissance Italy that gave birth to the courtesan – it’s not that noble ladies are absent from social life, but rather than they’re absent from public venues. They of course did a huge amount of socializing in their own homes and the homes of other people of their class and other respectable venues.
In Mercy, we’re talking about a theater, and a lowly theater at that. The theater was generally associated with vice – prostitutes did a lot of business at the theater in this period, so for a high class women to be seen at the theater was to lose one’s reputation and good name. Indeed, one of the reasons the Elizabethan theater banned women from acting on stage was that it was believed that actors turned tricks on the side to supplement their wages, on the grounds that if you’re making your money from displaying your body in one way, you must be up for doing it in another.
We think this aspect of Braavos does not have an obvious direct historical parallel. The courtesans aren’t prostitutes or mistresses with low respectability who high class men can take to low class establishments. Rather, they’re celebrities with very high respectability (and perhaps some license to appear in less than respectable places, a license that is not extended to more bourgeois women). The leading courtesans are the ones who determine the prevailing high class fashions which all Braavosi women of means do their best to imitate. Being seen with a courtesan in a public place is like being seen today with a world famous Hollywood actress or a New York model dressed in the most cutting edge designer outfits. Although the Otharys scions might end up sleeping with the courtesans accompanying them, it’s not actually required or the most important thing. The most important thing is being seen: being seen with a courtesan or being visited by a courtesan serves to remind people that you’re a big shot. Such gestures are especially important with the current Sealord ailing and a choosing on the horizon and with it a change of administration. The great courtesans also have personal followings of bravos, men skilled in street fighting.
I don’t know about without historical parallel.
The Renaissance Italians certainly distinguished between the cortigiana onesta, who were lauded as witty intellectuals who one could be seen with in public, and the cortigiana di lume, who while a high-class prostitute, was still a prostitute.
But even in the case of the cortigiana onesta, it wasn’t normally the case that noble families would raise their daughters to be courtesans or be ok with their daughters being associated with courtesans, because that would damage their marriage prospects; and even quite famous courtesans could find their lives to be extremely precarious if they were accused of witchcraft or a mob decided to loot their house (as happened to famous Venetian courtesan and poet Veronica Franco). There are some cases of noble-born courtesans – La Castiglione, for example – but it was pretty rare, and even when it happened would typically lead to scandal.
So my guess is that sober Bravosi businessmen would be thrilled to be seen out in public with a famous courtesan, but they’d probably challenge you to a duel if you called their sister or daughter a courtesan.
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