JM (quoting B.Boyd): "Since Kinbote insists on the distinction between his Zembla and "Nova
Zembla" (C.894,267), his own Zembla must be different from those slim polar
island once called Nova Zembla. Now known more oftern by their Russian name,
Novaya Zemlya, or "new land," they were formerly, as the Popean quotation in
Shade's manuscript note at line 937 indicates ( "At Greenland, Zembla, or the
Lord knows where"), a byword for remoteness and coledness, connotations Pope's
friend Swift exploited when in his Battle of the Books he announces that "a
malignant deity, call'd Criticism...dwelf on the Top of a snowy Mountain in Nova
Zembla." Judging by geographical and linguistic indications, Kinbote's
Zembla is sometimes very close to Novaya Zemlya but shits at times toward
Scandinavia, perhaps toward Finland..." [...] Nabokov noted that "the story
starts in Ultima Thule, an insular kingdom, where a palace itrigue and some
assistance from Nova Zembla clear the way for a dull and savage
revolution. My main creature the King of Thule is dethroned. ..." Adds
Boyd: "Zembla must be closer to the mythic Ultima Thule than to the actual
Novaya Zemlya or the relative 'realism' of New Wye. Boyd also mentions a
newspaper article (July 30,1939) related to Zembla and which was published close
to the time when Nabokov began writing Solus Rex.(Magic of artistic
discovery, pages 79/80).
(copying from Swift's page, sent in the attached
archive):
"Mean while Momus fearing the worst, and calling to mind an
antient Prophecy, which bore no very good Face to his Children the Moderns; bent
his Flight to the Region of a malignant Deity, called Criticism. She dwelt on
the Top of a snowy Mountain in Nova Zembla; there Momus found her extended in
her Den, upon the Spoils of numberles Voumes half devoured. At her right Hand
sat Ignorance, her Father and Husband, blind with Age; at her left, Pride her
Mother, dressing her up in the Scraps of Paper herself had torn. There, was
Opinion her Sister, light of Food, hoodwinkt, an headstrong, yet giddy and
perpertually turning. About her play'd her Children... "
Comment: What strikes me, in a superficial examination of
Swift's page (he is himself a critic and a satirist), is that Criticism (a
malignant deity) is married and descends from Ignorance, she is
the daughter of Pride and a sister to Opinion, while Momus
indicates to the god of satire ( in Brazilian carnival festivities are
headed by a "Rei Momo" wearing a tin crown), parody and
distorted criticism. In Nova Zembla, therefore, what we find is evil or
incompetent criticism, not criticism in general. I couldn't yet grasp the
relation between what the title of the "Battel*" announces
qua "Antient and Modern Books" and the reference in that paragraph to Momus
children, the Moderns...
.....................................................................................
* Battel suggests a "battle" - but I found something
else in the wiki: Battel, or Battels (of uncertain origin,
possibly connected with "battle," a northern English word meaning to feed, or
"batten") was a word used at the University of Oxford for the food ordered by
members of the college as distinct from the usual "commons"...Though the
distinction from commons is no longer relevant, the term persists as the name
for members' termly bills at many colleges at the Universities of Oxford and
Durham.