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Re: Query: Percy Elphinstone in Lolita
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Andrew Fippinger asked :' Does anyone know the real identity (if there is one) of Percy Elphinstone from Lolita?'
Without answering his question ( is there a real Elphinstone? Or Shakespeare, Edsel...) I would like to remind him that Nabokov often plays with derivatives that suggest "ivory", not only in connection to black and white ivory chess-pieces, but to dentists. No time to check in Lolita (nor in Pnin), but I recollect that I often came accross dentists named Dr. Ivory ( Quilty's brother, for example).
In German ivory is ""Elfenbein" ( as Elf also means "eleven" and "elf" in English ) and, perhaps incorrectly, I always think of "ivory" when I read about Elphinstone, a white ivory chess piece.
In her book on Pale Fire, Priscilla Meyer calls attention to the link bt. Iris Acht , the number 8 and a dentist. Later she mentions another dentist, "Dr. Ahlert with a German accent". I remember that the number 18 ( Achtzehn ) also brings up two other German words. Zahn ( plural Zähne) sounds almost similar to Zehn (10), at least to unpracticed ears. "Acht" (8) takes us to "Alert, Attention with a German accent."
I shall now bring up an excerpt from Morgenstern's (Christian Morgenstern, 1871) "Die Galgenlieder" where he makes puns with the number "Elf" (11) inventing a "Midnight-Elf" ( or a "Twelve-Eleven", "Der Zwölf-Elf").
I include him not just for the fun of his lines, but because he mentions a gulping swamp, a child's cry, Poe's "Raven"nevermore and the clockwork's "left arm".
Der Zwölf-Elf hebt die linke Hand:/ Da schlägt es Mitternacht im Land.
.....
Die Galgenbrüder wehn im Wind./ Im fernen Dorfe schreit ein Kind.
.......
sich nicht verlief in Teich und Sumpf./
.......
Der Rabe Ralf ruft schaurig: »Kra!/Das End ist da! Das End ist da!......
Der Zwölf-Elf senkt die linke Hand:/ Und wieder schläft das ganze Land.
I wish list participants, more familiar with the German language and lore than I am, would correct the imprecisions...
Jansy
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Without answering his question ( is there a real Elphinstone? Or Shakespeare, Edsel...) I would like to remind him that Nabokov often plays with derivatives that suggest "ivory", not only in connection to black and white ivory chess-pieces, but to dentists. No time to check in Lolita (nor in Pnin), but I recollect that I often came accross dentists named Dr. Ivory ( Quilty's brother, for example).
In German ivory is ""Elfenbein" ( as Elf also means "eleven" and "elf" in English ) and, perhaps incorrectly, I always think of "ivory" when I read about Elphinstone, a white ivory chess piece.
In her book on Pale Fire, Priscilla Meyer calls attention to the link bt. Iris Acht , the number 8 and a dentist. Later she mentions another dentist, "Dr. Ahlert with a German accent". I remember that the number 18 ( Achtzehn ) also brings up two other German words. Zahn ( plural Zähne) sounds almost similar to Zehn (10), at least to unpracticed ears. "Acht" (8) takes us to "Alert, Attention with a German accent."
I shall now bring up an excerpt from Morgenstern's (Christian Morgenstern, 1871) "Die Galgenlieder" where he makes puns with the number "Elf" (11) inventing a "Midnight-Elf" ( or a "Twelve-Eleven", "Der Zwölf-Elf").
I include him not just for the fun of his lines, but because he mentions a gulping swamp, a child's cry, Poe's "Raven"nevermore and the clockwork's "left arm".
Der Zwölf-Elf hebt die linke Hand:/ Da schlägt es Mitternacht im Land.
.....
Die Galgenbrüder wehn im Wind./ Im fernen Dorfe schreit ein Kind.
.......
sich nicht verlief in Teich und Sumpf./
.......
Der Rabe Ralf ruft schaurig: »Kra!/Das End ist da! Das End ist da!......
Der Zwölf-Elf senkt die linke Hand:/ Und wieder schläft das ganze Land.
I wish list participants, more familiar with the German language and lore than I am, would correct the imprecisions...
Jansy
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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