Subject
Date Palm and Johnson's wig (addenda)
From
Date
Body
1. Date Palm:
After I decided to investigate a little further on "fourth-dimensional" meanings for "date palm" in Wordsmith, I found an article by Christiane Gillham, from where I extracted a few lines on the relation bt. date palm and phoenix, ashes and seeds, rebirth. It was obtained from www.uni-tuebingen.de/uni/nec/gillham22.htm
In her text "Single Natures Double Name": some comments on The Phoenix and Turtle, Christiane Gillham discusses a comment on the "sole Arabian tree" in Shakespeare's The Phoenix and Turtle (P&T), where "Grosart drew attention to the homonymy of Greek Φοινιξ [phoinix]: 'The palm is meant. In Greek phoinix, and meaning both phoenix and palmtree." ...In the Renaissance, agreement in the verba was still felt to be an indicator of hidden congruence in the res.In other words, the identical or similar name suggested a parallel in the Book of Nature, i.e., in the case of phoinix, the integral relationship between the tree and the bird.'
According to Gillham, the phoenix, "this legendary bird is seen to be naturally related to the palmtree. Pliny, for instance, assumes that the phoenix obtained his name from the palm (phoinix). The bird is said to die and to rise again when the tree experiences its rebirth.This entry in the "Book of Nature" finds an exact poetic parallel in Ovid's Metamorphoses, where the phoenix fashions his pyre "in the topmost branches of a waving palm-tree." The topical connection between the bird and the tree is further pursued in the Christian tradition, where the phoenix is frequently seen to be roosting on top of the palm in delineations of paradise....When it comes to the natural rather than verbal affinity, especially with a view to Shakespeare's P&T ... the cinders left after the Phoenix and Turtle have risen from the pyre in their "mutual flame" contain the complete ideal substance of both. In prefering "cinders" to ashes, Shakespeare possibly harkened back to Theophrastus's description of the development of palm-fruits."
Gillham concludes " The homonymy of Φοινιξ [phoinix] in Greek, therefore, not only extends the meaning of the name "Phoenix" in Shakespeare's poem. It also brings into play, as a possible source, the Song of Solomon. This, again, is an instance of classical sources being indicators of typological lore."
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität /Münster.
Notes on William Shakespeare, "The Phoenix and the Turtle" l. 39, The Poems, A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare, ed. Hyder Edward Rollins (Philadelphia: J. S. Lippincott, 1938) 323-31).
The idea of burning, cinders & ashes is a constant in VN, together with "the afterlife". In Pale Fire we also find an insistence in oriental princes and Magi ( Balthasar, Prince of Loam, Vintage, page 98, for example), gardeners and, specially, commentary to line 998: "a phoenix ( now date palm)"...
2. The remembered limerick on Johnson's wig was actually an anedocte I had read while leafing thru Freud( S.Freud, SE,vol VIII, page 71). Freud's study of resemblances/double meanings departed from a curious example: "The lady resembles the Venus of Milo.She, too, is extraordinarily old...". Then, he noted that "these resemblances can only exist in qualities that are expressed in terms with a double meaning or in unimportant details. This latter feature applies to our second example, "The Great Spirit", by Lichtenberg: " He united in himself the characteristics of the greatest men. He carried his head askew like Alexander; he always had to wear a toupet like Caesar; he could drink coffee like Leibniz...he wore his wig like Dr. Johnson, and he always left a breeches-button undone like Cervantes".
Shade's hair was also described in connection not only to Dr.Johnson ( real ), Judge Goldsworth and a charwoman ( fictional) or, once, as the mythic Medusa. It was probably this famous hair that confused the killer, intent on murdering Judge Goldsworth.
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After I decided to investigate a little further on "fourth-dimensional" meanings for "date palm" in Wordsmith, I found an article by Christiane Gillham, from where I extracted a few lines on the relation bt. date palm and phoenix, ashes and seeds, rebirth. It was obtained from www.uni-tuebingen.de/uni/nec/gillham22.htm
In her text "Single Natures Double Name": some comments on The Phoenix and Turtle, Christiane Gillham discusses a comment on the "sole Arabian tree" in Shakespeare's The Phoenix and Turtle (P&T), where "Grosart drew attention to the homonymy of Greek Φοινιξ [phoinix]: 'The palm is meant. In Greek phoinix, and meaning both phoenix and palmtree." ...In the Renaissance, agreement in the verba was still felt to be an indicator of hidden congruence in the res.In other words, the identical or similar name suggested a parallel in the Book of Nature, i.e., in the case of phoinix, the integral relationship between the tree and the bird.'
According to Gillham, the phoenix, "this legendary bird is seen to be naturally related to the palmtree. Pliny, for instance, assumes that the phoenix obtained his name from the palm (phoinix). The bird is said to die and to rise again when the tree experiences its rebirth.This entry in the "Book of Nature" finds an exact poetic parallel in Ovid's Metamorphoses, where the phoenix fashions his pyre "in the topmost branches of a waving palm-tree." The topical connection between the bird and the tree is further pursued in the Christian tradition, where the phoenix is frequently seen to be roosting on top of the palm in delineations of paradise....When it comes to the natural rather than verbal affinity, especially with a view to Shakespeare's P&T ... the cinders left after the Phoenix and Turtle have risen from the pyre in their "mutual flame" contain the complete ideal substance of both. In prefering "cinders" to ashes, Shakespeare possibly harkened back to Theophrastus's description of the development of palm-fruits."
Gillham concludes " The homonymy of Φοινιξ [phoinix] in Greek, therefore, not only extends the meaning of the name "Phoenix" in Shakespeare's poem. It also brings into play, as a possible source, the Song of Solomon. This, again, is an instance of classical sources being indicators of typological lore."
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität /Münster.
Notes on William Shakespeare, "The Phoenix and the Turtle" l. 39, The Poems, A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare, ed. Hyder Edward Rollins (Philadelphia: J. S. Lippincott, 1938) 323-31).
The idea of burning, cinders & ashes is a constant in VN, together with "the afterlife". In Pale Fire we also find an insistence in oriental princes and Magi ( Balthasar, Prince of Loam, Vintage, page 98, for example), gardeners and, specially, commentary to line 998: "a phoenix ( now date palm)"...
2. The remembered limerick on Johnson's wig was actually an anedocte I had read while leafing thru Freud( S.Freud, SE,vol VIII, page 71). Freud's study of resemblances/double meanings departed from a curious example: "The lady resembles the Venus of Milo.She, too, is extraordinarily old...". Then, he noted that "these resemblances can only exist in qualities that are expressed in terms with a double meaning or in unimportant details. This latter feature applies to our second example, "The Great Spirit", by Lichtenberg: " He united in himself the characteristics of the greatest men. He carried his head askew like Alexander; he always had to wear a toupet like Caesar; he could drink coffee like Leibniz...he wore his wig like Dr. Johnson, and he always left a breeches-button undone like Cervantes".
Shade's hair was also described in connection not only to Dr.Johnson ( real ), Judge Goldsworth and a charwoman ( fictional) or, once, as the mythic Medusa. It was probably this famous hair that confused the killer, intent on murdering Judge Goldsworth.
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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