Subject
P.S. on Mourning and John Webster
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Date
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I forgot to add quotes from T.S.Eliot s verses and his notes where he makes reference to John Webster. I didn t copy the text I m sending now directly from Eliot, but chose to copy them from an on-line source. I don t know if the formatting may disturb the original formatting of the N-List.
In Pale Fire we find a foreboding in lines 479/480 ( "was that the phone?" ...window-rubbing") and then we reach Canto Three, lines 653/660 ( We heard the wind...Twigs at the windowpane...Phone ringing"), followed by the clear Erlking reference on lines 662/664 - the latter annotated by Kinbote.
Although Kinbote mentions Goethe he offers only the "bonus of an unexpected rhyme" in French ( vent-efant) and in his own language (v*tt/d*tt). He does not write down the German words "Wind/Kind" which were recited by "another fabulous ruler ... while he climbed through the bracken belt of the dark mountains." I suppose he might have omitted the German words to stress the indication of "Wind" (?)
Cf. Brian Boyd, "Nabokov s Pale Fire, the Magic of Artistic Discovery" in the chapter on "Rhymes and Reasons," pages 193-195, also page 150, note 13 (on page 283) and note 11 ( page 270)
Here is the extract from The Waste Land:
T.S. Eliot (1888–1965). The Waste Land. 1922.
I. The Burial of the Dead
That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men,
Or with his nails he'll dig it up again! 75
You! hypocrite lecteur!—mon semblable,—mon fr*re!
............................................................
think we are in rats' alley 115
Where the dead men lost their bones.
'What is that noise?'
The wind under the door.
'What is that noise now? What is the wind doing?'
Nothing again nothing. 120
'Do
'You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember
Nothing?'
I remember
Those are pearls that were his eyes.
....................................................................
The awful daring of a moment's surrender
Which an age of prudence can never retract
By this, and this only, we have existed 405
Which is not to be found in our obituaries
Or in memories draped by the beneficent spider
Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor
In our empty rooms
Notes:
74. Cf. the Dirge in Webster's White Devil.
118. Cf. Webster: 'Is the wind in that door still?'
407. Cf. Webster, The White Devil, V, vi:
...they'll remarry
Ere the worm pierce your winding-sheet, ere the spider
Make a thin curtain for your epitaphs.
Jansy
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archive/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
In Pale Fire we find a foreboding in lines 479/480 ( "was that the phone?" ...window-rubbing") and then we reach Canto Three, lines 653/660 ( We heard the wind...Twigs at the windowpane...Phone ringing"), followed by the clear Erlking reference on lines 662/664 - the latter annotated by Kinbote.
Although Kinbote mentions Goethe he offers only the "bonus of an unexpected rhyme" in French ( vent-efant) and in his own language (v*tt/d*tt). He does not write down the German words "Wind/Kind" which were recited by "another fabulous ruler ... while he climbed through the bracken belt of the dark mountains." I suppose he might have omitted the German words to stress the indication of "Wind" (?)
Cf. Brian Boyd, "Nabokov s Pale Fire, the Magic of Artistic Discovery" in the chapter on "Rhymes and Reasons," pages 193-195, also page 150, note 13 (on page 283) and note 11 ( page 270)
Here is the extract from The Waste Land:
T.S. Eliot (1888–1965). The Waste Land. 1922.
I. The Burial of the Dead
That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men,
Or with his nails he'll dig it up again! 75
You! hypocrite lecteur!—mon semblable,—mon fr*re!
............................................................
think we are in rats' alley 115
Where the dead men lost their bones.
'What is that noise?'
The wind under the door.
'What is that noise now? What is the wind doing?'
Nothing again nothing. 120
'Do
'You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember
Nothing?'
I remember
Those are pearls that were his eyes.
....................................................................
The awful daring of a moment's surrender
Which an age of prudence can never retract
By this, and this only, we have existed 405
Which is not to be found in our obituaries
Or in memories draped by the beneficent spider
Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor
In our empty rooms
Notes:
74. Cf. the Dirge in Webster's White Devil.
118. Cf. Webster: 'Is the wind in that door still?'
407. Cf. Webster, The White Devil, V, vi:
...they'll remarry
Ere the worm pierce your winding-sheet, ere the spider
Make a thin curtain for your epitaphs.
Jansy
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archive/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu