Van's black trunk and black suitcase, and black
king-size dumbbells, were heaved into the back of the family motorcar;
Bouteillan put on a captain's cap, too big for him, and grape-blue goggles;
'remouvez votre bottom, I will drive,' said Van - and the summer of
1884 was over.
'She rolls sweetly, sir,' remarked Bouteillan in his
quaint old-fashioned English. 'Tous les pneus sont neufs, but, alas,
there are many stones on the way, and youth drives fast. Monsieur
should be prudent. The winds of the wilderness are indiscreet. Tel un lis
sauvage confiant au désert -'*
'Quite the old comedy retainer, aren't you?'
remarked Van drily.
'Non, Monsieur,' answered
Bouteillan, holding on to his cap. 'Non. Tout simplement j'aime bien
Monsieur et sa demoiselle.'
'If,' said Van, 'you're thinking of little
Blanche, then you'd better quote Delille not to me, but to your son, who'll
knock her up any day now.'
The old Frenchman glanced at Van askance, pozheval
gubami (chewed his lips), but said nothing. (1.25)
Four years later Demon compares Bouteillan to the
Burgundian wine:
'Bonsoir, Bouteillan. You look as ruddy
as your native vine - but we are not getting any younger, as the amerlocks say,
and that pretty messenger of mine [Blanche, Bouteillan's
mistress] must have been waylaid by some younger and more fortunate
suitor.' (1.38)
"Lilletovka" mentioned by Demon (1.38) seems to allude to
Lille (a city in N France), but may also hint at Delille (btw., note that
leto is Russian for "summer").
There is brat (Russ., "brother")
in "Illinois Brat" (ibid.). "Illinois" brings to mind of one of
Trapp's adresses in Russian Lolita (2.23): Adam N. Epilinter, Esnop, Illinoi.
(Humbert immediately makes of it: Adam ne pil.
Interesno pil li Noi? "Adam did not drink. One wonders, if Noah did?")
Noah and the flood (of the Neva) are mentioned
by Pushkin in a letter of the end of November (not earlier than Nov. 20), 1824,
to his brother: Что погреба? признаюсь, и по них сердце
болит. Не найдется ли между вами Ноя, для насаждения винограда? In the same letter the poet says of the flood: voilà une belle occasion à vos dames de faire bidet
(the joke he repeats a month later in the
December letter quoted above).
corkscrew + driver = cork +
screwdriver
'E tu?' Pedro asked Marina as he
walked past her chair. 'Again screwdriver?'
'Yes, dear, but with grapefruit, not
orange, and a little zucchero...' (1.32)
Chekhov used to say that music (among the guests at the "patio
party" is Lucette's teacher of music, and Ada's lover, Philip Rack, "a
composer of genius" who was poisoned by his wife and soon dies) and liquor
always were a kind of corkscrew that uncorked him.
On the other hand, one recalls the advice
Beaumarchais gave to Salieri, the poisoner in Pushkin's
Mozart and Salieri: "When black thoughts come to you, uncork a bottle
of champagne or reread The Marriage of Figaro." Figaro
is also the hero of The Barber of Seville, Beaumarchais's
comedy on which Rossini based his famous opera. In Eugene
Onegin Pushkin compares Rossini's music to Ay (champagne). In
'Ursus' (2.8.) Van, Ada and Lucette drink Ai and listen to Russian
songs, getting drunk on them.
*Tel un sauvage lis, confiant au désert le parfum qu'il
exhale,
Cache aux vents indiscrets sa beauté
virginale
(Jacques Delille, Trois règnes, V)
Incidentally, in the drafts of The Small House in
Kolomna (XI, 6) Pushkin calls Delille parnasskiy muravey ("a
Parnassian ant").