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Marx as author of historical plays
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On Antiterra Karl Marx is known as Marx pere, the popular author of 'historical' plays (Ada, 2.5). Although Marx was very popular (particularly in Russia), he did not write plays. This made me suggest that "Marx pere" actually hints at Shakespeare (whose name was also spelled Shaxpere), the author of history plays. According to Shakespeare,
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players. (As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII)
In the 20th century the globe was a theatre where some spectacular 'historical' plays were staged not without a success. Karl Marx wasn't their author, but his "younger brother" and sons (Lenin and Co.) were among main performers and part-time directors.
Incidentally, Anna Akhmatova's poem Londontsam (To the Londoners) from the cycle V sorokovom godu ("In the Fourtieth Year") begins:
Двадцать четвёртую драму Шекспира
Пишет время бесстрастной рукой.
The twenty-fourth drama of Shakespeare
Time’s writing with its indifferent hand.
Akhmatova's "Tartar" penname reminds one of Katerina Akhmakova, a character in Dostoevski's novel Podrostok (The Adolescent, 1875). In my article "Grattez le Tartar..." I argue that Kim Beauharnais, a kitchen boy and photographer at Ardis, is the son of Arkadiy Dolgorukiy, the hero and narrator in Podrostok. I also suggest that 'Alphonse Cinque' (as Van dubbed the Bourbonian-chinned concierge at the Alphonse Four, 3.3) hints at Alfonsinka (as Arkadiy calls Lambert's girlfriend Alphonsine), a character in Podrostok who seems to be Kim Beauharnais's mother. Interestingly, Cinque is a cycle of five poems (1945-46) by Akhmatova. In one of them Ladog ("of Ladoga lakes") rhymes with radug ("of rainbows"). Raduga was the Durmanovs' favorite domain, near the burg of that name, beyond Estotiland proper, in the Atlantic panel of the continent between elegant Kaluga, New Cheshire, U.S.A., and no less elegant Ladoga, Mayne, where they had their town house and where their three children were born: a son, who died young and famous, and a pair of difficult female twins. (1.1)
Alexey Sklyarenko
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All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players. (As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII)
In the 20th century the globe was a theatre where some spectacular 'historical' plays were staged not without a success. Karl Marx wasn't their author, but his "younger brother" and sons (Lenin and Co.) were among main performers and part-time directors.
Incidentally, Anna Akhmatova's poem Londontsam (To the Londoners) from the cycle V sorokovom godu ("In the Fourtieth Year") begins:
Двадцать четвёртую драму Шекспира
Пишет время бесстрастной рукой.
The twenty-fourth drama of Shakespeare
Time’s writing with its indifferent hand.
Akhmatova's "Tartar" penname reminds one of Katerina Akhmakova, a character in Dostoevski's novel Podrostok (The Adolescent, 1875). In my article "Grattez le Tartar..." I argue that Kim Beauharnais, a kitchen boy and photographer at Ardis, is the son of Arkadiy Dolgorukiy, the hero and narrator in Podrostok. I also suggest that 'Alphonse Cinque' (as Van dubbed the Bourbonian-chinned concierge at the Alphonse Four, 3.3) hints at Alfonsinka (as Arkadiy calls Lambert's girlfriend Alphonsine), a character in Podrostok who seems to be Kim Beauharnais's mother. Interestingly, Cinque is a cycle of five poems (1945-46) by Akhmatova. In one of them Ladog ("of Ladoga lakes") rhymes with radug ("of rainbows"). Raduga was the Durmanovs' favorite domain, near the burg of that name, beyond Estotiland proper, in the Atlantic panel of the continent between elegant Kaluga, New Cheshire, U.S.A., and no less elegant Ladoga, Mayne, where they had their town house and where their three children were born: a son, who died young and famous, and a pair of difficult female twins. (1.1)
Alexey Sklyarenko
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/