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Mike M writes:
'Ada' is framed by Sidney's Arcadia (Arkadievitch on the first page,
Ardis-arrowhead three times on the last full page). One can take for
granted that almost any time you see an 'arch' prefix, or one related
to it, you may count on a Sidney connection, even if you can't exactly
pin it down ..... yet. (Puttenham in his 'Arte of English Poesie'
published in 1589, the year before the earliest version of the Arcadia
hit the bookstands, wrote of the "booke of Archadia"). So at the foot
of p.6, the reels of film featuring amongst other delights the
"archeologist from Arkansas ... old Archie's premature squitteroo" hits
you squarely between the eyes, thrice.
Here's part of the probable solution. Sidney's Arcadia was published in
two forms, known as the New Arcadia and the Old Arcadia ("old Archie").
Boyd in his annotations suggests that 'old Archie's premature
squitteroo' refers both to male ejaculation (premature) and diarrhea
(the squitters). The answer lies in the Arcadia, though whether Nabokov
is misleading the reader by alluding to the "old" when perhaps he means
the "New" is not to be ignored.
MM