SS
(off-list) asked JM: ...and what do you make of l-if-e-less tree?
JM: In this
sentence, as you point out, the "e" suggests something taken
away, "e-less", as you'd been arguing about the inclusion of Shade in the
lines: "Poor Swift, poor...." But it may merely stress a wordplay with L'if and "life",
peut-être...
The verses L’if, lifeless tree! Your great Maybe,
Rabelais:/ The
grand potato./ I.P.H., a lay... are in fact at the
begining of Canto Three. And
yet, when VN, in a short annotation to "Irregular Iambics", argued in
favor of a scudded Russian "If" at the start of an iambic line, would
he have had PF in mind, or vice versa? ( this is why I tried to check the dates
for VN's commentaries on Poems and Problems).
SS notes
to CK[ the worthy Zule
("chessrook") Bretwit, granduncle of Oswin Bretwit (q.v., q.v., as the
crows say)...in what language "Zule" is the "chessrook"?] : Not in
russian.
JM: The crowing emphatic invitations to "see, look" in "q.v. q.v"
would they also serve as a reference to check under "crow
crown corona" and variations?
Perusing
the INDEX I found even more random questions. Led to the very begining of
line 691 by non-ornithologist Kinbote, I saw the information that
Baltimore's oriole is not an oriole and I was
reminded of KQKn's rented car, an Oriole. I thought Dreyer's
"oriole" would have to be blue and American, so I was wrong. The car was
probably of an European make.
What kind of a black "car" is Sylvia O' Donnell's
"mowntrop"? What is a "mascana fruit"? ( still on note to
691)
Why do we never discuss Charles Xavier's full
surname? ( Vseslav)