Subject
Re: Shakespeare connection, part IV - Pale Fire
From
Date
Body
Mike M writes (excerpts): "Does anyone know who Paul H. Jr might be? Is there any connection between him and Paul Hentzner? [ ]Although it may be taken to refer to the man (whoever he was) who occupied this post at the time Hazel Shade was a student, the reader cannot be blamed for applying it to Paul H., Jr., the fine administrator and inept scholar who since 1957 headed the English Department of Wordsmith College. We met now and then (see Foreword and note to line 894) but not often. The Head of the Department to which I belonged was Prof. Nattochdag - "Netochka" as we called the dear man. Certainly the migraines that have lately tormented me to such a degree that I once had to leave in the midst of a concert at which I happened to be sitting beside Paul H., Jr., should not have been a stranger's business."[ ] Now to the Foreword, the second alleged reference to Paul H. Jr. Given that Paul H. Jr is an inept scholar, by a process of elimination he appears to be the the "Prof. H", whose potential collaboration with "Prof. C." Charles views with skepticism as co-editors of Shade's manuscript. I pointed out in an earlier post that these "professors" allude to Heminges & Condell, the alleged 'editors' of Shakespeare's First Folio, who as minimally educated actors would have been unqualified for that task. [ ]What about Paul Hentzner, who knew "the names of things"? There was a real Paul Hentzner, tutor to a German nobleman, who visited England in 1598, right in the middle of the Shakespeare period [ ] In the long note to line 894, CK mentions a "visiting German lecturer from Oxford", so that could relate, tangentially, to Hentzner. Later in the note the German drifts back in: ""Strange, strange," said the German visitor, who by some quirk of alderwood ancestry had been alone to catch the eerie note that had throbbed by and was gone."[ ]. Returning to Paul Hentzner; could Paul H Jr be his son? Kinbote tells us that Paul (senior?) "pleased John Shade much better than the suburban refinements of the English Department." -- perhaps the kind of place where his son worked? The chronology is deficient given that Hentzner's wife left him in 1950 with his son, presumably a child. 1950 seems to be a significant date in Pale Fire."
JM: I always thought Paul H. was Prof. Hurley. The hypothesis about Paul Hentzer rattles my certainties, cultivated at first through some ancient postings from the Pynchon list, reproduced in the VN archives.
Carolyn Kunin has recently mentioned Eberthella (Hurley?) and, in this case, she may have some interesting ideas to add.
There is the connection between Kinbote and one of the Hurley boys, a party and other items - which I couldn't find using the Archive Google Search (it's not working as well as it did in the past when I need specific items from the N-L Archives).
I'm bringing up a selection, although I cannot recollect the gist of the matters that were being discussed at that time.
[ ] Kinbote is more taken with the draft version, "the Head of our Department deemed" because it focuses attention on Paul H., Jr. (Hurley?) who apparently became "interested" in Kinbote's migraine headaches and later discounted Kinbote's ability to edit Shade's poem, going so far as to say that Kinbote has a "deranged mind" and suggest legal action. Also, Hurley was invested in writing the Shade biography before Kinbote butted in. Line 71 commentary mentions this, too. Kinbote thinks that his own commentary will change Paul H's mind about Kinbote's sanity and his ability to edit the work. An enigmatic line ends the little section, "Southey liked a roasted rat for supper - which is especially comic in view of the rats that devoured his Bishop." This is apparently a double slam; he's referring to Paul H. eating crow and that he has been outmatched in the metaphoric chess game Kinbote thematically conjures up to keep the poem.Along those lines a question; is this the Bishop that the chess sophisticate "go(es) on a wild goose chase" to obtain while the na?ve serendipitously sees and acquires? (I can't find where I found that. Probably Brian Boyd's "Shade and Shape." ) But instead of eating crow, Kinbote has Paul H. eating a rat. Is this for "ratting" on him?"
NABOKV-L Archives - LISTSERV Archives at LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A2=nabokv-l;7b0b960e... "
Other entries: "Hurley's tumble-down ranch" See page 101: "[Kinbote's tutor, a Scotsman, used to call any old tumble-down building 'a hurley-house'" Fw: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3601 PALE FIRE - LISTSERV 16.0 ... https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A2=nabokv-l;f8480dfa...>
text/html - LISTSERV 16.0 - NABOKV-L Archives https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi.../wa?A3...
"I do not know whether the following will stand up under further scrutiny (exact dates, etc.) but perhaps the most famous "serving" of rat in the cinema occurs in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?", a film released in 1962, the same year that PF was published. Most will know the plot of this cult film. It strikes me that the interdependence of the nostalgically mad Jane (Bette Davis) and her wheelchair-bound (and about to be "rediscovered") actress sister (Joan Crawford) bears a certain relationship to the Charles Kinbote-John Shade duet? And in the end there is the question: Who exactly has driven whom mad. Did VN perhaps see the film and find the dynamic stimulating? I would like to think that VN saw, and enjoyed, this bizarre, and comical, b&w classic![ ] (Paul Hurley "chairs" the English Department...?) Alternatively, is it too simple to think that Southey's name comes to mind (in the context of a person - Hurley - behaving like a "rat") because Southey was Laureate (Shade) to the King (Kinbote), and had written a famous poem about rats pursuing a Bishop (chesspiece) to a Castle? VN does lead one a merry dance, doesn't he?!" David Krol text/html - LISTSERV 16.0 - NABOKV-L Archives https://listserv.ucsb.edu/.../wa?...
" Paul Hurley, Jr., becomes head of the English Department at Wordsmith (n. 376-377)." (Jerry Friedman) .
.Fw - LISTSERV 16.0 - NABOKV-L Archives https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A2=nabokv-l;810d88c3...
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/
JM: I always thought Paul H. was Prof. Hurley. The hypothesis about Paul Hentzer rattles my certainties, cultivated at first through some ancient postings from the Pynchon list, reproduced in the VN archives.
Carolyn Kunin has recently mentioned Eberthella (Hurley?) and, in this case, she may have some interesting ideas to add.
There is the connection between Kinbote and one of the Hurley boys, a party and other items - which I couldn't find using the Archive Google Search (it's not working as well as it did in the past when I need specific items from the N-L Archives).
I'm bringing up a selection, although I cannot recollect the gist of the matters that were being discussed at that time.
[ ] Kinbote is more taken with the draft version, "the Head of our Department deemed" because it focuses attention on Paul H., Jr. (Hurley?) who apparently became "interested" in Kinbote's migraine headaches and later discounted Kinbote's ability to edit Shade's poem, going so far as to say that Kinbote has a "deranged mind" and suggest legal action. Also, Hurley was invested in writing the Shade biography before Kinbote butted in. Line 71 commentary mentions this, too. Kinbote thinks that his own commentary will change Paul H's mind about Kinbote's sanity and his ability to edit the work. An enigmatic line ends the little section, "Southey liked a roasted rat for supper - which is especially comic in view of the rats that devoured his Bishop." This is apparently a double slam; he's referring to Paul H. eating crow and that he has been outmatched in the metaphoric chess game Kinbote thematically conjures up to keep the poem.Along those lines a question; is this the Bishop that the chess sophisticate "go(es) on a wild goose chase" to obtain while the na?ve serendipitously sees and acquires? (I can't find where I found that. Probably Brian Boyd's "Shade and Shape." ) But instead of eating crow, Kinbote has Paul H. eating a rat. Is this for "ratting" on him?"
NABOKV-L Archives - LISTSERV Archives at LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A2=nabokv-l;7b0b960e... "
Other entries: "Hurley's tumble-down ranch" See page 101: "[Kinbote's tutor, a Scotsman, used to call any old tumble-down building 'a hurley-house'" Fw: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3601 PALE FIRE - LISTSERV 16.0 ... https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A2=nabokv-l;f8480dfa...>
text/html - LISTSERV 16.0 - NABOKV-L Archives https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi.../wa?A3...
"I do not know whether the following will stand up under further scrutiny (exact dates, etc.) but perhaps the most famous "serving" of rat in the cinema occurs in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?", a film released in 1962, the same year that PF was published. Most will know the plot of this cult film. It strikes me that the interdependence of the nostalgically mad Jane (Bette Davis) and her wheelchair-bound (and about to be "rediscovered") actress sister (Joan Crawford) bears a certain relationship to the Charles Kinbote-John Shade duet? And in the end there is the question: Who exactly has driven whom mad. Did VN perhaps see the film and find the dynamic stimulating? I would like to think that VN saw, and enjoyed, this bizarre, and comical, b&w classic![ ] (Paul Hurley "chairs" the English Department...?) Alternatively, is it too simple to think that Southey's name comes to mind (in the context of a person - Hurley - behaving like a "rat") because Southey was Laureate (Shade) to the King (Kinbote), and had written a famous poem about rats pursuing a Bishop (chesspiece) to a Castle? VN does lead one a merry dance, doesn't he?!" David Krol text/html - LISTSERV 16.0 - NABOKV-L Archives https://listserv.ucsb.edu/.../wa?...
" Paul Hurley, Jr., becomes head of the English Department at Wordsmith (n. 376-377)." (Jerry Friedman) .
.Fw - LISTSERV 16.0 - NABOKV-L Archives https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A2=nabokv-l;810d88c3...
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/