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Re: THOUGHTS/QUERY: Zertsalo, V. I. Lukin
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Nabokov discusses Lukin's Shchepetil'nik is his commentary to
Eugene Onegin (EO, 2: 99).
Gavriel Shapiro
At 07:53 PM 4/19/2007 -0400, you wrote:
>Dear List,
>
>Thanks to Mary for her note about Myers and Bend Sinister. Very
>interesting! I'm also looking forward to reading Don's essay about de la
>Mare, as that's a connection I've been wanting to better understand.
>
>On a completely new topic, I just ran across a fascinating article in the
>2002 Russian Review: Mirror Writing: The Literary Traces of the Zertsalo,
>by Julia Bekman Chedaga. Chedaga begins by pointing to an odd object--a
>zertsalo--noted in a passage from Gogol. The zertsalo is sometimes
>translated a "mirror of law." According to Chedago, the object itself was
>a three-sided prism displaying under glass, on each side, the text of a
>different Petrine decree--the three cornerstones of Russian law. In the
>next section of the essay, the author nicely traces how the zertsalo fits
>into the tradition of didactic medieval "mirror books"--the Speculum
>Regale [MR: noted in PF], the German "Mirror for Princes," etc.. Long
>story short, the zertsalo is a kind of moral mirror, a metaphorical object.
>
>None of this directly ties to VN, though the discussion of mirrors and
>glass-making in the article surely made me think of him. One footnote,
>however, did strike my interest. Chedaga notes that "[t]he protagonist of
>V. I. Lukin's didactic comedy, Shchepetil'nik (1765)... is a self-admitted
>purveyor of trifles who deals in many an optical device (lorgnette,
>telescope, and mirror) that...shows in a true light the foibles of human
>nature to would-be customers." I did a bit of checking, and it turns out
>that Lukin's play is an adapted version (a mirror text?) of the English
>writer Robert Dodsley's play "The Toy Shop." Dodsley on a whim sent his
>play to Alexander Pope, who liked it so much that he passed it along to
>one of his theater friends, and it became something of a hit. (Do a Google
>Books search on Dodsley & Trifles if you want to read it). The money
>Dodsley made from the play allowed him to open a bookshop, and he went on
>to publish many of Samuel Johnson's works and Thomas Gray's Elegy.
>
>The connections to Pope and Johnson could certainly relate to PF, but I'm
>most interested in Lukin, since John Shade's mother was Caroline Lukin.
>Also, I recall Don Johnson noting a while back an article by E.A. Popova
>called "Episode of the Lorgnette," wherein she traces that object through
>several Nabokov texts. To the Russian lit experts among us, I'd like to
>know how prominent a writer V.I. Lukin was. Is it likely Nabokov knew his
>specific works and reputation? Could he have read Shchepetil'nik, and is
>it likely he would have known that Dodsley was the original source for the
>play?
>
>Thanks in advance,
>Matt Roth
>
>P.S. On the British side, there is an author named James Lukin who
>published wonderful detailed books on how to make clockwork toys.
>
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