Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0018715, Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:58:12 -0200

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Re: [NABOKOV-L] Et In Arcadia Ego II
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(follow up)

Matt Roth's :" the aunts and orphans" thread and the Cedarn thread unite in Mrs. Browning's "Aurora Leigh" ...
JM: ...to reinforce the link bt. PF and Lolita & also TOoL's "Aurora Lee"?
The lines that Wilson links to Virgil's Seventh Eclogue ( "Ambo florentes aetatibus, Arcades ambo") in Turgenev are: "We too have been to Arcadia, we too have roamed over her fair fields." However, as Wilson informs, Turgenev's Soviet edition refers them to a poem by Schiller which begins "Auch war in Arkadien geboren." ( Schiller's Resignation*).

In F.Schiller, we find the original Laura (Petrarch's) as a metaphor of "your true and only love." Now, perhaps, Lolita's married name will make sense (Dolly F. Schiller).
A Joycean reference to Vico and rivers in Arcady also runs through VN's earlier "Bend Sinister" (ch 6), passing by Hamlet's Ophelia, Botticelli's Venus and embers (btw: Where was an amorous shepherd's name indicated?)
"To feature a phloating leaph. ...trying to wreathe a phallacious sliver...the getting-unexpectedly-wet stunt [...] Then: a garland afloat.[...] This is transformed into a tinkling of bells, and now we are shown a liberal shepherd on marshy ground where Orchis mascula grows [...] Song moves to Queen's shepherd, lamb moves to brook.'[...] Krug's anecdote has the desired effect. Ember stops sniffling [...] Finally, he enters into the spirit of the game. Yes, she was found by a shepherd. In fact her name can be derived from that of an amorous shepherd in Arcadia. Or quite possibly it is an anagram of Alpheios, with the 'S' lost in the damp grass - Alpheus the rivergod [...]Vico Press edition [...]The uncommon cold of a Botticellian angel tinged her nostrils with pink and suffused her upperlip."


.....................................................................................
*Friedrich Schiller:
Auch ich war in Arkadien geboren,
Auch mir hat die Natur
An meiner Wiege Freude zugeschworen,
Auch ich war in Arkadien geboren,
Doch Tränen gab der kurze Lenz mir nur.
Des Lebens Mai blüht einmal und nicht wieder,
Mir hat er abgeblüht.
..............................................................
«Ich zahle dir in einem andern Leben,
Gib deine Jugend mir,
Nichts kann ich dir als diese Weisung geben.»
Ich nahm die Weisung auf das andre Leben,
Und meiner Jugend Freuden gab ich ihr.
«Gib mir das Weib, so teuer deinem Herzen,
Gib deine Laura mir.
Jenseits der Gräber wuchern deine Schmerzen.» --
Ich riß sie blutend aus dem wunden Herzen,
Und weinte laut, und gab sie ihr.

... xxx ...

Yes! even I was in Arcadia born,
And, in mine infant ears,
A vow of rapture was by Nature sworn;-
Yes! even I was in Arcadia born,
And yet my short spring gave me only-tears!
Once blooms, and only once, life's youthful May;
For me its bloom hath gone.
..............................................................
"Give me the woman precious to thy heart,
Give up to me thy Laura!
Beyond the grave will usury pay the smart."-
I wept aloud, and from my bleeding heart
With resignation tore her.
(translation from the internet)



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