According to Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s mad Commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla), the King saw Disa for the first time at a masked ball in his uncle’s palace:
John Shade and Sybil Swallow (see note to line 247) were married in 1919, exactly three decades before King Charles wed Disa, Duchess of Payn. Since the very beginning of his reign (1936-1958) representatives of the nation, salmon fishermen, non-union glaziers, military groups; worried relatives, and especially the Bishop of Yeslove, a sanguineous and saintly old man, had been doing their utmost to persuade him to give up his copious but sterile pleasures and take a wife. It was a matter not of morality but of succession. As in the case of some of his predecessors, rough alderkings who burned for boys, the clergy blandly ignored our young bachelor's pagan habits, but wanted him to do what an earlier and even more reluctant Charles had done: take a night off and lawfully engender an heir.
He saw nineteen-year-old Disa for the first time on the festive night of July the 5th, 1947, at a masked ball in his uncle's palace. She had come in male dress, as a Tirolese boy, a little knock-kneed but brave and lovely, and afterwards he drove her and her cousins (two guardsmen disguised as flower-girls) in his divine new convertible through the streets to see the tremendous birthday illumination, and the fackeltanz in the park, and the fireworks, and the pale upturned faces. He procrastinated for almost two years but was set upon by inhumanly eloquent advisers, and finally gave in. On the eve of his wedding he prayed most of the night locked up all alone in the cold vastness of the Onhava cathedral. Smug alderkings looked at him from the ruby-and-amethyst windows. Never had he so fervently asked God for guidance and strength (see further my note to lines 433-434). (note to Line 275)
The King’s uncle Conmal, Duke of Aros, is the Zemblan translator of Shakespeare:
Conmal, Duke of Aros, 1855-1955, K.'s uncle, the eldest half-brother of Queen Blenda (q. v.); noble paraphrast, 12; his version of Timon of Athens, 39, 130; his life and work, 962. (Index)
The “real” name of both Queen Disa (the wife of Charles the Beloved) and Sybil Shade (the poet’s wife) seems to be Sofia Botkin (born Lastochkin). The name Conmal hints at kon’ mal (a small horse), the first two words in a riddle about lastochka (the swallow):
Конь мал за морем бывал:
Спереди — шильце,
Сзади — вильце,
Сверху — чёрное суконце,
Снизу — белое полотенце.
A small horse was oversees:
a little awl in front,
a little fork behind,
a piece of black cloth on the top,
a white towel underneath.
Kon' mal brings to mind Bryusov's poem Kon' bled ("Pale Horse," 1903). Kon’ (horse) rhymes with ogon’ (fire), as for example in the description of Falconet's equestrian statue of Peter I in Pushkin's Mednyi vsadnik ("The Bronze Horseman," 1833). Balmont’s poem Ogon’ (1905) begins with the line Ogon’ v svoyom rozhden'yi mal (at the moment of birth the fire is small):
Огонь в своём рожденьи мал,
Бесформен, скуден, хром,
Но ты взгляни, когда он, ал,
Красивым исполином встал,
Когда он стал Огнём!
Огонь обманчив, словно дух: —
Тот может встать как тень,
Но вдруг заполнит взор и слух,
И ночь изменит в день.
Вот, был в углу он, на полу,
Кривился, дымно-сер,
Но вдруг блестящей сделал мглу,
Удвоил свой размер.
Размер меняя, опьянил
Все числа, в сон их слив,
И в блеске смеха, полон сил,
Внезапно стал красив.
Ты слышишь? слышишь? Он поёт,
Он славит Красоту,
Вот — вот, до Неба достаёт,
И вьётся на лету!
In his memoir essay “Bryusov” (1925) Hodasevich compares Bryusov to Salieri and Balmont to Mozart:
Он не любил людей, потому что прежде всего не уважал их. Это во всяком случае было так в его зрелые годы. В юности, кажется, он любил Коневского. Не плохо он относился к 3. H. Гиппиус. Больше назвать некого. Его неоднократно подчёркнутая любовь к Бальмонту вряд ли может быть названа любовью. В лучшем случае это было удивление Сальери перед Моцартом. Он любил называть Бальмонта братом. М. Волошин однажды сказал, что традиция этих братских чувств восходит к глубокой древности: к самому Каину.
In Pushkin’s little tragedy “Mozart and Salieri” (1830) Mozart uses the phrase nikto b (“none would”). Shade’s, Kinbote’s and Gradus’ “real” name seems to be Botkin, nikto b in reverse. An American scholar of Russian descent, Professor Vsevolod Botkin went mad and became Shade, Kinbote and Gradus (the poet’s murderer) after the tragic death of his daughter Nadezhda (Hazel Shade of Kinbote’s Commentary). In 1912 Bryusov's mistress Nadezhda Lvov (a young poet) committed suicide. In his memoir essay on Bryusov Hodasevich mentions Bryusov's hope (nadezhda) that under the Bolsheviks he would be able to turn Russian literature na stol'ko-to gradusov (to so-and-so many degrees):
А какая надежда на то, что в истории литературы будет сказано: "в таком-то году повернул русскую литературу на столько-то градусов".
Conmal is the Duke of Aros. Aros is an anagram of rosa (dew). Nebesnaya rosa (“Heavenly Dew,” 1895) is a poem by Balmont:
День погас, и ночь пришла.
В чёрной тьме душа светла.
В смерти жизнь, и тает смерть.
Неба гаснущая твердь
Новой вспыхнула красой:
Там серебряной росой,
В самой смерти жизнь любя,
Ночь усыпала себя.
Ходят Ангелы во мгле,
Cлёзы счастья шлют земле,
Славят светлого Творца,
Любят, любят без конца.
The name of Zemblan capital, Onhava seems to hint at heaven.
In VN's novel Dar ("The Gift," 1937) Fyodor quotes the last line of Fet's poem Ne uprekay, chto ya smushchayus'... ("Don't reproach me for my confusion," 1891), Rosoyu schast'ya plachet noch' (The night weeps with the dew of happiness). Afanasiy Fet-Shenshin was married to Maria Botkin. Izmuchen zhizn'yu, kovarstvom nadezhdy ("By Life Tormented and by Cunning Hope..." 1864) and Lastochki ("The Swallows," 1884) are poems by Fet.
Kon’ blednyi (Pale Horse of the Apocalypse) + ogon’ mal (small fire) = Blednyi ogon’ (Pale Fire) + Conmal