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Re: Bilitis.doc
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--- "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@COX.NET> wrote:
> I thank Mr. Strickland for his informative series of suggestions. I
> have pursued at least one of them. It follows:
>
> Don Johnson
> -----------------------------------------------------
...
> He had read somewhere (we might recall the precise title if we tried,
> not Tiltil, that's in Blue Beard...)
...
> It takes Van a moment to place the source of the presumed traits of a
> lesbian - "(yes - Mytilene, petite isle, by Louis Pierre)".
...
> Van's first (mis-)recollection ("not Tiltil, that's in Blue
> Beard" come from Maurice Maeterlinck's play L'oiseau bleu (1909) in
> which the names of the woodcutter's children, Tyltyl and Mytyl, lead him
> to Sappho's Mytilene.
...
I'm snipping lots of fascinating stuff to mention that the second
syllable of "Tiltil" can also come from "petite isle", as the
first comes from "Mytilene". Hm, two identical syllables with
different etymologies...reminds me of two lines identical in every
syllable, but with different meanings. If my memory worked the way
Van's does, I'd have guessed that the poet's middle name was Lee--
maybe Edgar Lee Guest?
Jerry Friedman
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> I thank Mr. Strickland for his informative series of suggestions. I
> have pursued at least one of them. It follows:
>
> Don Johnson
> -----------------------------------------------------
...
> He had read somewhere (we might recall the precise title if we tried,
> not Tiltil, that's in Blue Beard...)
...
> It takes Van a moment to place the source of the presumed traits of a
> lesbian - "(yes - Mytilene, petite isle, by Louis Pierre)".
...
> Van's first (mis-)recollection ("not Tiltil, that's in Blue
> Beard" come from Maurice Maeterlinck's play L'oiseau bleu (1909) in
> which the names of the woodcutter's children, Tyltyl and Mytyl, lead him
> to Sappho's Mytilene.
...
I'm snipping lots of fascinating stuff to mention that the second
syllable of "Tiltil" can also come from "petite isle", as the
first comes from "Mytilene". Hm, two identical syllables with
different etymologies...reminds me of two lines identical in every
syllable, but with different meanings. If my memory worked the way
Van's does, I'd have guessed that the poet's middle name was Lee--
maybe Edgar Lee Guest?
Jerry Friedman
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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