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QUERY: PALE fIRE Query: Duke Conmal and K.R.
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EDNOTE. From the awesome Mary Bellino---------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mary Bellino" <iambe@rcn.com>
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (66
lines) ------------------
> While researching an unrelated matter, I came upon the
> Silver-Age literary figure Grand Duke Constantine
> (Konstantin) Romanov (1858-1915), grandson of Nicholas I
> (and relative of the last tsar, though I can't unravel the
> exact relationship). Writing under his initials, "K.R.," he
> published verse and, more important for our purposes, a
> Russian translation of "Hamlet." Has it ever been suggested
> that he might have been the model for another translator of
> "dze Bart," Duke Conmal, the uncle of Charles X in Pale Fire?
>
> Consider:
>
> Conmal = con (learn, construe, or translate) + mal (badly).
> Constantine, from Lat. 'constantia" (n.) and 'consto' (v.) =
> to be firm or steadfast, or (fancifully) to 'con' in a
> faithful way, giving VN a point d'appui for "Conmal."
>
> Conmal's dates, 1855-1955: after a long life, he dies
> happily (cf. his "raucous" dying request, C12) a few years
> before the Zemblan revolution.
> Constantine's dates, 1858-1915: though not especially
> long-lived, he also dies a peaceful death of natural causes
> just few years before the Russian revolution decimated his family.
>
> VN certainly knew K.R.'s work, as he translates one of his
> quatrains in ADA. (See Nabokv-L posting by Alexey Sklyarenko at
> http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0211&L=nabokv-l&P=R10850)
>
> Interestingly, although I'm not sure VN could have known
> this, K.R. was (though married) strongly attracted to men,
> soldiers in particular, and thus could have been a true
> Zemblan patriot. His diaries are quite explicit on the
> subject; he sounds in fact very much like King Charles
> lamenting his inability to remain faithful to Disa. I should
> add however that his virility and sense of family duty are
> not in question, as he fathered nine children. (See article
> at http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/krbio.html)
>
> K.R. was a friend of Fet's and of many other literary and
> musical figures including Chaikovsky. There is a wonderful
> picture of his study at the Marble Palace at
> http://www.ticketsofrussia.ru/photos/rusmus/img/kr.jpg
> and it certainly recalls Kinbote's description of Conmal's
> "warm castle and its fifty thousand crested books" (C962).
>
> Pulling back the camera a little, if we accept the view that
> Kinbote is the "scholar of Russian descent" V. Botkin, he
> may be expected to have been familiar with K.R. and his
> Hamlet translation, and able to draw on his memories of
> Russia as well as the details of his New Wye life in order
> to weave the story of Zembla.
>
> Finally, what is interesting about Conmal is that despite
> his maladroit translations and execrable English verse, he
> is perhaps the most charming and sympathetic of the Zemblan
> characters in PF. Thus VN might not necessarily have been
> making fun of K.R. by transforming him into a Zemblan duke.
> The question I can't answer is-- how good or bad is K.R.'s
> Hamlet? Can anyone out there tell us? It's still in print,
> in a collection that includes also the Hamlets of Kroneberg,
> Radlova, and Pasternak (Moscow: Interbuk, 1994).
>
> With apologies for my ignorance of minor Russian writers and
> Romanov genealogy--
>
> Mary
>
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mary Bellino" <iambe@rcn.com>
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (66
lines) ------------------
> While researching an unrelated matter, I came upon the
> Silver-Age literary figure Grand Duke Constantine
> (Konstantin) Romanov (1858-1915), grandson of Nicholas I
> (and relative of the last tsar, though I can't unravel the
> exact relationship). Writing under his initials, "K.R.," he
> published verse and, more important for our purposes, a
> Russian translation of "Hamlet." Has it ever been suggested
> that he might have been the model for another translator of
> "dze Bart," Duke Conmal, the uncle of Charles X in Pale Fire?
>
> Consider:
>
> Conmal = con (learn, construe, or translate) + mal (badly).
> Constantine, from Lat. 'constantia" (n.) and 'consto' (v.) =
> to be firm or steadfast, or (fancifully) to 'con' in a
> faithful way, giving VN a point d'appui for "Conmal."
>
> Conmal's dates, 1855-1955: after a long life, he dies
> happily (cf. his "raucous" dying request, C12) a few years
> before the Zemblan revolution.
> Constantine's dates, 1858-1915: though not especially
> long-lived, he also dies a peaceful death of natural causes
> just few years before the Russian revolution decimated his family.
>
> VN certainly knew K.R.'s work, as he translates one of his
> quatrains in ADA. (See Nabokv-L posting by Alexey Sklyarenko at
> http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0211&L=nabokv-l&P=R10850)
>
> Interestingly, although I'm not sure VN could have known
> this, K.R. was (though married) strongly attracted to men,
> soldiers in particular, and thus could have been a true
> Zemblan patriot. His diaries are quite explicit on the
> subject; he sounds in fact very much like King Charles
> lamenting his inability to remain faithful to Disa. I should
> add however that his virility and sense of family duty are
> not in question, as he fathered nine children. (See article
> at http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/krbio.html)
>
> K.R. was a friend of Fet's and of many other literary and
> musical figures including Chaikovsky. There is a wonderful
> picture of his study at the Marble Palace at
> http://www.ticketsofrussia.ru/photos/rusmus/img/kr.jpg
> and it certainly recalls Kinbote's description of Conmal's
> "warm castle and its fifty thousand crested books" (C962).
>
> Pulling back the camera a little, if we accept the view that
> Kinbote is the "scholar of Russian descent" V. Botkin, he
> may be expected to have been familiar with K.R. and his
> Hamlet translation, and able to draw on his memories of
> Russia as well as the details of his New Wye life in order
> to weave the story of Zembla.
>
> Finally, what is interesting about Conmal is that despite
> his maladroit translations and execrable English verse, he
> is perhaps the most charming and sympathetic of the Zemblan
> characters in PF. Thus VN might not necessarily have been
> making fun of K.R. by transforming him into a Zemblan duke.
> The question I can't answer is-- how good or bad is K.R.'s
> Hamlet? Can anyone out there tell us? It's still in print,
> in a collection that includes also the Hamlets of Kroneberg,
> Radlova, and Pasternak (Moscow: Interbuk, 1994).
>
> With apologies for my ignorance of minor Russian writers and
> Romanov genealogy--
>
> Mary
>