Subject
crown jewels, Thurgus the Turgid & Iris Acht in Pale Fire
From
Date
Body
In his Index to Pale Fire Kinbote (Shade’s mad commentator who imagines
that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla)
mentions a very courageous master builder who was poisoned, together with
his three young apprentices:
Shadows, the, a regicidal organization which commissioned Gradus (q.v.) to
assassinate the self-banished king; its leader's terrible name cannot be
mentioned, even in the Index to the obscure work of a scholar; his maternal
grandfather, a well-known and very courageous master builder, was hired by
Thurgus the Turgid, around 1885, to make certain repairs in his quarters,
and soon after that perished, poisoned in the royal kitchens, under
mysterious circumstances, together with his three young apprentices whose
pretty first names Yan, Yonny, and Angeling, are preserved in a ballad still
to be heard in some of our wilder valleys.
The name of one of the three apprentices, Angeling, brings to mind Valeriy
Bryusov’s novel Ognennyi angel (“The Fiery Angel,” 1908) and Angelina
Blok (1892-1918), Alexander Blok’s half-sister. Blok’s cycle Yamby (“The
Iambs,” 1907-14) is dedicated to the memory of Angelina Aleksandrovna Blok
and has the epigraph from Juvenal’s Satires (I, 79), Fecit indignatio
versum (Indignation gives inspiration to verse). In Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin
(One: VI: 3-8) Onegin “had enough knowledge of Latin to make out the
epigraphs, descant on Juvenal, put at the bottom of a letter vale, and he
remembered, though not without fault, two lines from the Aeneid.” It seems
that, to be completed, Shade’s almost finished poem needs two lines:
I was the shadow of the waxwing slain
By its own double in the windowpane. (1000-1001)
Blok’s poem Dvoynik (“The Double,” 1909) ends in the lines:
Быть может, себя самого
Я встретил на глади зеркальной?
Perhaps I met myself
on a looking-glass’ smooth surface?
The last (unwritten) line of Shade’s poem (and Kinbote’s entire apparatus
criticus) is its coda. According to G. Ivanov, to his question “does a
sonnet need a coda” Blok replied that he did not know what a coda is. In
his sonnet Poetu (“To a Poet,” 1830) Pushkin says that a poet should not
ask any rewards for his noble feat because they are inside him:
Поэт! не дорожи любовию народной.
Восторженных похвал пройдёт минутный шу
м;
Услышишь суд глупца и смех толпы холодно
й,
Но ты останься тверд, спокоен и угрюм.
Ты царь: живи один. Дорогою свободной
Иди, куда влечёт тебя свободный ум,
Усовершенствуя плоды любимых дум,
Не требуя наград за подвиг благородный.
Они в самом тебе. Ты сам свой высший суд;
Всех строже оценить умеешь ты свой труд.
Ты им доволен ли, взыскательный художник?
Доволен? Так пускай толпа его бранит
И плюет на алтарь, где твой огонь горит,
И в детской резвости колеблет твой тренож
ник.
Poet! do not cling to popular affection.
The temporary noise of ecstatic praises will pass;
You will hear the fool’s judgment, the laugh of the cold crowd,
But you must remain firm, calm, and morose.
You are a king: live alone. By way of the free road
Go wherever your free mind draws you,
Perfecting the fruits of your beloved thoughts,
Not asking any rewards for your noble feat.
They are inside you. You are your highest judge;
More strictly than anyone can you appraise your work.
Are you satisfied with it, exacting artist?
Satisfied? Then let the crowd treat it harshly
And spit on the altar, where your fire burns
And your tripod oscillates with childlike friskiness.
(transl. Diana Senechal)
In the last poem of his cycle “The Iambs,” V ogne i kholode trevog… (“In
the fire and cold of anxieties…” 1910-14), Blok says that he and his
sister first met at their father’s funeral and, in the penultimate stanza,
mentions chyornyi brilliant (a black diamond):
В огне и холоде тревог -
Так жизнь пройдёт. Запомним оба,
Что встретиться судил нам бог
В час искупительный - у гроба.
Я верю: новый век взойдёт
Средь всех несчастных поколений.
Недаром славит каждый род
Смертельно оскорбленный гений.
И все, как он, оскорблены
В своих сердцах, в своих певучих.
И всем - священный меч войны
Сверкает в неизбежных тучах.
Пусть день далёк - у нас всё те ж
Заветы юношам и девам:
Презренье созревает гневом,
А зрелость гнева - есть мятеж.
Разыгрывайте жизнь, как фант.
Сердца поэтов чутко внемлют,
В их беспокойстве - воли дремлют;
Так точно - чёрный бриллиант
Спит сном неведомым и странным,
В очарованьи бездыханном,
Среди глубоких недр, - пока
В горах не запоёт кирка.
Blok portrayed his father as Demon in his long poem Vozmezdie
(“Retribution,” 1910-21). The epigraph to “Retribution,” Yunost’ \xa8C eto
vozmezdie (“Youth is retribution”), is from Ibsen’s play “The Master
Builder” (1892). In his Foreword to “Retribution” Blok mentions those
infinitely high qualities that once shined like luchshie almazy v
chelovecheskoy korone (the best diamonds in man’s crown), such as humanism,
virtues, impeccable honesty, rectitude, etc.:
Тема заключается в том, как развиваются з
венья единой цепи рода. Отдельные отпрыск
и всякого рода развиваются до положенног
о им предела и затем вновь поглощаются ок
ружающей мировой средой; но в каждом отпр
ыске зреет и отлагается нечто новое и неч
то более острое, ценою бесконечных потер
ь, личных трагедий, жизненных неудач, паде
ний и т. д.; ценою, наконец, потери тех беск
онечно высоких свойств, которые в своё вр
емя сияли, как лучшие алмазы в человеческ
ой короне (как, например, свойства гуманны
е, добродетели, безупречная честность, вы
сокая нравственность и проч.)
In Kinbote’s Index to PF there are as many as four entries on Zemblan crown
jewels:
Crown Jewels,
<http://www.shannonrchamberlain.com/commentary.html#comline130> 130,
<http://www.shannonrchamberlain.com/commentary.html#comline681> 681; see
Hiding Place.
Hiding place, potaynik (q.v.)
Potaynik, taynik (q.v.)
Taynik, Russ., secret place; see Crown Jewels.
This is not a dead end, as it might seem. In his poem Balagan (“The
Show-Booth,” 1906) Blok mentions taynik dushi (the secret place of soul)
into which a mould has penetrated:
Ну, старая кляча, пойдём
ломать своего Шекспира!
Кин
Над чёрной слякотью дороги
Не поднимается туман.
Везут, покряхтывая, дроги
Мой полинялый балаган.
Лицо дневное Арлекина
Ещё бледней, чем лик Пьеро.
И в угол прячет Коломбина
Лохмотья, сшитые пестро...
Тащитесь, траурные клячи!
Актёры, правьте ремесло,
Чтобы от истины ходячей
Всем стало больно и светло!
В тайник души проникла плесень,
Но надо плакать, петь, идти,
Чтоб в рай моих заморских песен
Открылись торные пути.
Blok’s poem has the epigraph from Kean, ou Désordre et Génie (1836), a
play by Alexandre Dumas père. In Dumas’ novel “The Three Musketeers”
(1844) d’Artagnan, with the help of his friends, brings from London the
diamond studs that Queen Anne gave to her lover, Duke of Buckingham. The
novel’s characters include Milady de Winter (Athos’ former wife). The
fleur-de-lis branded on Milady’s shoulder brings to mind Fleur de Fyler,
Queen Disa’s lady-in-waiting.
Lik Pyero (Pierrot’s face) mentioned by Blok in the poem’s second stanza
brings to mind VN’s story Lik (1939). Lik is an actor whose real name (in
the story’s Russian original) seems to be Kulikov. Blok is the author of Na
pole Kulikovom (“In the Field of Kulikovo,” 1908), a cycle of five poems.
In the battle of Kulikovo (1380) the Russians led by the Moscow Prince
Dmitri defeated the Tartars led by Khan Mamai. In his poem O pravitelyakh
(“On Rulers,” 1944) VN says:
Умирает со скуки историк:
за Мамаем всё тот же Мамай.
The historian dies of sheer boredom:
on the heels of Mamai comes another Mamai.
In his poem VN mentions his late namesake, V. V. Mayakovski (whose style is
parodied by VN). Mayakovski is the author of Oblako v shtanakh (“The Cloud
in Trousers,” 1916), a poem whose title brings to mind VN’s story Oblako,
ozero, bashnya (“Cloud, Castle, Lake,” 1937). The three lakes in Pale Fire
are Omega, Ozero and Zero. Hazel Shade drowned herself in Lake Omega.
According to Sergey Solovyov, in the book of Russian verse, Pushkin is alpha
and Bryusov omega:
Пушкин - альфа, ты - омега
В книге русского стиха.
Bashnya is Russian for “tower.” In VN’s novel Dar (“The Gift,” 1937)
Koncheyev publishes his review of Fyodor’s “Life of Chernyshevski” in the
almanac Bashnya. In his Commentary Kinbote mentions Baron Bland, the Keeper
of the Treasure, who jumped or fell from the North Tower of the royal palace
in Onhava (Zemblan capital):
However, not all Russians are gloomy, and the two young experts from Moscow
whom our new government engaged to locate the Zemblan crown jewels turned
out to be positively rollicking. The Extremists were right in believing that
Baron Bland, the Keeper of the Treasure, had succeeded in hiding those
jewels before he jumped or fell from the North Tower; but they did not know
he had had a helper and were wrong in thinking the jewels must be looked for
in the palace which the gentle white-haired Bland had never left except to
die. I may add, with pardonable satisfaction, that they were, and still are,
cached in a totally different - and quite unexpected - corner of Zembla.
(note to Line 681)
Blok’s poem Balagan and his play Balaganchik (“The Fairground Booth,”
1906) bring to mind Shura Balaganov, a character in Ilf and Petrov’s
Zolotoy telyonok (“The Little Golden Calf,” 1931), the sequel novel to
Dvenadtsat’ stulyev (“The Twelve Chairs,” 1928). In “The Twelve Chairs”
the three main characters, Bender, Vorobyaninov and Father Fyodor, are the
diamond hunters who look for the jewels that Mme Petukhov (Vorobyaninov’s
mother-in-law) concealed in a Hambs chair. According to Kinbote, in a
conversation with him Shade mentioned “those joint authors of genius Ilf
and Petrov:”
Speaking of the Head of the bloated Russian Department, Prof. Pnin, a
regular martinet in regard to his underlings (happily, Prof. Botkin, who
taught in another department, was not subordinated to that grotesque
"perfectionist"): "How odd that Russian intellectuals should lack all sense
of humor when they have such marvelous humorists as Gogol, Dostoevski,
Chekhov, Zoshchenko, and those joint authors of genius Ilf and Petrov."
(note to Line 172)
The title of Ilf and Petrov’s novel brings to mind Blok’s poem
Dvenadtsat’ (“The Twelve,” 1918). Blok’s Foreword to “Retribution” is
dated July 12, 1919. In 1919 VN left Russia forever on the Greek ship
Nadezhda (Hope) and John Shade married Sybil Irondell (“Swallow”):
John Shade and Sybil Swallow (see
<http://www.shannonrchamberlain.com/commentary.html#comline247> note to line
247) were married in 1919, exactly three decades before King Charles wed
Disa, Duchess of Payn. (note to Line 275)
Shade’s and Kinbote’s “real” name seems to be Botkin; Sybil’s and
Disa’s “real” name seems to be Sofia Lastochkin. An American scholar of
Russian descent, Professor Vsevolod Botkin went mad and became Shade,
Kinbote and Gradus after the tragic death of his daughter Nadezhda (Hazel
Shade of Kinbote’s Commentary). In his memoir essay “Gumilyov and Blok”
(1926) Hodasevich quotes the words of Nadezhda Pavlovich, his and Blok’s
common friend, who told him that several days ago Blok (who was now on his
deathbed) went mad:
Я пошёл к себе ― и застал там поэтессу Над
ежду Павлович, общую нашу с Блоком прияте
льницу. Она только что прибежала от Блока
красная от жары и запухшая от слёз. Она ск
азала мне, что у Блока началась агония. Ка
к водится, я стал утешать её, обнадёживат
ь. Тогда, в последнем отчаянии, она подбеж
ала ко мне и, захлебываясь слезами, сказал
а:
― Ничего вы не знаете… никому не говорит
е… уже несколько дней… он сошёл с ума!
In his memoir essay “Byusov” (1924) Hodasevich mentions Bryusov’s hope
that under the Bolsheviks he would be able to turn Russian literature na
stol’ko-to gradusov (to so-and-so many degrees):
А какая надежда на то, что в истории литер
атуры будет сказано: "в таком-то году пове
рнул русскую литературу на столько-то гра
дусов".
Shade’s murderer, Gradus was in the glass business. Bryusov is the author
of Zerkalo teney (“The Mirror of Shadows,” 1912). In his epistle to
Bryusov, written at receiving Bryusov’s collection “The Mirror of
Shadows,” Blok mentions yad (poison), napitok tvoy (your drink) and pole
traurnogo zerkala (the field of funerary mirror):
И вновь, и вновь твой дух таинственный
В глухой ночи, в ночи пустой
Велит к твоей мечте единственной
Прильнуть и пить напиток твой.
Вновь причастись души неистовой,
И яд, и боль, и сладость пей,
И тихо книгу перелистывай,
Впиваясь в зеркало теней...
Пусть, несказанной мукой мучая,
Здесь бьётся страсть, змеится грусть,
Восторженная буря случая
Сулит конец, убийство ― пусть!
Что жизнь пытала, жгла, коверкала,
Здесь стало легкою мечтой,
И поле траурного зеркала
Прозрачной стынет красотой...
А красотой без слов повелено:
?Гори, гори. Живи, живи.
Пускай крыло души прострелено ―
Кровь обагрит алтарь любви?.
The maternal grandfather of the leader of the Shadows, a courageous master
builder, was poisoned.
In Kinbote’s Index to PF after Taynik there is the following entry:
Thurgus the Third, surnamed The Turgid, K's grandfather, d. 1900 at
seventy-five, after a long dull reign; sponge-bagcapped, and with only one
medal on his Jaeger jacket, he liked to bicycle in the park; stout and bald,
his nose like a congested plum, his martial mustache bristling with obsolete
passion, garbed in a dressing gown of green silk, and carrying a flambeau in
his raised hand, he used to meet, every night, during a short period in the
middle-Eighties, his hooded mistress, Iris Acht (q.v.) midway between palace
and theater in the secret passage later to be rediscovered by his grandson,
<http://www.shannonrchamberlain.com/commentary.html#comline130> 130.
Under Acht, Iris we read:
Acht, Iris, celebrated actress, d. 1888, a passionate and powerful woman,
favorite of Thurgus the Third (q.v.),
<http://www.shannonrchamberlain.com/commentary.html#comline130> 130. She
died officially by her own hand; unofficially, strangled in her dressing
room by a fellow actor, a jealous young Gothlander, now, at ninety, the
oldest, and least important, member of the Shadows (q.v.) group.
Acht is German for “eight.” In his memoir essay “Bryusov” Hodasevich
describes his first visit to Bryusov in the fall of 1904 and quotes
Bryusov’s words (the first thing he heard Bryusov say) “perhaps there are
several \xa8C maybe, eight \xa8C correct answers to any question:”
Лишь осенью 1904 г., новоиспеченным студент
ом, получил я от Брюсова письменное пригл
ашение. Снимая пальто в передней, я услыша
л голос хозяина:
- Очень вероятно, что на каждый вопрос ест
ь не один, а несколько истинных ответов, м
ожет быть \xa8C восемь. Утверждая одну истину,
мы опрометчиво игнорируем ещё целых семь.
According to Bryusov, it is possible that, maintaining one truth, we ignore
seven other truths. In the last stanza of his poem Neznakomka
(“Incognita,” 1906) Blok says that a treasure lies in his soul and that
istina (truth) is in wine:
В моей душе лежит сокровище,
И ключ поручен только мне!
Ты право, пьяное чудовище!
Я знаю: истина в вине.
A treasure lies in my soul,
And the key belongs to me alone!
You are correct, you drunken fiend!
I know it: truth is in wine.
In Ital’yanskie stikhi (“Italian Verses,” 1909) Blok several times
compares Florence to dymnyi iris (a smoky iris):
Флоренция, ты ирис нежный;
По ком томился я один
Любовью длинной, безнадежной,
Весь день в пыли твоих Кашин?
О, сладко вспомнить безнадежность:
Мечтать и жить в твоей глуши;
Уйти в твой древний зной и в нежность
Своей стареющей души...
Но суждено нам разлучиться,
И через дальние края
Твой дымный ирис будет сниться,
Как юность ранняя моя.
Страстью длинной, безмятежной
Занялась душа моя,
Ирис дымный, ирис нежный,
Благовония струя,
Переплыть велит все реки
На воздушных парусах,
Утонуть велит навеки
В тех вечерних небесах,
И когда предамся зною,
Голубой вечерний зной
В голубое голубою
Унесёт меня волной...
On March 28, 1922, VN was reading one of these poems to his mother, when the
telephone rang and the caller informed him of the tragedy in a Berlin
lecture hall. The terrorists who killed VN’s father planned to assassinate
Milyukov (VDN’s friend and colleague who gave a lecture in Berlin). In his
Foreword to “Retribution” Blok mentions Milyukov who in spring of 1911
read a most interesting lecture entitled “The Armed World and Arms
Reduction:”
Весной 1911 года П. Н. Милюков прочёл интере
снейшую лекцию под заглавием "Вооружённы
й мир и сокращение вооружений".
In Pale Fire Gradus kills Shade while trying to assassinate Kinbote (whose
name means in Zemblan “a king’s destroyer;” according to Kinbote, a king
who sinks his identity in the mirror of exile is in a sense just that).
In the Introduction to “Retribution” Blok says that sons are reflected in
their fathers, repeats twice the word almaz (the diamond) and mentions his
gnevnyi yamb (angry iamb):
Сыны отражены в отцах:
Коротенький обрывок рода -
Два-три звена, - и уж ясны
Заветы тёмной старины:
Созрела новая порода, -
Угль превращается в алмаз.
Он, под киркой трудолюбивой,
Восстав из недр неторопливо,
Предстанет - миру напоказ!
Так бей, не знай отдохновенья,
Пусть жила жизни глубока:
Алмаз горит издалека -
Дроби, мой гневный ямб, каменья!
Thurgus the Third, surnamed the Turgid, clearly hints at Turgenev, the
author of Ottsy i deti (“Fathers and Sons,” 1862) and Dym (“Smoke,”
1867). In his essay on Turgenev (in “The Silhouettes of Russian Writers”)
Ayhenvald calls Turgenev “a specialist of rendez-vous:”
У Тургенева все влюблены как-то тенденцио
зно. И он - специалист rendez-vous. И даже мало е
му реальных свиданий, так что нужны ещё и
всякие "Сны", и "Песни торжествующей любви
", где показал он страсть бессознательную,
на расстоянии, телепатию чувства. У него л
юбовь литературна и, так сказать, с цитата
ми.
In the last stanza of his poem Ravenna (the first poem in the Italian cycle)
Blok mentions ten’ Danta s profilem orlinym (Dante’s shade with aquiline
profile) that sings to him about the New Life. Pushkin’s Sonet (1830)
begins as follows: Surovyi Dant ne preziral soneta (Severe Dante didn’t
scorn the sonnet). Reader, do not scorn the coda (particularly, the Index to
Pale Fire where the Zemblan crown jewels are hidden)!
sonnet + iris = sonet + Sirin = son/nos + tri + seni = ston + ire + sin =
on/no + sinister
sonet \xa8C sonnet
Sirin \xa8C VN’s Russian nom de plume
son \xa8C sleep; dream
nos \xa8C nose
tri \xa8C 3
seni \xa8C entrance-hall
ston \xa8C moan; cf. Disa, Duchess of Payn, of Great Payn and Moan
on \xa8C he
no \xa8C but
sinister \xa8C cf. Bend Sinister (1947), a novel by VN
Alexey Sklyarenko
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that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla)
mentions a very courageous master builder who was poisoned, together with
his three young apprentices:
Shadows, the, a regicidal organization which commissioned Gradus (q.v.) to
assassinate the self-banished king; its leader's terrible name cannot be
mentioned, even in the Index to the obscure work of a scholar; his maternal
grandfather, a well-known and very courageous master builder, was hired by
Thurgus the Turgid, around 1885, to make certain repairs in his quarters,
and soon after that perished, poisoned in the royal kitchens, under
mysterious circumstances, together with his three young apprentices whose
pretty first names Yan, Yonny, and Angeling, are preserved in a ballad still
to be heard in some of our wilder valleys.
The name of one of the three apprentices, Angeling, brings to mind Valeriy
Bryusov’s novel Ognennyi angel (“The Fiery Angel,” 1908) and Angelina
Blok (1892-1918), Alexander Blok’s half-sister. Blok’s cycle Yamby (“The
Iambs,” 1907-14) is dedicated to the memory of Angelina Aleksandrovna Blok
and has the epigraph from Juvenal’s Satires (I, 79), Fecit indignatio
versum (Indignation gives inspiration to verse). In Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin
(One: VI: 3-8) Onegin “had enough knowledge of Latin to make out the
epigraphs, descant on Juvenal, put at the bottom of a letter vale, and he
remembered, though not without fault, two lines from the Aeneid.” It seems
that, to be completed, Shade’s almost finished poem needs two lines:
I was the shadow of the waxwing slain
By its own double in the windowpane. (1000-1001)
Blok’s poem Dvoynik (“The Double,” 1909) ends in the lines:
Быть может, себя самого
Я встретил на глади зеркальной?
Perhaps I met myself
on a looking-glass’ smooth surface?
The last (unwritten) line of Shade’s poem (and Kinbote’s entire apparatus
criticus) is its coda. According to G. Ivanov, to his question “does a
sonnet need a coda” Blok replied that he did not know what a coda is. In
his sonnet Poetu (“To a Poet,” 1830) Pushkin says that a poet should not
ask any rewards for his noble feat because they are inside him:
Поэт! не дорожи любовию народной.
Восторженных похвал пройдёт минутный шу
м;
Услышишь суд глупца и смех толпы холодно
й,
Но ты останься тверд, спокоен и угрюм.
Ты царь: живи один. Дорогою свободной
Иди, куда влечёт тебя свободный ум,
Усовершенствуя плоды любимых дум,
Не требуя наград за подвиг благородный.
Они в самом тебе. Ты сам свой высший суд;
Всех строже оценить умеешь ты свой труд.
Ты им доволен ли, взыскательный художник?
Доволен? Так пускай толпа его бранит
И плюет на алтарь, где твой огонь горит,
И в детской резвости колеблет твой тренож
ник.
Poet! do not cling to popular affection.
The temporary noise of ecstatic praises will pass;
You will hear the fool’s judgment, the laugh of the cold crowd,
But you must remain firm, calm, and morose.
You are a king: live alone. By way of the free road
Go wherever your free mind draws you,
Perfecting the fruits of your beloved thoughts,
Not asking any rewards for your noble feat.
They are inside you. You are your highest judge;
More strictly than anyone can you appraise your work.
Are you satisfied with it, exacting artist?
Satisfied? Then let the crowd treat it harshly
And spit on the altar, where your fire burns
And your tripod oscillates with childlike friskiness.
(transl. Diana Senechal)
In the last poem of his cycle “The Iambs,” V ogne i kholode trevog… (“In
the fire and cold of anxieties…” 1910-14), Blok says that he and his
sister first met at their father’s funeral and, in the penultimate stanza,
mentions chyornyi brilliant (a black diamond):
В огне и холоде тревог -
Так жизнь пройдёт. Запомним оба,
Что встретиться судил нам бог
В час искупительный - у гроба.
Я верю: новый век взойдёт
Средь всех несчастных поколений.
Недаром славит каждый род
Смертельно оскорбленный гений.
И все, как он, оскорблены
В своих сердцах, в своих певучих.
И всем - священный меч войны
Сверкает в неизбежных тучах.
Пусть день далёк - у нас всё те ж
Заветы юношам и девам:
Презренье созревает гневом,
А зрелость гнева - есть мятеж.
Разыгрывайте жизнь, как фант.
Сердца поэтов чутко внемлют,
В их беспокойстве - воли дремлют;
Так точно - чёрный бриллиант
Спит сном неведомым и странным,
В очарованьи бездыханном,
Среди глубоких недр, - пока
В горах не запоёт кирка.
Blok portrayed his father as Demon in his long poem Vozmezdie
(“Retribution,” 1910-21). The epigraph to “Retribution,” Yunost’ \xa8C eto
vozmezdie (“Youth is retribution”), is from Ibsen’s play “The Master
Builder” (1892). In his Foreword to “Retribution” Blok mentions those
infinitely high qualities that once shined like luchshie almazy v
chelovecheskoy korone (the best diamonds in man’s crown), such as humanism,
virtues, impeccable honesty, rectitude, etc.:
Тема заключается в том, как развиваются з
венья единой цепи рода. Отдельные отпрыск
и всякого рода развиваются до положенног
о им предела и затем вновь поглощаются ок
ружающей мировой средой; но в каждом отпр
ыске зреет и отлагается нечто новое и неч
то более острое, ценою бесконечных потер
ь, личных трагедий, жизненных неудач, паде
ний и т. д.; ценою, наконец, потери тех беск
онечно высоких свойств, которые в своё вр
емя сияли, как лучшие алмазы в человеческ
ой короне (как, например, свойства гуманны
е, добродетели, безупречная честность, вы
сокая нравственность и проч.)
In Kinbote’s Index to PF there are as many as four entries on Zemblan crown
jewels:
Crown Jewels,
<http://www.shannonrchamberlain.com/commentary.html#comline130> 130,
<http://www.shannonrchamberlain.com/commentary.html#comline681> 681; see
Hiding Place.
Hiding place, potaynik (q.v.)
Potaynik, taynik (q.v.)
Taynik, Russ., secret place; see Crown Jewels.
This is not a dead end, as it might seem. In his poem Balagan (“The
Show-Booth,” 1906) Blok mentions taynik dushi (the secret place of soul)
into which a mould has penetrated:
Ну, старая кляча, пойдём
ломать своего Шекспира!
Кин
Над чёрной слякотью дороги
Не поднимается туман.
Везут, покряхтывая, дроги
Мой полинялый балаган.
Лицо дневное Арлекина
Ещё бледней, чем лик Пьеро.
И в угол прячет Коломбина
Лохмотья, сшитые пестро...
Тащитесь, траурные клячи!
Актёры, правьте ремесло,
Чтобы от истины ходячей
Всем стало больно и светло!
В тайник души проникла плесень,
Но надо плакать, петь, идти,
Чтоб в рай моих заморских песен
Открылись торные пути.
Blok’s poem has the epigraph from Kean, ou Désordre et Génie (1836), a
play by Alexandre Dumas père. In Dumas’ novel “The Three Musketeers”
(1844) d’Artagnan, with the help of his friends, brings from London the
diamond studs that Queen Anne gave to her lover, Duke of Buckingham. The
novel’s characters include Milady de Winter (Athos’ former wife). The
fleur-de-lis branded on Milady’s shoulder brings to mind Fleur de Fyler,
Queen Disa’s lady-in-waiting.
Lik Pyero (Pierrot’s face) mentioned by Blok in the poem’s second stanza
brings to mind VN’s story Lik (1939). Lik is an actor whose real name (in
the story’s Russian original) seems to be Kulikov. Blok is the author of Na
pole Kulikovom (“In the Field of Kulikovo,” 1908), a cycle of five poems.
In the battle of Kulikovo (1380) the Russians led by the Moscow Prince
Dmitri defeated the Tartars led by Khan Mamai. In his poem O pravitelyakh
(“On Rulers,” 1944) VN says:
Умирает со скуки историк:
за Мамаем всё тот же Мамай.
The historian dies of sheer boredom:
on the heels of Mamai comes another Mamai.
In his poem VN mentions his late namesake, V. V. Mayakovski (whose style is
parodied by VN). Mayakovski is the author of Oblako v shtanakh (“The Cloud
in Trousers,” 1916), a poem whose title brings to mind VN’s story Oblako,
ozero, bashnya (“Cloud, Castle, Lake,” 1937). The three lakes in Pale Fire
are Omega, Ozero and Zero. Hazel Shade drowned herself in Lake Omega.
According to Sergey Solovyov, in the book of Russian verse, Pushkin is alpha
and Bryusov omega:
Пушкин - альфа, ты - омега
В книге русского стиха.
Bashnya is Russian for “tower.” In VN’s novel Dar (“The Gift,” 1937)
Koncheyev publishes his review of Fyodor’s “Life of Chernyshevski” in the
almanac Bashnya. In his Commentary Kinbote mentions Baron Bland, the Keeper
of the Treasure, who jumped or fell from the North Tower of the royal palace
in Onhava (Zemblan capital):
However, not all Russians are gloomy, and the two young experts from Moscow
whom our new government engaged to locate the Zemblan crown jewels turned
out to be positively rollicking. The Extremists were right in believing that
Baron Bland, the Keeper of the Treasure, had succeeded in hiding those
jewels before he jumped or fell from the North Tower; but they did not know
he had had a helper and were wrong in thinking the jewels must be looked for
in the palace which the gentle white-haired Bland had never left except to
die. I may add, with pardonable satisfaction, that they were, and still are,
cached in a totally different - and quite unexpected - corner of Zembla.
(note to Line 681)
Blok’s poem Balagan and his play Balaganchik (“The Fairground Booth,”
1906) bring to mind Shura Balaganov, a character in Ilf and Petrov’s
Zolotoy telyonok (“The Little Golden Calf,” 1931), the sequel novel to
Dvenadtsat’ stulyev (“The Twelve Chairs,” 1928). In “The Twelve Chairs”
the three main characters, Bender, Vorobyaninov and Father Fyodor, are the
diamond hunters who look for the jewels that Mme Petukhov (Vorobyaninov’s
mother-in-law) concealed in a Hambs chair. According to Kinbote, in a
conversation with him Shade mentioned “those joint authors of genius Ilf
and Petrov:”
Speaking of the Head of the bloated Russian Department, Prof. Pnin, a
regular martinet in regard to his underlings (happily, Prof. Botkin, who
taught in another department, was not subordinated to that grotesque
"perfectionist"): "How odd that Russian intellectuals should lack all sense
of humor when they have such marvelous humorists as Gogol, Dostoevski,
Chekhov, Zoshchenko, and those joint authors of genius Ilf and Petrov."
(note to Line 172)
The title of Ilf and Petrov’s novel brings to mind Blok’s poem
Dvenadtsat’ (“The Twelve,” 1918). Blok’s Foreword to “Retribution” is
dated July 12, 1919. In 1919 VN left Russia forever on the Greek ship
Nadezhda (Hope) and John Shade married Sybil Irondell (“Swallow”):
John Shade and Sybil Swallow (see
<http://www.shannonrchamberlain.com/commentary.html#comline247> note to line
247) were married in 1919, exactly three decades before King Charles wed
Disa, Duchess of Payn. (note to Line 275)
Shade’s and Kinbote’s “real” name seems to be Botkin; Sybil’s and
Disa’s “real” name seems to be Sofia Lastochkin. An American scholar of
Russian descent, Professor Vsevolod Botkin went mad and became Shade,
Kinbote and Gradus after the tragic death of his daughter Nadezhda (Hazel
Shade of Kinbote’s Commentary). In his memoir essay “Gumilyov and Blok”
(1926) Hodasevich quotes the words of Nadezhda Pavlovich, his and Blok’s
common friend, who told him that several days ago Blok (who was now on his
deathbed) went mad:
Я пошёл к себе ― и застал там поэтессу Над
ежду Павлович, общую нашу с Блоком прияте
льницу. Она только что прибежала от Блока
красная от жары и запухшая от слёз. Она ск
азала мне, что у Блока началась агония. Ка
к водится, я стал утешать её, обнадёживат
ь. Тогда, в последнем отчаянии, она подбеж
ала ко мне и, захлебываясь слезами, сказал
а:
― Ничего вы не знаете… никому не говорит
е… уже несколько дней… он сошёл с ума!
In his memoir essay “Byusov” (1924) Hodasevich mentions Bryusov’s hope
that under the Bolsheviks he would be able to turn Russian literature na
stol’ko-to gradusov (to so-and-so many degrees):
А какая надежда на то, что в истории литер
атуры будет сказано: "в таком-то году пове
рнул русскую литературу на столько-то гра
дусов".
Shade’s murderer, Gradus was in the glass business. Bryusov is the author
of Zerkalo teney (“The Mirror of Shadows,” 1912). In his epistle to
Bryusov, written at receiving Bryusov’s collection “The Mirror of
Shadows,” Blok mentions yad (poison), napitok tvoy (your drink) and pole
traurnogo zerkala (the field of funerary mirror):
И вновь, и вновь твой дух таинственный
В глухой ночи, в ночи пустой
Велит к твоей мечте единственной
Прильнуть и пить напиток твой.
Вновь причастись души неистовой,
И яд, и боль, и сладость пей,
И тихо книгу перелистывай,
Впиваясь в зеркало теней...
Пусть, несказанной мукой мучая,
Здесь бьётся страсть, змеится грусть,
Восторженная буря случая
Сулит конец, убийство ― пусть!
Что жизнь пытала, жгла, коверкала,
Здесь стало легкою мечтой,
И поле траурного зеркала
Прозрачной стынет красотой...
А красотой без слов повелено:
?Гори, гори. Живи, живи.
Пускай крыло души прострелено ―
Кровь обагрит алтарь любви?.
The maternal grandfather of the leader of the Shadows, a courageous master
builder, was poisoned.
In Kinbote’s Index to PF after Taynik there is the following entry:
Thurgus the Third, surnamed The Turgid, K's grandfather, d. 1900 at
seventy-five, after a long dull reign; sponge-bagcapped, and with only one
medal on his Jaeger jacket, he liked to bicycle in the park; stout and bald,
his nose like a congested plum, his martial mustache bristling with obsolete
passion, garbed in a dressing gown of green silk, and carrying a flambeau in
his raised hand, he used to meet, every night, during a short period in the
middle-Eighties, his hooded mistress, Iris Acht (q.v.) midway between palace
and theater in the secret passage later to be rediscovered by his grandson,
<http://www.shannonrchamberlain.com/commentary.html#comline130> 130.
Under Acht, Iris we read:
Acht, Iris, celebrated actress, d. 1888, a passionate and powerful woman,
favorite of Thurgus the Third (q.v.),
<http://www.shannonrchamberlain.com/commentary.html#comline130> 130. She
died officially by her own hand; unofficially, strangled in her dressing
room by a fellow actor, a jealous young Gothlander, now, at ninety, the
oldest, and least important, member of the Shadows (q.v.) group.
Acht is German for “eight.” In his memoir essay “Bryusov” Hodasevich
describes his first visit to Bryusov in the fall of 1904 and quotes
Bryusov’s words (the first thing he heard Bryusov say) “perhaps there are
several \xa8C maybe, eight \xa8C correct answers to any question:”
Лишь осенью 1904 г., новоиспеченным студент
ом, получил я от Брюсова письменное пригл
ашение. Снимая пальто в передней, я услыша
л голос хозяина:
- Очень вероятно, что на каждый вопрос ест
ь не один, а несколько истинных ответов, м
ожет быть \xa8C восемь. Утверждая одну истину,
мы опрометчиво игнорируем ещё целых семь.
According to Bryusov, it is possible that, maintaining one truth, we ignore
seven other truths. In the last stanza of his poem Neznakomka
(“Incognita,” 1906) Blok says that a treasure lies in his soul and that
istina (truth) is in wine:
В моей душе лежит сокровище,
И ключ поручен только мне!
Ты право, пьяное чудовище!
Я знаю: истина в вине.
A treasure lies in my soul,
And the key belongs to me alone!
You are correct, you drunken fiend!
I know it: truth is in wine.
In Ital’yanskie stikhi (“Italian Verses,” 1909) Blok several times
compares Florence to dymnyi iris (a smoky iris):
Флоренция, ты ирис нежный;
По ком томился я один
Любовью длинной, безнадежной,
Весь день в пыли твоих Кашин?
О, сладко вспомнить безнадежность:
Мечтать и жить в твоей глуши;
Уйти в твой древний зной и в нежность
Своей стареющей души...
Но суждено нам разлучиться,
И через дальние края
Твой дымный ирис будет сниться,
Как юность ранняя моя.
Страстью длинной, безмятежной
Занялась душа моя,
Ирис дымный, ирис нежный,
Благовония струя,
Переплыть велит все реки
На воздушных парусах,
Утонуть велит навеки
В тех вечерних небесах,
И когда предамся зною,
Голубой вечерний зной
В голубое голубою
Унесёт меня волной...
On March 28, 1922, VN was reading one of these poems to his mother, when the
telephone rang and the caller informed him of the tragedy in a Berlin
lecture hall. The terrorists who killed VN’s father planned to assassinate
Milyukov (VDN’s friend and colleague who gave a lecture in Berlin). In his
Foreword to “Retribution” Blok mentions Milyukov who in spring of 1911
read a most interesting lecture entitled “The Armed World and Arms
Reduction:”
Весной 1911 года П. Н. Милюков прочёл интере
снейшую лекцию под заглавием "Вооружённы
й мир и сокращение вооружений".
In Pale Fire Gradus kills Shade while trying to assassinate Kinbote (whose
name means in Zemblan “a king’s destroyer;” according to Kinbote, a king
who sinks his identity in the mirror of exile is in a sense just that).
In the Introduction to “Retribution” Blok says that sons are reflected in
their fathers, repeats twice the word almaz (the diamond) and mentions his
gnevnyi yamb (angry iamb):
Сыны отражены в отцах:
Коротенький обрывок рода -
Два-три звена, - и уж ясны
Заветы тёмной старины:
Созрела новая порода, -
Угль превращается в алмаз.
Он, под киркой трудолюбивой,
Восстав из недр неторопливо,
Предстанет - миру напоказ!
Так бей, не знай отдохновенья,
Пусть жила жизни глубока:
Алмаз горит издалека -
Дроби, мой гневный ямб, каменья!
Thurgus the Third, surnamed the Turgid, clearly hints at Turgenev, the
author of Ottsy i deti (“Fathers and Sons,” 1862) and Dym (“Smoke,”
1867). In his essay on Turgenev (in “The Silhouettes of Russian Writers”)
Ayhenvald calls Turgenev “a specialist of rendez-vous:”
У Тургенева все влюблены как-то тенденцио
зно. И он - специалист rendez-vous. И даже мало е
му реальных свиданий, так что нужны ещё и
всякие "Сны", и "Песни торжествующей любви
", где показал он страсть бессознательную,
на расстоянии, телепатию чувства. У него л
юбовь литературна и, так сказать, с цитата
ми.
In the last stanza of his poem Ravenna (the first poem in the Italian cycle)
Blok mentions ten’ Danta s profilem orlinym (Dante’s shade with aquiline
profile) that sings to him about the New Life. Pushkin’s Sonet (1830)
begins as follows: Surovyi Dant ne preziral soneta (Severe Dante didn’t
scorn the sonnet). Reader, do not scorn the coda (particularly, the Index to
Pale Fire where the Zemblan crown jewels are hidden)!
sonnet + iris = sonet + Sirin = son/nos + tri + seni = ston + ire + sin =
on/no + sinister
sonet \xa8C sonnet
Sirin \xa8C VN’s Russian nom de plume
son \xa8C sleep; dream
nos \xa8C nose
tri \xa8C 3
seni \xa8C entrance-hall
ston \xa8C moan; cf. Disa, Duchess of Payn, of Great Payn and Moan
on \xa8C he
no \xa8C but
sinister \xa8C cf. Bend Sinister (1947), a novel by VN
Alexey Sklyarenko
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