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THOUGHTS: Game of Goose, Goldsmith, King Charles
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In her monograph on PF, Priscilla Meyer has ably sketched the myriad
connections between Charles the Beloved and Charles I & II of England--most
notably the Boscobel reference. Here may be another:
1) In C189, Kinbote refers to the Royal Game of Goose.
2) In Oliver Goldsmith's "The Deserted Village"--recall the Wordsmith-
Goldsworth exchange--we find line 232: "The twelve good rules, the royal
game of goose."
3) The "twelve good rules" is a reference to a set of 12 rules for living
attributed to Charles I of England. Cf. Crabbe's "The Parish Register":
"There is King Charles, and all his Golden Rules
Who proved Misfortune's was the best of schools:
And there his son, who, tried by years of pain,
Proved that misfortunes may be sent in vain."
Therefore, from Kinbote's reference, we may, via Goldsmith (and Crabbe,
though he is not necessary) make our way back to King Charles and, by
extension, his son.
Thanks to all who responded to my query about spiral stairs. I happen to
have had the pleasure of visiting in person both the Santa Fe and Vatican
staircases, though I'd never thought of them in the context of VN.
Matt Roth
*******
Addendum:
I meant to include in my last post a question about Kinbote's "go to
square 209" comment. As far as I can tell, the Royal Game of Goose (which
basically works like our Candyland or Chutes & Ladders) only has 63
squares in its spiral (that image again!). Has anyone advanced a theory
about "square 209"? (Pekka Tammi, maybe?) One thought: a square acre has
209 feet on each side. Unfortunately, PF contains no mention of an acre.
We do get "nacre" in Garh's house, and Cedarn is an anagram of "nacred,"
but I don't know what to do with that (Cedarn is Kinbote's [e]nd acre?).
Matt Roth
[EDNOTE. The Game of Goose was discussed by Don Johnson and others on Nabokv-L last October, but I don't think anyone speculated about "square 209." It's a prime number, isn't it? Does that matter? SES]
Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
Co-Editor, NABOKV-L
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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connections between Charles the Beloved and Charles I & II of England--most
notably the Boscobel reference. Here may be another:
1) In C189, Kinbote refers to the Royal Game of Goose.
2) In Oliver Goldsmith's "The Deserted Village"--recall the Wordsmith-
Goldsworth exchange--we find line 232: "The twelve good rules, the royal
game of goose."
3) The "twelve good rules" is a reference to a set of 12 rules for living
attributed to Charles I of England. Cf. Crabbe's "The Parish Register":
"There is King Charles, and all his Golden Rules
Who proved Misfortune's was the best of schools:
And there his son, who, tried by years of pain,
Proved that misfortunes may be sent in vain."
Therefore, from Kinbote's reference, we may, via Goldsmith (and Crabbe,
though he is not necessary) make our way back to King Charles and, by
extension, his son.
Thanks to all who responded to my query about spiral stairs. I happen to
have had the pleasure of visiting in person both the Santa Fe and Vatican
staircases, though I'd never thought of them in the context of VN.
Matt Roth
*******
Addendum:
I meant to include in my last post a question about Kinbote's "go to
square 209" comment. As far as I can tell, the Royal Game of Goose (which
basically works like our Candyland or Chutes & Ladders) only has 63
squares in its spiral (that image again!). Has anyone advanced a theory
about "square 209"? (Pekka Tammi, maybe?) One thought: a square acre has
209 feet on each side. Unfortunately, PF contains no mention of an acre.
We do get "nacre" in Garh's house, and Cedarn is an anagram of "nacred,"
but I don't know what to do with that (Cedarn is Kinbote's [e]nd acre?).
Matt Roth
[EDNOTE. The Game of Goose was discussed by Don Johnson and others on Nabokv-L last October, but I don't think anyone speculated about "square 209." It's a prime number, isn't it? Does that matter? SES]
Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
Co-Editor, NABOKV-L
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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