Date:         Fri, 27 Jun 2003 10:54:34 -0700
Reply-To:     Vladimir Nabokov Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender:       Vladimir Nabokov Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From:         "D. Barton Johnson" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Fw: _Pale Fire_ chronology by Jerry Friedman
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EDNOTE. NABOKV-L thanks Jerry Friedman for sharing this material. The
interested researcher may wish to compare it with Kevin Pilon's "A
Chronology of PALE FIRE" in Carl Proffer's (ed.) A BOOK OF  THINGS ABOUT
VLADIMIR NABOKOV (Ardis: Ann Arbor, 1974).

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jerry Friedman" <[log in to unmask]>

> ---------------- Message requiring your approval (1001 lines) ---------
> Thanks to D. Barton Johnson and Mary Bellino for their interest in
> seeing this timeline.  As soon as I asked about posting it, I found
> some omissions, which I've filled in.  What it contains is every
> datable event I found in _Pale Fire_, including some that I could
> date only speculatively or only to a range.  I've supplied exact
> dates for a few real events (such as the birth of Tennyson) for
> which only years were given in the text.  The timeline does not
> contain real events mentioned but not dated in the text, such as
> the publication of _In Memoriam_, or events from history or
> Nabokov's life.  Each event is (I hope) accompanied by a reference
> to the text--FW for the Foreword, l. for a line in the poem, n. for
> a note to a line, and I. for the Index.  When the Index entry isn't
> obvious, I've given it with the abbreviation s.v.
>
> Events dated "sometime" occurred at an unknown time in the given
> yearEvents may not be in the correct order, especially with >"sometime"
and other non-specific dates.  Dates with question marks >or words  such as
"probably" and "possibly" are consistent with the >text, I  believe, and
arise from my evidence-less speculations based >on my  ideas of narrative
plausibility.
>
> I've made no attempt to discriminate between real, fictionally "real",
> and fictionally "unreal" events, since some people seem to disagree
> strongly with the categories I'd have chosen.  I have, however,
> referred to a character whose life Kinbote tells us about as "Gradus",
> but to the murderer as "Grey".
>
> The three apparent temporal discrepancies I found are all indicated
> with the word "discrepancy".  If the mistakes aren't on my part,
> I'm taking no position on whether they're on Kinbote's or Nabokov's
> part.  However, I think it's interesting that two could have arisen
> if someone thought Shade was born in 1899 and later changed or
> corrected it to 1898--but not everywhere.  On this subject, I assume
> the discrepancy about trucks on Dulwich road has been pointed out?
> And the Duke of Rahl thing?
>
> In some places where the dating isn't obvious, I've mentioned
> something about how I reached my conclusions.  In other places I
> haven't.  I'd be happy to answer any questions or clarify anything
> obscure.  Also, I'd be grateful for any comments, comparisons to
> other chronologies, criticisms, or corrections.
>
>
> _Pale Fire_ Timeline:
>
> 10th Century
> "A thousand years ago five minutes were/ Equal to forty ounces of
> fine sand" (ll. 120-121).
>
> 12th Century
> The _Kong-skugg-sio_ is written (n. 12).
>
> 1637
> Thomas Flatman is born (I.).
>
> 1688
> Thomas Flatman does not disappear, but only dies (I.).
>
> 1700-1800
> "Two Queens, three Kings, and fourteen Pretenders died violent deaths"
> in Zembla during this (extended) century (n. 62).
>
> 1778
> Hodinski a.k.a. Hodyna moves to Zembla (I.).
>
> 1798
> Hodinski collects (or forges) Zemblan variants of the Kong-skugg-sio
> (n. 12).
>
> 1798-1799
> Emperor Uran the Last reigns in Zembla (n. 681, I.).
>
> 1799
> Queen Yaruga's favorites kill Uran and she reigns in Zembla (I.).
>
> 1800 Jan. 1 (O.S.)
> Queen Yaruga and Hodinski drown in an ice-hole during the New Year's
> festivity (I. s.v. Hodinski and Yaruga). She is succeeded by her son
> Igor II, whose father is ostensibly her late brother Uran but according
> to most historians Hodinski (n. 681, I s.v. Hodinski and Igor II).
>
> Early 19th Century
> Count Komarovski, a Russian diplomat, becomes famous for
> mispronouncing his own name at foreign courts (I. s.v. Marrowsky).
>
> 1809 Aug. 5
> Alfred [Lord] Tennyson is born (n. 920).
>
> 1824 or 1825
> The future Thurgus III is born. (I.)
>
> 1835 June 2
> Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, later Pope Saint Pius X, is born (n. 85).
>
> 1845
> Igor II dies and is succeeded by Thurgus III (I.).
>
> 1851 or 1852
> Samuel Shade is born (n. 71).
>
> 1855
> Conmal, Duke of Aros and half-brother of Queen Blenda, is born (I.).
>
> 1859 March 26
> A[lfred] E. Housman is born (n. 920).
>
> 1864
> Franklin Knight Lane, later U.S. Secretary of the Interior, is born
> (I.).
>
> 1869
> Maud Shade is born (n. 86-90).
> The oldest of the Shadows, the probable murderer of Iris Acht, is born
> (I. s.v. Acht, Iris).
>
> 1873
> The future King Alfin the Vague is born (n. 71, I.)
>
> 1874
> Robert Frost is born (n. 426).
>
> 1876
> An extraordinary episode takes place at Onhava University (n. 347).
>
> 1877?
> "Dr. Sutton" is born (ll. 987-988).  (I'm assuming that, as usual in
> _Pale Fire_, ages are obtained simply by subtracting years.  Then
> Shade was 21 in 1919, the year of his marriage, so Dr. Sutton was 42,
> so he was born in 1919 - 42 = 1877.  With other interpretations, Dr.
> Sutton could have been born in 1876, 1878, or 1879.)
>
> 1878
> The future Queen Blenda is born (I.).
>
> 1880
> Around this time Conmal learns English.  He translates Shakespeare's
> _Sonnets_ on of a bet with a fellow officer, and then retires from
> the Army to start his career as a translator (n. 962).
>
> 1885
> Around this time the maternal grandfather of the Shadows' leader
> makes repairs to the king's quarters (including the secret passage?)
> and shortly thereafter is poisoned in the royal kitchens (I. s.v.
> Shadows).
>
> Mid 1880s
> Thurgus the Third has trysts with the actress Iris Acht in a secret
> passage from his dressing room, later a lumber room, to a lumbarkamer
> in the Royal Theater (n. 130, I.).
>
> 1888
> Iris Acht dies, officially by suicide and unofficially by murder
> (n. 130, I.).  Around this time ("some seventy years ago" in 1958
> or 1959), Ferz and Zule Bretwit have their correspondence (n. 286).
>
> 1889?
> The owner of the motor court in Cedarn is born (a "seventy-year-old
> man" in the fall of 1959) (n. 810).
>
> 1890? 1895?
> Sylvia O'Connell is born (I.).
>
> 1890
> Walter Campbell, later Charles's tutor, is born (I.).
>
> 1892 Oct. 6
> Alfred, Lord Tennyson dies (n. 920).
>
> 1898 Early in the year
> Sybil Irondell is born ("a few months his [Shade's] senior") (n. 247).
>
> July 5
> John Shade is born in New Wye (FW, n. 167, I.).
>
> 1900
> Thurgus the Third dies (n. 130, I.) and King Alfin accedes to the
> throne of Zembla (n. 71, I.).
>
> 1900-1914 Summer
> At some point King Alfin mislays an emperor (n. 71).
>
> 1902 Before July 5
> Samuel Shade dies (but John Shade seems to be "not quite three",
> which would put his birth in 1899 or Samuel's death in 1901, an
> apparent discrepancy) (n. 71).
>
> 1903 Summer
> Wordsmith College photographed "on a remarkably gloomy summer day"
> (FW).
> G. M. Sarto becomes Pope Pius X August 9 (n. 85).
>
> 1908
> Disa's grandfather builds a villa at Cap Turc called Villa Paradiso
> (Italian) or Villa Paradisa (Zemblan), later Villa Disa (n. 433-434).
>
> 1909 July
> Shade has his first fainting attack ("When I'd just turned eleven")
> (ll. 141-156).
>
> Winter
> Shade has fainting attacks every afternoon (possibly a later winter)
> (ll. 157-159) "for several weeks", according to Kinbote (n. 162).
>
> 1912
> King Alfin almost drowns while flying a hydroplane (n. 71).
>
> 1914 Aug. 20
> Pope Pius X dies (n. 85).
>
> Sometime
> Romulus Arnor and Oswin Bretwit are born (I.).
>
> 1915 Sometime
> Sylvia O'Connell marries and divorces Leopold O'Donnell (I.) and Odon
> is born to them (I.).
> Count Otar is born (I.).
>
> July 5, O. S.?
> Prince Charles Xavier is born (n. 1-4, n. 433-434, I.)  Note that
> the difference between his age and Shade's is seventeen years, not
> sixteen as Kinbote says to Sybil (n. 181), an apparent discrepancy.
> Jakob Gradus (henceforth "Gradus") is born, apparently in Riga
> (n. 17, 29, I.).  Both Zembla (n. 71) and Latvia used the Old Style
> calendar at the time; starting in 1900, July 5 O. S. was July 18 N. S.
>
> 1916
> Col. Peter Gusev builds a monoplane, Blenda IV, for King Alfin
> (n. 71).  His son Oleg, future (?) duke of Rahl, is born. (n. 130,
> I.).  Maybe around this time Col. Gusev marries Sylvia O'Donnell.
> Nodo is born to Leopold O'Donnell and a Zemblan boy impersonator (I.).
>
> 1917 Sometime
> Dr. Oskar Pfister publishes _The Psychoanalytical Method_, later to
> be quoted by Prof. C. (n. 929).
>
> April
> On a senior-class outing, Shade falls in love with Sybil Irondell
> (possibly the year before or after) (ll. 247-260).
>
> 1917 or 1918
> Fifalda de Fyler, later Countess Otar, is born (n. 71).
>
> 1918 or 1919
> Fleur de Fyler, later Countess de Fyler, is born. (n. 71).
>
> 1919 Jan. 7
> King Alfin and Charles Xavier are photographed together (Dec. 25,
> O. S.) (n. 71).
>
> Jan. 7-13
> Col Gusev is by now the First Duke of Rahl.  King Alfin dies in a
> plane crash (Dec. 25 to 31, O. S.) (n. 71, I.).
>
> Jan. 14?
> Maybe around Jan. 1 New Style, Zembla adopts the New Style or
> Gregorian calendar (n. 71).
>
> Early in the year
> King Alfin's widow, Queen Blenda, becomes the ruler of Zembla
> (n. 71, I.).
>
> Before July 7
> Shade and Sybil marry (l. 275, n. 275).
>
> 1920
> Martin Gradus, our man's father, dies.  His widow moves to
> Strasbourg.  "Soon thereafter", she dies too, and young Gradus
> is raised by a merchant coincidentally also named Gradus (n. 17,
> 29).
>
> 1921 May 17
> After a major operation and a few days before his death, Franklin
> Lane writes a remarkable passage about the afterlife (n. 810, I.).
>
> 1921 or 1922
> Young Prince Charles Xavier's nurse consoles him with a Zemblan
> proverb (n. 1000).  Possibly around this time ("my early boyhood")
> he sees a conjuror at his uncle's castle (FW).
>
> 1922
> Mr. Campbell arrives in Zembla to become Charles Xavier's tutor
> (n. 71).
>
> 1923 or 1924
> Eight-year-old Charles Xavier finds photographs of his father's
> plane crash (n. 71).
>
> 1925
> Baron Radomir Mandevil is born (I.).
> Sylvia O'Donnell leaves Zembla to marry an Oriental prince (I.).
>
> 1928 Sometime
> Julius Steinmann is born (I.).
>
> Before July 5
> Disa is born (n. 275, n. 433-434).  She spends this summer and the
> next fourteen at the Villa Paradisa (n. 433-434).
>
> 1929 Late April or early May
> Charles Xavier and Oleg, Duke of Rahl (though his father is still
> alive), share a bed for the first time (n. 130).
>
> May
> Mr. Campbell sprains his ankle in the Mandevil Forest. (n. 130,
> n. 149).  While he is still laid up, Charles Xavier and Oleg find
> Thurgus's secret passage and reach the theater, where they're
> frightened by a rehearsal, possibly of _The Merman_.  "Soon after",
> Charles almost dies of pneumonia and "[t]o recuperate he was sent
> for a couple of seasons to southern Europe." (n. 130).  I'm
> assuming that "three decades earlier" (than 1958) is an
> approximation.
>
> 1929? Summer?
> Charles sees a guilty-looking priest apparently receive divine grace.
> (n. 47-48)
>
> 1930
> Conmal finishes translating Shakespeare and starts on Milton and
> other poets (n. 962).
>
> 1930?
> In Gradus's "early youth", he joins an unsuccessful attempt to beat
> up a local lad who had won a motorbike at a fair (n. 171).
>
> 1931 Late in the year
> Oleg dies at fifteen in a toboggan accident (n. 130, I.).
>
> 1932
> Charles Xavier begins "dividing his time between the University and
> his regiment," "the nicest time of his life" (n. 71).
>
> After July 5
> Mr. Campbell leaves Zembla (n. 71), but 1931 according to I.
> s.v. Campbell, an apparent discrepancy.
>
> 1933 "The first part of the year"
> The Shades visit Nice, possibly glimpsing Disa and her English
> governess.  Hazel is conceived, presumably (ll. 433-435, n. 433-434,
> I. s.v. Shade).
>
> 1934 Early in the year
> Hazel Shade is born (l. 435, n. 86-90, n. 293, I.).  Her fellow
> college students (the nice frail roommate, the White twins, the
> Korean boy, maybe Pete Provost and his friend) would probably
> also have been born around this time.
>
> 1936 Sometime
> Charles finds a goose-boy named Garh in a lane north of Troth (I.
> s.v. Garh).  (But Troth seems to be a foreign country in n. 80.)
>
> April 30
> A. E. Housman dies (n. 920).
>
> July 20
> Queen Blenda's blood ailment is much better.  Charles Xavier goes to
> a ball. (n. 71).
>
> July 21
> Queen Blenda dies in the small hours.  Charles Xavier is told around
> 4 AM (n. 71, I.).
>
> July 22 to Aug. 30
> Fleur de Fyler's "courtship" of and three-day cohabitation with
> Charles (n. 71) occur during this period.
>
> Aug. 30
> Charles Xavier crowned king of Zembla. (n. 12, n. 71, n. 275, I.).
> Baron Radomir Mandevil serves as his throne page (I, n. 149,
> incorrectly given as 130 in the Index).
>
> 1936?
> The Shades spend a term at "Iph" while Hazel is "a mere tot"
> (ll. 502-509).
>
> 1936-1940
> The undergraduates Kinbote mentions were probably born around this
> time.
>
> 1937 May 10
> Maud Shade begins her scrapbook with an ad in _Life_ for the Talon
> Trouser Fastener (l. 91).
>
> "Sometime in the forties"
> Gradus goes to Zembla as a brandy salesman (n. 17, 29).  He has a
> variety of jobs in the glass business (n. 171).  He marries a beader,
> the daughter of a publican (n. 17, 29, n. 697) and after she leaves
> him, lives in sin with his mother-in-law till her death.  After that
> he tries to castrate himself and, with the help of an infection,
> becomes cured of lust (n. 697).
>
> Also probably sometime in the forties
> Hazel plays Mother Time in the school pantomime (ll. 309-314).
>
> 1942 Summer
> Disa spends her last consecutive summer at the villa at Cap Turc
> (despite the Nazi occupation--but Zembla is apparently neutral)
> (n. 433-434).
>
> 1944
> Gordon Krummholz is born (I.).
>
> 1944 or 1945
> Dee Goldsworth is born (between February 1944 and February 1945, if
> she is 14 when Kinbote moves in, or between the late summers or
> early autumns if she's 14 when Kinbote writes his note--unless I'm
> giving him too much credit for precision) (n. 47-48).
>
> 1946 or 1947
> Candida Goldsworth is born (n. 47-48).
>
> 1947 July 5
> Charles meets the nineteen-year-old Disa at a masked ball (n. 275).
>
> 1948 or 1949
> Betty Goldsworth is born (n. 47-48).
>
> 1949 March 28
> That issue of _Life_ has an ad for the Hanes Fig Leaf Brief, which
> becomes the last entry in Maud Shade's scrapbook (n. 91).
>
> Later that year
> Maud Shade, at eighty, becomes paralyzed and aphasic and is
> hospitalized (ll. 195-208).  Sybil has Maud's half-paralyzed Skye
> terrier destroyed, to Hazel's distress (n. 230).
>
> June?
> King Charles marries Disa "almost two years" after meeting her,
> having prayed alone in the Onhava cathedral most of the night before
> (n. 71, n. 275, I.).  During the next four years he tries and
> fails to have sex with her, she finds out he's gay, he promises
> several times to be faithful but never succeeds, and on a trip to an
> Italian lake he tells her he doesn't love her. (n. 433-434)
>
> 1949 or 1950
> Alphina Goldsworth is born (n. 47-48).
>
> 1950 January?
> Maud Shade dies at the beginning of the year (n. 86-90, n. 230).
> That day the Shades see a cicada's molted integument and a dead ant
> on a pine trunk (ll. 237-240).  Shortly thereafter, the Shades
> suffer poltergeist manifestations lasting nearly a month (n. 230).
>
> Sometime
> The elder Countess de Fyler dies in the fire at the Exposition of
> Glass Animals.  Gradus helps lynch the tourists mistaken for
> arsonists (n. 71).
>
> 1950?
> Around this year, Paul Hentzner's wife leaves him, taking their son,
> and Hentzner moves to town (n. 347).
>
> 1951
> Erich Fromm publishes _The Forgotten Language_, later to be quoted
> by Prof. C. (n. 929).
>
> 1952?
> Hazel Shade matriculates at Wordsmith.  Her trip to France may not be
> too far from this time.
> Perhaps sometime in the next few years, Kinbote's future gardener
> works as a nurse in a hospital for blacks in Maryland (l. 998).
>
> 1953
> Exiled from Zembla for incompatibility, Disa returns to the Villa
> Disa (n. 433-434).
>
>
> 1954
> The Bibliothèque de la Pléiade publishes an edition of _A la
> Recherche des temps perdus_ (n. 181--I haven't checked this).
>
> 1955
> Conmal dies (I.). Charles complies with his dying request by beginning
> to teach at Onhava University (n. 12).
> Col. Gusev, at seventy, is one of the greatest parachutists of all
> time (I.).
>
> 1956 Sometime
> Charles visits Disa for the second time since her exile (n. 433-434).
> A German academic and his Swedish wife attend a Sport Festival in
> Zembla and see King Charles (n. 894).
> The English translation of Charles's book on surnames is published
> in Oxford (n. 894).
>
> October
> The Haunted Barn.  A student and his girlfriend are disturbed by
> rattling sounds and lights.  The _Wordsmith Gazette_ makes the story
> notorious, and psychic researchers visit.  Hazel decides to
> investigate and gather data for a psychology paper.  The first time,
> with Jane Provost, a thunderstorm drowns out any manifestations.
> A few nights later, Hazel goes by herself and receives a cryptic
> communication from a will-o-the-wisp.  Returning home she's
> frightened by her father waiting for her on the porch.  On a later
> night, Hazel and her parents go the barn and wait in vain.  Shade
> complains to the authorities and the barn is razed. (n. 347).
>
> 1957 By March
> Shade finishes _Supremely Blest_, his book on Pope ("recently" at the
> time of Hazel's death) (l. 384).
>
> March
> After a humiliating blind double-date, Hazel drowns (herself).  (ll.
> 385-500, n. 293, I.).
> Not long thereafter, Jane Provost tries to talk to the Shades, and
> later writes Sybil a long letter, never answered (n. 385-386).
>
> Sometime
> Paul Hurley, Jr., becomes head of the English Department at Wordsmith
> (n. 376-377).
> Baron Radomir Mandevil fights a duel (n. 169).
>
> 1958 Sometime
> Shade sends "The Nature of Electricity" to _The Beau and the
> Butterfly_ (n. 347).
>
> March
> The Shades hear noises, play chess. (ll. 653-664).  This may be the
> previous March; Shade seems to telescope the time between Hazel's
> death and the incidents of 1959.
>
> May 1
> The Zemblan Revolution breaks out (n. 433-434).  Soon (maybe the
> same day) the Soviet-backed Extremists depose Charles Xavier
> (n. 12, I.) and hold him captive in the South West Tower (n. 130).
> Disa writes Charles a wild letter, which the palace commandant reads
> him.
>
> After May 1
> Romulus Arnor is executed (I.).
>
> Summer
> The Shades, starting to recover from their grief, go to Italy
> (ll. 668-670).  Around this time Shade's "bunch of essays _The
> Untamed/ Seahorse_" is published and "universally acclaimed".
> (ll. 671-672)
>
> July?
> "Several weeks" before her next attempt, Disa flies to Stockholm
> in an attempt to help Charles, but is turned back by her loathed
> cousin "Curdy Buff" (n. 433-434).
>
> Mid July
> Two Russian experts, Andronnikov and Niagarin, begin searching the
> Onhava Palace for the Crown Jewels (n. 130).
>
> Mid August
> Charles Xavier is accused of communicating with sympathizers by
> heliograph and moved from the tower to a "dismal lumber room".  He
> remembers the secret passage.  Though Odon tries to convince him to
> postpone his attempt, after ostensibly going to bed Charles escapes
> to the theater, interrupting Odon in a performance of _The Merman_.
> The two run outside to Odon's racing car (n. 130).  Odon drives
> west and up to Mandevil Forest, where he leaves Charles.  Charles
> climbs Mt. Mandevil for two hours in the rainy night (repeating the
> opening couplet of Goethe's "Erlkönig" in both German and Zemblan,
> n. 662) and takes shelter in the house of a farmer named Griff.
> The next morning he leaves (snubbing the farmer's daughter's sexual
> offer) and crosses the mountains west to Blawick.  On his mountain
> walk he sometimes feels Fate reaching for him (n. 597-608).  In
> Blawick he reunites with Odon, who takes him to the Rippleson Caves
> and a boat (n. 149, n. 597-608).  Meanwhile Royalist pranksters
> impersonate him, one in a fixed-speed chase on a chairlift (n. 70).
> This chaff lasts "almost a year", as the Extremist govenment thinks
> Charles is still in Zembla and tries to prevent his escape by air
> (n. 171).
> Disa, alarmed by rumors that Charles might be condemned to death,
> flies to Brussels and charters a plane, but a message from Odon
> tells her that Charles is out of Zembla and she should return to
> Villa Disa and wait for further communications (n. 433-434).
> Perhaps a bit later, Charles reclines on the sofa in Oswin Bretwit's
> flat in Meudon (n. 286).
>
> Early fall
> Charles is in Nice and Mentone (n. 240).
>
> August, September, October
> Sybil continues translating Marvell and Donne into French.  Hurricane
> Lolita, Mars, the Shah's wedding, Russian espionage, Sybil's portrait
> l. 677-682).
>
> Sometime in this period
> Charles shaves for the last time (n. 12).
> Andronnikov and Niagarin keep tearing apart the palace looking for
> the Crown Jewels (n. 681).
>
> September
> Joe Lavender tells Disa that a representative of her husband will
> visit her, but in fact Charles himself visits her briefly, also
> seeing her friend and attendant, Fleur de Fyler (n. 433-434).
>
> Oct. 17
> Shade has an apparent heart attack and "dies".  Dr. Ahlert treats him
> and reassures him wittily (ll. 682-728, n. 691, n. 727-728).
>
> Oct. 18 or 19
> Charles, henceforth called Kinbote, parachutes near Sylvia's "manor"
> and converses with her (n. 691).
>
> Oct. 20
> Sylvia leaves for Africa (Monday).  Kinbote continues to stay at her
> manor (n. 691).  Sometime probably in the next year Sylvia divorces
> Lionel Lavender, Joe Lavender's cousin (I.).
>
> Nov. 1 or 2
> Kinbote meets Billy Reading, president of Wordsmith, in New York.
> Kinbote spends the time till Christmas in the libraries of Washington
> and New York (n. 691).
>
> After Oct. 17
> Shade reads Jim Coates's article about Mrs. Z.'s near-death experience,
> drives 300 miles west to interview both of them, is disappointed by
> the fountain-mountain misprint, and finds some "faint hope"
> (ll. 745-834).
>
> Dec. 25
> Kinbote spends Christmas in Florida (n. 691).
>
> Late 1958 or early 1959
> After several months of impersonating Charles Xavier, Julius
> Steinmann is captured and shot by a firing squad.  Not killed, he
> is treated in a hospital, where Gradus bursts in and shoots at him
> twice, missing both times.  Steinmann disappears (n. 171).
>
> 1959 Early or mid Jan.?
> Classes start at Wordsmith College.  Shade resumes teaching.
> Kinbote arrives in New Wye (FW).
>
> Between Kinbote's arrival and (probably) his gardener's moving in
> Kinbote goes to a student-faculty party where he demonstrates
> Zemblan wrestling and gets a note accusing him of having hal.....s
> (n. 62).
>
> Between Kinbote's arrival in New Wye and the murder of Shade:
> Kinbote overhears Gerald Emerald referring to him as "the Great
> Beaver" and unties G. E.'s bow tie (FW).
> Dr. Nattochdag cautions Kinbote about criticizing his colleagues and
> their courses (FW).
> A drama students' skit caricatures Kinbote (FW).
> Kinbote finds that his gardener is "impotent" (n. 998).
> A visiting German lecturer suspects that Kinbote is the ex-King.
> In the process of trying to change the subject, Shade blows
> Kinbote's cover by mentioning the surname book, unless Charles had
> used the name Kinbote for his nom d'académie back in 1956.  Gerald
> Emerald insults the King, and Kinbote snubs him (n. 894).
>
> Jan. or early Feb.
> Kinbote writes Shade to introduce himself before moving in next
> door.  The Shades never read the letter (n. 691).
>
> Feb. 5
> Kinbote moves into the Goldsworth chateau (FW).
>
> Feb. 7? 8?
> Kinbote sees the Shades having trouble getting out of their icy
> driveway ("one of my first mornings there") (FW).
>
> Feb. 16
> Kinbote meets Shade at lunch at the Faculty Club (FW).
>
> A few days later
> Kinbote gives Shade a ride home (via Community Center), where Sybil
> introduces herself.  Kinbote has "a kind of a little seminar...
> with two charming identical twins and another boy, another boy"
> (Bad Bob?) (FW).
>
> Thereafter
> Kinbote entertains himself by spying on the Shades (FW).
>
> Late Feb.?
> Kinbote shows Shade some of Judge Goldsworth's notes, having saved
> them at least two weeks (n. 47-48).
>
> March 14
> Kinbote attends a dinner party at the Shades'.  Sometime after this
> and probably before May 23, Kinbote has the Shades over for dinner
> along with the son of a padishah (n. 579).
>
> March 21? 22?
> Shade, Kinbote, and Bob go to a "dreary get-together party" at
> Prof. C.'s house.  Bob takes a color snapshot of Kinbote and Shade.
> Mrs. C. snickers as Kinbote helps Shade find his galoshes (FW).
>
> March 28?
> While Shade takes a bath, Kinbote talks with him about a reference
> Kinbote is to look up on his trip to Washington, but neither can
> remember what it is (FW).
>
> March 28? 29?
> Kinbote is in Washington.  Bob uses this absence "by entertaining
> a fiery-haired whore from Exton".  This is a week after Prof. C.'s
> party, and it seems reasonable to put Kinbote's trip on a weekend
> (FW).
>
> March 30
> Kinbote, back from Washington, evicts Bob (FW, n. 802).  For the
> next several nights "neither wine, nor music, nor prayer could
> allay my fears."  Possibly during this period, Kinbote sees the
> Goldsworths' cat with a white bow around its neck and, believing
> someone has broken in, calls the police (n. 62).
>
> April?
> As leaves block Kinbote's view, he gets more bold and proficient
> about spying on the Shades (n. 47-49).
>
> April 2
> Kinbote writes to Disa about his night fears and living next to Shade.
> The letter includes his alias and the address of Wordsmith University
> (n. 768, I.).
>
> Early April?
> "After a maddening and embarrassing experience at the college
> indoor swimming pool", Kinbote meets a needy young black man who
> starts gardening for him the next day (n. 998).
>
> "Soon after Easter" (which is March 29)
> Kinbote's gardener moves in and his nocturnal fears stop (n. 62).
>
> April 6
> Kinbote receives a letter from Disa containing Shade's "The Sacred
> Tree" (n. 49).  Is this too fast to be an answer to his letter?
>
> Still April
> Kinbote has recently hired the gardener.  The subject of
> anti-Semitism comes up at the Faculty Club, after which Shade and
> Kinbote discuss Prejudice and the term "colored" (n. 470).
>
> Late April to early May
> Spring bird migration in Appalachia, presumably the peak of Kinbote's
> bird identification with his gardener's help (n. 1-4).
>
> Spring
> It's announced that Odon is in Paris, and the Extremist government
> in Zembla conjectures that the ex-king has left the country.  The
> Shadows determine to hunt him down (n. 171).  This is probably
> late in spring, as it's "almost a year" after the king escaped
> in August, and it shouldn't be too long before Gradus draws the
> fatal card on July 2.
>
> May 23
> Kinbote attends a second souper chez Shade.  Sometime, probably
> after this and before giving Shade the plan of the palace, he
> has the Shades over for a second dinner, with his gardener as
> the other guest. (n. 579).
>
> May or June
> Kinbote and Shade look for Shade's grandfather's pamphlets in
> Shade's basement, and Kinbote sees the clockwork toy, in the form
> of a black man, that Shade was playing with when he had his first
> fainting spell (n. 143).  During an evening stroll, Kinbote tells
> Shade the story of himself and Disa and encourages Shade to
> include it in the poem (n. 433-434).
>
> End of May
> Kinbote can "make out the outlines of some of my images in the shape
> his genius might give them" (n. 42).
>
> June
> Kinbote has at least nine sunset rambles with Shade (n. 238).
> At some point he draws and gives to Shade a plan of the Onhava
> Palace. He stays for lunch (n. 71).
> Probably sometime after this, he has the Shades over for dinner
> with the blonde in the black leotard as the other guest (n. 570).
>
> Mid June
> Kinbote feels sure Shade will write a poem about Zembla and
> increases his efforts  to "saturate" Shade with Zemblan stories
> (n. 42).
>
> June 23
> Kinbote and Shade play "a game of chess, a draw" and then converse
> on Kinbote's terrace about sin, God, and the afterlife (n. 549).
>
> Late June
> According to Shade's obituary, this is when he writes "The Swing",
> though Kinbote believes it dates to shortly after Hazel's death
> (n. 61).
>
> July 2
> At 12:05 AM Zemblan time, Gradus is chosen by a show of cards to
> assassinate Kinbote (n. 171).
> Shortly after midnight EDT, Shade starts "Pale Fire" (FW, n. 1-4).
> Meanwhile Kinbote  plays chess with an Iranian summer student
> (n. 1-4).
>
> Early or mid July
> Shade recites an obscure friend's poetry at a Summer School party
> at the Hurleys', and Kinbote hears Shade and Mrs. H. discuss an
> insane porter, or Kinbote himself (n. 629).
>
> July 3
> Sybil tells Kinbote that Shade has begun a poem but will not discuss
> it till he's done (n. 47-48).  Kinbote notes in his diary "poem
> begun!" (n. 42).
>
> July 4
> Shade finishes Canto 1 (FW) including Card 9 (n. 109).  In the
> evening, Kinbote drives a young friend 200 miles to his home,
> where Kinbote attends two all-night parties (n. 181).
> Oswin Bretwit suffers a pain in his groin that keeps him awake this
> night and the next two. (n. 286).
>
> July 5  Shade's sixty-first birthday.  He starts Canto 2 (FW, l. 181,
> n. 181) and reaches line 208.  Kinbote breakfasts at the second
> party and returns home.  In the evening Shade gives his birthday
> party, which the uninvited Kinbote watches. (n. 181).
> At noon Zemblan time, Gradus leaves Onhava for Copenhagen,
> synchronized with Shade's waking up. (n. 1-4, n.181).
>
> July 6
> At 3 AM Shade returns to his desk and brings his poem up to line 230.
> At sunrise (4:30), Kinbote infers that the Shades are making love.
> In the morning, Kinbote delivers to Sybil his present for John and
> the third volume of _A la recherche des temps perdus_ (n. 181).
> Later, Shade writes at least the next card (n. 231).  In the
> evening, Shade and Kinbote go on a ramble, with Sybil accompanying
> them part of the way, and Shade refuses to discuss his progress on
> his poem (n. 238, n. 802).  As Shade reaches line 230, Gradus and
> the Zemblan consul in Copenhagen buy clothes for Gradus to wear in
> later notes (shortly before noon Copenhagen time) (l. 181).
>
> July 7
> Shade's writings include lines 286-299 (n. 286, n. 287).  Kinbote,
> on his way to Dr. Ahlert's office for a 3:30 appointment, runs into
> the Shades and learns from them and Dr. Ahlert that they're
> planning to rent the Hurleys' ranch in Cedarn in August.  Kinbote
> gets information from a travel agency and mails a booking for a
> nearby cabin (perhaps the same day) (n. 287).
> Gradus flies to Paris, telephones Oswin Bretwit from the airport,
> and has a futile interview with him. (n. 286).
>
> July 8
> Oswin Bretwit dies during surgery (n. 286, I.).
>
> July 10
> Shade's writing includes lines 406-416 and another card (n. 403-404).
> Gradus drives from Geneva to Lex, where Odon is resting at Joe
> Lavender's villa.  Gradus is shown around by Gordon Krummholz, who
> mentions that the King had gone to the Côte d'Azur, but Lavender
> sends Gradus away by phone (n. 403-404).  Back in Geneva, Gradus
> has an incoherent phone conversation  with Headquarters, who think
> he's suggested breaking into the Villa Disa to look for letters
> with the ex-king's address (n. 470).
>
> July 11  Shade finishes Canto 2 (FW).
> Kinbote prowls around the Shades' house, sees them crying, and
> bangs a garbage can but (believes he) isn't discovered (n. 47-49).
> Gradus visits a Finnish bathhouse and sees his bare feet for the
> last time until July 21 (n. 949).
>
> Mid July
> Kinbote sees his plan of the Onhava Palace in a storage niche
> in the Shades' house (n. 71).  (This could be at his intrusion of
> July 15.)
>
> July 14
> Shade's writings include line 596 (n. 596).
> Around this day ("a week before Shade's death") a clubwoman tells
> Kinbote in a grocery store that he is remarkably disagreeable and
> insane (FW).
> Gradus, having fretted in his hotel in Geneva for four days,
> telegraphs Headquarters to say he's moving to the Hotel Lazuli in
> Nice (n. 596).
>
> July 15
> Kinbote waits in vain for Shade (I. s.v. Shade, reference given as
> 338 instead of the correct 334) to go on a promised walk.  Eventually
> he intrudes into the Shades' house, but Shade begs off (n. 47-48,
> this being St. Swithin's Day).
> Gradus lands in Nice in the early afternoon and sees but doesn't
> recognize the  Shadow Izumrudov as well as Andronnikov and Niagarin.
> He learns from the  cabbie taking him to his hotel that Disa has
> gone to Italy for the rest of July (n. 697).  That night or early
> the next morning, Andronnikov and Niagarin break into the Villa
> Disa and find, among other things, Kinbote's letter of April 2
> with his work address (n. 741).
>
> July 16
> Izumrudov gives Gradus the information about Kinbote and orders him
> to America to continue his mission (n. 741).
>
> July 18
> Gradus travels by train to Paris (n. 949).
> That night, or in the early morning of July 19, Shade writes card
> 65 (second part of line 797 to line 809) (n. 802).
>
> July 19
> Kinbote prays in two churches.  As he gets home, he hallucinates
> Shade calling to him.  When he reaches Shade, he breaks down in
> tears, as a result of which Shade agrees to go on a ramble with
> him at eight.  By then Shade has finished Canto 3 and started
> Canto 4.  He cuts the ramble short to get back to his poem (FW,
> n. 802,n. 835-838).
>
> July 20
> Shade begins writing with line 873 (n. 873).  He cites Pope in a
> footnote on Zembla (n. 937).
> At the same time, Gradus at Orly airport boards a jetliner for
> America (n. 873).  He arrives in New York and after finding that
> the early flight is full and the train is inconvenient, makes
> a plane reservation (n. 949).
>
> July 21
> Shade starts with line 949 (n. 949).
> Gradus passes time in New York learning all kinds of interesting
> information from the _New York Times_, among other things.  He
> checks in at the airport at 2 PM and arrives in New Wye after 5,
> not feeling so good.  He gets to the Wordsmith campus, and after
> various good and bad directions and a glimpse of Kinbote in the
> library, he gets a ride from Gerald Emerald to within sight of
> Shade's house (n. 949).  Kinbote gets home from the library and
> finds that Shade is nearly finished with the poem.  He induces
> Shade to come over for Tokay and walnuts (n. 991).  A Red Admiral
> cavorts around them in the evening light (n. 993-995).  As they
> arrive at Kinbote's house, Jack Grey or Jakob Gradus, who has
> been waiting, shoots at them.  Several bullets miss, but one
> kills Shade.  The gardener subdues Grey with a spade, and Kinbote
> calls the police, who take Grey into custody.  Sybil arrives.
> Probably that night, believing from the gardener's testimony
> that Kinbote had tried to shield Shade, she brings up the
> possibility of recompense and agrees to let Kinbote edit the poem.
> Kinbote puts the poem in his valise (FW, n. 1000).
>
> July 22
> Kinbote reads the poem at daybreak and is bitterly disappointed to
> find no mention of Zembla, but rereads it later and likes it better
> (partly because he finds gleams of Zembla in it) (n. 1000).
>
> "Immediately after Shade's death"
> Sybil and Kinbote sign a contract according to which he'll edit
> "Pale Fire" without remuneration (FW).  Could this be about the
> time ("later") when Kinbote learns what epithets Sybil applied
> to him behind his back (n. 247)?
>
> Shortly afterwards ("immediately upon John Shade's demise")
> Prof. Hurley circulates a mimeographed letter expressing concern
> over Kinbote's editing the poem (n. 376-377).
>
> July 22-29
> Kinbote circulates in New Wye with the poem sewn into his clothes.
> He interviews Jack Grey o