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Fwd: RE: Query: the choice of the name "Ada"
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Dear Sasha,
Everyone does not ignore "Cain." The name Ada is glossed in the second
note on ADAonline:
"Ada" combines the Russian a, da, "Oh, yes," and the rather less
affirmative Russian ada, "of hell" (see 29.27-28, "teper' iz ada ('now
is out of hell')" and 332.26, "iz ada (out of Hades)").
Ada is also the first name of a character in Bleak House (1852-53) by
Charles Dickens (1812-70), which Nabokov taught at Cornell and Harvard
from 1950 to 1958. Ada Clare marries her cousin Richard Carstone; Ada
Veen is the love of her "cousin's" (actually brother's), Van Veen's,
life, and they live together for four and a half decades.
Adah, in the verse tragedy Cain: A Mystery (1821), by Lord Byron, is
both wife and twin sister of Cain, who becomes a pupil of Lucifer; Ada
Veen is sister and wife in all but name of Van, a pupil, in matters of
personal style and conduct, of his father, Demon.
Brian Boyd
-----Original Message-----
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On
Behalf Of Donald B. Johnson
Sent: Monday, 21 February 2005 9:51 a.m.
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Query: the choice of the name "Ada"
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-d'Urville
>after his wife.
>[sort of Antiterra?]. Cf. early Nabokov's 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
>Pushkin's "Adeli": "Igrai, Adelle, ne znai pechali..."(1824))
>
>
>Adelina Patti (1843-1919), 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 Pushkin's (1828) fragment/plan for a
>comedy (Translation of Casimir Bonjour's "Le mari a bonnes fortunes",
>1824). Adelle loves not her husband D'Orville 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 -----
----- End forwarded message -----
Everyone does not ignore "Cain." The name Ada is glossed in the second
note on ADAonline:
"Ada" combines the Russian a, da, "Oh, yes," and the rather less
affirmative Russian ada, "of hell" (see 29.27-28, "teper' iz ada ('now
is out of hell')" and 332.26, "iz ada (out of Hades)").
Ada is also the first name of a character in Bleak House (1852-53) by
Charles Dickens (1812-70), which Nabokov taught at Cornell and Harvard
from 1950 to 1958. Ada Clare marries her cousin Richard Carstone; Ada
Veen is the love of her "cousin's" (actually brother's), Van Veen's,
life, and they live together for four and a half decades.
Adah, in the verse tragedy Cain: A Mystery (1821), by Lord Byron, is
both wife and twin sister of Cain, who becomes a pupil of Lucifer; Ada
Veen is sister and wife in all but name of Van, a pupil, in matters of
personal style and conduct, of his father, Demon.
Brian Boyd
-----Original Message-----
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On
Behalf Of Donald B. Johnson
Sent: Monday, 21 February 2005 9:51 a.m.
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Query: the choice of the name "Ada"
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-d'Urville
>after his wife.
>[sort of Antiterra?]. Cf. early Nabokov's 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
>Pushkin's "Adeli": "Igrai, Adelle, ne znai pechali..."(1824))
>
>
>Adelina Patti (1843-1919), 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 Pushkin's (1828) fragment/plan for a
>comedy (Translation of Casimir Bonjour's "Le mari a bonnes fortunes",
>1824). Adelle loves not her husband D'Orville 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 -----
----- End forwarded message -----