JM: Carolyn,
you forgot the famous lines of the "habanera", in Bizet's Carmen ( by
Prosper Merrimée?), an opera that is often alluded to in Lolita.
HH sometimes addresses Lolita as "his little
Carmen".
(Do I remember it in particular because...?
Well... that's something very mezzo-soprano.)
Excerpts: L'amour est un oiseau rebelle/ Que nul ne peut apprivoiser, Et
c'est bien en vain qu'on l'appelle,/S'il lui convient de refuser
(Love is a
rebellious bird that nothing can tame, it's in vain that you call it if it
prefers to stay away) with the refrain after: Si tu ne m'aime pas, je t'aime!
Mais, si je t'aime, Si je t'aime, prend garde à toi! (If you don't love
me, I love you, If I love you, keep guard of yourself )
Lover's vows and warnings!
Of course the "brown-limbed Carmencita" are not my
words, but those addressed to a girl in Pasadeen some twenty-years younger than
your scouse.
You mencioned "fencing". That's also something I
remember as having been discussed in N-List. Flowerlet? Fleuret? I must check,
if no one else does. The special name for a fencing instrument is similar to
that. To flourish a fleuret, or something of that
kind.