Subject
Lear's "never" (fwd)
From
Date
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*For my response, see below. GD*
From: Michael Maar <michael.maar@snafu.de>
Dear list,
sometimes memory is tricky and treacherous: I am quite sure, or feel to be,
that Nabokov, in his long discussions with Wilson, at one occasion had a
comment on King Lear's "never, never, never, never, never". Wilson quotes
this line as part of an argument, and Nabokov - to my memory - answers
something like: yes, but Bunny, a line like that, be honest, how often does
that occur! In short, he seems to be a grand admirer of these five nevers.
But I can't find it in the correspondence. Anyone knows if I'm mistaken,
which most certainly must be the case?
Thanks!
Michael
Wilson's remark is in the correspondence, pp. 59-60 (Apr 20, 1942, EW to
VN): "[Pushkin] almost never varies the iamb, whereas with Shakespeare any
substitution is possible. I don't remember in Pushkin even any such verse
as 'Never, never, never, never, never' in _King Lear_. It may be that
neither you nor Mirsky, trained on classic Russian verse, quite realizes
what English verse is like."
VN's response is in his August 24 letter (p. 72): "You say that you don't
remember in Pushkin e v e n any such verse as the five never's in _Lear_;
do you mean that you remember a similar kind of line anywhere _else_ in
Shakespeare (come, come, Bunny)? Incidentally we are not trained, Mirsky
and I, on classic Russian verse; we are trained on the verse of Blok,
Annensky, Bely and others who revolutionized the old ideas..."
From: Michael Maar <michael.maar@snafu.de>
Dear list,
sometimes memory is tricky and treacherous: I am quite sure, or feel to be,
that Nabokov, in his long discussions with Wilson, at one occasion had a
comment on King Lear's "never, never, never, never, never". Wilson quotes
this line as part of an argument, and Nabokov - to my memory - answers
something like: yes, but Bunny, a line like that, be honest, how often does
that occur! In short, he seems to be a grand admirer of these five nevers.
But I can't find it in the correspondence. Anyone knows if I'm mistaken,
which most certainly must be the case?
Thanks!
Michael
Wilson's remark is in the correspondence, pp. 59-60 (Apr 20, 1942, EW to
VN): "[Pushkin] almost never varies the iamb, whereas with Shakespeare any
substitution is possible. I don't remember in Pushkin even any such verse
as 'Never, never, never, never, never' in _King Lear_. It may be that
neither you nor Mirsky, trained on classic Russian verse, quite realizes
what English verse is like."
VN's response is in his August 24 letter (p. 72): "You say that you don't
remember in Pushkin e v e n any such verse as the five never's in _Lear_;
do you mean that you remember a similar kind of line anywhere _else_ in
Shakespeare (come, come, Bunny)? Incidentally we are not trained, Mirsky
and I, on classic Russian verse; we are trained on the verse of Blok,
Annensky, Bely and others who revolutionized the old ideas..."