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[NABOKOV-L] Lolita and Villon
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Dear List
Dante Gabriel Rosseti translated a poem by François Villon ( which VN probably read in the original French*) with familiar references, such as Flora, St.Joan (a "Lolita" precursor was a Juanita Dark,ie Jeanne D'Arc ) and Bertha Broadfoot ( cf Lolita's Berthe au Grand Pied).
In his notes to "Lolita", Alfred Appel explains that "the epithet is not pejorative," and he mentions Villon's poem, when he informs the reader that Bertha was Charlemagne's mother ( I once heard that,based on this nickname, historians ascribed Charlemagne's height to his big-footed mother). A rather funny image: a hirsute "Mlle Humbert" being adopted by the girls just like in myths (Achilles, for example) or in several plays by Shakespeare and Dryden.
Might there be a meandering reference to a future, very different King Charles, too?
I remember that Nabokov quoted some lines of this particular poem by Villon elsewhere ( perhaps in TT?, BS?) - this time nostalgically wondering about "where are the snows of yester-year" ( mais où sont les neiges d'antan?) - but I couldn't locate them. Can anyone confirm this reference for me?
It would be interesting to know if, and how, this ballad touched a chord in VN.
................................................................................................................................................
Lolita:
So how could I afford not to see her for two months of summer insomnias? [...] Should I disguise myself as a somber old-fashioned girl, gawky Mlle Humbert[...] in the hope that its russet nymphets would clamor: "Let us adopt that deep-voiced D.P.," and drag the said, shyly smiling Berthe au Grand Pied to their rustic hearth. Berthe will sleep with Dolores Haze!
THE BALLAD OF DEAD LADIES ( by: François Villon, 1431-1489)
TELL me now in what hidden way is
Lady Flora the lovely Roman?
Where's Hipparchia, and where is Thais,
Neither of them the fairer woman?
Where is Echo, beheld of no man,
Only heard on river and mere,--
She whose beauty was more than human? . . .
But where are the snows of yester-year?
Where's Héloise, the learned nun,
For whose sake Abeillard, I ween,
Lost manhood and put priesthood on?
(From Love he won such dule and teen!)
And where, I pray you, is the Queen
Who willed that Buridan should steer
Sewed in a sack's mouth down the Seine? . . .
But where are the snows of yester-year?
White Queen Blanche, like a queen of lilies,
With a voice like any mermaiden,--
Bertha Broadfoot, Beatrice, Alice,
And Ermengarde the lady of Maine,--
And that good Joan whom Englishmen
At Rouen doomed and burned her there,--
Mother of God, where are they then? . . .
But where are the snows of yester-year?
Nay, never ask this week, fair lord,
Where they are gone, nor yet this year,
Save with this much for an overword,--
But where are the snows of yester-year?
"The Ballad of Dead Ladies" was translated into English by D.G. Rossetti (1828-1882).
...........................................................
* Ballade (des dames de temps jadis)
Dictes moy ou, n'en quel pays,
Est Flora la belle Rommaine,
Archipiades ne Thaïs,
Qui fut sa cousine germaine,
Echo parlant quant bruyt on maine
Dessus riviere ou sus estan,
Qui beaulté ot trop plus q'humaine.
Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan?
Ou est la tres sage Helloïs,
Pour qui chastré fut et puis moyne
Pierre Esbaillart a Saint Denis?
Pour son amour ot ceste essoyne.
Semblablement, ou est la royne
Qui commanda que Buridan
Fust geté en ung sac en Saine?
Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan?
La royne Blanche comme lis
Qui chantoit a voix de seraine,
Berte au grand pié, Beatris, Alis,
Haremburgis qui tint le Maine,
Et Jehanne la bonne Lorraine
Qu'Englois brulerent a Rouan;
Ou sont ilz, ou, Vierge souvraine?
Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan?
Prince, n'enquerez de sepmaine
Ou elles sont, ne de cest an,
Qu'a ce reffrain ne vous remaine:
Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan?
François Villon c.1461
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Dante Gabriel Rosseti translated a poem by François Villon ( which VN probably read in the original French*) with familiar references, such as Flora, St.Joan (a "Lolita" precursor was a Juanita Dark,ie Jeanne D'Arc ) and Bertha Broadfoot ( cf Lolita's Berthe au Grand Pied).
In his notes to "Lolita", Alfred Appel explains that "the epithet is not pejorative," and he mentions Villon's poem, when he informs the reader that Bertha was Charlemagne's mother ( I once heard that,based on this nickname, historians ascribed Charlemagne's height to his big-footed mother). A rather funny image: a hirsute "Mlle Humbert" being adopted by the girls just like in myths (Achilles, for example) or in several plays by Shakespeare and Dryden.
Might there be a meandering reference to a future, very different King Charles, too?
I remember that Nabokov quoted some lines of this particular poem by Villon elsewhere ( perhaps in TT?, BS?) - this time nostalgically wondering about "where are the snows of yester-year" ( mais où sont les neiges d'antan?) - but I couldn't locate them. Can anyone confirm this reference for me?
It would be interesting to know if, and how, this ballad touched a chord in VN.
................................................................................................................................................
Lolita:
So how could I afford not to see her for two months of summer insomnias? [...] Should I disguise myself as a somber old-fashioned girl, gawky Mlle Humbert[...] in the hope that its russet nymphets would clamor: "Let us adopt that deep-voiced D.P.," and drag the said, shyly smiling Berthe au Grand Pied to their rustic hearth. Berthe will sleep with Dolores Haze!
THE BALLAD OF DEAD LADIES ( by: François Villon, 1431-1489)
TELL me now in what hidden way is
Lady Flora the lovely Roman?
Where's Hipparchia, and where is Thais,
Neither of them the fairer woman?
Where is Echo, beheld of no man,
Only heard on river and mere,--
She whose beauty was more than human? . . .
But where are the snows of yester-year?
Where's Héloise, the learned nun,
For whose sake Abeillard, I ween,
Lost manhood and put priesthood on?
(From Love he won such dule and teen!)
And where, I pray you, is the Queen
Who willed that Buridan should steer
Sewed in a sack's mouth down the Seine? . . .
But where are the snows of yester-year?
White Queen Blanche, like a queen of lilies,
With a voice like any mermaiden,--
Bertha Broadfoot, Beatrice, Alice,
And Ermengarde the lady of Maine,--
And that good Joan whom Englishmen
At Rouen doomed and burned her there,--
Mother of God, where are they then? . . .
But where are the snows of yester-year?
Nay, never ask this week, fair lord,
Where they are gone, nor yet this year,
Save with this much for an overword,--
But where are the snows of yester-year?
"The Ballad of Dead Ladies" was translated into English by D.G. Rossetti (1828-1882).
...........................................................
* Ballade (des dames de temps jadis)
Dictes moy ou, n'en quel pays,
Est Flora la belle Rommaine,
Archipiades ne Thaïs,
Qui fut sa cousine germaine,
Echo parlant quant bruyt on maine
Dessus riviere ou sus estan,
Qui beaulté ot trop plus q'humaine.
Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan?
Ou est la tres sage Helloïs,
Pour qui chastré fut et puis moyne
Pierre Esbaillart a Saint Denis?
Pour son amour ot ceste essoyne.
Semblablement, ou est la royne
Qui commanda que Buridan
Fust geté en ung sac en Saine?
Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan?
La royne Blanche comme lis
Qui chantoit a voix de seraine,
Berte au grand pié, Beatris, Alis,
Haremburgis qui tint le Maine,
Et Jehanne la bonne Lorraine
Qu'Englois brulerent a Rouan;
Ou sont ilz, ou, Vierge souvraine?
Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan?
Prince, n'enquerez de sepmaine
Ou elles sont, ne de cest an,
Qu'a ce reffrain ne vous remaine:
Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan?
François Villon c.1461
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/