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Re: Colonel Gusev and King Alfin
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Alexey Sklyarenko: "A very special monoplane, Blenda IV, was built for him ...by his constant 'aerial adjutant,' Colonel Peter Gusev (Kinbote's note to line 71) The name Gusev comes from gus' (Russian for "goose") and hints at Utochkin (from utochka, "little duck"), a pioneer of Russian aviation (1876-1916).The avian theme is very important in Pale Fire. (In) "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle...(as) I pointed out before, the precious stone in it was fed to a goose ...The names of several characters in Ilf and Petrov's "The 12 chairs" also come from various birds... The "joint authors of genius," Ilf and Petrov ( The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle... was Ilya Ilf's favorite Conan Doyle) are mentioned by Shade in one of his conversations with Kinbote. Ilf and Petrov's diamond hunters remind one of Andronnikov and Niagarin, the two Soviet experts hired by Zemblan government to find the crown jewels. In my (unpublished) note KINBOTE'S CORONA OF MADNESS: WHERE THE CROWN JEWELS ARE HIDDEN IN NABOKOV'S PALE FIRE? I suggest that the crown jewels ...were turned into stars."
JM: Once again, fascinating connections by Alexey (aviation and avian names, Gusev/goose; Conan Doyle's ABC and diamonds; crown jewels and stars).
While I tried to recover the famous word-play in "Pale Fire," related to a verbal metamorphosis of "crown," I came upon the legend indicated by Kinbote when, from butterflies, through Sir Walter Scott, we come to the theme of the color "green" and to dangerous "green women."
The coronal variations are: "There exists to my knowledge one absolutely extraordinary, unbelievably elegant case, where not only two, but three words are involved... A newspaper account of a Russian tsar's coronation had, instead of korona (crown), the misprint vorona (crow), and when next day this was apologetically "corrected," it got misprinted a second time as korova (cow). The artistic correlation between the crown-crow-cow series and the Russian korona-vorona-korova series is something that would have, I am sure, enraptured my poet. I have seen nothing like it on lexical playfields and the odds against the double coincidence defy computation."
The automatic display of the word "Coronach" (a dirge, therefore unrelated to coronas) led me to Kinbote's commentary about " Mr. Campbell who had taught several dutiful little princesses to spread butterflies and enjoy Lord Ronald's Coronach." Checking what I surmised to be the name of a butterfly, I found: Glenfinlas, Or, Lord Ronald's Coronach, by Walter Scott - "...While two Highland hunters were passing the night in a solitary bothy, and making merry over their venison and whisky, one of them expressed a wish that they had pretty lasses to complete their party. The words were scarcely uttered, when two beautiful young women, habited in green, entered the hut, dancing and singing. One of the hunters was seduced by the siren who attached herself particularly to him, to leave the hut; the other remained, and, suspicious of the fair seducers, continued to play upon a trump, or Jew's harp, some strain, consecrated to the Virgin Mary. Day at length came, and the temptress vanished. Searching in the forest, he found the bones of his unfortunate friend, who had been torn to pieces and devoured by the fiend into whose toils he had fallen. The place was thence called Glen of the Green Women."
In connection to Campbell and "Lord Ronald's Coronach", Priscilla Meyer ("Find What the Sailor Has Hidden", p.236/7) writes: "Nabokov extends the Scottish theme in Pale Fire through Kinbote's tutor Campbell, who teaches Lord Ronald's Coronach and recites Macbeth to his charges (note to line 71). The Scottish poet Thomas Campbell...wrote several poems that touch on key motifs of Pale Fire...Nabokov discusses Campbell's "second-rate ballad...in a note on Ossian in the Onegin Commentary...forging another Russian-Scottish connection. "Lord Ullin's Daughter" is related to the plot of Goethe's Erlkonig and the mermaid theme." (I advise the reader to go directly to Priscilla Meyer's note, which I didn't copy in full*)
In "The Magic of Artistic Discovery," Brian Boyd refers to "Lord Ronald's Coronach" from Sir Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, before he moves to Scott's The Lady of the Lake, where a huntsman advances "from the hazel shade."
What a wonderfully woven web seems to have developped from crowns, crows and jewels!
..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
* a warning related to a former posting on Pamuk, also related to excessive snipping and prunings. In this case, it happened with Leo Robson's review when I inadvertently created a misunderstanding. Leon Robson was not criticizing Nabokov's recommendations to writers and readers (that they should caress details), but those admirers of his who abide to Nabokov's opinions as if they were a "holy writ."
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JM: Once again, fascinating connections by Alexey (aviation and avian names, Gusev/goose; Conan Doyle's ABC and diamonds; crown jewels and stars).
While I tried to recover the famous word-play in "Pale Fire," related to a verbal metamorphosis of "crown," I came upon the legend indicated by Kinbote when, from butterflies, through Sir Walter Scott, we come to the theme of the color "green" and to dangerous "green women."
The coronal variations are: "There exists to my knowledge one absolutely extraordinary, unbelievably elegant case, where not only two, but three words are involved... A newspaper account of a Russian tsar's coronation had, instead of korona (crown), the misprint vorona (crow), and when next day this was apologetically "corrected," it got misprinted a second time as korova (cow). The artistic correlation between the crown-crow-cow series and the Russian korona-vorona-korova series is something that would have, I am sure, enraptured my poet. I have seen nothing like it on lexical playfields and the odds against the double coincidence defy computation."
The automatic display of the word "Coronach" (a dirge, therefore unrelated to coronas) led me to Kinbote's commentary about " Mr. Campbell who had taught several dutiful little princesses to spread butterflies and enjoy Lord Ronald's Coronach." Checking what I surmised to be the name of a butterfly, I found: Glenfinlas, Or, Lord Ronald's Coronach, by Walter Scott - "...While two Highland hunters were passing the night in a solitary bothy, and making merry over their venison and whisky, one of them expressed a wish that they had pretty lasses to complete their party. The words were scarcely uttered, when two beautiful young women, habited in green, entered the hut, dancing and singing. One of the hunters was seduced by the siren who attached herself particularly to him, to leave the hut; the other remained, and, suspicious of the fair seducers, continued to play upon a trump, or Jew's harp, some strain, consecrated to the Virgin Mary. Day at length came, and the temptress vanished. Searching in the forest, he found the bones of his unfortunate friend, who had been torn to pieces and devoured by the fiend into whose toils he had fallen. The place was thence called Glen of the Green Women."
In connection to Campbell and "Lord Ronald's Coronach", Priscilla Meyer ("Find What the Sailor Has Hidden", p.236/7) writes: "Nabokov extends the Scottish theme in Pale Fire through Kinbote's tutor Campbell, who teaches Lord Ronald's Coronach and recites Macbeth to his charges (note to line 71). The Scottish poet Thomas Campbell...wrote several poems that touch on key motifs of Pale Fire...Nabokov discusses Campbell's "second-rate ballad...in a note on Ossian in the Onegin Commentary...forging another Russian-Scottish connection. "Lord Ullin's Daughter" is related to the plot of Goethe's Erlkonig and the mermaid theme." (I advise the reader to go directly to Priscilla Meyer's note, which I didn't copy in full*)
In "The Magic of Artistic Discovery," Brian Boyd refers to "Lord Ronald's Coronach" from Sir Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, before he moves to Scott's The Lady of the Lake, where a huntsman advances "from the hazel shade."
What a wonderfully woven web seems to have developped from crowns, crows and jewels!
..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
* a warning related to a former posting on Pamuk, also related to excessive snipping and prunings. In this case, it happened with Leo Robson's review when I inadvertently created a misunderstanding. Leon Robson was not criticizing Nabokov's recommendations to writers and readers (that they should caress details), but those admirers of his who abide to Nabokov's opinions as if they were a "holy writ."
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/