JM: Since Eberthella Hurley was
mentioned in the discussion concerning Kinbote/Botkin and "recto/verso", I
wondered if the name Eberthella could be a corruption of Ethelbert
and if the latter could be related to Kinbote and Pale Fire.
There is an "Eberthella" bacteria related to typhoid fever in humans (
named after Eberth who first discovered the bacillus). But the name Ethelbert (
or Aethelbert, as registered by Priscilla Meyer) offers new clues. According to
her (SWTSHH pg 72-73) there is an anedocte
related to Eadbald, son of Aethelbert, "who'd been threaten by heaven with
frequent 'wodheartness, or madness of mood.' Nabokov connects Kinbote's
homosexual activities and madness to this report through the Anglo-Saxon word
wod [...]".
Meyer quotes Kinbote's words (note to lines 47-48)
about Goldsworth's house, "of a type called wodnaggen
in my country" and she also mentions that (pg.67-68) "several
important Anglo-Saxon words are smuggled into Pale Fire. The name of Oswin
Bretwit[...] recalls brewalda, literally 'Britain ruler' ", as
was Aethelbert, Sigeberht
and other rulers at the time of conversion into Roman
Catholicism.
btw: King Charles, the Beloved was
left-handed.