Subject
Query: the choice of the name "Ada"
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Date
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The erudite lists of Ada's namesakes in literature and myths are very
impressive but I think the most important prototype is missing. Though Lord
Byron has been mentioned several times, everyone seems to ignore his drama
"Cain" in which beautiful Adah is Cain's beloved sister and wife who tries
to save him from Lucifer and other demons. In Russia this drama is well
known thanks to Ivan Bunin's excellent translation.
By the way, in Pushkin's line "Ada gordaia tsaritsa" Ada is not a name but
a genitive case of "ad" (hell).
Alexander Dolinin
---------------------------------
EDNOTE. I HEARTILY CONCUR and, indeed, pointed it out VN's debt to Byron's play
_Cain_ in my _Worlds in Regression_ , p. 116. Sasha D.is, of course, right
about "Ada gordaia tsaritsa." The Pushkin citation is a slendid example of the
hazards of computer searches (as well as the extreme flexibilty of Russian
syntax). Curiously enough, the Pushkin phrase, taken in isolation, is perfectly
grammatical and can be read, wrongly, as "Ada proud tsaritsa" or, correctly, as
"proud tsarita of hell" --- not an inapt characterization of VN's heroine.
--------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
At 10:05 AM 2/20/05 -0800, Victor Fet wrote:
>Dear List,
>
>Here is my two cents worth:
>
>
>Adah, a female name (Hebrew), meaning ornament. There are two Adahs in
>the Old
>Testament:
>
>(1) Adah wife of Lamech [the fifth in descent from Cain]. Genesis 4.19: And
>Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one [was] Adah, and the
>name of
>the other Zillah. In rabbinical literature: The Midrash interprets Adah
>as the
>"deposed one" and Zillah, as "she shaded herself". It states in explanation
>that the immoral generation before the Deluge was in the habit of marrying two
>wives; one for the perpetuation of the race [Adah], the other for
>indulgence in
>sensual pleasure [Zillah].
>Adah had two sons, Jabal ("the father of such as dwell in tents and have
>cattle", Gen. 4:20) and Jubal (the inventor of "the harp" (Heb. kinnor,
>properly "lyre") and "the organ" (Hebrew: 'ugab, properly "mouth-organ" or
>Pan's pipe) (Gen. 4:21).
>
>(2) Adah wife of Esau (who sold his birthright for a bowl of pottage; Gen.
>25):
>Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan: Adah the daughter of Elon the
>Hittite, and Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, daughter of Zibeon the Hivite,
>and Basmath Ishmael's daughter, the sister of Nebaioth. And Adah bore to Esau
>Eliphaz; and Basmath bore Reuel.(Gen. 36: 2-4). The sons of Adah in the land
>of Edom (Gen. 36:16) were grandsons of Esau.
>
>Adar, a female name (Hebrew), meaning fire.
>
>Adena, a female name (Hebrew), meaning tender
>
>Adina, a female name (Hebrew), meaning adorned; voluptuous; dainty
>
>
>Terre Adelie, part of East Antarctic, named in 1840 by Dumont-dUrville after
>his wife.
>[sort of Antiterra?]. Cf. early Nabokovs interest in Antarctic in The Pole.
>
>
>Ada Byron King, Lady Lovelace (1815-1852), daughter of Lord Byron and Anne
>Isabelle Milbanke, the founder of scientific computing. Is thy face like thy
>mother's, my fair child! Ada! sole daughter of my house and of my heart? When
>last I saw thy young blue eyes they smiled' And then we parted,- not as now we
>part, but with a hope...
>
>
>Adelle Alexandrovna Davydova (addressed, when she was 14, in the famous
>Pushkins Adeli: Igrai, Adelle, ne znai pechali...(1824))
>
>
>Adelina Patti (18431919), the famous Italian singer who toured Russia,
>mentioned in many Russian literary sources. Alexander Kuprin has a story, A
>Future Patti (1895). Andrei Bely in his memoirs says that the poet Fyodor
>Sologub who heard Patti in the 1880s could never forget her voice (G.V.
>Adamovich).
>
>
>Adelina Adalis (Efron) (1900-1969), a Russian poet and translator, first poem
>published in 1913, had a tragic love affair with Valery Bryusov at age 17 (see
>memoirs of her granddaughter Ekaterina Moskowskaya,
>http://www.moscowskaya.com/pages/05r.htm).
>
>
>Ada group of manuscripts: a group of about 10 illuminated manuscripts, dating
>from the last quarter of the 8th century, the earliest examples of the art of
>the Court School of Charlemagne. The group is named after a Gospel book (c.
>750; Trier, Cathedral Treasury) commissioned by Ada, supposed half-sister of
>Charlemagne.
>
>
>Adelle, a young married lady in Pushkins (1828) fragment/plan for a comedy
>(Translation of Casimir Bonjours Le mari a bonnes fortunes, 1824). Adelle
>loves not her husband DOrville but her chilhood friend and cousin
>Charles, but
>remains faithful to her husband. (L.I. Volpert, Russko-francuzskie
>literaturaturnye svyazi konca XVIII-pervoi poloviny XIX veka,
>http://www.ruthenia.ru/volpert/intro.htm)
>
>
>and finally:
>
>Ada gordaya tsaritsa
>vzorom yunoshu zovyot..
>(Pushkin, Pleshchut volny Flegetona...)
>
>----- End forwarded message -----
----- End forwarded message -----
impressive but I think the most important prototype is missing. Though Lord
Byron has been mentioned several times, everyone seems to ignore his drama
"Cain" in which beautiful Adah is Cain's beloved sister and wife who tries
to save him from Lucifer and other demons. In Russia this drama is well
known thanks to Ivan Bunin's excellent translation.
By the way, in Pushkin's line "Ada gordaia tsaritsa" Ada is not a name but
a genitive case of "ad" (hell).
Alexander Dolinin
---------------------------------
EDNOTE. I HEARTILY CONCUR and, indeed, pointed it out VN's debt to Byron's play
_Cain_ in my _Worlds in Regression_ , p. 116. Sasha D.is, of course, right
about "Ada gordaia tsaritsa." The Pushkin citation is a slendid example of the
hazards of computer searches (as well as the extreme flexibilty of Russian
syntax). Curiously enough, the Pushkin phrase, taken in isolation, is perfectly
grammatical and can be read, wrongly, as "Ada proud tsaritsa" or, correctly, as
"proud tsarita of hell" --- not an inapt characterization of VN's heroine.
--------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
At 10:05 AM 2/20/05 -0800, Victor Fet wrote:
>Dear List,
>
>Here is my two cents worth:
>
>
>Adah, a female name (Hebrew), meaning ornament. There are two Adahs in
>the Old
>Testament:
>
>(1) Adah wife of Lamech [the fifth in descent from Cain]. Genesis 4.19: And
>Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one [was] Adah, and the
>name of
>the other Zillah. In rabbinical literature: The Midrash interprets Adah
>as the
>"deposed one" and Zillah, as "she shaded herself". It states in explanation
>that the immoral generation before the Deluge was in the habit of marrying two
>wives; one for the perpetuation of the race [Adah], the other for
>indulgence in
>sensual pleasure [Zillah].
>Adah had two sons, Jabal ("the father of such as dwell in tents and have
>cattle", Gen. 4:20) and Jubal (the inventor of "the harp" (Heb. kinnor,
>properly "lyre") and "the organ" (Hebrew: 'ugab, properly "mouth-organ" or
>Pan's pipe) (Gen. 4:21).
>
>(2) Adah wife of Esau (who sold his birthright for a bowl of pottage; Gen.
>25):
>Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan: Adah the daughter of Elon the
>Hittite, and Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, daughter of Zibeon the Hivite,
>and Basmath Ishmael's daughter, the sister of Nebaioth. And Adah bore to Esau
>Eliphaz; and Basmath bore Reuel.(Gen. 36: 2-4). The sons of Adah in the land
>of Edom (Gen. 36:16) were grandsons of Esau.
>
>Adar, a female name (Hebrew), meaning fire.
>
>Adena, a female name (Hebrew), meaning tender
>
>Adina, a female name (Hebrew), meaning adorned; voluptuous; dainty
>
>
>Terre Adelie, part of East Antarctic, named in 1840 by Dumont-dUrville after
>his wife.
>[sort of Antiterra?]. Cf. early Nabokovs interest in Antarctic in The Pole.
>
>
>Ada Byron King, Lady Lovelace (1815-1852), daughter of Lord Byron and Anne
>Isabelle Milbanke, the founder of scientific computing. Is thy face like thy
>mother's, my fair child! Ada! sole daughter of my house and of my heart? When
>last I saw thy young blue eyes they smiled' And then we parted,- not as now we
>part, but with a hope...
>
>
>Adelle Alexandrovna Davydova (addressed, when she was 14, in the famous
>Pushkins Adeli: Igrai, Adelle, ne znai pechali...(1824))
>
>
>Adelina Patti (18431919), the famous Italian singer who toured Russia,
>mentioned in many Russian literary sources. Alexander Kuprin has a story, A
>Future Patti (1895). Andrei Bely in his memoirs says that the poet Fyodor
>Sologub who heard Patti in the 1880s could never forget her voice (G.V.
>Adamovich).
>
>
>Adelina Adalis (Efron) (1900-1969), a Russian poet and translator, first poem
>published in 1913, had a tragic love affair with Valery Bryusov at age 17 (see
>memoirs of her granddaughter Ekaterina Moskowskaya,
>http://www.moscowskaya.com/pages/05r.htm).
>
>
>Ada group of manuscripts: a group of about 10 illuminated manuscripts, dating
>from the last quarter of the 8th century, the earliest examples of the art of
>the Court School of Charlemagne. The group is named after a Gospel book (c.
>750; Trier, Cathedral Treasury) commissioned by Ada, supposed half-sister of
>Charlemagne.
>
>
>Adelle, a young married lady in Pushkins (1828) fragment/plan for a comedy
>(Translation of Casimir Bonjours Le mari a bonnes fortunes, 1824). Adelle
>loves not her husband DOrville but her chilhood friend and cousin
>Charles, but
>remains faithful to her husband. (L.I. Volpert, Russko-francuzskie
>literaturaturnye svyazi konca XVIII-pervoi poloviny XIX veka,
>http://www.ruthenia.ru/volpert/intro.htm)
>
>
>and finally:
>
>Ada gordaya tsaritsa
>vzorom yunoshu zovyot..
>(Pushkin, Pleshchut volny Flegetona...)
>
>----- End forwarded message -----
----- End forwarded message -----