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Re: Lear's "never" (fwd)
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Date
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From: "Brian Boyd (FOA ENG)" <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz>
Dear Michael and list,
Nabokov was fascinated by Lear's line of "Nevers" and echoed it in Despair,
Ada and the Appendix on Prosody as well as in his rejoinder to Wilson, as I
note in The Nabokovian 43: 59-61, discussing Ada 92.08-09.
There I also point out that Wilson's letter is misdated "April 20" in NWL
but correctly placed at "August 20" in Dear Bunny, Dear Volodya pp. 78-79,
which every Nabokovian should buy and cite, dear Galya.
Brian Boyd
Yes, dear Brian, will do just that next time! GD
-----Original Message-----
From: Galya Diment
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: 1/5/2002 10:55 AM
Subject: Lear's "never" (fwd)
*For my response, see below. GD*
From: Michael Maar <michael.maar@snafu.de>
Dear list,
sometimes memory is tricky and treacherous: I am quite sure, or feel to
be,
that Nabokov, in his long discussions with Wilson, at one occasion had a
comment on King Lear's "never, never, never, never, never". Wilson
quotes
this line as part of an argument, and Nabokov - to my memory - answers
something like: yes, but Bunny, a line like that, be honest, how often
does
that occur! In short, he seems to be a grand admirer of these five
nevers.
But I can't find it in the correspondence. Anyone knows if I'm mistaken,
which most certainly must be the case?
Thanks!
Michael
Wilson's remark is in the correspondence, pp. 59-60 (Apr 20, 1942, EW to
VN): "[Pushkin] almost never varies the iamb, whereas with Shakespeare
any
substitution is possible. I don't remember in Pushkin even any such
verse
as 'Never, never, never, never, never' in _King Lear_. It may be that
neither you nor Mirsky, trained on classic Russian verse, quite realizes
what English verse is like."
VN's response is in his August 24 letter (p. 72): "You say that you
don't
remember in Pushkin e v e n any such verse as the five never's in
_Lear_;
do you mean that you remember a similar kind of line anywhere _else_ in
Shakespeare (come, come, Bunny)? Incidentally we are not trained, Mirsky
and I, on classic Russian verse; we are trained on the verse of Blok,
Annensky, Bely and others who revolutionized the old ideas..."
Dear Michael and list,
Nabokov was fascinated by Lear's line of "Nevers" and echoed it in Despair,
Ada and the Appendix on Prosody as well as in his rejoinder to Wilson, as I
note in The Nabokovian 43: 59-61, discussing Ada 92.08-09.
There I also point out that Wilson's letter is misdated "April 20" in NWL
but correctly placed at "August 20" in Dear Bunny, Dear Volodya pp. 78-79,
which every Nabokovian should buy and cite, dear Galya.
Brian Boyd
Yes, dear Brian, will do just that next time! GD
-----Original Message-----
From: Galya Diment
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: 1/5/2002 10:55 AM
Subject: Lear's "never" (fwd)
*For my response, see below. GD*
From: Michael Maar <michael.maar@snafu.de>
Dear list,
sometimes memory is tricky and treacherous: I am quite sure, or feel to
be,
that Nabokov, in his long discussions with Wilson, at one occasion had a
comment on King Lear's "never, never, never, never, never". Wilson
quotes
this line as part of an argument, and Nabokov - to my memory - answers
something like: yes, but Bunny, a line like that, be honest, how often
does
that occur! In short, he seems to be a grand admirer of these five
nevers.
But I can't find it in the correspondence. Anyone knows if I'm mistaken,
which most certainly must be the case?
Thanks!
Michael
Wilson's remark is in the correspondence, pp. 59-60 (Apr 20, 1942, EW to
VN): "[Pushkin] almost never varies the iamb, whereas with Shakespeare
any
substitution is possible. I don't remember in Pushkin even any such
verse
as 'Never, never, never, never, never' in _King Lear_. It may be that
neither you nor Mirsky, trained on classic Russian verse, quite realizes
what English verse is like."
VN's response is in his August 24 letter (p. 72): "You say that you
don't
remember in Pushkin e v e n any such verse as the five never's in
_Lear_;
do you mean that you remember a similar kind of line anywhere _else_ in
Shakespeare (come, come, Bunny)? Incidentally we are not trained, Mirsky
and I, on classic Russian verse; we are trained on the verse of Blok,
Annensky, Bely and others who revolutionized the old ideas..."