(follow up)
Matt Roth's :" the aunts and
orphans" thread and the Cedarn thread unite in Mrs. Browning's "Aurora
Leigh" ...
JM: ...to reinforce the
link bt. PF and Lolita & also TOoL's "Aurora
Lee"?
The lines that Wilson links to Virgil’s Seventh
Eclogue ( “Ambo florentes aetatibus, Arcades ambo”) in Turgenev are: “We too have been to Arcadia, we too have
roamed over her fair fields.” However, as
Wilson informs, Turgenev’s Soviet edition refers them to a
poem by Schiller which begins “Auch war in Arkadien geboren.” (
Schiller’s Resignation*).
In F.Schiller, we find the original Laura
(Petrarch's) as a metaphor of "your true and only love." Now, perhaps, Lolita's married name will make sense (Dolly F.
Schiller).
A Joycean reference to Vico and rivers in
Arcady also runs through VN's earlier "Bend Sinister" (ch 6),
passing by Hamlet's Ophelia, Botticelli's Venus and embers
(btw: Where was an amorous shepherd's name indicated?)
"To feature a
phloating leaph. ...trying to wreathe a phallacious sliver...the
getting-unexpectedly-wet stunt [...] Then: a garland afloat.[...] This is
transformed into a tinkling of bells, and now we are shown a
liberal shepherd on marshy ground where
Orchis mascula grows [...] Song moves to Queen's shepherd, lamb moves to
brook.'[...] Krug's anecdote has the desired effect. Ember stops sniffling [...]
Finally, he enters into the spirit of the game. Yes, she was found by a shepherd. In fact her
name can be derived from that of an amorous shepherd in Arcadia. Or quite possibly it is an anagram of Alpheios, with the
'S' lost in the damp grass — Alpheus the
rivergod [...]Vico Press edition [...]The uncommon cold of a Botticellian angel
tinged her nostrils with pink and suffused her
upperlip."
.....................................................................................
*Friedrich Schiller:
Auch ich war in Arkadien
geboren,
Auch mir hat die Natur
An meiner Wiege Freude
zugeschworen,
Auch ich war in Arkadien geboren,
Doch Tränen gab der kurze Lenz mir nur.
Des Lebens Mai blüht einmal und nicht
wieder,
Mir hat er
abgeblüht.
..............................................................
«Ich
zahle dir in einem andern Leben,
Gib deine Jugend
mir,
Nichts kann ich dir als diese Weisung geben.»
Ich nahm die Weisung
auf das andre Leben,
Und meiner Jugend Freuden gab
ich ihr.
«Gib mir das Weib, so teuer deinem Herzen,
Gib
deine Laura mir.
Jenseits der Gräber wuchern deine Schmerzen.» --
Ich riß
sie blutend aus dem wunden Herzen,
Und weinte laut,
und gab sie ihr.
... xxx ...
Yes! even I was in Arcadia born,
And, in mine infant
ears,
A vow of rapture was by Nature sworn;—
Yes! even I was in Arcadia
born,
And yet my short spring gave me only—tears!
Once
blooms, and only once, life's youthful May;
For me its bloom
hath
gone.
..............................................................
"Give
me the woman precious to thy heart,
Give up to me thy
Laura!
Beyond the grave will usury pay the smart."—
I wept aloud, and from
my bleeding heart
With resignation tore her.
(translation from the internet)