The European Nabokov Web, Classicism and T.S. Eliot 9781618111319

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The European Nabokov web, Classicism, and T.S. Eliot A Textual Interpretation of Pale Fire

------------------------------  Robin H. Davies ------------------------------------

Studies in Russian and Slavic Literatures, Cultures and History

Series Editor: Lazar Fleishman (Stanford Universtity)

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The european Nabokov Web, classicism, and T.S. Eliot A textual Interpretation of Pale Fire

------------------------  Robin H. Davies -----------------------------

Boston 2011

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: A catalog record for this title is available from the Library of Congress.   Copyright © 2011 Academic Studies Press All rights reserved ISBN 978‐1‐936235‐65‐0 Book design by Olga Grabovsky On the cover: La Tempesta, by Giorgione Published by Academic Studies Press in 2011 28 Montfern Avenue Brighton, MA 02135, USA [email protected] www.academicstudiespress.com

The only way to arrive at an understanding of the individual life is by a painstaking accumulation of accurate detail.  Vladimir Nabokov

nec vaga tam tenui discurrit aranea tela, tam leve nec bombyx pendulus urget opus. (Neither does the errant spider run to and fro in a web so slender, nor the hanging silkworm press on with work so lightly.)  Martial, Epigrams 8. 33.15-16

The spider spreads her webs, whether she be In poet’s tower, cellar, barn or tree The silkworm in the dark green mulberry leaves His winding sheet and cradle ever weaves; So I, a thing whom moralists call worm, Sit spinning still round this decaying form, From the fine threads of rare and subtle thought— No net of words in garish colours wrought To catch the idle buzzers of the day— But a soft cell, where when that fades away, Memory may clothe in wings my living name And feed it with the asphodels of fame, Which in those hearts which must remember me Grow, making love an immortality. 

(Shelley, “Letter to Maria Gisborne,” July 1820)

Contents

ABBREVIATions�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ix Foreword���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xi Introduction������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ xv I Lingua Franca and Topsyturvical Coincidence����������������������������������������������������5 II In search of Horace and a Web of Sense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 III Heraclius, Hamlet, and Genealogy����������������������������������������������������������������������35 IV Zembla—“How Farce and Epic Get a Jumbled Race” ��������������������������������������49 V Hamlet Unrestored: Sémiramis and the Royal Tomb ��������������������������������������61 VI Classical Affinities I: A Modern Aeneas�������������������������������������������������������������73 VII Classical Affinities II: An ancient Nisus ������������������������������������������������������������87 VIII The Browning Version and Contemporary Reality����������������������������������������� 103 IX Corn, Cuckoldry, and the Amazonian Chin����������������������������������������������������� 121 X Toile d’Eliot, or Combinational Delight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 XI Homeric Shades around Phoenicia: Myth and Reality ��������������������������������� 159 XII Varia—Selenography, Kinbote/Botkin, Glaucus, Fénélon ��������������������������� 171 XIII Murderous Intrigues������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 185 XIV Tragedy and the Stagyrite���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 201

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XV Dramatic Poetry, Regicide, and Poetic Drama������������������������������������������������� 211 XVI Germanitas and Les Germains�������������������������������������������������������������������������� 229 XVII Deus in Machina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Illustrations I Marburg (Maribor), general view, Styria, Austria-Hungary—1890 �������������14 II Nova Zemla––1616. Novae Zemlae delineatio. Cartographer Bertius, Amsterdam . . . . . . 50 III Nova Zembla––1719. Nouvelle Zemble. Cartographer Mallet, Frankfurt ������������������������������������������55 IV Novaya Zemblaya­— NASA Satellite Image�������������������������������������������������������58 V Asolo in the Trevisan, scene of “Pippa Passes,” Via Browning��������������������� 106

— viii —

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XV Dramatic Poetry, Regicide, and Poetic Drama������������������������������������������������� 211 XVI Germanitas and Les Germains�������������������������������������������������������������������������� 229 XVII Deus in Machina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Illustrations I Marburg (Maribor), general view, Styria, Austria-Hungary—1890 �������������14 II Nova Zemla––1616. Novae Zemlae delineatio. Cartographer Bertius, Amsterdam . . . . . . 50 III Nova Zembla––1719. Nouvelle Zemble. Cartographer Mallet, Frankfurt ������������������������������������������55 IV Novaya Zemblaya­— NASA Satellite Image�������������������������������������������������������58 V Asolo in the Trevisan, scene of “Pippa Passes,” Via Browning��������������������� 106

— viii —

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Abbreviations

Ad’A Aubignac Abbé d’ La Pratique du Théâtre. AF Field, Andrew Nabokov, His life in Art AP Aristotle Theory of Poetry and Fine Art BBAY Boyd, Brian. The American Years BBPF Boyd, Brian Nabokov’s Pale Fire BBRP Boyd,B. and Pyle,R.M. Nabokov’s Butterflies EOVN Pushkin Vladimir Nakokov’s translation of Eugene Onegin HLF Des Granges, Ch.-M. Histoire de la Littérature Française HSEA Horace Satires, Epistles and Ars Poetica ME Martial Epigrams OM Ovid Metamorphoses PAP Pope, Alexander The Poems of Alexander Pope PC Corneille, Pierre Trois Discours sur le Poème Dramatique PCH Corneille, Pierre Heraclius PM Meyer, Priscilla Find What the Sailor Has Hidden RB Browning, Robert Collected Works TAJP Taylor,A.J.P. The Habsburg Monarchy TSE Eliot,T.S. Collected Poems VA Virgil Aeneid VE Virgil Eclogues VG Virgil Georgics VN Vladimir Nabokov VCA Voltaire Candide ou l’optimisme VCC Voltaire Correspondance Choisie VSE Voltaire Sémiramis — ix —

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Reference BDPF Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable Cassells, London (1967) CFD Collins French Dictionary (1980) CGD Collins German Dictionary (1980) CLD Cassell’s Latin Dictionary (2000) OED Oxford English Dictionary (1964) Smaller 2 vol. edition

Birds BNA Robbins, Bruun and Zim CBB Fitter and Richardson

Birds of North America British Birds

Butterflies BBE Feltwell and Hargreaves Butterflies of Britain and Europe PEAN Tolman and Lewington Papillons D’Europe Et D’Afrique Du Nord

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Foreword

In the autumn of 1963 I commenced a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Maryland in the suburbs of Washington D.C. One of my problems was to introduce a correction to the calculation of interatomic forces in a diatomic molecule which relied on a particular form of solution to the wave equation. It transpired that one did not need to know the wave function in order to solve the problem. Provided the vibrational quantal restriction was written as a function of the molecular vibrational energy levels, one could work out the secondorder corrections to the limits of accuracy required. This puzzled me, in light of diffraction phenomena and the ways that waves interacted to form the well-known patterns of interference. Years later, I discovered that in the more general case as well, one only needed to know the charge density (implicit in our expansion), and not the wave function, for a complete determination of the properties of a molecule, a phenomenon known as Coulson’s challenge. That spring, in Oxford, I had read an intriguing review of Nabokov’s Pale Fire by Mary McCarthy in Encounter magazine. Pale Fire is a poem of four cantos with a commentary by a critic who also appears to be an exiled king from an eastern European land. The poem, consisting of decasyllabic heroic couplets, was apparently incomplete upon the assassination of the poet, John Shade, who died before the last line was put to card, leaving some nine hundred ninety-nine lines. McCarthy treated the work as a detective story. One evening, emerging from a supermarket in November, I noticed Pale Fire on a rack by the door. — xi —

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In those pleasant autumnal days visiting the capital before the imminent tragic assassination of President Kennedy, I had, each Saturday for a month, purchased a volume of Conrad from a secondhand bookshop on Pennsylvania Avenue. As a scientist, I had been guided by Leavis’s recommendations, Victory, The Shadow Line, Chance, and Nostromo. That evening with Pale Fire, I became alarmed by the contrasts, the triviality, the unexpectedness, and the absurdity of Kinbote’s critical commentary and could not believe that a leading satirist could write one hundred sixty pages or so of apparent balderdash. I came to terms with Nabokov only later when reading his beautiful autobiographical Speak Memory. I have come to regard the problems of Pale Fire as Nabokov’s challenge. This book represents my attempt to understand Pale Fire and to put forth the case for strong linguistic associations within the text. Were the various forms of underlying association—linguistic, literary, and literal—simply Nabokov’s contemporary attack on automated translation after his considerable labours translating Eugene Onegin? “Gradus might easily have passed for a salesman hawking Basic-English primers for American schoolchildren or those wonderful new translating machines that can do it so much faster than a man or an animal.” Later that year, the early computing dictionary in the National Bureau of Standards in Washington D.C. produced the puzzling translation “water goat” for a phrase in a Russian scientific text. (It turned out to be a hydraulic ram.) Was Pale Fire merely a challenge to Nabokov’s critics? Or was there a more serious philosophical position in view on hidden contextual relations? Was there a hidden parody reflecting Nabokov’s detestation of T.S. Eliot’s isolated autocratic modernist position? In trying to answer these questions, I have gone down unexpected but pleasant paths. I have resurrected my early classical education. While putting together European scientific funding proposals, I have found myself in a Donegal tweed suit in the centrally heated university book shop in Saint Michel in Paris, on my way from Amsterdam to Pisa in another warm November, looking for a quotation by Malebranche. I have read and come to admire greatly the rational brilliance of Pierre Corneille. On more leisurely days, I have sat in an underground car park in Rheims — xii —

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guarding champagne while my wife endeavoured to buy a good book on the French names of butterflies. I have bought one on the Italian names in San Luca in Venice. I have tried to improve my German beyond “Haben sie bitte, zwei parketts rechts für Götterdammerung?” I have developed a deep respect for Nabokov and come to understand the extremity of his detestation of Eliot’s philosophical position. Not least amongst the problems to be solved is the exact solution to the Latin conundrum in chapter 2. Following an amiable dinner with scientific colleagues in Florida almost a decade ago when I commenced my stumblings on linguistic possibilities within Pale Fire, I received the following poem (itself inspired by John O’Lyons, Pale Fire and the Fine Art of Annotation) from an enjoyable companion with which it is fitting to begin: Ich geb’ dir Beispiele von Raub und Diebstahl Die Sonne ist ein Dieb, sie zieht die See an Und beraubt sie; der Mond ein Erzdieb gar: Sein fahles Feuer stiehlt er von der Sonne (Timon of Athens 4.2.441-444) Kunst selbst ist Diebstahl, Denn sie beraubt die Taschen der Natur Und schmueckt sich wie der Mond mit fremdem Lorbeer. Luna zeigt, dass der Versuch der Kunst, Natur zu imitieren, Mondsucht ist; Der Kuenstler, angesteckt, wahnsinnig selbst, Der Kritiker genauso infiziert. Und dann, ein Nabokovsches Paradox Vertauscht, verkehrt Vernunft und Unvernunft; Das Kunstwerk nun gesund infolge seines Formalen Vollbestands, verrueckt die Welt Infolge ihrer Unerforschlichkeit. Der Exeget steht noch dazwischen, erklaert Grossmuetig und verdunkelt egoistisch Verrueckt-normale Kunst fuer eine nun Normal-verrueckte Welt... (Max Seel, “Sane oder Nichtsane,” 1994)

— xiii —

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I’ll example you with thievery: The sun’s a thief, and with his great attraction Robs the vast sea; the moon’s an arrant thief, And her pale fire she snatches from the sun…. (Timon of Athens 4.2441-444) Art is an arrant thief, robs nature’s pockets And like the moon shines in a borrowed glory. Luna’s example shows that lunatic is art To try to mimic nature’s vast expanses. And by a silent process of infection Artists themselves are lunatics and madmen, Their critics, follow suit, are tainted also. Then through a Nabokovian paradox, Inverted are insane and sane profoundly; The work of art is sane, sane through its formal Integrity at last, whereas the world Is mad through its inscrutability. The exegete, still, stands between, at once Explaining generously, yet at the same time Obscuring selfishly the mad-sane work To a sane world gone mad…. (Max Seel, “To Be Or Not To Be Sane”)

I am also indebted to Professor Seel for the illustrations covering old and new Zembla “on its long peninsula.” The view of “Asolo—Via Browning” is by Renzo Busato. Finally, not least, I should like to express my very grateful thanks to Professor Neil Cornwell, who kindly tolerated my enquiries and encouraged pursuit of Nabokovian enigma while also patiently reading the text.

— xiv —

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Introduction

Pale Fire is a posthumous publication of an autobiographical poem of four cantos composed by John Shade, a university professor in New Wye in West Appalachia. The poem is edited by an effete critic and admirer, Charles Kinbote, with a foreword, commentary, and index. The poem relates, amongst various memorabilia, to the unfortunate suicide in the second canto of Shade’s daughter, Hazel, a rather isolated child and young woman who once recorded some psychokinetic manifestations in an old German farmer’s barn in preparation of a paper on autoneurynological patterns in American university students. In Canto III, there is much light philosophy on survival and an Institute for the Preparation of the Hereafter. John Shade appears to suffer a heart attack or a fit of petit mal. His vision “beyond the veil,”—“a tall white fountain played”—coincides with that of a rather dense lady some three hundred miles west, but on meeting her, he writes: if (I thought) I mentioned that detail, She’d pounce upon it as upon a fond Affinity, a sacramental bond, Uniting mystically, her and me, And in a jiffy our two souls would be— Brother and sister trembling on the brink Of tender incest. “Well,” I said, “I think It’s getting late…”

Conferring later with her doctor, he discovers that the affinity was based on an error in the notes—“fountain” should have been “mountain.” (The doctor’s name was Coates.) “Life everlasting based — xv —

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on a misprint!” The final canto commences with a consideration of composition and a number of issues ranging from slaving to shaving. There is a feeling of completeness in the final lines of the poem: Maybe my sensual love for the consonne D’appui, Echo’s fey child, is based upon A feeling of fantastically planned, Richly rhymed life. I feel I understand Existence, or at least a minute part Of my existence, only through my art, In terms of combinational delight; And if my private universe scans right, So does this verse of galaxies divine Which I suspect is an iambic line.

John Shade is shot on the nine hundred ninety-ninth line of the almost complete series of heroic couplets. The one hundred sixty pages of Kinbote’s commentary have been described as almost all absurdities of either misinformation or wholly unnecessary information. It appears that Charles Kinbote is the exiled King Charles Xavier Kingbot of the Eastern European kingdom of Zembla, now under the sway of the Sosed regime. There is much genealogy of the Zemblan court, stretching from the 1870s onwards. Kinbote believes that John Shade’s poem will illuminate the story of his distant land. Assuming Kinbote’s stated identity, his wife Queen Disa, exiled by the Sosed regime and estranged as a result of Kinbote’s homosexuality, lives in the Villa Paradiso in Nice but does see Charles Xavier after his escape from Zembla, before he eventually parachutes into the United States. The cross-references in the Commentary have an exhausting cross-country feel to them and feature an assassin, Gradus, of a group called the Shadows—supporters of the Sosed regime—who sets out via Copenhagen, Geneva, Nice, and elsewhere to track and kill Kinbote but mistakenly kills John Shade. At least, that is Kinbote’s story. Kinbote rented a house from the vacationing Judge Goldsworth just across the road from the Shade menage to keep close track of the poem’s development, but a convict, Jack Grey, — xvi —

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once sentenced by the judge, had also escaped from an Instute for the Criminally Insane. This book treats Pale Fire as a detective story and examines whether there are a number of linguistic and literary guides to an embedded logical plot traversing an adulterous web in the Zemblan Royal Court at Onhava, and whether in uncovering this plot we may be able to emerge with an identifiable motive for the assassination of John Shade and with a true solus rex. No aesthetic or moral judgments on the artistic nature of Pale Fire will be found, but the work may encourage the reader to explore support for other potential identities within the web arising from what one critic has described as stealthy signals. Some unsolved pointers are given in the text. A coded Latin quatrain leads to the adulterous web—tela adultera. Chapters 4-12 are primarily concerned with confirming potential blood relationships within the web and are summarised in Chapter 13. Chapters 9-11, covering Canto Four, uncover a notable hidden attack on Eliot’s The Waste Land. Within the “toile d’Eliot” and Eliot’s Notes to the poem’s related myths, Nabokov’s correlating parody acts as a guide to the literary and linguistic leitmotifs of active Zemblan adultery. The wider correlation leads to the important identification of the literary critic, Kinbote/Charles the Beloved, as a parody of the all-seeing prophet, Tiresias, but a conveyor of negative or neutral information. In turn, we are led to identification of positive evidence for a thousandth line. Nabokov’s riposte to Eliot in the ultimate line of Pale Fire identifies the blood relationships, the germanitas, of the vigorous and cold archdukes of the Zemblan royal court. Literary filaments within a strong classical tradition and classificatory butterflies guide to the blood relationships within the adulterous web. A mock Virgilian Odyssey helps identify father/son relationships. The class of Erebia, ringlet butterflies, apart from defining the geographical limits of Nova and Old Zembla (embla, disa, stiria), point to a further pair of ringlets, indicating blood relationships—the theme of matricide in the Eriphyla and the presence of an adopted son in the form of the Virgilian Euryalus. The classical themes of tragedy and Nabokov’s defence of allegory in a more scientific age offered a convenient position for an attack on his critics. His use of allegory followed closely the position of Pope in his replies. — xvii —

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In more detailed summary:

*

•

Chapter 1 commences with the problems of literal translation and is largely concerned with the “zoological, geographical and cultural details that he (VN) has sensed hung together and now helped form Kinbote’s Zembla” (Letter to Walter Minton, B. Boyd, The American Years, Vintage, 1993, p. 419). We are led to examine Corneille’s Trois Discours sur le Poème Dramatique (1660). The opening case is made that Old Zembla is, predominantly, a Slavic land with a German court insofar as it can be separated from fantasy. The shadowy presence of Latin, French, and German can provide the textual patina within “the correlated pattern of the game.”

•

Chapter 2 demonstrates the presence of a secret Latin quatrain in the “certain phenomena” that Hazel Shade observed in October 1956 in an old barn of German ownership (347),1* conveying the presence of a tela adultera—an adulterous web— in the royal house of Onhava. A “game of kings” is suggested, which in literal German (das königliche Spiel) is the game of chess.

•

Chapter 3 commences the search for less obvious branches of the royal genealogical tree. We consider at the outset whether there are literary guides to constraining relationships within Pale Fire and whether the classical rules of tragedy can themselves define the limits of the web. The themes of Heraclius and Hamlet are explored. A case for a murdered King Alfin is made. A basic genealogical tree of the Zemblan royal house is suggested.

•

Chapter 4 examines the influence of Pope on Zembla and “How Farce and Epic Get a Jumbled Race,” following an interpretation of a short variant at 962. The theme that an author is replying to his critics in Pale Fire develops further from the influence of Pope and Corneille. The theme of Hamlet Restored or A Comedy

References to line of poem in roman (non-italic) font; to commentary line in italics. — xviii —

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of Errors as a possible title to Pale Fire is suggested by a critic of Pope’s Shakespearian editorship. •

Chapter 5 considers Voltaire’s adaptation of Hamlet as Sémiramis, involving an accidental matricide following the mother’s murder of her husband, Ninus, which he regarded as accommodating the sensibilities of French theatre. Voltaire first adapted the theme of matricide in Ériphyle from the Alcmeon, which has a strong identification from wordplay in 7. The theme of accidental matricide is also suggested to Charles the Beloved by a psychiatrist, who says that his vices are subconsciously killing his mother. Evidence is presented that John Shade may be a natural son of the murdered king Alfin.

•

Chapter 6 explores additional father/son relationships. The case is made that Jacob Gradus may be regarded as a not very distinguished modern Aeneas in search of his unrecognized father, Anchises. The true strand of the web does not necessarily end with Gradus, for his enforced odyssey in regal pursuit has an obvious correlation with the earlier path of Kinbote/Charles the Beloved himself. The combined odysseys of Gradus and Charles have comparable incidents to those arising in Aeneas’s descent to the Underworld to find the shade of his father Anchises. Ironically, in latter-day New Wye, in contrast to the son’s search for the shade of his father, John is the likely father of a Shade. The index to Pale Fire shows only the presence of Charles II, but the thesis that is emerging is that John Shade may have a rightful claim to the Onhava Throne as Charles I, particularly if Charles the Beloved/Kinbote is illegitimate.

•

Chapter 7 pursues further classical odysseys. The shadow of Rabelais and a yew tree lead again to classical associations with Virgil’s Georgics following the introductory lines to Canto Three. Rabelais, himself, wrote an Iliad grotesque, suivie d’une Odyssée satirique. Satiric odysseys reflect Nabokov’s personal odyssey after his struggles in exile, an odyssey leading to the gates of — xix —

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Ithaca—in his case, the portals of the English Department at Cornell University, Ohio.  Detailed contextual analysis is becoming a dominant Nabokovian theme. Kinbote’s coded misinformation indicates that the four contextual relations of Waxwings …cicadas might each be independent. One context can refer to the classical story of Nisus and Scylla, an effective case of parricide. Key words of another reference appear to be “mirage shimmer,” where “shimmered” in the French is moiré, the common name for the ringlet or Erebia family of butterfly. The name for this particular species, Erebia ériphyle, is le moiré Savoyard, suggestive, again, of Voltaire. The context of IPH is examined, and consistent reference within Shade’s poem to three identifications including some Greek adaptation shows that Eriphyla is a self-consistent association. The story of Eriphyla points to the murder of her husband, Amphiaraus, and the shadow of Voltaire and of Hamlet. Reference is also made to the Popian shade of a second sable ringlet, Erebia euryalus, found in the story of Nisus and Euryalus, where Euryalus is, in effect, an adopted son. Classical filaments appear to give support to the relationships in the adulterous web. •

Chapter 8 reviews the potential presence of Browning in Pale Fire and considers whether there are contemporary realities to be associated with the references to Browning apart from his literary pointers.

•

Chapter 9 develops a shaving motif through corn, cuckoldry, and an Amazonian chin to the world of Coriolanus. We are led to examine the “aethereal rumours of a broken Coriolanus” found in Eliot’s The Waste Land. A major hidden Nabokov parody of this poem and Notes appears. Within the palindromic toile d’Eliot and his guide to its related myths we have Nabokov’s parody acting as a guide to the literary and linguistic leitmotifs of Zemblan adultery. The passivity and fear of experience of Eliot is replaced by Nabokov’s active bed making. A quoted line — xx —

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from Dante’s Purgatorio (26) leads in Italian to Pyramus and Thisbe and to the land of Sémiramis and, again, the associated theme of matricide. The subsequent line from a second-century Latin poem gives support to the seduction of Sybil Shade by the dark Duke of Payn and Mone with the Hirondelle motif and the darker shade of the fate of Philomela. Both these lines shed direct light on the bloodstock of the Shades. •

Chapter 10 continues with Nabokov’s “combinational delight” and linguistic play. The last of Eliot’s quoted trio of linguistic lines is in French by the 19th century poet, de Nerval, notable for a poem on butterflies and moths. The red admiral, le Vulcain, is indicative of the cuckoldry of John Shade, as Vulcan is the known patron of cuckolds. Reference is also made to le bombice du tröene, the silkmoth of the privet. Taking the Latin bombyx ligustri leads to an examination of Martial’s epigrams and the whiteness (candida) of the privet. Eliot’s Notes on The Waste Land are examined more widely. Eliot’s inspiration from a work on the Holy Grail by a Dr Weston—i.e., on the San Greal—is suggestive of Nabokov’s inspiration for the parody, giving the reader work on the adulterous Sang Real of Zembla. Even Miss Weston has a change of compass point and of sex in the presence of old Dr Sutton. Of primary note is Eliot’s regard for the allseeing blind Tiresias as the most important person in his poem, which leads to the illuminating conclusion that if Kinbote is a parody of the blind hermaphrodite prophet, then Nabokov has represented him as an all-seeing prophet even if the information he conveys is of the negative kind. Thus his misinformation at lines 181-182 suggests that a line 1000 exists. The game of kings, das königliche Spiel, can begin in earnest.

•

Chapter 11 examines the mythic approach to reality as proposed by Eliot in his review of Joyce’s Ulysses. The shaving motif, initially identifying Coriolanus, is shown to have a probable source in Pope’s translation of the Odyssey. Homeric shades around Phoenicia are discerned. The excised residue of The Waste Land’s Part 4, “Death — xxi —

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by Water,” and the established source of Phlebas, the Phoenician sailor, are considered. Tyre, rather than Byblos, however, appears as the main site of action. A literary metamorphosis leads to Ovid’s tale of Cadmus and the seduction of his sister, the Tyrian princess Europa, by Jove. The search for her by Cadmus leads to the founding of Thebes, later housing the seer, Tiresias. A further literal metamorphosis leads to the tale of Phaethon and his demand for proof of paternity by demanding the sun god’s chariot for a day, but the fateful flight too near the earth leads to catastrophe. The dried-up earth and collapse of cities are compared with Eliot’s land and cities in part 5, What the Thunder Said. Nabokov, with brilliant parodying metaphors, appears to suggest that an irrelevant farce can quickly lead to rich mythical universes. •

Chapter 12 considers the Botkin/Kinbote identity. A Goethe poem raises the spectre of doppelgängers. Eliot’s Tiresias motif is suggested more expressly in Nabokov’s commentator, residing in the male of the species in the form of Vseslav Botkin and in the female in the guise of Charles Kinbote. The alternating six-month sexuality is seen to commence on April Fools’ Day, while for Charles and his friend, Bob, April “is the cruellest month.” The effeminate Charles the Beloved is regarded as a true correlate with Charles Kinbote, but in the New World, parodying Eliot’s notes, there is a New World transformation into the dual personality where the prophet starts to get under the skin of Charles Xavier. The possibility of more hidden languages within the text is considered. We are led to consider a French influence and a possible reference to Fénélon, Archbishop of Cambrai. Interest in Fénélon lies in yet another composer who constructed a satiric odyssey, Les aventures de Télémaque. The tale of Glaucus, another prophetic seer, and Scylla is reviewed.

•

Chapter 13 summarizes the evidence on the blood relationships within the Royal House of Onhava, and in particular within the Shade family. The butterfly, Vanessa atalanta, can be associated with the blood of the Shades, and the bloodstock of the family — xxii —

---------------------------------------------------------------------  Introduction ---------------------------------------------------------------------

is shown to be “…total gules, horridly tricked With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons” (Hamlet 2.2.489-490)

Support is cited in Timon of Athens 4.3, while Kinbote’s reference is to 4.2. At a more literary level, if Kinbote is also taken to symbolise the role of the critic within Pale Fire, he is defined as unproductive (his homosexuality), all-knowing (a Tiresian parody of misinformation), manipulative (actions in a tragedy with all conditions known), winning (direct Royal Zemblan blood lines eliminated), and illegitimate (son of the Duke of Rahl). •

Chapter 14 examines the Aristotelian rules of tragedy as applied by Nabokov.

•

Chapter 15 examines how the doubtfully heroic but certainly mock-epic decasyllabic couplets of John Shade lead to the world of Dryden and Pope. Nabokov appears curtly dismissive of Eliot’s claims for Dryden’s language and leads him not to the decasyllabic Anglo-Catholic royalist and his disparagement of the stews of London in the era of the Commonwealth but more to the comparative world of Rome and Ovid. Dryden’s influence on the backward-looking Eliot, by contrast, leaves him unhappily embedded in the city’s stews. In place of Dryden, we detect the refreshing puritan Marvell and the joyous heats of summer. The presence of the mocking Ford Phaethon is again discerned amongst the hamstring’d frogs. John Shade’s love of the consonne d’appui leads not to the “underscoring and stress of the vital rhythm” but is associated with a rather painful plunge into Eliot’s pool of memory in “Burnt Norton.” In place of any language purification, there is the more disturbing hint of a regicide. There is a further indicator of Sybil’s distress when visiting the South of France, giving further support for her rather forcible seduction by the Duke of Payne and Mone. The final fifty lines of Pale Fire are examined and the position — xxiii —

---------------------------------------------------------------------  Introduction ---------------------------------------------------------------------

is summarized by Shade’s four poetic titles, indicating that he was master of the situation and in full recognition of the complicated relations that he held within the royal court at Onhava. •

Chaper 16 analyses the last sixteen lines of the poem. We are forced to consider an apposite line from Henry V at line 992, which gives a required condition: Dishonour not your mothers: now attest That those whom you called fathers did beget you (Henry 5.3.2)

Taken in conjunction with the “horridly trick’d blood of the Shades” in the close incestuous relationships within the Royal Court of Onhava, one attested condition is met by half cousins, les demi-frères, or cousins. The ending to the last line is indicated by Kinbote’s comment at 367-370 and the symmetry of the sixteen lines, which argues for a line ending in -ain or its mute variants, -ain(s), or -ain(e). Kinbote’s final comment at line 1000, “interesting association belatedly realized,” must refer to the dead John Shade. The most obvious conclusion is that both father and son were murdered, the father King Alfin by his wife Blenda, and his son, John Shade, by his own natural son, Gradus. The most probable French solution to the final line is given, which leads back to the opening section of The Waste Land and Nabokov’s democratic riposte. Any alternative language solution is left to the reader. •

Chapter 17 raises the question as to whether word games can ever enter into profound meaning. It is suggested that Nabokov had a serious intent in view in addition to replying to his critics, namely, to launch a contemporary attack on the Cartesian position on language and to put the case against automated translation. Chomsky’s Universal Grammar and the more relativistic position of Steiner are reviewed. The recognition — xxiv —

---------------------------------------------------------------------  Introduction ---------------------------------------------------------------------

that feral children are unable to develop communicative skills without early exposure to normal discourse suggests that environmental language programming is highly dependent on organisational nerve growth factors in developing children. The case is put forth that the early strong exposure to classical education authorised by most European schools until recent times ensures that the Virgilian is likely to outgun the Virginian in the chance understanding of classical riddles.  Nabokov’s indirect and hidden technique at a textual level is reviewed, together with his important assertion that meaningful associations are often only achieved in a given language. The context of language as ambiguity or in the limiting position of secrecy for reasons of survival and its recalcitrance to solution by advanced universal grammars is suggested by the context of Pale Fire. Many of the conditions for secrecy and survival lie under dictatorial regimes and in the more human condition of adultery. A detective story, on the other hand, has a clear logical solution, notwithstanding that a number of evolving logical solutions are present until the denouément of the last line. Thus a parody involving close textual analyses and most of the data bank until the final line consisting primarily of hidden and false positive information becomes a useful test case for automated translation. But above all, Nabokov’s detestation of Eliot’s philosophical position is revealed. At this point, one must read Pale Fire.

— xxv —

--------------------------------   Lingua Franca and Topsy-turvical Coincidence --------------------------------

I Lingua Franca and Topsy-turvical Coincidence

“Some law of logic should fix the number of coincidences in a given domain, after which they cease to be coincidences, and form, instead, the living organism of a new truth.” (Nabokov, Ador or Ardor)1

Jakob Gradus, calling himself Jack Degree, Jacques de Grey, or James de Gray and also appearing in police records as Ravus, Ravenstone, and d’Argus, contends that the real origin of his name should be sought in the Russian word for grape, vinograd, to which a Latin suffix had adhered, making it Vinogradus. After the death of his father, his mother moved to Strasbourg, where she soon died, too. Another Gradus, an Alsatian merchant, who oddly enough was totally unrelated to our killer but had been a close business friend of his kinsman for years, adopted the boy and raised him with his own children. (Commentary to line 17)

There are linguistic associations with these pseudonyms. There is the clear instance of Latin in the standard fourth declension example, gradus (a step), and in the further adjective ravus (greyish, tawny), but also of French in the similar-sounding degré (a degree or step), which is semantically equivalent to both Latin words. D’Argus is an obvious anagram and refers to a class of butterfly. Distinct from these four related pseudonyms is the English word, “Ravenstone.” If we consider a linguistic alternative, the French corbeau and corneille mean “raven” and “crow,” respectively, and “Pierre Corneille” is a close literal and literary French 1.

VN, Ada or Ardor (New York: Vintage International, 1990), p361. — 5 —

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association. There is the further suggestion (but by Gradus himself) of Russian, and there is the weaker possibility of historic German in the Alsatian connection. If anything is to be gained from pursuit of such associations, we might proceed with consideration of Pierre Corneille and the word gradus and its equivalent French word degré. In the commentary on the opening lines (1-4) we are introduced to the waxwing slain, Bombycilla shadei. The Latin bombyx is a silkworm or silk, with ala, a wing; but Sylla = Sulla is a name in the family of the gens Cornelia with a weak possible associative reference to Pierre Corneille. The Commentary line at 17, which is also, unusually, conjoined with 29, reads: Line 17: And then the gradualLine 29: gray

The earlier line is completed by the fragment “and dual blue.” The Latin word for blue is caeruleus, but the more specific term for blue-grey is the adjective glaucus. One direct specific association is with the myth of Glaucus and Scylla, which is reviewed later (chapter 12). Yet Glaucus can have many lives.2 Do these two loose connections signify a coincidence towards a living organism, or do these fragments merely reflect the pluralism of language and the ease of loose associations? Why should the Cornellian Nabokov indicate a possible interest in the Cornelian playwright in apparently Latin and French? Pierre Corneille, the great exponent of dialectical debates and intrigues, has plays which overlap with hidden identities and alter-egos (Heraclius), assassination (Othon, Heraclius), and court intrigues which reflect and mirror the curious contemporary 2

Amongst the various Glauci, one may cite: 1) Glaucus Pontius, the Euboean Merman, once a fisherman who was transformed by certain magical herbs into a sea god complete with a fish’s tail and who fell in love with Scylla (see Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.904). He was endowed with the gift of unerring prophecy and the gift is discussed in chapter 12. 2) Glaucus Potneius, son of Sisyphus by Merope and father of Bellerophon. His own mares tore him to pieces (Virgil, Georgics 3.267). 3) Glaucus, the son of Minos and Pasiphae, who drowned in a jar of honey and was miraculously restored. The Horatian Glaucus based on a tale of the Aeneid who exchanged his golden armour with an adversary for one of bronze on the basis of their fathers’ friendship is also discussed in chapter 12. — 6 —

--------------------------------   Lingua Franca and Topsy-turvical Coincidence --------------------------------

affairs of the country of Zembla. It may not be sillier, therefore, to consider the work of Pierre Corneille. We begin by examining Corneille’s Trois discours sur le poème dramatique,3 published in 1660. The determinant cause of the Normandy lawyer’s publication was to reply to the charge that he was not obeying the classical rules of theatre in his plays as laid down in Aristotle’s Poetics, a charge made by the Abbé d’Aubignac in his La pratique du théâtre4 (1657). In the first discourse, covering the utility of parts of the dramatic poem, Corneille questions initially the purpose of the dramatic poem: is it to please or to educate? He concludes that there is only one purpose, which is moral. But in Nabokov’s Pale Fire, morality is not a notable feature of the work, and we are baffled by an assassination, the complex of double characters, and a missing final line. Is the work a tragedy, a detective story, a curious literary satire, or a combination of all three? We come closer to Nabokov on page 55, where Corneille questions the clear categories that Aristotle uses to define characters (les moeurs) in his Poetics. To offset the charges of theatrical malpractice of contravening the classical codes, Corneille considers variabilities in interpretation and, in particular, the difficulties in the interpretation and understanding of language itself in the translation of Aristotle. Corneille commences carefully by considering those who would like to examine the manner in which Horace5 describes la colère of Achilles and considers the interpretations of several commentators. He cites a passage of Aristotle,6 which he tasks himself with explaining: La poesie, dit-il, est un imitation de gens meilleurs qu’ils n’ont été, and comme les peintres font souvent des portraits flattés, qui sont plus beaux que l’original et conserve toutefois la ressemblance, ainsi les pöetes, representant des hommes colères ou fainéants, doivent tirer une haute idée de ces qualités qu’ils leur attribuent, en sorte qu’il s’y trouve un bel 3 4 5

6

PC 1, “Discours de l’utilité et des parties du poème dramatique”, 55-56. Ad’A 2.9.139-140. Horace, Epistles to the Pisos, lines 119-123. In Ars Poetica, Loeb ed. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991). AP 15.1454b.8-14. — 7 —

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exemplaire d’équité ou de dureté; et c’est ainsi qu’ Homère a fait Achille bon. Ce dernier mot est à remarquer, pour faire voir qu’ Homère a donné aux emportements de la colère d’Achille cette bonté necessaire aux moeurs, que je fais consister en cette élévation de leur caractère, et dont Robortel parle.7 Unumquodque genus per se supremos quosdam habet decoris gradus, et absolutissimam recipit formam, non tamen degenerans a sua natura et effigie pristina (Chaque genre possède par lui-même certain degrés suprêmes de beauté, et il admet une forme absolument parfaite, sans dégénérer cependant de sa nature et de sa figure primitive). Ce texte d’Aristote que je viens de citer peut faire de la peine, en ce qu’ils porte que les moeurs des hommes colères ou fainéants doivent être peintes dans un tel degré d’excellence, qu’il s’y rencontre un haut examplaire équité ou de dureté. Il y a du rapport de la dureté à la colère; et c’est ce qu’attribue Horace à celle d’ Achille en ce vers: …Iracundus, inexorabilis, acer8 (carried away, inexorable, violent). Mis il n’y en a point de l’équité à la fainéantise, et je ne puis voir quelle part elle peut avoir en son caractère. C’est ce qui me fait douter si le mot grec raqumous a été rendu dans le sens d’Aristote per les interprètes Latins que j’ai suivis. Pacius9 le tourne desides; Victorius,10 inertes; Heinsius,11 segnes; et le mot de fainéants, dont je me suis servi pour le mettre en notre langue, répond assez à ces trois versions; mais Castelvetro12 le rend en la sienne par celui de mansueti, “débonnaires ou pleins de mansuétude”; et non-seulement ce mot a une opposition plus juste à celui de colères, mais aussi il s’accorderoit 7 8 9

10 11

12

The Italian, Robertello, editor and commentator of the Poétique (1548). AP 15.1454b. 121. Pacius is also an editor of the Poetique (1536), but the name cited by Corneille is in an edition brought out by Paccius (1597) and translated into French (1619). Victorius is the Latinised name of the Italian Vettori, editor of the Poétique (1564). Heinsius (Daniel Heins), a Dutch scholar. He was an author of De tragaediae constitutione liber quo inter caetera tota de hac Aristotelis sententia dilucide explicatur (1611). Castelvetro, of Italian origin, had published an edition of the Poétique with Commentary which was authorised in France. Castalvetro had translated from the Italian, whereas Paccius, Vettori, and Heinsius had translated it from the Latin. — 8 —

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mieux avec cette habitude qu’Aristote appelle epieiceian, dont il nous demande un bel examplaire. Ces trois interprètes traduisent ce mot Grec par celui d’equité ou de probité, qui répondrait mieux au mansueti de l’Italien qu’à leurs segnes, desides, inertes, pourvu qu’on n’entendît par là qu’une bonté naturelle, qui ne se fâche que malaisément: mais j’aimerais mieux encore celui de piacevolezza, dont l’autre se sert pour l’exprimer en sa langue; et je crois que pour lui laisser sa force en la nôtre, on le pourrait tourner par celui de condescendance, ou facilité équitable d’approuver, excuser, et supporter tout ce qui arrive.

Exact translation is a central tenet of “the gaunt, graceless literalist,”13 Nabokov. This is exemplified by the following poem,14 by the metre and rhyme sequence of the Eugene Onegin stanza (discussed by Nabokov, cited below), and by Nabokov’s reply to critic of his translation of Pushkin’s “novel in verse,” which was published as a fourvolume edition, written over a period which encompasses that of Pale Fire (1962): What is translation? On a platter A poet’s pale and glaring head A parrot’s screech, a monkey’s chatter, And profanation of the dead The parasites you were so hard on Are pardoned if I have your pardon, O Pushkin, for my stratagem. I travelled down your secret stem, And reached the root, and fed upon it; Then, in a language newly learned, I grew another stalk and turned Your stanza, patterned on a sonnet, Into my honest roadside prose— 13 14

VN, Encounter 26, no. 2 (1966): 80-89. VN, New Yorker, January 8, 1955; also reprinted in VN’s four-volume translation of EO (London: Routledge, Kegan, Paul 1962) in vol. 1, Introduction and Translation, p. 9. The poem is an example of the Eugene Onegin stanza, which, as a distinct form, VN claims is Pushkin’s invention. It contains 118 syllables and consists of fourteen lines in iambic tetrameter, with a regular scheme of feminine and masculine rhymes: ababeeccidiff. — 9 —

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All thorn, but cousin to your rose. Reflected words can only shiver Like elongated lights that twist In the black mirror of a river Between the city and the mist. Elusive Pushkin! Persevering, I still pick your damsel’s earring, Still travel with your sullen rake; I find another man’s mistake; I analyze alliterations That grace your feasts and haunt the great Fourth stanza of your Canto Eight. This is my task: a poet’s patience And scholiastic passion blent— The shadow of your monument. “…The sequence itself, ababeecciddiff, as a chance combination of rhymes, crops up here and there in the course of the rambling, unstanzaed, freely rhymed verse that French poets used for frivolous narrative and badinage in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.”

Nabokov goes on to refer to La Fontaine’s Contes:15 Judging by the numerous [reviews] that did reach me, one might conclude that trying to translate an author literally represents an approach entirely devised by me; that it had never been heard of before; and that there was something offensive and even sinister about such an undertaking. Promoters and producers of what Anthony Burgess16 calls “arty translations,” carefully rhymed, pleasantly modulated versions containing say, eighteen per cent of sense, plus thirty two of nonsense and fifty of neutral padding, are I think more prudent than they realise. While ostensibly tempted by impossible dreams, they are subliminally impelled by a kind of self-preservation. The ‘arty translation’ protects them by concealing and camouflaging ignorance or incomplete information or the fuzzy 15 16

La Fontaine, Contes, bk. 3 (Paris, 1671). Anthony Burgess, Encounter 5, no. 14 (1965): 74-78. — 10 —

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edge of limited knowledge. Stark literalism, on the other hand, would expose their fragile frame to unknown and incalculable perils. It is quite natural, then, that the solidly unionised professional paraphrast, experiences a surge of dull hatred and fear, and in some cases real panic, when confronted with the possibility that a shift in fashion, or the influence of an adventurous publishing house, may suddenly remove from his head the cryptic rose-bush he carries or the maculated shield erected between him and the spectre of inexorable knowledge…. Bloodhounds await the gaunt, graceless literalist groping around in despair for the obscure word that would satisfy impassioned fidelity.

The coincidence of Gradus, Ravus, Degré, and Pierre Corneille in the pseudonyms of our killer can have an association, therefore, in the context of literal translation. The possibilities in the meaning of this, we explore in this text. Are we to play a series of word games and examine contextual relations to understand some of the intricacies of the interplay between Kinbote’s Commentary and Shade’s poem? In view of Corneille’s difficulties with the interpretation of la colère, it is clear that linguistic associations must be of a high order to have any possible weight and that there is a need for what we may call terra firma in basing such associations. To narrow the field of enquiry, it is useful to attempt to define the geographical settings of the main actions in the New and Old Worlds—the town of Exton and the capital of Zembla, Onhava, as indicated in the Foreword and Commentary—to introduce some bearings on the languages spoken by the characters in the text in so far as they can be separated from fantasy. These indicators are widely scattered in the text. The town of Exton in Appalachia, associated with New Wye, is some four hundred miles from New York (949) “and this at the latitude of Palermo” (Foreword). “He [Shade] never tired of illustrating by means of these examples, the extraordinary blend of Canadian Zone and Austral Zone that ‘obtained’ as he put it, in that particular spot of Appalachia where at our altitude of 1,500 feet northern species of birds, insects and plants commingled with southern representatives” (238). A precise intersection of latitude and distance consistent with altitude gives the — 11 —

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town of Charleston, West Virginia. Literally, X stands for Charles, and there is an obvious reflection in the Old World in the identity of Charles X. Kingbot, Esq., Charles the Beloved, now possibly in the form of Charles Kinbote. This is apart from the localised reflection of Professor Botkin,17 an American scholar of Russian descent. The location is consistent with the Toothwort White butterfly, or West Virginia White (Pieris Artogeia virginiensis), the woodland butterfly: 316 The Toothwort White haunted our woods in May

Shade’s line accurately reflects the timing of the butterfly’s appearance: the adult butterfly lives for only two weeks in late April and early May.18 A realistic identification of Charleston is encouraging for identification of locations in the Old World. The capital of Zembla, Onhava, despite several northern associations of the country with its long peninsula, has more southerly European bearings. The boyhood reflections of Kinbote—“Who can forget the good-natured faces, glossy with sweat, of copper-chested railway workers leaning upon their spades and following with their eyes the windows of the great express cautiously gliding by”—are found in the line Index (162) as “boyhood and the Orient Express recalled.” There is some suggestion that the crown jewels (including necklace and sceptre [681]) were later stored in a station locker at Onhava or in a potaynik (Index) “in a quite different corner of Zembla,” to the amusement of Queen Disa (433-34). In 1876, there was an extraordinary episode at Onhava University (347), which is, however, unspecified. “Would he [Gradus] have crept, pistol in hand, to where a sun-bathing giant [presumably Charles X] lay spread eagled,

17

18

Vasily Petrovich Botkin (1811-1869) was a writer critic and translator playing a significant role in the Russian literature of his time. An essay entitled “Literature and Theatre in England before Shakespeare” was published as a foreword to the third volume of the Collected Works of William Shakespeare, which contained Andrey Kroneberg’s 1844 translation of Hamlet into Russian. The publication year was 1888, a year that repeatedly comes up in Kinbote’s notes (PM, p. 115). A more direct romantic association with the theatre and this year is examined in chapter 8. BBPF, p. 135n6. — 12 —

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a spread eagle of hair on his chest?” (697). Taken in relation to the positions of Vienna and Rome (130), and, at court, the new boy pages— “a whole mountain of gift boys from Troth and Tuscany and Albanoland” (80)—a possible close association is Maribor, Slovenia, formerly the German city, Marburg, provincial capital of Southern Styria under the administration of the old Hapsburg empire in the nineteenth century. If we extend the geography to include the relation between Pnin and Pale Fire, where Victor’s imaginary father is King with a capital “at the heart of a cross whose arms terminated in Trieste, Graz, Budapest and Zagreb,” the siting is confirmed. There are obvious political reflections in these Germanic associations. The position of Marburg in the nineteenth century may be examined. The province of Styria had a German majority and was exclusively German in its northern province. In the south, the market towns were German in a Slovene countryside, but migration from the countryside had gradually increased the town population, which was becoming increasingly Slovene. A decisive dispute over the Austrian administration arose over the cultural needs of the latter population which demanded that education in the state grammar schools should be in Slovene as well as German. This demand was persistently refused by the Styrian Diet, but in 1888, Slovene classes were established in the grammar school at Maribor, the capital of Southern Styria. While the strength of the German majority could be upheld in Marburg, the continued demands of Slovene education in smaller towns could not and a crisis arose over the town of Celje where, once Slovene culture was established, the German culture would be lost. Similar battles were being fought in endless villages and small towns in Bohemia by the rival school unions of Czechs and Germans. The question of Celje dominated Austrian politics throughout 1894. The granting of Slovene education to Celje in June 1895 led to withdrawal of the Germans from the parliamentary coalition and ended the last attempt at constitutional government. Henceforth Austria was ruled by Imperial agents.19

19

TAJP, p. 171, abridged. — 13 —

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Marburg (Maribor), general view, Styria, Austro-Hunbary – 1890

Pan-Slavic nationalism in the Balkans had been checked in 1876 by the Turkish defeat of Serbia and as the Austrian Prime Minister, Andrássy noted “If it were not for Turkey, all these [nationalistic] inspirations would fall down on our heads…” As Russia was determined to impose reform on Turkey and war was inevitable, the Zakupy or Reichstadt agreement of 1876 was reached which allowed AustriaHungary to establish her hegemony over Serbia and the Western Balkans down to Salonika. This policy relied on the conservatism of the Tsar. A more ambitious partitioning would have saddled the empire with Slavs unmanageable after their long resistance to Turkish oppression.20 The Commentary of Charles Kinbote (“a pompous womanhater with a german accent” [Foreword]) has been noted as being “almost all absurdities of either misinformation or wholly unnecessary information,” but support for Marburg as a reflection of the fantasy world of Onhava can be found in three linguistic associations in early notes. 20

TAJP, p. 151. — 14 —

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Consider the comments to lines 12, 34-35, and 109: a) (12) that crystal land “Perhaps an allusion to Zembla, my dear country.” and (34-35) Stilettos of frozen stillicide, “trophies of the eaves” (40). The origin of “stillicide” is in the Latin word stillicidium—“rain water falling from the eaves of houses.” The Latin word for an “icicle,” the stiletto of a frozen stillicide, is Stiria. The frozen stillicide gives the associated “crystal land” its eponymous name. As Kinbote points out, “the mechanism of the associations is easy to work out (glass leading to crystal and crystal to ice).” b) (109) This comment addresses the iridule, a word suggested by Kinbote to be constructed by John Shade. Iridescence can pertain to the iris or be associated with the reflections of a feather. The Latin for feather is pinna, and a small feather is a pinnula. The closest meaning that could be assigned to iridule might be, therefore, a small iris or ringlet. Consider also lines 107-108: 107 Mauve rings around the moon; blood orange sun: 108 Twinned Iris; and that rare phenomenon The iridule

These lines, from the childood reflections of John Shade, can pertain to the inner ring of twinned ocellated spots of a butterfly’s wing. Twinned small ocellated spots are associated with the ringlet family of the Satyrids. The butterfly of this class most associated with the description “The male possessing a dull red band on forewing enclosing a double eye-spot” (small twin white pupilled eye-spots with mauve or black surroundings) is the Styrian ringlet.21 We may conclude that the childhood of John Shade has associations with Styria, and thus, with Onhava. Such a hypothesis resolves the curious difficulty that the key to the clockwork toy of John Shade comprising a little negro and a wheelbarrow, all bent and broken 21

BBE, p. 106. Erebia styria, the Styrian ringlet, not to be confused with Erebia styx, the Stygian ringlet, which has three white-pupilled spots, two of them double in the reddish band. (See also chapters 6 and 7 for other members of the ringlet family.) — 15 —

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in the basement of his house, was taken by Kinbote from a closet room of the royal palace at Onhava (143). There is consistent liguistic reference within 109, contained in Kinbote’s remark on the “peacock-herl.” “He [Shade] has written above it [iridule] in the fair copy (card 9, Jul 4) in pencil ‘peacock-herl.’ The peacock herl is the body of a certain sort of artificial fly also called ‘alder’.” The common German association is erle, the alder tree. c) (49) shagbark

The complete line reads: 49 I had a favourite young shagbark there

The shagbark, a species of hickory, like the walnut, is a member of the tree family Juglandaceae. Youthful, in German, is jugendlich. The associative origin of Jug in the tree family is considered to be the Russian Jugo (OED), meaning “south,” and not the Latin iugosus (mountainous). The southern Slavic land, Jugoslavia, is consistent with the position of Stiria. Iugo, we also note for later (Chapter 12), can also mean in Latin, “with the bond of love.” Further support for the reflection of Marburg in the royal capital of Onhava is given by the extraordinary episode at Onhava University in 1876 (347), which can be associated with the check on Slav nationalism and the resultant hegemony of Austro-Hungary and its German tongue over its multi-lingual neighbours. Finally, if we look at that extraordinary sonnet (962—Help me, Will, Pale Fire) to which we are referred in the note (39-40), composed by the pioneering Conmal in “not quite correct English,” beginning I am not slave! Let be my critic slave

the possibility is that translating from his preferred second language, French, Je ne puis pas Slave was wrongly translated but referred to the Slavic majority. Conmal’s heroic struggles with English, if not his competence, endured to his delirious last words (962): “Comment dit-on ‘mourir’ en anglais?” — 16 —

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Significant support is given by German linguistic association in early notes. “I could make out” (42) appears to refer to the ability to see the See and the contemporary change “to look different”: 41 I cannot understand why from the lake 42 I could make out our front porch when I’d take 43 Lake Road to school, whilst now , although no tree 44 Has intervened, I look but fail to see 45 Even the roof.

But the German veranda (a term of Hindu origin) is very close to verändern, “to change,” and “the front porch from the lake” to verandert aussehen, literally, “to look different.” This theme may be pursued in lines 86-90 and 94-95 in the comment on Aunt Maud: 86 I was brought up by dear bizarre Aunt Maud 87 A poet and a painter with a taste 88 For realistic objects interlaced 89 With grotesque growths and images of doom. 90 She lived to hear the next babe cry. Her room 91 We’ve kept intact..... 94 The verse book open at the index (Moon, 95 Moonrise, Moor, Moral )

The approaching indicial word appears to be the phonetic morda(u)nt, an ironic witticism shadowing the political assassination, mord, or, as in Königsmord, a regicide. There are harbingers, therefore, that the aristocracy and administration of Zembla in the Old World are essentially German surrounded by a Slavic world and there is a political reflection in the real world. We may, therefore, expect 812 Some kind of link-and-bobolink, some kind 813 Of correlated pattern in the game

Classificatory nouns offer further restriction to wide translation. An examination of the avian world supports linguistic textual — 17 —

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  I ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

associations. John Shade’s parents, Samuel and Caroline Shade, are cited as ornithologists (72), and the son’s poetical avian settings are consistent with the birds’ associated Latin names. The “gauzy” mockingbird on his childhood home (63) is of the family Mimidae,22 either the mockingbird itself, Mimus polyglottos, or, more preferably in relation to the adjective, the grey eponymous catbird Dumetella carolinensis. The consistency is carried over to their daughter, Hazel, in the ironic lines: 318 Alas, the dingy cygnet never turned 319 Into a wood duck. And, again your voice

The family of tree ducks, Dendrocygninae, is suggested by line 318. The wood duck, Aix sponsa, with the feminine past participle of spondere (to be betrothed), yields sponsa, literally, “a bride.” The failure of the unprepossessing Hazel Shade to turn into a wood duck reflects her sad disadvantages. Within line 319 there is the usual exemplification of Kinbote’s inability to see the wood for the tree, but the guide to Latin is exemplified in Kinbote’s pompous note, “Incidentally, the popular nomenclature of American animals reflects the simple utilitarian minds of ignorant pioneers and has not yet acquired the patina of European faunal names.” As an aside on this note for the numerical word “analyst,” there is a colourful carnelian or cornelian reference. Again, the bobolink itself in line 812, the american reed- or ricebird, Dolichonyx oryzyvorus—the rice devouring longhead—is also associated in the lines: 713 The reed becomes a bird, the knobby twig 714 An inchworm

suggesting the Latin harundo or arundo, “a reed,” but a word which can also mean, “limed twigs for catching birds,” or even “a pen” or “the shaft of an arrow” or “the arrow itself” and, we also note, “a weaver’s comb.” Is this the harbinger of “some correlated pattern in the 22

BNA, mimidae: pp. 226-229; dendrocygninae: p. 50. — 18 —

--------------------------------   Lingua Franca and Topsy-turvical Coincidence --------------------------------

game” for John Shade? We have commented earlier on the waxwing bombycilla, where the Bombyx (silkworm) is reflected in the Zemblan sampel (silktail).23 We have focussed here on “the zoological, geographical and cultural details that he [VN] has sensed hung together and now helped form Kinbote’s Zembla.”24 Literal translation and the shadowy presence of Latin, French, and German can provide the initial textual patina within the “correlated pattern.” Apart from the avian references, we have, however, still only partially covered the first hundred lines of Canto One. Kinbote has observed that John Shade obviously worked at Canto One with a greater degree of creative freedom than he enjoyed afterwards (42), but that “he [John Shade] has given the royal fugitive a refuge in the vaults of the variants he has preserved; for in his draft as many as thirteen verses, superb singing verses (given by me in notes to lines 70, 79, and 130, all in Canto One).” Our attention is also drawn by Kinbote to the last third of the text of Canto Four (lines 949-999), supplied by a Corrected Draft and examined later in chapter 15: “This is extremely rough in appearance, teeming with devastating erasures and cataclysmic insertions, and does not follow the lines of the card as rigidly as the Fair Copy does” (Foreword). Accepting that the textual references themselves have Kinbotean accuracy, we have initially focussed on the initial area of the poem and Commentary. Are there more significant influences of language present elsewhere, to provide a more complete perspective to the poem and Commentary?

23

24

The German for a waxwing, Seidenschwanz, is literally “a silktail”; the close French equivalent is un éventail de soie. The latter, in turn, appears the Shadean inspiration for the opening lines (1-4) following two personal poems of Mallarmé addressed to his wife and daughter. These are examined in chapter 10. Another association of Mallarmé with these opening lines has been proposed (BBPF, 282n5). BBAY, 419n69. Letter to B. B. Walter Minton, The American Years (London: Vintage, 1993). — 19 —

-----------------------------------------  In Search of Horace and a Web of Sense -----------------------------------------

II In Search of Horace and a Web of Sense

 Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur (Horace, Satires 1.1.69) The “certain phenomena” that Hazel Shade observed in October 1956 in an old barn of German ownership (347) were produced by observations of a roundlet of light, possibly the outcome of electrostatic phenomena from a thunderstorm. When Hazel attempted to communicate with this roundlet for her psychology paper on “Autoneurynological Patterns among American university students,” the roundlet of light responded to alphabetical suggestions either with a form of extravagant brio or by going limp like a tired child, enabling Hazel to produce a collection of simple letter groups. Hazel recorded that she was obliged to recite the alphabet eighty times to produce a line of three- and four-letter words: pada ata lane pad not ogo old wart alan ther tale feur far rant lant tal told

Hazel responded with quite high efficiency as, with intervals, 77 letters and spaces are recorded, but in the ghost’s final retirement we anticipate a further final space, giving a total of 78 spaces and letters, particularly if the ghost had placed his message in a regular cyclic letter interval. Thus a space between the words “told” and “pada” might be envisaged as if on a clock face. It must also be concluded, however, that within the clock face two Nabokovian jokers are present adding to our difficulties. The numerical pattern of the letter groups are: 43433334444434434 — 21 —

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------   II -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

which suggests that if the code has a regular letter interval for each three- or four-letter word within an eighty-space cycle, we should look for a pattern involving intervals of between 26 and 20 for a possible solution. The roundlet of light, however, proved to be easily tired and after a word or two constantly returned to a small chink in the barn. For a sequence, therefore, continuity in the letter interval for any length beyond one or two words is not expected. Further, there is oversimplification here, for if a joker is attached to produce a fiveletter word within an eighty-letter sequence, the extent of our potential pattern should be stretched from 26 to 16. The case for two jokers in a six-letter word will be ignored. We are not certain of our ground rules at this stage, but the initial number of letters within each eighty-letter sequence counting cyclically from the first letter may be summarized for the letter intervals 20 – 26: Letter Interval 26 4 3 3 3 3 3 ... (i.e., 1, 27, 53, 79 (4); 25, 51, 77 (3); 23, 49, 75 (3), 21, 47, 73 (3);…etc.) 25 4 3 3 3 3 4 3 3 3 3 … 24 4 3 3 4 3 3 4 3 3 4 3 3 … 23 4 3 4 3 4 3 4 3 4 3 … 22 4 4 3 4 4 3 4 4 3 4 4 4 4 3 … 21 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 4 … 20 4 …

Using a twenty-five-letter interval produces a numerical pattern closely fitting the word length from “lane” to “wart” (4 3 3 3 3 4). The sequence involving the 20 interval is repetitive and may be a useful interval for the addition of four letters without affecting sequence. To consider this twenty-five-letter interval and to move swiftly, consider a joker at position 9, giving the word atae, suggestive of the Latin first declension. The second joker will be reserved as the possibilities develop. The latter’s initial position will be hypothesised between positions 64 and 75 and is outlined for uncertainty. An X occupies a possible position of the second joker within its area of uncertainty. The seventeen intervals offer further constraints on the positioning of the jokers. The twenty-five-letter interval yields: — 22 —

-----------------------------------------  In Search of Horace and a Web of Sense ----------------------------------------1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

p

a

d

a

.

a

t

a

e

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l

a

n

e

.

p

a

d

. 19

n

o

t

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o

g

o

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o

l

d

.

w

a

r

t

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a

l

a

n

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t

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(3) e 44

r

.

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f

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f

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l

a

n

t 69

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t

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l

x

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t

o

l

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p

a

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a

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a

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l

a

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e 14

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p

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n

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l

d

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w

a

r

t

.

a

l

(3) a 39

n

.

t

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f

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(3) r34

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f

e

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f

a

r 59

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r

a

n

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l

a

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t

a

l

x

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d

.

p

a

d

a4

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a

t

a

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l

a

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p

a

d

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n

o

t

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o

g

o

.

o

l 29

d

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w

a

r

t

64

.

a

l

a

n

.

t

h

e

r

.

t

a

l

e

.

f

e

(4) u 54

r

.

f

a

r

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r

a

n

t

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l

a

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t

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t

a

l

x

.

t

o

l

d 79

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p

a

d

a

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a

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a

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l

a

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p

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n

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l

d

п

Starting at position 19, the column is seen to contain et ea terra ludo

suggesting that a Nabokovian ghost, itself, is playing with this land and that the language of Latin is the key to the ghost’s interplay. One might also conclude that the e in position 9 was initially omitted to prevent the suggestion of a Latin stem, and the word “terra” supports its position. If this hypothesis is correct and the word et does contribute to the line, then the second joker should lie between positions 70 and 75. Further, if we look at the patterns with the 22 interval and commence from the beginning, the word tela, meaning “a web,” is evident, while the neuter plural of telum can also mean “darts” or “daggers.” 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

p

a

d

a

.

a

t

a

e

.

l

a

n

e

.

p

a

d

.

n

o

t22

.

o

g

o

.

o

l

d

.

w

a

r

t

.

a

l

a

n

.

t

h

e44

r

.

t

a

l

e

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f

e

u

r

.

f

a

r

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r

a

n

t

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l66

a

n

t

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x

t

a

l

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t

o

l

d

.

p

a

d

a

.

a

t

a8

— 23 —

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------   II -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here, the opening sequence interval of four letters is reduced to a simple cyclical letter count. Lines towards the end of Canto Three are given added significance— But all at once it dawned on me that this Was the real point, the contrapuntal theme; Just this: not text, but texture; not the dream But topsy-turvical coincidence, Not flimsy nonsense but a web of sense. (806-810)

The “web of sense” is also supported by the immediate further reference (347-348): “She twisted words.” As examples of Hazel’s disposition, Kinbote cites her description of T.S. Eliot as “toilest” and of a spider as “redips.” If any higher-joint association can be made with Eliot and a spider, Eliot reverses to the French toile and becomes in toile d’araignée, a spider’s web. Prior to the barn incident, others1 have cited Hazel’s literal queries to the reading of Eliot’s Quartets. An important parody of part 2 of The Waste Land may also be cited.2 A 1

2

Hazel Shade’s enquiries into three words (see Canto Two, 368-374), “grimpen” (“East Coker” [1936], 2.93), “chthonic” (“Dry Salvages” [1941], 5.225), “sempiternal” (“Little Gidding” [1942], 2.2), coming from what John Shade describes as “some phony modern poem,” was early recognized to be associated with T.S. Eliot’s The Four Quartets (see P. Lubin, Kickshaws and Motley (1970), 205n7, and BBPF, 109n4 et al). The fourth poem completing the Quartet is “Burnt Coker” (1936). Eliot, Collected Poems (Faber, 1963). Eliot begins Part 2 of The Waste Land, A Game of Chess, with a woman’s self-absorption in her own beauty and the unguent supports of the dressing table as parodied by Pope in The Rape of the Lock. But the poem soon turns to man’s rapacious desire for such beauty exemplified in the darker shades and fate of Philomela from the enraged Tereus (see chapter 9). Eliot’s hopes for contemporary man are generally regarded as rather passive and cynical, observed by the banal fate of humanity in the second half of this section. “She’s had five already and nearly died of young George.” There is also Eliot’s condescending vernacular with the lady’s ill use of contraceptives—“It’s them pills I took to bring it off, she said.” VN’s parody of Part 2 of Eliot (BBPF, 195-200) shows Hazel’s parents watching the contemporary toiletry aids to beauty in the form of a television advertisement while their beloved ugly duckling, Hazel Shade, is drowning in the icy swamp at Lochan Neck. At the same time, the vision of a nymph kneeling in the wood forewarns of the fate of Philomela (see chapter 10). Shade retires but goes on to quote Pope’s condemnation of the age when he is called by the identifiable Carolingian sub-species: — 24 —

-----------------------------------------  In Search of Horace and a Web of Sense -----------------------------------------

major parody of Part V of this poem is considered in chapters 9, 10, and 11. It will be helpful at this early stage to bear in mind the literal Nabokov soubriquet for a “backward-looking” Eliot. The position is encouraging and we consider the opening using the presumed rules of the sprite. If we relax the constraints to consider simple letter intervals over sequence lengths dictated by the size of the given words only (as exemplified in tela), we may attempt to construct Latin messages using the possible range of 16 to 26 intervals. Starting with tela, a possible message can be detected. The letter positions are indicated, the intervals bracketed, and the length of the interval sequence—dictated by one or two words in length—is also given. († indicates the additional joker producing the four letters of atae): (22) 4

(21) 4†

(23) 4

(20) 3

22

44

66

8

29

50

71

12

35

58

1

24

44

64

4

t

e

l

a

l

e

t

a

t

a

p

o

e

t

a

tela letata poeta

“With a web, a slain poet and with this land I play” is true to the context of the poem—but there are difficulties in linking the playful ghost, as the positions of the letters in the latter phrase show: (25)3

(25) 3

(25) 3

(25) 4

44

69

14

39

64

9

34

59

4

29

54

79

24

e

t

e

a

t

e

r

r

a

l

u

d

o

(Here, with the relaxed constraints, we have moved the regular interval sequence one letter forward from that given on page 13). Ludo may, of course, be directly linked to poeta, bearing in mind the brevity of continuous signal, but the full sequences can be linked through the Latin exclamation 24O (oh). The linkage, however, produces a five-letter

Has unmistakably the vulgar ring 419 “See the blind beggar dance, the cripple sing,” Of its preposterous age.Then came your call My tender mocking bird, up from the hall. — 25 —

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------   II -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

sequence and the total fragment would have to move to a later part of the total sequence if the interval word lengths produced by Hazel are to be preserved. Further, the exact statement that “after a couple of words had been spelt out, the roundlet went limp like a tired child and finally crawled into a chink” suggests that the total twenty-five-interval sequence may be more fragmented. The position has a suggestion of uncertainty, but the sequence may certainly act as a guide to the choice of language. Is this opening, therefore, a trap of Nabokov’s ghost which also puts in jeopardy the choice of the first joker? If we look for an alternative and introduce a promising sequence from the 24 interval, with the choice of the second joker at position 66 in a five-letter fragment rlant, we obtain: (26) 3 18

d

44

(24) 4† 70

e

t

14

e

38

l

62

a

(24) 4 6

30

a

54

d

u

78

l

(22) 3 22

t

44

66

e

r†

8

a

“About an adulterous web.” This is clearly a more interesting start, as we are concerned about relationships: the relation of John Shade to Kinbote and King Charles, the position of Gradus alias Jacques Degré, in short, the brotherhood and sisterhood of possible descendants surrounding the Zemblan throne of King Alfin, or to use the ghost’s communicative tongue, the germanitas of Pale Fire. The introduction of a five-letter fragment, also, allows us to explore letter intervals down to 16. There is a penalty to pay in the last phrase, however, for having introduced the second joker at position 66, the t at position 71 in letata is no longer tenable. There is, further, the intriguing possibility of ter adultera: (22) 4 22

44

66†

t

e

r

(24) 3

(22) 3

8

30

54

78

22

44

66†

8

a

d

u

l

t

e

r

a

Ter adultera means “three times adulteress”—that is to say, a veritable huntress, a not very fleet-footed Atalanta. Is she associated with the red admirable, Vanessa “with a crimson band” (993), which is lurking — 26 —

-----------------------------------------  In Search of Horace and a Web of Sense -----------------------------------------

near the assassination? But this is heavily reliant on the joker at position 66. Are we to read anything into Kinbote’s unwitting remark, “There are always three nights in fairy tales,” referring to the third night that Hazel spent in the barn, this last time with her parents? Can the ter adulter(a) also lead to three knights and potential successors to the Zemblan throne, that is to say, a case not of die heligen drei, but of die unehelichen drei, or of “three illegitimates”? To provide a wider perspective, the possibilities may be briefly summarized: 1. Difficulties are increased in the clustering of letters employed giving correlated word fragments. Nine out of the total fourteen “merciful preponderance” of a’s are in the rotated final and initial sequence 58-16. There are clusters of five r’s (34, 45, 55, 59, 61, and six [66] with adultery) and of three (21, 24, 26) out of the four o’s. There is a further clustering of 4 d’s (79, 3, 16, 30). There are singleton letters G (25), W (32), H (43), U (54). The sequence of tela adultera is, however, unique and can only be constructed at the expense of the opening tela using a 22-sequence interval. Is the eight-letter 24-interval sequence elaadult to tempt us into an adulterous web at the expense of the more obvious 22-interval opening sequence? 2. a) The 25-interval fragment example shows that there are no spaces to be expected between words, but a full stop is not precluded. Position 19 is a potential full stop position if the 25-interval fragment guide has maximum utility. b) The introduction of the joker r at position 66 introduces the opening word en, “behold!” in place of et, giving: en ea terra ludo

In view of the possibility of an adulterous web, might this become neat, the present subjunctive of neo, in which “one may weave” errors? e neat erra...ta?

— 27 —

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------   II -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As we may have a mistress, era, possibly three (ter) relationships, and also an adulter or an adultera, the greatest textual guidance on the jokers must be deployed. 3. To use all or as many of the letters as possible in the 63-letter sequence, an aesthetic but not stated constraint, the parity beween odd and even numbers provides a slight bias. An odd interval will lead to parity in odd and even letters in a four-letter sequence, but an even interval will possess all odd or all even letters dependent on the initial starting letter. As we have commenced with an even interval in the sequences commencing with tela, it is probable that we shall switch to an odd interval for letter diversity at the commencement of the next four-letter sequence. This requires that the sequence involving four three-letter words will have an odd interval in one or three of the four words. The text must, however, be the primary guide, and there is no evidence for or against the minimalist approach. 4. The letter W being absent in the Latin tongue, its position in the word wart may either indicate a deliberate error to deter from trials with the Latin language or suggest that the tutor to the young Charles, Walter Campbell, born 1890 and K’s tutor, “an amiable gentlemen with a mellow and rich mind,” may be present and have had a more educative role in Onhava’s circles than that portrayed by introducing Lord Ronald’s Coronach3 (71). Walter Campbell left 3

A coronach is a lament for a deceased warrior. Sir Walter Scott’s ballad is found in Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. The alternative title of the ballad is Glenfinlas. Scott also wrote The Lady of the Lake, where MM traced Hazel Shade’s name to the opening line of Canto One: “In lone Glenartney’s hazel shade.” BBPF (p. 152) considers a further reference at lines 397-398 but importantly points out that The Lady of the Lake takes its name from Arthurian legend, where she “is a blurry supernatural figure” who in one of Malory’s accounts gives King Arthur the Sword that is the mark of his right to kingship. Scott was excited in the early 1790s by the discovery of the Sturm und Drang school of German poets, who wished to get away from neoclassical conventions, and was impressed with the supernatural balladry of Gottfried August Bürger (1747-1794; see D. H. Thomson, An Apology for Tales of Terror, online critical edition). Three stanzas of Lord Ronald’s lament may be cited:

‘Twas Moy, whom in Columba’s isle — 28 —

-----------------------------------------  In Search of Horace and a Web of Sense -----------------------------------------

Onhava in 1932 after ten years residence and his influence is subsequent to the primary problems of succession (71). It must be said that “A palace intrigue is a spectral spider that entangles you more nastily at every desperate jerk you try” (80). It is worthwhile to explore which characters born around 1890 or earlier might contribute to the illicit threads of the web. The possibilities on the male side are King Alfin, Walter Campbell, John Shade, Conmal, and Gusev (Duke of Rahl), while on the female side, we may consider Queen Blenda, the multifaceted Sylvia O’Donnell (née O’Connell), and Fleur, the Countess de Fyler. Walter cannot be constructed from the letter intervals (restricting the second joker to positions 65-75) without the joker W at position 66, but Wat, Flo, and Alf are directly accessible with intervals 16, 26, and 23, respectively. We eliminate any relationship between Queen Blenda and her half brother, Conmal, as at this stage we are inclined to leave incest to Nabokov’s next novel. There is one rightful succession at the centre of the web from the alliance of Alfin and Blenda, but it is the dalliances which are of concern. The



The seer’s prophetic spirit found As, with a minstrel’s fire the while He waked his harp’s harmonious sound. Full many a spell to him was known Which wand’ring spirits shrink to hear; And many a lay of potent tone, Was never meant for mortal ear. For there, ‘tis said in mystic mood, High converse with the dead they hold, And oft espy the fated shroud, That shall the future corpse enfold.

The case will be examined in chapters 4 and 5 that Hazel’s “autoneurynological patterns” arising from “high converse with the dead” are, in reality, coded by the ghostly form of a murdered King Alfin. Ironically, The Lady of the Lake is real, but the King is now supernatural. There is a later counterpoint in chapter 5 (see n.19) where Voltaire’s distaste of the supernatural and the use of deus ex machina follow the manners of French classical convention and the taste of the time. An example of these conventions is exemplified in chapter 5, n.15. But Voltaire did introduce the requisite ghosts of the murdered father in the Ériphyle and Sémiramis in his adaptations of the tale of Hamlet for the perceived sensibilities of the French theatre. — 29 —

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------   II -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

earlier peripheral descendants of the grandfather, Thurgus the Third, and his mistress, Iris Acht, as bloodlines to the Zemblan throne will, at present, be left unconsidered. But this is to anticipate. A case for the final sequence may be made, again suggesting Nabokov’s ghost: (25) 4

(25) 4

19

44

69

14

39

64

9†

*

e

n

e

a

t

e

behold!

With

this

(25) 4

34

59

4

29

54

79

17

35

53

r

r

a

l

u

d

a

t

e

land,

(24) 4

(18) 3

one

(23) 5

may

play

so

(20) 3

(25) 4

77

21

45

69

12

35

58

1

24

44

64

4

29

54

79

24

o

o

r

n

a

t

a

p

o

e

t

a

l

u

d

o

far : with a

distinguished

poet, I

play

Does this contain enough information? An intermediate sequence may begin from position 70: (20) 3

(24) 4

(24) 4

(22) 4

30

50

70

14

38

62

6

30

54

78

22

44

66†

d

e

t

e

l

a

a

d

u

l

t

e

r

on account of

an

adulterous

web

(23) 3

8

30

53

76

19

a

d

e

t

*

, one may cheat

And for the start, we may also consider the related sequence, conveniently linking through the twenty-letter interval and two sequences of ‘* 10 d30 e50 t70: (22)4 22

44

66†

t

e

r

24 (3)

22 (4)

8

30

54

78

22

a

d

u

l

t

three times,

an

adulterer

— 30 —

20 (3)

44

66†

8

30

50

70

10

e

r

a

d

e

t

*

comes

into

view

-----------------------------------------  In Search of Horace and a Web of Sense -----------------------------------------

The two full stops appear at regular intervals after sentences and are seen to arrive after approximately sixteen letters, giving one likely solution as

Ter adulter adet * De tela adultera det* En ea terra ludat eo Ornata poeta ludo There are 63 intervals, not counting the position of the first letter. There is reasonable but not perfect scansion in the lines of the poetic Latin ghost: —ÈÈ—ÈÈ— È—ÈÈ—ÈÈ— È—ÈÈ—ÈÈ— È—ÈÈ—ÈÈ— Thrice an adulterer comes into view About an adulterous web, one may cheat See! With this land one may play, Till now with a great poet, I muse

The quatrain is true to the potential context of Pale Fire—but there are uncertainties. The opening letter sequence of the first line is seen to commence with the interval 4.3.4.3, but if the joker is correctly introduced at position 9, the sequence should be 4.4†.4.3. We can consider exchanging the first two lines beginning at letter 70. (24) 4

(24) 4

(22) 4

70

14

38

62

6

30

54

78

22

44

66†

t

e

l

a

a

d

u

l

t

e

r

(20) 3

8

30

50

70

10

a

d

e

t

*

The first line then corresponds with the required constraints, but the second line then requires some modification. The correct solution is left to the reader. We might also have have considered “pertaining to a year” in the ablative annale with the tela adultera, which may be derived in one — 31 —

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way from (23) 4

(24) 4

17

40

63

6

29

53

77

21

45

a

n

n

a

l

e

o

o

r

but we are led by the current text. Again, there is the question of alternative jokers which, themselves, may be multi-valued. As Kinbote has observed, “I abhor such games; they make my temples throb with abominable pain—but I have braved it and pored endlessly, with a commentator’s infinite patience and disgust over the crippled syllables in Hazel’s report to find the least allusion to the poor girl’s fate.” The one thing that appears more certain and entangling is the presence of an adulterous web in Hazel’s scrabblings. The pursuit of the male offspring of such relations, in particular, will give rise to stepbrothers, les demi-frères, or filii vitrici (but not, we note, gradusfratres). If there should be dangers in succession to the Zemblan throne or in its displacement by the followers of the Sosed4 regime, the political intrigue will deepen. It may be reflected that even John Shade after his heart attack (Canto Three) was only “half a Shade.” The presence of a Latin quatrain raises, again, questions regarding the use by Nabokov of Gradus, the standard Latin fourth-declension noun for “a step,” as the name for his “clockwork” man. A standard reference work until recently used in public schools as an aid to writing Latin verses was Gradus ad Parnassum, usually abbreviated, being a thesaurus of syllabic metre.5 Apart from the pointer to literal translation 4 5

The related sosyed is Russian for “neighbour” (see PM, chap. 9, n16). In addition to the Latin versifier, a later title of the name was Johann Fux’s celebrated 1725 treatise on counterpoint, “which laid the basis for musical counterpoint over the next two centuries.” The treatise is still utilised. BBPF at 209 explores the influence of poetic counterpoint in Pale Fire extensively and asks why the counterpoint is singled out so emphatically as the hallmark of Shadean style, citing lines 806-810 (see p. 14). We have focussed here not on “the contrapuntal theme” but on “the web of sense.” Nabokov’s intention may have been to shadow the presence of the Latin versifier with the use of Fux’s counterpoint text. The former’s introduction on verse (De Vers) states, “Verfus Hexameter & Pentameter facile cognoscuntur” (Londini, pro Societate Stationariorum impreffum, 1802), although the coded quatrain found here is reduced to tetrameters. The Gradus Latin versifer was first published in 1686. — 32 —

-----------------------------------------  In Search of Horace and a Web of Sense -----------------------------------------

given in I, did Nabokov also employ the name Gradus as a pointer in a different context to the potential presence of Latin verse? If we are to play a game of kings, the literal German das königliche Spiel is also the game of chess. Are the words of Shade in his discussions with Kinbote (549) relevant—“There are rules in chess problems: interdiction of dual solutions, for instance,” that is to say, we have truly a solus rex? And amid these logical linguistic games in the world of John Shade and his guiding wife Sybil, we should perhaps remember the words of Othello:6 Tis true, there’s magic in the web of it. A sibyl, that had numbered in the world The sun to course two hundred compasses In her prophetic fury sew’d the silk; The worms were hallowed that did breed the silk—?

Silk worms in French are vers à soie; are waxwings or bombycillae merely an association with silken Cornelian verse? The Latin versare means “to spin,” and both the bombyx and the araneus are spinners. And should we remember Martial’s epigram7 on being sent a thin leaf from a Praetor’s garland which could “be agitated by the wing of the smallest butterfly” (et minimi pinna papilionis agi)? 15

nec vaga tam tenui discurrit aranea tela tam leve nec bombyx pendulus urget opus Neither does the errant spider run to and fro in a web so slender nor the hanging silkworm press on with work so lightly.

It is time to return to Corneille.

6 7

Othello 3.4.64-70. ME 2 8.33.15-16. — 33 —

-----------------------------------------------  Héraclius, Hamlet and Genealogy -----------------------------------------------

III Héraclius, Hamlet and Genealogy

Pour nous faciliter les moyens d’exciter cette pitié qui fait de si beaux effets sur nos théâtres, Aristote nous donne encore une autre lumière. Toute action , dit-il, se passe, ou entre des amis ou entre des ennemis, ou entre des gens indifférent l’un pour l’autre. Qu’un ennemi tue ou veuille tuer son ennemi, cela ne produit aucune commisération, sinon en tant qu’on émeut d’appendre ou de voir la mort d’un homme, quel qu’il soit. Qu’un indifférent tue un indifférent cela ne touche guère davantage, d’autant qu’il n’excite aucun combat dans l’âme de celui qui fait l’action: mais quand les choses arrivent entre des gens que la naissance ou l’affection attache aux intérêts l’un de l’autre, comme alors un mari tue ou est prêt de tuer sa femme , une mère ses enfants, une frère sa soeur: c’est ce qui convient merveuillesement à la tragédie.  (Corneille, “Discours de la tragedie,” on quoting from Aristotle’s Poetics, p. 89) The identification of an adulterous web in chapter 2 raises intriguing questions, and in this chapter we attempt to define some of the less obvious branches of the genealogical tree of the Royal House of Onhava. As the filamental clues can appear, at times, fragmentary, we may consider at the outset whether there are any linguistic or literary guides which can assist in identifying relationships within Pale Fire and permit the ordering of affairs. Much of this book from chapters 4 to 11 will examine different linguistic and classical pointers to relationships within the web. Before looking at the more obvious initial specific literary indicators, we also first attempt to identify the general broad limits of the web by considering any constraints that may be applied — 35 —

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to its structure, utilising the accepted classical rules of tragedy or of comedy. We turn again to Corneille. In his second discourse on the dramatic poem,1 Corneille considers the question of historical truth or necessity in tragedy and the Aristotelian definition that tragedy, on the one hand, must excite pity and fear, and on the other, by means of historical truth and necessity, suppress these passions. The latter condition, if understood, Corneille finds little exemplified, and he goes on to consider whether the second condition ever really holds. This will not concern us here, but in reviewing the tragic condition, Corneille considers the means of exciting pity quoted above. There is a need for appropriate close relationships in such tragedies. It is a great advantage, for the purpose of exciting commiseration, that there be a proximity of blood in the liaisons of love and between the persecutor and the persecuted. It is indisputable that the ancient tragedies centred around few families because few families had the sorts of actions worthy of tragedy. Following Aristotle, Corneille considers the four combinatorial possibilities of action in these closely related groups or families, which follow from the simplified knowledge of identity or otherwise of the participants and the success or otherwise of the action. In these four cases, (1) one knows that one wishes to lose somebody and one effects the action (Medea, Clytemnestra, Orestes); (2) one makes the victim suffer without knowledge of his/her true identity and one is saddened when total recognition is then gained (Oedipus); (3) one is inclined to make perish one of his/her closest without knowing it and one recognises this in time to save him/her (Iphigenia’s recognition of Orestes); (4) one knows and undertakes a violent path of rightful action but does not achieve it. The third case is regarded by Aristotle as the highest degree of excellence in tragedy, while for the fourth Aristotle offers only condemnation, suggesting that the values it exemplifies are associated with inadequacy and wretchedness and have nothing to do with tragedy. As development of the latter view could condemn five of Corneille’s great tragedies (Le Cid, Cinna, Rodogune, Héraclius, and Nicomède), it is natural for Corneille to question the hierarchy of Aristotelian values and to suggest an inversion 1

PC 2, Discours de la tragédie, pp. 90-91. — 36 —

-----------------------------------------------  Héraclius, Hamlet and Genealogy -----------------------------------------------

of their scale, commenting that this new kind of tragedy is more beautiful than the three that Aristotle recommends and that Aristotle would have no doubt preferred them if he had recognised it.2 We concern ourselves with Héraclius3 and its intrigues, which we are led to consider from certain resemblances in the hero’s early life to that of the potential assassin, Gradus, and, as we shall see later, to a possible case of parricide. The tyrant Phocas has had the Eastern Roman emperor, Maurice, put to death with all his sons and rules in his place. He has spared Maurice’s daughter, Pulcherie, so that one day his infant son, Martian, may absorb the former dynasty to develop his own succession. Phocas has entrusted his infant, Martian, to the governess, Leontine, a lady of Constantinople. Unbeknown to Phocas, Leontine has sacrificed one of her own sons in place of Maurice’s youngest infant, Héraclius, to keep alive the Maurice lineage. To protect Héraclius, she has exchanged the identities of Martian and Héraclius, the former being given the name of her sacrificed son, Léonce. They are now young men and Héraclius has been secretly informed that he is the true Héraclius. Martian believes himself to be Leonce and is in love with Pulcherie. Héraclius is in love with Eudoxe, daughter of Leontine. When Exupère, a patrician of Constantinople, discloses to Phocas that there may have been an exchange of infants and that Héraclius is alive, Phocas is unable to defend himself without the possibility of killing his own son. Martian, believing himself to be Héraclius, is determined to avenge the murder of Maurice but would, in truth, be guilty of parricide. He is also in love with Pulcherie and now believes himself to be guilty of incest. The true Héraclius attempts to disclose the truth to his friend Martian in order to deter the latter from parricide, but Martian believes that this is only a ruse to deter him from action. It is not unsurprising that Boileau4 should comment, Que dès premiers vers l’action préparée Sans peine du sujet aplanisse l’entrée. Je me ris d’un auteur qui, lent à s’exprimer, 2 3

4

a) PC 2, 93. b) AP 14.1453b.38-39. PCH. The most complex of Corneille’s plays, it was written in the same year that he was elected to the Académie Française in 1647. The piece had been given continually at the Comédie-Française from 1680 to 1818. N. Boileau, Satires, Epîtres, Art Poétique (Paris: Poésie Gallimard, 2000) 3: 27-32. — 37 —

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De ce qu’il veut d’abord ne sait pas m’informer, Et qui, débrouillant mal un pénible intrigue, D’un divertissement me fait une fatigue.

Before we examine whether there are possible Cornelian influences upon the the court intrigues of Zembla, we may “rent a cell in the luminous waffle room, 1915 or 1959” (493) and consider the year 1915. The hypothesis will be that there are legitimate claims to the Zemblan throne arising from less legitimate blood relationships around the birth of Charles the Beloved in that year. Can there be potential cases of parricide, incest, and regicide within the relationships, affecting both the Old and New worlds, pertaining to the rights of succession? What are the blood relationships, and are they deeper than the surface reading would indicate? While Sybil and John Shade are themselves related (cousins at the grandparent level [247]), there may also be a blood relationship of Charles’s wife, Queen Disa, to Sybil Shade, in view of the fact that the queen bore a singular resemblance not, of course, to Mrs. Shade as she was when I met her, but to the idealized and stylised picture painted by the poet in those lines of Pale Fire. Actually it was idealised and stylised only with regard to the older woman; in regard to Queen Disa, as she was that afternoon on the blue terrace, it represented a plain unretouched likeness. I trust the reader appreciates the strangeness of this, because if he does not, there is no sense in writing poems, or notes to poems, or anything at all. (433-434)

There is, moreover, the curious resemblance of Julius Steinmann (b. 1928), the son of the well-known philanthropist, to Charles the Beloved (171). There is also Hazel’s resemblance to Kinbote in some respects (347-348). Sylvia O’Donnell and the Countess de Fyler likewise possess similarities (691). For the textual analyst and counter of words in Pale Fire, John Shade’s physiognomy is described as “leonine,” but also “Iroquoian” (Foreword); there is a parricide (but involving a boy, age seven [4748]), two martians (but serving highballs at a Shade party: “two white coated youths at the hotel school” [181]), incest (Gradus and his mother-in-law [697]), and infection and self-castration (Gradus). — 38 —

-----------------------------------------------  Héraclius, Hamlet and Genealogy -----------------------------------------------

If there is a case for considering the direct descendants of Kinbote and Gradus (b. July 5 1915), the prospect of an heir becomes remote, leading to more distant descendants. The position of Julius Steinmann (b. 1928), a close imitator of Charles the Beloved, comes into view (attempted murder by Gradus [171]). Before considering the Royal House at Onhava, we may return to Kinbote’s oblique comments which may pertain to the title of Pale Fire (671-672): but not condemn “the fashionable device of entitling a collection of essays or a volume of poetry—or a long poem, alas— with a phrase lifted from a more or less celebrated poetical work of the past. Such titles possess a specious glamour acceptable maybe in the names of vintage wines and plump courtesans but only degrading in regard to the talent that substitutes the easy allusiveness of literacy for original fancy and shifts onto a bust’s shoulders the responsibility for ornateness since anybody can flip through a Midsummer Night’s Dream or Romeo and Juliet, or, perhaps, the Sonnets and take his pick.” The reference to this commentary in the Index, however, suggests that we look in the Tempest. The direct reference to the title of Pale Fire is given in the lines 961

(But this transparent thingum does require Some moondrop title. Help me. Will! Pale Fire.)

where the Commentary, at this point, indicates reference to Shakespeare, but Kinbote is restricted to a vest pocket edition of Timon of Athens (in Zemblan). Pursuing the sources of 671-672 in a Midsummer Night’s Dream, reference to Pale Fire may be found in similar geography in the opening of the second act in reply to Puck’s enquiry of the fairy’s wanderings in a wood near Athens: Over park, over pale, Thorough flood, thorough fire: I do wander everywhere, Swifter than the moon’s sphere; And I serve the Fairy Queen. (2.1) — 39 —

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Romeo and Juliet offers a context of murder (act 3, scene 2) with the Nurse’s observation of Romeo’s slaying of Tybalt: I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes— God save the mark!—here on his manly breast: A piteus corse, a bloody piteous corse; Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaub’d in blood, All in gore blood: I swounded at the sight.

Will and all his Wills are, of course, in the famous Sonnets 135 and 136. A more unified view of the triad of references is examined in chapter 5. Bearing in mind Kinbote’s usual failings, is there a more likely reflection from the lines of Hamlet’s ghost in the warning to his son, particularly if we consider Corneille’s comments on the Aristotelian means of exciting pity in tragedy, namely, “There is a need for appropriate close relationships in such tragedies. It is a great advantage, in order to excite commiseration that there is a proximity of blood in the liaisons of love and between the persecutor and the persecuted”? The extreme and illicit form of such relationships is incestuous. 89 Let not the royal bed of Denmark be A couch for luxury and incest. But, howsoever thou pursuest this act, Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive Against thy mother aught; leave her to heaven, And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once! The glow-worm shows the matin to be near, And “gins to pale his uneffectual fire: Adieu, adieu, adieu! remember me. (Hamlet 1.5.89-98)

There are harbingers that Kinbote can be seen as a Hamlet-like figure. There is a syllabic reflection in the Index in the definition of a bodkin as a Danish stiletto.5 Kinbote, himself, in his references has 5

A further reflection can arise in the presence of Vasily Petrovich Botkin (1811-1869). See chapter 1, n.17. — 40 —

-----------------------------------------------  Héraclius, Hamlet and Genealogy -----------------------------------------------

written of “his limited knowledge of lepidoptera and the sable gloom of his nature marked like a dark Vanessa with gay flashes”; this recalls Hamlet, who says of himself: “Nay then, let the devil wear black for I’ll have a suit of sables” (3.2). Many have pointed out the potential Hamlet relation.6 But the most impressive reference to the real situation of Kinbote, alias Charles the Beloved, with the position of Hamlet occurs when the latter recalls “an excellent play, well digested in the scenes, set down with as much modesty as cunning. … One speech in’t I chiefly lov’d: ‘twas Aeneas’s talk to Dido, and thereabout of it especially, when he speaks of Priam’s slaughter: if it live in your memory, begin at this line; let me see, let me see.” Bearing in mind Charles’s escape from the Palace of Onhava in the form of a scarlet-clothed fugitive (130) and his red-capped red sweatered doubleganger in a mountainside cave (149), we note the condition of Pyrrhus: …smeared With heraldry more dismal head to foot; Now he is total gules, horridly trick’d With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, Bak’d and impasted with the parching streets That lend a tyrannous and a damned light To their lord’s murder: roasted in wrath and fire, And thus o’er-sized with coagulate gore… (Hamlet 2.2.487-494)

Thus Charles/Kinbote can be seen as at the centre of a bloody incestuous 6

See BBPF, 177-179. PM, 114, notes that the syllable bot in its Anglo-Saxon meaning represents a compensation for a murdered relative. She reminds us that in Hamlet’s soliloquy, Hamlet is tempted to commit suicide owing to his father’s ghost’s demands that he become a king’s destroyer by killing Claudius, himself a king’s destroyer. “Kinbote” also means “regicide” in Zemblan (894). However, Sybil Shade has described Kinbote as a king-sized botfly (247), while “King-bot” is also defined as a parasitic maggot under “Botkin” (Index). These parasites are put under the microscope in chapter 12. According to PM, 117-119, reference to the Kroneberg translation of Hamlet (see chapter 1, n.17) is made in Bend Sinister, where it is dismissed by Ember as “the gibberish of the traditional version (Kronberg’s).” The misspelling is identical to the name of the Zemblan mountain Kronberg, also called Mount Kron, “a snowcapped rocky mountain with a comfortable hotel in the Bera range” (Pale Fire, Index). — 41 —

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intrigue. If we broaden the hypothesis to consider Cornelian and Shakespearean influences on the structure of the royal court in Onhava and consider specifically the possible influences of Heraclius or Hamlet, it is well to bear in mind Nabokov’s words from his lecture series:7 Although this course is called a ‘survey’ in the catalogue, it is not a survey at all. Anybody is able to survey with a skimming eye the entire literature of Russia in one laborious night by consuming a textbook or an encyclopaedia article. That is much too simple. In this course, ladies and gentlemen, I am not concerned with generalities, with ideas and schools of thought, with groups of mediocrities under a fancy flag. I am concerned with the specific text, the thing itself. We will go the center, to the hub, to the book and not vague summaries and compilations.

From the textual references, we may discern three potentially significant threads in the adulterous web of the royal house at Onhava. There is the obvious matriarchal filament from the direct line of succession through Queen Blenda within the royal house, but two other similar threads from Sybil Irondell and Caroline Lukin may also be discerned. On the other hand, royal male liaisons may produce unknown pretenders to the Zemblan throne. We consider the potential matriarchal filaments and their offspring. 1) Queen Blenda. The likely father of Charles the Beloved may be Peter Gusev, Duke of Rahl (b. 1885), king Alfin’s “constant aerial adjutant” (71). Both Charles and Rahl have a predilection for parachuting, the former’s landing being by such conveyance in America. The Duke’s second marriage to Sylvia O’Donnell (of Irish descent) leaves her a former stepmother to Charles, and it is natural that she should welcome Charles at his landing ground in the United States. The Duke of Rahl, “the greatest jumper of all time” (71), is also the probable father of Julius Steinmann (b. 1928). This would explain the close similarity of the appearance and voices of Charles and Julius (171). The Duke of Rahl himself (b. 1885) is probably the 7

BBAY, 133. — 42 —

-----------------------------------------------  Héraclius, Hamlet and Genealogy -----------------------------------------------

son of Iris Acht (d. 1885—strangled) and of either the capable master builder (put to death, together with his three assistants, 1885) or Thurgus III. The certainty of execution would imply that Thurgus knew that he was not the father (“His martial moustache bristling with obsolete passion”—Index), and his loving might be described as of the preterite tense. In Canto One, John Shade describes “a preterist: one who collects cold nests” (79), although this most closely refers to his ornithologist father, Samuel Shade of the “bad heart” (77). The probability must be that the Duke of Rahl is the son of the masterbuilder, as Iris’s contrived death is hardly recognition of an illicit royal birth, and we conclude that Thurgus III was impotent in 1885. The bloodline would indicate that Charles the Beloved is not a true heir to the Zemblan throne. If Rahl were a true son of Thurgus III, the liaison of Blenda and the Duke of Rahl would become incestuous. 2) Sybil Irondell (of French descent, formerly Hirondelle). The curiously similar appearance of Sybil Swallow and Queen Disa could be explained by the presence of a twin sister formerly married to the Duke of Payn and Mone. Sybil herself had been married to John Shade for fourteen years without issue. The arrival of the Shades on the south coast of France in the summer of 1933 and Sybil Shade’s reluctance to discuss with Kinbote (“I am not in possession of particulars. Who is to blame, dear S.S.?”) whether she had actually visited the Villa Paradiso (433-434) indicate a likely liaison between Sybil herself and the Duke of Payn. Two swallows, as it were, made a rather good summer for the Duke of Payn. During that visit, twin sisters would have undoubtedly met, but the Commentary indicates that the sister is dead, referring us to Browning’s poem, “My Last Duchess,” where that cold calculating duke has had her portrait painted on the wall “looking as if she were alive.” One scheme, therefore, has the father of Hazel (b. 1934) as the Duke of Payn. This is a productive line to follow, for it implies that John Shade is a cuckold. The Vanessa atalanta, the red admiral, on the escutcheon on the Dukes of Payn, and its flickering presence around Queen Disa (270), would be held in an incestuous thread — 43 —

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though Sybil and Hazel. The presence of this butterfly at John Shade’s adolescent trauma with Sybil (270) and her presence in the poem (949) and at the scene of John’s killing (993-996) suggest an important association with the Shades or with cuckoldry. The special patron of cuckolds is Vulcan,8 the god of fire, who, himself, surrounded his matrimonial bed with a web of the minutest chains (catenis minutissimis) to ensnare his wife Venus and Mars, who were lying together. The key association appears, ironically, to lie in the French lettering, for the common name of the red admiral is “le vulcain”9 and the supposition may be made that it is associated with the mixed blood of the Shades.10 Further support is given by Sybil, herself, in an intriguing reference within Kinbote’s Index.11 The darker classical tale of the two sisters, Procne and Philomela, and VN’s parody of Eliot will be examined initially in chapters 9 and 10. 3) Caroline Lukin (of English descent). The infancy of John Shade was spent at the Onhava Palace and he seems to have been present there until 1909 (144), judging by the functioning key requirement (143) of his clockwork toy. His high school days were spent in New Wye, Appalachia (247-260). There is no evidence of his return to Onhava. In relation to parentage, Samuel Shade of the “bad heart” was forty six years of age at the time of John’s birth (1898) and dead at fifty. If we consider Thurgus III at seventy-three (potentially impotent—see 1), or Alfin the Vague (at twenty-five), or Queen Blenda’s half brother, Conmal, to be the father of John Shade, this would account for his mother’s closeness to royal quarters. Conmal’s lack of English may have been an impediment to the seduction of Canadian Caroline, a 8 9 10 11

1) J. S. Abbott, personal communication. 2) BDPF, 938. PEAN, 152-153. The mixed blood of the Shades is examined in chapter 13. There are harbingers in the Index that Sybil may be promiscuous. The Index Foreword states in its latter sentence, “The capital letters G, K, S (which see) stand for the three main characters in this work.” Obeying the instruction, G. and K. have direct references, but for S. the reference is indirect but is found under “Shade, Sybil, S.’s wife, passim.” The latter (CLD) translates as “here and there or Transf., indiscriminately, promiscuously” (italics in original). — 44 —

-----------------------------------------------  Héraclius, Hamlet and Genealogy -----------------------------------------------

historic descendant of Essex woman, but if John is Alfin’s son, he becomes the rightful heir to the Zemblan throne. And what are we to make of Gradus? Gradus is the maternal grandson of the master builder mysteriously murdered in 1885 (Index—Shadows). The pattern of the web suggests an ambiguity in royal grandparenthood with Thurgus III, if Iris Acht were the maternal grandmother. Gradus’s mother is elusive with her early death. His maternal uncle is a Tselovalnikov (17), placing her as of an official Russian father. Gradus’s reported father is Martin Gradus, a protestant minister from Riga (12). If John Shade dies, it is possible that Gradus, ironically, might have a leading claim to the Zemblan throne through descent from Thurgus III. Later, in chapter 6, a more direct classical descent is pursued. There remains the elusive interpreter accompanying Alfin and his emperor guest without a vestige of an escort in a summer before the First World War, whose sex is unknown (71). It seems Alfin’s custom of stopping his vehicle and tinkering with the engine on the edge of forests could lead to royal complications, but it is inconceivable that a child conceived before August, 1914 could be born on July 5th, 1915, and this line of enquiry will not be pursued. Of the emperors available, one might conclude that if any bloodstock ensued, the quality was German. These are, of course, all probabilistic interpretations from the available text, and we examine the possible relationships in connection with the assassination. Was John Shade the intended victim of the assassination, or was it Kinbote, alias Charles the Beloved? (We should not ignore, of course, the third possibility of the murder of the mistaken Judge Goldsworth by the equally mistaken Jack Grey.) Given that Gradus was a bad shot (cf. the attempted killing of Julius Steinmann [171]), there are still only two possibilities, but are there further indicators from the literary harbingers of the text, bearing in mind Nabokov’s strictures? We consider the Hamlet and Heraclian themes. 1. The intended victim was Kinbote. John Shade, then, becomes a Polonius-like figure, while Hazel’s drowning in the lake has reflections of his Ophelia. The ghost in the barn can be associated — 45 —

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with the royal ghost, Alfin (who had a predilection for Latin [71]), with the Duke of Rahl, taking on the role of Claudius (the designer of Alfin’s aerial bird of doom, the Blenda IV [71]). If we extend the analogy to Kinbote, who believes himself to be the genuine son of Alfin, he becomes a Hamlet-like figure. 2. The intended victim was John Shade. Is Gradus then a Heracliuslike or Martian-like figure, killing the potential usurper of the rightful King? And is there a potential parricide involved? Gradus’s upbringing (see chapter 1, opening quotation) shows similarities to that of Heraclius in his infancy (12), particularly if a genuine son of the murdered Alfin. Kinbote is then the Martian of the story, the son of the usurper, the Duke of Rahl—as evidenced above. The ages of Kinbote and Gradus are identical to within a few hours (b. 05.07.1915). But could this usurper also be John Shade? Unless John Shade was able to have some liaison with Queen Blenda or Gradus’s mother in 1914, it is difficult to see that a parricide is involved. Fertility was not a keynote of John Shade’s marriage. The main relationships within the royal palace of Onhava and beyond are given in the Figure. Taking the dominant race of the court as being German, and despite being an apparent house of incest, there are liaisons with the races of the English (original Lukin family), French (Sybil Irondell), Irish (Sylvia O’Donnell née O’Connell), Canadian (Caroline Lukin), American, Russian (681), and Swedish (the wife of a German lecturer, a close friend of the mother of Baron Radomir Mandevil [894]). It may be observed that in all these hypotheses and potential liaisons, there is only one short clear conclusion that can be drawn regarding the germanitas amongst the offspring, namely that we are all cousins of the Germans. This conclusion will, in turn, force us to consider the slave’s famous allusion to life in the sugar refineries of Surinam in Voltaire’s Candide.12 Deprived of one hand (cut off when a finger was trapped by the millstone) and one leg (for an attempt at flight) by his Dutch 12

VCA chap. 19, p. 134. — 46 —

-----------------------------------------------  Héraclius, Hamlet and Genealogy -----------------------------------------------

master, M. Vanderdendur (Van-de-la-dent-dure, peut-être), the slave continues: Les fétiches hollandais qui m’ont converti me disent tous les dimanches que nous sommes tous enfants d’Adam , blancs et noirs. Je ne suis pas généalogiste; mais, si ces precheurs disent vrai, nous sommes tous cousins issus de germains. Or vous m’avouerez qu’on ne peut pas en user avec ses parents d’un maniere plus horrible.

— 47 —

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------  III -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Genealogical Tree of the Royal House of Onhava (Potential blood lines shaded)  

Samuel Shade m. 1852-1902

Caroline Lukin

Master Builder-------Iris Acht-------Thurgus III Poisoned in royal kitchens 1885

Canadian Family

 

1888 strangled

1825-1900

  John Shade

m. 1919

July 5 1898-July 21 1959 (foreword)

Sybil Irondell

Duke of Payn

Alfin the Vague

b. 1989 French family

and Mone

1873-1918

m. July 5 1949

Hazel Shade

Disa

1934-1957

b. 1928 (275) Duchess of Payn and Mone on marriage

Martin Gradus m. Protestant minister Riga d. 1920

m.

Blenda 1878-July 21 1936 (71)

Col. Peter Gusev Duke of Rahl

Charles the Beloved

Oleg

b. July 5 1915 (433-434) Reigns 1936-1958

1916-1931

Julius Steinmann

Tselovalnikov

b. 1928 (171)

Jakob Gradus

m. a Ragudovitra beader

b. July 5 1915

Other relationships A German lecturer — Swedish wife. Her sister, a close friend of the mother of Baron Radomir Mandevil (894). Baron Radomir Mandevil Throne page to Charles the Beloved (130)

Baron Mirador Mandevil b. 1925 Experimentalist, madman, traitor (171)

Countess de Fyler d. 1950 | ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­___________________________ | | Fifalda Fleur b. 1918 m Count Otar b. 1919 mistress of Otar b. 1915 (1) Leopold O’Donnell m. 1915 Sylvia O’Donnell (nee O’Connell ) m (2) Peter Gusev Duke of Rahl | | Donald O’Donnell Odon b. 1915 Nodo ( 1/2 brother) b. 1916

— 48 —

----------------------------  Zembla — “How Farce and Epic Get a Jumbled Race”  ----------------------------

IV Zembla — “How Farce and Epic Get a Jumbled Race”

(Pope, The Dunciad, 1.68) I am not slave! Let be my critic slave. I cannot be. And Shakespeare would not want thus Let drawing students copy the acanthus, I work with Master on the architrave. (962) We look for supportive evidence for an adulterous House of Onhava and consider the influence of Pope on these opening lines of the extraordinary sonnet composed by Conmal in reply to his critics, written “in not quite correct English,” which is part of the commentary on the important line 962, to which we return: (But this transparent thingum does require 962 Some moondrop title. Help me, Will! Pale Fire.)

While Pope was writing some fifty years after Corneille, in the early eighteenth century, both writers could be said to be replying to their critics in different ways, utilising the Aristotelian position to defend their work but in very different contexts. Both were concerned with the Aristotelian unities of action, time, and place, but by the time that Pope was writing, science had advanced with the establishment of the Royal Society and increased navigational understanding of the globe. Apart from the attack on his critics, Pope wished to defend allegory in a more scientific age.1 To gain some limits to their positions, we commence, again, by considering Corneille. 1

See, for example, the introduction to The Temple of Fame in PAP vol. 2, The Rape of the Lock and other Poems, ed. G. Tillotson (1962). — 49 —

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------  IV -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cartographer Bertius. Published 1616 Amsterdam

In his third and final discourse,2 Corneille discusses the realities of drama in terms of the unities of action, time, and place. He maintains a strict interpretation of the trois unités, but in place of the action occurring within the “one revolution of the sun” of Aristotle, Corneille makes out the case for an action lasting thirty hours. This may seem to contemporary eyes unduly constrained, and even at the time, such plays as The Winter’s Tale would have been hard to categorise. Unity of action would become the dominant reality with time and place secondary to the action. Corneille, himself, while accepting the tight Aristotelian constraints of action, time, and place for realistic drama, even in this discourse argues for an inexact interpretation of Aristotle. After distinguishing unity of action in comedy and tragedy as related to the unities of intrigue and peril, respectively, Comeille writes, Je tiens donc, et je l’ai déjà dit (premier discours), que l’unité d’action consiste, dans la comédie , en l’unité d’intrigue, ou d’obstacle aux desseins 2

PC 3, “Discours des trois unités d’action, de jour et de lieu”. — 50 —

----------------------------  Zembla — “How Farce and Epic Get a Jumbled Race”  ----------------------------

des principaux acteurs, et en l’unité de péril dans la tragédie, soit que son héros y succombe soit qu’il en sorte.3

He goes on to conclude that one must follow what is necessarily imposed by the action, even at the price of truth. This idea is expressed forcefully in the examination of The Cid: Aristote dit qu’il y a des absurdités qu’il faut laisser dans un pöeme, quand on peut espérer qu’elles seront bien reçues; et il est du devoir du pöete, en ce cas, de les couvrir de tant de brillants, qu’elles puissent éblouir.4

In the case of Pope and the early eighteenth century, les trois unités can be examined in relation to the realities of that northern country, Zembla, “with its long peninsula,” to which John Shade directly refers in Canto Four, making a distinction between “Old” and “Nova” Zembla: 937

Old Zembla’s fields where my gray stubble grows

That “weary and sad commentator” Kinbote notes in the Commentary that John Shade may have intended to cite in a footnote: At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where

from Pope’s Second Epistle on the “Essay on Man”.5 In the light of Kinbote’s usual failings, it is likely that other references to Zembla in Pope’s poetry will prove fruitful. Zembla was at the limits of navigational knowledge in Pope’s day, when the prospect of a North East passage to China was still a real, if chill, prospect. Zembla may be found in The Temple of Fame6 and in the Dunciad.7 In the Dunciad, we are led to lines which, again, “allude to the Transgressions of the Unities, in the Plays of fanciful Poets” in the court of the Goddess of Dullness. 3 4 5 6 7

PC 3, p. 123 PC “Introduction,” p. 26. PAP, vol. 3, pt. 1, “An Essay on Man,” ed. M. Mack (1958). PAP, vol. 2, pp. 53ff. and Appendix H. PAP, vol. 5, The Dunciad (A), ed. J. Sutherland (1965), bk. 1, p. 72 — 51 —

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67 How Tragedy and Comedy embrace: How Farce and Epic get a jumbled race: How Time itself stands still at her command , Realms shift their place, and Ocean turns to land. Here gay description, Egypt glad with showers; Or gives to Zembla fruits, to Barca flowers; Glitt’ring with ice here hoary hills are seen, There painted vallies of eternal green.

The footnote describes Barca in Virgil’s day as deserta siti regio.8 Pope exaggerates these ironies in the text,9 pointedly showing his slavish confinement to the Aristotelian unities: When I remarked it as a principal fault, to introduce Fruits and Flowers of a Foreign growth, in descriptions where the scene lies in our own Country, I did not design that observation should extend also to Animals, or the sensitive Life; for Philips hath with great judgement described Wolves in England in his first Pastoral. Nor would I have a Poet slavishly confine himself (as Mr. Pope hath done) to one particular season of the year, one certain time of the day, and one unbroken Scene in each Eclogue. ‘Tis plain Spencer neglected this Pedantry, who in his pastoral of November mentions the mournful song of the Nightingale: Sad Philomel her song in Tears doth steep. And Mr. Philips, by a poetical creation, hath raised up finer beds of Flowers than the most industrious Gardiner; his Roses, Endives, Lillies, Kingcups and Daffadils blow all in the same season.

It is appropriate to comment here on the publication of the Dunciad,10 which in May 1728 marked a turning point in Pope’s literary career. For the past fifteen years he had been engaged in such heavy duties as the translation of Homer and the dull duties of an editor: but by March 1725 he had got Shakespeare off his hands and in June the following 8 9 10

VA 4.42 PAP, vol. 4, The Dunciad (A), Appendix 5, par. 6. PAP, vol. 5. See “Introduction,” 9-11. — 52 —

----------------------------  Zembla — “How Farce and Epic Get a Jumbled Race”  ----------------------------

year the last volume of the Odyssey appeared. He had, at last, the opportunity to justify some sort of answer to the provocation of his literary contemporaries. He had been attacked for being a papist, for being deformed, for being a Tory, for daring to translate Homer, for presuming to meddle with Shakespeare merely to make money, for blasphemy and obscenity. The list could be extended. By 1725 he was certainly contemplating an effective and final retort to those “fools and scoundrels” who had been annoying him for years. “This poem,” he wrote of the Dunciad on March 23 1728, “will rid me of these insects.” He had been largely silent but was not unmoved by the malice of his enemies.

Of the various exasperating circumstances that may have induced Pope to change his tactics, the appearance in 1726 of Lewis Theobald’s Shakespeare restored: Or, a specimen of the Many Errors, As well Committed, as Unamended, by Mr Pope in his Late Edition of this Poet, probably weighed most heavily with him. Theobald had concentrated on Hamlet, but he promised - or as Pope must have felt threatened - to turn his attention to the other plays. But Pope could not hope to destroy Theobald with his own weapons: the pedantic critic had exposed the amateurishness and insufficiencies of the poet turned editor, and if Pope was to reply it must be as a poet, not as a scholar. Pope had earlier focussed on the realities of the constraints of time and place in the third reference to Zembla (The Temple of Fame)11 by pinning the geographical probability of the land mass (strictly, Nova Zembla) utilising a separate note. Pope had mentioned to Caryll (21 Dec., 1712) that to suit the season, he had been reading “ those books which treat of the Arctic regions, Lapland, Nova Zembla and Spitzberg.” ZEMBLA: THE POET AND THE SCIENTIST (The Temple of Fame 2, 53-60) Tho a strict Verisimilitude be not requir’d in the Descriptions of this visionary and allegorical kind of Poetry, which admits of every wild 11

PAP vol. 2, Appendix H, p. 411. References to contemporary descriptions of Nova Zembla are cited. Pope’s source appears to have been the illustrated 1711 edition of An account of several Late Voyages and Discoveries. Section 3: Captain J. Wood’s Attempt to Discover a North-East Passage to China, which contains a description of “Snowy Clifts” of Nova Zembla (p. 189, first series). — 53 —

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------  IV -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Object that Fancy may present in a dream, and where it is sufficient if the moral Meaning atone for the improbability: yet Men are naturally desirous of Truth, that a Reader is generally pleas’d, in such a Case, with some Excuse or Allusion that seems to reconcile the description to Probability and Nature. The Simile here is of that sort, and renders it not wholly unlikely that a Rock of Ice should remain for ever, by mentioning something like it in the Northern Regions, agreeing with the Accounts of our modern Travellers. (Pope 1715).

The poetic description of the Temple at Zembla is architecturally detailed: 53 So Zembla’s Rocks ( the beauteous work of Frost) Rise white in air, and glitter o’er the Coast Pale Suns, unfelt, at distance roll away, And on th’ impassive ice the Lightnings play: Eternal snows the growing Mass supply: Till the bright mountains prop th’incumbent sky: As Atlas fix’d each hoary pile appears, The gather’d wisdom of a thousand years. On this foundation Fame’s high Temple stands; 64 Stupendous Pile! not rear’d by mortal Hands. 65 Four Faces had the Dome..... 75 Westward, a sumptuous Frontispiece appear’d, On Doric Pillars of white Marble rear’d, Crowned with an Architrave of antique Mold, And sculpture rising on the roughen’d gold.

The note to 75ff. also notes Pope’s indebtedness to Milton:12 Doric Pillars overlaid With golden architrave; nor did there want Cornice or Frieze, with bossy sculptures grav’n.

But Pope’s primary debt was to Chaucer. Pope’s desire to defend allegory found convenient expression through paying tribute in contemporary 12

Milton, Paradise Lost, lines 714ff. — 54 —

----------------------------  Zembla — “How Farce and Epic Get a Jumbled Race”  ----------------------------

Nova Zembla – 1719 Cartograper: Mallet Full Title: Nouvelle Zemble Published: 1719. Frankfurt

terms to a popular Renaissance subject, choosing one of the three Temples in Chaucer’s Hous of Fame. The Introduction to his Temple of Fame in its first publication13 reads: Some modern Criticks, from a pretended Refinement of Taste, have declar’d themselves unable to relish allegorical Poems. ’Tis not easy to penetrate into the meaning of this Criticism; for if Fable be allow’d one of the chief beauties, or as Aristotle calls it, the very Soul of Poetry, ‘tis hard to comprehend how that Fable should be the less valuable for having a Moral. The Ancients constantly made use of Allegories: My Lord 13

PAP vol. 2, The Temple of Fame, “Pope’s Intoductory Note,” p. 251 (1715 edition only). — 55 —

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------  IV -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bacon has compos’d an express Treatise in proof of this, entitled, The Wisdom of the Antients; where the reader may see several particular Fictions exemplify’d and explained with great Clearness, Judgment and Learning. The Incidents indeed, by which the Allegory is convey’d, mus be vary’d, according to the different genius of Manners of different Times: and they should never be spun too long, or too much clog’d with trivial circumstances, or little Particularities. We find an uncommon Charm in Truth, when it is convey’d by this Side-way to our understanding; and ‘tis observable, that even in the most ignorant Ages this Way of Writing has found Reception. Almost all the Poems in the old Provencal had this Turn; and from these it was that Petrarch took the Idea of his Poetry. We have his Trionfi in this kind; And Boccace pursu’d in the same Track. Soon after Chaucer introduc’d it here, whose Romaunt of the Rose, Court of Love, Flower and the Leaf, House of Fame, and some others of his Writings are Masterpieces of this sort. In Epick Poetry, ‘tis true, too nice and exact a Pursuit of the Allegory is justly esteem’d a Fault; and Chaucer had the Discernment to avoid it in his Knight’s Tale, which was an Attempt towards an Epick Poem. Ariosto, with less judgment, gave intirely into it in his Orlando; which tho carry’d to an Excess, had yet so much reputation in Italy, that Tasso (who reduc’d Heroick Poetry to the juster Standards of the Antients) was forc’d to prefix to his Work, a scrupulous Explanation of the Allegory of it, to which the Fable it-self could scarce have directed his readers. Our Countryman Spencer follow’d, whose poem is entirely allegorical, and imitates the manner of Ariosto rather than that of Tasso. Upon the whole, one may observe this sort of Writing (however discontinu’d of late) was in all Times so far from being reject’d by the best Poets, that some of them have err’d by insisting on it too closely, and carrying it too far: And that to infer from thence that the Allegory it-self is vicious, is a presumptuous Contradiction to the Judgment and Practice of the greatest Genius’s, both antient and modern. (Pope, 1715 edition only)

Concerning the Temple14 and its Palladian style, Pope comments: The Temple is describ’d to be square, the four fronts with open Gates 14

PAP vol. 2, The Temple of Fame, 65n. The Doric order was held to employ “the heroick and gigantine manner [which] does excellently well [for ports,citadels, fortresses of towns etc.], discovering a certain masculine and natural beauty, which is properly that the French call la grande Maniere …Vitruvius …compares our Dorique to a robust and strong man, such as an Hercules might be…”(Evelyn, The Whole body of Antient and Modern Architecture ed. 1680, 10ff. Cf. Vitruvius, De Architectura, 4, 1). — 56 —

----------------------------  Zembla — “How Farce and Epic Get a Jumbled Race”  ----------------------------

facing the different Quarters of the World, as an intimation that all Nations of the Earth may alike be receiv’d into it. The Western Front is of Grecian Architecture; the Dorick order was peculiarly sacred to Heroes and Worthies. Those whose statues are after mention’d, were the first Names of old Greece in Arma and Arts. (Pope, 1715, 1736)

We also note Evelyn’s comment (ibid.) on Vitruvius, comparing “our Dorique to a robust and strong man, such as an Hercules might be” (cf. Vitruvius, De Architectura, iv, I), and comparing “this masculine and natural beauty which is properly that the French call La grande Manière.” A critic, however, noted that Pope’s efforts to give order and exactness of imagery to a subject so professedly romantic and anomalous were “like giving Corinthian pillars to a Gothic palace.”15 The Doric or Dorian mode has a literary as well as an architectural connotation. In Aristotle’s Poetics,16 the philosopher, after defining the three differences which distinguish artistic imitation (the medium, the objects, and the manner), notes that the name “drama” is given to the imitation of acting and doing. He continues, The Dorians claim the invention both of Tragedy and Comedy… Tragedy is claimed by certain Dorians in the Peloponnese. In each case they appeal to the evidence of language. The outlying villages, they say are by them called kwmai, by the Athenians dhmoi: and they assume that Comedians were so named not from kwmazein, “to revel,” but because they wandered from village to village (kata kwmaV) being excluded contemptuously from the city. They also add that the Dorian word for “doing” is dran, and the Athenian prattein.

15

16

PAP, vol. 2, “Introduction,” part 4, p. 224. The writer Thomas Warton, who was approaching Pope’s Poem from Chaucer’s viewpoint, notes, “Pope has imitated this piece, with his usual erudition and harmony of versification. But in the meantime, he has not only misrepresented the story, but marred the character of the poem…. An attempt to unite order and exactness of imagery with a subject formed on principles so professedly romantic and anomalous, is like giving Corinthan pillars to a Gothic palace. When I read Pope’s elegant imitation of this piece, I think I am walking among the modern monuments unsuitably placed in Westminster abbey.” From a History of English Poetry (1774), 1: 396. AP, 3.3. — 57 —

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NOVAYA ZEMBLYA – NASA Satellite Image

We are now in a position to attempt interpretation of the opening four lines of Conmal’s extraordinary sonnet, given at the head of this chapter. All four lines can be associated with Popian Zembla and its contexts. The “gay description gives to Zembla fruits” can refer to that given by the homosexual or bisexual Kinbote; the description of “How Tragedy and Comedy embrace” and “How Farce and Epic get a jumbled race” to the tangled blood relationships of the Royal House of Onhava. The first two lines appear strongly influenced by the Dunciad, with the “slavish confinement of Mr. Pope” to Aristotelian unities. In context, the second line, “And Shakespeare would not want thus” suggests that we are also engaged with the battle between the poet — 58 —

----------------------------  Zembla — “How Farce and Epic Get a Jumbled Race”  ----------------------------

and the pedant over Pope’s editing of Shakespeare. This is again hinted at in the fourth line, which indicates that Conmal is working on Shakespeare (The Wilhelm Meister?). The third and fourth lines point to the literary Doric mode, where Conmal leaves students to mere Corinthian pusuits. Again, using the Aristotelian reference, we are referred to tragedy and comedy. Bearing in mind that the poet, John Shade, at this point is seeking a title for his autobiographical Pale Fire and possibly calling on Shakespeare for inspiration, Conmal’s struggles point to The Comedy of Errors or Hamlet Restored. We note the exact birth dates of Gradus and Kinbote/Charles. Are we to be pointed further in the direction of identical twins with the “boys from Syracuse,” or at least to demi-frères? We have observed the pair of Swallow tails—but can there be further complexities? Nabokov, on the publication of his translation of EO, had just completed a comparable amount of labour to that of Pope, from the translation’s inception in 1950 to its publication and commentary in four volumes in 1964.17 Nabokov’s sensitivity to the metre and rhyme of the poem and his later attack on his critics cited in chapter 1 produced reactions similar to those elicitied by Pope. Amongst the many-facetted intentions of the work of Pale Fire, not least would be the attempt to challenge his critics. We note Nabokov’s Aristotelian position (or, at least, that found in the letters of Franklin Lane Knight) in the commentary to “the web of sense” (810): And if I had passed into that other land, whom would I have sought? Aristotle! Ah, there would be a man to talk with! What satisfaction to see him take, like reins from between his fingers, the long ribbon of man’s life and trace it through the mystifying maze of all the wonderful adventure.…The crooked made straight. The whole daedalian plan simplified by a look from above—smeared out as it were by the splotch of some master thumb that made the whole involuted, boggling thing one beautiful straight line.

Very recently, a philosophical review of the ambivalent influence of

17

See chapter 1, n.15. — 59 —

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Pope on Nabokov18 notes that this influence is not helped by Nabokov’s hostility to the Age of Reason. But we suggest in this chapter that Nabokov follows a very classical path.

18

G. de Vries, “Nabokov’s Pale Fire and Alexander Pope.” In The Goalkeeper, ed. Yuri Leving (Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2010), pp. 102-123. — 60 —

--------------------------   Hamlet Unrestored: Sémiramis and the Royal Tomb  ---------------------------

V Hamlet Unrestored: Sémiramis and the Royal Tomb

This reminds me of the ludicrous account which he gave to Mr. Langton, of the despicable state of a young gentleman of good family. “Sir, when I heard of him last, he was running about town shooting cats.” And then, in a sort of kindly reverie, he bethought himself of his own favourite cat, and said “But Hodge shan’t be shot; no, no, Hodge shall not be shot.” (Frontispiece quotation to Pale Fire from Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson) The search for evidence on genealogical trees is continued. Following Boswell’s feline preoccupations1 in his Life of Samuel Johnson, he goes on to reminisce of his regret that by his own negligence, he lost an opportunity to have the history of his own family from its founder, Thomas Boswell, in 1504, recorded and illustrated by Johnson’s pen. He quotes Johnson’s affirmation of his willingness: “Let me have all the materials you can collect and I will do it in Latin and English; then let it be printed and copies of it deposited in various places for security and preservation.”2 Boswell still hoped to make up for this loss “keeping my great master steadily in view. Family histories, like the imagines majorum of the ancients excite to virtue; and I wish that they who really have blood would be most careful to trace and ascertain its course. Some have affected to laugh at the history of the house of Yvery: it would be well if many others would transmit their pedigrees to posterity, with the same 1

2

J. Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., ed. Percy Fitzgerald (London: Bliss, Sands and Co., 1897), p. 443, para. 1. Ibid, p. 443, para. 4. — 61 —

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------   V -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

accuracy and generous zeal, with which the noble lord, who compiled that work (Egmont) has honoured and perpetuated his ancestry.” Is the frontispiece, therefore, an attempt to encourage us, through the genial doctor, to trace the tortuous genealogical tree of the House of Zembla? Should one pursue further a house largely “one of luxury and of incest” with its complicated half-blood relationships in the form of stepbrothers or demi-frères, and with a genealogical tree fertile with half-branches? And what is the significance in Latin? Or should we turn to a more direct French reflection on Boswell’s feline sympathies at Paris and follow the Great Cat Massacre3 of the 1750s, which began as a revolt against social powerlessness by apprentices in the printing trade, which leads us to the sociological significance of the middle of the eighteenth century and the obsessions of redrafting the philosophies of Bacon and Chambers by the Lumières and their obsessions with Ramist philosophy and their recategorisations?4 We find that there is a French Catskin Week (on the boulevards) for which Gradus made Cartesian devils “imps of bottle glass bobbing up and down in methylate filled tubes” (171). Even the day that Hazel died has a reflection in Bacon in the “gum logged ant” (240) observed when John Shade and his wife were walking home. In the comment (238) which covers La Fontaine’s La Cigale et la Fourmi,5 the note reads: “The cigale’s companion piece, the ant, is about to be embalmed in amber.” If we bring home our Bacon:6 Quare videmus araneam aut muscam aut formicam, in electro, monumento plus quam regio, sepultas, aeternizari. 3

4

5 6

R. Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre (London: Penguin, 2001). A descriptive account (pp. 102-104) is taken from Nicolas Contat, Anecdotes Typographiques où l’on voit la description des coutumes, moeurs et usages singuliers des compagnons imprimeurs, ed. G. Barber (Oxford : Oxford Bibliograph. Soc, 1980). P.N. Furbank, Diderot (New York, Alfred A.Knopf. 1992) chap. 6. Diderot’s and d’Alembert’s ambitious work on their encyclopaedia or systematic account of “the order and concatenation of human knowledge,” was not intended as merely another dictionary. The word “encyclopaedia,” Diderot explained in the Prospectus, derived from the Greek term for circle, signifying “concatenation [enchaînement] of the sciences.” J. La Fontaine, Fables (Paris: Larousse, 2000). F. Bacon, Historia Vitae et Mortis. Provisional Rules Concerning the Duration of Life and the Form of Death, rule I, Explanation, trans. Spedding (1623). — 62 —

--------------------------   Hamlet Unrestored: Sémiramis and the Royal Tomb  ---------------------------

(Whence we see spiders, flies, or ants entombed in amber, a more than royal tomb. (Historia Vitae et Mortis, trans. Spedding)

Two consequences of this quotation are that it appears, firstly, to supply the inspiration for John Shade’s poem “The Nature of Electricity” (347), and secondly, to act as a pointer to a royal mausoleum. The arachnea and their relatives are embalmed in electro. The spirits of the dead in “The Nature of Electricity” are embalmed in a modern adaptation, the tungsten filament. The poem in the Commentary immediately follows the emergence of the shade from its royal tomb (or, at least, the emergence of the royal sprite in the likely form of King Alfin from within the barn). The dead, the gentle dead—who knows?— In tungsten filaments abide, And on my bedside table glows Another man’s departed bride. And maybe Shakespeare floods a whole Town with innumerable lights, And Shelley’s incandescent soul Lures the pale moths of starless nights. Street lamps are numbered, and maybe Number nine-hundred-ninety-nine (So brightly beaming through a tree So green) is an old friend of mine…

Even here, we move to think of a thousand obstacles to the local understanding in the tree of knowledge under the hand of D’Alembert and Diderot.7 Diderot himself plagiarised Goldoni’s play Le Vrai Ami (L’Amico vero) in his dramatic efforts.8 But the most fitting interpretation 7 8

See also D. Diderot, Oeuvres Complètes (1969), vol. 2, sec.281, pp. 365-463. Furbank, Diderot , ibid., 145-146. “Eventually Diderot’s Le Père de Famille got written and with it a long discourse on Dramatic Poetry in which he put his theories into systematic form (published in 1761). In the discourse, Diderot brazens out his borrowings from Goldoni as best he can. Goldoni’s farce, he claims is a tissue of borrowings from Molière’s L’Avare and Corneille’s Le Vrai Ami…’ and he has done no — 63 —

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of nine-hundred-ninety-nine pictures of Kinbote’s old friend must come from Shelley’s incandescent soul, where we find a fleeting roman IMage of a Shade in one of his Posthumous Poems:9

137 For she was beautiful - her beauty made The bright world dim, and everything beside Seemed like the fleeting IMage of a Shade (Shelley, The Witch of Atlas, 12)

And further: 241 She spoke and wept:—the dark and azure well Sparkled beneath the shower of her bright tears, And every little circlet where they fell Flung to the cavern-roof inconstant spheres And intertangled lines of light:—a knell Of sobbing voices came upon her ears From those departing Forms, o’er the serene Of the white streams and of the forest green. (Ibid.)

In the 1824 edition of these poems, Mary Shelley noted on The Witch of Atlas that Shelley felt “the flagitious calumnies and insulting abuse” deeply, though he armed himself with the consciousness of acting from a lofty and heroic sense of right. The truth burst from his heart sometimes in solitude, and he would write a few unfinished verses that showed he felt the sting; among such is the following: Alas, this is not what I thought Life was. I knew that there were crimes and evil men, Misery and hate; nor did I hope to pass Untouched by suffering through the rugged glen.

9

more than follow suit …I wish there were a dozen such thefts to reproach me with and [he adds ruefully] I don’t know if A Father and his Family [a further borrowing from Goldoni] will have gained much by being entirely mine.” P. B. Shelley, The Poetical Works, ed. T. Hutchinson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1908), 367-382. — 64 —

--------------------------   Hamlet Unrestored: Sémiramis and the Royal Tomb  ---------------------------

In mine own heart I saw as in a glass The hearts of others …And, when I went among my kind, with triple brass Of calm endurance my weak breast I armed, To bear scorn, fear, and hate—a woeful mass!

Another case, perhaps, of an author’s reply to his critics. However, more importantly, the beautiful Witch of Atlas creates “A living Image,” a hermaphrodite,10 which did far surpass 326 In Beauty that bright shape of vital stone Which drew the heart out of Pygmalion, A sexless thing it was, and in its growth It seemed to have developed no defect Of either sex, yet all the grace of both,— In gentleness and strength its limbs were decked; 337 From its two shoulders hung two rapid wings,

and at Stanza 43, 385 And when the wizard lady would ascend The labyrinths of some many winding vale, Which to the inmost mountain upward tend— She called “Hermaphroditus!”—and the pale And heavy hue which slumber could extend Over its lips and eyes, as on the gale A rapid shadow from a slope of grass, Into the darkness of the stream did pass, 10

T.S. Eliot considered the poem “a trifle.” Others have considered it Shelley’s finest longer poem (see L. F. S. Colwell, “Shelley’s Witch of Atlas and the Mythic Geography of the Nile”, ELH 45, no. 1 [1978]: 69-92). Shelley’s hermaphrodite appears as an adjunct to the Witch’s beneficient guide inspiring the gift of clarity to friends and lovers. The introduction of a hermaphrodite will later bring important comparisons with Eliot’s symbolic seer, Tiresias, in The Waste Land and Nabokov’s contemporary parody in the form of the bisexual Kinbote, the all-seeing conveyor of negative or neutral information (see chapter 10). A similar comparison will later be made to the recurring presence of grey or blue-grey in the Latin form of Glaucus, the sea god also endowed with the unerring gift of prophecy, in chapter 12. — 65 —

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And it unfurled its heaven-coloured pinions With stars of fire spotting the stream below;…

Later, in chapters 10, 11 and 12, we examine those hermaphrodites given with the gift of prophecy, and in chapter 13 we consider whether “the Image of a Shade” can be associated with a direct blood relationship to the Shade family. The formica is revisited in chapter 7. If we attempt to examine the House of Zembla with all its half branches in Latin, we should consider gens Zemblae omnibus semi ramis. Do we have, therefore, again, a literal allusion to Hamlet, or at least its close association with Voltaire’s play, Sémiramis,11 where the shade of Ninias’s father emerges from his royal mausoleum? Voltaire, while recognizing Shakespeare’s genius, was highly critical of his influence on French theatre. The views may be seen in his correspondence, in his Lettres Philosophiques, but also, importantly, in the foreword to his play.12 His position at the time of writing this play was to defend the culture of France, with its classical tradition of Corneille and Racine, from the genius of Shakespeare. His mature judgement contained in Section 3 gives his description of Hamlet: …c’est un piece grossière et barbare, qui ne serait pas supportée par la plus ville populace de la France et de l’Italie. Hamlet y devient fou au seconde acte, et sa maîtresse devient folle au troisième; le prince tue la père de sa maîtresse, feignant de tuer un rat, et l’heroine se jette dans la rivière. On fait la fosse sur le théâtre; des fossoyeurs disent des quolibets dignes d’eux, en tenant dans leurs mains des têtes des morts; le prince Hamlet répond à leurs grossièretés abominables par les folies non moins dégoûtantes. Pendant ce temps-là un des acteurs fait la conquête de la Pologne. Hamlet, sa mère et son beau-père boivent ensemble sur le théâtre; on chante à table, on s’y querelle, on se bat, on se tue; on croirait que cet ouvrage est le fruit de l’imagination d’un sauvage ivre.

He goes on to express that by a still greater paradox, he finds in Hamlet sublime traits worthy of the greatest genius. Voltaire’s 11 12

VSE, Sémiramis, was presented for the first time on 29 August, 1748. Voltaire, Dissertation sur la tragédie ancienne et moderne, addressed to Cardinal Quirini, Venetian noble and Bishop of Brescia (Vatican Library). — 66 —

--------------------------   Hamlet Unrestored: Sémiramis and the Royal Tomb  ---------------------------

adaptation of the play, therefore, determines to find a higher aesthetic plane than that given by Shakespeare. He increases the guilt of the mother, Sémiramis, who has had her husband, Ninus, poisoned by her ambitious lieutenant, Assur. Her small son, Ninias, also appears to have died in childhood, possibly poisoned by Assur, but through her guilt over fifteen years, she has devoted herself to the augmentation and prosperity of her empire. She has brought up a childhood friend of her infant son, Assema, who is in love with the young successful military leader, Arsace. Assur and Arsace are sworn enemies and Assur also has designs on Assema. Arsace returns triumphant to Babylon, but over the celebrations, and with due consideration, Sémiramis decides for the good of the empire to marry Arsace. The royal tomb housing the poisoned Ninus is heard to rumble. The shade of the father later appears and informs Arsace that he must expiate a crime committed against Ninus and Ninias and must appear in the dark of the royal tomb. Sémiramis hears that Asur is planning to kill Arsace in the tomb and goes herself to rescue him, learning that Arsace is, in fact, her lost son, Ninias. Arsace/Ninias, finding his assailant in the darkness of the tomb, strikes out but finds that he has killed his mother. The priests secure Assur. Ninias and Assema can go forward with the empire with all sins expiated. Arsace replies to the shade that appears from the tomb and whom he does not yet know is, in fact, the ghost of his father: Ombre que je révère Demi-dieu dont l’esprit anime ces climats, Ton aspect m’encourage et ne m’étonne pas, Oui, j’irai dans ta tombe au péril de ma vie. Achève; que veux-tu que ma main sacrifie? (L’ombre retourne de son estrade à la porte du tombeau) Il s’éloigne, il nous fuit!

In a letter to the Duc de Richelieu13 from Ferney in 1769, Voltaire comments, “On vient donc de jouer une tragédie anglaise à Paris. Je commence à croire que nous devenons trop anglais at qu’il nous sérait mieux 13

VCC, 10 October, 1159-1161. — 67 —

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d’être français. C’est votre affaire, car c’est à vous à soutenir l’honneur du Pays.” À propos in a letter to the Comte d’Argental three days later,14 he writes: “Les ombres vont devenir à la mode. J’ai ouvert modestement la carrière (avec Sémiramis) on va y courir à bride abattue.... J’ai voulu animer le théâtre en y mettant plus d’action, et toute actuellement est action et pantomime... Nous allons tomber en tout dans l’outré et dans le gigantesque.” In his letters to d’Alembert in 177615 arguing against the Shakespeare panegyrist Le Tourneur, Voltaire writes, “Tout le plaisant de l’affaire consiste assurement dans le contraste des morceaux admirables de Corneille et de Racine, avec les termes du bordel et de la halle que le divin Shakespeare met continuellement dans la bouche de ses héros et de ses héroïnes. Je suis toujours persuade que, quand vous avertirez l’Àcademie qu’on ne peut pas prononcer au Louvre ce que Shakespeare prononcait si familièrement devant la reine Élizabeth.” Even Shakespeare has his critics. We turn again to Kinbote’s critical Commentary at 671 criticising the practice of “entitling a collection of essays or a volume of poetry— or a long poem, alas—with a phrase lifted from a more or less celebrated work of the past... since anybody can flip through a Midsummer Night’s Dream or Romeo and Juliet, or, perhaps The Sonnets and take his pick.” A literary allusiveness is suggested by the word “perhaps,” and Shakespeare’s reliance on Ovid’s Metamorphoses in the middle period of his sonnets is well recognized.16 A unifying theme in Kinbote’s references lies in Ovid’s Pyramus and Thisbe,17 where the apparent death of one lover leads to a double suicide. The opening lines read: Pyramus et Thisbe, iuvenum pulcherrimus alter, altera, quas Oriens habuit, praelata puellis, 14 15

16 17

Ibid., n9. In a comment on Hamlet taken from a letter of 13 October. VCC, 13 August, p. 1455. D’Alembert had asked Voltaire on the 4th of August in the name of the Academy for some modifications before the public lecture on the 25th: “it is indispensable to hide the name of the translator …it would be necessary …to revise in the Shakespeaean citations some aspects which were a little too free and which would be dangerous for such a lecture.” In order to save time, he proposed himself to be responsible for the revisions. Leishman, Blair, Themes and Variations in Shakespeare’s Sonnets (1961), chap. 5. OM 4.55-169. — 68 —

--------------------------   Hamlet Unrestored: Sémiramis and the Royal Tomb  ---------------------------

contiguas tenuere domos, ubi dicitur altam coctilibus muris cinxisse Semiramis urbem. Now Pyramus and Thisbe, he of all The fine young men, the handsomest, and she, The fairest girl of all the fabled East, Lived next door to each other in that city Whose high brick walls Semiramis once built (trans. A. D. Melville, emphasis added)

These lines make it unsuprising that the lovers’ tryst is made at Ninus’s tomb, where they would hide beneath a tree laden with snowwhite fruit, a mulberry tree (Latin morus, second declension). Believing Thisbe to be dead from a lion’s bloody marks upon her shawl dropped in flight, Pyramus plunges his sword into his side: As when a pipe bursts where the lead is flawed And water through the narrow hissing hole Shoots forth long leaping jets that cut the air, The berries of the tree, spattered with blood, Assumed a sable hue; the blood soaked roots Tinged with a purple dye the hanging fruits (ibid., 122-127)

The mulberry retains its purple hue. Are we to give a different inference to a stealthy harbinger, a memento mori, namely the blood of John Shade, rather than his death? In the childhood reference cited (143), playing with his clockwork toy, a tin negro with a wheelbarrow, there was only a sudden bloodrush to his head (146). The more prescient image of death18 (chapter 10) is in the presence of the real-life gardener (998-999). A further pointer to Ninus’s tomb appears near the end of the Commentary, where the bloods of Pyramus and Thisbe lie in one of the Shakespearian trees that lined the famous avenue of Wordsmith College, where there is “a midsummer mulberry, its shade inviting to tarry,” the midsummer suggesting bloody congealment rather than delay (998). 18

See also chapter 16, n1. — 69 —

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If we interpret the likely references to Sémiramis correctly, we conclude that the ghost in the barn is consistent with the shade of the murdered King Alfin. The fact that his ghost is addressed as a demi-dieu could be interpreted to mean that Alfin might also be taken literally as a stepfather (but one might accept that this becomes a step too far). This, itself, would confirm that Kinbote is not the true son of Alfin. The Sémiramis theme of an honourable solution to parental murder through accidental matricide is also supported by the inadvertent predilections of young Charles. In Kinbote’s comments on my bedroom (80), he reports that an elderly psychiatrist had warned the young Charles/Kinbote that his vices, subconsciously, had killed his mother and would continue “to kill her in him” if he did not renounce sodomy. “A palace intrigue is, indeed, a spectral spider that entangles you more nastily at every desperate jerk you try.” Queen Blenda died of a familial blood ailment. Further support for the influence of matricide is also found in chapter 7, where we observe that the fluttering but persistent presence of Eriphyla, who betrayed her husband Amphiaraus and was slain by her son Alcmaeon, was also adapted by Voltaire.19 But is there evidence that John Shade may be a natural son of the murdered king? In literary associations, we shall examine in chapter 8 the pervasive influence of Robert Browning in the Commentary. Here we note the closeness of the bobolink to the blithe spirit and son and heir of the kingdom through the agency of the Bostonian, Mr. Sludge, “The Medium”:20 But know too, child-like, that it will not be, At least in my case, mine, the son and heir 19

20

In the Ériphyle (1732), the ghost of Amphiaraus appears when Alcmeon is unwittingly marrying his mother and demands vengeance. Voltaire generally disapproved of the supernatural (as with the use of deus ex machina) to resolve events in the rules of tragedy. In the case of Caesar’s ghost in Brutus’s tent at Philippi, Voltaire remarked, “Je ne voudrais pas comme Shakespeare, faire apparaître à Brutus, son mauvais genie” (see n. 12). The classical tale of Eriphyla and Amphiaraus is referenced in more detail in chapter 7, nn. 20 and 21. R. Browning, Selected Poetry, intro. and ed. D. Karlin (London: Penguin Books, 1989), Mr Sludge, “The Medium,” 204-246. — 70 —

--------------------------   Hamlet Unrestored: Sémiramis and the Royal Tomb  ---------------------------

O’the kingdom, as yourself proclaim my style.

1170

But do you fancy I stop short of this? Wonder if suit and service, son and heir Needs must expect, I dare to pretend to find? If, looking for signs proper to such an one, I straight perceive them irresistable? Concede that homage is a son’s plain right, And, never mind the nods and raps and winks, ‘Tis the pure obvious supernatural Steps forward does his duty: why, of course! I have presentiments; my dreams come true: I fancy a friend stands whistling all in white Blithe as a bobolink, and he’s dead I learn

The “link and bobolink” giving “some kind of correlated pattern in the game” (812-813) suggests a natural son and heir relationship to Alfin. Earlier, the seductive Sludge had commented on our credulity through Johnson’s comment, 133 How wisdom scouts our vulgar unbelief More than our vulgarest credulity: How good men have desired to see a ghost, What Johnson used to say…

and even again later, he comments, 1408 Bacon advises, Shakespeare writes you songs

The vulgar laughter on the hereafter and the spirit theme are also present in the initiating context of the “gum-logged ant” of John Shade’s poem when he reflects on the imagination’s limits. The most that can be thought up is, however, a domestic as opposed to a royal ghost, which, ironically, becomes apposite if John is a royal martyr in the current context (230). 221 So why join in the vulgar laughter? Why Scorn a hereafter none can verify The Turk’s delight, the future lyres, the talks — 71 —

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With Socrates and Proust in cypress walks, The seraph with his six flamingo wings, And Flemish hells and porcupines and things? It isn’t that we dream too wild a dream: The trouble is that we do not make it seem Sufficiently unlikely; for the most We can think up is a domestic ghost.

In contrast to the Voltairean theme, Charles felt a sickly physical fear of his mother’s phantom (80). The Countess de Fyler’s exhaustive efforts to raise in Charles some heterosexual interest in her daughter, Fleur, had also brought him to attend table-turning séances with an experienced American medium, at which the Queen’s spirit wrote in English: “Charles take take cherish love Flower, Flower, Flower.” But this can but appear as a double take to try Flora. Finally, on John Shade’s walk (347) with the German Hentzner and his young son on his way to the old barn, the child indicates where “Papa pisses,” an alliterative reference on their peregrinations and urinations to Browning’s “Pippa Passes,”21 that unusual dramatic lyric dealing with the encounter of the innocent Pippa with the darker real world. Within this poem, in the first scene, as Pippa walks outside, an adulterous couple are quarrelling over the late murder of the lady’s husband. All the harbingers of this note from literary, literal, and linguistic references appear to confirm that Alfin in his beautiful Blenda IV had been the object of a murderous intrigue. But what if John Shade before his departure to high school in the United States had had a precocious liaison in the late autumn of 1914? Do we also have a theme of Heraclius? Again we see the problems of literal translation and the viewpoint of the critic upon basic literal, literary, and linguistic associations within the text. Are there even further linguistic associations to be explored?

21

RB, 3:17-91. Part 1, “Morning” (1988). — 72 —

-----------------------------------------  Classical Affinities I : A Modern Aeneas -----------------------------------------

VI Classical Affinities I : A Modern Aeneas

The ultimate destiny of madmen’s souls has been probed by many theologians who generally hold the view that even the most demented mind still contains within its diseased mass a sane basic particle that survives death and suddenly expands, bursts out as it were, in peals of healthy and triumphant laughter when the world of timorous fools and trim blockheads has fallen away far behind. Personally, I have not known any lunatics; but have heard of several amusing cases in New Wye (“Even in Arcady am I” says Dementia, chained to her grey column). (629 “The Fate of Beasts”) We consider further father/son relationships. In identifying the strands of the adulterous web of the Royal House of Onhava, there is a case to be made that Jakob Gradus may be regarded as a not very distinguished modern Aeneas in search of his unrecognized father. Evidence for the hypothesis that John Shade is, in fact, the unwitting father of Gradus and that Shade’s assassination will prove a case of parricide by the dimwitted Martian/Heraclius of our story will be examined in this chapter. This is a complicating strand in the adulterous web, even if Gradus’s problems, apposite for a former maker of cartesian imps (171) and agent of the Shadows organisation, have an ironic simplicity compared to the dilemma of Martian and Heraclius. The true strand does not necessarily end with Gradus, for his enforced odyssey in regal pursuit has an obvious correlation with the earlier path of Kinbote/Charles the Beloved himself. This correlation calls into question whether Charles the Beloved could be the product of an illicit affair of the adolescent young Shade with Queen Blenda and not — 73 —

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of Blenda’s affair with the Duke of Rahl. We note that the combined odyssies of Gradus and Charles have incidents comparable to those that arise in Aeneas’s descent to the Underworld to find the shade of the father, Anchises. Before examining the classical influence of Publius Vergilius Maro, Virgil, the Mantuan, on both Gradus’s and Charles’s footsteps by following the path of Aeneas, rather summarily, through Book 6 of the Aeneid,1 we commence by citing classical allusions starting with the organisational commentary at (181). This contains two references to (230) indicating “the domestic ghost” (now seen to be the shade of the murdered King Alfin), while there are two further “anticipatory” references to Gradus when in Copenhagen, “where he had entered with an important Shadow, a clothes store in order to conform to his description in later notes (286 and 408).” Taken in conjunction with (697) at the head of this chapter, the notes are: 286

a jet’s pink trail above the sunset fire

Gradus, alias Degré, had flown from Copenhagen to Paris, thus completing the second lap of his sinister journey! Even in Arcady am I, says Death in the tombal scripture. 408

a male hand [Regarding Joseph Lavender’s villa at Lex (Latin lit. “the correct use of words”):] Its name, Libitina, was displayed in cursive script above one of the barred north windows, with its letters made of black wire and the dot over each of the three i’s cleverly mimicked by the tarred head of a chalk coated nail driven into the white facade. This device, and the north-facing window grates, Gradus had observed in Swiss villas before, but immunity to classical allusion deprived him of the pleasure that Lavender’s macabre joviality had paid the Roman goddess of corpses and tombs.

1

VA 6.506-571. — 74 —

-----------------------------------------  Classical Affinities I : A Modern Aeneas -----------------------------------------

We turn to the travels of Aeneas and correlate the journeys of ancient and modern. At the start of The Aeneid, book 6, Aeneas begins by pleading with the prophetess, the Sibyl, to visit the underworld to see, again, the shade of his father, Anchises. Seeking the vast cavern by the temple of Apollo at Cumae with its entrance to the underworld and the hidden haunt of the dread Sibyl who will guide his path (10: horrendaeque procul secreta Sibyllae), our note2 indicates that the volcanic hills at Cumae are pierced by many grottoes. One of these, the antrum, could be approached through the Temple. After being directed and led by the Sibyl, Aeneas appeals to her on the basis of the past acceptance of Orpheus and of Pollux: 119

si potuit Manis accersere coniugis Orpheus Threicia fretus cithara fidibusque canoris; si fratrem Pollux alterna morte redemit itque reditque viam totiens ... If Orpheus availed to summon his wife’s shade, strong in his Thracian lyre and tuneful strings; if Pollux, dying in turn, ransomed his brother and so often comes and goes his way.

124

Talibus orabat dictis arasque tenebat, cum sic orsa loqui vates: “sate sanguine divum, Tros Anchisiade, facilis descensus Averno: noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis; sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras, hoc opus, hic labor est. In such words he prayed and clasped the altar, when thus the prophetess began to speak: “Sprung from blood of gods, son of Trojan Anchises, easy is the descent to Avernus: night and day the door of gloomy Dis stands open; but to recall thy steps and pass to the outer air, this is the task, this the toil!”

2

VA 6.509n1. — 75 —

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Before arriving at the halls of Dis (15.07.59), or, in our case, the halls of Disa and her phantom realm at the Villa Paradiso or Paradisa in Nice (subsequently renamed Villa Disa, abbreviating a journey from heaven to hell), the modern Aeneas travels (10.07.59) from Geneva to Lex and loses his way “among steep tortuous lanes.” Guided by the three fingers of three masons, the modern equivalent of the shade of Geryon, a giant with three bodies slain by Hercules (289: et forma tricorporis umbrae), Gradus arrives at the house of the Roman goddess of corpses and tombs (that, in fact, of Joseph Lavender, a brother-in law of much-married Sylvia O’Donnell), where there is a grotto. In place of the intrepid Orpheus or the young souls placed at the mouth of the entrance to the underworld, there is only one youth, Gordon, a Narcissus who, Orpheus-like, is a musical prodigy (but on soft [piano] strings) and who shows Gradus the garden grotto (a nest for him and his young friend) before retiring to the shady pool. The shades, les ombres, in the Aeneid dismissed by the Sibyl are not in evidence, but in their place is a hidden shady collection of ombrioles, “photographs of the artistic type which combined exquisite beauty with highly indecent subject matter” but containing “a dapple of female charms.”3 Evidence for the passage of King Charles could be found in the garden’s rustic privy. (A boy’s hand had scrawled in charcoal: “The King was here”). The guiding Sibyl, after dismissing the voiceless shades (264: umbrae silentes) and following the sacrifice of four dark-backed heifers (to Hecate), a black-fleeced lamb to the mother of the Eumenides and her 3

A Shakespearian shadow of Semiramis (see chapter 5) lies across the presence of ombrioles or “wanton pictures” as offered to Christopher Sly in the Induction (scene 1, line 47) to The Taming of the Shrew (see Nuttall, Shakespeare—The Thinker [Yale, 2007]). Sly is offered “a picture of Venus hiding in bushes that respond excitedly to her presence (they “wanton with her breath.” Ind. 2.52) and another of Io “surprised” (that is raped), “as lively painted as the deed was done” (Ind. scene 2, lines 54-55), and a hint here perhaps of sadism—the scratched legs of Daphne as she fled her lustful pursuer (Ind., scene 2, line 58).” But Sly, who in a drunken stupor is made to believe that he can wake up a gentleman, is first offered a couch Softer and sweeter than the lustful bed On purpose trimm’d up for Semiramis (Ind., scene 2, lines 37-39) — 76 —

-----------------------------------------  Classical Affinities I : A Modern Aeneas -----------------------------------------

great sister (Night with her sister, Terra, daughters of Chaos), a barren heifer (to Proserpine), and whole carcasses of bulls for the Stygian king (Pluto), Aeneas passes with the prophetess through the empty halls of Dis to approach the marshy Styx and the journey to the lower shades of Erebus. On Gradus’s journey from Geneva to the Cote d’Azur on July 15th, he obtains a guide (in fact, a map) and sacrifices the purchase of a violet glass hippopotamus (697) following a similar sacrifice of a crystal giraffe at Montreux on his journey from Geneva to Lex (408). (As Swift observed,4 “Satire is a sort of glass wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own.”), These representations do, however, help to understand John Shade’s short poem [on Art] taken from Night Rote (957) commencing: From mammoth hunts and Odyssseys And Oriental charms To the Italian Goddesses … Crossing the marshy Styx and drugging the three throated Cerberus at the entrance to the lowest shades of Erebus, Aeneas and the Sibyl win the entrance. Near are placed the innocent and those who took their own lives, a place neither of punishment nor of joy. 4

Jonathan Swift, The Battle of the Books, ed. A. C. Guthkelch and D. Nichol Smith (Oxford: Clarendon, 1920), opening to Preface. (1 In the ensuing battle between the Antients and Moderns, it was reported (section 6) that:



Besides, it so happened, that about this time, there was a strange Confusion of Place among all the Books in the Library; for which several Reasons were assigned. Some imputed it to a great heap of learned Dust, which a perverse Wind blew off from a Shelf of Moderns into the Keeper’s Eyes. Others affirmed, He had a Humour to pick the Worms out of the Schoolmen, and swallow them fresh and fasting; whereof some fell upon his Spleen, and some climbed up into his Head, to the great perturbation of both. And lastly, others maintained, that by walking much in the dark about the Library, he had quite lost the Situation of it out of his Head; And therefore, in replacing his Books, he was apt to mistake, and clap Des-Cartes next to Aristotle; Poor Plato had got between Hobbes and the Seven Wise Masters, and Virgil was hemm’d in with Dryden on one side, and Withers on the other.

“Schoolmen” was a common term for the Scholastic philosophers of the Middle Ages, who were widely criticized in the Renaissance and eighteenth century. The presence of parasitic worms and maggots absorbed into the two personalities of bot in the form of Botkin and Kinbote and Nabokov’s parody of Eliot’s hermaphrodite, Tiresias, are later examined in chapter 12. — 77 —

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440

Nec procul hinc partem fusi monstrantur in omnem Lugentes Campi; sic illos nomine dicunt hic, quos durus amor crudeli tabe peredit, secreti celant calles et myrtea circums siva tegit; curae non ipsa in morte relinquunt. Not far from here, outspread on every side, are shown the Mourning Fields; such is the name they bear. Here, those whom stern love has consumed with cruel wasting are hidden in walks withdrawn, embowered in a myrtle grove; even in death the pangs leave them not.

Here unhappy Dido meets again Aeneas. Cross-cutting to Charles’s odyssey and his meeting with Disa at the Villa (433-434), “The gist, rather than the actual plot of the dream, was a constant refutation of his not loving her. His dream-love for her exceeded in emotional tone, in spiritual passion and depth, anything he had experienced in his surface existence. This love was like an endless wringing of hands, like a blundering of the soul through an infinite maze of hopelessness and remorse.” Queen Dido in Erebus and her reincarnation in the real Queen Disa is also indicated by the butterfly, Erebia Disa, the arctic ringlet found in Northern Scandinavia.5 It may be seen, as an aside, that the Arctic, or perhaps better, Erebia Embla, the Lapland or Scandinavian ringlet6 and the Styrian ringlet [see chapter 1], are fittingly associated geographically with the positions of that distant northern land, Nova Zembla, and old Zembla, below the Alps, both countries being “on their long peninsula”). Following Gradus’s pursuit of Charles and his arrival in Nice on the fifteenth of July, his motives are uncertain. “Did he just want to peep through the myrtles and oleanders at an imagined swimming pool?” Did he expect to hear the continuation of (Orpheus’s) Gordon’s bravura piece played now in another rendition, by two larger and stronger hands? (697). He learns from his taxi driver that the Queen has gone to Italy for the rest of July. 5 6

BBPF, p. 164. See also BBE, p. 99. BBE, p. 99. — 78 —

-----------------------------------------  Classical Affinities I : A Modern Aeneas -----------------------------------------

Aeneas toils to the furthest fields (i.e., neither of Elysium or black Tartarus) where the renowned in war dwell apart and meets Deiphobus, son of Priam, his whole frame mangled, his face cruelly torn, deceived by the Laconian woman (Helen). At the start of King Charles’s odyssey on the beach at the Rippleson Caves, in making his escape from Zembla, he observes, “The newspaper reader’s face had been atrociously injured in the recently mentioned explosion, and all the art of plastic surgery had only resulted in a hideous tessellated texture with parts of pattern and parts of outline seeming to change, to fuse or to separate, like fluctuating cheeks and chins in a distorting mirror.” As the Russian tourist’s wife remarks, “Every time I see that kind of frightful disfigurement I can’t help thinking of Nina’s boy. War is an awful thing.” “War?” queries her consort. “That must have been the explosion at the Glass works in 1951—not war.” (Her consort is in fact Odon in disguise.) (149). The Sibyl warns that night is approaching and suddenly Aeneas looks back: 539

nox ruit Aenea; nos flendo ducimus horas. hic locus est, partis ubi se via findit in ambas: dextera quae Ditis magni sub moenia tendit, hac iter Elysium nobis; at laeva malorum exercet poenas, et ad impia Tartara mittit. Night is coming, Aeneas; we waste the hours in weeping. Here is the place, where the road parts in twain: there, to the right, as it runs under the walls of great Dis, is our way to Elysium, but the left wreaks the punishment of the wicked, and sends them on to pitiless Tartarus.

548 Respicit Aeneas subito et sub rupe sinistra moenia lata videt, triplici circumdata muro, que rapidus flammis ambit torrentibus amnis , Tartareus Phlegethon, torquetque sonantia saxa. porta adversa, ingens, solidoque adamante columnae, vis ut nulla virum, non ipsi exscindere bello caelicolae valeant; stat ferrea turris ad auras, Tisiphonaeque sedens, palla succincta cruenta, vestibulum exsomnis servat noctesque diesque. — 79 —

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hinc exaudiri gemitus, et saeva sonare verbera, tum stridor ferri tractaeque catenae. Suddenly Aeneas looks back, and under a cliff on the left sees a broad castle, girt with triple wall and encircled with a rushing flood of torrent flames—Tartarean Phlegethon—that rolls along thundering rocks. In front, stands the huge gate, and pillars of solid adamant, that no might of man, nay, not even the sons of heaven, may uproot in war; there stands the iron tower, soaring high, and Tisiphone, sitting girt with bloody pall, keeps sleepless watch o’er the portal night and day. Therefrom are heard groans and the sound of the savage lash; withal, the clank of iron and dragging of chains.

In the context of the meeting of Charles the Beloved and Disa, their thoughts later turn to Odon’s filming of a Zemblan legend. “How would he represent, they wondered, the narstran, a hellish hall where the souls of murderers were tortured under a constant drizzle of drake venom coming down from the foggy vault?” Tisiphone, however, girt with the lash has only available snake (572: anguis) venom. Of the sufferers in black Tartarus stretching into the gloom twice as far as the sky’s upward view to Mount Olympus: 585

vidi et crudelis dantem Salmonea poenas, dum flammas Iovis et sonitus immitatur Olympi. quattuor hic invectus equis et lampada quassans per Graium populos mediaeque per Elidis urbem ibat ovans, divumque sibi poscebat honorem, demens, qui nimbos et non imitabile fulmen aere et cornipedum pulsu similaret equorum. at pater omnipotens densa inter nubila telum contorsit, non ille faces nec fumea taedis lumina, praecipitemque immani turbine adegit. Salmoneus, too, I saw who paid a cruel penalty while aping Jove’s fires and the thunders of Olympus. He, borne by four horses and brandishing a torch, rode triumphant through the Greek peoples and his city in the heart of Elis, claiming as his own, the homage to deity. Madman! to mimic the storm clouds and inimitable thunder with brass and the tramp of horn-footed horses! But the Father Almighty amid thick clouds launched his bolt—no firebrand he, nor pitch pines smoky glare—and drave him headlong with furious whirlwind. — 80 —

-----------------------------------------  Classical Affinities I : A Modern Aeneas -----------------------------------------

Crossing the marshy Styx (in Gradus’s case Mare Atlanticum) and passing through New York to the blissful groves of academe in New Wye, it is not surprising that, as with Salmoneus, “A formidable thunderstorm had greeted Gradus in New York on the night of his arrival from Paris (Monday July 20). The tropical rainfall flooded basements and subway tracks. Kaleidoscopic reflections played in the riverlike streets.” Reading The New York Times the following morning: “Last night, in Newark, an apartment house at 555 South Street was hit by a thunderbolt that smashed a TV set and injured two people watching an actress lost in a violent studiostorm (those tormented spirits are terrible! C.X.K. teste J.S.).” And that glass again: “The Helman brothers said that they had assisted in the negotiations for the placement of a sizable note: $11,000,000, Decker Glass Manufacturing Company, note due July 1, 1979.” The use of the Latin teste, “oh witness,” and the use of Charles Xavier’s true initials in place of the commentator’s alias (C.X.K. reprimanded his wife, Queen Disa, for not using his cover on a letter from the South of France on April 2 1959; 768) suggests that we should pay particular attention to Kinbote’s warning to John Shade. If we commence at 608: 608

hic quibus invisi fratres , dum vita manebat, pulsatusve parens, et fraus innexa clie nti, aut qui divitiis soli incubuere repertis nec partem posuere suis (quae maxima turba est), quique ob adulterium caesi, quique arma secuti impia nec veriti dominorum fallere dextras, inclusi poenam exspectant. ne quaere doceri, quam poenam, aut quae forma viros fortunave mersit. saxum ingens volvunt alii, radiisque rotarum districti pendent; sedet aeternumque sedebit infelix Theseus; Phlegyasque miserrimus omnis admonet et magna testatur voce per umbras; “discite iustitiam moniti et non temnere divos,” Here were they who in lifetime hated their brethren, or smote a sire, and entangled a client in wrong; or who brooded in solitude over wealth they had won, nor set aside a portion for their kin—the — 81 —

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largest number this; who were slain for their adultery; or who followed unholy warfare, and feared not to break faith with their lords—all these, immured, await their doom. Seek not to learn that doom, or what form of crime, or fate, o’erwhelmed them! Some roll a huge stone, or hang outstretched on spokes of wheels; hapless Theseus sits and evermore shall sit, and Phlegyas, most unblest, gives warning to all and with loud voice bears witness amid the gloom: Be warned; learn ye to be just and not to slight the gods!

Aeneas also arrives at last at the arcadian “green pleasaunces and happy seats of the Blissful Groves” (639: Fortunatorum Nemorum) with the river of Lethe and is reunited with the shade of his father, Anchises. An ironic paradox is that in New Wye, John, in contrast, is the father of a Shade. To strengthen the hypothesis of a blood relationship between John Shade and Gradus/Kinbote, we turn to the diligent Conmal, Duke of Aros in the important (962). We read of the description of the author’s bedchamber: “A large sluggish man with no passions save poetry, he seldom moved from his warm castle and its fifty thousand crested books, and had been known to spend two years in bed reading and writing after which, much refreshed, he went for the first and only time to London.” Following his half-century of translating Shakespeare into Zemblan, “in 1930, he went on to Milton and other poets, steadily drilling through the ages, and had just completed Kipling’s “The Rhyme of the Three Sealers” (“Now this is the law of the Muscovite that he proves with shot and steel”) when he fell ill and soon expired under his splendid bed ceil with its reproduction of Altamira animals…” . Apart from the lethal tussles of the three illicit sealskin trading vessels in Kipling’s saga, the emphasis of the seal and the ceiling suggests that we should focus on this animal. “To kill seals,” which in Latin becomes Phocas occidere, or also, “To kill Phocas,” gives support to the presence of a Cornelian Heraclius or Martian within the murderous intrigue. It could also be a case, perhaps, of the Virginian gunned down by the Virgilian. On the other hand, we cannot neglect the potential influence of Pope from The Rape of the Lock7 on the ambiguity of the bodkin: 7

PAP, vol. 2, The Rape of the Lock, part 5. — 82 —

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86 Now meet thy Fate, incens’d Belinda cry’d, And drew a deadly Bodkin from her side. (The same, his ancient Personage to deck, Her great great Grandsire wore about his neck In three Seal-Rings; which after melted down, Form’d a vast Buckle for his Widow’s Gown:

And we have another performing seal. Our Popian notes refer to other metamorphoses.8 In Imitation of the Progress of Agamemnon’s Scepter in Homer Iliad 2 is later compared to the descent of the Helmet, in Iliad 10. Pope’s notes also refer to “Sir George Etheridge To the Earl of Middleton” where by similar genealogical steps a diamond bodkin is traced back through a cap ornament, a fan handle, and ear rings. We have emerging, therefore, that there can be more than one pretender to the Royal Throne of Onhava and that there can be two Charleses. The presence of Charles II (the only reference to any “Charles” in the Index), associated with the English king, has been well covered.9 His romantic escape after the battle of Worcester in 1651 is reflected in (233) with a close extract from Clarendon’s History of the Rebellion (1702-1704), but there is also the additional comment, “(I am thinking of yet another Charles, another long dark man above two yards high),” suggestive of Charles I. The son’s hiding at Boscobel in an oak tree is, again, mirrored in the Royal Summer House at Boscobel in Western Zembla, a duny spot with “soft hollows imbued with the writer’s most amorous recollections” (149,596). The reference to Thomas Flatman, 1637-1688 (in the context of a tyre puncture), can be correlated with a dedicated poem on the restoration of Charles II, “A Panegyric To His Renowned Majestie, Charles II, King of Great Britain….”10 In view of this English dominance, we may look for the presence of a royal Charles I. We commence by examining (189) referring to the College astronomer Starover Blue and a slightly complicated set of references to (627), (209), (181-182) which read: 8

9 10

At line 89 Pope refers to Homer’s Iliad 2.129ff. [Pope 1714-1751] and to Iliad 10.312ff. The address to the Earl of Middleton is given in Dryden’s Sylvae (ed. 1702), p. 224. BBPF, 80-81. BBPF, 102-103. — 83 —

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See note to line 627. This reminds one of the Royal Game of the Goose, but played here with little airplanes of painted tin; a wildgoose game, rather (go to square 209). Line 209: gradual decay Spacetime itself is decay; Gradus is flying west, he has reached grayblue Copenhagen (see note to 181). After tomorrow (July 7) he will proceed to Paris. He has sped through this verse and is gone— presently to darken our pages again. Lines 181-182 waxwings …cicadas Line 627: The great Starover Blue

Within the Commentary, Kinbote describes the origin of the name: “The star over the blue eminently suits an astronomer though actually neither his first nor second name bears any relation to the celestial vault: the first was given him in memory of his grandfather, a Russian (accented, incidentally, on the ultima), that is Old Believer (member of a schismatic sect), named Sinyavin, from siniy, Russ. ’blue.’ This Sinyavin migrated from Saratov to Seattle and begot a son who eventually changed his name to Blue and married Stella Lazurchick, an Americanized Kashube. So it goes…” The campus students nicknamed the college astronomer “Colonel Starbottle,” however, because of his exceptionally convivial habits. The literal reference to the Royal Game of the Goose can be found in Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village,11 describing “the parlour spendours of that festive place,” the ale-house: 232

The pictures placed for ornament and use, the twelve good rules, the royal game of goose—

The twelve good rules were said to have been “found in the study of King Charles I, of blessed memory,” and in the eighteenth century were frequently framed and displayed in taverns.12 11 12

Oliver Goldsmith, The Poems and Play (New York: Worthington, 1890), 24. BDPF, 408. — 84 —

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Goldsmith, however, also wrote a “Description of an Author’s Bedchamber,”13 apparently intending it for “the beginning of a seriocomic poem on the shift and struggles of a poor author, but never finished it” more reminiscent of the life of John Shade: 11

The Royal game of goose was there in view And the twelve rules the royal martyr drew.

Given that Goldsmith’s twelve rules of the royal game of the goose are associated with the royal martyr, the hypothesis that is emerging is that John Shade is an older pretender to the Zemblan throne. There are many indirect references present in the text to an older king (an alderkin, Goethe’s Erlkönig, 662; alderwood ancestry, 894). We cannot ignore that Conmal, Duke of Aros, may also be a potential father of John Shade, should John’s poetic gifts be thought to be an inheritance of Conmal’s literary endeavours. The self-consistency of the four cited references and the likely identification of Captain Starbottle may be developed from the rather irrelevant but guiding reference (209). “Gradual decay” can be considered as “a continual rotting.” The key appears to lead us to the german modern “to rot” and a modern continuum. The concept of space time may be regarded as a modern continuum. The identification of the great astronomer, Starover Blue (189, 627) is, therefore, likely to be found commencing with the German Stern, “a star,” which, in turn, gives us sternhagelblau, “a drunk,” to which we later return. The full commentary “waxwings …cicadas” of lines 181-182 runs: The bird of lines 1-4 and 131 is again with us. It will reappear in the ultimate line of the poem; and another cicada, leaving its envelope behind, will sing triumphantly at lines 236-244.

This will be the subject of our next chapter. It may be noted that Kinbote’s description of the Odyssey in Canto Three as “a shocking tour de force” (Foreword) is unusually precise.

13

Ibid., 37. — 85 —

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VII Classical affinities II: An Ancient Nisus

Fear the just Gods, and think of Scylla’s Fate! Chang’d to a Bird, and sent to flit in Air, She dearly pays for Nisus’ injur’d Hair!  (Pope, The Rape of the Lock, Canto Three, lines 122-124) We have suggested in chapter 4 that Nabokov’s defence of allegory in a more scientific age using the medium of Kinbote’s Commentary offers a convenient position for an attack upon his critics, the flight to fantasy allowing more freedom and variation to his challenge. The use of allegory follows closely the position adopted by Pope in his replies. We have seen in chapter 6 that amongst Nabokov’s methodologies has been the construction of a satiric odyssey covering the travels of Gradus and Kinbote to the New World, a comparative journey which might throw light on a father/son relationship in the adulterous web of the House of Onhava. Mock heroic or serio-comic methodology was particularly present in English poetry in the eighteenth century, but satiric odyssies have an early genesis and one may cite the work of the French in the form of Rabelais1 and the odyssey associated with Panurge and Pantagruel. It has been said2 that even Homer, in his serious epics, did not seem entirely serious, impairing the sacredness of his celestials, 1 2

HLF, vol. 4, L’oeuvre de Rabelais, 215-226 at 218. PAP, vol. 2, The Rape of the Lock,from a) I Introduction, p 81and b) II “THE POEM,” part 1, p 106 (see also Longinus, Concerning Sublimity, 9). The epic along with tragedy has always been considered the most serious of poetic forms, but from the earliest times it has been skirted or even intruded upon by the comic. Of its various forms, Boileau discredited burlesque by precept in the Art Poetique. The mock-heroic has been considered the only method worthy of the serious attention of the poet. — 87 —

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degrading gods into men and and the same time elevating men into gods. Pope, in The Rape of the Lock3 with his constant references to the Iliad, can write: 45 So when bold Homer makes the Gods engage, And heav’nly Breasts with human Passions rage; “Gainst Pallas, Mars; Latona, Hermes arms; And all Olympus rings with loud Alarms. Jove’s Thunder roars, Heav’n trembles all round; Blue Neptune storms, the bellowing Deeps resound; Earth shakes her nodding tow’rs, the Ground gives way; And the pale Ghosts start at the Flash of day! Triumphant Umbriel on a Sconce’s height Clapt his glad wings, and sate to view the Fight; Propt on their Bodkin Spears, The Sprights survey The growing combat, or assist the Fray

He reduced the Gods down to a mere set of Sylphs, while in Belinda’s final victory, the baron, himself, falls through a pinch of snuff: 79 But this bold Lord, with manly strength indu’d She with one Finger and a Thumb subdu’d

The bodkin, it may be noted, had already appeared in The Rape of the Lock in an ambiguous role as a haircomb or hairpin (2.128) before the stealing of Belinda’s ringlet of hair, and subsequently became a dagger (5.55 and 88). Is one of its ambiguous uses in Pale Fire to remind us and point us in the direction of two sable ringlets (4.169) even after the rapine cutting but now associated with lepidoptera? We have seen two ringlets, the arctic (Erebia disa) and the Styrian (Erebia styria) defining the geographical boundaries of Zembla. In this chapter, we shall be led to examine the associations of two further butterflies of the ringlet family, Erebia ériphyle and Erebia euryale,4 and their classical relations following the path suggested by the opening lines of Canto Three. We first trace the classical allusions indicated there which will 3 4

PAP vol. 2, The Rape of the Lock, 5.45, 79. BBE, 95 and 94. — 88 —

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lead us to Virgil’s Georgics5 and also guide us to the contextual relations of “waxwings and cicadas” given at 1-4, 131,181-182, and potentially at 1000. In these opening lines of this canto, we encounter Rabelais and a yew tree. The association of another who wrote an Iliad grotesque, suivie d’une Odyssée satirique6 with the presence of this tree of death may be examined. We note that satiric odyssies are becoming à la mode for Nabokov and Pale Fire. In the real world, there is a reflection with Nabokov’s personal odyssey in his struggles with exile, taking him, as with the return of Ulysses, to the gates of Ithaca, but in Nabokov’s case to the portals of the English Department at Cornell University, Ohio. 501

L’if, lifeless tree! Your great Maybe, Rabelais: The grand potato, I.P.H., a lay Institute (I) of Preparation (P) For the Hereafter (H), or If, as we Called it—big if!—engaged me for one term To speak on death (“to lecture on the Worm,” Wrote President McAber)...

François Rabelais, renowned for his vocabulary and verbal power, is said to have announced on his deathbed, “Je m’en vais chercher le grand peut-être.”7 The complete four volumes of his work were published in 5

6 7





VG, book 2 opens: “Thus far the tillage of the fields and the stars of heaven: now thee, Bacchus, will I sing, and with thee the forest saplings, and to the offspring of the slow-growing olive. Hither, O Lenaean sire! Here all is full of thy bounties; for thee blossoms the field teeming with the harvest of the vine, and the vintage foams in the brimming vats. Come hither, O Lenaean sire, strip off thy buskins and with me plunge thy naked legs in the new must.” HLF vol. 4, La composition and les caractères, p. 221. PM, p. 131, notes the contrasting lines of the opening of Shade’s Canto Three between the deathbed words of Rabelais and his seeking “le grand peut-être” (502) with the linking grand potato (502) and the opening lines of The Waste Land, part 1, “The Burial of the Dead.” Here Eliot feeds “a little life with dried tubers.” Again she notes at 619 the reiterative tuber where Shade again contrasts le grand neant with a little life: Maybe one finds le grand néant (the great void): maybe Again one spirals from the tuber’s eye.

The double, or one might say, square root appears to confirm a direct parody of Eliot’s opening lines. — 89 —

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1552 in sixty-seven chapters signed by François Rabelais, Doctor of Medicine. In 1532, he published at Lyon the first volume, Les grandes et inestimables chroniques du grand et énormé géant Gargantua. In 1533 appeared Pantagruel, the tale of the son of Gargantua, signed by the anagrammatic Alcofribas Nasier. Pantagruel studies at Orléans and Paris and meets Panurge. The third volume contains the adventures of Panurge, signed now by the Doctor of Medicine and published in 1546 at Paris. Not knowing whether he ought to marry or not, Panurge consults a number of people, commencing with Pantagruel and the Sibyl of Panzoust. Pantagruel and Panurge resolve to set out and consult the oracle of La Dive Bouteille. In the fourth volume, published incomplete in 1548, Pantagruel, Panurge, frère Jean, Épistémon, and Gymnaste embark on a long voyage. They encounter various isles of parody encompassing bailiffs, protestants, catholics, and even the stomach (at the house of M. Gaster). Rabelais died in 1553, but a fifth volume appeared in 1562 and in a complete form in 1564, with attendant problems of attribution. In the fifth book landing at the L’lle Sonnante (Rome), the author enumerates the different species of birds (blancs, noirs, gris, rouges, bleus) which luxuriate there. Panurge moves to the Ile des Ferrements, one of arms and tools, then to Guichet. Chapters 11 to 15 comprise a violent satire of the lawyers of justice. L’ile des Apedeftes provides a satire of taxes and those who oppose them. Chapters 18-22 give a satire of the Sorbonne and Scholasticism and concern the “Royaume de l’Entélélechie,” of whom the Queen is Dame Quintessence, godchild of Aristotle. Chapters 26-28 are a satire of monks and finally entering the country of the Lanternois where resides the oracle of La Dive Bouteille, there is a detailed description of the temple and of the fountain (32-42). Panurge is initiated by the priestess Bacbuc and hears the word of the bottle “trinch.” Bacbuc reads in a sacred book the meaning of this word: it is buvez. We enter the world of Bacchus. The first line of Canto Three leads to the Rabelaisian shadow of Virgil and of Bacchus and of the French yew tree, l’if. The Commentary indicates that the yew in Zemblan is tas, evocative of the Latin taxus. Virgil’s Georgics are four pastoral books devoted to tillage, planting, the rearing of cattle, and the keeping of bees. (“Then follows the invocation — 90 —

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of the rural powers, beginning with the sun and moon.”8) Book 2 opens in praise of Bacchus, whose loves, we find, are suprisingly temperate, with those of the yew tree:9 112 …; denique apertos Bacchus amat colles , Aquilonem et frigora taxi The noble paraphrast gives: Bacchus loves open hills, and the yew tree, the cold of the North-wind

Further support for pointers to The Georgics may be found in the correlated footsteps of Aeneas and Gradus through the lower and upper worlds, discussed in chapter 6. The tropical downfall awaiting Gradus’s arrival in New York which “flooded basements and subway tracks” could be correlated with the downpour that awaited the unfortunate Salmoneus, driven headlong by a furious whirlwind amid thick clouds (densa inter nubila; 592) following his arrogant imitation of aping Jove’s fires. But there is again a reference to flooded basements in the form of cellar pools at 596, which is also given a classical allusion by Kinbote, although here disguised as the male surfeit of an erotic dream; 596

Points at the puddle(s) in his basement room We all know those dreams in which something Stygian soaks through and Lethe leaks in the dreary terms of defective plumbing. Following this line, there is a false start preserved in the draft—and I hope the reader will feel something of the chill that ran down my long and supple spine when I discovered this variant; Should the dead murderer try to embrace His outraged victim whom he now must face? Do objects have a soul? Or perish must Alike great temples and Tanagra dust? The last letters of “Tanagra” and the first three letters of “dust” form

8 9

VG 1 and 1.5n. VG 1.117. — 91 —

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the name of the murderer whose shargar (puny ghost) the radiant spirit of our poet was soon to face…

Retaining only Kinbote’s classical allusions, cavae lacunae, “hollow pools,” but also, literally, “pools of the cellar,” may be found in Virgil, again, in Georgics 1 (117). If we persevere beyond the temporal pastoral guidelines of the sun, moon, and stars to the warning signs of rain (373), the frog, the ant, and sea birds are found in lines 378-383. Their presence, together shortly with the cigale (cicada) may be compared with the lines 236-244 of Canto Two of John Shade. With the different associated references we can, thus, put the ant in a different context to that of chapter 5. 235

Life is a message scribbled in the dark. Anonymous. Espied on a pine’s bark, As we were walking home the day she died, And empty emerald case, squat and frog-eyed, Hugging the trunk; and its companion piece, A gum logged ant. That Englishman in Nice, A proud and happy linguist: je nourris Les pauvres cigales—meaning that he Fed the poor sea gulls! Lafontaine was wrong: Dead is the mandible, alive the song.

Following the rain at line 404 comes a summary of the story of Nisus, king of Megara, and of his daughter Scylla. A more extensive description is given in Virgil’s Ciris10 and Ovid’s Metamorphoses 8,11 We take the summary of the story of Nisus from the note on Pope’s quotation at the chapter heading: “King Nisus, besieged in Megara by Minos, had a daughter Scylla who seeing Minos from a watch tower, fell in love with him. The safety of Nisus and his kingdom was known to depend on a purple hair which among those “of honourable silver” grew on his head. Scylla plucked out this hair and took it to Minos but 10

11

Virgil vol. 2, The Minor Poems Ciris (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press), 405447. Some have argued that the poem is by Gallus, a member of the Virgilian circle. OM 6, “Scylla and Minos,” p. 171. — 92 —

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met with nothing but abhorrence for her impiety. After his victory he sailed away; whereupon Scylla attempted to cling to his ship till, beaten off by Nisus, who had become an osprey, she also became a bird.” This is essentially a tale of parricide. The lines of The Georgics 1 read: 404

apparet liquido sublimis in aëre Nisus et pro purpureo poenas dat Scylla capillo: quacumque illa levem fugiens secat aethera pinnis, ecce inimicus, atrox, magno stridore per auras, insequitur Nisus; qua se fert Nisus ad auras illa levem fugiens raptim secat aethera pinnis. Nisus is seen aloft in the clear sky and Scylla suffers for the crimson lock. Wherever she flees, cleaving the light air with her wings, lo! savage and ruthless, with loud whirr Nisus follows through the sky; where Nisus mounts skyward , she flees in haste, cleaving the light air with her wings.

Finally, from Ciris, we quote the detailed description of the care of Nisus’s hair: 120

nam capite a summo regis (mirabile dictu) candida caesaries (florebant tempora lauro), et roseus medio surgebat vertice crinis: cuius quam servata diu natura fuisset, tam patriam incolumem Nisi regnumque futurum concordes stabili firmarant numine Parcae. ergo omnis cano residebat cura capillo, aurea sollemni comptum quem fibula ritu crobylus et tereti nectebant dente cicadae For surmounting the king’s head (wondrous to tell) uprose white hair (the temples were decked with laurel) and midway on its crown was a roseate lock. As long as this preserved its nature, so long had the Fates, voicing their union in fixed will, given assurance that Nisus’ country and kingdom would be secure. Thus all their care was centred in that hoary hair, which, adorned in wonted fashion, a golden buckle and close roll bound with a cicada’s shapely clasp.

— 93 —

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(The note on this clasp referring to Thucydides12 reports that old Athenians used to wear the hair on the top of the head in a knot, and secured with a pin shaped like a cicada).

We may, therefore, also embrace Lafontaine’s la cigale, the cicada, and the ambiguity of the bodkin as a hair ornament, with the frog, ant, and seabirds of the Georgics, leading to the story of King Nisus and his daughter, Scylla. We conclude that the context of lines 181-182, Waxwings …cicadas, is now quite different from that concluded for lines 1-4, where the story of Scylla and Glaucus or the historic Sylla of the gens Cornelia was suggested when taken in conjunction with 17. Nabokov appears to emphasize that “All is context.” This is consistent with Kinbote’s misinformation at 181-182, which reads: The bird of lines 1-4 and 131 is again with us. It will reappear in the ultimate line of the poem; another cicada, leaving its envelope behind, will sing triumphantly at lines 236-244.

The most likely guide from Kinbote’s coded comment is that the four associated references to the waxwings are independent. This is an important conclusion, for it indicates that no relation of the last line to the first will be evident. Apart from the possible solution to blood relationships within the Zemblan court, therefore, the problem can also be to define the most probable line based on the contextual relations. We now attempt to interpret the particular 131. We are given Kinbote’s eulogic perambulation on the subtle variations of the waxwing’s theme compared with lines 1 and 2 of the poem, but “we cannot help reading into these lines something more than mirrorplay and mirage shimmer.” “Shimmered” in French, is moiré, the common name for the ringlet or Erebia13 family of butterfly. This note later correlates the poem’s propulsion of Shades’s “powerful iambic motor” with that achieved by Gradus’s mode of travel. “Never before has the inexorable advance of fate received such a sensuous form (for other 12 13

Thucydides 1.6. PEAN, “Of the family Satyrinae,” pp. 215-242, plates 73-86. — 94 —

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images of that transcendental tramp’s approach see note to line 17).” At the last reference, we read, (17) And then the gradual;

(29)

grey

There is a curious coincidence to (17) that if we write out the line in full 17 And then the gradual and dual blue

and consider the word context of dual and blue and and the “duel” association with grey at 29, the colour that comes to mind is Prussian as with Prussian grey, the colour of Prussian military despotism fostered initially under Frederick II, and Prussian Blue, the deep blue based on a ferrocyanide complex well known to every schoolboy chemist. If we consider “the gradual” as le Progressif, an epithet for Voltaire, the line has a resonance with le Prussien, it being the amused shout of hawkers in the streets of Paris selling prints of Voltaire dressed in furs when Voltaire was appointed as Court Chamberlain by the Prussian king.14 Consistent with the geography of that sparkling genius finally resident at Ferney in the Savoy, we anticipate and note, also, that the common name for the Eriphyle ringlet, Erebia eriphyle, is Moiré Savoyard15 which may also refer to Voltaire. There are related Latin influences. The 14

15

L. Strachey, Books and Characters (London: Chatto and Windus, 1922), 167-169. Voltaire arrived in Berlin in July 1750. Frederick appeared at that time to regard Voltaire as a monkey and a scoundrel but a scoundrel of genius. “On peut apprendre de bonnes choses d’un scélérat.” He was given rooms in the royal palaces of Potsdam and Berlin, he was made a Court Chamberlain, he received the Order of Merit together with a pension of 800 pounds per year. In reviewing why such a dangerous, brilliant character should be invited to return to Berlin after a previous scandal, Strachey notes, “in the extraordinary vogue enjoyed throughout Europe by French culture and literature during the middle years of the eighteenth century, Frederick was merely an extreme instance of a universal fact. Like all Germans of any education, he habitually wrote and spoke in French…. his whole standard of literary values, was French…. Poetry meant to him, as to his contemporaries, that particular kind of French poetry which had come into fashion at the court of Louis XIV…. For this curious creed was as narrow as it was all pervading. The Grand Siècle was the Church Infallible; and it was heresy to doubt the Gospel of Boileau.” Moiré savoyard. PEAN, p. 216, plate 74. In his later years, Voltaire strategically placed his residence at Ferney in Savoy near the Swiss border on the outskirts of Geneva. — 95 —

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“blue-grey” motif is also examined in chapter 9 through the myth of Glaucus and Scylla. If we turn to the second line of Canto Three above, we are led to the possibility of the Eriphyle ringlet when comparing the associative IPH (The Institute for the Preparation of the Hereafter) and its related references. We bear in mind the closeness of this line to Rabelais, the educational tenets of whom may be reflected in the education of his Pantagruel by Gargantua.16 These tenets appear to suggest that one should learn almost everything: “le grec, le latin, le hébreu, l’arabe, la géométrie, l’arithmétique, la musique, l’astronomie, l’histoire naturelle, la medécine, l’anatomie…” The other references to IPH are: 514 It might assist assimilation. Iph Was a larvorium and a violet: A grave in Reason’s early spring. And yet It missed the gist of the whole thing; .... 549 While snubbing gods, including the big G, Iph borrowed some peripheral debris From mystic visions;.....

Why does Shade not write iph in capital letters in his other references? Line 515 is clearly a borrowing from Browning’s Pippa Passes:17 You’ll look at least on love’s remains, A grave’s one violet: Your look?—that pays a thousand pains. What’s death? You’ll love me yet!

We may find mystic visions in The Rape of the Lock18 where we are associated with the two sable ringlets:

16 17 18

HLF vol. 4, La Pédagogie de Rabelais, , p. 224. RB 3, “Pippa Passes,” end of part 3. PAP vol. 2, The Rape of the Lock 4.166. — 96 —

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165

A Sylph too warned me of the Threats of Fate, In mystic Visions, now believ’d too late! See the poor Remnants of these slight’s Hairs! My hands shall rend what ev’n thy Rapine spares: These, in two sable Ringlets taught to break…

To answer our question, we cite also Kinbote’s coded comment: 502: IPH …Its (institute of higher philosophy) terminal initials, HP, provide its students with the abbreviation, Hi-Phi, and Shade neatly parodies this in his IPH, or If, combinations…

Noting the close attendance of Rabelais, one possibility is that John Shade may have extended his Roman word play to a Greek shimmer or reflection and that IPH is in Roman script IRE. In the case of HP, the letters become ER. If we add the iph, as in Kinbote’s coded comment on “John Shade’s neat parody of Hi-Phi,” together with the lay from line 502, we come to the Latin form of Eriphyla,19 wife of Amphiaraus, who betrayed her husband to Polynices for a golden necklace, for which she was slain by her son, Alcmaeon.20 Her Grecian form is Eriphyle. Amphiaraus (Gr. Amphiaraos), formerly an Argive, was worshipped in Boeotia, the region also of Tanagra,21 a site given in the variant above 19

20 21

When the coalition of the Seven against Thebes was being formed to demand the throne of the city for Polynices living in exile in Argos, Amphiaraus would not join the expedition as his oracular mind revealed to him that the expedition would fail. But Polynices’ sister, Eriphyle could be bribed by the gift of the necklace once worn by Harmonia and forced her husband to honour his oath and join the coalition. Amphiaraus did ensure that should he die, his son, Alcmaeon would avenge his death. As Amphiaraus fled from the battle beside the river Ismenus, Zeus cleft the earth with a thunderbolt and the seer vanished with his four-horse chariot and charioteer. Others said that Amphiaraus’s chariot was later drawn empty to Harma (in Boeotia), where a shrine to the hero was built. Pausanias in The Description of Greece, trans. W. H. S. Jones, lines 34-2ff, states, “About 12 stades from the city (Oropos, also, in Boeotia) is a sanctuary of Amphiaraus. Some say the incident did not happen here, the place called Harma (the chariot) being on the road from Thebes to Khalkis.” The divinity of Amphiaraus was first established amongst the Oropians. Later at 9.8.3 Pausanias writes that Harma “got its name according to the people of Tanagra because the chariot of Amphiaraos (Gr.) disappeared here and not where the Thebans say it did.” “I know that the prince Amphiaraus was ensnared by a woman’s chain of gold and swallowed — 97 —

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which produced unique terracotta figurines for placement by the dead. quippe tantum eos deos appellant, qui ex eodem numero......ut in Boeotia Amphiaraus, in Africa Mopsus (a soothsayer) in Aegypto Osiris, alius alibi gentium, Aesculapius ubique.22

Support for the “loves remains” at 514 comes from the larvorium in the form of the body of Eriphyla in the ringlet, Erebia eriphyle. If we borrow a Sylph from the mystic visions at 549 and add to ERI, we arrive at the suitably accusative Latin plural, Eriphylas. Shade notes that we borrow only “some peripheral debris.” The three references show themselves to be self-consistent. Again, we have some rather unfortunate family relationships. If we return to Aristotle’s Poetics23 on tragedy: Let us then determine what are the circumstances which strike us as terrible or pitiful. Actions capable of this effect must happen between persons who are either friends or enemies or indifferent to one another. If an enemy kills an enemy, there is nothing to excite pity either in the act or the intention,—except so far as the suffering in itself is pitiful. So again with indifferent persons. But when the tragic incident occurs betwen those who are near or dear to one another—if for example, a brother kills, or intends to kill, a brother, a son his father, a mother her son, a son his mother, or any other deed of the kind is done—these are the situations to be looked for by the poet. He may not indeed destroy the framework of the received legends—the fact, for instance, that Clytemnestra was slain by Orestes and Eriphyle by Alcmaeon—but he ought to show invention of his own, and skilfully handle the traditional material.

22 23

up and now beneath the earth …reigns supreme with the wits of the living” (Euripides, The Phoenician Women, A messenger, line 1110). The now chthonic Amphiaraus was blessed with the gift of prophecy and like Tiresias of Thebes, kept his wits after his death and could give oracular responses. Before we examine the context of Tiresias in chapters 9 and 10, we note Pliny the Elder on inventions (Natural History 7, Roman Encyclopaedia, first century A.D., trans. Rackham, p. 203): “Amphiaraus [invented] divination from fire, Tiresias of Thebes divination by inspecting birds’ entrails etc.” Another prophetic seer, Glaucus, is examined in chapter 12. Apuleius, De Deo Socratis 15, p. 26, line 12. AP 14:4. — 98 —

-----------------------------------------  Classical affinities II: An Ancient Nisus -----------------------------------------

We thus may, again, be referred to a matricide in the complex family relationships in the Royal House of Onhava, a feature noted in chapter 5 in the story of Sémiramis. Here, we cited the elderly psychiatrist’s warning to young Charles/Kinbote (80) that his vices, subconsciously, had killed his mother and would continue “to kill her in him” if he did not renounce sodomy. Is, therefore, Kinbote also the Alcmaeon of our story? As an important aside, it is significant to note that, in a literary association, Voltaire had also written an adaptation of Ériphyle. In a letter of the 29th May, 1732 to Jean Baptiste Nicolas Formont,24 he wished for the return of the manuscript so that he could forget it and return to it with fresh eyes. He finished by drawing from it, Sémiramis, some fifteen years later.25 Aristotle goes on to define skilful handling in terms of those given in chapter 3, which were referenced to Corneille’s comments in his discourse on tragedy: 1) the action is done consciously and in knowledge of the persons; 2) the action my be done but in ignorance of the relationships. He cites the Alcmaeon of Astydamas (since lost); 3) being about to act with knowledge and then not to act; 4) being about to act in ignorance but making discovery before the deed is done to act. Corneille, on the other hand, while accepting the consistency and constraints of legends and that Eriphyle could only be killed by an Alcmaeon,26 would never construct a tragedy based on condition 2. Should we infer, therefore, that none of our participants in Pale Fire is oblivious to his potential identity? And how does such knowledge affect the actions and comments of Charles/ Kinbote? We shall later (chapter 10), see evidence for Kinbote as a parody of Eliot’s Tiresias27 from The Waste Land, who provides an all-seeing stream of misinformation. The conditions are becoming obscure. And what influence does the direct reference to the story of Nisus and Scylla and a tale of parricide have upon the tangled relationships 24

25 26 27

VCC, p. 46. The Ériphyle had been played at the Comédie-Française.in March without great success, and the rerun had been in April. VCC, p. 46, n.5. PC part 2: “Discours De La Tragédie,” p. 101. The role of Kinbote as a parody of the hermaphroditic blind Theban seer within Eliot’s poem is discussed in chapter 10. His characterisation as a critic is given in chapter 13. — 99 —

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within the Royal House? There is, again, a further Nisus, first mentioned in book 5 and later in book 9 of the Aeneid,28 when he is guardian of the Teucrian gate after Aeneas, “leaving town, comrades and fleet, seeks the Palatine realm and Evander’s dwelling. Nor does that suffice; he has won his way to Corythus’ utmost cities, and is mustering in armed bands the Lydian country-folk.”29 176

Nisus erat portae custos, acerrimus armis, Hyrtacides, comitem Aeneae quem miserat Ida venatrix, iaculo celerem levibusque sagittis, et iuxta comes Euryalus, quo pulchrior alter non fuit Aeneadum Troiana neque induit arma, ora puer… Nisus was guardian of the gate, most valiant of warriors, son of Hyrtacus, whom Ida the huntress had sent in Aeneas’ train with fleet javelin and light arrows. At his side was Euryalus30—none fairer among the Aeneadae, or of all who donned the Trojan arms—a boy…

Both were slain by the Rutulians after a successful sortie to the Rutulian camp. And we have a further member of the ringlet family, Erebia euryalus. Are the associative ringlets present simply to bring attention to the possibilities of Onhava relationships or do they stand in their own right? We may argue that Euryalus in relation to Nisus may be identified as an adopted son. Can we draw upon that other persona of the literal founders of Wordsmith University and recall the words of Wordsworth addressed to a butterfly?31 Stay near me—do not take thy flight! A little longer stay in sight! Much converse do I find in thee, Historian of my infancy! Float near me; do not yet depart! Dead times revive in thee: 28 29 30 31

VA 5.286-360 and 9.176-449. VA 9.8-11. VA 9.179-180. See also 5.295. William unfortunately lacked discrimination in his species pursuit. — 100 —

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Thou bring’st gay creature as thou art! A solemn image to my heart, My father’s family!

Finally, we may also observe that Nisus, himself, King of Megara, may also be associated with another butterfly, the Purple Hairstreak,32 Quercusia quercus. The Erebia ériphyle and Erebia euryalus have, themselves, been classified by Nabokov in December 196433 on the basis of their genitalia in his first class of the European Erebia family, characterised by Erebia ligea. If we try to fold these butterfly wings together for a common association, we may again return to Virgil to the Georgics 4 for the description of the wood nymph Ligea:34 334

eam circum Milesia vellera nymphae carpebant hyali saturo fucata colore Drumo que Xantho que Ligea que Phyllodoce que caesariem nitidam per candida colla About her (the mother of Aristaeus) the nymphs were spinning fleeces of Miletus, dyed with rich glassy hue—Drymo and Xantho, Ligea and Phyllodoce, thie shining tresses floating over snowy necks.

If we now turn to the death of Nisus and Euryalus in Aeneid 9, when Volcens of the Rutulians seeks vengeance after the havoc created by Nisus:35 422

32 33 34

35

tu, tamen interea calido mihi sanguine poenas persolves amborum” inquit; simul ense recluso ibat in Euryalum. tum vero exterritus, amens, conclamat Nisus, nec se celare tenebris amplius aut tantum potuit perferre dolorem: “me, me adsum, qui feci, in me convertite ferrum, o Rutuli! mea fraus omnis; nihil iste nec ausus nec potuit; caelum hoc et conscia sidera testor;

BBE, p. 132. BBRP, p. 590. VG 4.345-346. Among the nymphs was Clymene, telling “of Vulcan’s baffled care, of the wiles and stolen joys of Mars.” VA 9.422-445. Before dying, Nisus presses the blade full in the face “of the shrieking Rutulian and dying bereft his foe of life.” — 101 —

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tantum infelicem nimium dilexit amicum.” talia dicta dabat, sed viribus ensis adactus transabiit costas et candida pectora rumpit. “Yet thou meanwhile, with thy hot blood, shalt pay me vengeance for both (the deaths of Sulmo and Tagus); he cried. and as he spake, rushed with drawn sword on Euryalus. Then indeed, frantic with terror, Nisus shrieks aloud; no longer could he hide himself in darkness or endure such agony; “On me—on me—here am I who did the deed—on me turn your steel, O Rutulians! Mine is all the guilt; he neither dared nor could have done aught; this heaven be witness and the all-seeing stars! He but loved his hapless friend too well.” Thus was he pleading; but the sword, driven with force, has passed through the ribs and rends the snowy breast.

If we also look to Eclogue VI for another description36 of Scylla, daughter of Nisus, King of Megara: 74

Quid loquar, aut Scyllam Nisi, quam fama secuta est candida succintam latrantibus inguina monstris Why tell how he sang of Scylla, daughter of Nisus, of whom is still the story told that, with howling monsters girt around her white waist…

We find a close association with the not uncommon adjective candida. Similarly the adverb “in white” in Latin would be candide, reminding us of the ghost “as blithe as a bob-link” in chapter 5. Bearing in mind that the eriphyle ringlet is known as the moiré savoyard and the literary Ériphyle/Sémiramis connection, are we to be led back to Voltaire’s Candide? Of the four daughters of Judge Goldsworth, the third Candida possesses the sole name not directly linked to the alphabet. Is this a meaningful association with John Shade’s Canto Three? 36

VE 6.74-82. In this Eclogue, the indulgent Silenus, his veins swollen with the wine of yesterday, gently sings of Scylla, daughter of Nisus, but a song which is closer to that of the fate of Glaucus’s Scylla, victim of the jealous Circe. “With howling monsters girt about her waist, she harried the Ithacan barques, and in the swirling depths, alas! tore asunder the trembling sailors with her sea-dogs?” Silenus, in another variant, also sings of Tereus’s changed form and the gifts which Philomela made ready for him—“on what wise she sped to the desert and with what wings, luckless one!—she first hovered above her home.” — 102 —

----------------------------   The Browning Version and Contemporary Reality  ----------------------------

VIII The Browning Version and Contemporary Reality

That second time they hunted me From hill to plain, from shore to sea And Austria, hounding far and wide Her blood-hounds through the countryside, Breathed hot and instant on my trace,— I made six days a hiding place Of that green old aqueduct Where I and Charles, when boys, have plucked The fireflies from the roof above (R. Browning, “The Italian in England,” 1845) We look again at the potential presence of Browning in Pale Fire. In the temporal sequence through Pope and Shelley he becomes a poet who overlaps with the contemporary world of the Royal House of Onhava, dying in Venice in 1889. Are there contemporary realities to be associated with the references to Browning apart from the literary pointers? Browning had republican sympathies and the quotation above from a poem recognizing the resistance of Mazzini to the Austrian yoke towards the middle of the nineteenth century has certain overlaps with the Zemblan position. The identification of a German court in a Slavic state of Yugoslavia, “that crystal land” of southern Stiria, “perhaps an allusion to Zembla, my dear country” (chapter 1) has obvious associations with the Austrian. The subsequent tragedy at Bosnian Sarajevo in 1914 with the assassination of the Crown Prince, Franz Ferdinand, by the Slav, Gavrilo Princip,1 has again a correlation with 1

For a background to the assassination, see, for example, F. Morton, Thunder at Twilight: Vienna 1913-14 (London: Methuen, 2001). — 103 —

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the murderous intrigues of the Zemblan court should John Shade be a natural son of King Alfin and a royal martyr. How far one may take such analogies are debatable, but certainly there are overlaps. “Killing a Balkan king” (822) and Kinbote’s fervent wish that the reading in the draft was “killing a Zemblan king” is seen, as usual, to be coincidental and irrelevant. Thurgus III, 1825-1900 (“with his moustache bristling with obsolete passion”; Index), with his romantic attachment to the actress Iris Acht, bears a distinct resemblance to the then Emperor Franz-Joseph (18301916), befriended in his advancing years by the actress Katherina Schratt, the extrovert young actress of the Burgtheater in Vienna; the two spent their graceful summers in Bad Ischl and the Spa park.2 For twenty-seven years she had been the emperor’s lady, but behind this period lay twenty-seven years of abstention. Is there any significance to the 1888 yards of the secret tunnel between the Royal Palace at Onhava and Iris Acht’s dressing room and the year 1888, when Frau Schratt had offered to become her monarch’s mistress? “Our relationship must be in the future what it has been in the past” was the reply, characteristically by letter. To the word player, a direct transposition between the two actresses can be made if the two i’s of the more romantic “Iris” are treated as jokers. It is also curious to note that the firing practice of the assassin of Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand, the nephew appointed to be successor by Franz-Joseph after the suicide of his son, was carried out on starlings and finches in the village of Pale near Sarajevo.3 Again, is there any significance to the fact that at the time of the death of Queen Blenda in the early hours within the grounds of the Onhava Palace in 1935, a drunk with a walrus moustache might be described as being in the Unter den Linden? A more direct analysis with contemporary reality may be unproductive. Of more direct concern here are the literary references to Robert Browning. We summarize briefly the cited influences of Browning already given. There is the direct comment to “My Last Duchess” (682), from which the ruthless nature of the Duke has led to the conclusion 2 3

Ibid., p. 84. Ibid., pp. 254-255. — 104 —

----------------------------   The Browning Version and Contemporary Reality  ----------------------------

that the Duke of Payne and Mone is the likely father of Hazel Shade (chapter 3). There is the alliterative reference to Pippa Passes, where in Part 1 there is a pointer to an adulterous couple arguing over the murder of the lady’s husband at the time that the ghost of King Alfin is sending agitated messages in old Hentzer’s barn (chapter 5). We have observed the “son and heir o’ the kingdom” and the presence of his father’s ghost, “blithe as a bob-link whistling all in white,” from Mr Sludge, “The Medium.” “Pippa”’s final song contains the “love’s remains,” which will be supportive for the emergence of the Eriphyla larvorium (chapter 7) and lastly, in Part Three of the poem, the potential assassin Luigi is discussing with his anxious mother the murder which will lead to the liberation of Italy. The “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister”4 may be the inspiration for an early light relief (47-48) when Charles the Beloved as a boy had the occasion of seeing a man make contact with God during an interval in hymnal practice. The sound of rapid footsteps made me raise my morose gaze from the sectile mosaic of the court—realistic rose petals cut out of rodstein and large, almost palpable thorns cut out of green marble. Into these roses and thorns, there walked a black shadow: a tall, pale, long nosed, dark-haired young minister whom I had seen around once or twice strode out of the vestry and without seeing me stopped in the middle of the court. Guilty disgust contorted his thin lips. He wore spectacles. His clenched fists seemed to be gripping invisible iron bars. But there is no bound to the measure of grace which man may be able to receive. All at once his look changed to one of rapture and reverence…

Browning’s opening lines read: Gr-r-r there go, my heart’s abhorrence! Water your damned flower pots do!

4

Robert Browning, Selected Poetry, ed. D. Karlin (London: Penguin, 1989). “My Last Duchess” (pp. 25-26); Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister (pp. 27-29); Mr Sludge, “The Medium” (pp. 204-246). — 105 —

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If hate killed men Brother Lawrence, God’s blood, would not mine kill you! What? your myrtle bush wants trimmting? Oh, that rose has prior claims— Needs its leaden vase filled brimming? Hell dry you up with its flames!

Characters that embrace illicit love, self-maiming, religious fanaticism, suicide and insanity (Let us not forget Jack Grey! And our half-man (Gradus) was also half-mad; 949), apart from their presence — 106 —

----------------------------   The Browning Version and Contemporary Reality  ----------------------------

surrounding the royal court of Onhava and beyond, are often present in the criminal court, and no one has pursued such characters and the grey areas of the human mind with greater intensity than Robert Browning. In the later period of his career, between 1860 and 1875, his attempts to understand such personages and the complexities of human motives in life’s darker affairs became his dominant interest. Commencing with The Ring and the Book5 and through The Inn Album,6 Browning’s philosophy could be defined by lines from an earlier poem to which we now turn. It is, of course possible that Browning, whose output might be said to be secondary only to Shakespeare’s, may have a patina of suggestions that are merely coincident rather than influential, but some corollaries are more striking. Our interest’s on the dangerous end of things. The honest thief, the tender murderer, The superstitous atheist, demireps That love and sale their souls in new French books— We watch while these in equilibrium keep The giddy line midway:7 (Browning, Bishop Blougram’s Apology)

In this poem, the sensible advantages and comfort of a bishopric administered with a practical but doubtful degree of belief are contrasted with the more limited position of disbelief in the earnest critic Gigadibs. The bishop accepts that both their positions may be quite limited in comparison with the true innovators, but in view of the complexities of life, he may have more to offer. Blougram commences by considering how we might guard our unbelief before life’s uncertainties when we may again encounter the grand perhaps. …how can we guard our unbelief, Make it bear fruit to us?—the problem here. Just when we are safest, there’s a sunset touch, 5 6

7

RB The Ring and the Book 7:1-4; 8:5-8; 9:8-11. Robert Browning, Red Cotton Night-Cap Country 5-177; The Inn Album (London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1889), 181-311. RB 4, Bishop Blougram’s Apology, 206-255. — 107 —

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A fancy from a flower bell, some one’s death, A chorus ending from Euripides,— And that’s enough for fifty hopes and fears As old and new at once as nature’s self, To rap and knock and enter in our soul, Take hands and dance there, a fantastic ring, Round the ancient idol, on his base again,— The grand Perhaps! we look on helplessly…

If Gigadibs does not admire Blougram, what is his ideal, his perfection? Should he turn to righteous positive action in some Napoleonic form but leading inevitably to another sterile compromise of the State utilising an Austrian marriage and a resurrection of the old regime—a Balkan state not dissimilar to southern Zembla? Can I mistake for some clear word of God (Which were my ample warrant for it all) His puff of hazy instinct, idle talk, “The State that’s I,” quack-nonsense about crowns, And ( when one beats the man to his last hold) A vague idea of setting things to rights, Policing people efficaciously, More to their profit, most of all to its own; The whole to end that dismallest of ends By an Austrian marriage, cant to us the Church And resurrection of the old régime? Would I who hope to live a dozen years, Fight Austerlitz for reasons such and such?

Or should he try the way of the imagination of the poets and play the game of trying to be Shakespeare? Would he have the imagination to create the manipulative power broker Pandulph “of fair Milan, cardinal” that arch exponent of casuistry in King John which we exemplify briefly? The better act of purposes mistook Is to mistake again; though indirect, Yet indirection thereby grows direct, And falsehood falsehood cures, as fire cools fire — 108 —

----------------------------   The Browning Version and Contemporary Reality  ----------------------------

Within the scorched veins of one new-burned, (King John, 3.1) How green you are and fresh in this old world! John lays you plots; the times conspire with you, For he that steeps his safety in true blood Shall find but bloody safety and untrue. (Ibid, 3.4)

But Blougram knows that we cannot compete with genius. “I send the ball aloft no less adroitly that of fifty strokes scarce five go over the wall.” John Shade, on the other hand, is “asthmatic, lame and fat, never bounced a ball or swung a bat” (129-130). [Shakespeare] Enjoys a show, respects the puppets, too, And none more, had he seen its entry once, Than “Pandulph, of fair Milan cardinal.” Why then should I who play that personage, The very Pandulph Shakespeare’s fancy made, Be told that had the poet chanced to start From where I stand now (some degree like mine Being just the goal he ran his race to reach) He would have run the whole race back, forsooth, And left being Pandulph, to begin write plays? Ah, the earth’s best can but be the earth’s best! … We want the same things, Shakespeare and myself, And what I want, I have; he gifted more, Could fancy he too had them when he liked, But not so thoroughly that, if fate allowed, He would not have them also in my sense. We play one game; I send the ball aloft No less adroitly that of fifty strokes Scarce five go over the wall so wide and high Which sends them back to me: I wish and get. He struck balls higher and with better skill, But at a poor fence level with his head, And hit—his Stratford house, a coat of arms, — 109 —

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Successful dealings in his grain and wool,— While I receive heaven’s incense in my nose, And style myself the cousin of Queen Bess. Ask him, if this life’s all, who wins the game?

The bishop has some confused vision of man’s spirit always being half way into the next world and in successive spheres, halfway beyond that, “on and off.” Kinbote comments on the doctor’s doubts, expressed after on John Shade’s heart attack or trance, that he could dream or hallucinate during the actual collapse: 727

“No, Mr. Shade.” But, Doctor, I was dead! He smiled. “Not quite: just half a shade,” he said. Another fine example of our poet’s special brand of combinational magic, The subtle pun here turns on two additional meanings of “shade” besides the obvious synonym of “nuance.” The doctor is made to suggest that not only did Shade retain in his trance half of his identity but that he was also half a ghost…. Do you know, I have often had a dream (Work it up in your next month’s article) Of man’s poor spirit in its progress, still Losing true life for ever and a day Through ever trying to be and ever being— In the evolution of successive spheres— Before its actual sphere and place of life, Halfway into the next, which having reached, It shoots with corresponding foolery Halfway into the next still, on and off! Finally, Blougram comes to his summation. Look at me sir: my age is double yours: … My shade’s so much more potent than your flesh. What’s your reward self-abnegating friend? Stood you confessed of those exceptional — 110 —

----------------------------   The Browning Version and Contemporary Reality  ----------------------------

And privileged great natures that dwarf mine— A zealot with a mad ideal in reach, A poet just about to print his ode, A statesman with a scheme to stop this war, An artist whose religion is his art— I should have nothing to object: such men Carry the fire, all things grow warm to them, Their druggets worth my purple, they beat me. But you—you’re just as little those as I— You gigadibs, who thirty years of age, Write statedly for Blackwood’s magazine, Believe you see two points in Hamlet’s soul Unseized by the Germans yet—which view you’ll print— …(emphasis added)

Is this latter quotation summarising Blougram’s position one of the inspirations for Pale Fire? We observe the two points in Hamlet’s soul as applied to John Shade’s family in chapter 10. Browning’s sensitivity to his critics arose over his early difficulties with his enthusiasm for the pre-mediaeval figure of Sordello.8 This warrior poet of the early thirteenth century was first described in Dante’s Purgatorio.9 Sordello was a Mantuan and his meeting with Virgil is given in Canto Six: Mantua, the shadow in itself absorb’d , Rose towards us from the place in which it stood, And cried ‘Mantuan! I am thy countryman, Sordello’ Each the other then embraced

Browning’s enthusiasm for the warrior poet lead to his long, tortuous epic poem, “one of the most radical in politics and aesthetics,” charting the internecine struggles between Guelphs and Ghibellines and the position of the poet, which was published in 1840 but led to universal derision over its difficulties in form and language.10 Tennyson said that there were only two lines that he understood, the first—“Who 8 9 10

RB 2, “Sordello,” 157-498. Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio, trans. Cary (1812), 6. Robert Browning, Selected Poetry (1989), “Intro.,” n.6. — 111 —

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will, may hear Sordello’s story told”—and the last—“Who would, has heard Sordello’s story told”—and that both were lies. Carlyle claimed that his wife had read through the poem without being able to discover whether Sordello was a man, a city, or a book. Browning’s reputation was not to recover for a quarter of a century. If Browning’s replies to his critics had to wait for the critical analyses of human motive in The Ring and the Book and the later analyses of the criminal and unbalanced mind as in Red Cotton Nightcap Country and The Inn Album, there are suggestions that some of the impedimenta of Pale Fire may have been partly inspired by by these and related works. The failing Miranda in Red Cotton Nightcap Country in his religious ecstasy appeals to the Virgin upon the tower of La Ravissante to suspend the law of gravity, allowing him to fly from his tower. As with John Shade, his final moments are observed by a neighbouring gardener. A gardener who watched, at work the while Dibbling a flower-bed for geranium-shoots, Saw the catastrophe, and straightening back, Stood up and shook his brows.

But we consider The Inn Album. We turn first to Kinbote’s letters to Queen Disa. In his letter of 2nd April 1959 (768), Charles Kinbote/ Charles the Beloved, after warning her to write to him only as Dr C. Kinbote and not as Charles X. Kingbot, Esq., comments that his neighbour was “the old gentleman in fact who was responsible for that bit about the ginkgo tree in your green album (see again—I mean the reader should see again—the note to line 49).” The note applies to the “shagbark” tree, a species of hickory of the tree family, Juglandaceae, and the associative word in the context of the line was considered to be Jugo, from the Russian word meaning “south” (chapter 1). In her presumed reply of the 6th April 1959, Queen Disa sends the nonsensical lines of a quatrain, The Sacred Tree, taken from the collection of John Shade’s poems entitled Hebe’s Cup. The lines are discussed in detail in chapter 12, and the four lines commence with the ginkgo leaf. 49 also notes that when the new Episcopal church in New Wye was built, the bulldozers spared “an arc of those sacred trees planted by a — 112 —

----------------------------   The Browning Version and Contemporary Reality  ----------------------------

landscaper of genius (Repburg) at the end of the so-called Shakespeare Avenue on the campus.” We are also led by Kinbote to a philosophical discussion between Kinbote and John Shade, where Shade claims that Kinbote is always reciting St Augustine to him and where also there is a suggestion that we could emerge with a solus rex (549). Are these notes simply to suggest that the reader look at a list of tree names to understand the influence of the shagbark tree? (We note its change of context and associated meaning at line 990 in chapter 15.) But why the doggerel on the ginkgo tree? It might seem trivial to consider a possible relation to The Inn Album but for the rather direct lines at the end of Section 6 fitting Disa’ reply: Here’s the lady back! So, Madam, you have conned the Album-page And come to thank its last contributor How kind and condescending!

These lines are followed shortly after by the unexpected murder of one of the protagonists at the end of the poem (Section 7) and a commenting line (185) borrowed from Horace’s Ars Poetica: A tiger-flash-yell, spring, and scream: halloo! Death’s out on him and holds him-ugh! But ne trucidet coram populo Juvenis senem! Right the Horatian rule! There, see how soon a quiet comes to pass!

The precise line from Horace is “ne pueros coram populo Medea trucidet,” and is taken from the context “Either an event is acted on the stage or it is narrated…. Yet you will not bring upon the stage what should be performed behind the scenes and you will keep much from our eyes, which an actor’s tongue will narrate anon in our presence; so that Medea is not to butcher her boys openly before the people, nor impious Atreus cook human flesh upon the stage…”11 Shortly after, we read, “Do you, O sons of Pompilius, condemn a 11

HSEA, lines 408ff. — 113 —

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poem which many a day and many a blot has not restrained and refined ten times over to the test of the close-cut nail?” (291-294) Our notes refer us12 to Satires I, commenting on the poet, Fonteius Capito, “a poet without flaw,” and indicate a metaphor from sculpture, for the artist would pass his fingernail over the marble to test the smoothness of the joints. Do we infer that John Shade is refining his lines before the waxwing’s window? 185 I stand before the window and I pare My fingernails and vaguely am aware Of certain flinching likenesses… 245 And so I pare my nails and hear Your step upstairs and all is right my dear

And if we look later at the Ars Poetica (379-384), we find John Shade’s likely inspiration for defining his non-sporting achievements when a boy and on the Wordsmith Campus: ludere qui nescit, campestribus abstinet armis, indoctusque pilae discive trochive quiescit, ne spissae risum tollant impune coronae: qui nescit versus tamen audet fingere. quidni? liber et ingenuus, praesertim census equestrem summam nummorum vitioque remotus ab omni. He, who cannot play a game, shuns the weapons of the Campus, and, if unskilled in ball or quoit or hoop, remains aloof, lest the crowded circle break out in righteous laughter. Yet the man who knows not how dares to write verses. Why not? He is free, even free-born, nay is rated at the fortune of a knight, and stands clear from every blemish.

To The Inn Album. An older and younger man have been playing cards all night at an inn in a setting of “calm acclivity.” The older man is twice the age of the younger and has just lost £10,000. The figures are recorded in the margin of an album kept for visitors’ comments. 12

HSEA Satires 1.5.32. — 114 —

----------------------------   The Browning Version and Contemporary Reality  ----------------------------

The older man is well connected and experienced in the ways of the world, while the younger has a large income from his Mancunian father. The older man has confessed that despite his worldly wisdom and experience, one woman had touched him deeply despite his hardened philosophy. Both are members of the same club, and the younger is grateful to the older for leading him out in the ways of the world. He, too, had suffered from a young love while a student at Oxford and was grateful to the elder for showing him the realities of the world, for otherwise he had felt to become like a Timon in Dalmatia. Why, I was minded to sit down for life Just in Dalmatia, build a sea-side tower High on a rock, and so expend my days Pursuing chemistry or botany Or, very like, astronomy because I noticed stars shone when I passed the place: Letting my cash accumulate the while In England—to lay out in lump at last As Ruskin should direct me! All or some Of which should I have done or tried to do, And preciously repented, one fine day, Had you discovered Timon, climbed his rock And scaled his tower, some ten years thence suppose, And coaxed his story from him! Don’t I see The pair conversing!… The older man is not impressed: … Partly, and partly through a baby case Of disappointment I’ve pumped out at last— And here you spend life’s prime in gaining flesh And giving science one more asteroid?

The young man has, however, decided to marry his pretty young cousin, who is arriving that morning by train accompanied by her aunt (who is, in fact, only four years older than the cousin). On the way to the station, the two men continue their discussions, but, carried away by their experiences, they pause by a gate and the older man misses his — 115 —

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train and they return to the Inn. It comes as no surprise that when the aunt arrives with her niece, she turns out to be the femme fatale of both men. She has dedicated herself, through guilt, to humble Christianity by marriage to an old, impecunious vicar of genuine but limited vision. The older man had previously considered that, at least, the curate must have been young. Why married in a month, Some parson, some smug crop-haired smooth-chinned sort Of curate-creature, I suspect,—dived down, Down, deeper still, and came up somewhere else— I don’t know where—I’ve not tried much to know,— In short, she’s happy: what the clodpoles call “Countrified” with a vengeance!

In reality, the aunt found that she …transcribed The page on page of sermon scrawlings—stopped Intellect’s eye and ear to sense and sound— Vainly: the sound and sense would penetrate To brain and plague there in despite of me Maddened to know more moral good were done Had we two simply sallied forth and preached I’ the “Green” they call their grimy,— I with twang Of long disused guitar—with cut and slash Of much-misvalued horsewhip he -…,

Browning used to keep two skulls upon his desk at Camberwell, and the trivia of John Shade’s Aunt Maud may have some reflection to the young aunt of Browning’s poem: …Her room We’ve kept intact. Its trivia create A still life in her style: the paperweight Of convex glass enclosing a lagoon, The verse book open at the Index (Moon, Moonrise, Moor, Moral), the forlorn guitar, The human skull; and from the local Star — 116 —

----------------------------   The Browning Version and Contemporary Reality  ----------------------------

A curio: Red Sox beat Yanks 5-4 On Chapman’s Homer, thumbtacked to the door

The chronology of the baseball is discussed in chapter 10. Parrying each other’s thrusts on interpretation of their actions, the mood at the inn darkens. The older man in discussion with the aunt suggests that they each write something in the inn album. The older man writes a line or two and gives the book to the aunt, who then retires, leaving the two men together. The weaker points of our roué have appeared in the presence of the woman, and rumours of doubtful card-dealing at the Club have arisen. The older comments on the lady’s position: …No, my sapient sir! Far wiselier, straightaway she betook herself To a prize portent from the donkey show Of leathern long-ears that compete for palm In clerical absurdity: since he, Good ass, nor practises the shaving trick, The candle-crotchet nonsense which repays When you’ve young ladies congregant,—but schools The poor,—toils, moils and grinds the mill nor means To stop and munch one thistle in this life Till next life smother him with roses

Just when the lady is lost, he reassures the young man: “Don’t fear!” had followed reassuringly— “The lost will in due time turn up again, Probably just when, weary of the world, You think of nothing less than settling-down To country life and golden days, beside A dearest best and brightest virtuousest Wife: who need no more hope to hold her own Against the naughty-and –repentant—no, Than water gruel against Roman punch!”

The lady returns with the album and the young man is left with her for a brief period when she speaks openly of her love for him:

— 117 —

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You loved me: I believed you. I replied —How could I other? “I was not my own,” —No longer had the eyes to see, the ears To hear, the mind to judge, since heart and soul Now were another’s. My own right in me, For well or ill, consigned away—my face Fronted the honest path, deflection whence Had shamed me in the furtive backward look At the late bargain-fit such chapman’s phrase!— As though—less hasty and more provident— Waiting had brought advantage. Not for me The chapman’s chance! Yet while thus much was true, I spared you—as I knew you then—one more Concluding word which, truth no less, seemed best Buried away for ever. Take it now Its power to pain is past! Four years—that day— Those limes that make the College Avenue! I would that moment, seen into the heart Of either, as I now am taught to see!

The chapman’s chance is examined in chapter 13. When the roué returns, he proposes a practical solution based on common sense and, not least, blackmail. The young man should love the woman and forget his escapism. He, himself, would sacrifice his one true love. The woman should accept and the younger man, in view of his own sacrifice, might regard his debt as being paid. Should the woman not agree, he would inform her husband of her past. He turns to the album, starting with the existing line that began the suggestion, and prompts the lady: “Hail, calm, acclivity, salubrious spot” You begin—place aux dames! I’ll prompt you then! “Here do I take the good the gods allot” Next you sir! What, still sulky? Sing, O muse! “Here does my lord in full discharge his shot!”

Is one factor in the advice given by Kinbote to Disa when looking in her album the clue to investigate further Horace’s advice on the art of poetry and on the nature of the poet? We quote Horace’s final lines: — 118 —

----------------------------   The Browning Version and Contemporary Reality  ----------------------------

457

hic, dum sublimis versus ructatur et errat, si veluti merulis intentus decidit auceps clamet “io cives!” non sit qui tollere curet. si curet quis opem ferre et demittere funem, “qui scis, an prudens huc se deiecerit atque servari nolit?”… 466 …sit ius liceatque perire poetis : invitum qui servat, idem facit occidenti. nec semel hoc fecit, nec, si retractus erit, iam fiet homo et ponet famosae mortis amorem. nec satis apparet, cur versus factitet, utrum minxerit in patrios cineres, an triste bidental moverit incestus : certe furit, ac velut ursus, obiectos caveae valuit si frangere clatros, indoctum doctumque fugat recitator acerbus; … He with head upraised, splutters verses and off he strays; then if, like a fowler with his eyes upon blackbirds, he fall into a well or pit, despite his far-reaching cry, “Help, O fellow citizens!” not a soul will care to pull him out. And if one should care to lend aid and let down a rope, “How do you know,” I’ll say, “but that he threw himself in on purpose, and does not wish to be saved?” …Let poets have the right to destroy themselves. Who saves a man against his will does the same as murder him. Not for the first time has he done this, nor if he is pulled out will he at once become a human being and lay aside his craving for a notable death. Nor is it very clear how he come to be a verse-monger. Has he defiled ancestral ashes or, sadly, has incest disturbed a sacred spot? At any rate he is mad and, like a bear, if he has had strength to break the confining bars of his cage, he puts learned and unlearned alike to flight by the scourge of his recitals…” (emphasis added).

The motives of Gradus, Kinbote and John Shade are examined in chapter 13.

— 119 —

--------------------------------------  Corn, Cuckoldry, and the Amazonian Chin --------------------------------------

IX Corn, Cuckoldry, and the Amazonian Chin

…aethereal rumours Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus (T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land, part 5, What the Thunder Said) In chapter 7, the ringlet butterfly, Erebia eriphyle, again pointed to the theme of matricide within the tela adultera, following the likely adultery of Queen Blenda. There have been suggestions through the allusions to Hamlet (chapter 3) and to the Alcmaeon of Astydamas (chapter 7) and again in the work of Voltaire through linguistic conundra pointing to the Ériphyle (chapter 7) and Sémiramis (chapter 5) that King Alfin was murdered by Queen Blenda in collusion with the Duke of Rahl. Further indicators to the latter play are contained in the land of Sémiramis and the shade of Ninus’s tomb, provided by the mulberry tree through a Shakespearian cluster of references to young lovers’ sacrifices and the Ovidian tale of Pyramus and Thisbe (chapter 7). A yet further pointer is given by that admirable colonnade of trees on the Wordsmith’s campus, where a bloody midsummer mulberry has a coagulate shade “inviting to tarry” (998). The inevitable associations with the silkworm, the Latin bombyx, in the context of Pale Fire all point to a murdered King Alfin (chapter 5). A second theme relates to the two swallows of the Duke of Payn and Mone and the likelihood that John Shade was cuckolded in 1933, where through various allusions (chapter 5), in particular, to Browning’s “My Last Duchess” (chapter 3), the harsh Duke has had his dead wife painted on the wall. There is also a darker theme here, for the suggestion is lurking of the Ovidian tale of Philomela,1 to which there 1

OM 6. — 121 —

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is a brief reference in Spenser from the slavish Pope (chapter 4). Here the brutal Tereus, tracing his lineage from Mars himself, had married Procne and had a child, Itys. After five years of marriage he agreed to escort her beautiful sister Philomela to Thrace, but, enraged by her beauty, he raped her in a remote wood on landing and dragged out her tongue with tongs so that her silence was immune to dialogue. Then he sadly returned home and told Procne that Philomela was dead. But after weaving a tale of incest on a tapestry, the guarded Philomela had it secretly conveyed to her sister Procne, who, foreseeing all, murdered her child Itys and had him served as a meal to the unsuspecting Tereus. In the more limited setting of Pale Fire, the incestuous seduction of Sybil Shade (née Hirondelle) by the Duke of Payn and Mone, leaving John Shade a cuckold, is supported by the presence of the butterfly, le Vulcain (Vanessa atalanta), the god, Vulcan being the special patron of cuckolds (see chapter 3). The Duke of Payn and Mone becomes the likely father of Hazel Shade. We examine further support for the hirondelle motif in this chapter. It may be remembered that, in the sad tale of Philomela, when Tereus was pursuing Procne, the gods had to intervene, turning the characters into birds, with Tereus becoming a hawk, Procne a swallow, and Philomela, a nightingale. In this chapter, examining the opening lines of Canto Four, we are led by a shaving motif to a stubble of corn, cuckoldry, and an Amazonian chin to the world of Coriolanus.2 This world leads us, in turn, to where “aethereal rumours revive for a moment” about this broken man, namely, to the world of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. A major hidden Nabokov parody of this poem and Notes will appear.3 An earlier reference suggesting that amongst other authors, the influence of Eliot’s poem was more abundantly represented is cited.4 2 3 4

Part 5, What the Thunder Said, lines 415-416 and chapter heading. See also chapter 2, n.2. PM. chapter 6, pp.129-130, notes the influence of Wordsworth, Swift, and Pope on Shade, “but even if deliberately invoked [see M. M., “A Bolt from the Blue”], Eliot’s Waste Land is more abundantly represented.” She cites Shakespeare’s Tempest and Coriolanus, Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress,” The Confessions of St. Augustine, Goldsmith and Baudelaire’s Fleurs du mal, specifically “Mon Semblable, mon frère!” Where Eliot quoted Tristan und Isolde in German, a verse with the Wind-Kind rhyme (Part 1, “The Burial of the Dead,” lines 31-34), Nabokov uses a better-known source for the same — 122 —

--------------------------------------  Corn, Cuckoldry, and the Amazonian Chin --------------------------------------

The opening lines of John Shade’s Canto Four burst with a cluster of peremptory shall’s and a musing on poetic inspiration: 835 Now I shall spy on beauty as none has Spied on it yet. Now I shall cry out as None has cried out. Now I shall try what none Has tried. Now I shall do what none has done. And speaking of this wonderful machine: I’m puzzled by the difference between Two methods of composing: A, the kind That goes on slowly in the poet’s mind, A testing of performing words while he Is soaping a third time one leg, and B, The other kind, much more decorous, when He’s in his study writing with a pen.

There are further considerable musings on the male’s frustrations with shaving. After the opening bleeding lines, reflecting the sensitivities of the process and the striking image of David’s dying Marat, there is an interplay of geographical metaphors covering the facial harmonics of the strokes. We move from bathos to the bath. Marat, we note, was also an ardent lepidopterist.5 Wind-Kind, the Erlkönig, in English with French and Zemblan thrown in. A mundane dialogue about the wind between John and Sybil Shade is linked to the Erlkönig in Shade’s poem: “What is that funny creaking—do you hear?” “It is the shutters on the stair my dear.” “If you’re not sleeping, let’s turn on the light. “I hate that wind! Let’s play some chess.” “All right.” (Lines 653-656) This is compared to part 2, “A Game of Chess,” in The Waste Land: “What is that noise?” The wind under the door “What is that noise now? What is the Wind doing?” Nothing again Nothing. “Do You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you Remember Nothing?” (Lines 117-124) 5

BBRP, p. 634. — 123 —

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887 Since my biographer may be too staid Or know too little to affirm that Shade Shaved in his bath, here goes: “He’d fixed a sort Of hinge-and -screw affair, a steel support Running across the tub to hold in place The shaving mirror right before his face And with his toe renewing tap-warmth, he’d Sit like a king there, and like Marat bleed.” The more I weigh, the less secure my skin; In places it’s ridiculously thin; Thus near the mouth: the space between its wick And my grimace, invites the wicked nick. Or this dewlap: some day I must set free. The Newport frill inveterate in me. My Adam’s apple is a prickly pear: Now I shall speak of evil and despair As none has spoken. Five, six, seven, eight, Nine strokes are not enough. I palpate Through strawberry-and-cream the gory mess And find unchanged that patch of prickliness.

Round and round the prickly pear is found in Eliot’s The Hollow Men:6 Here we go round the prickly pear Prickly pear, prickly pear Here we go round the prickly pear At five o’clock in the morning

And again a pointer, but not, of course directly, to the mulberry bush and Ninus’s tomb. Shade’s bathroom light is consistent with Eliot’s poem. On July 5th, 1959, the sixth Sunday after Trinity, the light was on in Shade’s bathroom at 4.30 a.m. and later transferred to the bedroom in a period of creative activity (181). The ending of Eliot’s poem is not quite so exact. This is the way the world ends

6

TSE, The Hollow Men, part 5, p. 91. — 124 —

--------------------------------------  Corn, Cuckoldry, and the Amazonian Chin --------------------------------------

This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper

We shall trek later in more detail to The Waste Land but continue on the shaving motif. The focus is on line 899, containing the isolated “Or this dewlap:” which brings us, again to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. While Bottom, the weaver, lies sleeping with the Queen of the Fairies, Titania, under a magical spell in an enchanted wood, the Duke of Athens enters with the the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta. He wishes his love to hear the music of his hounds. Hippolyta remarks:7 I was with Hercules and Cadmus, once, When in a wood of Crete they bay’d the bear, With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear Such gallant chiding; for, besides, the groves, The skies, the fountains, every region near Seem’d all one musical cry: I never heard So musical a discord, such sweet thunder…

Theseus replies, My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind; So flew’d so sanded; and their heads are hung With ears that sweep away the morning dew, Crook-kneed, and dew-lapped like Thessalian bulls; Slow in pursuit; but match’d in mouth like bells, Each under each. A cry more tuneable Was never holla’d to, nor cheer’d with horn, In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly.

After the departure of Theseus and Hippolyta and their train, it is unsurprising that Bottom’s first line on waking is to pursue his acting of Pyramus. Again we appear to be led round the mulberry bush and to Ninus’s tomb in the land of Sémiramis: When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer: my next is, “Most fair Pyramus.” 7

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 4.1. — 125 —

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We return to the peremptory shall’s. The future imperatives lead us to consider Coriolanus, that man of imperious courage and directness whose inability to empathize with the outlook of the common man leads to his ultimate tragedy. The courage of Coriolanus extolled in front of the Senate cannot be “singly counterpoised.”8 the deeds of Coriolanus Should not be uttered feebly: it is held That valour is the chiefest virtue, and Most dignifies the haver: if it be, The man I speak of cannot in the world Be singly counterpois’d. At sixteen years, When Tarquin made a head for Rome, he fought Beyond the mark of others: our then dictator, Whom with all praise I point at, saw him fight, When with his Amazonian chin he drove The bristled lips before him: he bestrid An o’er-press’d Roman and i’ the consul’s view Slew three opposers: Tarquin’s self he met, And struck him on the knee: in that day’s feats, When he might act the woman in the scene, He prov’d best man i’the field, and for his meed Was brow-bound with the oak. His pupil age Man-enter’d thus, he waxed like a sea, And in the brunt of seventeen battles since, He lurch’d all swords of the garland: for this last Before and in Corioles, let me say I cannot speak him home: he stopp’d the fliers, And by his rare example made the coward Turn terror into sport:

After his almost single-handed victory over the Volscians at Corioles, there is a move to have Coriolanus proclaimed Consul. But past disturbances over the price of corn had led to a compromise with the election of five tribunes to represent the common interest, allowing them to remember his past arrogance over this issue. One of

8

Coriolanus, 2.2. — 126 —

--------------------------------------  Corn, Cuckoldry, and the Amazonian Chin --------------------------------------

the tribunes, Sicinius9 remarks, This (as you say) suggested At some time with his soaring insolence Shall teach the people, which time shall not want, If he be put on’t, and that’s as easy As to set dogs on sheep, will be his fire To kindle their dry stubble: and their blaze Shall darken him forever

The early demand for corn at the people’s own rates had been met by the comment of Coriolanus:10 Hang ’em! They say? They’ll sit by the fire, and presume to know What’s done i’the Capitol: who’s like to rise, Who thrives, and who declines; side factions, and give out Conjectural marriages, making parties strong, And feebling such as stand not in their liking, Below their cobbl’ed shoes. They say there’s grain enough? Would the nobility laid aside their ruth, And let me use my sword, I’ld make a quarry With thousands of these quarter’d slaves, as high As I could pick my lance.

On enquiry of his friend, Menenius, as to what has happened to the common faction which led to the appointment of the five tribunes “to defend their vulgar freedoms,” he continues, They are dissolved: hang ‘em! They said they were an-hungry, sigh’d forth proverbs, That hunger broke stone walls; that dogs must eat; That meat was made for mouths; that the gods sent not Corn for the rich men only: with these shreds They vented their complainings, which being answer’d And a petition granted them, a strange one, To break the heart of generosity 9 10

Coriolanus, 2.1. Coriolanus, 1.1. — 127 —

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And make bold power look pale, they threw their caps As they would hang them on the horns of the moon, Shouting their emulation.

For his electorship to Consul, Coriolanus begs to avoid the tradition of putting on a modest gown and appealing for the support of the common people and demonstrating his honourable wounds in defence of the republic.11 I do beseech you, Let me o’erleap that custom; for I cannot Put on the gown, stand naked, and entreat them, For my wounds’ sake, to give their suffrage: please you That I may pass this doing.

Two tribunes have now turned the people from their earlier support for Coriolanus. Sicinius points out that that the mind of Coriolanus It is a mind That shall remain a poison where it is; Not poison any further

Coriolanus replies: “Shall” remain? Hear you this Triton of the minnows? mark you His absolute “shall”

He goes on “Shall!” O good but most unwise patricians: why, You grave, but reckless senators, have you thus Given Hydra here to choose an officer, That with his peremptory “shall”, being but The horn and noise o’ the monster’s, wants not spirit To say, he’ll turn your current in a ditch, And make your channel his? If he have power, Then vail your ignorance:if none, awake 11

Coriolanus, 2.2. — 128 —

--------------------------------------  Corn, Cuckoldry, and the Amazonian Chin --------------------------------------

Your dangerous lenity. If you are learn’d, Be not as common fools; If you are not, Let them have cushions by you. you are plebeians, If they be senators: and they are no less, When both your voices blended, the great’st taste Most palates theirs. They choose their magistrate, And such a one as he, who puts his “shall,” His popular “shall” against a graver bench Than ever frowned in Greece. By Jove himself, It makes the consuls base; and my soul aches To know, when two authorities are up, Neither supreme, how soon confusion May enter ‘twixt the gap of both, and take The one by the other.

We have quoted at length the likely sources of the “peremptory shall’s” in the opening lines of Canto Four, but why Coriolanus? The blood and stubble and an Amazonian chin may give striking images of a shaving leitmotif, but none of the participants of potential royal Zemblan bloodstock has images of impetuous “uncounterpois’d’ raw courage,” rather the reverse, except, perhaps, for the shady dukes. It is true that Coriolanus, “with his Amazonian chin,” “might yet play the woman in the scene,” and presumably, a fitting queen, Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons—but we are in danger of troppo coincidenza. In the final act of Coriolanus, there is a general comment on war and peace by Servingmen in the house of Aufidius:12 “Let me have war, say I, it exceeds peace as far as day does night: it’s spritely, walking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy, mill’d, deaf, sleepy, insensible, a getter of more bastard children than war’s a destroyer of men.” “Tis so, and as wars in some sort may be said to be a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is a great maker of cuckolds.”

In relation to the Zemblan court, we may note that, “owing to a fluid system of judicious alliances” (12), Mars in his time never marred 12

Coriolanus, 4.5. — 129 —

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the record during the period of the king’s reign (1936-1958). This has intimations of Mars the seducer rather than the war-monger and is consistent with the timing of the likely seduction of Sybil in 1933 and the birth of Hazel in 1934. It is no surprise to read that “Harmony, indeed, was the reign’s password,” Harmonia being the child of the illicit passion of Mars and Venus, but the comment from Coriolanus is too general to be of direct interest. A more succinct and telling coincidence arises in the final lines of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land (part 5, What the Thunder Said), where “aethereal rumours revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus” (415416, and chapter heading). In chapter 2, n.2, we have earlier referenced the parody of Part II of this poem, A Game of Chess, where a vision of a nymph kneeling in a wood forewarns of the fate of Philomela. In Eliot’s concluding section of this poem, which we examine in this and the following chapter (10), the themes indicated in Eliot’s “Commentary” (more strictly, “Notes”) appear equally to illuminate the possible leitmotifs of the adulterous relationships in Pale Fire. One may even use Eliot’s “Notes” to underpin these leitmotifs and to discover further themes illuminating other blood motifs within the Nabokov toile d’Eliot. Canto Four of our tragicomedy provides, therefore, a significant and illuminating parody of Eliot’s final section 5, What the Thunder Said, to guide the blood relationships in the Onhavan tela adultera. Here we consider the references to lines 427 and 428 of The Waste Land. Eliot’s quoted line 427 is the concluding line of Purgatorio 26:13 427

Poi s’ascose nel foco che li affina (Then he [Arnaut] vanished into the flame that defined him)

The following episode commences with Virgil trying to persuade Dante to enter within the bosom of the flame of Purgatory to reunite him with his beloved Beatrice. Again the comparison with the dividing wall of Pyramus and Thisbe is made.14

13

14

Dante Alighieri, La Commedia Divina. Purgatorio XXVI, trans. L. Biancolli (New York: Washington Square Press, 1966). Ibid., Purgatorio 27.20-42. — 130 —

--------------------------------------  Corn, Cuckoldry, and the Amazonian Chin --------------------------------------

E Virgilio mi disse: ‘Figluol’ mio. Qui puo esser tormento, ma non morte Ricordati, ricordati …e, se io Sopr’ esso Gerion ti guidai salvo, Che faro ora presso piu a Dio? Credi per certo che, se dentro all’alvo Di questa fiamma stessi ben mill’ anni, Non ti potrebbe far d’un capel calvo. E se tu credi forse ch’io t’inganni, Fatti ver lei, e fatti far credenza Con le tue mani al lembo de’ tuoi panni. Pon giu omai, pon giu ogni temenza, Volgiti in qua, e vieni oltre sicuro.” Ed io pur fermo, e contro a conscienza. Quando mi vide star pur fermo e duro, Turbato un poco, disse: “Or vedi, figlio,

Tra Beatrice e te è questo muro.” Come al nome di Tisbe aperse il ciglio Piramo in sulla morte, e riguardolla Allor che il gelso divento vermiglio Cosi, la mia durezza fatta solla, Mi volsi al savio Duca, udendo il nome Che nella mente semore mi rampolla

And Virgil said to me: “My son. There may be torment here but there is no death Remember this, remember …for if I Safely conducted you to Geryon, Think what I shall now do nearer still to God. Accept it for certain that, even if you stayed A thousand year within the bosom of this flame It would not make you bald, not by a single hair And, if you believe that I am deluding you, Approach the fire and convince yourself With both hands on your garment’s hem. Put down all fear in you at once; turn in this Direction and proceed with confidence.” But I stood still, grappling with my conscience. When he saw me standing there, firm and fixed, He was somewhat disturbed, and said: “Look here, my son, This wall stands between Beatrice and you.” Just as Pyramus, when dying, opened his eyes, At the name of Thisbe and looked at her, And the colour of the mulberry turned to red; So I, on hearing the name that always Shoots up in my mind, lessened my resistance, And turned to face my learned leader.

— 131 —

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The continuing building references to Pyramus are becoming almost pyramidal. When we turn to Eliot’s following line, the second leitmotif becomes self-evident with the repetitive swallow: 428

Quando fiam uti Chelidon O swallow, swallow?

giving support to the presence of two Hirondelles of French extraction, and the rather good summer for the cold calculating Duke of Payn and Mone (chapter 3) following the likely seduction of Sybil Shade. There is, again, the darker shadow of the fate of Philomela, the girl of Tereus, referred to also in Parts 2 and 3 of Eliot’s poem. The final lines of the Pervigilium Veneris15 read: 86

Adsonat terei puella subter umbram populi, Ut putes motus amoris ore dici musico, Et neges queri sororem de marito barbaro. Illa cantat, nos tacemus. Quando ver venit meum?

90

Quando fiam uti chelidon, ut tacere desinam? Perdidi Musam tacendo. nec me Phoebus respicit. Sic Amyclas, cum tacerent, perdidit silentium. Cras amet qui numquam amavit quique amavit cras amet

86 Beneath the shadow of the people, echoes the girl of Tereus So that you might think that a movement of love is spoken by a musical mouth And that you might deny that a sister complains about a barbarous husband. We are silent, she sings: When does my spring come? 90 When will I become a swallow, so that I might cease to be silent? I lost my muse by being silent , and Phoebus does not regard me. This silence destroyed Amyclae, when they were silent. Tomorrow let him love, who has never loved And he who has loved, tomorrow let him love. (Trans. C. Kieffe) 15

Pervigilium Veneris. A poem of uncertain authorship believed to be of the 2-3 century A.D. — 132 —

--------------------------------------  Corn, Cuckoldry, and the Amazonian Chin --------------------------------------

Following the Italian and Latin references, the succeeding line 429 in Eliot’s poem becomes of particular interest, the line being from a French sonnet by Gérard de Nerval (1855), “El Desdichado.”16 429 Le Prince d’Aquitaine à la tour abolie

This line and other influences of Eliot’s section 5 of The Waste Land, What the Thunder Said, together with their effects within Pale Fire, are the subjects of our next chapter.

16

Gérard de Nerval, “El Desdichado” (see chapter 10, n.1). — 133 —

-----------------------------------------  Toile d’Eliot or Combinational Delight -----------------------------------------

X Toile d’Eliot or Combinational Delight



I can do what any artist can do—pounce upon the forgotten butterfly of revelation, wean myself abruptly from the habit of things, see the web of the world, and the warf and weft of that web. (from Commentary, line 991—horseshoes)

This chapter continues the detailed examination of T.S. Eliot’s “Notes” on Part 5 (What the Thunder Said) of The Waste Land and the ability of the references to illuminate classical leitmotifs for identifying adulterous, and hence blood, relationships in the Royal House of Onhava. Following Eliot’s two quoted lines in Italian and Latin at 427 and 428, which throw indirect light on the bloodstock of the Shades and are considered in chapter 9, the subsequent line 429 moves to a quotation from a French nineteenth-century sonnet by Gérard de Nerval. 429

Le Prince d’Aquitaine à la tour abolie1

One line from this sonnet is of particular interest:

1

De Nerval, “El Desdichado,” line 2. The sonnet of the widower bears the “black sun of melancholy.” Nerval under his assumed name was Baudelaire’s model of the poète maudit, the doomed poet with a vision so intense the world would destroy him if he did not first destroy himself. He suffered from manic depression and delusions of grandeur, changing his name during a period of hospitalisation after believing himself to be descended from the Roman emperor, Nerva. In his “Les Chimères” there is the theme of the yearning for a woman, the desire to atone with the object of desire, and the soul’s journey to divine love and illumination (intro. and trans. D. M. Epstein, New Criterion, 19, no. 4). — 135 —

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2

Mon front est rouge encore du baiser de la reine (My forehead is still red from the kiss of the queen)2

While this might throw light on a possible youthful liaison of an adolescent John Shade with Queen Blenda, it is not John Shade but Eliot who is quoting, and no conclusion may be reached regarding a possible liaison. In terms of blood relationships (see chapter 3), the close similarity of Charles the Beloved and Julius Steinmann (b. 1928) were noted (171), indicating that the Duke of Rahl was his likely father. Kinbote/Charles the Beloved also has similarities to Hazel “in some respects” (348), however, which might point to John Shade as a common father. But the evidence again points to the shady Dukes of Rahl and of Payn and Mone as the respective natural fathers. The Duke of Payn has a recognizable figure of the Red Admiral, known to Zemblans as harvalda (the heraldic one), borne in his escutcheon indicative of an air of cuckoldry (270). De Nerval was the adopted name of the romantic, rather doomed, poet, Gerald Labrunie, whose intense vision of the world ended with his suicide in 1855. In his compact body of work, de Nerval may also be identified as a keen lepidopterist, and interest lies in his poem “Les Papillons,” quoted here, which contains some seventeen species— Nymphalinae and their sub-class, Satyrinae, Apaturinae, Pieridae, Lycaenidae, Papilionidae, and Hesperiinae amongst others; some moths are also included. Here, a few sub-species and their English names are also adumbrated.3 I De toute des belles choses Qui nous manquent en hiver Qu’aimez-vous mieux? – Moi,le roses; – Moi, l’aspect d’un beau pré vert; – Moi, la moisson blondissante, Chevelure des sillons: – Moi, le rossignol qui chante – Et moi, les beaux papillons! Le papillon, fleur sans tige, 2 3

De Nerval, “El Desdichado”, trans. R. Duncan, line 10. See PEAN. — 136 —

-----------------------------------------  Toile d’Eliot or Combinational Delight ----------------------------------------Qui voltige, Que l’on cueille en un réseau; Dans la nature infinie, Harmonie Entre la plante et l’oiseau!… Quand revient l’été superbe, Je m’en vais au bois tout seul: Je m’étends dans la grande herbe, Perdu dans ce vert linceul, Sur ma tête renversée Là, chacun d’eux à son tour, Passe comme une pensée De poésie ou d’amour! Voice le papillon faune Satyrinae Neohipparchia statilinus Tree Grayling Noir et jaune Voici le mars azuré Apaturinae Apatura iris (grand) Purple Emperor Agitant des étincelles ilia (petit) Lesser Purple Sur ses ailes Emperor D’un velours riche et moiré Voici le Vulcain rapide Nymphalinae Vanessa atalanta Red Admirable Qui vole comme un oiseau: Son aile noire et splendide Porte un grand ruban ponceau. Dieux. le soufré, dans l’espace, Pieridae Colias hyale Pale Clouded Yellow Comme un éclair a relui. (La Candide) Colias phicomone Mountain Clouded Yellow Mis le joyeux nacré passe Nymphalinae Issoria lathonia (petit) Et je ne vois pas que lui! (Nacre porphyrin) Clossiana titania Titania’s Fritillary but also Lycaenidae Polyommatus coridon (Le Bleu Nacré)

II Comme un éventail de soie, Il déploie Son manteau semé d’argent; Et sa robe bigarrée Est dorée D’un or verdâtre et changeant. Voici le machaon-zebre, Papilionidae Iphiclides podalirius Scarce Swallowtail De fauve et de noir rayé; Le deuil, en habit funèbre Satyrinae Melanargia galathea Marbled White (demi-deuil) Melanargia larissa Balkan Marbled White (échiquier des Balkans) — 137 —

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------   X ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Et le miroir bleu strié; Hesperiinae Heteropterus Morpheus Large Chequeered Skipper Voici l’argus, feuille-morte Lycaenidae Plebejus argus (petit) Silver-studded Blue Plebejus idas (moyen) Idas Blue Le morio, le grand bleu, Nymphalinae Nymphalis antiope Camberwell Beauty Et le paon du jour qui porte Nymphalinae Inachis io Peacock Sur chaque aile un oeil de feu Mais le soir brunit son plaines; Les phalènes Geometrids Emerald moths Prennent leur essor bruyant, Et les sphinx aux couleurs sombres, Hawkmoths Dans les ombres Voltigent en tournoyant. C’est le grand-paon à l’oeil rose Nymphalinae Great Peacock Dessiné sur un fond gris, Qui ne vole qu’à nuit close, Comme les chauves-souris; Le bombice du troëne Silkmoth of the privet Rayé de jaune et de vert, Et le papillon du chêne Lycaenidae Quercusia quercus Purple Hairstreak Qui ne meurt pas en hiver!... Voici les sphinx à la tête See above De squelette, Peinte en blanc sur un fond noir, Que le villageois redoute, Sur la route, De voir voltiger le soir. Je hais aussi les phalènes, See above Sombres hôtes de la nuit, Qui voltigent dans nos plaines De sept heures à minuit; Mais vous, papillons que j’aime, Légers papillons de jour, Tout en vous est un emblème De poésie et d’amour!

The third part of the poem deals with the unfortunate demise of a butterfly at the hands of an innocent young girl, being pierced through the heart with a pin, de-legged by her white nails feeling its shrivelling antennae in the final death throes. This charming poem should not be anaesthetized by classificatory camphor, and we focus on two lepidoptera of primary significance in Pale Fire, le Vulcain, the Red Admiral or Red Admirable, and le bombice du troëne, the silk moth of the privet; but also, importantly, we consider un éventail de soie. — 138 —

-----------------------------------------  Toile d’Eliot or Combinational Delight -----------------------------------------

The Vulcain as the harbinger of cuckoldry indicating that John Shade had been cuckolded by Sybil has already been discussed in chapters 3 and 9. But by the end of the poem, the Red Admiral in terms of adulterous intrigue, may also be seen as a harbinger of royal doom. Nabokov in an interview in August 19704 commented that the Vanessa atalanta was especially abundant in Northern Russia in 1881 when Tsar Alexander II was assassinated, while the markings on the underside of its two hind wings seemed to read “1881.” To the inhabitants it became known as “The Butterfly of Doom.” It is possible, therefore, in the contemporary scene immediately prior to John Shade’s evening assassination, where 993

The dark Vanessa with a crimson band Wheels in the low sun, settles on the sand

that the royal blood, sang real, is being spilt, supporting the view that John Shade’s father is a kingly one and a rightful heir to the Zemblan throne. The diversity of association of the Vanessa atalanta again shows that all is context. In information theoretic terms the probabilities are conditional. Thus the probability is that the red Vanessa can be associated with the blood of the Shades, but the degree of probability and meaning will depend on the frequency of related factors as to whether it be associated with bloodstock, cuckoldry, or royal doom. The French reference to the Vanessa atalanta is conditional to understanding the motif of cuckoldry through the god, Vulcan (see chapter 3) and, again, Nabokov demonstrates the language dependence and conditional association of meaning. The language dependence grows more ambiguous when we consider un éventail de soie, “a fan of silk,” and the equivalent German Seidenschwanz, literally “a silktail” or waxwing, and consider Kinbote’s oblique commentary in the opening (1-4). Incidentally, it is curious to note that a crested bird called in Zemblan sampel (“silktail”), closely resembling a waxwing in shape and shade, is the model of one of the three heraldic creatures (the

4

BBRP, p. 676, from an interview of VN with Alfred Appel Jr., August, 1970. — 139 —

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other two being respectively a reindeer proper and a merman azure5, crined or) in the armorial bearings of the Zemblan King, Charles the Beloved (born 1915).”

But other dependencies may be in the armoury.6 Éventail and an Autre Éventail, a “fan” or “tail,” are two poems by Stéfan Mallarmé dedicated to his wife and daughter.7 The influence of Mallarmé on the opening couplet has been previously suggested by the recurrent image of Azure, representing the Ideal as opposed to the Ici-bas, the here below.8 Nabokov’s own recollection was “mais Verlaine and Mallarmé qui prirent soin de mon adolescence.” Succinct support is given to this proposed influence of Mallarmé and the image of the dead waxwing by the lines of the opening quatrain to his daughter: 3

Sache, pas un subtil mensonge, Garder mon aile dans ta main

The close proximity of these silken guides suggests that Nabokov was again using de Nerval to point us further in the direction of Eliot’s “Notes.” In the case of the silkworm or moth, le bombice’du troëne, it may be more relevant to consider the latin bombyx in view of the classical associations given at the outset in chapter 1. The privet (ligustrum -i) is notable for the whiteness of its flowers. 789

5 6

7

8 9

Candidior folio nivei, Galatea, ligustri9 Galatea, whiter than of privet or snow

See the seagod, Glaucus, in chapter 11. It is possible that the armorial bearings reflect linguistic motifs. In chapter 1, we considered the Zemblan court as dominantly German in nature surrounded by a Slavic peasantry. The German as cited for “silktail” is Seidenschwanz, literally, “the fan of silk” or “waxwing.” The additional presence of the merman azure on the escutcheon similarly shows the likely presence of Latin in the blue-grey Glaucus when the mythical character was turned into a sea monster by the jealous Circe (see chapter 11). The Vanessa atalanta on the escutcheon of the Duke of Payn (270) has contextual meaning, as just discussed, very primarily, in French. S. Mallarmé, Poésies, pp. 86-87. 1) Éventail (de Madame Mallarmé); 2) Autre Éventail (de Madamoiselle Mallarmé) (Paris: GF-Flammarion, 1989). BBPF chapter 12, p282n5. OM 13, “Acis and Galatea,” 789. — 140 —

-----------------------------------------  Toile d’Eliot or Combinational Delight -----------------------------------------

We turn to Martial on the privet, who dominates these classical references outside of the natural scientist, Pliny.10 One of the qualities of Martial, leaving aside his harsh lack of sexual prudery, is his ability to concentrate on the specific quality which he wishes to define, whether in describing the thinness of a leaf of a praetor’s garland (Frontispiece) or the spun origins of a toga.11 On defining the whiteness of a gown after considering its romantic sources within the empire, he compares it to the privet: 11

Lilia tu vincis nec adhuc delapsa ligustrra et Tiburtino monte quod albet ebur; Spartanus tibi cedet olor Paphiaeque columbae, cedet Erythraeis eruta gemma vadis sed licet haec primis nivibus sint aemula dona, non sunt Parthenio candidiora suo. non ego praetulerim Babylonos picta superbae texta, Samiramia quae variantur acu; You outdo lilies and privet still unfallen and the ivory that whitens on Tibur’s hill; Sparta’s swans will yield to you and Paphian doves; The pearl shall yield, dug out from Erythrean shallows, But though this gift challenges fresh snow, It is no whiter than Parthenius, its giver I would not rather have the painted fabrics of proud Babylon, Embroidered by Sémiramis’s needle;…

The sulphurous exhalations of the springs of Tibur (now Tivoli) were supposed to have the property of bleaching things, especially ivory. In an earlier epithet on the swarthy mistress, Lycoris much is made of her fancy for the use of white lead.12 Later,13 Dum Tiburtinis albescere solibus audit antiqui dentis fusca Lycoris ebur, venit in Herculeos colles. quid Tiburis alti aura valet! parvo tempore nigra redit 10 11 12 13

See Bibliotecha Teubleriana, Latina, ed. K. G. Saur (2004). ME 8.28. ME 1.72. ME 7.13. — 141 —

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Hearing that the ivory of an ancient tusk turns white in the suns of Tibur, dusky Licoris went to Hercules’ hills. How potent is the air of lofty Tiber! In a short time she returned black.

Earlier Martial had commented,14 Tibur in Herculeum migravit nigra Lycoris, omnia dum fieri candida credit ibi.

Martial had also described Lycoris as quae nigrior est cadente moro—who is blacker than a falling mulberry.15 As an aside, there is a reported saying in Zembla (433-4), where most females are freckled blondes (fitting the Slavic pattern): belwif invurkumpf wid snew ebanumf, giving the trim contrasting scheme that “a beautiful woman should be like a compass rose of ivory with four parts of ebony.” Does Martial and the Latin ebur, rather than candida, provide the inspiration for this economic scheme? A more Freudian interpretation is suggested by (819-820). Playing a game of worlds, promoting pawns To ivory unicorns and ebon fauns;

Returning to Eliot’s linguistics we approach his German reference on lines 366-376 taken from Herman Hesse’s Blick ins Chaos: Schon ist halb Europa, schon ist zumindest der Halbe Osten Europas auf dem Wege zum Chaos, fährt betrunken im heiligen Wahn am abgrund entlang und singt dazu, singt betrunken und hymnisch wie Dmitri Karamasoff sang. Ueber diese Lieder lacht der Bürger beleidigt, der Heilige und Seher hört sie mit Tränen. Already is half Europe, already, at least, half of Eastern Europe is on the way to chaos, going drunkenly in devout madness along the abyss, and sings there, sings drunkenly and praises Dmitri Karamazov’s song. Over these songs, the insulted Burger laughs, the saint and the seer hears them with tears. 14 15

ME 4.62. ME 1.72, line 5. — 142 —

-----------------------------------------  Toile d’Eliot or Combinational Delight -----------------------------------------

One of Eliot’s concerns at that time was the decay of Eastern Europe. The striking feature in relation to Pale Fire is the presence of Dmitri Karamazov, bringing with him the theme of parricide. The question of whether the impetuous eldest of the brothers Karamazov, Dmitri, had murdered his father or whether the servant Smerdyakov, rumoured to be a half brother from the father’s seduction of an idiot servant of the house, had performed the deed, does not seem ambiguous, but the suicide of the likely bastard son, Smerdyakov, on the eve of Dmitri’s trial, again adds to the uncertainty.16 In the case of Pale Fire, there is the strong likelihood that the brown suited Gradus/Jacques de Gray fired the fatal shots at John Shade and that Gradus/Jacques de Gray committed suicide before coming to trial. The choice of target was confirmed by the negro gardener (1000). Kinbote/ Charles the Beloved claimed to have a tremor of recognition of him from Zemblan days, but this, of course, is Kinbote’s story. There is also no direct corroboration that the Jack Grey was identified by the police as the person who escaped from an Institute for the Criminally Insane. If we rely on Eliot’s Notes, then added weight may be given to the presence of a parricide. This would confirm that Gradus is a natural son of John Shade and the unwitting Martian of our story. It must be pointed out that both John Shade and the unlikely Gradus would have had sang real in their veins for eligibility to the Zemblan throne, but the illegitimate Kinbote/Charles the Beloved is an impostor who understands the position and through elimination of the competition may secure the insecure Zemblan throne. Eliot’s comment at 401 reads “Datta, dayadhvam, damyata” (Give, sympathize, control). The fable of the meaning of the Thunder may be cited,17 but it is somewhat simpler to go to the poem itself. The comments (c) of the Notes are also written.

16

17

Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, trans. and intro. D. Magarshack (London: Penguin, 1958). Eliot’s note on the title of Part 5 at 401 reads, “The fable of the meaning of the Thunder is found in the Brihadaranyaka-Upanishad, 5 1. A translation is found in Deussen’s Sechzig Upanishads des Veda p.489.” — 143 —

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400 DA Datta: what have we given? My friend, blood shaking my heart The awful daring of a moment’s surrender Which an age of prudence can never retract By this, and this only, we have existed Which is not to be found in our obituaries Or in memories draped by the munificent spider Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor In our empty rooms. 410 DA Dayadhvam: I have heard the key Turn in the door once and turn once only We think of the key, each in his prison Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison Only at nightfall, aethereal rumours Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus

c. 407 Cf. Webster, The White Devil, V, vi “... they’ll remarry Ere the worm pierce your winding sheet, ere the spider Make a thin curtain for your epitaphs.”

c. 411 “Ed io senti chiave l’uscio di sotto All’ orribile torre.” (Inferno, XXXIII,46)

Eliot’s fear of experience of one dangerous act as exemplified in the terrible consequences for Count Ugolino and his young sons recorded by Dante, left to die of hunger “in that dreadful tower,” is well recognized. Here we focus on the key but that taken by Kinbote (143) from the Royal House in Onhava and discusssed in chapter 3. Kinbote possessed the key to the little tin negro and his wheelbarrow, which John Shade kept as a memento mori in New Wye and with which he had been playing as a child when there was a sudden sunburst in his head. There was a sudden sunburst in my head. And then black night. That blackness was sublime. — 144 —

-----------------------------------------  Toile d’Eliot or Combinational Delight -----------------------------------------

There was a hole in the side of the little clockwork negro gardener. This prescient passage may be transposed to the final setting, where there is now a real-life negro with a wheelbarrow and a hole in the side of John Shade produced by a clockwork gunman18 (171, 1000). Is there more significance, therefore, to the key to the assassination? In real life Kinbote would then have the key to the clockwork gunman, which also is concordant with the use of the Latin, ici (literally, I struck a bargain) when Kinbote would have made an arrangement with Gradus (1000) as commented later, in chapter 14. We may look at Eliot a little more widely. The opening Notes on the Waste Land read: Not only the title but the plan and a good deal of the incidental symbolism of the poem were suggested by Miss Jessie L Weston’s book on the Grail Legend: From Ritual to Romance (Cambridge). Indeed so deeply am I indebted, Miss Weston’s book will elucidate the difficulties of the poem much better than my notes can do; and I recommend it (apart from the great interest of the book itself) to any who think such elucidation of the poem worth the trouble. To another work of anthropology I am indebted in general, one which has influenced our generation profoundly; I mean The Golden Bough; I have used especially the two volumes Adonis, Attis, Osiris. Anyone who is acquainted with these works will immediately recognize in the poem certain references to vegetation ceremonies.

We note that the assassination of John Shade is associated with sang real rather than the San Greal, the holy Grail, of these introductory “Notes,” but there appears a continuing parody where the imminent assassination can be associated with the modern equivalent of a vegetation ceremony. 998 Some neighbour’s gardener, I guess—goes by Trundling an empty barrow up the lane

There is also a change of compass point and sex in the presence of Nabokov’s Dr Sutton in place of the diligent Miss Weston. There is 18

“Mere springs and coils produced the inward movements of our clockwork man” (from 171 on the character of Gradus). — 145 —

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even an invitation by Kinbote to consider the recombination of the two syllables of Sutton in the first canto (119). In view of the parallel consistency, therefore, we might enquire from Eliot who is the most important person in his poem?—We find out at c218: Tiresias, although a mere spectator, and not indeed a ‘character’ is yet the most important personage in the poem, uniting all the rest. Just as the one-eyed merchant, seller of currants, melts into the Phoenician sailor, and the latter is not wholly distinct from Ferdinand, Prince of Naples, so all the women are one woman, and the two sexes meet in Tiresias. What Tiresias sees, in fact, is the substance of the poem. The whole passage from Ovid is of great anthropological interest:…”

The hermaphrodite, Tiresias, blinded by Juno for supporting Jove in his theory that women get more pleasure out of love, was compensated by Jove who gave him the gift to see what things should come, the power of prophecy.19 We may put the case that the bisexual Kinbote (but see 433-434) is a parody of the all-seeing Tiresias insofar as the latter is represented by Eliot and that Kinbote’s constant stream of misinformation on the surface texture of Pale Fire provides insight to focus on associations whether in terms of wordplay, allusion, or linguistic or literary conundra or any means of association. Thus negative information as opposed to random data holds a wealth of positive feedback which allows us to see the underlying structure of Pale Fire. Kinbote/Charles the Beloved becomes the most important personage in Pale Fire. Before examining the final references in Part 5, What the Thunder Said, we should not lose sight of simple parody by John Shade. Eliot’s other two themes in Part 5 are: “the journey to Emmaus, and the approach to the Chapel Perilous (see Miss Weston’s book).” Eliot had earlier commented (I, 46) that the Hanged Man, a member of the traditional pack of Tarot Cards, he had associated with the hooded figure in the passage of the disciples to Emmaus in Part V, leaving us with a shade of miracles, but Nabokov leaves us with miracles of Shade. 19

OM 3.326-356. — 146 —

-----------------------------------------  Toile d’Eliot or Combinational Delight -----------------------------------------

The mirages and miracles are compared in the two poems. As usual, there is an accurate comparison of the bird species of the hermit thrush with a “suburban impostor” (1-4) and a suitably mocking call in the bird of the family Mimidae. T.S. Eliot

John Shade

Who is the third who always walks beside you? I once overheard When I count, there are only you and I together Myself awakening while half of me But when I look ahead up the white road Still slept in bed. I tore my spirit free, There is always another one walking beside you And caught up with myself-upon the lawn Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded

Where clover leaves cupped the topaz of dawn,

I do not know whether a man or a woman And where stood Shade in nightshirt and But who is that on the other side of you?

one shoe,

(359-365) And then I realized that this half too Was fast asleep, both laughed and I awoke The following lines were stimulated Safe in my bed as day its eggshell broke, by the account of one of the Antarctic

And robins walked and stopped, and on the damp

expeditions (I forget which, but I think one of

Gemmed turf a brown shoe lay! My secret stamp

Shackleton’s : it was related that the party

The Shade impress, the mystery inborn.

of explorers, at the extremity of their strength, Mirages, miracles, midsummer morn. had the constant delusion that there was one

(873-886)

more member than could actually be counted). (360) Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop (357) Turdus aonalaschkae pallasii, the hermit –

Turdus migratorius, the robin

thrush which I have heard in Quebec Province. Chapman says ( Handbook of Birds of Eastern On the call of the Gauzy mocking bird of the Northern America ) “it is most at home in

family mimidae on J.S.’s Childhood home

secluded woodland and thickety retreats …Its notes are not remarkable for variety or volume,

……, flirting her tail aloft,

but in purity and sweetness of tone and exquisite Or gracefully indulging in a soft modulation they are unequalled.” Upward hop-flop, and instantly (to-wee!) Its “water dripping song” is justly celebrated. Returning to her perch – the new TV (357) (67-70)

Finally, the last three lines of Eliot’s poem have a reference to Thomas — 147 —

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Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy, where the father Hieronimo is undertaking the revenge of the murder of his son, Horatio. Kyd has also had strong claims advanced that he was the author of a lost version of Hamlet, written prior to and possibly inspiring Shakespeare’s play. 430

These fragments I have shored against my ruins Why then Ile fit you. Hieronimo’s mad againe Datta. Dayadhavam. Damyata. Shantih shantih shantih

c433 Shantih. Repeated as here, a formal ending to an Upanishad. “The Peace which passeth understanding” is our equivalent to this word.

This is certainly true for John Shade. We have come, at last, in Canto Four to modernism in the form of Eliot’s collage of references. We have put forth the case that a good deal of the opening symbolism of Canto Four of Pale Fire is inspired by a parody of Eliot’s notes on The Waste Land, and in particular by those on Part 5, “What the Thunder Said.” The Eliot leitmotifs suggested by the San Greal of Miss Weston are transposed to those of the sang real of the Zemblan court. The references to Part 5 are oblique (see chapter 9) but in Canto Two, the introduction of Eliot through three singular words from the inquisitive Hazel are directly traced to The Four Quartets (see chapter 2, n1). More direct references to Part 2, “A Game of Chess”20 through the toiletries of Pope’s Rape of the Lock and their modernisation by Nabokov through a televised advertising cliché are cited, but more importantly, Eliot first introduced the Philomela motif earler referenced in chapter 2 and the shadow of Sybil Shade‘s rape/ seduction: Above the antique mantel was displayed As though a window gave upon the sylvan scene The change of Philomel , by the barbarous king So rudely forced; yet there the nightingale Filled all the desert with inviolable voice (2, “A Game of Chess,” 97-101) 20

BBPF, 238-239. — 148 —

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A nymph came pirouetting, under white, Rotating petals, in a vernal rite To kneel before an altar in a wood Where various articles of toilet stood. (Canto Two, 413-416)

The reasons for Nabokov’s position are well identified and not hard to seek. The previously mentioned fear of experience of Eliot and his submission to the Anglo-Catholic church and Nabokov’s position have been conveniently summarised:21 An important part of departure for the poetry-reading scene was Edmund Wilson. In 1958, or just before he started Pale Fire, Nabokov read Wilson’s “T.S. Eliot and the Church of England.” Though their friendship was waning, he was so impressed with the essay that he wrote to call it “absolutely wonderful” and insisted that “Eliot’s image will never be the same.” Actually Wilson says little about Eliot’s poetry, but he does sharply criticize the basic tendency of his later career, as criticized by his declaration for classicism in literature, royalism in politics, and Anglo-Catholicism in religion. For Nabokov, given his father’s anti-tsarist tendencies and his death from the gun of a Russian monarchist, even Eliot’s royalism awakened conflicting feelings.

Forced into exile from Germany and then France in the 1930s with his young son and Jewish wife, Eliot’s passivism must have seemed to Nabokov the very antithesis of survival, although Eliot’s personal unhappiness, alienation from society, and financial struggles suggest an inability to find a personal solution to his problems. It will not be the purpose here to contrast their positions further. Rather we go, again, in Nabokov’s words, “to the text itself” to complete the likely solution to the blood relationships in the Zemblan court. But there is now an important further finding. If Kinbote may be taken as the parody of Tiresias, then he represents an all-seeing prophet even if his information conveyed is of the negative kind. His misinformation 21

J. B. Foster, Jr., Nabokov’s Art of Memory and European Modernism (Princeton N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993), p.221. — 149 —

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on line 1000 (181-182; see chapter 7) suggests, therefore, that a line 1000 exists. From the textual analyses in that chapter, there is the strong suggestion that each reference is independent and contextually different. Line 1000 may or may not, therefore, be the same as line 1. We may conclude that one of the challenges of Pale Fire is, therefore, to discover the most probable line from a detailed textual analysis. The game of kings, das königliche Spiel, can begin in earnest. Finally in this chapter, we examine whether Shakespeare can give pointers to Eliot’s leitmotifs and characters from within Shade’s own quartet of titles. The titles are given in Canto Four at 957-962. Kinbote’s comment on the Bard is quoted at 962, where we abbreviate the associated commentaries: 957

Dim Gulf was my first book (free verse); Night Rote Came next; then Hebe’s Cup, my final float In that damp carnival, for now I term Everything “Poems,” and no longer squirm. (But this transparent thingum does require Some moondrop title. Help me, Will! Pale Fire)

957

Night Rote I remember one little poem from Night Rote (meaning “the nocturnal sound of the sea”) that happened to be my first contact with the American poet Shade…. .

962

Help me, Will! Pale Fire Paraphrased, this evidently means: Let me look in Shakespeare for something I might use as a title. And the find is “pale fire.” But in which of the Bard’s works did our poet cull it? My readers must make their own research….

We apply a negative operator to Kinbote’s interpretation of Night Rote (957) but extend the constraints of the Bard to John Shade’s four works. Focus is commenced on Night Rote. Why is the remembered poem “little”? Can this be a Midsummer night rote? And does the “little” indicate a fairy? At the end of the play, Oberon and Titania, the — 150 —

-----------------------------------------  Toile d’Eliot or Combinational Delight -----------------------------------------

king and queen of the fairies, sing (5.1): Oberon Through the house give glimmering light, By the dead and drowsy fire, Every elf and fairy sprite, Hop as light as bird from brier, And this ditty, after me, Sing and dance it trippingly. Titania First rehearse your song by rote, To each word a warbling note: Hand in hand , with fairy grace, Will we sing and bless this place.

As anticipated, this is immediately following the performance of Pyramus and Thisbe in the land of the betraying Sémiramis. The dying Bottom/Pyramus pronounces: “Moon take thy flight, [with Exit of Moonshine].” Any consistency hangs, of course, on one single word, “rote,” and its context. If we look for a dim or dark gulf at 957, at least two possibilities arise but it is, in fact, a “swallowing gulf.” Firstly from the long narrative poem, The Rape of Lucrece, dedicated in 1594 to Shakespeare’s sponsor, Henry Wriothesly, Earl of Southampton— … But when a black-faced cloud the world doth threat, In his dim mist the aspiring mountains hiding, From earth’s dark womb some gentle gust doth get, Which blows these pitchy vapours from their bidding, Hindering their present fall by this dividing; So his unhallowed haste her words delays, And moody Pluto winks while Orpheus plays. Yet foul night-waking cat, he doth but dally, While in his hold-fast foot the weak mouse panteth: Her sad behaviour feeds his vulture folly, A swallowing gulf that even in plenty wanteth: His ear her prayer admits, but his heart granteth No penetrable entrance to her plaining: — 151 —

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Tears harden lust, though marble wear with raining. and later comes the ravished Philomela theme “Come, Philomel, that sing’st of ravishment, Make thy sad grove in my dishevell’d hair: As the dank earth weeps at thy languishment, So I at each sad strain will strain a tear, And with deep groans the diapason bear, For burden-wise I’ll hum on Tarquin still, While thou on Tereus descant’st better skill”

We may also consider a “swallowing gulf” in Richard III (act 3, scene 7) where Buckingham is urging Gloucester to take up the throne away from the corrupted stock of the royal line. This noble isle doth want her proper limbs; Her face defac’d with scars of infamy, (Her royal stock graft with ignoble plants,) And almost shoulder’d in the swallowing gulf Of blind foregetfulness and dark oblivion.

Both gulfs embrace corrupted bloodstock, but line 957 indicates a context of free verse form giving the weighted choice not to the telling adjective of the sororal Procne’s “swallow” and her sister Philomela’s cry but to the royal mixed bloodstock of the Shades. There are, again, intimations of the second leitmotif of Eliot’s pronouncement on the story of man as one of marital betrayal and rape leaving aside those of envy and cruelty lurking in the metaphors of Coriolanus and that fatal key of the Luccan Tower. Again we are primarily dependent on the single word “gulf” and its more defining adjective. Lines 958 and 959 contain more specific information and background: …then Hebe’s Cup, my final float In that damp carnival, for now I term Everything “Poems,” and no longer squirm.

The most direct association of Hebe’s Cup is with Marlowe in his — 152 —

-----------------------------------------  Toile d’Eliot or Combinational Delight -----------------------------------------

uncompleted Hero and Leander, written before his premature death at the age of twenty nine in intriguing circumstances in 1593. This is consistent with that “final float” being the body of the drowned Leander on his re-crossing of the Hellespont between Sestos and Abydos. Each year the men of wealthy Sestos could be said to have held a carnival. The men of wealthy Sestos every year, (For his sake whom their goddess held so dear, Rose-cheeked Adonis) kept a solemn feast, Thither resorted many a wandering guest To meet their loves. Such as had none at all, Came lovers home from this great festival.

Hero first spied Leander at Venus’ temple after leaving her tower. Of crystal shining fair the pavement was, The town of Sestos called it Venus’ glass. There might you see the gods in sundry shapes Committing heady riots, incest, rapes. For know, that underneath this radiant floor Was Danae’s statue in a brazen tower, Jove slyly stealing from his sister’s bed, To dally with Idalian Ganymede, And for his love Europa bellowing loud, And tumbling with a Rainbow in a cloud; Blood quaffing Mars heaving the iron net Which limping Vulcan and his Cyclops set; Love kindling fire to burn such towns as Troy; Sylvanus weeping for the lovely boy That now is turned to a cypress tree, Under whose shade the wood gods love to be. And in the midst a silver altar stood. There Hero, sacrificing turtle’s blood, Vailed to the ground, vailing her eyelid’s close, And modestly they opened as she rose, Thence flew love’s arrow with the golden head, As thus Leander was enamoured. Stone still he stood, and evermore he gazed Till with the fire that from his countenance blazed Relenting Hero’s gentle heart was strook. — 153 —

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Such force and virtue hath an amorous look. It lies not in our power to love or hate For will in us is overruled by fate. … What we behold is censured by our eyes. Where both deliberate, the love is slight: Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?

Later in the first Sestiad, we read of Heaven’s winged herald, Joveborne Mercury, who … spied a country maid Whose careless hair instead of pearl t’adorn it Glistered with dew, as one that seemed to scorn it.

She Imposed upon her lover such a task As he ought not perform nor yet she ask. A draught of flowing nectar she requested, Wherewith the king of gods and men is feasted, He, ready to accomplish what she willed, Stole some from Hebe (Hebe Jove’s cup filled) And gave it to his simple rustic love. Which being known (as what is hid from Jove?) He inly stormed and waxed more furious Than for the fire filched by Prometheus,…

Earlier we read: Amorous Leander, beautiful and young (whose tragedy divine Musaeus sung,) … Some swore he was a maid in man’s attire For in his looks were all that men desire,…

Hebe’s cup might equally be termed Ganymede’s. The shades of Ganymede and “a maid in a man’s attire” lead us towards As You Like It and the boy/girl motif. Our poet informs us at lines 958,959 that he — 154 —

-----------------------------------------  Toile d’Eliot or Combinational Delight -----------------------------------------

now terms everything “Poems,” so that we might expect to look for a prose extract on the Hero and Leander theme masquerading as a poem. If we accept the cup hypothesis, we find Rosalind disguised as the boy, Ganymede, but pretending to be Rosalind (4.1) discussing her wooing with Orlando. In reply to Orlando that he would die if Rosalind would not have him, she replies, not in a godly way but in a very down-to-earth fashion, stating “that Leander would have liv’d many a fair year though Hero had turne’d nun, if it had not been for a hot midsummer night.” No faith, die by attorney: the poor world is almost six thousand years old, and in all this time there was not a man died in his own person, videlicet, in a love-cause: Troilus had his brains dash’d out with a Grecian club, yet he did what he could to die before, and he is one of the patterns of love. Leander, he would have liv’d many a fair year though Hero had turn’d nun; if it had not been for a hot midsummer night, for, good youth, he went but forth to wash himself in the Hellespont, and being taken with the cramp was drown’d, and the foolish chroniclers of that age found it was “Hero of Sestos.” But these are all lies, men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love.

Many critics have considered As You Like It as Shakespeare’s tribute to Marlowe,22 killed allegedly in a quarrel over payment of the “reckoning” in a small room at a Deptford inn after spending the day with three associates. Marlowe has also been considered the “other” poet of the Sonnets,23 both of whom were supported by the Earl of Southampton before the field was left open to Shakespeare in 1593. Clearly the talented could feed ideas off one another. Apart from the presence of the vicar, Oliver Martext, Marlowe’s famous line on love at first sight was reproduced by Shakespeare but in the mouth of the phonetic Phebe (act 3, scene 5) while the dialogue between Touchstone and Audrey referring to the Deptford inn may be cited (3.3). Touchstone Come apace, good Audrey. I will fetch up your goats Audrey. And how, Audrey, am I the man yet? Doth my simple feature content you? 22 23

Nicholl, C. The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe. (London: Vintage, 1963) See, for example, A. L. Rowse, William Shakespeare X: The Story of the Sonnets (London: Macmillan, 1963). — 155 —

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Audrey Your features? Lord warrant us—what features? Touchstone I am here with thee and thy goats, as the most capricious poet, honest Ovid was among the Goths. Jacques [aside] O knowledge ill-inhabited—worse than Jove in a thatched house! Touchstone When a man’s verses cannot be understood, nor a man’s good wit seconded with the forward child Understanding, it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room. Truly, I would the gods had made thee poetical. Audrey I do not know what “poetical” is. Is it honest in deed and word? Is it a true thing?

The interchangeability of Rosalind and Ganymede that cupbearer to the Gods succeeding Hebe after her marriage to Herakles/Hercules raises the spectre of a hermaphrodite and an obvious reflection in Eliot’s prophesying observer, Tiresias. Further support is given to the surface suggestion of a sexually variable Rosalind by reference to the hare, an animal believed in earlier times to be a hermaphrodite.24 In reply to Orlando’s question, “Are you native of this place?” Rosalind quips, “As the conie that you see dwell where she is kindled” (3.2). Later Rosalind remarks of Phebe, “her love is not the Hare that I do hunt” (4.3). In the Welsh Gwentian code reputed to be of the twelfth century, the hare is said to be incapable of evaluation because it is male one month and female another. In the fourteenth century Welsh poem “Ysgyfarnog” (hare), the hare is termed gwr-wreic, which appears to be a mediaeval form of gwryw (male) and gwraig (female).25 For the classical mind, the superstition appears in Pliny. Moving to the title of the final line, we have already noted in this chapter the father Hieronimo undertaking the revenge of the murder of his son and the patriarchal revenge motif reflected in the title from Hamlet. Taken as a quartet, all four titles of Shade’s poems can thus indicate a personal correlation with the poet’s blood line complications and the Shade family dis-union but also with the more general literary 24

25

M. P. Hartley, “Rosalind, the Hare and the Hyena in Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It,’” Shakespeare Quarterly 36, no. 3 (1985): 335-337. B. Rowland, “Animal Imagery and the Pardoner’s Abnormality,” Neophilologus 48 (1964): 57-58. — 156 —

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themes and personages in The Waste Land. But, here, there is no indication of any value judgment on the Shade/Nabokov position. On the other hand, the definition of the overall problem is defined as a “trans-parent thingum,” which makes sense if we introduce the hyphen to delineate cross-parentage and resolve the problems of sang real in the tela adultera and of the Zemblan succession. Even here, some caution is required, as this becomes essentially a hyphenated pun, as parens-entis (pario), a parent, father, mother, is derived from pario –ere, “to bring forth, to bear,” and not from pareo-, “to appear, become evident.” Can these problems of an adulterous web and the rights of succession be found, in contrast to Eliot, in 407 Memories draped by the beneficient spider Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor In our empty rooms?

A more direct solution is examined in chapter 14.

— 157 —

--------------------------------   Phoenician Metamorphoses: Myth and Reality  ---------------------------------

XI Phoenician Metamorphoses: Myth and Reality

Plusieurs traits du mythe d’Osiris montrent que l’une de ses premières étapes fut la côté Phénicienne. C’est à Byblos que le courant emporta, dit-on, le Corps de Dieu. C’est à Byblos qu’Isis se réfugia. C’est à Byblos qu’abordait chaque année la tête en papyrus que les prêtres jetaient dans le Nil. Je ne sais pas, ajoute G. Maspero, si, de Phénicie, les Champs d’Ialou (Elysian Fields) ne passêrent par sur une côté plus lointaine.  (V. Berard, Les Phéniciens et L’Odyssée1) We have in chapters 9 and 10 come to identify one major theme of Pale Fire as Nabokov’s attack on the conservative, rather sceptical, passive philosophy of Eliot’s outlook as identified in The Waste Land. Eliot’s philosophy, in a review2 of James Joyce’s Ulysses3 published in 1923, suggested that the mythic approach to reality appealing to the past but with novel psychological interpretations was simply a way “of controlling or ordering, of giving a shape and significance to the immense panorama of futility and anarchy which is contemporary history.” Nabokov’s attitude to the psychological element may be summarised briefly in his note to line 929 on Freud, and if we misspell Eliot’s rather dubious comment on Yeats, “It is a method of which ‘the horrorscope is auspicious’.” We shall not pursue the more primitive ethnology and psychology pursued in Frazer’s The Golden Bough,4 which Eliot claims “to make possible what was impossible even a few years 1 2 3 4

V. Berard, Les Phéniciens et L’Odyssée (Paris: Armand Colin, 1902-3). T.S. Eliot, “‘Ulysses,’ Order and Myth,” The Dial 75 (1923): 480-3. J. Joyce, Ulysses (Paris: Shakespeare and Company, 1923). J. Frazer, The Golden Bough (London: MacMillan, 1959). — 159 —

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ago. Instead of narrative we may now use the mythical method.” The parallel use of the structure of the Odyssey in Joyce’s Ulysses suggested a new form for development within the structure of the novel. Eliot’s definition of “classicism” is reasonably wide. “One can be classical in a sense, by turning away nine-tenths of the material which lies at hand, and selecting only mummified stuff from a museum …or one can be classical in tendency by doing the best one can with the material in hand.” One may, as it were, take a large or small amount of lumber from the past and God or originality lies in the detail. In this chapter, we shall consider Nabokov’s potential parody of Eliot’s position by examining, initially, part 4 of The Waste Land. Death by Water involves the death of Phlebas, the Phoenician Sailor and there has been much exploration of the context of this excised fragment by Ezra Pound of Eliot’s much longer Facsimile version.5,6 The sailor’s story was suggested by Dante’s myth of Ulysses7 in which in old age, Ulysses sails beyond the Pillars of Hercules, to test himself and his crew against “l’esperienza/di retro di sol, del mondo senza gente” (the experience of the world without people beyond the sun). At last, in Dante’s poem, Ulysses and his crew come within sight of the Mount of Purgatory and a tempest springs up, whirling the boat round and sucking it down into the sea—the death by water prophesied for Odysseus by Homer’s Tiresias. Three times the boat is whirled around and then sinks “com altrui piacque (as it pleased another). We first focus on lines 931-948 and return to the traumata of the shaving motif in lines 937 to 940 936 ………and now I plough Old Zembla’s fields where my gray stubble grows And slaves make hay between my mouth and nose

While the shadow of Eliot’s Coriolanus continues the shaving motif 5

6

7

G. Smith, “Phlebas as Osiris,” chap. 4 of The Waste Land (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1983). D. Ward, T.S. Eliot Between Two Worlds (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1973), chap. 4, pp. 68-141. Dante, Inferno 26 85-142. — 160 —

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and the price of corn, Shade reflects the French phonetic parody on hay, where soldiers “keep the line” (faisent la haie) in the final line of Part I, The Triumphal March of Coriolan.8 Et les soldats faisent la haie? ILS LA FAISENT.

Coriolan is published as one of his two unfinished poems and unless John Shade has a prescient awareness of the fate of his own heroic couplets, lines 939-40 appear again within the context to point to Coriolanus. 939 Man’s Life as commentary to abstruse Unfinished poem. Note for further use

The inspiration for Nabokov’s shaving motif almost certainly comes from Pope’s translation of the Odyssey where the aging Odysseus is conversing with the good swineherd, Eumaeus, on his disguised return to Ithaca.9

249

Now wasting years my former strength confound, And added woes have bow’d me to the ground, Yet by the stubble you may guess the grain, And mark the ruins of no vulgar man.

Nabokov has Kinbote at (937) referring to Shade’s quotation of a line from Pope but, as usual, from a misdirected, if all embracing, source.10 This quotation “is parallel to the left hand side of this card (the seventy sixth)”11 and allows the Zemblan metaphor—but the precise site is Ithaca.

8 9 10

11

“Coriolan,” TSE, 139-43. Homer, The Odyssey (trans. AP), 14.249. PAP, vol. 3, pt. 1, “The Second Epistle of the Essay on Man,” line 224. Pope’s use of a geographical image at lines 221-230 endeavours to define the limit of vice following the relative view of Aristotle, Eth. Nic. 1108b-9b …The note on these latter lines ends, “But at what point and to what extent a man must deviate before he becomes blame worthy it is not easy to determine by reasoning, any more than anything else that is perceived by the senses…” Nabokov, through Kinbote, may be parodying disappointment on the lack of simple clarity of the Theban seer. PAP, Vol 3, pt 1 p226. — 161 —

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At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord Knows where

The criticism of Freud and the Pope quotation are almost adjacent references in the Commentary and it is likely that Nabokov wished to signal that Eliot’s review of Joyce’s Ulysses was, like the French, in his firing line. The story of Phlebas the Phoenician first appeared in Eliot’s French poem12 “Dans le Restaurant” published in the Little Review in 1918. The etymology of the lines Phlébas le Phénicien, pendant quinze jours noyé, Oubliait les cris des mouettes et la houle de Cournaille. Et les profits et les pertes, et la cargaison d’étain: Un courant de sous-mer l’emporta très loin, Le repassant aux étapes de sa vie antérieure, Figurez-vous donc, c’était un sort pénible; Cependant, ce fut jadis un bel homme, de haute taille

has been examined in relation to the extract cited at the head of this chapter from the two volume work by Victor Bérard Les Phéniciens et l’Odyssée on which Joyce founded the retelling of the Odyssey. Eliot’s source of the poem (cf. bold type) appears well founded. “and his final phrase “echoes Baudelaire (‘La Vie anterieure’, that is ‘Former Existence’).”13 The special feature of Bérard’s study is its demonstration, by etymological comparison of Greek and Semitic place names and some personal names, that the mythological material, including Odysseus himself, came to Homer from Phoenician sources.14 Within Phoenicia or modern Lebanon, Byblos on the coast some twenty miles above Beirut is close to that of the grotto at Afqa, the reputed birth place of Adonis and we quote direct.15 “Now Lucian’s De Dea Syria,16 one of the basic texts for the study of the cult of Adonis, 12 13 14 15 16

T.S. Eliot, “Dans le Restaurant” (New York: The Litle Review, September 5, 1918). C. Baudelaire, Les fleurs du mal, intro. T. Gautier (Paris: Calmann-Levy, 1868). V. Bérard, Les Phéniciens et L’Odyssée, chap. 1, pp. 1-24, II, pp. 1-72. G. Smith, The Waste Land (London: George, Allen & Unwin, 1983) p. 108. Lucian, De Dea Syria 1) trans. A. M. Harmon, (Loeb Classical Library: Harvard University Press, 1925); 2) trans. H. Strong (London: Constable, 1913). Lucian reviews the Phoenician Temples in his first five chapters. — 162 —

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contains a passage which Miss Weston was to echo in From Ritual to Romance (p. 44). This tells how the head of Adonis was moulded in papyrus and was ritually entrusted to the sea at Alexandria, from which a current carried it to Byblos (cf. Frazer, The Golden Bough, 5, 224-5). This death and resurrection site would annually commemorate the god’s return even as his votaries hoped to conquer death.” The Bronze age (twenty-fourth to twelfth centuries B.C.) was certainly Byblos’s “golden age,” both materially and spiritually.17 It was a sacred place, associated with the cults of Isis (known as “our lady of Byblos”) and her murdered consort, Osiris. Their roles were later transferred to Venus and her beloved Adonis, who was killed in the forests above Byblos, so that, every spring, when the river named after him brings down red earth from the mountains, its colour came to symbolize both his blood and the renewal of nature’s fertility.18 To the more modern mind, where myth touches reality, on the mountains behind Byblos grew the forests which accounted for the city’s wealth where huge trunks of cedar twenty to thirty meters long were exported to the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt.19 The trade is known through contracts and accounts on clay tablets, while “details of sailings emerge from the picaresque story of an Egyptian priest who was sent to purchase wood from Byblos.” The papyrus has a Nabokov texture, for it is now, rather suitably, in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. To the modern dull eco-mind, the blood of Adonis may be simply be the outcome of too much logging. We shall argue the case that the immediately preceding lines to the shaving motif have a direct, if ambiguous, classical shadow. 17

18

19

H. Frost, Recent Marine Archeological Findings at Byblos (Proc. Intl. Wkshop, Delft University, Netherlands, April 1999. World Heritage site UNESCO study), pp. 23-26. Excavations at Byblos have revealed prehistoric buildings dating back to at least the fourth millenium B.C. J. Frazer, The Golden Bough, p. 326. Adonis was believed to die each year and that, every year, his divine mistress journeyed in quest of him. H. Frost, Recent Marine Archeological Findings at Byblos, p. 23. Harbours had to be big to handle such timber. One trunk in the infrastructure of the Third Dynasty step pyramid of Djoser (2686-2613B.C.) is some 30m long; another piece of cedarwood 26m long can be seen in the Fourth Dynasty “Cheops Ship” (2613-2494 B.C.), a funerary barge now exhibited near the pit where it had been buried, in front of the pyramid of Cheops. — 163 —

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And now a silent liner docks and now Sunglassers tour Beirut…

The most likely liner is the Titanic or its sister ship of that time, the Homeric, leading to Titanic spectacles or the more descriptive Homeric shades around Phoenicia. This might seem farcical, yet lines 941-948 have anticipations of literal and physical metamorphoses. There is in contrast to Ovid, ovoid metamorphoses at lines 942-943. The Nabokov noun Versipel at 948 is closest to a literal Protean transformation, referring to the transforming muse that, initially, lies within the bounds of his desk, his chair, or the musings within his car, reflecting the seagod Proteus’s ready changes in shape. Are there literal metamorphoses parodying both the male and female loss of hair following Eliot’s Note on line 218 on the meeting of the sexes in Tiresias quoted in chapter 10?—But we, for the moment, hold to the text. 941 Dressing in all the rooms, I rhyme and roam Throughout the house with, in my fist, a comb Or a shoehorn which turns into the spoon I eat my egg with…

The closest description of these not very elegant lines could be ovoid metamorphoses while attiring in a home odyssey which, with a literary metamorphosis, might suggest a Tyrian story in Ovid’s Metamorphoses adapted from a Homeric Odyssey. The initial physical metamorphosis20 is then Jove’s transformation into a bull for the abduction and seduction of Europa, the Tyrian king’s daughter, and it is Tyre, not Byblos, that seems the focal point for these initial literary metamorphoses. There is, again, a direct link to Tiresias. Cadmus, Europa’s brother, who set out to find the stolen girl and threatened with exile should he fail, travelled the world and, seeking guidance for a home, was instructed by Apollo’s oracle to follow a young heifer in a distant land which had no sign of service and where she rested on the grass, “there you must found your city’s battlements and name the place Boeotia.”21 Thus the Phoenician, 20 21

OM 2.833-75, “ Europa.” OM 3.1-137, “Cadmus.” — 164 —

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Cadmus, was the founder of Thebes and that city’s prophet became the blind seer, Tiresias. Such is Nabokov’s belief in the web of the mythic method and the horoscope. There remains simmering at line 944 little more than “A Cooking Egg” (1924)22 and one more reference to Coriolanus, but the reflections in this poem exemplify Eliot’s rather passive viewpoint and the inability to take action. I shall not want Honour in Heaven For I shall meet Sir Philip Sydney And have talk with Coriolanus And other heroes of that kidney.

But we turn to more transcendent themes. A literal metamorphosis at 948 suggests a triple merging of the words carrel and car and chair in the subliminal text, leading to the possibility of a chariot associated with its Latin shadow, currus. In the context of classical myth and trauma compared with contemporary reality and shaving, the story of Phaethon23 and the proof of his father’s paternity at such tragic expense can be suggested by the four lines commencing at 931, particularly if a hyphen is introduced into “high-way.” 931 And while the safety blade with scrape and creak Travels across the country of my cheek Cars on the highway pass, and up the steep Incline big trucks around my jawbone creep,

Despite Jove’s pleading to Phaethon not to undertake the daily drive of his four steeds across the heavens in view of the dangers and control required, necessitating a path neither too close to the earth or the sky and requiring strength on the reins of the impetuous horses, the resultant outcome is tragedy, the sun coming too close to mother earth, who bemoans her fate. Jove finally kills his son with a thunderbolt, the Earth becoming akin to Eliot’ s dried-up land in Part 5, What the Thunder Said. 22 23

TSE, “A Cooking Egg,” 46-7. OM 2.1-400, “Phaethon.” — 165 —

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Quae postquam summum tetigere iacentia tergum, exspatiantur equi nulloqueinhibenteperauras ignotae regionis eunt, quaque impetus egit, hac sine lege ruunt, altoque sub aethere fixis incursant stellis rapiuntque per avia currum 206 et modo summa petunt, modo per declive viasque praecipites spatio terrae propiore feruntur, inferiusque suis fraternos currere Luna admiratur equos, ambustaque nubile fumant. corripitur flammis, ut quaeque altissima, tellus fissaque agit rimas et sucis aret ademptis; pabula canescunt, cum frondibus uritur arbour, materiamque suo praebet seges arida damno. Parva queror:magnae pereunt cum moenibus urbes, cumque suis totas populis incendia gentis in cinerem vertunt:sivae cum montibus ardent… When the [four] horses feel these [reins] lying on their backs, they break loose from their course, and, with none to check them, they roam through unknown regions of the air. Wherever their impulse leads them, there they rush aimlessly, knocking against the stars set deep in the sky and snatching the chariot along through uncharted ways. Now they climb up to heaven, and now, plunging headlong down, they course along nearer the earth. The moon in amazement sees her brother’s horses running below her own, and the scorched clouds smoke. The earth bursts into flame, the highest parts first, and splits into deep cracks, and its moisture is all dried up. The meadows are burned to white ashes; the trees are consumed, green leaves and all, and the ripe grain furnishes fuel for its own destruction. But these are small losses which I am lamenting. Great cities perish with their walls and the vast conflagration reduces whole nations to ashes, The woods are ablaze with the mountains…

We may compare the “murmur of maternal lamentation” where mother earth bemoans her fate to the collapsing cities of Eliot’s What the Thunder Said: What is that city over the mountains Cracks and reforms in the violet air Falling towers — 166 —

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Jerusalem Athens Alexandria Vienna London Unreal

Nabokov clearly regarded Eliot’s collapsing cities as coming directly from Phaethon’s story, and we have highlighted John Shade’s excessive use of now …and now, taken from Ovid’s modo …et modo as a stylistic reference. On the more contemporary scene at 933-934, the contemporary chariot may be identified as the forty-horsepower but four-cylinder 1930’s Ford Phaethon.24 The contemporary trucks are likely to be Jove, Ulysses, and Europa, but we pass on the trucks. How far does the the consistency of the shaving motif extend beyond the shadow of Coriolanus? Does it extend to that of Phaethon? The quotation of Addison’s famous lines in his translation25 of Phaethon suggests that it does. Mother earth bemoaning her fate to Jove has the notable lines, 334 And does the Plough for this my Body tear? This the Reward for all the Fruits I bear Tortur’d with Rakes and harass’d all the Year?

A comparison with Pope’s lines on Belinda’s hair has also been made:26 97 Was it for this you took such constant care The Bodkin, Comb and Essence to prepare; For this with locks in Paper-durance bound, For this with tort’ring Irons wreathed around? For this with fillets train’d your tender Head, And bravely bore the double Loads of Lead?

Unbound as opposed to lost hair is a sign of distress in the epics.27 The ease of loss of less exposed hairs has been hinted by Pope

24 25 26 27

The successor to the famous Ford T vehicle was the Ford Phaethon (1927-31). OM 2.285-6, trans. J. Addison. PAP vol. 2, The Rape of the Lock, 4.97-102. Ibid., 4.90, “Her Eyes dejected and her Hair unbound.” Cf. 4.90n, VA 3.92 (trans. J. Dryden), “With Eyes dejected and with Hair unbound.” — 167 —

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following the trauma over Belinda’s ringlet.28 Other Augustan images abound. The recovery of the unbearded barley of Dryden29 would have been well known to Pope. The “snow” upon the barley, the signal for harvesting, has existed since the dawn of agriculture. Probably Shade’s contemporary mythic parody developed from Pope’s metaphorical pun on the aged Odysseus, itself arising from Shakespeare’s Amazonian chin and the firing of the people’s stubble over the price of corn. But the more telling underlying Freudian emphasis arises from Lucian, who noted that “the Northern Syrians have a curious custom in which they agree with the Troezenians alone of the Greeks. They have made a law for their maidens and youths alike never to marry till they have dedicated their locks to Hippolytus; and this they do at Hierapolis. The young men dedicate the first growth on their chin then they let down the locks of the maidens, which have been sacred from their birth; they then cut these off in the temple and place them in vessels, some in silver vessels, some in gold, and after placing them in the temple and inscribing the name on the vessel they depart.”30 Thus, Nabokov, through brilliant parodying metaphors, appears to suggest that an irrelevant farce may quickly lead to rich mythic classical metaphors as easily as a serious intent. As an aside in this penultimate chapter on Eliot, one question is why Nabokov identifies the town of Maribor, Slovenia, formerly Marburg an der Drau, Southern Styria, as the probable site of Onhava, the capital of Old Zembla (see chapter 1). One of the possibilities is that Eliot on his early visit to Europe spent a year studying at the University of Marburg an der Lahn in Hesse. This recalls the curious visit of Sebastian Knight31 to the place where his mother died only to find that he is miles away in 28 29

30

31

Ibid., 4.175-6. J. Dryden, “The Poems and Fables,” in Britannia Redidiva, ed. J. Kinsley (London: Oxford University Press, 1962), 259-63. Lucian, De Dea Syria 1) trans. A. M. Harmon, (Loeb Classical Library; Harvard University Press, 1925); 2) trans. H. Strong (London: Constable, 1913) 2, p. 89, n. 72. At the temple to Hera at Byblos, the female locks could be sacrificed as an alternative to offering their own persons. At Troezene, according to Pausanias, The Description of Greece (32), the custom was to sacrifice the hair before marriage. VN, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (1941). Published in the USA, it was largely written in Europe in late 1938. — 168 —

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another village with the same name, “the other Roquebrune, the one in the Var.” The Real Life of Sebastian Knight was written in late 1938/9 and first published in 1941. The poet William Butler Yeats was buried on January 30, 1939, in the hilltop churchyard at Roquebrune near Menton on the coast in the South of France where he was wintering with a group of friends. Nabokov may have had in mind to repeat this literary coincidence, perhaps for the purposes of the horoscope.

— 169 —

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XII

Varia - Selenography, Kinbote/Botkin, Glaucus, Fénélon

La premiere Selenographia sive Lunae descriptio a été publiée par HEVELIUS en 1647 avec une carte et une nomenclature : mais après avoir expliqué qu’ l’exemple des Anciens nommant les astres d’après leurs heros ( Persée, &c.) il avait tenté ‘in hanc …terram aetheream transferre Oceanum Coperniceum, Oceanum Tychonicum, Mare Keplerianum, Lacum Galilei...’. Hevelius avait renoncé pour ne pas susciter de jalousies at proposait, en se fondant sur les analogues lointaines, des appellations ‘geographiques’. Preferring the example of another cartographer, LANGRENUS, RICCIOLI named the craters after ancient and modern philosophers and it is this nomenclature that has prevailed. (Malebranche, Recherche de la Verité, 2:59, Librarie, J. Vrin, 1991) An age in which a pack of rogues can bluff The selenographer; a comic age That sees in Dr Schweitzer a great sage (Variant l.927-929) Shade (addressing the German visitor) “Professor Kinbote is the author of a remarkable book of surnames. I believe there exists an English translation?” (894)

We come to terra infirma and issues not resolved within the text, but the tale of Scylla and Glaucus and its textual relations are reviewed. Are there more hidden languages within the text? And are there further linguistic pointers? We tread tentatively in this chapter to consider alternative textual languages and we consider a possible potential list of French authors. In particular, we are led to consider the work of archévêque Fénélon of Cambrai (1651-1715), interest in whom lies as yet another composer of a satirical odyssey, Le Télémaque,1 where he 1

Fénélon, “Les aventures de Télémaque,” in XVII Siécle, ed. A. Lagarde, A. and L. Michard (Paris: Bordas, 1958) — 171 —

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extends the fourth book of the Odyssey. Here, Fénélon prolongs the journey of Telemachus, the son of Ulysses, to visit Phoenicia, Egypt, Cyprus, Crete, the Underworld, and the isle of the sea nymph, Calypso, in search of his father. While Fénélon did not distinguish between giving his pupils literary and moral education, the satire on its appearance was heavily criticised as a true satire of the character and politics of Louis XIV, to Fénélon’s considerable embarrassment. Hidden languages can, at best, have only probabilistic interpretations, and it is easy to foster word or syllabic associations. The more extraordinary the written English text, the greater may be the chance of more rational alternatives. We first examine the curious quatrain copied from one of the collection of short poems of John Shade (Hebe’s Cup) in the letter received on April 6th, 1959 by Kinbote and put in his note (49) on the shagbark tree. As given in chapter 8, the letter, it appears (768), came from the exiled Queen Disa whose favourite trees were the jacaranda and maidenhair, her choices being perhaps so for obvious reasons, exiled physically by a marriage to the homosexual king, Charles Xavier, and geographically by the political turmoils of Zembla. Kinbote had written to Disa on April second admonishing her for writing to him as Charles X. Kingbot at his address (768), a letter later stolen by a member of the Shadows (741). Apart from this note giving positive identification of Charles Xavier Kingbot with Charles Kinbote (and, again, we may refer [1000] to “And you, what will you be doing with yourself, poor King, poor Kinbote?”), we have attempted to look for some literary association of the “green album” (768) following the accentuation of her copying the poem out in her album (49). The Latin adjectival album is a neuter meaning white, but the noun, apart from being a white colour, also relates to a white tablet and hence a list of names, as in album senatorium—a list of senators. A green album could become an album virens—“a lively list.” Why is Kinbote cited above as “the author of a remarkable list of surnames,” and why is there an English translation?2 We turn, first, to the quatrain. 2

See N. Cornwell, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 6, n.29 (Plymouth, U.K.: Northcote House, 1999). “A possible joke at the expense of émigré Russian scholars, such as Boris Unbegaun? He indeed wote Russian Versification (1956); and subsequently (though — 172 —

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THE SACRED TREE The ginkgo leaf in golden hue when shed A Muscat grape Is an old-fashioned butterfly, ill spread, In shape

The initial association is literary with Goethe’s poem on the Gingko Bilboa or maidenhair tree. A pointer to the poem can also arise from The Rape of the Lock of the maiden’s hair, cited in chapters 4 and 7. GINKGO BILOBA3 Dieses Baums Blatt, der von Osten Meinem garten anvertraut Gibt geheimen Sinn zu kosten Wies den Wissenden erbaut . Ist es ein lebendid Wesen, Das sich in sich selbst getrennt? Sind es zwei, die sich erlesen, Dass man sie als eines kennt? Solche Frage zu erwidern Fand ich wohl den rechten Sinn: Fühlst du nicht an meinen Liedern, Dass ich eins und doppelt bin?

To my garden here translated Foliage of this eastern tree Nourishes the initiated With its meaning’s mystery Is its leaf one self divided, Forked into a shape of strife? Or have two of them decided On a symbiotic life? This I answer without trouble And am qualified to know: I am single, I am double, And my poems tell you so.

Interest in the poem raises the direct spectre of a doppelgänger often hinted at throughout the Commentary. There is, for example, the motif of a red-capped doppelgänger observed in the escaping Charles Xavier’s moving reflection as he remained immobile by a rocky mass close to a lake near Mount Kronberg (149). The reality of the reflection was suggested shortly after by the finding that a Steinmann (a heap of stones erected as a memento of an ascent) on the high point of an adjacent ridge had donned a cap of red wool in his honour. There is that arch imitator of Charles, the tennis ace, Julius Steinmann. Logic points in chapter 3 to the striking presence of two “swallowtails” with their 3

post-Pale Fire) Russian Surnames (Oxford, 1972).” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Selected Poetry, trans. D. Luke (U.K.: Libris, 1999), p. 165. — 173 —

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wings clipped by the Duke of Payn and Mone. There is identity in the birth dates of Charles Xavier Vseslav and Jakob Gradus. A number of other close resemblances within the royal court were cited in chapter 3. The title of Shakespeare Restored or The Comedy of Errors was suggested by the historical criticism of Pope in chapter 4. We are in danger of entering the illogical or surreal, an area we are unwilling to enter without reason.4 Finally, we examine the most challenging condition of all, the apparent changing identities and personalities of Charles Xavier Vseslav, Charles Kinbote, and Vseslav Botkin, over which there has been much speculation.5 Evidence from Nabokov’s 1962 diary must be taken into account,6 where he had drafted some phrases for possible interviews: “I wonder if any reader will notice the following details: 1) that the nasty commentator is not an ex-king and not even Dr. Kinbote but Prof. Vseslav Botkin, a Russian and a madman…” But we must bear in mind that this may be an author’s post-conceit. It can be productive to consider the doppelganger motif as a direct pointer to Eliot’s “Tiresias.” The doppelgänger with the two sexes embodied in that aged seer7 “throbbing between two lives” and with alternating sexuality every six months can exist rather more expressly in Nabokov’s commentator, residing more pertinently as the male of the species in Vseslav Botkin and the female within Charles Kinbote. The more vague words of Eliot’s associated comment, “Just as the oneeyed merchant, seller of currants, melts into the Phoenician sailor, and the latter is not wholly distinct from Ferdinand, Prince of Naples, so all the women are one woman and the two sexes meet in Tiresias,” are given precise definition. It may well be argued that if Tiresias can merge into the Prince of Naples, the movement of Charles Kinbote into the King of Zembla should be relatively facile. For a more prurient age,

4

5

6 7

See, for example, N. Cornwell, The Absurd in Literature (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006). 1) D. B. Johnson, Worlds in Regression: Some Novels of Vladimir Nabokov (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Ardis, 1985), 60-77; 2) BBPF, 91-92, 105-106; 3) M. Wood, The Magician’s Doubts : Nabokov and the Risks of Fiction (London: Chatto & Windus, 1994), 177-178. See also chapter 3, n.6. BBAY, 709n4. TSE, line 218. — 174 —

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we may consider the precise date of the proposed Kinbote/Botkin sexchange and its subsequent reversion six months later. It may be noted that Charles Kinbote was most upset to lose his friend Bob on March thirtieth (802), while on April second (768), he was alarmed to find Queen Disa expressing his true identity in a letter addressed to Charles X Kingbot. This suggests a potential change on April 1st, and to use a Nabokovian address, “yes, dear reader, April Fool’s day.” The expected sexual reversion to Kinbote is supported by his Foreword, signed on October nineteenth in Cedarn, Utana. It may be argued that the emergence of an all-seeing prophet with a stream of obvious or negative information must be separate from the ex-king and the Botkin/Kinbote transformation equally separate from the royal court, but if, as it were, before the merger, the prophet starts to get under the skin of Charles Xavier as a parody of Eliot’s prophet, one should not lose sight of the definition under Vseslav Botkin’s Index reference that the word “kingbot” is a parasitic maggot feeding on the king or his kin. Sybil Shade has described Kinbote as a king-sized botfly (247). This, of course, brings the surreal to merely a question of poetic licence or possibly vice-versa. Thus the nasty commentator could be definded as “not an ex-king and not even Dr Kinbote but Prof. Vseslav Botkin.” It is important to recognize that within the novel, the hermaphrodite is real, but as with the Eliot notes, it is only later that the different characters merge. Thus we may regard initially the effeminate Charles the Beloved as a true correlate with Charles/Kinbote, but, in contrast to the Classical world, there is a New World transformation into the Kinbote/Botkin personality. It may also be noted that, both for the unhappy Kinbote and the elusive “Bob” (as for Eliot), April “is the cruellest month.” From the Hamlet references in chapter 3, n6, we also note that kinbote can also mean “regicide” in Zemblan after Shade asks for confirmation. “Yes, a king’s destroyer” (894). Earlier Professor Pardon was under the impression that Kinbote was “born in Russia and that your name was a kind of anagram of Botkin or Botkine?” This would confirm that Kinbote’s better half was Russian. To take the Kinbote/Botkin relation further we compare the tales of Ovid with those of Nabokov to see whether there is any reversal of symmetry in the classical and contemporary characters. The sex change — 175 —

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of Ovid’s Tiresias miraculously occurred after his striking with a stick two mating snakes in a copse. Observing a similar amorous event in a sylvan scene after his seven years as a woman, he struck again and so regained the form he had at birth. The position of Hermaphroditus is more complex, for after the unfortunate youth arrived at the limpid pool of the nymph, Salmacis, she was forced to hide on his youthful spurning. On seeing him naked in the pool, she cast aside her clothes and in ecstasy grappled and embraced the reluctant youth, pleading with the gods that they never be parted again. The gods heard her plea and the bodies of both became everafter fused. Thus the waters of the magic pool “found ill fame and its strengthless waters soften and enervate the limbs they touch.” The unfortunate youth Charles the Beloved may be forgiven his spurning of the bucolic Garh in a sylvan scene while escaping over the mountains from Zembla. Pulling over her tousled head her dirty pullover, revealing her naked back and blancmangé breasts, Garh “flooded her embarrassed companion with all the acridity of ungroomed womanhood.” Immediately after his rejecting her and continuing his climb, Charles glimpses the flash of a “magic” pool, through the aperture of a natural vault, “a masterpiece of erosion,” but now there are two images of his scarlet reflection, one a red-sweatered red-capped doppelgänger which vanishes while Charles remains immobile. Later, Nabokov suggests that the reality of the reflection was evident from the sight of a red cap worn by the Steinmann cited above. We may regard the doppelgänger as a prescient Nabokovian image based on the hermaphroditus motif forewarning of the birth of the dual Tiresian parody, which exhibits a reversal of symmetry with the fused Hermaphroditus theme, expressed in the New World in the form of Botkin and Kinbote, who never appear together. The suggestion is that, in the New World, Charles was either bitten by a bot-fly or changed by some more indirect incident in the manner of Swift (see chapter 6, n4) to create two distinct characters mimicking Tiresias. Eliot remarked (The Waste Land, n. 218) that “the whole passage from Ovid (on Tiresias) is of great anthropological interest,” but Nabokov knew his Ovid and his family anthropology. The remark of Swift (chapter 6) remains pertinent. To return to John Shade’s quatrain, the literal English makes little — 176 —

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sense. If we attempt a possible linguistic translation of Nabokov’s cryptic unrelated objects, we are led into French by the last words “illspread in shape,” which can be represented by mal ébranché, pointing us to the French philosopher, Malébranche, a disciple of Descartes. If we try, further, to limit our choices, the most common form of muscat grape is the melon, and taking “a leaf in golden hue” followed by the melon, we obtain un feuille ton en or melon, which becomes un feuilleton enorme and the spare syllable lon.

The feuilleton enorme is not necessarily by Malebranche, since “old fashioned” is démodé, and we should consider un feuilleton enorme de mode Malébranche. To avoid a moderately wide choice of sacred tree, and an even wider one for butterfly, we may first focus on the ginkgo or maidenhair tree, l’arbre de cheveux de venus, which leads to the convenient idea that the tree is the ash, le frêne, sacred to Poseidon,8 conveniently giving archévêque Fénélon and the spare letter r when taken in conjunction with lorsque perdue, “when shed,” and leaving lors perdu(e). Thus we arrive at un feuilleton enorme lors devenu perdu de mode Malébranche and archévêque Fénélon

To go farther would be to allow a wide choice of butterfly and obviously there is considerable ambiguity, requiring a quotation from a literary review for any confirmation. It might be tempting to think that the archbishop of Cambrai and a Camberwell Beauty have affinities, save that the aeronaut in question is le morio in French (chapter 10). If we try to consider a class of butterfly most associated with a golden hue, we arrive at the fritillaries and possibly the damier du frêne, but the context is to the gingko leaf. Perhaps at this early stage of the poem, the reader is invited to go no farther, initially, than to look for 8

See R. Graves, The White Goddess : A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth (London: Faber and Faber, 1961) chap. 10, p. 186 and chap. 11, p. 189 — 177 —

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the class of tree Juglandaceae, embracing the shagbark on line 49. And yet we have seen the deliberate multivariate nature of linguistic associations in Nabokov’s work. If we chain ourselves to the charming chariot of Amphitrite, the wife of Neptune from Book IV of Télémaque,9 this extract also has association with the classical story of Glaucus and yet another Scylla and in a more contemporary setting may be found in Keats’s Endymion.10 Pendant qu’Hazael et Mentor parlaient, nous apperçumes des dauphins couverts d’une écaillé qui paraissait d’or et d’azur. En se jouant, ils soulevaient les flots avec beaucoup d’écume. Après eux venaient des Tritons, qui sonnaient de la trompette avec leurs conques recourbées. Ils environnaient le char d’Amphitrite, trainé par des chevaux marins plus blancs que la neige, et qui, fendant l’onde salée, laissaient loin derrière eux un vaste sillon dans la mer. Leurs yeux étaient enflammées, et leurs bouches étaient fumantes. Le char de la déesse était un conque d’une merveilleuse figure. Elle étaient d’une blancheur plus éclatante que l’ivoire, et les roues étaient d’or. Ce char semblait voler sur la face des eaux paisibles. Un troupe de nymphes couronnées de fleurs nageaient en foule derrière le char, leurs beaux chevaux pendaient sur les épaules, et flottaient au gré du vent. La déesse tenait d’une main un sceptre d’or pour commander aux vagues, de l’autre elle portait sur ces genoux le petit dieu, Palemon, son fils, pendant à sa mamelle. Elle avait un visage serein et un douce majesté qui faisait fuir les vents séditeux et toutes les noires tempêtes. Les Tritons conduisaient les chevaux et tenaient les rênes dorées. Une grande voile de pourpre flottait dans l’air au-dessus du char; elle était à demi enflée par la souffle d’une multitude de petit zéphyrs qui s’efforçaient le la pousser par les haleines. On voyait au milieu des airs Eole empressé, inquiet et ardent. Son visage ridé et chagrin, sa voix menaçante, ses sourcils épais et pendants, ses yeux pleins d’un feu sombre at austere tenaient en silence les fiers Aquilons, et repoussaient tous les nuages. Les immenses baleines et tous les monstres marins, faisant avec leurs narins un flux et reflux de l’onde amère, sortaient à la hâte de leurs grottes profondes pour voir la déesse.

Since Fénélon was basing his extensions on Greek and Roman myth, it is hardly surprising that a similar more brief passage is found 9

10

Fénélon, “Télemaque,” in XVII Siécle, ed. A. Lagarde, A. and L. Michard (Paris: Bordas, 1958), p. 425. J. Keats, Poetical Works (London: Ward, Lock and Co, 1923). Primarily in Canto Three. — 178 —

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in Virgil’s Ciris11 but in the context of Scylla (the bird Ciris) and Nisus, where the maiden daughter of Nisus is dragged over the blue waters: 391

Complures illam nymphae mirantur in undis, miratur pater Oceanus et candida Tethys et cupidas secum rapiens Galatea sorores, illam etiam, iunctis magnum quae piscibus aequor et glauco bipedum curru metitur equorum, Leucothea parvusque dea cum matre Palaemon illam etiam, alternas sortiti vivere luces, cara Iovis suboles, magnum Iovis incrementum, Tyndaridae niveos mirantur virginis artus. Many nymphs marvel at her in the waves; father Neptune marvels, and shining Tethys and Galatea, carrying off in her company her eager sisters. At her, too, marvels she who traverse the mighty main in her azure car, drawn by her team of dolphins and two-footed steeds, Leucothea, and little Palaemon with his goddess mother. At her, too, marvel they who live by lot alternate days, the dear offspring of Jupiter, mighty seed of a Jupiter to be, the Tyndaridae, who marvel at the maiden’s snowy limbs.

A similar description of an oceanic carriage exists in Georgics 4. Leucothea, the daughter of Cadmus, was turned into a sea goddess. On the other hand, if we turn to the Aeneid, book 5, where Aeneas calls upon Neptune12 he is assured that he will reach Latium and have to subdue a rugged people (and as we have seen in chapter 6): “Yet first draw nigh the nether halls of Dis and through the depths of Avernus and meet the shade of thy father, Anchises.” Here, there is a similar description of Neptune’s chariot but in the presence of the sea god, Glaucus. 816

11 12

his ubi laeta deae permulsit pectora dictis , iungit equos auro Genitor spumantiaque addit frena feris manibusque omnis effundit habenas. caeruleo per summa levis volat aequora curru; subsidunt undae tumidumque sub axe tonanti

VA 2, Ciris, p. 436. VA 4. See lines 724-734. — 179 —

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sternitur aequor aquis; fugiunt vasto aethere nimbi. tum variae comitum facies, immania cete, et senior Glauci chorus Inousque Palaemon Tritonesque citi Phorcique exrcitus omnis; laeva tenet Thetis et Melite Panopeaque virgo, Neseae Spioque Thaliaque Cymodoceque. When, with these words he had soothed to gladness the goddess’s heart, the Sire yokes his wild steeds with gold, fastens their foaming bits, and lets all the reins stream freely in his hand; then over the water’s surface lightly he flies in azure car. The waves sink to rest, beneath the thundering axle, the sea of swollen waters is smoothed, and the storm-clouds vanish from the wide sky. Then come the diverse forms of his train—monstrous whales, the aged company of Glaucus, with Ino’s son, Palaemon, the swift Tritons, and the whole host of Phorcus. Thetis and Melite keep to the left, and maiden Panopea, Nesea and Spio, Thalia and Cymodoce.13

The Story of Scylla and Glaucus is told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.14 Glaucus was a fisherman who fell in love with another beautiful Scylla. The good looking Glaucus had, however, raised the passions of the enchantress, Circe. She planted wild herbs around his abode, which Glaucus innocently harvested and ate, but found himself, while bathing, growing large scales and turning into a merman and a seagod. Unfortunately for Circe, Glaucus continued to ignore her, and in her rage she again used wild herbs to transfigure the beautiful into the monstrous Scylla with coils of snarling dogs about her waist, who took up her position with Charybdis on the rocks at the entrance to the straits of Messina. The adjectival glaucus means “blue-grey,” as opposed to caeruleus, “blue-green.” Interest in this “Glaucian” Scylla arises from the presence of a “merman azure, crined or” as well as the crested bird closely resembling a waxwing (in Zemblan, sampel, “silktail”) in the armorial bearings of Charles the Beloved (1-4) and from the presence of the conjoined references of blue (17) and grey (29). Further at (209), when Gradus reached “grey-blue” Copenhagen, we are referred to 181, where 13 14

VA 4, line 823. OM 13 and 14. — 180 —

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the first additional reference is back to the preceding line 208. Here the ageing Aunt Maud, after her move to the Pinedale Sanitorium, is left To reason with the monsters in her brain

If we also consider returning to the couplet commencing at line 549, While snubbing gods, including the big G, Iph borrowed some peripheral debris From mystic visions;…

We noted in chapter 7 that Pope had defined and limited his gods to a set of sylphs in the mock heroic Rape of the Lock of the maiden’s hair. Line 550 also gave the construction of the accusative plural of Eriphyla, following the earlier capital Greek transposition of Iph and a sylph. The Popian snubbing of the gods, therefore, is explicable, but who is the big G? We take the G literally to be a god and not a giant or giantess. The successor to Hebe as cup-bearer to the gods was Ganymede (see chapter 10), but the most promising candidate again appears to be Glaucus. As we have noted, Glaucus snubbed Circe. Is the presence of Glaucus again to emphasize the presence of a Scylla, which leads to the association with Nisus? But the main conclusion is that the sea God, Glaucus, is one of the most important personages in Pale Fire and is based on his gift of unerring prophecy. He instructed Apollo in the art of soothsaying; Milton alludes to him in Comus15 and Spenser mentions him in The Faerie Queene:16 And Glaucus that wise soothsayes understood

This, of course, can be taken as a further reflection or parody of Eliot’s Tiresias, cited in chapter 10, who is also pointed to by the image of Shelley’s hermaphrodite in the Witch of Atlas (see chapter 5). The

15 16

Milton, Comus, line 985. E. Spenser, The Faerie Queene 4.11.13, Everyman edition (London: J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd., 1962). Glaucus’s daughter, Deiphobe is, in fact, the dread Sibyl (chapter 6), keeping the family talent for prophecy. — 181 —

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presence of the ambiguous G as potentially Ganymede also indicates the rotating sexual nature of the prophet in the Rosalind/Ganymede motif discussed in chapter 10. We are not quite exhausted, as the Papilio glaucus Linnaeus (1758)17 is of the family of Parnassians and Swallowtails and is known as the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail in North America, while Glaucus is also an asteroid reflecting the Malebranche quotation at the head of the chapter. A papilio glaucus is also recorded as a hermaphrodite,18 although this is strictly a gynandromorph. However, Glaucus atlanticus is a sea-slug hermaphrodite,19 as are the flowers of calycanthus floridus glaucus,20 and to use Kinbote’s words, “so it goes” (627). But, at the same time, there are resonances with other Glauci and a harbinger of a regicide. We focus, in particular, on the famous scene between Diomede and Lycian Glaucus in the sixth book of the Iliad,21 where the Lycian hero, instead of fighting with Diomedes, exchanged his golden armour for the other’s brazen, in stark contrast to the actions of the heroes, the great Hector, son of Priam and the wrathful Achilles. In terms of reference to a Horace satire,22 “Ho, for a Regicide,” “if two cowards chance to quarrel, or an ill-matched pair meet in war , the less valiant man gives way and sends gifts to boot.” In Horace, the legal battle is between the mongrel Persius and the venomous Rupilius Rex (“king”), an outlawed man. In answer to Persius’s outburst, Rupilius flings back abuse, the very essence of the vineyard, like some vine17

18

19

20

21

22

Papilio glaucus Linnaeus (1758). The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, the sub-family (Papilioninae) of the Parnassians and Swallowtails (Papilionidae) H. O’Byrne, “A Female Intermediate between Papilio Glaucus and its form Turnus,” Psyche 39 (1932): 35-36. Glaucus atlanticus is a species of medium-sized, floating blue sea-slug. It is the only species in the genus Glaucus, but, interestingly, is closely related to Glaucilla marginata, another member of the Glaucidae. Glaucus, like most sea slugs is a hermaphrodite, containing both male and female reproductive organs. After mating both slugs will produce egg strings.(See A. Valdes and O. A. Campillo, Bulletin of Marine Science 75, no. 3 (2003): 381-389. Calycanthus floridus glaucus. A deciduous shrub growing to 3m. The flowers from June to Julyare hermaphrodite and are insect pollinated.the seeds ripening from October to November. Homer, The Iliad, 6, trans. A. Pope (London: H. Frowde, 1902), pp.120-121.The first edition appeared in 1726. HSEA 1.7, pp. 89-93. — 182 —

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dresser (vindemiator), tough and invincible, to whom the wayfarer has often had to yield, when loudly hooting at him “Cuckoo”! Persius appeals to Brutus, the provincial administrator. “Since it is in your line to take off ‘kings,’ why not behead this Rex? This, believe me, is a task meet for you.” A Brutus had driven out the Tarquins and it was Brutus who had slain Caesar. The satire is believed to have been written before the battle of Philippi (42 B.C.) and the tragic death of Brutus.23 Finally we return to 49, to the enigmatic “arc of those sacred trees planted by a landscaper of genius (Repburg) at the end of the so-called Shakespeare Avenue, on the campus.” At 998 we note that Kinbote “can enumerate only a few kinds of these trees; Jove’s stout oak and two others: the thunder-cloud from Britain, the knotty-entrailed from a Mediterranean island; a weather-fending line (now lime), a phoenix (now date palm), a pine and a cedar (cedrus), all insular; a Venetian sycamore tree (Acer); two willows, the green likewise, the hoar leaved from Denmark; a midsummer elm, its barky fingers enringed with ivy; a midsummer mulberry, its shade inviting to tarry; and a clown’s sad cypress from Illyria.” Apart from the Shakespearean rag (shades of Eliot24) and the Ovidian touch of the bloody mulberry by Ninus’s tomb (chapter 5), we have found no convincing reason for particular association apart, possibly with the more southerly potential oak, the Macedonian, Quercus trojana, or possibly the common english purple oak, Quercus purpurascens. The purple hairstreak butterfly, Quercusia quercus, has some wordplay association with Rusker Sirsusker (“seer sucker suit”—an outfit, perhaps, for prophets and their acolytes), the striped pyjamas worn by Gradus, but at all levels the associations may be farcical. As an aside, the closest that we can find to such a list of trees as given at 998 is in Ovid’s packed grove on a level of open ground, where the place “lacks any shade” until the strains of Orpheus’s lyre are heard.25 It is time to return to the main filaments of the tela adultera.

23

24

While it was a Brutus who had slain Caesar, it was a Brutus who had driven out the Tarquins (see 93n4). “A Game of Chess,” TSE 2, lines 128-130 that Shakespearian Rag It’s so elegant So intelligent.

25

OM 10.88ff. — 183 —

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XIII Murderous Intrigues

In chapters 6-12, evidence has been assembled to confirm or otherwise the proposed genealogical tree of the Royal House of Onhava. The hypothesis that may be drawn from this evidence is that in spite of the obfuscations, false variants, and misleading Kinbotean references within the Commentary of Pale Fire, there remain a number of linguistic and literary guides to an embedded logical plot traversing the adulterous web of the Royal House of Onhava and that, in its uncovering, we may be able to emerge with an identifiable motive for the assassination of John Shade and with a true solus rex. The objective has been, therefore, to determine the most probable relationships from a close textual analysis. To the extent that we are dealing with a number of close family relationships, many of them incestuous, it may be limiting to assess the precise relationships and motives that exist, but, at the least, we should aim to provide a strong probabilistic identification. Despite the modernity of Nabokov, it has proved useful to follow Aristotelian precepts in the tragic serio-comic condition of the Zemblan house, the condition that tragedy must involve close family relationships being firmly underpinned in the extreme incestuous positions within Pale Fire. Throughout the Commentary, we have noted also a recurring reminder of how different authors have challenged their critics, particularly in the adaptation of tragedy to different ages and to different societies. This has been exemplified and parodied by Nabokov, after the dominance of Shakespearean references, through the works of Corneille, Voltaire, Pope, Shelley, and Browning, amongst others, extending to the classical limits of Virgil and Eliot. In the words of Pope1 (see chapter 14), we have “traced the Muses upward to their Spring.” The proposed underlying 1

PAP vol. 1, “An Essay On Criticism,” l.line 127. — 185 —

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structure of Pale Fire has appeared very different from its surface texture. Yet Nabokov remains essentially, if not a Cornelian2 (failure of action with all conditions known), at least an Aristotelian in this narrow context, and his position is discussed in chapter 14. In chapter 14 the position will again move to a consideration of Nabokov’s position with regard to the modern Cartesian position. A critical issue in the determination of motive in Pale Fire is the paternity of Charles Xavier the Beloved/Kinbote. In chapter 3, we considered the likely father of Charles Xavier/Kinbote to be the Duke of Rahl, but the extensive satirical influence of the Aeneid on the travels of Charles and of Gradus calls into question this potential paternity. We, therefore attempt, here, to define all likely filaments in the adulterous web of the Royal House. In particular, we examine in detail the potential blood relations between King Alfin and the three knights in the form of John Shade, Charles Xavier/Kinbote, and Jakob Gradus. We have argued in chapter 5 that literary, literal, and linguistic references appear to confirm that Alfin was the object of a murderous intrigue in which the guilt would appear to lie with the Duke of Rahl. While this Duke seems the prime contender in the act of intrigue, Charles/Kinbote’s paternity, could be the product of a quite different relation. We commence by summarizing the classical indicators to a murdered King Alfin. 1. Alfin is an Amphiaraus figure deceived by Blenda in the form of Eriphyla. Charles/Kinbote, Blenda’s son is an Alcmaeon who, at least, has morally killed his mother through his homosexuality (see chapter 7). From the Aristotelian viewpoint, the unwitting death of Eriphyla is acceptable, but in the Cornelian position it is not, and Charles/Kinbote’s knowledge of the situation may be regarded as extremely manipulative. As an aside, Alfin the 2

See chapter 3. Corneille rejected the particular Aristotelian condition of tragedy that one is inclined to make perish one of his or her closest without knowing it and that one recognizes in time to save him/her (Iphigenia’s recognition of Orestes) but strongly applauded the condition where one undertakes a violent path of rightful action but does not achieve it. Aristotle, on the other hand, regarded the former case as the highest degree of excellence in tragedy but had only condemnation for the latter. — 186 —

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Vague was given his cognomen by Amphitheatricus (71), a not unkindly writer of fugitive poetry in the liberal gazettes. Ara, it may be noted, is Latin for an altar or sanctuary. 2. Alfin may also be seen as a Voltairean Ninus figure with Queen Blenda as a Sémiramis. Charles Xavier/Kinbote is a Ninias who unwittingly kills his mother through his homosexuality. 3. Charles/Kinbote is a Hamlet figure with Alfin as the murdered King of Denmark. The Duke of Rahl is a Claudius figure but Hamlet/Charles is the likely son of the Duke of Rahl (chapter 3). All three references are consistent with a murdered King Alfin, but the paternity of Charles/Kinbote would then appear to be Alfin, or in 3, the Duke of Rahl. The further possibility in 3 that John Shade might be, in fact, the natural father of Charles/Kinbote is examined shortly. This is Kinbote’s story, and we might expect a reverse logical operator on his statements following the identification of him as a parody of Tiresias, all-seeing but with neutral information or misinformation (chapter 10). We now summarize the evidence that John Shade is a natural son of the murdered king Alfin, making John a dormant pretender, an elder Charles, to the Zemblan throne. This is suggested by: 1. The site of Charleston, West Virginia as the site of Exton (chapter 1). 2. John Shade’s observation in Canto Four that 811

Yes! It sufficed that I in life should find Some kind of link-and-bobolink, some kind Of correlated pattern in the game,

which is consistent with Browning’s observation in Mr Sludge, “The Medium” that “the son and heir o’ the kingdom” should observe a spirit dressed in white “blithe as a bobolink” (chapter 5). This accepts that the murdered Alfin is the sprite transmitting in old Hentzner’s barn (chapters 2 and 3). John Shade’s vision of a domestic ghost (230) — 187 —

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is apposite if he is also a royal martyr (chapter 5). 1164

Concede that homage is a son’s plain right, And never mind the nods and raps and winks, ‘Tis the pure obvious supernatural

3. The closeness of Caroline Shade at one stage to Royal quarters. Kinbote’s possession of the key to the clockwork toy with which John Shade was playing in July 1909 (143) shows that the young poet was, at least, visiting the palace at Onhava at that time. (Refer also a below.) 4. The description of an authors’s bedchamber by Goldsmith, “for the beginning of a serio-comic poem on the shift and struggles of a poor author, but unfinished” and its comparable relation to John Shade’s poem. The bedchamber contains the twelve rules that Charles I, the royal martyr, drew for the Royal Game of Goose (chapter 6). The evidence is supportive that John Shade is a natural son of King Alfin who would be a rightful Charles I, particularly if he were also, in fact, the father of Charles Xavier, II, the Beloved. We may then consider two classical pieces of evidence that John Shade may be regarded as an Anchises figure welcoming his son Charles/Kinbote as Aeneas. The classical meeting of Aeneas and the shade of his father, Anchises,3 is compared to Kinbote’s coded comments to John Shade given in the Commentary. Art thou come at last, and hath the love thy father looked for vanquished the toilsome way? Is it given me to see thy face my son, and hear and utter familiar tones? O’er what lands, what wide seas hast thou journeyed to my welcome!…” But he: “Thy shade father, thy sad shade, meeting me so oft, drove me to seek these portals. My ships ride the Tuscan sea. Grant me to clasp thy hand, grant me, O father, and withdraw thee not from my embrace!” 3

VA 1.6.687-702. — 188 —

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So he spake, his face wet with flooding tears. Thrice there he strove to throw his arms about his neck; thrice the form, vainly clasped, fled from his hands, even as light winds, and most like a winged dream. Let there appear for a moment his hand and mine firmly clasping each other across the water over the golden wake of an emblematic sun (286—but referring to Oswin Bretwit)…. . How fervently one had dreamed that a similar symbol but in verbal form might have imbued the poem of another dead friend; but this was not to be— Vainly does one look in Pale Fire (oh pale indeed!) for the warmth of my hand gripping yours, poor Shade!

The shades of Arcady are also present in (802) when Kinbote hears Shade’s voice say: “Come tonight Charlie,” when ascending his gravel path quite alone. On telephoning, the classical “ancillula” reports that the Shades were out. Telephoning later, Kinbote breaks down. I cried that I must see him in the evening and all at once, with no reason at all, burst into tears, flooding the telephone and gasping for breath, a paroxysm which had not happened to me since Bob left me in March 30. There was a flurry of confabulation between the Shades and then John said ‘Charles, listen. Let’s go for a good ramble tonight. I’ll meet you at eight…. Where was I? Yes, trudging along again as in the old days with John, in the woods of Arcady, under a salmon sky.

Both the references in Pale Fire have classical allusions and could support the case for Charles/Kinbote being the natural son of John Shade. But this, again, is Kinbote’s story and we must remember the reverse logical operator. And had John Shade “guessed my secret” (417421 and 991)? Is there also a double entendre in the words of Kinbote to John Shade, “as soon as your poem is ready, I intend to divulge an ultimate truth, an extraordinary secret, that will put your mind completely at rest?” (433 434) The ironic observation may be made on the latter statement that a Kinbotean logical reverse operator on a double entendre is of no utility. Is there, again, a parricide involving both Gradus and Charles — 189 —

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------   XIII ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Xavier/Kinbote? What evidence is there that John Shade was either still resident in Onhava at the age of sixteen or visited the country at that time (Autumn 1914)? To try to answer answer the latter question: a. John Shade must have been in Onhava subsequent to July 1909 (142), as given by the key requirement of his clockwork toy which Charles/Kinbote later possessed (143). Charles The Beloved escaped from the palace at Onhava with nothing but a small identifiable talisman that had fallen off a removable shelf in the darkness of an old lumber room of the west gallery (130). b. The maid’s niece Adèle had seen the Pope. One might presume that this was when John Shade and his Aunt Maud were resident/ visiting at the Palace at Onhava. Pius X, Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was Pope from 1903-1914 (85), an inconveniently wide bracket but a period which does not eliminate J. S.’s presence in Onhava, even intermittently, until 1914. c. More pertinently, there is the possibility that the thumbtacked curio on the door of Shade’s house which read “…Red Sox Beat Yanks 5-4 and Chapman’s Homer thumb-tacked to the door” (107-108) would represent a well-recognized home run, but the evidence is restrictive. Limited Americana confined to the World Series indicates that the Red Sox (Boston variety) beat the nonscanning New York Giants 4-3 with one tie in 1912.4 The Red Sox were again dominant in 1915 and 1916. Based solely on arithmetic, John Shade could have been home in 1912. The only Chapman recorded in this era was the unfortunate twenty-nineyear-old Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians, whose demise occurred when he was hit in the head with a pitched ball in 1920.5 Sadly, that “watcher of the skies swam out of his ken” on the 4 5

World series—Major League Baseball. See www.sportingchronicle.com. M. Sowell, The Pitch that killed Carl Mays, Ray Chapman and the Pennant Race of 1920 (New York: Macmillan, 1989). — 190 —

-------------------------------------------------------------  Murderous Intrigues -------------------------------------------------------------

arrival of a rather small planet. Chapman, here, had no chance. Taking the Aristotelian position, the balance of probability does not eliminate John Shade’s presence in Onhava to a period beyond his puberty. John Shade fell in love with Sybil only in the senior class at school (249). We conclude that the indicators are that John Shade might have had a precocious youth and could be a potential father of Charles the Beloved/Kinbote or of Jakob Gradus. Equally, we may conclude, again, that we must be wary of the harbingers of genealogy as written by Kinbote himself who, from the Cornelian viewpoint, will be aware of the potential relationships involved and his own positioning. The similarity in appearance of Kinbote and that arch imitator, Julius Steinmann (b. 1928), suggests that the true father of Charles the Beloved/Kinbote is Peter Gusev, Duke of Rahl, and not John Shade. Finally, we appeal to Wordsworth to the influence of the butterfly (chapter 7): Thou brings’t gay creature as thou art! A solemn image to my heart, My father’s family

The six references to the Red Admirable—Vanessa atalanta—occur: 1) With John Shade’s infatuation with Sybil in high school (270); 2) in the butterfly’s arrival on the departure of Gradus from Joseph Lavender’s villa (408); 3) the a bend gules figured in the colours of aquarellists described as “the geranium bar of a scalloped wing” (470); 4) in a claimed caricature in the innocent line 949, “And all the time, and all the time, my love”—referring to Sybil (Index); 5) in 993-995, presaging the impending assassination of John Shade; and 6) in Kinbote’s limited knowledge of lepidoptera and in the sable gloom of his nature, marked like a dark Vanessa with gay flashes (Index 270, under Kinbote). There is a feeling of fatality in the descriptions of the butterfly, and we note that “a bend” is close to the german abend, “evening,” which we could associate in lines 993-995 as an immediate harbinger of an evening of total gules. If we take the butterfly Vanessa atalanta to be — 191 —

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------   XIII ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

associated with the Shades and the theme of cuckoldry, we may regard the family (chapter 3) in the key words of Hamlet6 to be …total gules, horridly tricked With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons …

The trickery is convincing if the blood is definitive bloodstock. We have concluded that Hazel is the daughter of the Duke of Payn and Mone who, by his first wife when alive, was also her step-uncle; that Charles Xavier/Kinbote might be a son of the youthful John Shade; that John Shade’s father is not Samuel Shade but King Alfin the Vague, who signals his murder in coded sporadic syllables in old Hentzner’s barn; that John Shade’s mother, Caroline, had an affair with King Alfin and even, possibly but doubtfully, with Thurgus III; that John himself could have had a youthful affair with Queen Blenda, that horsewoman who plotted with the Duke of Rahl to murder her husband, Alfin. As Hamlet has observed on the trickery, and, again, his inspiration was The Aeneid:7 “’twas Aeneas’s talk to Dido, and thereabout of it specially, when he speaks of Priam’s slaughter” (chapter 3). To be consistent, therefore, we might expect the blood of a Shade to be present whenever a Vanessa atalanta appears. Total consistency can only be achieved within the set of references if Gradus (see 408) is also, unwittingly, the son of John Shade. Gradus then becomes a Heracliusor Martian-like figure. The significance of the total gules is re-emphasised in Timon of Athens. In (39-40), Kinbote refers us to 4.3, misquoting from his poetical Zemblan translation. The correct version is given in the Introduction and is reproduced here: The sun’s a thief, and with his great attraction Robs the vast sea. The moon’s an arrant thief, And her pale fire she snatches from the sun. The sea’s a thief, whose liquid surge resolves The moon into salt tears.

6 7

Hamlet 2.2.489-490. VA 1.6.478-481. — 192 —

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We also referred to Phrynia and Timandra, the two ladies of the Athenian captain, Alcibiades,8 in an unexpected interest of Kinbote/ Charles the Beloved (433-434), confirming some bisexuality in the allseeing Tiresias/Kinbote. What carnal aura was in them (amorous dreams) came not from her (Disa) but from those with whom he betrayed her—prickly chinned Phrynia, pretty Timandra with that boom under her apron—and even so the sexual scum remained somewhere far above the sunken treasure and was quite unimportant.

But the more fitting aspect of the sun and moon comes at the commencement of scene iii, where again we have total gules in the eyes of Timon. Alcibiades arrives accompanied by his two ladies (and with fife and drum) to the now disenchanted Timon in his wooded retreat. Alcibiades: I know thee well; But in thy fortunes am unlearn’d and strange. Timon: I know thee too, and more than that I know thee I not desire to know. Follow thy drum! With man’s blood paint the ground gules, gules: Religious canons, civil wars are cruel, Then what should war be? This fell whore of thine Hath in her more destruction than thy sword, For all her cherubin look. Phrynia: Thy lips drop off! Timon: I will not kiss thee, then the rot returns To thine own lips again. Alcibiades: How came the noble Timon to this change? Timon: As the moon does, by wanting light to give: But then renew I could not like the moon, There were no suns to borrow of…

Timon goes on to insult Timandra. The context of the sun and moon is now one of sustenance and supply rather than of thievery. And in Kinbote’s quotations of St. Augustine9 to John Shade (549), was the most appropriate: 8 9

Timon of Athens 4.3.55-70. St. Augustine, Confessions, trans. Watts, bk. 3, chap. 6. — 193 —

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Et illa erant fercula, in quibus mihi esurienti te inferebatur sol et luna And these were the dishes wherein to me, hunger-starven for thee, they served up the sun and moon.

To clarify the complex blood relations that might exist between John Shade, Charles Xavier/Kinbote, and Jakob Gradus, the additional potential filaments in the adulterous web and the resultant blood relationships are shown in the accompanying figure and table. We have limited the cases to John Shade being a natural son of Alfin. We turn to the evidence on Gradus, grandson of the great masterbuilder, mysteriously put to death in 1885. King Alfin’s penchant for driving into the countryside without a vestige of an escort with sometimes an interpreter of unknown sex (71) suggests that a royal interpreter could have widened her vocabulary beyond her native Russian on these visits, which would make her possible marriage to a Protestant minister in Riga plausible. If Gradus were her son, we would expect an early facility in language. His study of pharmacology in Zurich would imply an early capability in German following the early demise of both his parents. His infancy and childhood in Strasbourg would, also, equally imply a facility with the French language. We have not been able to show his mother’s direct link to her father, the masterbuilder, but her Russian uncle, again, suggests a natural exposure to languages. The master builder’s unexpected demise in 1885, together with his three assistants following the repair of the royal kitchens, coincided with the birth of Peter Gusev, Duke of Rahl in the same year (chapter 3). We show the consequences should King Alfin be the natural father of Gradus following one of his woodland clutch adjustments, but we have no evidence that Alfin’s coupling enthusiasms extended beyond his clutch. Gradus’s classical travel to the modern halls of Dis beyond Geneva and his crossing of the marshy Styx or Mare Atlanticum, on the other hand, are concordant with his eventual arrival at the Arcadian fields of New Wye, Appalachia and the meeting with his father, the modern Anchises, John Shade (chapter 6). Support is, therefore, given to John Shade being the father of Gradus. The latter’s personal catharsis before the denouément and tragedy of the assassination supports an event — 194 —

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of real tragedy even if Gradus’s limited perception of the situation is limited to an Aristotelian rather than a Cornelian position on tragedy. The description of the character of Gradus is given as “Mere springs and coils produced the inward movements of our clockwork man. He might be termed a puritan. One essential dislike, formidable in its simplicity, pervaded his dull soul; he disliked injustice and deception. He disliked their union—they were always together—with a wooden passion that neither had, nor heeded, words to express itself. Such a dislike should have deserved praise had it not been a by-product of the man’s hopeless stupidity. He called unjust and deceitful everything that surpassed his understanding. He worshipped general ideas and did so with pedantic aplomb. The generality was godly, the specific diabolical …(171).” His appearance over time as an incestuous eunuch (697) eventually guilty of parricide is not an endearing picture of clockwork man. He could be regarded in some light as the dim-witted Heraclius of our story, the true Charles II, outwitted by the manipulative usurper Martian/Kinbote but with blood diluted by adulterous intrigues. That Charles II/Kinbote is the natural son of Peter Gusev, Duke of Rahl is supported by his close resemblance to Julius Steinmann (b. 1928) who is potentially also the natural son of the Duke (b. 1885 “still spry”—Index), born at a time when John Shade’s career was well established in the United States before his visit to Europe in 1933 (433-434). If, therefore, in the table we take the conditions that Alfin is the father of John Shade (A1) and that John Shade is the father of Gradus (C2), it may either be concluded that the Duke of Rahl is the true father of Charles the Beloved/Kinbote (B1), that is to say, that all conditions are known, or that King Alfin appears the father of Charles the Beloved/Kinbote ( B0). We define these conditions, rather tentatively, as Cornelian and Aristotelian, respectively. If we now attempt to constrain the problem further by taking the Voltairean condition from Candide—the conclusion from chapter 3— that Nous sommes tous cousins issus des Germains—then the most favoured condition of the problem becomes that of A1 B0C2 where the three descendants all appear to have some blood relationship under the Aristotelian condition. The true condition is A1B1C2 with Charles/ Kinbote the bastard son of Blenda and the Duke of Rahl. — 195 —

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One final piece of evidence may be considered. In the commentary to the final line, Kinbote reports, …and the gunman gave his name as Jack Grey, no fixed abode, except the Institute for the Criminal Insane, ici, good dog, which of course should have been his permanent address all along, and which the police thought he had just escaped from.

And further, By making him believe that I could help him at his trial I forced him to confess his heinous crime—his deceiving the police and the nation by posing as Jack Grey, escapee from an asylum, who mistook Shade for the man who sent him there. A few days later, alas, he thwarted justice by slitting his throat with a safety razor blade salvaged from an unwatched garbage container. He died, not so much because having played his part in the story he saw no point in existing any longer, but because he could not live down this last crowning botch—killing the wrong person when the right one stood before him.

This is, of course, again, Kinbote’s story. Interest lies in the three words “ici, good dog.” As with the bodkin, there is ambiguity in the italicised ici, on the surface representing the Institute for the Criminally Insane. Ici is, however, the first person perfect indicative of the latin icio, to strike a bargain. Did Kinbote manipulate Gradus into the assassination? It is difficult to see that there could have been collaboration, but we have only Kinbote’s story. If the blood succession from John Shade to Jakob Gradus follows the rightful patriarchal line, then their double elimination through assassination and an act of criminality leading to suicide allows Kinbote the lawful succession by right of his mother, Queen Blenda. Kinbote, Charles the Beloved, may be seen to be extremely manipulative. At a more literary level, if Kinbote is also taken to symbolise the role of the critic within Pale Fire, we conclude that he is defined as an unproductive (his homosexuality), all-knowing (a Tiresias parody of misinformation), manipulative, winning bastard (illegitimate son of the Duke of Rahl). Within the context of the geographical associations, the opening line of the poem can lead to association with Scylla and Glaucus (chapter 12) and to Aeneas and his passing of the twin monster with Charybdis — 196 —

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at the entrance to the Straits of Messina before reaching Cumae and the path to the halls of Avernus. Gradus was able to enter the nether regions beyond Geneva and Montreux. If the United States may be viewed as rooted in the underworld, with the modern crossing of the Atlantic as no more than an aerial ferry ride across the marshy Styx, we enter the lowest regions of Hell by entering New York City. This seems a little hard on that vibrant metropolis. Only Gradus passed through this infernal region, starting his catharsis before the uncomfortable dénouement and assassination of John Shade in the new found Arcady, New Wye, that classic campus near Charleston, West Virginia. If Gradus is also to be seen as a Euryalus figure in the form of an adopted son, suggested by the donning of the gloves of death at 992 (chapter 15), the pathetic Gradus may be seen as a true son of John Shade. Gradus is then viewed as a modern Heraclius of slim ability, outwitted by a latterday Martian, the unproductive, manipulative bastard, Kinbote. The association leads back to Pierre Corneille and the Cornelian influence. The Eliot parody in chapters 9 and 10 gives support to these relationships. Leaving aside the question of Jack Grey, the negro gardener (1000) confirmed that the gunman was shooting at John Shade. The Eliot notes (chapter 10) give support to a parricide by an illegitimate through the Karamazov reference at c366-76. The notes also confirm that the likely tres adulteri of the web are King Alfin (with Caroline Shade- through the key motif), the Duke of Payn and Mone (with Sybil Shade-the Hirondelle motif), and the young John Shade (with the elusive interpreter Tselovalnikov). The cross-hatched line of the earlier genealogical tree (p. 31) is then linked to our interpreter but extended to include Jakob Gradus. The coded opening line of the ghost of Alfin (chapter 2) might have started with quaterni following the evidence for the Duke of Rahl’s affair with Queen Blenda, producing the all-seeing Charles/Kinbote, but if we have a parody of Eliot’s vision on the road to Emmaus in the The Waste Land, we might expect at least one less along the way in the affairs at hand.

— 197 —

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Additional potential filaments in the adulterous web

— 198 —

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Condition John Shade/Charles Xavier Kinbote/Jakob Gradus A1 Alfin, father of John Shade True blood relation A1B1C1 Duke of Rahl, father of CXK: Alfin, father of Gradus

A1B2C1 John Shade,

father of CXK: Alfin, father of Gradus

A1B1C2 Duke of Rahl, father of CXK: John Shade, father of Gradus

A1B2C2 John Shade,

father of CXK: John Shade, father of Gradus

A1 Alfin, father of John Shade and self-knowledge of one’s own father only A1B1C0

A1B2C0

A1B0C1

A1B0C2

Duke of Rahl, father of CXK

John Shade,

Alfin,

John Shade,

father of CXK

father of Gradus

father of Gradus

JS

to

CXK

none

CXK

to

JG

none

JS

to

JG

demi-frère

JS

to

CXK

father/son

JG

to

CXK

demi-oncle

JS

to

JG

demi-frère

JS

to

CXK

none

CXK

to

JG

none

JS

to

JG

father/son

JS

to

CXK

father/son

CXK

to

JG

demi-frère

JS

to

JG

father/son

True/Apparent blood relation JS

to

CXK

none

CXK

to

JG

none

JS

to

JG

none

JS

to

CXK

father/son

CXK

to

JG

none

JS

to

JG

none

JS

to

CXK

demi-frère

CXK

to

JG

demi-frère

JS

to

JG

demi-frère

JS

to

CXK

demi-frère

CXK

to

JG

demi-oncle

JS

to

JG

father/son

— 199 —

-------------------------------------------------------  Tragedy and the Stagyrite -------------------------------------------------------

XIV Tragedy and the Stagyrite

We are absurdly accustomed to the miracle of a few written signs being able to contain immortal imagery, involutions of thought, new words with live people, speaking, weeping, laughing. We take it for granted so simply that in a sense by the very act of brutish routine acceptance, we undo the work of the ages, the history of the gradual elaboration of poetical description and construction from the treeman to Browning, from the caveman to Keats. (991) Popian advice from his Essay on Criticism1 is appropriate: You then whose Judgment the right Course wou’d steer, Know well each ANCIENT’s proper Character, His Fable, Subject, Scope in ev’ry Page, Religion, Country, Genius of his Age: Without all these at once before your Eyes, Cavil you may, but never Criticize. Be Homer’s Works your Study and Delight, Read them by Day, and meditate by Night, Thence form your judgment, thence your Maxims bring, And trace the Muses upward to their Spring; Still with It self compar’d his Text peruse; And let your Comment be the Mantuan Muse. When first young Maro in his boundless Mind A Work t’outlast Immortal Rome design’d, Perhaps he seem’d above the Critick’s Law, And but from Nature’s Fountains scorn’d to draw: But when t’examine ev’ry Part he came, 1

PAP vol. 1, “An Essay on Criticism,” l.lines 118-140. — 201 —

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Nature and Homer were, he found the same: Convinc’d, amaz’d, he checks the bold Design, And Rules as strict his labour’d Work confine, As if the Stagyrite o’erlook’d each Line. Learn hence for Ancient Rules a just Esteem; To copy Nature is to copy them.

The iambic heroic couplets of John Shade/Nabokov’s Pale Fire could be said to be guided by those of Pope’s admonitory iambic pentameters. The paradox of immortal imagery coupled with innovative evolution within a stable poetic tradition is suggested by the autobiographical four cantos of John Shade. We have traced a number of linguistic and literary influences amongst the many already discovered, what one critic2 has described as “stealthy signals.” There is a strong conservative element of the poetic tradition present throughout the cantos and their variant lines as judged by these associative literary and linguistic references. The adulterous web brings rationality and motives to the actions and movements of the participants in the real world insofar as Zembla and New Wye have definition there. A number of the associative references are suggested by the all-seeing Kinbote, albeit apparently unknowingly. How far is Nabokov influenced and constrained by the Aristotelian concepts of tragedy as contained in the Poetics? Nabokov is, of course, a modernist, but it is of interest to observe his respect for classicism. We take, here, John Shade’s poem and the Commentary as a whole in considering Nabokov’s position. Aristotle was born at Stagira in 384 B.C. We summarize the evidence that Nabokov had a strong intention to evolve within a firm, readily identifiable, if disguised, tradition. In chapter 1, we were led by the pseudonyms of Gradus to consider Corneille’s Trois discours sur le poème dramatique and the problems of literal translation. Corneille was replying to the charge that he was not obeying the classical rules of theatre 2

BBPF, “Introduction.” Brian Boyd’s sub-title to his volume is The Magic of Artistic Discovery, with which the author concurs. In information theoretic terms all coincidences involve a lowering of the conditional probabilities in the presence of the occurring associative parameter or event. The inherent difficulty outside the scientific field lies in the very tenuous and individual associative probabilities with such events pointing to the predicted or apparent reality. — 202 —

-------------------------------------------------------  Tragedy and the Stagyrite -------------------------------------------------------

in his plays as laid down in Aristotle’s Poetics. Corneille considered variabilities in interpretation and, in particular, the difficulties in the interpretation and understanding of language itself in the translation of Aristotle.3 In chapter 3, we turned to Corneille’s second discourse, in which he reviewed the question of historical truth or necessity in tragedy and the Aristotelian definition that, on the one hand, it must excite pity and fear, and on the other, by their means tragedy supresses these said passions. The latter condition, if understood, Corneille found little exemplified and went on to argue whether the second condition ever really holds. Corneille considered the Aristotelian defined modes of exciting pity, the need for appropriate close relationships in such tragedies, and the proximity of blood in the liaisons of love and between the persecutor and persecuted. It was indisputable that the ancient tragedies centred around few families because few families had the sort of actions worthy of tragedy. The early childhood of Gradus led us to consider the possibility that a Heraclian theme might exist within Pale Fire with the potentiality of a parricide on the thousandth line. We have observed in chapter 7 the Alcmaeon motif and effective matricide in the actions of Charles the Beloved. In chapter 10, within the chaotic House of Onhava, we analyzed the motives and actions of Charles Xavier/ Kinbote within its adulterous web in the light of a) Cornelian and b) Aristotelian reasoning under the conditions that a) Kinbote knew himself to be the son of Peter Gusev, Duke of Rahl, and b) others were ignorant of his true paternity. We summarize again Aristotle’s four combinatorial possibilities of action resulting from the simplified knowledge of identity or otherwise of the participants and the success or otherwise of the action. 1) One knows that one wishes to lose somebody and one effects the action (Medea, Clytemnestra, Orestes). 2) One makes the victim suffer without knowledge of his/her true identity and one is saddened when total recognition is then gained (Oedipus). 3) One is inclined to make perish one of one’s closest without knowing it and one recognises this in time to save him/her (Iphigenia’s recognition of Orestes). 4) One knows and undertakes a violent path of rightful action but does 3

See chapter 1, esp. n13. — 203 —

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not achieve it. The third case is regarded by Aristotle as the highest degree of excellence in tragedy, while in the fourth Aristotle offers only condemnation, suggesting the values associated with inadequacy and wretchedness and with nothing of tragedy. Corneille, on the other hand, questioned the hierarchy of Aristotelian values and suggested an inversion of their scale, commenting that this new kind of tragedy, as exemplified in Heraclius, is more beautiful than the three conditions that Aristotle recommends and that Aristotle would no doubt have preferred this revision if he had recognised the category. Nabokov, in Pale Fire, appears to side with the Aristotelian position in this narrow sense, and we have argued the case in chapter 13, at the literary level, that Kinbote is the deceitful, all knowing, manipulative, unproductive critic who, at the political level, as the illegitimate son of Queen Blenda, schemes to ensure his future line in some future world. There are other less aesthetic harbingers upholding the classical tradition to the onset of tragedy exemplified in the approaching assassination of John Shade. “Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper kaqarsis, or purgation of these emotions.”4 Bernays5 maintained that kaqarsis here is a medical metaphor, “purgation” and denotes a pathological effect on the soul analogous to the effect of medicine on the body. Before the murder of our poet, the assassin’s unfortunate meal of “a French sandwich in internecine war with some french fries” gives rise to a cathartic “inexhaustible lava in his bowels,” for which we are given a rather debilitating but commonly recognizable description (949). The Nabokov kaqarsis before the dénouément is for real, supporting the case for Gradus being a natural son of John Shade. It is a relief to compare other classical indicators within the 4 5

See AP, chap. 6, pp. 242ff. Bernays, Zwei Abhandlungen über die Aristotelische Theorie des Drama (Berlin, 1880). The three chief meanings of the word καθαρσις are 1) the medical 2) the religious or liturgical lustratio or expiato; and 3) the moral, purificatio. Refutation (έλεγχος) is also a mode of καθαρσις. (AP, p. 245n1) — 204 —

-------------------------------------------------------  Tragedy and the Stagyrite -------------------------------------------------------

construction of Pale Fire. All theatre is a form of imitation and Aristotle in his introduction to his Poetics categorises the language forms as Epic poetry, and Tragedy, Comedy, and Dithyrambic (flamboyant, fantastical) poetry.6 The imitation may be produced by rhythm, language, and/or “harmony,” which may be achieved in any combination with music of the flute or lyre. In the evolution from epic poetry and lampooning verse into tragedy and comedy, we commented in chapter 4 on Aristotle’s claim that the Dorians of the Peloponnese introduced tragedy and comedy when a variant on John Shade’s poem suggested a common Dorian architectural and literary motif. The context was related to Pope’s defence of his work within the Aristotelian constraining unities of action, place, and time and led to the suggestion that John Shade’s variant stanza was guiding us to two possible titles for his poem, The Comedy of Errors or Hamlet Restored. In chapter 4, we also quoted Kinbote’s extract from his reading of the letters of Franklin Lane Knight (810), pointing us to Aristotle. “Ah, there would be a man to talk with! What satisfaction to see him take, like reins from between his fingers, the long ribbon of man’s life and trace it through the mystifying maze of all the wonderful adventure …The crooked made straight. The whole daedelian plan simplified by a look from above—smeared out as it were by the splotch of some master thumb that made the whole involuted, boggling thing one beautiful straight line.” Aristotle, in a rather restrictive passage (see chapter 4) tracing the development of the poetic tradition, notes the emergence of a more trivial sort of poetry imitating the actions of meaner persons giving rise to satire, and the measure is still called the iambic or lampooning measure, while the more mature poets developed as writers of heroic or tragic verse.7 Homer was preeminent in both forms. The evolutionary emergence of comedy and tragedy led to the concept that tragedy “endeavours as far as possible, to confine itself to a single revolution of the sun” (a well-recognized anachronism), whereas the epic action 6 7

AP 1.1-9. Aristotle, in a restrictive passage, suggests that the appropriate metre was introduced for the more comedic action, being the iambic or lampooning measure. Hence as poetry diverged in different direction, the older poets were distinguished as writers of heroic or lampooning verse. — 205 —

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has no limits on time. Epic poetry has but one type of verse and is narrative in form (see chapter 5). Spectacular equipment will be a part of tragedy. There may be wider contexts to John Shade’s lines “(The amber spectacles for life’s eclipse)” (552) and the enigmatic “Sunglassers tour Beirut” (936). Tragedy is the imitation of an action and an action implies personal agents who possess certain distinctive qualities both of character and thought, for it is by these that we qualify actions themselves. Hence the plot is the imitation of the action and the dominant characteristic of tragedy. Character (hqos, moral purpose), diction (expression), thought and spectacle (action), and song are the other components. The most powerful elements of emotional interest in tragedy—Peripeteia—or reversal of the situation and recognition scenes are parts of the plot.8 Before going on to to discuss the principal components of tragedy, we may consider Nabokov’s parodies of the reversal of the situation. At the trivial linguistic level, we have such characters as Sudarg of Bokay, “a mirror maker of genius,” Odon, the Karlist, and his half brother, Nodo of the revolutionary Shadows, Barons Mirador and Radomir Mandevil, experimentalist, madman and traitor, and Zemblan patriot respectively (Index), Kinbote, and the American scholar of Russian descent, V. Botkin. More significantly, there is the recognition of the reversal of the family relationships due to incestuous intrigue. There is Shade, “his having possibly glimpsed twenty-six years ago Villa Disa and the little Duchess of Payn with her English Governess, 433” (Index), while there is the suggestion that Sybil was having an incestuous affair with the Duke of Payn and Mone in 1933, Hazel being the child of the liaison (chapter 3). There is realization that King Alfin’s erratic and fatal aerial dynamics may have been the product of an engineering adaptation by Queen Blenda’s lover, Peter Gusev, Duke of Rahl. There is the adolescent John Shade possibly having an affair with Queen Blenda and /or with Gradus’s mother, likely a Russian interpreter, while still

8

AP 6.13. Aristotle defines a simple plot in Tragedy as one where there is no Пεριπετεία or Reversal of the Situation when the change of fortune takes place. Where Пεριπετεία and Recognition of the event are present, the plot is complex and may be enhanced by two forms of surprise. — 206 —

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present at the Palace at Onhava (chapter 3). But strictly, “reversal of the situation” truly means that a participant acts in ignorance and then there is recognition of one’s position, as with Oedipus, or even in the case of the ghost of King Alfin. Again the description of peripeteia can be classed as too defining and the reversal can be interpreted as more of a a series of incidents or a train of action (ta prattomena) tending to bring about a certain end but resulting in something wholly different.9 There is also the recognition that Gradus after his odyssey may, in fact, be meeting his father, Anchises, alias John Shade. Even so, Kinbote naturally maintains that the bullet that killed John Shade had an ambiguity of intent. “Unity of plot does not imply unity of the hero.10 Hence the error, as it appears, of all poets who have composed a Heracleid, a Theseid, or other poems of this kind” (see also chapter 8). Within Pale Fire, the character of Gradus appears of a uniform dullness but very error-prone with some aspects of the Puritan but further darkened by incest with his mother-in-law and self-castration (697). Nabokov’s description is true to the error if Gradus may be represented also as a Martian or Heraclius involved in an unwitting parricide by the assassination of John Shade, who is also the rightful heir to the Zemblan throne. If we turn to hqos, the moral character of the participants, Aristotle maintains the subordination of character to the plot (muqos). “Without action there cannot be a tragedy; there may be without hqh.11 Ethos holds a subordinate position to the plot or action. “The most beautiful colours laid on confusedly, will not give as much pleasure as the chalk outline of plot. Ethos divorced from plot is like a daub of beautiful colour, which apart from form gives little pleasure. The plot is the groundwork, the design, through the medium of which ethos derives its meaning and dramatic value.”12 Nabokov has an impressive “daub of primary colours” for his characters: red (scarlet wool—Charles II), green (Gerald Emerald), brown (Gradus)—but the tie is barred 9 10

11 12

AP, chap. 8, “The Ideal Tragic Hero,” p. 330. AP 8.1. “For infinitely various are the incidents in a man’s life which cannot be reduced to unity.” AP 6.5-16. AP 6.15. — 207 —

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with red (a bend gules?) (949), blue (Colonel Starbottle), while the Shade family itself has been shown to be total gules (chapter 13). The moral characters of the participants are very much secondary to the complexity of plot. The fact remains, however, that, outside the Shade family, the characters are contained within the Commentary and not within the poem, which remains strictly autobiographical until the last line of the poem. Plot has been argued by some critics as a mere external framework, a piece of mechanism designed to illustrate the working of character.13 This can hardly be Nabokov’s position, which is firmly Aristotelian. The character of Gradus has been defined as an incestuous eunuch and that of Kinbote/Charles the Beloved as a Tiresias figure with a dominantly negative logical operator or as the all-seeing manipulative bastard (chapter 13). Aristotle maintains consistently the amoral position that the the end of poetry is refined pleasure. In the different types of character, he does review their aesthetics under ethical lights and morally categorises the different types of character. The restriction of Aristotle’s poetic aesthetics to the pleasure position was weakened until relatively modern times. It has been argued14 that it was not until Dryden that the spirit of Aristotle was regained from moral purpose. “I am satisfied if it [verse] cause delight; for delight is the chief if not the only end of poesy: instruction can be admitted but in the second place, for poesy only instructs as it delights.”15 It is not the purpose here to make a detailed comparison of Nabokov’s aesthetic position to that of Aristotle. There is considerable unity of action in Kinbote’s intentions; when under the guise of critic, the underlying plot may be interpreted as one of furthering his control of the Zemblan succession (insofar as the court of Zembla could be said to have a future). “A perfect tragedy should be arranged not on the simple but on the complex plan. It should, moreover, imitate 13 14

15

See AP chap. 9, p. 343. See AP, chap. 5, “Art and Morality,” p. 239. Sir Philip Sydney in his “Apologie for Poetrie” states: “the broad view that the end of poetry is ‘to teach and to delight,’ and this view was that of the Elizabethan age in general which follows close to the Roman view of Horace in the Ars Poetica. J. Dryden, Essay of Dramatic Poesie. — 208 —

-------------------------------------------------------  Tragedy and the Stagyrite -------------------------------------------------------

actions which excite pity and fear, this being the distinctive mark of tragic imitation.”16 We have followed the Homeric path and the tragedy is more of epic poetry. “Epic poetry must have as many kinds of poetry as Tragedy: it must be simple [John Shade’s assassination], or complex [murder of King Alfin] or ethical [death of Queen Blenda] or pathetic [suicide of Hazel]. Epic poetry has, however, a great—a special— capacity for enlarging its dimensions.”17 It is time to consider the ending of John Shade’s final canto.

16

17

AP 9.10. Such an event is best produced when the events come on us by surprise; and the effect is heightened when, at the same time, they follow as cause and effect. AP 18.2-3. — 209 —

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XV Dramatic Poetry, Regicide, and Poetic Drama



Since our concern was speech, and speech impelled us To purify the dialect of the tribe And urge the mind to aftersight and foresight (T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding,” 2)

Heroic couplets define the architecture of the four cantos of Pale Fire. It is clear that in the assassination of John Shade on his 500th heroic couplet of decasyllabic metre, we have a poetic drama, one might almost say a melodrama, but the written text is hardly in the form of dramatic poetry. In contrast to the dodecasyllabic metre of French Alexandrine poetry of Corneille and Racine, Pale Fire seems firmly embedded in an English tradition of decasyllabic, doubtfully heroic, but certainly “mock epic” rhyming couplets. This brings us to the worlds of Dryden and, again, of Pope and, in particular, to their satiric verse. It is of interest, therefore, to step back from exhaustive word plays, even if it may be found impossible to do so in Nabokovian verse, and compare Eliot’s views to John Dryden’s with respect both to satiric verse and to the theatre and to consider what, if any, might be Nabokov’s view on Eliot’s philosophy on language itself, as far as can be discerned from the words of John Shade and his subliminal text. Nabokov, not unsurprisingly, will appear to be curtly dismissive of Eliot’s claims for language, a comment intimately embedded at 408 within a further pointer to Sybil Shade’s seduction by the Duke of Payne and Mone (chapter 3). Similarly, “empires of rhyme” (603) will lead us not to Dryden but to Marvell at the heat of summer, which will confirm Nabokov’s parody of Part V of The Waste Land with his deployment of the Ford Phaethon, reflecting the modern world in chaos, identified in chapter 11. Again, John Shade’s love of the consonne d’appui — 211 —

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leads not to the poetic “underscoring and stress of the vital rhythm” but is rather associated with a rather painful plunge into Eliot’s pool of memory in “Burnt Norton.” In place of any language purification, there is the more disturbing hint of a regicide. In this final chapter concentrating on Eliot, we shall examine in detail the last fifty lines of John Shade’s poem to focus on any harbingers to the final line, bearing in mind the comment in Kinbote’s Foreword. Canto Four was begun on July 19 and as already noted, the last third of its text (lines 949-999) is supplied by a Corrected Draft. This is extremely rough in appearance, teeming with devastating erasures and cataclysmic insertions, and does not follow the lines of the card as rigidly as the Fair Copy does. Actually it turns out to be beautifully accurate when you once make the plunge and compel yourself to open your eyes in the limpid depths under its confused surface.

The last fifteen lines and the potential 1000th line are assessed in chapter 16. We commence with John Dryden and his recognized influence on Eliot.1, 2 A review of Mark Van Doren’s The Poetry of John Dryden3 by Eliot appeared in the Times Literary Supplement for June 9th, 1921, and Eliot had obviously completed his reading of the biography by May of that year. It was known that Eliot first had hoped to get started on “a poem I had in mind” in early November 1919. The Waste Land was partly on paper (“something had happened”) by May 1921, after much procrastination.4 It is thus known that Eliot had written his “grouse on life” in London after reading Van Orstrand’s biography, which appeared to have given him the focus for the orientation of the poem. On the thirteenth of October, 1921, he was at Margate, and in mid–November in Lausanne, where Part V was written almost in one sitting.5 The final excisions with the aid of Ezra Pound are outside relevant consideration. To turn to 1 2

3 4 5

G. Smith, The Waste Land (London: George, Allen & Unwin, 1983). H. Kenner, “The Urban Apocalypse,” in: Eliot in His Time: Essays on the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of The Waste Land, ed A. Walton Litz (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972), 23. M. Van Doren, The Poetry of John Dryden (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920). H. Kenner, “The Urban Apocalypse,” 25. Ibid., 42. — 212 —

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Van Doren:6 “For the first twenty years after the Restoration, Dryden’s London was to reproduce with a certain amount of accuracy, the Rome of Ovid. With Civil War just past and a commonwealth overthrown, with court and city beginning to realize their power, with peace prevailing and cynicism in fashionable morals rampant, with a foreign culture seeking the favour of patrons and wits, the new city did for a while bear a strange resemblance to the old Empire; so that the vogue of Ovid in those years is not difficult to understand.” Eliot clearly felt an identity with the state of England in the early 1920’s and we exemplify the parallel wordings taken from Part 3, “The Fire Sermon,” with Dryden’s satires,7 Mac Flecknoe and The Medall. A Satyre against Sedition. My warbling lute, the lute I whilom strung

Elizabeth and Leicester

When to King John of Portugal I sung,

Beating Oars

Was but the prelude to that glorious day,

The (barge)* stern was formed

When thou on silver Thames did’st cut thy way.

A gilded shell

With well tim’d Oars before the Royal Barge,

Red and gold

Swell’d with the pride of thy Celestial charge;

The brisk swell Rippled both shores “This music crept by me upon the waters”

The Lute still trembling underneath thy nail At thy well sharpned thumb from Shore to

O City, City, I can sometimes hear

Shore

Beside a public bar in Lower Thames

The Treble squeaks for fear, the Bases roar: …

Street, The pleasant whining of a mandoline And a clatter and a chatter from within

About thy boat the little fishes throng,

Where fishmen lounge at noon: where

As at the morning toast, that Floats along.

The walls of Magnus Martyr hold

Sometimes as Prince of thy Harmonious band

Inexplicable splendour of Ionian white and gold

Thou wield’st thy Papers in thy threshing hand. Close to the Walls which fair Augusta bind (The fair Augusta much to fears inclin’d) An ancient fabrick, rais’d t’inform thy sight

The sound of horns and motors, which shall bring

There stood of yore, and Barbican it hight:

Sweeney to Mrs. Porter in the spring

A watch Tower once: but now so Fate ordains,

O the moon shone bright on Mrs Porter

6 7

M. Van Doren, John Dryden, 12. J. Dryden, The Poems and Fables of John Dryden, ed. J. Kingsley (London: Oxford University Press, 1962). — 213 —

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------  XV ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------And on her daughter …

Of all the Pile an empty name remains. From its old ruins Brothel-houses rise, Scene of lewd loves, and of polluted joys. Where their vast Courts, the Mother –Strumpets keep

Twit twit twit Jug Jug Jug Jug Jug Jug So rudely forced

And undisturb’d by Watch, in silence sleep

(J. Dryden, Mac Flecknoe, “Thou last great prophet of Tautology”) London, thou great emporium of our Isle, O, thou too bounteous, thou too fruitful Nile, How shall I praise or curse to thy desert! Or separate thy sound, from thy corrupted part! I call’d thee Nile: the parallel will stand: Thy tydes of wealth o’rflow the fatten’d land; Yet Monsters from thy large increase we find;

A rat crept slowly through the vegetation

Engender’d on the Slyme thou leav’st behind

Dragging its slimy belly on the bank

Sedition has not wholly seiz’d on thee;

While I was fishing in the dull canal....

Thy nobler parts are from infection free.

Musing upon the king, my brother’s wreck†...

Of Israel’s Tribes thou hast a numerous band; But still the Canaanite is in the Land.

Mr. Eugenides, the Smyrna merchant

….

…Unshaven, with a pocketful of currants

But Wisdom is too Sloath too great a Slave; None are so busy as the Fool and Knave …

C.i.f. London: documents at sight,††

In Gospel phrase their Chapmen they betray: Their shops are dens, the Buyer is their prey…

Asked me in demotic French

The Knack of Trades is living on the spoyl;

To luncheon at the Cannon Street Hotel

They boast, ev’n when each other they beguile.

Followed by a weekend at the Metropole

(J. Dryden, The Medal. A Satyre against Sedition) The Tempest I, ii including freight” compared to f.o.b (freight on board). • Deleted in final text †

†† “Carriage

In these recognized overlaps, we have directly compared the trisyllabic “lute, the lute” with the “mandolin,” while a certain regional tolerance in the eastern Mediterranean may be detected. Ezra Pound persuaded Eliot to omit a number of poems that were for a time intended to be placed between the poem’s sections, then at the end — 214 —

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of it. One poem, noted by a tolerant distinguished academic, was “a renewed thrust at poor Bleistein, drowned now but still haplessly Jewish and luxurious under water:”8 Full fathom five your Bleistein lies Under the flatfish and the squids… See the lips unfold, unfold From the teeth, gold in gold…

The Israelite was duly excised but the well-bred Eugenides retained. The relation between Dryden and Eliot is well attested, but, for the European Nabokov, it is the parody of the metamorphoses of Ovid rather than the intimate parallels of London and Onhava that are the demonstrable determinants. Our index to Ovid cites a dozen separate references. It was noted in chapter 9 that the absence of Mars but the likely presence of Harmonia in Onhava suggested a concentration on courtly couplings rather than on the capital’s social solecisms. One may continue Van Ostrand on Dryden:9 Dryden’s gift for adapting his rhythmical emphasis to his meaning amounted to genius. Alliteration, effective rhyme, antithesis, and the use of polysyllables were only auxiliaries to that. It was that which gave him rapidity without the appearance of haste and flexibility without the loss of strength. Bound by the laws of a syllabic system of versification and condemned to a narrow metrical range, he succeeded in manipulating his measures so that he could speak directly and easily yet with dignity. He was more than a believer in mere variety of accent, though he stressed that too as early as in his Essay of Dramatick Poesie,10 where the critic, Neander (amongst a 8 9 10

R. Ellmann, “The First Waste Land,” in Eliot in His Time, 55. M. Van Doren, John Dryden, 97. J. Dryden, Essay of Dramatick Poesie (1668), preceded by A Dialogue on Poetic Drama, by T.S. Eliot (London: Frederick Etchells and Hugh Macdonald, 1928). While Dryden and Eliot both turned to anglo-catholicism in religion and royalism in politics, Dryden might be considered as much more open-minded than Eliot. See Van Doren, John Dryden, pp. 18 and 19: “He (Dryden) was not a scientist. Yet he picked up the new language and adopted the new airs; he established what Macaulay named ‘the scientific vocabulary’ in verse. Not long after he went to London, and before he had — 215 —

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group of four), observed, “Nothing that does Perpetuo tenore fluere run in the same channel, can please always.” ’Tis like the murmuring of a stream, which not varying in the fall, causes at first attention, at last drowsiness. Variety of cadences is the best rule.” Dryden was a believer in significant variety of accent. Pope, in a letter to a friend Henry Cromwell, recognized three places within the heroic line where pauses might come: after the fourth , after the fifth, and after the sixth syllables. Dryden knew no limits of the kind.

All this, of course, had been said by Pope in his Imitations of Horace:11 263 We conquer’d France but felt our captives charms; Her Arts victorious triumph’d o’er our arms: Britain to soft refinements less a foe, Wit grew polite, and Numbers learn’d to flow. Waller was smooth; but Dryden taught to join The varying verse, the full resounding line, The long majestic march, and energy divine. Tho’ still some traces of our rustic vein And splay-foot verse, remain’d and will remain Late, very late, correctness grew our care, When the tir’d nature breath’d from civil war. Exact Racine and Corneille’s noble fire Show’d us that France had something to admire. Not but the Tragic spirit was our own, And full in Shakespear and, fair in Otway shone: won any notice of his writing at all, in 1662, he was made a member of the newly chartered Royal Society. The next year he was laying honest Aristotle by with some verses addressed to Dr Charleton who had written a book on Stonehenge:



The longest tyranny that ever swayed Was that wherein our ancestors betrayed Their free-born reason to the Stagyrite, And made his torch their universal light.”

In the same poem, he celebrated the innovations of Bacon, Gilbert, Boyle, Harvey and Ent. Three years later he put into the mouth of Crites in this Essay of Dramatick Poesie, the following query:

11

“Is it not evident , in these last hundred years…that more errors of the School have been detected, more useful experiments in philosophy have been made, more noble secrets in optics, medicine, anatomy, astronomy, discovered than in all those credulous and doting ages from Aristotle to us?”

“Imitations of Horace Epistle II,” PAP 3.1.263-281. — 216 —

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But Otway fail’d to polish or refine, And fluent Shakespear scarce effac’d a line. Ev’n copious Dryden, wanted, or forgot, The last and greatest Art, the Art to blot.

In the classical development of the English Language in Dryden’s time, after the ravages of the Civil War and the Puritan closing of the theatres, there was a need to identify and strengthen the conventions that might be deployed in the theatre with the awareness that there appeared some need to develop acceptable criteria for theatrical expression on an English stage which had general acceptability. In contrast to the French Classical rules which developed under Cardinal Richelieu based on Aristotelian principles and were modified by Corneille and others, there was a need for some criteria for development of the English theatre after the dominance of Elizabethan blank verse. The puritan constraints on theatre certainly may have necessitated the need for a political form of acceptability. It was, however, important to limit such constraints. The argument was forcibly made by Dryden himself, who was largely making his own case in his essay cited above, written in 1668, two years after the reopening of the theatres. It should not be forgotten that during Dryden’s residence at Cambridge, the University was under the thumb of the Puritans, who in 1644 had evicted all Royalist tutors.12 Eliot, in what may be regarded as a now dated way, thought that Dryden had established a normal English speech, a speech valid for verse and prose. “What Dryden did, in fact, was to reform the language, and devise a natural, conversational style of speech in place of an artificial and decadent one.”13 Eliot appeared nervous of Milton’s “hyperlatinism.” He found in Dryden’s satire the lesson that “if verse should not stray too far from the customs of speech, so also it should not abandon too much the uses of prose.”14 Eliot, who saw himself as a poet-critic in the mould of Dryden, published in 1928 A Dialogue on Poetic Drama15 in his quest for a new form of verse play. He discussed its modern problems amongst an 12 13 14 15

Van Doren, John Dryden, 10. T.S. Eliot, The Listener, 15 April, 1931. 5: 118, 621. Ibid., 622. T.S. Eliot, see n10. — 217 —

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abstract septet of colleagues while at the same time reprinting Dryden’s Essay of Dramatick Poesie, covering the comparable discussion between his four critics. In a not very convincing piece compared with Dryden’s, in an age where constraints were much less tangible or seemingly relevant, one of his critics (E) argues that the unities of place and time do make for intensity as does verse rhythm and that an hour and a half of intense interest is all that we need from the theatre. (G) had earlier proposed that the group “should find a new form of verse which shall be as satisfactory a vehicle as blank verse was for the Elizabethans.” That the European Nabokov clearly had little time for purifying the “dialect of the tribe” is suggested at 410-412. 408 A male hand traced from Florida to Maine The curving arrows of Aeolian wars You said that later a quartet of bores …would debate The Cause of Poetry on Channel 8.

As an aside at this point, if we link (409) to (433) we find a further indicator of Sybil’s distress in the south of France giving added support to her rather forcible seduction by the Duke of Payne and Mone and the Philomela motif (chapter 3). 433

439

To the green, indigo and tawny sea Which we had visited in thirty-three, Nine months before her birth. Now it was all Pepper and Salt, and hardly could recall That first long ramble, the relentless light, The flock of sails (one blue amongst the white Clashed queerly with the sea, and two were red),

438-439 indicate three colours on four sails to the numerate mind, but Kinbote’s note (433-434), as previously considered in chapter 3, shows that we are in Nice with Sybil Shade reluctant to discuss her memories and with a hint of promiscuity (chapter 3, n11). Thus a more reasonable metamorphosis, the colours being what they are, is that we have French tricolores on fore-sails. If we then compare the stanza from Eliot’s “Sweeney Erect,” — 218 —

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Display me Aeolus above Reviewing the insurgent gales Which tangle Ariadne’s hair And swell with haste the perjured sails

we find the missing allusion to be that of “Ariadne’s tangled hair.” As mentioned in the last chapter, unbound hair is a sign of distress in the epics, but in place of Theseus leaving Ariadne in Naxos to be rescued by Bacchus in one version of the classical tale, it is likely to be Sybil’s tangled hair and her unfortunate affair under the perjured sails of the Duke of Payne and Mone that underlies these lines. The Philomela motif (chapter 3) may suggest that she was taken a little by surprise—which, if it is true, is not nice or may be Nice. “The pepper and salt” in Nice can be “accoutrements” or “garniture,” which can also refer to the nautical rigging or, in the latter, to Elle a une chevelure bien garniture, implying that she had a good crop of hair, but we are uncertain whether we can make heads or tails of this last possibility. Nabokov’s parody of Part II, “A Game of Chess” (chapter 2, n2; chapter 9, n4), with Eliot’s warning of the fate of Philomela, does argue consistently for the seduction of Sybil Shade by the Duke and that Hazel is the outcome of this dark affair. To return to the more poetic, we find that it is Marvell and not Dryden that is of immediate interest. We consider 602 and its adjacent commentary at 603. 601 We’ll think of matters only known to us— Empires of Rhyme, Indies of Calculus: Listen to distant cocks grow and discern Upon the rough grey wall a rare wall fern; And while our royal hands are being tied … (603) Listen to distant cocks crow One will recall the admirable image in a recent poem by Edsel Ford: And often when the cock crew, shaking fire Out of the morning and the misty mow A mow (in Zemblan muwan) is the field next to a barn.

— 219 —

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One can but marvel at the idiosyncratic nature of these references. Firstly there is the curious Indies of “Calculus”—Integration and Differentiation? Or perhaps Integration and Disintegration? If we think of India and Empires of couplets, one is led to Marvell’s famous poem, “To his Coy Mistress.”16 We shall find that this use of the word “calculus” by John Shade is pejorative. Had we but world enough and time, This coyness lady, were no crime. We would sit down and think which way To walk, and pass our long love’s day Thou by the Indian Ganges side Should’st rubies find: I by the tide Of Humber would complain. I would Love you ten years before the flood; And you should, if you please, refuse Till the conversion of the Jews. My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires and more slow…

In a review of 1966 of recent literature by that famous member for Hull, Kermode,17 criticising the then disturbing influence of contemporary “histories of ideas” on literature and the use of forced classification, accepted that a combination of levity and seriousness in Marvell might be an admirable phrase, but to say that Marvell uses a “conjunctive-oppositional grammar” was more meaningful only to the writer, while to bracket Puritan-Platonist as another opposition was simply misleading. The criticised statement that “Marvell thinks in terms of a ‘nevertheless’ calculus” suggests that the literary appropriation of “integration and differentiation” was well-established by the time of the publication of Pale Fire. The neighbouring 615, “two tongues,” does cite “American and English.” 16

17

A. Marvell, The Poems and Letters of Andrew Marvell, ed. H. M. Margoliouth (Oxford: Clarendon, 1927). F. Kermode, “Marvell Transposed,” in Encounter, November 1966, p. 77. Ed. M. Lasky, and F. Kermode. Kermode questions the lack of a civil poetic on reviewing Marvell’s Ironic Vision by H. Toliver (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965). — 220 —

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But as we come closer to Marvell,18 we feel the intense heat of bygone summers, for Marvell wrote a quartet of verses on the Mower: “The Mower’s Song,” “The Mower against Gardens,” “The Mower to the Glo-Worms,” and “Damon the Mower.” Leaving aside the glow-worm and the Hamlet motif discussed in chapter 3, the first four stanzas of the poem on Damon, a mower classically recognized by his constancy, have a radiant overwhelming heat of nature mingled with desire for the shepherdess Juliana. Hark how the Mower Damon sung, With love of Juliana stung! While ev’ry thing did seem to paint 18

Marvell’s four Mower poems have a considerable diversity. In “The Mower against Gardens” he attacked the artificial life of courts and towns, their vain activity stirred by the love of glory. “He now rails at Man when living amidst Nature, he sets his mark on it, and at Nature so humanized. ’Tis all enforc’d; the Fountain and the Grot” (P. Legouis, Marvell, Poet, Puritan, Patriot [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965]), and he obliquely censured the presence of so many statues. “Nature …most plain and pure” contrasts with the physical result of cultivation. The most heinous charge of having “dealt between the Bark and Tree/Forbidden mixtures there to see” produces “uncertain and adulterate fruit,” making Marvell one of the first eco-warriors. On the other hand, in the age of the Romantic, over a century later, where less control was a prerequisite in an increasingly organised countryside, we have moved the natural purity to the untamed mountain and Shelley’s Mont Blanc. Shade himself wrote a poem on “Mon Blon,” but this romantic association does not appear pursued. The young Horace Walpole, on first sighting of the Alps on a Grand Tour with Thomas Gray, notes the earlier contemporary artistic leanings: “Precipices, mountains, torrents, wolves, rumblings—Salvator Rosa” (1615-1673). To quote Legouis on the earlier prevailing taste—“The poet’s indignation is roused less by the gardener’s art than by the desertion of ‘the sweet fields /Where to willing Nature does to all dispense/A wild and fragrant Innocence’. Marvell might have been pursued further for in Kinbote’s linguistic irrelevancies at 803, the choice is Latin, leading us to Corona in his cited triptych of words. Both Donne (La Corona) and Marvell (The Coronet) wrote on the theme but in a religious sense. These poems can be complicit with the line on the mountain/fountain misprint at 802 completed by “The majestic touch.” The final lines of Marvell’s “The Unfortunate Lover” end with its near Promethean wooer—



And he in story only rules, In a field sable, a lover gules.





—link us again to Hamlet (chapter 3), while the crow is associated with wisdom and “the field sable” but a more convincing association is required for the triptych’s unity. The final line is deployed in Nathaniel Hawthorn’s Scarlet Letter where an additional letter A symbolises adultery. — 221 —

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------  XV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The scene more fit for his complaint. Like her fair Eyes the day was fair But scorching like his am’rous care Sharp like his Scythe his Sorrow was, And wither’d like his Hopes the Grass. Oh what unusual Heats are here, Which thus our Sun-burn’d Meadows sear! The Grass-hopper its pipe gives o’er; And hamstring’d Frogs can dance no more. But in the brook the green Frog wades; And Grass-hoppers seek out the shades. Only the Snake, that kept within, Now glitters in its second skin. This heat the sun could never raise , Nor Dog-star so inflam’s the dayes. It from a higher Beauty grow’th, Which burns the Fields and Mower both: Which makes the Dog, and makes the Sun Hotter than his own Phaeton. Not July causeth these Extremes, But Juliana’s scorching beams. Tell me where I may pass the Fires Of the hot day, or hot desires. To what cool Cave shall I descend, Or to what gelid Fountain bend? Alas! I look for Ease in vain, When Remedies themselves complain. No moisture but my Tears do rest Nor cold but in her icy breast.

Both to Damon’s Juliana and to Marvell’s coy mistress, amid the levity and frustration, it is clear that the most fitting “rare wall fern” at 604 is the maidenhair spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes),19 19

Asplenium is a genus of about seven hundred species of ferns, treated as the only genus in the familyAspleniaciae, though other authors consider Hymenasplenium separate. The common name spleenwort was based on the belief that that the fern was useful — 222 —

-----------------------------------  Dramatic Poetry, Regicide, and Poetic Drama -----------------------------------

reflecting perhaps the tiresomeness and irritation of the untried but mixed with a charming human sympathy. There are, also, entanglements within the maidenhair of the Goethian doppelganger motif dicussed in chapter 13. But we turn to the anything but shade of Phaethon. 603 refers us to the natural poet, Edsel Ford20 (1928-1970), who spent much of his young life on his parent’s chicken farm in Arkansas. Whatever the reasons for the parental choice of christening with the name of Henry Ford’s son, Edsel, who succeeded to the presidency of the Motor Company from 1919 until 1943, there remains an unusually precise identification with the advent of the 1930’s Ford Phaethon, identified with 933 in chapter 11. Eliot, in one of his best-regarded essays,21 ended by noting of Andrew Marvell, “C’etait une belle âme, comme ne fait plus à Londres.” There is even a shade of Eliot’s Coriolanus in the work of the Mower, for faisent la haie has the connotation of keeping “the well ordered line.” We thus have a confirmatory allusion to the Ovidian tale of Phaethon and Nabokov’s contemporary parody of “the cracked earth …and the city over the mountains cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet air…” in part 5 of The Waste Land. On a final note on these lines, 605 again appears to confirm that John Shade has royal blood if we accept that there is no poetic licence. We turn to the last fifty lines of John Shade’s poem. Lines 957962 are covered in chapter 9 and we commence at 963-970. Here, we compare and dive rather painfully into “the confused surface” of Eliot’s pool of memory in the opening section of “Burnt Norton.”

John Shade

963 Gently the day has passed in a sustained

T.S. Eliot

To look down into the drained pool.

Low hum of harmony. The brain is drained Dry the pool, dry concrete, brown edged,

20

21

for ailments of the spleen, due to the spleen-shaped sori on the backs of the fronds. Resolution of the phylogeny of the group is uncertain. See L. Shepherd, B. Holland, and L. Perrie, Phylogenet. Evol. 48, no. 1 (2008):176-187. Edsel Ford won the Poetry Society of America’s top award in 1966 for “A Landscape for Dante,” setting the characters of The Inferno in a country town in the Ozark hills. Four years later he was dead from a brain tumour. T.S. Eliot, “Andrew Marvell,” Times Literary Supplement, March 31, 1921. See also Selected Essays 1917-1932 (London: Faber & Faber, 1932). — 223 —

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------  XV ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------And a brown ament, and the noun I meant And the pool was filled with water out of sunlight, consonne To use but did not , dry on the cement. And the lotos rose quietly, quietly, Maybe my sensual love for the consonne

The surface glittered out of heart of light

D’appui, Echo’s fey child, is based upon

And they were behind us, reflected in the pool.

A feeling of fantastically planned, Richly rhymed life.

Narcissus “to that clear shady pool to which no

shepherd ever came”22

The brown ament or fatuity would appear “the brown edged mirage” meant. The consonne d’appui, that supportive consonant, which echoes and is reflected in Echo’s hopeless love for Narcissus, is again reflected in that “clear shady pool” and cited here in contrast. Again, the missing allusion is concluded to be the lotos rose employed where verb or noun may elide. It seems almost certain that Eliot knew of a 1909 poem of that name by the American poet, Vachel Lindsay.23 This fresh, innocent, worldly yet unworldly poem with its hoped-for beneficial union of the lotos of the East with the Christian rose of the West now seems rather patronising and naïve but had not yet been overtaken by more tragic knowledge. Lindsay’s philosophy, however, could hardly be described as passive or close to that of Eliot’s monarchical, conservative, AngloCatholic position. In his short, two-part poem, “Concerning Emperors,” he pleads, rather more earnestly than Horace24 (chapter 13), “God send the Regicide.” Would that the lying rulers of the world Were brought to block for tyrannies abhorred. Would that the sword of Cromwell and the Lord, The sword of Joshua and Gideon, Hewed hip and thigh the hosts of Midian.

22 23

24

OM 3.370. Vachel Lindsay, 1879-1931, b. Springfield, Illinois. The poet’s naivety extended to his real sympathies for Afro-Americans, but in his poem, The Congo: A Study of the Negro Race, the opening section is entitled “Their Basic Savagery.” His good intentions were acknowledged where it could be argued that Belgian imperialism had created the conditions for the African violence, but this work has been described as “romantic racism.” Lindsay committed suicide at the age of fifty-two. See chapter 12, p. 127. — 224 —

-----------------------------------  Dramatic Poetry, Regicide, and Poetic Drama -----------------------------------

God send that ironside ere tomorrow’s sun; Let Gabriel and Michael with him ride. God send the Regicide.

In Lindsay’s poem25 “A Curse for Kings,” his wish in the opening quatrain is less fervent, ending “May he die in exile and black shame.” Thus, within these last fifty lines of John Shade’s final canto begins to fall the shadow of a regicide. If we pursue Marvell’s “An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland,”26 there is again the regal shadow. That thence the Royal actor borne The tragic scaffold might adorn: Whilst round the armèd bands Did clap their bloody hands.

Before going on to examine the last fifteen lines of John Shade’s poem in chapter 16, we pursue, rather lightly, the sound of “a woman’s dress rustle in days of yore” at 952-953. As there is a danger that half of literature is audible in such resonances, let alone Eliot’s in the tired phrase “after the skirts that trail along the floor,”27 we take the liberty of comparing the words of Pushkin’s “Confession”28 with those of Shade’s eulogy to Sybil, where there is an immediate metaphorical Cromwellian touch. The constraint to consider Pushkin is inspired by Nabokov’s image of the negro gardener at 999, which has been attributed to Pushkin’s drama Feast During the Plague,29 reviewed in chapter 16.30 949 And all the time, and all the time, my love, You too are there, beneath the word, above The syllable, to underscore and stress The vital rhythm. One heard a woman’s dress 25 26

27 28

29

30

The Collected Poems of Vachel Lindsay (New York: Macmillan, 1923). A. Marvell, The Poems and Letters of Andrew Marvell, ed. H. M. Margoliouth (Oxford: Clarendon, 1927) p.102. TSE, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” pp. 13-17. A. Pushkin, Confession (1826). In Russian there is an apparent dualism of meaning in that the same word is used for a declaration (of love) as well as for a confession. VN, perhaps unsurprisingly, deplored the translator’s handling of Eugene Onegin (1936). See EOVN 2:286-287. See chapter 16, n1, p. 176. — 225 —

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------  XV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rustle in days of yore. I’ve often caught The sound and sense of your approaching thought, And all in you is youth, and you make new, By quoting them, old things I made for you. Why, when your guileless girlish chatter Drifts from next door, your airy tread, Your rustling dress, my senses scatter And I completely lose my head. (trans. B. Deutsch)

There remain only the rather metaphysical lines from 970 onwards, which appear as those of Nabokov, before we enter the final fifteen lines of Canto Four in the next chapter. 970 I feel I understand Existence, or at least a minute part Of my existence, only through my art, In terms of combinational delight; And if my private universe scans right, So does the verse of galaxies divine Which I suspect is an iambic line.

If we take stock of the final fifty lines of John Shade’s Canto Four, the position would appear to be summarized by his four poetic titles (see chapter 10), indicating that he was master of the situation and in full recognition of the complicated relations that he held within the royal court at Onhava. His initial output points to the awareness of the corrupted bloodstock of the royal line and of the Shades. In his second book, the title offers more explicit pointers to the deadly intrigues and resultant blood lines within the royal court exemplified by the murderous Semiramis and by the shadow of Hamlet. In the case of the Shades, there is the darker shadow of Philomela. Detailed guides to the bloodstock relations within the royal court and within the Shade family are based not on the divine gift of prophecy projected by the boy/girl hermaphroditus/Tiresias, but by Tiresias’s modern parody, that empiric arch-purveyor of negative/neutral information and twisted words, Charles Kinbote, and by John Shade himself. John — 226 —

-----------------------------------  Dramatic Poetry, Regicide, and Poetic Drama -----------------------------------

Shade must know that he has been cuckolded from the construction of his poem at 433-438, but otherwise, the aspersions on Sybil’s behaviour are Kinbote’s and the shadow of Philomela indicates that she was not, primarily, to blame. In Shade’s current text, the detailed Latin quatrain yielding the presence of an adulterous web and its guides to the crossparentage appear those of Nabokov confronting his French parody of the backward-looking Eliot—and now, finally, we have the hint at 963970 of a regicide. Before we leave this chapter and the comments on Dryden, one may note his contemporary courtly play, Aureng-Zebe, involving the problems of succession, where the eponymous hero’s views on life are also severely tested amidst the incestuous frailties of family in a distant Eastern land.31 We quote from act 4, scene 1: When I consider life, ‘tis all a cheat, Yet fooled with hope, men favour the deceit, Trust on, and think tomorrow will repay. Tomorrow’s falser than the former day, Lies worse, and while it says we shall be blest With some new joys, cuts off what we possessed. 31

One of Dryden’s last plays (1675), it is loosely based on the then reigning fifth Moghul Emperor of India, Shah Jahan, and two of his sons, Aurangzab and his brother Murad Baksh (Morat). There are some similarities to the more gentle Zemblan court. Nourmahal is the lustful stepmother who has designs on Aureng-Zebe while his father has similar intrigues upon Aureng-Zebe’s love, the captive queen Indamora, who is faithful to him. The ambitious Morat has a gentle wife, Melesinda, who later commits suicide after Morat also pursues, unsuccessfully, Indamora. Even Aureng-zebe can have his doubts:







Ah, traitress! Ah, ingrate! Ah, faithless mind! Ah, sex, invented first to damn mankind! Nature took care to dress you up for sin: Adorned without, unfinished left within. Hence, by no judgment you your loves direct; Talk much, ne’er think, and still the wrong effect. So much self-love in your composures mixed That love to others still remains unfixed. Greatness and noise and show are your delight, Yet wise men love you in your own despite; And finding in their native wit no ease, Are forced to put your folly on to please. (4.2.100-111) — 227 —

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Strange couzenage! None would live past years again, Yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain.

We shall, briefly, revisit the penultimate line in chapter 16.

— 228 —

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XVI Germanitas and Les Germains

Logic is the art of going wrong with confidence. (Anon) We examine the case for the thousandth line from a detailed textual analysis of the final fifteen lines of Canto Four. These lines possess reasonable symmetry.

990

But its not bedtime yet. The sun attains Old Dr Sutton’s last two window panes. The man must be—what? Eighty? Eighty two? Was twice my age the year I married you Where are you? In the garden. I can see Part of your shadow near the shagbark tree Somewhere horse shoes are being tossed. Clink. Clunk. (Leaning against its lamppost like a drunk) A dark Vanessa with a crimson band Wheels in the low sun, settles on the sand And shows its ink-blue wingtips flecked with white. And through the flowing shade and ebbing light A man, unheedful of the butterfly— Some neighbour’s gardener, I guess—goes by Trundling an empty wheelbarrow up the lane.

The first four lines cover musings on the age of Dr Sutton and a reminiscence of John Shade’s marriage to Sybil in 1918/19 exhibiting the 14/15 years without issue of John Shade’s marriage. Within the last eight lines, f=our embrace the presence of the Red Admirable discussed in chapter 12. The general representation of le Vulcain representing cuckoldry and total gules in the form of the “horridly trick’d” bloodstock — 229 —

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------   XVI ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

of the Shades has moved to a more conditional harbinger reflecting the onset of John Shade’s doomed blood (chapter 10). The last three lines contain the strong gardening symbolism1 and lead to the unwritten final sentence. The second set is of interest in that the four lines continue an association with Sybil from the first, but the following couplet is unrelated. Horseshoes can create a background tone to the setting for the assassination, but the last bracketed line of the couplet is the most contrived line of the sixteen. We highlight the odd two lines above. If we constrain this couplet to classical associations, line 991 is reminiscent of Homer’s lines, Amid the Circle now each Champion stands And poizes high in Air his Iron Hands

referring to the donning of the gloves of death by Epeus and Euryalus in the funeral games commemorating the death of Patroclus.2 That night, the ghost of Patroclus appeared to Achilles. Again, we appear to have a ghostly association but with a Ninus, a father murdered by his wife. More consistently at the contextual level we have a Nisus, where Euryalus (chapter 7) is an adopted son. The adjacent associative, Nisus in the story of his daughter Scylla, reflects an effective case of parricide. The games with the iron gloves are also recorded in The Aeneid,3 where Dryden describes the gloves as “pond’rous engines” The latter’s description is said to have been Pope’s inspiration for the 1

PM, 131-132, suggests that the inspiration for Nabokov’s image of the negro gardener points to Pushkin. VN translated Pushkin’s drama, Feast During the Plague. The relevant passage is:



A cart passes laden with dead bodies. It is driven by a Negro LOUISA (regaining her senses) A dreadful demon appeared to me: all black with white eyes rolling, he beckons me into his cart where lay piled bodies of dead men who were lisping a horrible most unearthly tale.





2 3

Three Russian Poets: Selections from Pushkin, Lermontov and Tyutchev trans. Vladimir Nabokov 14-15 (1945). New York: New Directions. But see also chapter 10. Homer, The Iliad, trans. A. Pope, 23.792. VA 1.5.428ff. — 230 —

---------------------------------------------------   Germanitas and Les Germains  ---------------------------------------------------

pair of scissors in the Rape of the Lock,4 described as that “little engine on his finger” ends which cut the fatal ringlet. In the preceding line (990), the shade is of Sybil near the shagbark tree of the family Juglandaceae, derived from the Russian iugo, meaning “south” (chapter 1) but also, originally, to the context of Jugendlich (German—youthful). There is now a close context of association with the Latin iugo, meaning “with the bond of love.” It is unsurprising that Nabokov took strong exception to the suggestion of the French translators of Feu Pâle5 to change the species of the shagbark but to insist on the same hickory family. We come now to the thousandth lampost (992) after the nine hundred and ninety nine lamposts of Shelley’s image of a Shade (chapter 5). There is, again, a coincidence suggesting that its inspirational form may be Latin. Nitor is a deponent verb, “to lean upon,” passive in form but active in sense, having no present participle, and the past participle is nisus. If, therefore, we are forced to translate as “the lamp-post is leant upon,” we may write the line in some form utilising Nisus est. But we have not found it convincing to take this position further. The lampost in a Latin context is an anachronism, but there may be a Latin solution. If, on the other hand, we look for a post and a drunk, we should consider Henry V’s exhortation to his soldiers outside Harfleur6 and the reality of the boy’s comments on his companions, particularly on Nym: “a’ never broke any man’s head but his own, and that was against a post, when he was drunk.” Using, yet again, the Nabokovian code of adjacent references, the relevant lines of Henry’s exhortation are pertinent. Dishonour not your mothers: now attest That those whom you call’d fathers did beget you

A condition is required, therefore, that can be attested despite the mixed bloodstock of the Shades (chapter 12) defined as being …the total gules, horridly tricked 4 5 6

PAP vol. 2, The Rape of the Lock, 3.131n. VN, Feu Pâle, trans. R. Girard, and M-E. Coindreau (Paris: Gallimard, 1965). Henry V 3.2. — 231 —

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With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,

In view of the close “incestuous relationships within the royal court at Onhava, one attested condition can be met by half brothers, les demi-frères, or cousins. We focus now on the first two lines of the final stanza: But its not bedtime yet. The sun attains Old Dr Sutton’s last two window panes.

and consider Kinbote’s comment (367-370): Then-pen, again-explain. In speech, John Shade, as a good American, rhymed “again” with “pen” and not with “explain.” The adjacent position of these rhymes is curious.

The couplet endings have been previously explored throughout Pale Fire.7 A reference to The Waste Land is also noted, although in blank verse and not directly coupled: 71

“That corpse you planted last year in your garden, “Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year? “Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed? “O keep the dogs far hence, that’s friend to men, “Or with his nails he’ll dig it up again! “You! hypocrite lecteur!—mon semblable,—mon frère!”

We note in Kinbote’s statement that there is the suggestion that we should use a phonetic language association rather than spelling for the most perfect harmony in heroic or unheroic couplets. The emphasis by Nabokov on these concordant couplings periodically throughout Pale Fire suggests that there should be a solution beyond aesthetic coupling. The simplest solution is to appeal to symmetry within the last sixteen lines and to reflect on Dr Sutton’s panes (996) which the sun attains (995). This suggests that a reversal of these end couplings at 999/1000 gives the most likely end solution to line 1000, as -ain, -ain(s), aine 7

BBPF, 12:190-193 and n9. — 232 —

---------------------------------------------------   Germanitas and Les Germains  ---------------------------------------------------

(or, less accurately, -ene), if the singular or phonetically mute plural is deployed with “lane” at l.999. We do, of course rely on Kinbote’s representation as the all-seeing, hermaphrodite Tiresias (chapter 10), whose coded information indicates a line 1000. The gardening motifs are many, and we turn first to Kinbote’s Commentary to line 1000 for guidance found under ‘Waxwings’: Waxwings, birds of the genus, Bombycilla, 1-4, 131, 1000; Bombycilla shadei, 71; interesting association belatedly realized.

The first point of note is the omission of the waxwing reference to 181-182, and again we use Kinbote’s negative information to examine two filaments of the adulterous web arising from this reference, which we quote here: Lines 181-182: waxwings …cicadas The bird of lines 1-4 and 131 is again with us. It will reappear in the ultimate line of the poem; and another cicada, leaving its envelope behind, will sing triumphantly at lines 236-244.

Firstly, the presence of the gum-logged ant (240) led through Johnson and Bacon to the royal tomb of Ninus and to Sémiramis and through its association with the Alcmaeon (chapter 7), to the theme of matricide. This theme was further supported by the earlier play of the Ériphyle (chapter 7), the play adapted and written by Voltaire, the Savoyard moiré, some fifteen years earlier but withdrawn leading to the eventual birth of Sémiramis. The theme of moiré, literally “shimmering,” is the key to 131. The reflection in the general class of Erebia butterfly in the commonly classed name moiré was confirmed by the presence of the Erebia eriphyla, known as the the moiré savoyard (chapter 7). The second filament through Virgil’s Georgics at 181-182 leads to the story of Nisus and Scylla and to the theme of parricide (chapter 7). Again the negative information suggests that we are observing a correlated case of parricide in John Shade’s death. Kinbote’s final comment, “interesting association belatedly realized,” must refer to a dead John Shade. The most obvious conclusion — 233 —

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of interest arises from the observation that both father and son were murdered, the father, King Alfin, by his wife Blenda, and his son, John Shade, by his own natural son, Gradus. The impending assassination and the gardening motif are clearly related in Voltaire, where the evidence on the theme of assassination seems adequate in the final words of the eponymous hero, Candide, to the philosopher, Pangloss, and the old savant, Martin.8 “Les grandeurs, dit Pangloss sont fort dangereuses, selon le rapport de tous les philosophes: car enfin Églon, roi des Moabites, fut assassiné par Aod; Absalon fut pendu par les cheveux et percé de trois dards; le roi Nadab, fils de Jéreboam fut tué par Baasa; le roi Éla, par Zembri; Ochosias, par Jehu; Athalia, par Joiada; les rois, Joachim, Jéchonias, Sédécias, furent esclaves. Vous savez comment périrent Crésus, Astyage, Darius, Denys de Syracuse, Pyrrhus, Persée, Annibal, Jugurtha, Arioviste, César, Pompée, Néron, Othon, Vitellius, Domitien, Richard II d’Angleterre, Édouard II, Henry VI, Richard III, Marie Stuart, Charles Ier, les trois Henri de France, l’empereur Henry IV? Vous savez…” “Je sais aussi,” dit Candide, “qu’il faut cultiver notre jardin.”

There remains the reference at 71 to Bombycilla shadei, where Kinbote emphasizes the correct nomenclature of the appellation by emphasizing the replacement of the large capital-defining surname to the more adjectival (although the description suggests a Latin fifthdeclension genitive). His ornithological father, Samuel, had earlier recorded that the bird species had been named after him. If we remain at 131 and examine John Shade’s surrounding youthful personality, his unathletic posture is recorded at 127-130, while his intellectual one is given at 132-133. 127

8

…Then as now I walked at my own risk: whipped by the bough, Tripped by the stump. Asthmatic, lame and fat, I never bounced a ball or swung a bat. I was the shadow of the waxwing slain By feigned remoteness in the windowpane. I had a brain, five senses (one unique)

VCA 30.123-135 — 234 —

---------------------------------------------------   Germanitas and Les Germains  ---------------------------------------------------

But otherwise I was a cloutish freak. In sleeping dreams I played with other chaps But really envied nothing—save perhaps The miracle of a lemniscate left Upon wet sand by nonchalantly deft Bicycle tyres…

The character of the youthful John Shade appears one of naivety, ingenuousness, and guilelessness, but the French adjectival description of this is candide. We have observed the suggestions of the Latin candida in chapters 5 and 7 and in the le bombice du troene, the silkmoth of the privet, or better, in its Latin description, bombyx ligustri (chapter 10). If we perform a reverse operation on Kinbote’s adjacent comment references on the Bombycilla Shadei and change from a small to a capital letter, we arrive, at last, at Voltaire’s Candide. The gardening motif, above, is of course the famous last line of Candide8 at chapter 30. The royal court at Onhava was identified as a German court in a Slavic land in chapter 1. From the textual analysis using the Kinbote/ Tyresias motif, therefore, we are instructed to complete a 1000th line containing the confused blood relationships (Latin germanitas) of this German court, containing numerous half brothers, demi-frères, or cousins, with an ending in one of the given syllables -ain, -ain(s), or aine and found, almost certainly, within the work of Voltaire. The solution is given in chapter 3, where the mutilated slave’s famous allusion to life in the sugar refineries of Surinam is found in Candide in chapter 19, which we repeat here. Deprived of one hand (cut off when a finger was trapped by the millstone) and one leg (for an attempt at flight) by his Dutch master, M. Vanderdendur (Van-de-ladent-dure), the slave continues, “Les fétiches hollandais qui m’ont converti me disent tous les dimanches que nous sommes tous enfants d’Adam , blancs et noirs. Je ne suis pas généalogiste; mais, si ces precheurs disent vrai, 1000

Nous sommes tous cousins issus de Germains. Or vous m’avouerez qu’on ne peut pas en user avec ses parents d’un maniere plus horrible.”

— 235 —

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The thousandth line has led us to one best French solution to the identification of the final line of Canto Four, but we could also have pursued a Virgilian reference at 182, and there may be English and German solutions to the problems set by the Kinbotean Tiresias. These are left to the reader. The penultimate line of Dryden’s Aureng-zebe (p. 158) and his “strange couzenage” can be apposite. If one thinks of a butterfly, it may also be pertinent to quote Candide.9 Il est bon de tuer de temps de temps un amiral pour encourager les autres

Again we may note Nabokov’s attack on the retreat of Eliot’s passivity into Anglo-Catholicism with Voltaire’s mocking attack on the hypocrisy of the Dutch “fetishists” and one of considerable force with its eighteenth-century appeal to reason and light. A direct thrust at Eliot is given by Nabokov’s democratic views on cousins when compared with Eliot’s opening section of The Waste Land. 12 Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt deutsch. (Am not Russian at all, borne of Lithuania, pure German) And when we were children, staying at the Arch-Duke’s, My cousin’s he took me out on a sled, And I was frightened,

As commented earlier (chapter 10), to a Russian exile married to a Jewish wife, forced even further into exile from Europe and unable to obtain a toe-hold in the English establishment of the late 1930s, the acclamation of Eliot, who, even in the shelter of the Arch-Duke’s (and we may all stumble on the apostrophes) was unable to surmount his fear (yet we sympathize), must have seemed to Nabokov the height of pretentiousness. These lines of Eliot and the play on the San Greal into the Sang Real of the Arch-Dukes appear the inspiration for the setting of Pale Fire.

9

VCA, chap 23. This refers to the execution of Admiral Byng, court martialled for failure of action before the French fleet, which was besieging Port-Mahon in the isle of Minorca in 1756. Byng was executed aboard The Monarch in Portsmouth Harbour, 14 March, 1757. — 236 —

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XVII Deus in Machina

Water goats or hydraulic rams? (automated translation programme for engineeering text, National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C. 1965) In our introduction, we have attempted to ask ourselves three questions. Was the structure of Pale Fire, with its its various forms of association, linguistic, literal, and literary and with its various forms of word play, Nabokov’s contemporary attack on automated translation after his considerable labours translating Eugene Onegin? Was the book merely a challenge to his critics, or was there a more philosophical end in view on hidden contextual relations and on the contemporary position of literature as exemplified in the positions of Eliot and Pound? Nabokov’s reply to his critics has been considered in chapter 13, and we have noted the disguised grand sweep of his intention to evolve within a firm, readily identifiable, classical tradition through a number of authors. We have examined his contemporary attack on modernism as exemplified by the position of Eliot in chapters 9 and 10. We begin this final chapter with Nabokov’s technique at a textual level. We have observed Nabokov’s singular use of indirect references accenting association with adjacent texts (usually within the boundaries of a page, but where the reference itself may be oblique). There is the deployment of negative information as a source of positive identification through the medium of Kinbote’s Commentary. His use of Kinbote as a negative all-seeing Tiresias is an original way of introducing positive feedback. Kinbote holds the key to the thousandth line through negative information at 181-182. Even the neutral irrelevant comment containing no useful information indicates a stop sign. There is the deployment of — 237 —

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word play in the form of both Greek lettering and Roman numbering. The Greek has been used in capital form for direct transposition to Roman lettering as one guide to the opening letters of Eriphyla. There are reverse symmetries within the text. There is a reversal of symmetry in the final word couplet signalled obliquely thoughout the poem, but there is no direct reference to its use at line 999. There is even the suggestion of a reversal of the references for operating the change in capital letter within one given set of indicial references to the waxwing. In chapter 11, there are probabilistic syllabic metamorphoses within the text. At the linguistic level, important meaningful associations can only be achieved by transposition to a given language. The coded tela adultera, the key to unravelling the royal court at Onhava, is composed in Latin, and guides to the solution are based on close textual analysis. Old Zembla appears to contain the province of Stiria, with its Latin for icicle. The spider’s web apart from the Latin, tela, leads to the French toile and reversal to Eliot, who is the driving force for Nabokov’s more aggressive hidden parody on The Waste Land in 9 and 10, often considered a work much closer to modernism than the more exposed Four Quartets in John Shade’s poem. The mixed bloodstock of the Shades and the presence of the Red Admiral butterfly, the Vanessa atalanta, requires the French le Vulcain, to realise that John Shade is a cuckold and that Vulcan is the patron of cuckolds. The German das königliche Spiel, the literal game of kings, is the game of chess, and the language also gives the most direct silken reference to the waxwing in Seidenschwanz. Weak linguistic associations become stronger with further conditional probabilities of association. Word games are all very well but do not enter into profound meaning. The word plays are also given in considerable secrecy, but there is a case for first suggesting that Nabokov had a very serious intent, namely to attack the philosophy of the Cartesian position on language and to put a case against automated translation using the idiosyncratic methodology outlined. Such positions have a long history (see, for example, Rochon, Lettre d’un philosophe à un Cartésien de ses amis, where he reproaches the Cartésians for their dogmatism and their injustice with regard to Aristotelianism, summarised in a phrase that would appeal to Nabokov: “On fera l’anagramme Cartesius, — 238 —

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Sectarius.”1) The early occupation of that product of a rigid logical regime, Gradus, was as a manufacturer of Cartesian imps (171). All theories of grammar are universal, and it may be argued that Pale Fire was a contemporary attack on Noam Chomsky and those schools of thought that might wish to reduce the complexity and inference in language to simple universals. Chomsky’s “Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory”2 first appeared in 1955-56, in the same year as Nabokov’s poem on the Onegin translation referenced in chapter 1. To gain a perspective on this view, we quote from George Steiner’s After Babel,3 where Chomsky’s quotations are, themselves, taken from a critique of B. F. Skinner’s Verbal Behavior4 and Chomsky’s rejection of Behaviourism in the learning of language. No theory of mental life since that of Descartes and the seventeenth century grammarians of Port Royal has drawn more explicitly on a generalized and unified picture of innate human capacities, though Chomsky and Descartes mean very different things by “innateness.” Chomsky’s starting point was his rejection of behaviourism. No simple pattern of stimulus and mimetic response could account for the extreme rapidity and complexity of the way in which human beings acquire language.

The rapidity of learning and language by a child indicates that there are “innate capacities” or fundamental processes within the brain quite independent of “feedback from the environment.” “Each individual has somehow and in some form internalised a grammar from which his but also any other is generated.” Since, as it were, we are all children of the same DNA—“Differences between languages represent differences of “surface structure,” accidents of terrain which impress the eye but tell us scarcely anything of the underlying “deep structure.” Thus in contemporary language, we might regard these “deep structures” as 1 2 3

4

Malebranche, De la recherche de la Verité (Paris: J. Vrin, 1991),1:23. N. Chomsky, Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory (New York: Plenum Press, 1977). G. Steiner, After Babel : Aspects of Language and Translation (London: Oxford University Press, 1972), 99. B. F. Skinner, “Verbal Behaviour,” in Language 35 (1959). Reprinted in The Psychology of Language, Thought and Instruction, ed. J. P. De Cecco (New York, 1967). See 3 p. 99, n.1. — 239 —

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regions of neuronal networks where we operate on binary strings of data input to reinforce or annihilate through associative or cognitive mechanisms in a fairly unified structure. The relativist in language, exemplified by George Steiner, would argue that “fairly unified” contains a multitude of forms, that the relative uniqueness of the neuronal structure in different language expression is an open question, and that several dialects possess differences in basic grammatical expression. Also in more contemporary understanding, the local development of nerve growth factors contributing to the dynamic allocation of brain structure under repetitive stimuli gives weight to the potential development of local variations in performance. To examine Chomsky’s position further, the definition of “universal grammar” is taken directly from his own text.5 Let us define ‘universal grammar’ (UG) as the system of principles, conditions, and rules that are elements or properties of all human languages not merely by accident but by necessity—of course, I mean biological, not logical necessity. Thus UG can be taken as “expressing” the essence of human language.

UG will be invariant among humans. UG will specify what language learning must achieve, if it takes place successfully. Thus UG will be a specific component of Learning Theory (LT) [with humans (H) and language (L) defined more fully by LT(H,L)]. What is learned, the cognitive structure obtained, must have the properties of UG, though it will have other properties as well, accidental properties. Each human language will conform to UG; languages will differ in other, accidental properties. If we were to construct a language violating UG, we would find that it could not be learned by LT(H,L). That is, it would not be learnable under normal conditions of access and exposure to data. Possibly it could be learned by other faculties of mind. This invented language might be learned as a puzzle, or its grammar might be discovered by scientific enquiry over the course of generations with the intervention of individual genius, with explicit articulation of principles and careful 5

N. Chomsky, “On Cognitive Capacity,” chap. 1 of Reflections on Language (1975), p. 29. — 240 —

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experimentation. This would be possible if the language happened to fall within the bounds of the “science-forming” component of human cognitive capacity. But discovery of the grammar of this language would not be comparable to language learning just as enquiry into physics is qualitatively different from language learning.

“The UG will be invariant among humans” may be questioned from the position of response to repetitive stimuli. It is recognized that all brought up in extreme environments as with feral children are unable to develop communicative skills without exposure to normal intercourse. The environmental language programming and the response of organisational nerve growth factors to the environmental stimuli have the wrong inputs. Does the strong exposure to classical education authorised by most European schools until recent times ensure that, in a more modest way, the Virgilians outgun the Virginians in the understanding of classical riddles? Not so much in that a European has a direct logical understanding within a larger data bank of classical images, but that in the weak associative stimuli, the intersections of synapses produce a reinforcement of an image and develop a chance train of thought which is quite unexpected. We are all, to a considerable extent, children of our cultures, and hence the increased stimulus of exile, while at the same time, there is a certain brittleness to the depth of cultural understanding in alien surroundings. We should not be precluded from developing a computational programme based on weak associative linkages and some reinforcement model based on ordering or coincidental concepts. On the other hand, the scale of these concepts could become so wide that the limited human brain and its limited biases may be a more efficent communicator, at least to those of like persuasion. Chance favours the prepared mind. Accepting that a UG may exist, the complicating feature in language is ambiguity. Ambiguity in language and response together with secrecy emerged in society from the moment that Darwinian survival in a competitive and cooperative group proved the most resilient form of existence. Except in Utopian societies, therefore, ambiguity is a component of the languages of all such societies and secrecy is the alternative form to ambiguity. Nabokov could be claimed to have wished to challenge automated translation with a densely woven text — 241 —

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conforming to normal human interaction. Many of the conditions for secrecy and survival lie under dictatorial regimes and in the more human situations of adultery. The Sosed regime and the Zemblan royal court become essential elements for maximising ambiguity. If we return to Pale Fire as a detective story, on the other hand, it has a clear logical solution, albeit that a number of evolving logical solutions are present until the denouément of the last line. The fact that it is multivalued in terms of possible solutions until the final line—and it may be that alternative language solutions exist for the thousandth line—is, perhaps, Nabokov’s point. It is only within the detective story that the whole of the “structural data bank” is required before one can attempt to obtain a full understanding of the text. To parody oversimplified logic, therefore, the genre is a necessary form for extreme conditions for textual understanding. Nabokov does introduce us to the multiple difficulties of chance associations in Shade’s philosophical discussion with Kinbote (549). Shade “is on the side of the great snuff-takers: L’homme est né bon.” Kinbote: …But who is the Judge of life, and Designer of Death? Shade: Life is a great surprise. I do not see why death should not be an even greater one. Kinbote: Now I have caught you John; once we deny a Higher Intelligence that plans and administrates our individual hereafters we are bound to accept the unspeakably dreadful notion of Chance reaching into eternity. Consider the situation. Throughout eternity our poor ghosts are exposed to nameless vicissitudes. There is no appeal, no advice, no support, no protection, nothing. Poor Kinbote’s ghost, poor Shade’s shade, may have blundered, may have taken the wrong turn somewhere—oh, from sheer absent mindedness, or simply through ignorance of a trivial rule of the preposterous game of nature—if there be any rules. Shade: There are rules in chess problems: interdictions of dual solutions, for instance. Kinbote: I had in mind diabolical rules likely to be broken by the other party as soon as we come to understand them. That is why goetic — 242 —

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magic does not always work. The demons in their prismatic malice betray the agreement between thus and them, and we are again in the chaos of chance. Even if we temper Chance with Necessity and allow godless determinism, the mechanism of cause and effect, to provide our souls after death with the dubious solace of metastatistics, we still have to reckon with the individual mishap, the thousand and second highway accident of those scheduled for Independence Day in Hades… Shade: There is always a psychopompous around the corner isn’t there?

Is this discussion really about Life and Death or about Language?6 In the context of language, the elements of chance offer the prospect of unforeseen evolution. In the context of the time of publication of Pale Fire in 1962, we have commented in the Introduction on the early difficulties that translating computers were having in distinguishing water-goats from hydraulic rams in engineering texts. To the expert translator such an idiocy might prove the harbinger of a mechanical nightmare, and we have referred to Nabokov’s sensitivity in chapter 1. On the other hand, the pace of change in computation is likely to mean that the capacity of the machine will begin to outstrip the human brain’s operational capacity. Rather than necessarily being competitive, this may become symbiotic with miniaturization, gving increased operational capacity for personal survival by suitable implantation. But the elements of chance should not be eliminated, which can be seen as potentially evolutionarily innovative despite the patience of such an evolutionary process. We have to remove the negativity of Kinbote/Eliot. 6





G. Steiner, Extraterritorial: Papers on Literature and the Language Revolution (New York: Atheneum, 1971), 8. It would be by no means eccentric to read the major part of Nabokov’s work as a meditation on the nature of human language, on the enigmatic coexistence of different, linguistically generated world visions …The Gift, Lolita and Ada are tales of the complex erotic relations between speaker and speech, and more precisely laments …for Nabokov’s separation from the one true beloved, “my Russian language.” It is with two other masters of the language, Pushkin and Gogol …that Nabokov feels himself to be especially contemporary. (Quoted by PM, Thesis, n.45) — 243 —

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We end by suggesting that Nabokov may have wished to emphasize the incompatibility of poetic art with automated translation by deploying a satiric poem based on a syllabic and linguistic touchstone of memory in addition to the more obvious literal and literary associations. In information theoretic terms, he might be said to have maximized the entropy of each line in relation to the general current theme, where each associative conditional probability would lower the associated entropy and produce reinforcement at some critically low level. As Chomsky observed, this language might be learnt as a puzzle, and there remain a number of possible references in the poem that we have left untouched. If uncertainties remain, there appears a case for the current approach to Pale Fire. But we should not forget Nabokov’s detestation of Eliot. We began with a Martial epigram and it is pertinent to end with one, if slightly abridged.7 Qui legis Scyllas, quid nisi monstra legis?

quid te vana iuvant miserae ludibria chartae?

You that read of Scyllas, of what do you read but monstrosities? What good will Endymion the sleeper be to you or Hermaphroditus, who hates the amorous waters? What pleasure do you find in the empty falseness of a wretched page?

hoc lege, quod possit dicere vita “meum est” non hic Centauros, non Gorgonas, Harpyiasque invenies: hominem pagina nostra sapit. sed non vis, Mamurra, tuos cognoscere mores

Read this, of which life can say: “It’s mine” You won’t find Centaurs here or Gorgons or Harpies: my page smacks of humanity But you do not want to recognize your own behaviour, Mamurra

nec te scire: legas Aetia Callimachus

nor to know yourself: you should read the Origins of Callimachus

quid tibi dormitor proderit Endymion, aut qui odit amatrices Hermaphroditus aquas?

In Nabokov’s sweeping parody of The Waste Land, may we substitute Eliot for Mamurra?—And can Nabokov be Callimachus? 7

ME 2.4.327-328. — 244 —

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— 252 —

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Index

Abbott, J.S. on the position of Vulcan in advanced Roman society 44n8 Acht, Iris, mistress of Thurgus III 30, 43, 45, 48, 104 Adonis, cult of 162, 163n18 adultery, slain for 82 Aeneas 41, 73-80, 82, 91, 100, 179, 188, 192, 196 Aeneid 6n3, 74-6, 100-1, 179, 186, 192, 230 album, green 112, 172 Alcibiades 193 Alcmaeon 70, 97-9, 121, 186, 203, 233 Alembert, D’ 62n4, 63, 68 Alfin 26, 29, 42, 44, 46, 48, 63, 70-2, 74, 104-5, 121, 186-8,192,194-5,197, 199, 206-7, 209, 234 — his predilection for Latin 46 Amazonian chin 122, 126, 129, 168 ambiguity in language 241 Amphiaraus 70, 97-98, 186 — his wife Eriphyla and son Alcmaeon 70, 97-8, 186 — his oracular mind 97n19 — his filial pact 97n20 — as a chthonic seer 98n21 — his flight from the battle 97n21 Amphitheatricus, writer of fugitive poetry 187 Amphitrite, wife of Neptune 178 Anchises 74-75, 82, 179, 188, 194, 207 anchilulla (Latin) servant 189 — 253 —

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April — the Kinbote/Botkin sex-change on Fool’s day and the Tiresias motif 175 — the Tiresias motif as a New World transformation 175 — the cruellest month 175 — and the grand potato 89 — and the tuber’s eye 89n7 Aquitaine, Prince d’ 133, 135 ara (Latin) sanctuary 187 arachnea (Latin) spider 63 Arcady 73-4, 189, 197 Ariadne and her tangled hair 219 Aristotle, the Stagyrite — Poetics 7, 35, 57, 98, 202-3, 205 — The four combinatorial possibilities 36, 203 of action — the components and circumstances of Tragedy –knowledge and identity 36, 98-9, 203-4 — catharsis, purgation of the emotions and Gradus 194, 197 — ethos and plot 207 — Peripeteia - Reversal of the situation Nabokov’s parodies of peripetaia 206-7 the chalk outline of plot against beautiful 207 — colours Arsace, son of Sémiramis 67 Aubignac, Abbé d’ La Pratique du Théâtre 7 Autoneurynological Patterns and letter groups 21, 29n3 — the 25 letter interval -‘et ea terra ludo’ 23 — the 22 letter interval –‘tela’ and the adulterous web of sense 26 — King Alfin’s predilection for Latin 46 Bacchus 89n5, 90-91, 219 — see Virgil’s Georgics II 91 Bacon, Francis 56, 62, 216n10, 233 — Historia Vitae et Mortis 62n6, 63 Baudelaire, Charles. — La Vie antérieure 162 Beatrice 130-131 — 254 —

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Berard, Victor — Les Phéniciens et L’Odyssée 159, 162 Blenda, Queen of Zembla 29, 42-44, 46, 48, 70, 72-4, 104, 121, 136, 186-7, 192,195-7, 204, 206, 209, 234 bobolink 17-8, 70-1, 187 bodkin 40, 82-3, 88, 94, 167, 196 Boeotia, Tanagra and the Boeotian seer 97-8, 164 — the founding of the city of Thebes 165 Boileau 37, 87n2, 95n14 bombice du troëne (French) silkmoth of the privet 138, 235 bombycilla 19, 33, 233-5 — bombycilla shadei 6, 233-5 bombyx (Latin) silkworm 6, 19, 33, 121, 140 — ligustri (of the privet) 140, 235 Boscobel 83 Boswell, James, The Life of Samuel Johnson 61 bot (Anglo-Saxon) compensation for a murdered relative 41n6 bot —parasitic maggot of bot-fly 175 see silktail, Fijian Botkin, Vasily Petrovich, writer, critic, translator 12, 40n5 Botkin, Vseslav, Professor at New Wye 77n4, 174-6, 206 Boyd, Brian — Pale Fire 12n19, 19n24, 24n1n2, 28n3, 32n5, 41n6, 78n5n6, 83n9n10, 140n8, 174n5, 202n2, 232n7 — The American Years 19n25 — Nabokov’s Butterflies (with R. Pyle) 101n33, 139n4 Bretwit, Oswin 189 Browning, Robert xi, 111, 185, 201 Bishop Blougram’s Apology 107 — Mr Sludge, ‘The Medium’ 70, 105, 187 — My Last Duchess 43, 104, 105n4, 121 — Pippa Passes 72, 96, 105 — Red Cotton Nightcap Country 112 — Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister 105 — Sordello 111-2 — 255 —

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The Inn Album 107, 112-8 The Italian in England 103 The Ring and the Book 107, 112 Burgess, Anthony on translations 10 Byblos, Phoenicia and the cult of Adonis 159, 162-4, 168n30 Campbell, Walter 28-9 Candida, daughter of Judge Goldsmith 102 candida (Latin) white 903, 101-2, 142, 235 Candide see Voltaire candide (French) ingenuous, guileless, naive 235 Castelvetro 8 Catskin Week 62, see Massacre, The Great Cat Celje, Slovenia 13 Cerberus 77 chapman’s chance 118 Chapman’s death 190-1 — the arrival of a small planet 191 Chapman’s Homer 117, 190 Charles the Beloved (Charles Xavier Vseslav) 12, 38-9, 41-3, 45, 48, 73, 80, 105, 112, 136, 140, 143, 147, 175-6, 180, 190-1, 193, 195-6, 203, 208 — armorial bearings 140, 180 — relations to Charles Kinbote and Vseslav Botkin 174-5 Charles I 83-4 the Royal Game of Goose 84-5, 188 the Royal martyr 85, 188 Charles II 83, 195, 207 — escape after the battle of Worcester 83 — the Summer House at Boscobel 83 — panegyric by Thomas Flatman 83 Charleston, West Virginia 12, 187, 197 Charybdis 180 Chaucer 54-6, 57n15 Chomsky, Noam 239-240, 244 — Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory 239 — Reflections on Language 240n5 — 256 —

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— universal grammar 240 chthonic see Amphiaraus cicada 84-5, 89, 92-4, 233 Circe 102n36, 140n6, 180-1 Clarendon, History of the Rebellion 83 Claudius 41n6, 46, 187 Clytemnestra 36, 98, 203 Colwell, L.F.S., “Shelley’s Witch of Atlas and the Mythic Geography of the Nile” 65n10 Conmal 16, 29, 44, 49, 59 82, 85 his struggles with English 16, 44, 49 the author’s bedchamber 82 Copenhagen, “grey-blue” 180 Corneille, Pierre xii, 5-7, 8n10, 11, 33, 35-7, 40, 49-50, 63n8, 66, 68, 99, 185-197, 202-4, 211, 216-7 — Trois discourse sue le Poème Dramatique 7 — I Discours De L’Utilité Des Parties Du Poème Dramatique, Character categorisation and translation 7 — II Discours de la Tragédie 35, 99n26 the question of the hierarchy of Aristotelian values in tragedy, knowledge and identity 36-7, 40, 186n2, 204 — the need for close relationships and the proximity of blood, the extreme form of incest 36, 203 — III Discours Des Trois Unités D ‘Action, De Jour Et De Lieu Truth and action 50 — Cinna 36 — Héraclius 6, 36-7, 42, 46, 72-3, 82, 195, 197, 204, 207 — Le Cid or The Cid 36, 51 — Nicomède 36 — Othon 6, 234 — Rodogune 36 Cornelia, gens 6 Cornelian condition of tragedy 195 Cornwell, Noel xi, 172n2, 174n4 Coronach, Lord Ronald’s see Scott — 257 —

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cousin’s (Eliot) 236 cousins (les Germains) 46-7, 195, 232, 235 cuckoldry 43-4, 121-2, 129, 136, 139, 192, 227, 229, 238 Cumae 75, 197 Dante — Inferno 144, 160n7, 223n20 — Purgatorio 111, 130 — XXVI (Pyramus and Thisbe) 130 Deïphobe, daughter of Glaucus, the Cumaean Sibyl 181n16 Deiphobus, son of Priam 79 Dementia 73 Dendrocygninae, aix sponsa (wood duck) 18 Desdichado, El 133, 135 Diderot — Le Vrai Ami 62n4, 63 Dido 41, 78, 192 Dis 75, 76-9, 179, 194, see also Disa Disa, Queen 12, 38, 43, 48, 76, 78, 80-1, 112-3, 172, 175, 193, 206 — favourite trees 172 Dorians, inventors of Tragedy and Comedy 57, 205 Doric mode 57, 59, — sacred to Heroes and Worthies 57 — literary connotation 57 Doppelgänger motif 173-4, 176, 223 — Charles and Julius Steinmann 38 — Sybil Shade and Queen Disa 38 — Charles Kinbote/Botkin 77n4, 174-5 — Tiresias, throbbing between two lives 174 Dryden, John 83n8, 167n27, 168 — Mac Flecknoe 213 — The Medall. A Satyre against Sedition 213-4 — Aureng-zebe 227 — Of Dramatick Poesie, an Essay1668 215-6, 218 — his influence on The Waste Land 211-8

— 258 —

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Eliot, T.S. xii, xiii, 44, 132, 135-6, 142-3, 145, 147, 149, 150, 165, 175, 197, 211, 213-5, 217, 223-5, 237, 243-4 — The Waste Land 24-5, 65n10, 69n7, 89n7, 99, 121-3, 125, 130, 133, 148, 157, 159, 160, 162n15, 176, 197, 211-2, 223, 232, 236, 238, 244 — I The Burial of the Dead 89n7, 122n4, see April — II A Game of Chess 24n2, 123n4, 130, 149, 183n24, 219 — III The Fire Sermon 213 — IV Death by Water 160 — V What the Thunder Said 121, 122n2, 130, 133, 135, 147-8, 165, 166-7 — The Four Quartets 24n1, 148 — A Cooking Egg 165 — Coriolan 161 — The Hollow Men 124 — Sweeney Erect 218 — his Classicism, and Anglo-Catholicism 148 — his review of Ulysses 159, 162 — his view of Shelley’s Witch of Atlas 65n10 — Tiresias as the most important person in The Waste Land 146 — Ulysses, order and myth 159n2 Emmaus 147, 197 Erebia disa, the Arctic Ringlet 78, 88 Erebia embla, the Lapland Ringlet 78 Erebia eriphyle 88, 95, 98, 101, 121 Erebia euryale 88 Erebia ligea 101 Erebia styria, the Styrian Ringlet 15, 78, 88 Erebus 77-8 Eriphyla (Latin and English forms) 70, 97-8, 105, 186, 233, 238 Eriphyle (Greek and French forms) 29n3, 97 erle (German) alder 16 Euryalus 100-2, 197, 230 — 259 —

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éventail de soie 19n24, 137, 138-9 Exton 11, 187 — but X stands for Charles 12 Fénélon 171-2, 177-8 — Le Télémaque 171, 178 Ferdinand, Franz, Crown Prince of Austria 103-104 Ferdinand, Prince of Naples 146, 174 Ferney 67, 95 — filaments of the tela adultera 183 Fleur, the Countess de Fyler 29, 48, 72 Ford, Edsel, poet 219, 223 Franz-Joseph, Emperor of Austria 104 Frazer, J. — The Golden Bough 145, 159, 163 Furbank, P.N. — Diderot 62n4 Fux, Johann 32n5 Fyler, Countess de 38, 48, see Fleur Ganymede 153, 155, 156, 181-2 Germains 47, 195, 235 germanitas (Latin) the relationship between brothers and sisters 26, 46, 235 Geryon, the giant with three bodies 76, 131 Ginkgo Biloba (also Gingo, Gingko) 112-3, 173, 177 Glaucus, see also Scylla — (Latin adj.) blue-grey 6, 65n10, 180 — (Pontius), the Euboean merman 6 — his love for Scylla 6n3, 94, 180 his daughter Deïphobe, the Cumaean Sibyl 181n16 — — the sea God’s unerring prophecy 6n3, 181 — in Keats’s Endymion 178 — Lycian Glaucus 182 — a further Glaucus 6n3 Goethe, Johann Wolgang von 85 Ginkgo Biloba 173 — the doppelgänger motif 173 Goldsmith, Oliver — Description of an Author’s Bedchamber 85, 188 — The Deserted Village 84 — The Royal Game of Goose 84, 85, 188 — 260 —

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Goldsworth, Judge 45, 102 Goldsworth, Candida see Candida Goose, The Royal Game of, see Goldsmith Gordon, a Narcissus 76 Gradus alias Degré xii, 5-6, 12, 26, 32, 37-9, 45, 48, 59, 62, 73-4, 76-8, 81-2, 84, 87, 91, 94, 107, 119, 143, 145, 174, 180, 183, 186, 190-2, 194-7, 199, 202-4, 206-8, 234, 239 — pseudonyms, other 5, 11 — as a Heraclius or Martian-like figure 46 — his classical travel to the modern halls of Dis and the crossing of the Mare Atlanticum 194 — as clockwork man 195 — his catharsis 194, 197 Gradus ad Parnassum, Phrasium Poeticarum — Thesaurus (1686) 32, see also Fux, Johann. A treatise on counterpoint (1725) Gradus, Martin 45 Grey, Jack 45, 106, 143, 196-7 Gules, total 41, 192-3, 208, 229, 231 Gusev, Duke of Rahl 29, 42-3, 46, 48, 121, 136, 186-7, 191-2, 194-7, 199, 203, 206 — a Claudius figure 187 gwr-wreic (Welsh mediaeval) hare 157 gwraig (female) 157 gwryw (male) 157 Harfleur 231 Harmonia 97n19, 130, 215 Harundo (Latin) reed 18 harvalda 136 Heinsius 8 Heraclius 6, 36, 42, 46, 72-3, 192, 195, 197, 204, 207 Hercules 56n14, 57, 76, 125, 142, 156 — 261 —

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Hermaphrodite pointers see also Seers — a mediaeval view on the Hare 156-7 — the winged form in The Witch of Atlas 65, 181 — Papilio Glaucus (a swallowtail) 182 — Glaucus Atlanticus (a sea slug) 182 — Calycanthus floridus glaucus (a flower) 182 — Kinbote/Botkin 176 — The boy/girl motif in As You Like It 155-6 — Tiresias 146 Hesse, Herman — Blick ins Chaos 142 Hevelius — Selenographia sive Lunae descriptio 171 Hieronimo 148, 157 Hierapolis — male and female hair rituals 168 Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons 125, 129 Homeric shades aound Phoenicia Byblos and Tyre 164 Horace 7, 118-9 — translation of Aristotle’s ‘la colère’ 7-8, 11 — Ars Poetica 7-8, 21, 113-4, 208n14 — the test of a close-cut nail 114 — the unathleticism of the poet 114 — Ho, for a regicide 182 ici ( Latin 1st p.sing. past tense of icio) ‘I struck a bargain’ 145 IM (Roman numerals) 64 incest 29, 37-8, 40, 46, 62, 122, 153, 207 Indies of Calculus 219 IPH (Greek capitals) 96 Iph 96-7 Iphigenia 36, 186n2, 203 iridule or ringlet 15 Isis 159, 163 Itys 122 Jove 80, 88, 91, 129, 146, 153, 156, 164-5, 167 — 262 —

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Juglandaceae 16, 112, 177, 231 — shagbark 16, 112-3, 172, 177, 229, 231 Jugo (Russian) south 16, 112 — iugosus (Latin) mountainous 16 — iugo (Latin) with the bond of love 16, 231 Juno 146 Karamazov, Dmitri 142-3, 197 Keats, J. 178 — Endymion (Glaucus in Canto III) 178 Kinbote, Charles 12, 14-16, 18-9, 26-7, 32, 33, 38-41, 43-5, 46, 51, 58-9, 65n10, 70, 73, 77n4, 81-2, 84, 87, 99, 104, 110, 112-3, 118, 119, 136, 143, 145-6, 147, 150-1, 161, 171-2, 174-6, 182-3, 186-97, 199, 202-8, 221n18, 226, 232-3, 234, 237, 242-3 — the most important personage in Pale Fire 147 — as a Tiresian parody 174, 176 — his comment on the Bard 150 — his apparent bisexuality 58, 65n10, 146, 193 — his symbolising the role of critic 196 — his better half as Russian 175 kinbote (Zemblan) regicide 175 Kingbot, Charles X. 12, 112, 172, 175 Kipling, Rudyard — The Rhyme of the Three Sealers 82 königliche spiel, das (German) the game of kings or chess 33, 150, 238 königsmord (German) regicide 17 Kyd. T. — Spanish Tragedy 148 La Fontaine — Contes 10 — La Cigale et la Fourmi 62 — 263 —

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Langrenus, Riccioli 171 Latium 179 Lavender, Joseph 74, 76, 191 Leishman, Blair — Themes and Variations in Shakespeare’s Sonnets 68n16 Lex (Latin) a set form of words 74 Libitina, Roman Goddess of the dead 74 Ligea 101 Lindsay, Vachel — The Lotos Rose 224 — A Curse for Kings 225 — Concerning Emperors 224 Line 1000 150, 232-3 Luccan Tower, the fatal key 153, also see Dante Lucian — De Dea Syria 162, 168n30 Lukin, Caroline 42, 44, 46, 48 Lumières 62 Lycoris 141-2 Maidenhair spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes) 222-3 Malebranche — Recherche de la Verité 171, 239n1 Mallarmé 19n24, 140 Marat 123-4 Marburg, Hesse 168 Marburg, S. Styria 13-4, 168 Mare Atlanticum 81, 194 Maribor, Slovenia 13, see Marburg Marlowe, Christopher — Hero and Leander 153-5 — Shakespeare’s tribute 155 Mars 44, 88, 101n34, 122, 129-30, 153, 215 Martial 33, 141-2, 244 Martian 37, 46, 73, 82, 143, 192, 195, 197, 207 Marvell, Andrew 211, 219, 223 — To his coy mistress 122n4, 220, 222 — The Mower’s Song 221 — 264 —

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— The Mower against Gardens 221 — The Mower to the Glo-Worms 221 — Damon the Mower 221-2 — Horatian Ode on Cromwell’s Return from Ireland 225 Massacre, The Great Cat 62 Matricide 70, 99, 121, 203, 233 — Charles and Blenda 70, 99 — Eriphyle and Alcmaeon 70n19, 99, 233, see Voltaire — Sémiramis and Arsace 233 Maud, Aunt 17, 116, 181, 190 Medea 36, 113, 203 merman azure 140, 180, also see Glaucus Meyer, Priscilla — What the Sailor has Hidden only found in bibliography Milton, John 54, 82, 181, 217 — Comus 181 Mimidae (mocking birds) — mimus polyglottos 18 — dumetella carolinensis 18 — a suitably mocking call 147 Minos 6n3, 92-3 mock heroic 87, 181 moiré (French) shimmered 94, 233 — Savoyard 95, 102, 233 morus (Latin) mulberry tree 69 mulberry bush and Ninus’s Tomb 69, 121, 124-5, 183 Nabokov, Vladimir xii, 7, 9, 25-6, 29-30, 32, 42, 45, 59-60, 65n10, 77n4, 87, 89, 139, 140, 147, 149-50, 157, 159, 161n10, 162, 165, 167-8, 174, 176, 185-6, 202-4, 211, 223, 226-7, 230n1, 231, 236-9, 241-4 — 265 —

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— Ador or Ardor 5 — Pale Fire 1-3, 13, 26, 35, 38-9, 41n6, 60n18, 61, 112, 138, 149, 211, 220, 242-3 — Pnin 13 — The Real Life of Sebastian Knight 168n31, 169 — translation, exact/literal 9-11, 32, 72, 202-3 — Eugene Onegin xii, 9, 225n29, 237 — Feast During the Plague 225, 230n1 — his classicism in Pale Fire 202, 237 — Eliot’s view on cousin 236 — his Aristotelian position on Tragedy 59, 186, 202, 204 — his manipulative technique as a textual parody 237 narstran, a hellish hall 80 negro gardener 15, 145, 225 Neptune 88, 178-9 Nerval, Gérald de (Labrunie, G.) 133, 135, 140 — El Desdichado 133, 135n1, 136n2 — Les Papillons 136 New Wye 11, 44, 81-2, 113, 145, 194, 197, 202 New York 11, 81, 91, 197 — the lowest region of hell 197 Ninus 67, 187, 230, 233 Ninus’s Tomb 67, 69, 121, 124, 125, 183 Nisus and Scylla 87, 92-3, 99, 102, 179, 181, 233 Nisus and Euryalus 100-2, 230 O’Donnell, Sylvia née O’Connell 29, 38, 42, 48, 76 Odyssies, satiric and otherwise — Aeneas to the halls of Dis and to the shade of his father, Anchises 74 — Telemachus, the son of Ulysses, to the shade of his father 172 — the death by water predicted by Tiresias for Ulysses 160 — Nabokov to the gates of Ithaca 89 — Panurge and Pantagruel to the oracle of La Dive Bouteille 90 — Kinbote and Gradus to the New World 74, 87 — 266 —

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Oedipus 36, 203, 207 ombrioles 76 — the Shakespearean shadow of Sémiramis 76n2 Onhava, Zembla 11-2, 14-6, 29, 35, 41-2, 44, 46, 48-9, 68, 73, 83, 85, 87, 88, 100, 103-4, 107, 130, 135, 145, 190, 191, 203, 207, 215, 226, 232, 235, 238 Ophelia 45 Orestes 36, 98, 186n2, 203 Orpheus 75-6, 78, 152, 183 Ovid — Metamorphoses 68, 164-5 — II Phaethon 165, 167, 211 Europa 164n20, 167 — III Cadmus 164n21 Acis and Galatea 140n9 Tiresias 175-6 — Narcissus and Echo 224 — IV Pyramus and Thisbe 68-9 Salmacis and Hermaphroditus 176 — VI Philomela 121-2, 152 — VIII Scylla and Nisus 92, 99, 233 Scylla and Minos 92 — X Orpheus and Eurydice 183 — XIII Glaucus and Scylla 6n3, 96, 180 Pacius 8 Pale, Sarajevo 104 Palermo 11 Pandulph 108-9 Pan-Slavic nationalism 14 parricide 46, 195, 203 — Martian and Phocas (Héraclius) 37-8, 73 — Nisus and Scylla 93, 99, 230, 233 — Smerdyakov and father Karamazov 143, 197 — Gradus and John Shade 73, 143, 190, 207, 233-4 paternity — Alfin as a natural father of John Shade 70-1, 104, 187-8, 194 — Gradus as a natural son of John Shade 143, 204, 234 — 267 —

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— Charles II as a natural son of Gusev, Duke of Rahl 186, 195, 203 — Hazel Shade as a natural daughter of the Duke of Payn and Mone 105, 122 — Phaethon as the son of Jove 165 Payn and Mone, Duke of 43, 48, 121, 122, 132, 136, 174, 192, 197, 206 Pervigilium Veneris 132 Phaethon, a four-cylinder 40-h.p. Ford car 1 67 Philomela 24n2, 44, 102n36, 121, 122, 130, 132, 149, 152, 218-9, 226-7 Phocas 37, 82 phocas ( Latin acc.) seals or seal-calves 82 Phrynia 193 Pius X 190 Pliny 98n21, 141, 157 Polonius 45 Pound, Ezra 160, 212, 214, 237 Pope, Alexander 56-8, 83, 92, 103, 161-2, 202, 230 — defence of allegory 49, 54, 87 — Transgressions of the Unities 51 — Essay on Criticism 185n1, 201 — Essay on Man 51, 161n10 — Imitations of Horace II 216 — The Rape of the Lock 24n2, 82-3, 87-8, 96, 149, 167n26, 173, 181 — the two ringlets 88, 96-8 — The Dunciad 49, 51-3, 58 — comment on publication 52-3 — The Temple of Fame 49n1, 51, 53, 55, 56n14 — indebtedness to Milton 54 — indebtedness to Chaucer 54-6 — contemporary references to Nova Zembla 53n11 — his translation of the Odyssey 161 Pollux 75 Princip, Gavrilo 103 Procne 44, 122, 152 Prussian (blue or grey) 95 Prussien, Le see Voltaire — 268 —

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Purple Hairstreak, Quercusia quercus 101, 138, 183 Pushkin — Eugene Onegin xii, 9, 225n29, 237 — Feast during the Plague 225, 230n1 — Confession 225 Pyramus and Thisbe 68-9, 121, 125, 130-2, 151 Pyrrhus 41, 234 Quatrain 31-2, 112, 140, 172, 176, 225, 227 Rabelais, François — Les Grandes et Inestimables Chroniques du grand et énormé géant Gargantua 90 — Pantagruel 87, 90, 96 Ramist philosophy 62 Red Admiral 136, 138-9, 238, see Le Vulcain Reichstadt agreement 14 Relationships, blood 38, 58, 62, 66, 82, 94, 130, 135-6, 186, 194-5, 199, 235 — Sybil Shade and Queen Disa 38 — Julius Steinmann and Charles the Beloved 38 see trees, genealogical 48, 199 Ringlet see Erebia family of butterfly 94 — of Belinda’s hair 88, 168 Robortel 8 Sacrifices — Aeneas 76-7 — four dark-backed heifers (Hecate) — a black-fleeced lamb (Night and her sister, Terra, daughters of Chaos) — a barren heifer (Proserpine) — whole carcasses of bulls (Pluto) — Gradus 77 — satire as a sort of glass see Swift St. Augustine 122n4, 193 salmon sky in Arcady 189 — 269 —

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Salmoneus 80-1, 91 sampel (Zemblan) silktail see Fijian varietal San Greal/Sang Real 146, 148, 236 Sarajevo 103, 104 Savoyard, moiré 95, 102, 233 Schratt, Katherina 104 Scott, Sir Walter 28n3 — Lord Ronald’s Coronach in Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border 28n3 — The Lady of the Lake 28n3, 29n3 — supernatural balladry and the Sturm and Drang school of German poets 28n3 Scylla — and Glaucus 94, 96, 102n36, 171, 178, 180, 181, 196 — and Minos 92-3 — and Nisus 87, 92-3, 99, 102, 179, 181, 210, 233 Seers — Amphiaraus (Boeotian) 70, 98 — Glaucus, the sea-god 6n3, 65n10 — his daughter, the dreaded Cumaean Sibyl 181n16 — Kinbote, Charles 233, 237 — Tiresias (Theban) 165, 174, 98n21 Seer sucker 183 seidenschwanz (German) silktail 19n24, 139, 140n6 Sémiramis 29n3, 66-70, 76n3, 99, 102, 125, 141, 151, 187, 226, 233, see Voltaire Shakespeare restored 53, see Voltaire — Hamlet Restored 59, 205, see Pope Shade, Caroline 18, 42, 188, 192, 197 Shade, Hazel 18, 21, 24, 26-7, 28-9n3, 32, 38, 43-5, 48, 62, 122, 130, 136, 148, 192, 206, 209, 219 Shade, John xi, 15-6, 18-9, 24n2, 29, 32-3, 38, 43-6, 48, 59, 62-3, 69, 71-3, 85, 104, 109, 110, 113, — 270 —

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121-2, 124, 136, 139, 143, 146, 147, 161, 175, 186-7, 99, 204, 206, 207, 209, 211, 223, 226-7, 229, 232-5, 238, 242-3 — Art from Night Rote 77, 150-1 — Night Rote – a Midsummer night rote and the Pyramus and Thisbe motif 151 — Dim Gulf – a swallowing gulf and the corrupted stock of the Royal line 151-2 — Hebe’s Cup 112, 150, 153, 172 — On Marlowe’s Leander (‘a maid in man’s attire’) by the boy/girl Rosalind 155 — Pale Fire see text — Canto II three singular words 148 — Canto IV 19, 51, 123, 187, 226, 229 — As a rightful Charles I 84-5 Shade, Samuel 43-4, 48, 192 Shade, Sybil née Irondell 33, 38, 42-4, 46, 122, 130, 132, 139, 149, 175, 191, 197, 206, 211, 218-9, 225, 227, 229, 230-1 — her promiscuity 218 — her forcible seduction 218 — her description of Kinbote 175 Shades — the mixed bloodstock 135, 139, 152, 226, 229-30, 231, 238 Shadows organisation 73, 172, 206 Shagbark 16, 112-3, 172, 177, 229, 231 Shakespeare, W.H. 12n18, 49, 52-3, 58-9, 63, 66-8, 70n19, 71, 107, 108, 150-1, 155, 168, 174, 185 — As You Like It 155, 156n24 — Coriolanus 121-2, 126-30, 144 — Hamlet 12n18, 40-2, 45-6, 53, 59, 66, 68n14, 111, 148, 157, 175, 192, 205, 221, 226 — 271 —

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— Henry V 231 — King John 108-9 — Midsummer Night’s Dream 39, 68, 125 — Othello 33 — Richard III 152 — Romeo and Juliet 39-40, 68 — The Comedy of Errors 59, 174, 205 — The Taming of the Shrew 76n3 — The Tempest 39, 112 — The Winter’s Tale 50 — Timon of Athens 3-4, 39, 192, 193n8 — The Rape of Lucrece 151 — The Sonnets 39-40, 68, 156 — influence of Ovid’s Metamorphoses 68 Shakespearean Rag 183 63, 64n9, 103, 185, 221n18, 231 Shelley, Percy Bysshe — The Witch of Atlas 64 — and Hermaphroditus 65n10, 181 Sibyl, the Cumaean 75-7, 79, 181n16 see also Glaucus silktail 19, see éventail de soie silktail, Fijian, the Monarch bot-flycatcher see Kinbote 122, see also Swift 77n4 Skinner, B.F. — Verbal Behaviour 239 Slav nationalism 16 Slave (French) Slav 16 solus rex 33, 113, 185 Southampton, Earl of 151, 156 Sosyed (Russian) neighbour 32n4 space time as a modern continuum 85 Spenser, Edmund 122 — The Fairie Queene 181 Starover Blue, College astronomer 83-5 Steiner, George — After Babel 239 — Extraterritorial Papers on Literature and the Language Revolution 243n6 Steinmann, Julius 38-9, 42, 45, 136, 173, 176, 191, 195 steinmann (Zemblan) heap of stones 173 — 272 —

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stillicidium 15 Stiria 15-6, 103, 238 see Styria stiria (Latin) icicle 15, 238 Styria 13-15, 168 Sulla, gens Cornelia 6 Sutton, Dr. 146, 229, 232 see also Weston. (Norton is unfortunately Burnt). Try Exton Swift, Jonathan 122n4 — “The Battle of the Books” 77n4 Styx 77, 81, 194, 197 Swallow motif 59, 121-2, 132, 152 Sylla see Sulla 6 symmetry and heroic couplets 232, 238 Tanagra 92, 97 — people’s view on the site of Harma 97n21 Tartarus 79-80 Taylor, A.J.P. — The Hapsburg Administratio 13, 14 tela (Latin f.sing) a web 23 tela (Latin n.plural) daggers 23 tela adultera and the web of sense 24, 27, 32-3, 59, 121, 130, 157, 183, 238 Tereus 24n2, 122, 132, 152 Theobald, Lewis, Popian critic 53 Theseus 82, 125, 219 Thurgus III 29, 43-5, 48, 104, 192 Timandra 193 Tiresias 65n10 156, 160, 164-5, 174-6, 181, 193, 196, 226, 233, 236-7 — the Theban seer 98n21, 99n27, 161n10 — Kinbote as a parody of 77n4, 99, 146 150, 175, 187 the doppelgänger motif 174, see Goethe Tisiphone 80 toile d’araignée (French) the spider’s web 24 toile d’Eliot 24, 130, 238 toy, clockwork, the negro gardener 143, 145, 197, 225, 230n1 — 273 —

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— the near fatal key 15, 44, 145, 153 see also Luccan tower trans-parency –cross-parentage 157 Tsar Alexander II (assassinated 1881) and the butterfly of doom 139 Tselovalnikov 45, 48, 197 tree — genealogical, Royal House of Onhava 35, 185 turdus aonalaschkae palasii (hermit thrush) 148 turdus migratorius (Robin) 148 Turkish oppression and the Balkans 14 Upanishad 143n17, 148 Van Doren, Mark 212-3, 215n9, 217n12 Vanessa atalanta, the Red Admiral 43, 137, 139, 140n6 — six Index references 191 — association with the Shades and the theme of cuckoldry 122, 139, 192, 238 — the blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, horridly tricked 192, 231-2, see le Vulcain Venus 44, 76n3, 130, 163 verändern, aussehen (German), to look different 17 Verlaine 140 Virgil 52, 74, 77, 82, 111, 130-1, 185, 233, 236 — Aeneid V 100, 179, VI 74-7, IX 100-1 — Ciris 92-3, — Georgics I 91n8n9, 92-4 II 89n5 III 6n3 IV 101, 179 Virgilians and Virginians and classical education 241 Victorius 8 Voltaire 185 — Le Progressif 95 — Le Prussien 95 — Candide 46, 102 195, 234-6 — the gardening motif 234 — Ériphyle 29n3, 70n19, 99, 102, 121, 233 — Sémiramis 29n3, 66-70, 76n3, 99, 102, 121, 125, 151, 187, 226, 233 — 274 —

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— Dissertation sur la Tragédie Ancienne Et Moderne addressed to Cardinal Quirini, Venetian noble and Bishop of Brescia 66n12 — description of Hamlet and French manners 29n3, 66-7 — his distaste of the supernatural 29n3, 70n19 — letters from Ferney and elsewhere 67-8 — on assassination 234 — on the execution of Admiral Byng 236n9 Vulcain, le (Vanessa atalanta) 44, 122, 137-9, 229, 238 Vulcan, the special patron of cuckolds 44, 101n34, 122, 139, 238 Warton Thomas, writer 57n15 waxwing 19n24, 33, 84-5, 89, 114, 139, 140, 180, 233-4, 238, see silktail Webster — The White Devil 144 Weston, Jessie L. 146-8 — From Ritual to Romance 145, 163, see also Sutton White, Toothwort 12 Wilson, Edmund 149 Wordsmith — College 100 — Campus 114, 121 — University 100 Wordsworth, William 100-1, 191 — The Butterfly 100-1, 191 Ysgyfarnog (Welsh) hare

157

Zembla xi, 7, 11, 12, 15, 17, 19, 26, 53-4,58,62,66,78-80, 82, 83, 85, 88, 94, 103, 108, 129, 136, 136, 139, 140, 142, 143, 148, 150, 160, 168, 174, 176, 187, 202, 207, 208, 238, 242 Zembla, Nova 51, 53, 55, 58

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