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Maar and note on Sebastian Knight
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Koen [to Don] "Michael Maar in his recent study "Speak Nabokov" suggests the name being connected to the christian saint associated to gays. Nabokovs brother and uncle were gay and he himsels seems to have been very troubled with that (exactly as his father who had written an article in favor of de-penalizing homosexuality in Russia). Nabokov would have tried to imagine how Sergey, his brother, would have lived his brothers attitude towards him... I'm always a little bit troubled though with VN so insisting on keeping the life of the author out of literary analysises."
JM: Wiki informs that it "is plausible that the earliest gay icon was Saint Sebastian....the look on his face of rapturous pain have intrigued artists both gay and straight for centuries, and began the first explicitly gay cult in the 19th century.Due to Saint Sebastian's status as gay icon, Tennessee Williams chose to use that name for the martyred character Sebastian in his play, Suddenly, Last Summer. The name was also used by Oscar Wilde-as Sebastian Melmoth-when in exile after his release from prison. Wilde-Irish author, humorist and "dandy"-was about as "out of the closet" as was possible for the late 1800s, and is himself considered to be a gay icon." St. Sebastian is the patron saint of Rio and the city was named "Cidade de São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro," in the sixteenth century, as an homage to King Sebastian, of Portugal
From the reference to Wilde's and Tennessee Williams' "Sebastian," Maar's arguments could be valuable indicators in relation to Nabokov's choice of Sebastian to name his character. And yet, Nabokov was interested in legends about kings whose bodies were never recovered and who were expected to return from the dead to reign again in great glory. The Portuguese kind, Sebastian, fits into this pattern.* Remnants of his cult (Sebastianism) persist in Portugal and even in Brazil. His fame was not unknown to English playwrights, such as John Dryden ( in Sebastian Knight's bookcase there were books related to the Arthurian legends, but no Dryden). His brother spends the night grieving at the bedside of another moribund, mistaking him for his brother. V. never really discovers a coherent story about his brother's (heterosexual) loves and "real" life. Maar wrote "Speak, Nabokov" (a clever title). Will he also write "The Real Life of V. Nabokov"?
Dryden's work is available on line:"DON SEBASTIAN. A TRAGEDY. Nee tarda senectus Debilital vires animi, muiatque vigorem. Viro. [Don Sebastian. A Tragedy. Acted at the Theatre Royal. Written by Mr. Dryden. Printed for Jo. Hindmarsh, at the Golden Ball, in Cornhill, Mdcxc.-En.J
The following tragedy is founded upon the adventures supposed to have befallen Sebastian, King of Portugal, after the fatal battle of Alcazar. The reader may be briefly reminded of the memorable expedition of that gallant monarch to Africa, to signalise, against the Moors, his chivalry as a warrior, and his faith as a Christian. The ostensible pretext of invasion was the cause of Muly Mahomet, son of Abdalla, Emperor of Morocco; upon whose death, his brother, Muly Moluch, had seized the crown, and driven his nephew into exile. The armies joined battle near Alcazar. The Portuguese, far inferior in number to the Moors, displayed the most desperate valour, and had nearly won the day, when Muly Moluch, who, though almost dying, was present on the field in a litter, fired with shame and indignation, threw himself on horseback, rallied his troops, renewed the combat, and, being carried back to his litter, immediately expired, with his finger placed on his lips, to impress on the chiefs, who surrounded him, the necessity of concealing his death. The Moors, rallied by their sovereign's dying exertion, surrounded, and totally routed, the army of Sebastian. Mahomet, the competitor for the throne of Morocco, was drowned in passing a river in his flight, and Sebastian, as his body was never found, probably perished in the same manner. But where the region of historical certainty ends, that of romantic tradition commences..."www.flipkart.com/book/...john-dryden-v.../0217286976 - Índia
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* Despite the passage of many years, the conviction that Sebastian was still alive grew into a kind of messianic cult that persisted into the early 20th Century...Its devotees believed that the rei encuberto, or 'hidden king', was either absent on a pilgrimage, or, like King Arthur in Avalon, was waiting on some enchanted island until the hour of his second advent. So confident were people that he would return, sales of horses and other items were sometimes made, payable upon the second coming of King Sebastian. It was this fact that induced Jean-Andoche Junot (October 23, 1771 - July 29, 1813), a French general under Napoleon Bonaparte, when asked what he would be able to do with the Portuguese, to answer: "What can I do with a people who were still waiting for the coming of the Messiah and King Sebastian?" ...In Brazil, Sebastianism accompanied the belief that Portugal's colony would become the chief nation of earth. Sir Richard Burton (1821 - 1890), the British explorer, translator, and Orientalist, stated that he had met with Sebastianists in remote parts of Brazil (Burton, R, Camoens, vol. i.p. 363, London, 1881...The Don Sebastian legend has a touch of the myth motif of the Sleeping King, or King in the Mountain, which finds echoes in King Frederick Barbarossa, Rip Van Winkle and also the Christian myth of the Seven Sleepers... www.wilsonsalmanac.com/sebastianism.html -
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JM: Wiki informs that it "is plausible that the earliest gay icon was Saint Sebastian....the look on his face of rapturous pain have intrigued artists both gay and straight for centuries, and began the first explicitly gay cult in the 19th century.Due to Saint Sebastian's status as gay icon, Tennessee Williams chose to use that name for the martyred character Sebastian in his play, Suddenly, Last Summer. The name was also used by Oscar Wilde-as Sebastian Melmoth-when in exile after his release from prison. Wilde-Irish author, humorist and "dandy"-was about as "out of the closet" as was possible for the late 1800s, and is himself considered to be a gay icon." St. Sebastian is the patron saint of Rio and the city was named "Cidade de São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro," in the sixteenth century, as an homage to King Sebastian, of Portugal
From the reference to Wilde's and Tennessee Williams' "Sebastian," Maar's arguments could be valuable indicators in relation to Nabokov's choice of Sebastian to name his character. And yet, Nabokov was interested in legends about kings whose bodies were never recovered and who were expected to return from the dead to reign again in great glory. The Portuguese kind, Sebastian, fits into this pattern.* Remnants of his cult (Sebastianism) persist in Portugal and even in Brazil. His fame was not unknown to English playwrights, such as John Dryden ( in Sebastian Knight's bookcase there were books related to the Arthurian legends, but no Dryden). His brother spends the night grieving at the bedside of another moribund, mistaking him for his brother. V. never really discovers a coherent story about his brother's (heterosexual) loves and "real" life. Maar wrote "Speak, Nabokov" (a clever title). Will he also write "The Real Life of V. Nabokov"?
Dryden's work is available on line:"DON SEBASTIAN. A TRAGEDY. Nee tarda senectus Debilital vires animi, muiatque vigorem. Viro. [Don Sebastian. A Tragedy. Acted at the Theatre Royal. Written by Mr. Dryden. Printed for Jo. Hindmarsh, at the Golden Ball, in Cornhill, Mdcxc.-En.J
The following tragedy is founded upon the adventures supposed to have befallen Sebastian, King of Portugal, after the fatal battle of Alcazar. The reader may be briefly reminded of the memorable expedition of that gallant monarch to Africa, to signalise, against the Moors, his chivalry as a warrior, and his faith as a Christian. The ostensible pretext of invasion was the cause of Muly Mahomet, son of Abdalla, Emperor of Morocco; upon whose death, his brother, Muly Moluch, had seized the crown, and driven his nephew into exile. The armies joined battle near Alcazar. The Portuguese, far inferior in number to the Moors, displayed the most desperate valour, and had nearly won the day, when Muly Moluch, who, though almost dying, was present on the field in a litter, fired with shame and indignation, threw himself on horseback, rallied his troops, renewed the combat, and, being carried back to his litter, immediately expired, with his finger placed on his lips, to impress on the chiefs, who surrounded him, the necessity of concealing his death. The Moors, rallied by their sovereign's dying exertion, surrounded, and totally routed, the army of Sebastian. Mahomet, the competitor for the throne of Morocco, was drowned in passing a river in his flight, and Sebastian, as his body was never found, probably perished in the same manner. But where the region of historical certainty ends, that of romantic tradition commences..."www.flipkart.com/book/...john-dryden-v.../0217286976 - Índia
....................................................................................................................................................
* Despite the passage of many years, the conviction that Sebastian was still alive grew into a kind of messianic cult that persisted into the early 20th Century...Its devotees believed that the rei encuberto, or 'hidden king', was either absent on a pilgrimage, or, like King Arthur in Avalon, was waiting on some enchanted island until the hour of his second advent. So confident were people that he would return, sales of horses and other items were sometimes made, payable upon the second coming of King Sebastian. It was this fact that induced Jean-Andoche Junot (October 23, 1771 - July 29, 1813), a French general under Napoleon Bonaparte, when asked what he would be able to do with the Portuguese, to answer: "What can I do with a people who were still waiting for the coming of the Messiah and King Sebastian?" ...In Brazil, Sebastianism accompanied the belief that Portugal's colony would become the chief nation of earth. Sir Richard Burton (1821 - 1890), the British explorer, translator, and Orientalist, stated that he had met with Sebastianists in remote parts of Brazil (Burton, R, Camoens, vol. i.p. 363, London, 1881...The Don Sebastian legend has a touch of the myth motif of the Sleeping King, or King in the Mountain, which finds echoes in King Frederick Barbarossa, Rip Van Winkle and also the Christian myth of the Seven Sleepers... www.wilsonsalmanac.com/sebastianism.html -
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/