Jansy Mello writes:

 

C.Kunin:"Yes, that's what I was thinking of. Eleven, prepubescent probably. Sadomasochistic old Maud. No, wait - this was one of his fainting spells. This may have pre-dated John Shade's unhappy sexual initiation. But, you're right - it must have been his eleventh birthday when his sexuality and self were shattered. Happy Birthday to Kinbote."
Jansy Mello: No! I forgot to consider something important in relation to your theory. Charles Kinbote notes that "are not birthdays mere conventions? Conventions or not, but it was my birthday too — small difference of sixteen years, that’s all." Kinbote was not born when Shade turned 11, but 16 ( in July 5,1915?)


***
Jerry Friedman: "I understand "When I'd just turned eleven" to mean that it was shortly after his eleventh birthday, not on it.In response to Jansy Mello, the possible connection between "lemniscate" and the cat's bow is not based on able topology but plodding etymology. "Lemniscate" is from Latin "lemniscus", a ribbon, and I assume that in regard to these figure-eight-shaped curves, it refers to a ribbon tied into a bow".

Jansy Mello: There's exact information about John Shade's actual birthday in his poem read together with the chronology that Kinbote included in the foreword and his in commentary *. From the lines referring to when he was aged eleven, we can only calculate the year (1912) in which he was traumatized by the thirsty wench. And that was C.K's question, related to when Shade's double, CK, was born. Right? (that's as far as I can go with numbers...)

I'm not so certain, now, that the relation between a lemniscate shape and the etymology for "ribbon" is enough to lead us to conclude it indicates the bow tied to Goldsworth's cat.

.................................
* Lines 181-2: "Today I’m sixty-one. Waxwings/ Are berry-pecking. A cicada sings." (Canto Two)
C.Kinbote, Foreword: We possess in result a complete calendar of his work. Canto One was begun in the small hours of July 2 and completed on July 4. He started the next canto on his birthday and finished it on July 11. Another week was devoted to Canto Three. Canto Four was begun on July 19, and as already noted, the last third of its text (lines 949-999) is supplied by a Corrected Draft.
C.K note to lines 17 and 29: His (Gradus) departure for Western Europe, with a sordid purpose in his heart and a loaded gun in his pocket, took place on the very day that an innocent poet in an innocent land was beginning Canto Two of Pale Fire.
CK note to line 167: The poet began Canto Two (on his fourteenth card) on July 5, his sixtieth birthday (see note to line 181, "today"). My slip — change to sixty-first.
Note to line 181: Namely, July 5, 1959, 6th Sunday after Trinity. Shade began writing Canto Two "early in the morning" (thus noted at the top of Card 14). He continued (down to line 208) on and off throughout the day [ ]according to my deductions, only two nights had passed since the three-thousand-nine-hundred-ninety-ninth time — but no matter [ ] I am a very sly Zemblan. Just in case, I had brought with me...So much for John Shade’s last birthday..