Describing his rented house, Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) mentions his landlord’s four daughters (Alphina, Betty, Candida and Dee):
Lines 47-48: the frame house between Goldsworth and Wordsmith
The first name refers to the house in Dulwich Road that I rented from Hugh Warren Goldsworth, authority on Roman Law and distinguished judge. I never had the pleasure of meeting my landlord but I came to know his handwriting almost as well as I do Shade's. The second name denotes, of course, Wordsmith University. In seeming to suggest a midway situation between the two places, our poet is less concerned with spatial exactitude than with a witty exchange of syllables invoking the two masters of the heroic couplet, between whom he embowers his own muse. Actually, the "frame house on its square of green" was five miles west of the Wordsmith campus but only fifty yards or so distant from my east windows.
In the Foreword to this work I have had occasion to say something about the amenities of my habitation. The charming, charmingly vague lady (see note to line 691), who secured it for me, sight unseen, meant well, no doubt, especially since it was widely admired in the neighborhood for its "old-world spaciousness and graciousness." Actually, it was an old, dismal, white-and-black, half-timbered house, of the type termed wodnaggen in my country, with carved gables, drafty bow windows and a so-called "semi-noble" porch, surmounted by a hideous veranda. Judge Goldsworth had a wife, and four daughters. Family photographs met me in the hallway and pursued me from room to room, and although I am sure that Alphina (9), Betty (10), Candida (12), and Dee (14) will soon change from horribly cute little schoolgirls to smart young ladies and superior mothers, I must confess that their pert pictures irritated me to such an extent that finally I gathered them one by one and dumped them all in a closet under the gallows row of their cellophane-shrouded winter clothes. In the study I found a large picture of their parents, with sexes reversed, Mrs. G. resembling Malenkov, and Mr. G. a Medusa-locked hag, and this I replaced by the reproduction of a beloved early Picasso: earth boy leading raincloud horse. (note to Lines 47-48)
The name of Judge Goldsworth’s second eldest daughter, Candida seems to hint at candida puella (a fair-skinned girl) mentioned by Catullus in Carmen 13 (Cenabis bene, mi Fabulle, apud me):
Cenabis bene, mi Fabulle, apud me
paucis, si tibi di favent, diebus,
si tecum attuleris bonam atque magnam
cenam, non sine candida puella
et vino et sale et omnibus cachinnis.
Haec si, inquam, attuleris, venuste noster,
cenabis bene; nam tui Catulli
plenus sacculus est aranearum.
Sed contra accipies meros amores,
seu quid suavius elegantiusve est:
nam unguentum dabo, quod meae puellae
donarunt Veneres Cupidinesque;
quod tu cum olfacies, deos rogabis
totum ut te faciant, Fabulle, nasum.
You will dine well, my Fabullus, at my house
in a few days, if the gods favor you,
and if you bring with you a large and good dinner,
not without a fair-skinned girl
and wine and wit and laughter for all.
If you bring these, I say, our charming one,
you will dine well—for your Catullus's
purse is full of cobwebs.
But in return you will receive my undiluted affections
or that which is sweeter and more elegant:
for I will give perfume, which the Venuses
and Cupids gave to my girl,
and when you smell it, you will ask the gods
that they make all of you, Fabullus, a nose.
In VN's novel Lolita (1955) Humbert Humbert identifies himself with Catullus:
As greater authors than I have put it: “Let readers imagine” etc. On second thought, I may as well give those imaginations a kick in the pants. I knew I had fallen in love with Lolita forever; but I also knew she would not be forever Lolita. She would be thirteen on January 1. In two years or so she would cease being a nymphet and would turn into a “young girl,” and then, into a “college girl”that horror of horrors. The word “forever” referred only to my own passion, to the eternal Lolita as reflected in my blood. The Lolita whose iliac crests had not yet flared, the Lolita that today I could touch and smell and hear and see, the Lolita of the strident voice and rich brown hairof the bangs and the swirls and the sides and the curls at the back, and the sticky hot neck, and the vulgar vocabulary "revolting,” “super,” “luscious,” “goon,” “drip” that Lolita, my Lolita, poor Catullus would lose forever. So how could I afford not to see her for two months of summer insomnias? Two whole months out of the two years of her remaining nymphage! Should I disguise myself as a somber old-fashioned girl, gawky Mlle Humbert, and put up my tent on the outskirts of Camp Q, in the hope that its russet nymphets would clamor: “Let us adopt that deep-voiced D. P.,” and drag the said, shyly smiling Berthe au Grand Pied to their rustic hearth. Berthe will sleep with Dolores Haze! (1.15)
Berthe au Grand Pied is the mother of Charlemagne (Charles the Great).
The last two lines of Catullus' fourteen-line poem bring to mind Gogol's story Nos (“The Nose,” 1836). The characters in Gogol’s play Revizor (“The Inspector,” 1836) include Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin (Mr. Slapdash), Bobchinski and Dobchinski (the landowners and near-twins). According to Zemlyanika (the charity commissioner whose surname means “strawberry” but also brings to mind Kinbote’s Zembla), Dobchinski’s children (one of them was born before his mother married Dobchinski) have a very strong likeness to the Judge:
Артемий Филипович. Очень может быть. (Помолчав.) Могу сказать, что не жалею ничего и ревностно исполняю службу. (Придвигается ближе с своим стулом и говорит вполголоса.) Вот здешний почтмейстер совершенно ничего не делает: все дела в большом запущении, посылки задерживаются… извольте сами нарочно разыскать. Судья тоже, который только что был пред моим приходом, ездит только за зайцами, в присутственных местах держит собак, и поведения, если признаться пред вами, конечно для пользы отечества, я должен это сделать, хотя он мне родня и приятель, поведения самого предосудительного: здесь есть один помещик Добчинский, которого вы изволили видеть, и как только этот Добчинский куда-нибудь выйдет из дому, то он там уж и сидит у жены его, я присягнуть готов… и нарочно посмотрите на детей: ни одно из них не похоже на Добчинского, но все, даже девочка маленькая, как вылитый судья.
Хлестаков. Скажите пожалуйста! А я никак этого не думал.
CHARITY COMMISSIONER. It's very possible. (After a short silence.) I can only say that I spare no effort to perform my duty zealously. (Draws his chair a little closer and speaks in a lower tone.) There's this Postmaster here does absolutely nothing. Everything is in the greatest state of neglect: letters and packages are kept back . . . pray investigate the matter yourself. The Judge too, who was here just before me, does nothing but hunt hares, and keeps his dogs in the County Court buildings; while his general conduct, if I must unburden my mind to you—certainly it's for my country's good that I have to do it, though he's my friend and connection—well, his conduct is most deplorable. There's a certain proprietor here, Dobchinski by name you have deigned to meet him and as soon as ever Dobchinski goes away anywhere, his wife and the Judge are having a tête-à-tête. I am ready to swear to it... and the children, down to the youngest little girl, have a very strong likeness to the Judge—
KHLESTAKOV. Well, I declare! I never should have thought it! (Act Four, scene VI)
As to Bobchinski, he reminds one of “bad Bob” (as Kinbote calls his roomer):
I have one favorite photograph of him. In this color snapshot taken by a onetime friend of mine, on a brilliant spring day, Shade is seen leaning on a sturdy cane that had belonged to his aunt Maud (see line 86). I am wearing a white windbreaker acquired in a local sports shop and a pair of lilac slacks hailing from Cannes. My left hand is half raised - not to pat Shade on the shoulder as seems to be the intention, but to remove my sunglasses which, however, it never reached in that life, the life of the picture; and the library book under my right arm is a treatise on certain Zemblan calisthenics in which I proposed to interest that young roomer of mine who snapped the picture. A week later he was to betray my trust by taking sordid advantage of my absence on a trip to Washington whence I returned to find he had been entertaining a fiery-haired whore from Exton who had left her combings and reek in all three bathrooms. Naturally we separated at once, and through a chink in the window curtains I saw bad Bob standing rather pathetically, with his crewcut, and shabby valise, and the skis I had given him, all forlorn on the roadside, waiting for a fellow student to drive him away forever. I can forgive everything save treason. (Foreword)
The girl’s reek that Kinbote finds so unpleasant makes one think of the ending of Catullus’ poem. In his poem Pamyati kota Murra (“In Memory of the Tomcat Murr,” 1934) Hodasevich mentions Catullus with his sparrow, Derzhavin with his swallow and the beloved shades of poets and animals enjoying the deserved rest of eternity in the gardens beyond the river of fire:
В забавах был так мудр и в мудрости забавен –
Друг утешительный и вдохновитель мой!
Теперь он в тех садах, за огненной рекой,
Где с воробьем Катулл и с ласточкой Державин.
О, хороши сады за огненной рекой,
Где черни подлой нет, где в благодатной лени
Вкушают вечности заслуженный покой
Поэтов и зверей возлюбленные тени!
Когда ж и я туда? Ускорить не хочу
Мой срок, положенный земному лихолетью,
Но к тем, кто выловлен таинственною сетью,
Всё чаще я мечтой приверженной лечу.
The river of fire mentioned by Hodasevich is the Phlegethon (one of the five rivers surrounding Hades). Pushkin's poem Prozerpina ("Proserpine," 1824)
begins as follows:
Плещут волны Флегетона,
Своды тартара дрожат,
Кони бледного Плутона
Быстро к нимфам Пелиона
Из аида бога мчат.
The waves of the Phlegethon splash,
The vaults of Tartarus tremble,
Pale Pluto's horses
Quickly whisk the god out of Hades
To the nymphs of Peleus.
In E. A. Poe's story The Black Cat (1845) the name of the first black cat is Pluto. In the same note to Lines 47-48 Kinbote mentions the black cat that came with house:
Among various detailed notices affixed to a special board in the pantry, such as plumbing instructions, dissertations on electricity, discourses on cactuses and so forth, I found the diet of the black cat that came with the house:
Mon, Wed, Fri: Liver
Tue, Thu, Sat: Fish
Sun: Ground meat
(All it got from me was milk and sardines; it was a likable little creature but after a while its movements began to grate on my nerves and I farmed it out to Mrs. Finley, the cleaning woman.)
E. A. Poe is the author of The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq. (1844) and The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade (1845). The opening lines of E. A. Poe’s poem Annabel Lee (1849), "It was many and many a year ago, / In a kingdom by the sea." are a leitmotif in Lolita.
Derzhavin’s poem Lastochka (“The Swallow,” 1792-94), written after the death of his first wife Plenyra, brings to mind “Sybil Swallow” (as Kinbote calls the poet’s wife):
John Shade and Sybil Swallow (see note to line 247) were married in 1919, exactly three decades before King Charles wed Disa, Duchess of Payn. Since the very beginning of his reign (1936-1958) representatives of the nation, salmon fishermen, non-union glaziers, military groups, worried relatives, and especially the Bishop of Yeslove, a sanguineous and saintly old man, had been doing their utmost to persuade him to give up his copious but sterile pleasures and take a wife. It was a matter not of morality but of succession. As in the case of some of his predecessors, rough alderkings who burned for boys, the clergy blandly ignored our young bachelor's pagan habits, but wanted him to do what an earlier and even more reluctant Charles had done: take a night off and lawfully engender an heir. (note to Line 275)
The “real” name of both Sybil Shade and Queen Disa (the wife of Charles the Beloved) seems to be Sofia Botkin, born Lastochkin. Lastochki (“The Swallows,” 1884) is a poem by Afanasiy Fet (who married Maria Botkin in 1857). According to Kinbote (the author of a book on surnames), Botkin is the one who makes bottekins, fancy footwear. In the Russian version (1967) of Lolita Gumbert Gumbert describes a game of tennis played by Lolita and says that he hates tyapdalyapitsu poshlykh sapozhnikov (the chops and jabs of cheap bunglers):
Меня разбирала жажда; я направился к фонтанчику питьевой воды. Этим воспользовался рыжий, чтобы подойти ко мне и в скромных выражениях предложить игру вчетвером. «Меня зовут Билль Мид», сказал он, «а это, Фэй Пэйдж, актриска. «Ма фиансэ» — добавил он (указывая своей нелепо забронированной ракетой на светскую Фэй, уже болтавшую с Лолитой). Я начал было отвечать: «Спасибо, но» — (ненавижу, когда мою чистокровку впутывают в тяпдаляпицу пошлых сапожников), когда меня отвлёк поразительно музыкальный оклик: отельный казачек дробно бежал вниз по ступеням к нашей площадке и делал мне знаки. Оказалось, что меня требуют к телефону по экстренному иногороднему вызову, — столь экстренному, что для меня даже «держат линию». «Иду», сказал я, схватил пиджак (тяжесть кольта во внутреннем кармане) и сказал Лолите, что сейчас вернусь. Она как раз подбирала мячик (европейским способом, т. е. соединенным рывком носка ноги и края ракеты, что было одной из немногих хороших вещей, которым я её научил) и улыбнулась, — она улыбнулась мне!
I felt thirsty by then, and walked to the drinking fountain; there Red approached me and in all humility suggested a mixed double. “I am Bill Mead,” he said. “And that’s Fay Page, actress. Maffy on Say,” he added (pointing with his ridiculously hooded racket at polished Fay who was already talking to Dolly). I was about to reply “Sorry, but” (for I hate to have my filly involved in the chops and jabs of cheap bunglers), when a remarkably melodious cry diverted my attention: a bellboy was tripping down the steps from the hotel to our court and making me signs. I was wanted, if you please, on an urgent long distance call - so urgent in fact that the line was being held for me. Certainly. I got into my coat (inside pocket heavy with pistol) and told Lo I would be back in a minute. She was picking up a ball - in the continental foot-racket way which was one of the few nice things I had taught her, - and smiled - she smiled at me! (2.20)
While tyapdalyapitsa (VN’s neologism, a play on tyap-da-lyap, "anyhow") reminds one of Lyapkin-Tyapkin, sapozhnik comes from sapog (boot) and means “shoemaker, cobbler, bootmaker.” A Medusa-locked hag (whom Judge Goldsworth resembles) brings to mind the slapdash disheveled hag who ladles out the mash in the Levin Hall cafeteria (one of the three people whom Shade has been said to resemble) and Edusa Gold, in Lolita the stage director of The Enchanted Hunters (a play written by Clare Quilty in collaboration with Vivian Darkbloom). Colias edusa is an obsolete name of the Clouded Yellow butterfly (Colias crocea). Edusa Gold's sister Electra (another entomological name) is a marvelous young tennis coach. In VN’s novel Podvig (“Glory,” 1932) Martin Edelweiss earns his living by giving tennis lessons. Like Kinbote’s Zembla, Martin’s and Sonya’s Zoorland is a distant northern land. Sonya is a diminutive of Sofia (which is also the name of Martin’s mother). Sofia is a character (Famusov’s daughter with whom Chatski is in love) in Griboedov's play in verse Gore ot uma (“Woe from Wit,” 1824). In a letter of the end of January, 1825, to Bestuzhev Pushkin offers his criticism of Griboedov’s play and points out that it is not clear if Sofia is a whore or a Moscow cousin:
Драматического писателя должно судить по законам, им самим над собою признанным. Следственно, не осуждаю ни плана, ни завязки, ни приличий комедии Грибоедова. Цель его — характеры и резкая картина нравов. В этом отношении Фамусов и Скалозуб превосходны. Софья начертана не ясно: не то <блядь>, не то московская кузина.
According to Pushkin, Famusov and Skalozub (a character in “Woe from Wit”) are superb. The name Skalozub hints at zuboskal (scoffer). A similar transposition of syllables in Botkine (the name Botkin in French spelling) gives Kinbote.
At the end of his Commentary Kinbote mentions "a bigger, more respectable, more competent Gradus" whom he will face sooner or later:
"And you, what will you be doing with yourself, poor King, poor Kinbote?" a gentle young voice may inquire.
God will help me, I trust, to rid myself of any desire to follow the example of the other two characters in this work. I shall continue to exist. I may assume other disguises, other forms, but I shall try to exist. I may turn up yet, on another campus, as an old, happy, health heterosexual Russian, a writer in exile, sans fame, sans future, sans audience, sans anything but his art. I may join forces with Odon in a new motion picture: Escape from Zembla (ball in the palace, bomb in the palace square). I may pander to the simple tastes of theatrical critics and cook up a stage play, an old-fashioned melodrama with three principles: a lunatic who intends to kill an imaginary king, another lunatic who imagines himself to be that king, and a distinguished old poet who stumbles by chance into the line of fire, and perishes in the clash between the two figments. Oh, I may do many things! History permitting, I may sail back to my recovered kingdom, and with a great sob greet the gray coastline and the gleam of a roof in the rain. I may huddle and groan in a madhouse. But whatever happens, wherever the scene is laid, somebody, somewhere, will quietly set out--somebody has already set out, somebody still rather far away is buying a ticket, is boarding a bus, a ship, a plane, has landed, is walking toward a million photographers, and presently he will ring at my door--a bigger, more respectable, more competent Gradus. (note to Line 1000)
"A bigger, more respectable, more competent Gradus" brings to mind the real Inspector whose arrival is announced at the end of Gogol's "Inspector:"
Жандарм. Приехавший по именному повелению из Петербурга чиновник требует вас сей же час к себе. Он остановился в гостинице.
Произнесённые слова поражают как громом всех. Звук изумления единодушно взлетает из дамских уст; вся группа, вдруг переменивши положение, остаётся в окаменении.
GENDARME. The Inspector-General sent by Imperial command has arrived, and requests your attendance at once. He awaits you in the inn.
(They are thunderstruck at this announcement. The ladies utter simultaneous ejaculations of amazement; the whole group suddenly shift their positions and remain as if petrified.)
Shade’s poem is almost finished, when the author is killed by Gradus. Kinbote believes that, to be completed, Shade’s poem needs but one line (Line 1000, identical to Line 1: “I was the shadow of the waxwing slain”). But it seems that, like some sonnets, Shade’s poem also needs a coda (Line 1001: “By its own double in the windowpane”). In his fragment Rim (“Rome,” 1842) Gogol describes a carnival in Rome, mentions sonetto colla coda and in a footnote explains that in Italian poetry there is a kind of poem known as “sonnet with the tail” (con la coda), when the idea cannot not be expressed in fourteen lines and entails an appendix that can be longer than the sonnet itself:
В италиянской поэзии существует род стихотворенья, известного под именем сонета с хвостом (con la coda), когда мысль не вместилась и ведёт за собою прибавление, которое часто бывает длиннее самого сонета.
Not only Line 1001, but Kinbote's entire Foreword, Commentary and Index can thus be regarded as a coda to Shade's poem.
Btw., the name of Judge Goldsworth's eldest daughter, Dee seems to hint at John Dee (1527-1608), the court astronomer for, and advisor to Queen Elizabeth I. John Dee spent much of his time on alchemy, divination and Hermetic philosophy. His efforts to find the secret of immortality contained in the Philosopher's Stone are described in Gustav Meyrink's novel Der Engel vom westlichen Fenster ("The Angel of the West Window," 1927). In the same note to Lines 47-48 Kinbote says that "windows, as well known, have been the solace of first-person literature throughout the ages." Betty (the name of Judge Goldsworth's third daughter) is a diminutive of Elizabeth.
Let me also draw your attention to the updated version of my previous post, “Geisha with 13 lovers & spiritual Samurai in Ada."