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Fw: QUERY: PALE fIRE Query: Duke Conmal and K.R.
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Boyd (FOA ENG)" <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz>
To: "'D. Barton Johnson '" <chtodel@cox.net>
Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2004 3:43 PM
Subject: RE: QUERY: PALE fIRE Query: Duke Conmal and K.R.
Dear Mary and List,
Yes, as I discuss in N's PF 81-82, insofar as Conmal has a model it is
definitely Grand Duke Konstantin Konstaninovich Romanov, the son of
Alexander II's younger brother Konstantin Nikolaevich. Peter Zaionchkovsky,
in his time the foremost historian of Russian politics of that period (which
was Dmitri Nikolaevich Nabokov's era as a minister), thought "K.R."'s
translation of Shakespeare "fairly good," but Nabokov's own attitude to KR
is clear in "The Admiralty Spire": "That upper-class milieu-the fashionable
set, if you will-to which Katya had belonged, had backward tastes, to put it
mildly. Chekhov was considered an 'impressionist,' the society rhymester
Grand Duke Constantine a major poet. . . '" (Stories of VN 347). In SM, he
decries as the "worst of all" the weaknesses in his own first poem "the
shameful gleanings from Apuhtin's and Grand Duke Konstantin's lyrics of the
tsïganski type" (ch XI:5, p. 225). I don't think VN's rating of KR as
translator has ever been recorded, but it is likely if anything to be have
been harsher than his judgments of him as poet.
Though I note the "con mal" pun, I had no idea of those details of KR's life
that Mary has discovered. It seems highly likely that VN would have known
the gossip about KR (as a poet, he seems to have been the subject of Nabokov
family fun) through his father and through his grandfather's close
connection with Alexander II and Alexander III.
BB
-----Original Message-----
From: D. Barton Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: 2/16/2004 11:31 AM
Subject: QUERY: PALE fIRE Query: Duke Conmal and K.R.
EDNOTE. From the awesome Mary Bellino---------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mary Bellino" <iambe@rcn.com>
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (66
lines) ------------------
> While researching an unrelated matter, I came upon the
> Silver-Age literary figure Grand Duke Constantine
> (Konstantin) Romanov (1858-1915), grandson of Nicholas I
> (and relative of the last tsar, though I can't unravel the
> exact relationship). Writing under his initials, "K.R.," he
> published verse and, more important for our purposes, a
> Russian translation of "Hamlet." Has it ever been suggested
> that he might have been the model for another translator of
> "dze Bart," Duke Conmal, the uncle of Charles X in Pale Fire?
>
> Consider:
>
> Conmal = con (learn, construe, or translate) + mal (badly).
> Constantine, from Lat. 'constantia" (n.) and 'consto' (v.) =
> to be firm or steadfast, or (fancifully) to 'con' in a
> faithful way, giving VN a point d'appui for "Conmal."
>
> Conmal's dates, 1855-1955: after a long life, he dies
> happily (cf. his "raucous" dying request, C12) a few years
> before the Zemblan revolution.
> Constantine's dates, 1858-1915: though not especially
> long-lived, he also dies a peaceful death of natural causes
> just few years before the Russian revolution decimated his family.
>
> VN certainly knew K.R.'s work, as he translates one of his
> quatrains in ADA. (See Nabokv-L posting by Alexey Sklyarenko at
>
http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0211&L=nabokv-l&P=R10850)
>
> Interestingly, although I'm not sure VN could have known
> this, K.R. was (though married) strongly attracted to men,
> soldiers in particular, and thus could have been a true
> Zemblan patriot. His diaries are quite explicit on the
> subject; he sounds in fact very much like King Charles
> lamenting his inability to remain faithful to Disa. I should
> add however that his virility and sense of family duty are
> not in question, as he fathered nine children. (See article
> at http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/krbio.html)
>
> K.R. was a friend of Fet's and of many other literary and
> musical figures including Chaikovsky. There is a wonderful
> picture of his study at the Marble Palace at
> http://www.ticketsofrussia.ru/photos/rusmus/img/kr.jpg
> and it certainly recalls Kinbote's description of Conmal's
> "warm castle and its fifty thousand crested books" (C962).
>
> Pulling back the camera a little, if we accept the view that
> Kinbote is the "scholar of Russian descent" V. Botkin, he
> may be expected to have been familiar with K.R. and his
> Hamlet translation, and able to draw on his memories of
> Russia as well as the details of his New Wye life in order
> to weave the story of Zembla.
>
> Finally, what is interesting about Conmal is that despite
> his maladroit translations and execrable English verse, he
> is perhaps the most charming and sympathetic of the Zemblan
> characters in PF. Thus VN might not necessarily have been
> making fun of K.R. by transforming him into a Zemblan duke.
> The question I can't answer is-- how good or bad is K.R.'s
> Hamlet? Can anyone out there tell us? It's still in print,
> in a collection that includes also the Hamlets of Kroneberg,
> Radlova, and Pasternak (Moscow: Interbuk, 1994).
>
> With apologies for my ignorance of minor Russian writers and
> Romanov genealogy--
>
> Mary
>
From: "Brian Boyd (FOA ENG)" <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz>
To: "'D. Barton Johnson '" <chtodel@cox.net>
Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2004 3:43 PM
Subject: RE: QUERY: PALE fIRE Query: Duke Conmal and K.R.
Dear Mary and List,
Yes, as I discuss in N's PF 81-82, insofar as Conmal has a model it is
definitely Grand Duke Konstantin Konstaninovich Romanov, the son of
Alexander II's younger brother Konstantin Nikolaevich. Peter Zaionchkovsky,
in his time the foremost historian of Russian politics of that period (which
was Dmitri Nikolaevich Nabokov's era as a minister), thought "K.R."'s
translation of Shakespeare "fairly good," but Nabokov's own attitude to KR
is clear in "The Admiralty Spire": "That upper-class milieu-the fashionable
set, if you will-to which Katya had belonged, had backward tastes, to put it
mildly. Chekhov was considered an 'impressionist,' the society rhymester
Grand Duke Constantine a major poet. . . '" (Stories of VN 347). In SM, he
decries as the "worst of all" the weaknesses in his own first poem "the
shameful gleanings from Apuhtin's and Grand Duke Konstantin's lyrics of the
tsïganski type" (ch XI:5, p. 225). I don't think VN's rating of KR as
translator has ever been recorded, but it is likely if anything to be have
been harsher than his judgments of him as poet.
Though I note the "con mal" pun, I had no idea of those details of KR's life
that Mary has discovered. It seems highly likely that VN would have known
the gossip about KR (as a poet, he seems to have been the subject of Nabokov
family fun) through his father and through his grandfather's close
connection with Alexander II and Alexander III.
BB
-----Original Message-----
From: D. Barton Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: 2/16/2004 11:31 AM
Subject: QUERY: PALE fIRE Query: Duke Conmal and K.R.
EDNOTE. From the awesome Mary Bellino---------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mary Bellino" <iambe@rcn.com>
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (66
lines) ------------------
> While researching an unrelated matter, I came upon the
> Silver-Age literary figure Grand Duke Constantine
> (Konstantin) Romanov (1858-1915), grandson of Nicholas I
> (and relative of the last tsar, though I can't unravel the
> exact relationship). Writing under his initials, "K.R.," he
> published verse and, more important for our purposes, a
> Russian translation of "Hamlet." Has it ever been suggested
> that he might have been the model for another translator of
> "dze Bart," Duke Conmal, the uncle of Charles X in Pale Fire?
>
> Consider:
>
> Conmal = con (learn, construe, or translate) + mal (badly).
> Constantine, from Lat. 'constantia" (n.) and 'consto' (v.) =
> to be firm or steadfast, or (fancifully) to 'con' in a
> faithful way, giving VN a point d'appui for "Conmal."
>
> Conmal's dates, 1855-1955: after a long life, he dies
> happily (cf. his "raucous" dying request, C12) a few years
> before the Zemblan revolution.
> Constantine's dates, 1858-1915: though not especially
> long-lived, he also dies a peaceful death of natural causes
> just few years before the Russian revolution decimated his family.
>
> VN certainly knew K.R.'s work, as he translates one of his
> quatrains in ADA. (See Nabokv-L posting by Alexey Sklyarenko at
>
http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0211&L=nabokv-l&P=R10850)
>
> Interestingly, although I'm not sure VN could have known
> this, K.R. was (though married) strongly attracted to men,
> soldiers in particular, and thus could have been a true
> Zemblan patriot. His diaries are quite explicit on the
> subject; he sounds in fact very much like King Charles
> lamenting his inability to remain faithful to Disa. I should
> add however that his virility and sense of family duty are
> not in question, as he fathered nine children. (See article
> at http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/krbio.html)
>
> K.R. was a friend of Fet's and of many other literary and
> musical figures including Chaikovsky. There is a wonderful
> picture of his study at the Marble Palace at
> http://www.ticketsofrussia.ru/photos/rusmus/img/kr.jpg
> and it certainly recalls Kinbote's description of Conmal's
> "warm castle and its fifty thousand crested books" (C962).
>
> Pulling back the camera a little, if we accept the view that
> Kinbote is the "scholar of Russian descent" V. Botkin, he
> may be expected to have been familiar with K.R. and his
> Hamlet translation, and able to draw on his memories of
> Russia as well as the details of his New Wye life in order
> to weave the story of Zembla.
>
> Finally, what is interesting about Conmal is that despite
> his maladroit translations and execrable English verse, he
> is perhaps the most charming and sympathetic of the Zemblan
> characters in PF. Thus VN might not necessarily have been
> making fun of K.R. by transforming him into a Zemblan duke.
> The question I can't answer is-- how good or bad is K.R.'s
> Hamlet? Can anyone out there tell us? It's still in print,
> in a collection that includes also the Hamlets of Kroneberg,
> Radlova, and Pasternak (Moscow: Interbuk, 1994).
>
> With apologies for my ignorance of minor Russian writers and
> Romanov genealogy--
>
> Mary
>