Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0025438, Thu, 5 Jun 2014 09:16:49 +0300

Subject
Michman Tobakoff, Monsieur Violette, Pedro in Ada
Date
Body
'When michman Tobakoff himself got shipwrecked off Gavaille, he swam around comfortably for hours, frightening away sharks with snatches of old songs and that sort of thing, until a fishing boat rescued him - one of those miracles that require a minimum of cooperation from all concerned, I imagine.' (3.5)

Marrietovy michmany ("Marryat's Midshipmen," 1923) is a poem by Bryusov. A character in Hodasevich's fragment Iz neokonchennoy povesti ("From the Unfinished Tale," published in Vozrozhdenie, April 14, 1931), the famous writer, a compulsive smoker who smells of tobacco, is a recognizable portrait of Bryusov:

Табаком и старьём от писателя пахло по двум причинам. Табаком - потому что в день выкуривал он пятьдесят толстых папирос, "пушек", изготовлявшихся по особому заказу из крепчайшего табаку и необходимых ему при всех умственных отправлениях. Без папирос понимал он, и то с трудом, самые только простые вещи: это вот - книга, это - ковёр, а это - моя нога.

Frederick Marryat (1792-1848) is the author of Mr Midshipman Easy (1838), the novel translated to Russian as Michman Tikhonya, and Monsieur Violet (1843). The latter story brings to mind Monsieur Violette of Lyon and Ladore:

Marina, in a luxurious peignoir, with a large oval mirror hinged before her, sat at a white toilet table that had been carried out onto the lawn where she was having her hair dressed by senile but still wonderworking Monsieur Violette of Lyon and Ladore, an unusual outdoor activity which she explained and excused by the fact of her grandmother's having also liked qu'on la coiffe au grand air so as to forestall the zephyrs (as a duelist steadies his hand by walking about with a poker).
'That's our best performer,' she said, indicating Van to Violette who mistook him for Pedro and bowed with un air entendu. (1.40)

In "Bryusov" (1924), a memoir essay included in Necropolis (1939), Hodasevich mentions a hairdresser's visited by Bryusov between the railway station where he saw off his former mistress, Nina Petrovski (Renata of Bryusov's novel "The Fiery Angel," 1907, and of Hodasevich's memoir essay "The End of Renata," 1928, the opening one in Necropolis), leaving Russia forever and his mother's nameday party:

Домашний, уютный, добродушнейший Валерий Яковлевич, только что, между вокзалом и именинами, постригшийся, слегка пахнущий вежеталем, озарённый мягким блеском свечей, - сказал мне, с улыбкой заглядывая в глаза:
- Вот, при каких различных обстоятельствах мы нынче встречаемся!

The name Petrovski comes from Peter. In a letter to Hodasevich Nina Petrovski who reverted to Roman Catholicism mentions San-Pietro ("End of Renata"). Marina's lover Pedro is a Latin actor. The action in Hodasevich's story Zagovorshchiki ("The Plotters," 1915) takes place in a fictitious South American country. The story's main character, Julio (the traitor), is another portrait of Bryusov.

Nina Petrovski is a namesake of Ninon de Lenclos (1620?-1705), a courtesan and wit. In a letter of October 30, 1833, from Boldino to his wife in St. Petersburg Pushkin praises Natalia Nikolaevna for having her hair dressed a la Ninon:

Мочи нет, хочется мне увидать тебя причёсанную a la Ninon; ты должна быть чудо как мила. Как ты прежде об этой старой курве не подумала и не переняла у ней её причёску?
I can't wait to see your hair dressed a la Ninon; you must look marvelously pretty. Why haven't you thought of that old whore and copied her hair-do before?

It was Pushkin who "carried an iron club to strengthen and steady his pistol hand in view of a duel he intended to have with Fyodor Tolstoy [Count Tolstoy the American] at the first opportunity." (EO Commentary, vol. II, p. 458) "Oddly enough, Tolstoy became Pushkin's spokesman in the days of Pushkin's courtship of Natalia Goncharov." (ibid., p. 429)

In his poem Tlennost' (Mortality, first published with the title Violet and Rose, 1815) Pushkin's schoolmate and close friend Delvig mentions zephyr playing with the lock of a girl who picks a violet:

Там фиалку, наклонясь,
Девица срывает,
Зефир, в волосы вплетясь,
Локоном играет, -
Юноша! краса летит,
Деву старость посетит.

Hodasevich is the author of an essay on Delvig (Vozrozhdenie, January 31, 1931). In his memoir essay "Gumilyov and Blok" (1931) included in Necropolis Hodasevich mentions another Lyceum friend of Pushkin, Admiral F. F. Matyushkin:

- В сущности, это не моя квартира, - отвечал Гумилев, - это квартира М. - Тут я всё понял: мы с Гумилевым сидели в бывшем моём кабинете! Лет за десять до того эта мебель отчасти принадлежала мне. Она имела свою историю. Адмирал Фёдор Фёдорович Матюшкин, лицейский товарищ Пушкина, снял её с какого-то корабля и ею обставил дом у себя в имении, возле Бологое, на берегу озера. Имение называлось "Заимка". По местным преданиям Пушкин, конечно, не

раз бывал в "Заимке"; показывали даже кресло, обитое зелёным сафьяном, - любимое кресло Пушкина. Как водится, это была лишь легенда: Пушкин в тех местах не бывал вовсе, да и Матюшкин купил это имение только лет через тридцать после смерти Пушкина. После кончины Матюшкина "Заимка" переходила из рук в руки, стала называться "Лидиным", но обстановка старого дома сохранилась. Даже особые приспособления в буфете для подвешивания посуды на случай качки не были заменены обыкновенными полками. В 1905 г. я сделался случайным полуобладателем этой мебели и вывез её в Москву. Затем ей суждено было перекочевать в Петербург, а когда революция окончательно сдвинула с мест всех и всё, я застал среди неё Гумилева. Её настоящая собственница была в Крыму.

The real owner of Matyushkin's former furniture taken from some ship to furnish with it the Admiral's country house was Hodasevich's first wife Marina Ryndin. Her name comes from rynda (ship's bell). She was at the time (autumn of 1918) in the Crimea where VN could have met her (her second husband was Sergey Makovski, the editor of Apollon). And her furniture was in a St. Petersburg flat where Gumilyov lived and where Hodasevich visited him. Gumilyov is the author of Kapitany ("The Captains," 1909) and other poems about sea voyages. He knew well the muse of distant travels. On the other hand, the pompous manner with which Gumilyov (a pupil of Bryusov) participated in a sitting reminded Hodasevich of Bryusov:

Важность, с которою Гумилев "заседал", тотчас мне напомнила Брюсова.

'Incidentally,' observed Marina, 'I hope dear Ida will not object to our making him not only a poet, but a ballet dancer. Pedro could do that beautifully, but he can't be made to recite French poetry.' (1.32)

French poetry and Les Enfants Maudits ("The Accursed Children," Mlle Lariviere's novel to be filmed by G. A. Vronsky and Marina) bring to mind the French poetes maudits. One of them, Rimbaud, is the author of Le Bateau Ivre, and another, Baudelaire, the author of L'Albatros. Both poems are about sea voyages and both were translated to Russian by VN.

In his memoir essay Mladenchestvo ("Infancy," 1933) Hodasevich tells about his childhood passion for ballet:

С того дня всё мое детство окрашено страстью к балету и не вспоминается мне иначе, как в связи с ним. Балет возымел решительное влияние на всю мою жизнь, на то, как слагались впоследствии мои вкусы, пристрастия, интересы. В конечном счёте, через балет пришёл я к искусству вообще и к поэзии в частности.

Only poor health prevented Hodasvich to become a ballet dancer. But thanks to the ballet he became a poet.

Alexey Sklyarenko

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