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Fwd: "German source" in SPEAK, MEMORY
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In chapter three of SPEAK, MEMORY (the "Portrait of My Uncle" chapter,
written, as Nabokov points out in his 1966 preface, in June 1947 at
Columbine Lodge, Estes Park, Colo.; that is, during the period in which he
was also at work on "a short novel about a man who liked little girls," as
he penned in a letter to Edmund Wilson dated April 7, 1947), Nabokov
recounts an anecdote (p. 399 of the Library of America edition) about his
father's mother's mother's husband's mother's mother Elisabeth née Fischer
(born 1760):
<-- start of quote -->
Elisabeth was a celebrated beauty. After divorcing her first husband,
Justizrat Graun, the composer's son, in 1795, she married the minor poet
Christian August von Stägemann, and was the "motherly friend," as my German
source puts it, of a much better known writer, Heinrich von Kleist (1777-
1811), who, at thirty-three, had fallen passionately in love with her
twelve-year-old daughter Hedwig Marie (later von Olfers).
<-- end of quote -->
Aside from the curious resonance between Hedwig Marie von Stägemann (later
von Olfers) and Dolores Haze (later Mrs Richard F. Schiller) -- a
resonance, no doubt, which has been amply explored by prior scholars -- and
the punningly perverse parallel between, on the one hand, the self-murdered
playwright Kleist (whose last great work, completed the summer before his
late-autumn double suicide, is known in English as "The Prince of Homburg")
versus the upstaged stageman (?!) Stägemann and, on the other hand, the
Humbert-murdered playwright Quilty versus the Quilty-played-with stooge
Humbert -- aside from these "reminiscences" (the pursuit of which, Nabokov
reminds us in his commentary to EUGENE ONEGIN (vol. II, pp. 32-33 of the
paperback edition), "may become a form of insanity on the scholiast's
part") what intrigues me is the phrase, "as my German source puts it."
Earlier in the chapter (p. 397), Nabokov lists two Russian "sources" -- his
father's first cousin V.V. Golubtsov and his own first cousin S.S. Nabokov -
- but I can't seem to track down who or what Nabokov meant by this "German
source." Am I overlooking something? Could it be his own "Korff nose ... a
handsome Germanic organ" (p. 398)? Or perhaps it's related to the agent
gone missing from the uncharacteristically priggish passive construction on
p. 400: "I am told there is at the Sans-Souci Palace in Potsdam ..."? Or
maybe Kleist himself? I would be gratefully delighted if anyone could
enlighten me.
(The German for 'source,' incidentally, is Quelle, from which, if we allow
the French quille, 'bowling pin; leg,' we can get, via quills and quilts,
to Quilty in a mere four strokes of word golf; or, taking a more quilly
shortcut, in a Kinbote-rivalling three -- but that particular goose chase
risks luring us all the way to Clear Springs (Tex.? Ala.? Miss.?
Ark.? ...).)
----- End forwarded message -----
written, as Nabokov points out in his 1966 preface, in June 1947 at
Columbine Lodge, Estes Park, Colo.; that is, during the period in which he
was also at work on "a short novel about a man who liked little girls," as
he penned in a letter to Edmund Wilson dated April 7, 1947), Nabokov
recounts an anecdote (p. 399 of the Library of America edition) about his
father's mother's mother's husband's mother's mother Elisabeth née Fischer
(born 1760):
<-- start of quote -->
Elisabeth was a celebrated beauty. After divorcing her first husband,
Justizrat Graun, the composer's son, in 1795, she married the minor poet
Christian August von Stägemann, and was the "motherly friend," as my German
source puts it, of a much better known writer, Heinrich von Kleist (1777-
1811), who, at thirty-three, had fallen passionately in love with her
twelve-year-old daughter Hedwig Marie (later von Olfers).
<-- end of quote -->
Aside from the curious resonance between Hedwig Marie von Stägemann (later
von Olfers) and Dolores Haze (later Mrs Richard F. Schiller) -- a
resonance, no doubt, which has been amply explored by prior scholars -- and
the punningly perverse parallel between, on the one hand, the self-murdered
playwright Kleist (whose last great work, completed the summer before his
late-autumn double suicide, is known in English as "The Prince of Homburg")
versus the upstaged stageman (?!) Stägemann and, on the other hand, the
Humbert-murdered playwright Quilty versus the Quilty-played-with stooge
Humbert -- aside from these "reminiscences" (the pursuit of which, Nabokov
reminds us in his commentary to EUGENE ONEGIN (vol. II, pp. 32-33 of the
paperback edition), "may become a form of insanity on the scholiast's
part") what intrigues me is the phrase, "as my German source puts it."
Earlier in the chapter (p. 397), Nabokov lists two Russian "sources" -- his
father's first cousin V.V. Golubtsov and his own first cousin S.S. Nabokov -
- but I can't seem to track down who or what Nabokov meant by this "German
source." Am I overlooking something? Could it be his own "Korff nose ... a
handsome Germanic organ" (p. 398)? Or perhaps it's related to the agent
gone missing from the uncharacteristically priggish passive construction on
p. 400: "I am told there is at the Sans-Souci Palace in Potsdam ..."? Or
maybe Kleist himself? I would be gratefully delighted if anyone could
enlighten me.
(The German for 'source,' incidentally, is Quelle, from which, if we allow
the French quille, 'bowling pin; leg,' we can get, via quills and quilts,
to Quilty in a mere four strokes of word golf; or, taking a more quilly
shortcut, in a Kinbote-rivalling three -- but that particular goose chase
risks luring us all the way to Clear Springs (Tex.? Ala.? Miss.?
Ark.? ...).)
----- End forwarded message -----