Sandy Pallot Klein sends http://www.upperleftedge.com/2013/02/16/dmitris-father/... The main lecture room in Goldwin-Smith Hall on the Cornell
University Arts quadrangle ...
Jansy Mello: Being unfamiliar with the Arts
quadrangle in Cornell, the slight connection between
"Goldwin-Smith Hall" and Pale Fire's Judge Goldsworth and Wordsmith
College failed me until now...Did Charles Kinbote invent Judge
Goldsworth? What other "Goldsworth" could Shade have intended to include in
his poem? There's no other authority, beside CK's, that this character
existed, or the anedoctes that might explain his murder motivated by a
Zemblan "raghdirst."
Jansy Mello: Shade
mentioned the name Goldsworth in the same stride as
Wordsmith and every explanation related to " Judge
Goldsworth" (a person) derives from Kinbote's commentary about his
hypothetical landlord, a judge with wife, cat and "alphabetic
daughters."
While wondering about Shade's use
of "Goldsworth," I played with the inverted "Worthgolds". The
sound and the price in gold reminded me of "Wergeld" (i.e:
Kinboot, -bute, -bot), according to a few December 2006 VN-L postings:
1. Carolyn Kunin noted that "the
word 'kinbote' like the word 'versipel' is
too unusual to be a happenstance. Neither word appears in the OED, yet both are
found in Webster's 3rd edition. Their usage by VN is very calculated."
2. A.Bouazza informed that
"Both 'kinbote' and the adjective 'versipellous' are to be found in the
OED:
Kinboot, -bute, -bot. A wergeld or
man-boot paid by a homicide to the kin of the person slain.
Versipellous. Having the faculty of
changing the skin.The above has, of course, been pointed out long before and
Brian Boyd discusses the word in that meaning in his VN: AM. As I always
understood it, Kinbote in his role as commentator and "publisher" of "Pale Fire"
the poem is the "wergeld" in relation to the slain Shade.
The two
words were brought together for their rarity. And,
actually, Shade's versipel (an inversion of the skin as it is
described for werewolves? ) hides the sound of "were" (man)
that appears somehow strangely linked to both kinboot and
versipel, in a connection that's as loose as were the
initial transformations of Goldsworth into wergeld. That's what I got
from doubting Kinbote's words...