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Re: {SIGHTING] Adjectival Nabokov & style
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LS,
I am sure Nabokov knew Hopkins' work, for he mentions him in *Lolita*,
Part II, chapter 32:
*...stippled Hopkins or shorn Baudelaire...*
He is undoubtedly referring to the poem "Pied Beauty" (1877): *Glory be to
God for dappled things...*
('Dappled' must've been Nabokov's favourite word.)
Hafid Bouazza
2012/12/30 Barrie Akin <ba@taxbar.com>
> Is "curtal" so unusual in a literary context?
>
> Gerard Manley Hopkins used it for the form of sonnet he invented - see
> "Pied Beauty" for example - and I would be surprised if VN was unaware of
> Hopkins's work with its gloriously complex language.
>
> On 30 Dec 2012, at 02:35, "Jansy" <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
>
> *Laurence Hochard* replies to JM's quotes related to equivocal naked
> arms #: "*Very interesting ...: it shows how a unique matrix in VN's
> imagination could spawn a whole family of images!*". His observation
> about a "unique matrix" in VN's fecund imagination spurred me on
> towards another set of arms and elbows, now turned into wings by the act
> of clasping a necklace:"Martha threw off her orange peignoir, and as she
> drew back her elbows to adjust a necklace her angelically lovely bare
> shoulder blades came together like folding wings." (*King Queen Knave;*Collins Collector's Choice, 767).
>
> To my surprise, while searching for quotes, I discovered
> that Quilty's ascent of a slope is comically bow-legged:.
> There was a momentary flurry — he saw me, and throwing away his racket —
> mine — scuttled up the slope. He waved his wrists and elbows in a would-be
> comical imitation of rudimentary wings, as he climbed, bow-legged, to the
> street, where his gray car awaited him. Next moment he and the grayness
> were gone.(Lolita, part II, ch.20)
>
> Later on, a similar wing-related image, is used in a positive
> metamorphosis - from clown to angel: Sebastian Knight's parodies pass from
> the comic into “serious emotion…'a clown developing wings, an angel
> mimicking a tumbler pigeon' ”(RLSK,91)
>
> While I mused about Nabokov's employ of adjectives (elegancy*, curtal,
> ivorine), I came across an interesting kind of "sighting," obtained from
> the wiktionary, because the only quotations that were added in two of them
> to illustrate to their use, came from Vladimir Nabokov's ADA (the other
> mentions Robert Southey.)
>
> The original *wiktionary* terms:
> *elegancy *(plural elegancies)
> Noun: Alternative form of elegance.
> (humorous) A mock title."Your Elegancy ..." (Robert Southey).
>
> *curtal *(plural curtals)
> Noun:(historical) A variety of short-barrelled cannon.
> (obsolete) A horse or other animal having a docked tail.
> (music) An early type of bassoon.
> Adjective: (comparative more curtal, superlative most curtal)
> (obsolete) Of horses, having a docked tail.
> (now rare) Physically shortened; short. [quotations ▼]
> (obsolete) Abridged, curtailed.
>
> *Ivorine:* from Old French ivorin, ivoirin, from ivoire (“ivory”); later
> also from ivory + -ine.
> Adjective ivorine (comparative more ivorine, superlative most ivorine)
> (obsolete) Made of ivory.
> Resembling ivory; white, smooth. [quotations ▼]
> Noun ivorine (plural ivorines)
> A type of man-made imitation ivory.
>
> Here are the respective wiktionary quotations:
>
> 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin 2011, p. 98:
> she had loosened her hair and changed into the curtal frock of sunbright
> cotton that he was so fond of and had so ardently yearned to soil in the so
> recent past.
> 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin 2011, p. 162:
> All Van saw there of his new Ada were her ivorine thighs and haunches, and
> the very first time he clasped them she bade him, in the midst of his
> vigorous joy, to glance across her shoulder over the window ledge
>
> Jansy Mello
>
>
>
> .................................................................................................................................................................
>
> # - Across the narrow courtyard, where the rain tinkled in the dark
> against some ash cans, windows were blandly alight, and in one of them a
> black-trousered man, with his hands clasped under his head and his elbows
> raised, could he seen lying supine on an untidy bed. (Symbols and Signs:
> http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1948/05/15/1948_05_15_031_TNY_CARDS_000214135#ixzz2GFjoWgGA
> )
> *She was more Ada than ever, but a dash of new elegancy had been added
> to her shy, wild charm
>
> Google Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> Contact
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> Visit "Nabokov
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> Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm> Manage
> subscription options <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/> Visit AdaOnline<http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/> View
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>
> ****All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
>
> Google Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> Contact
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> Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm> Manage
> subscription options <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/> Visit AdaOnline<http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/> View
> NSJ Ada Annotations <http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> Temporary
> L-Soft Search the archive<https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L&X=58B9943B29972AFF64&Y=nabokv-l%40utk.edu>
>
> ****All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
>
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Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
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I am sure Nabokov knew Hopkins' work, for he mentions him in *Lolita*,
Part II, chapter 32:
*...stippled Hopkins or shorn Baudelaire...*
He is undoubtedly referring to the poem "Pied Beauty" (1877): *Glory be to
God for dappled things...*
('Dappled' must've been Nabokov's favourite word.)
Hafid Bouazza
2012/12/30 Barrie Akin <ba@taxbar.com>
> Is "curtal" so unusual in a literary context?
>
> Gerard Manley Hopkins used it for the form of sonnet he invented - see
> "Pied Beauty" for example - and I would be surprised if VN was unaware of
> Hopkins's work with its gloriously complex language.
>
> On 30 Dec 2012, at 02:35, "Jansy" <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
>
> *Laurence Hochard* replies to JM's quotes related to equivocal naked
> arms #: "*Very interesting ...: it shows how a unique matrix in VN's
> imagination could spawn a whole family of images!*". His observation
> about a "unique matrix" in VN's fecund imagination spurred me on
> towards another set of arms and elbows, now turned into wings by the act
> of clasping a necklace:"Martha threw off her orange peignoir, and as she
> drew back her elbows to adjust a necklace her angelically lovely bare
> shoulder blades came together like folding wings." (*King Queen Knave;*Collins Collector's Choice, 767).
>
> To my surprise, while searching for quotes, I discovered
> that Quilty's ascent of a slope is comically bow-legged:.
> There was a momentary flurry — he saw me, and throwing away his racket —
> mine — scuttled up the slope. He waved his wrists and elbows in a would-be
> comical imitation of rudimentary wings, as he climbed, bow-legged, to the
> street, where his gray car awaited him. Next moment he and the grayness
> were gone.(Lolita, part II, ch.20)
>
> Later on, a similar wing-related image, is used in a positive
> metamorphosis - from clown to angel: Sebastian Knight's parodies pass from
> the comic into “serious emotion…'a clown developing wings, an angel
> mimicking a tumbler pigeon' ”(RLSK,91)
>
> While I mused about Nabokov's employ of adjectives (elegancy*, curtal,
> ivorine), I came across an interesting kind of "sighting," obtained from
> the wiktionary, because the only quotations that were added in two of them
> to illustrate to their use, came from Vladimir Nabokov's ADA (the other
> mentions Robert Southey.)
>
> The original *wiktionary* terms:
> *elegancy *(plural elegancies)
> Noun: Alternative form of elegance.
> (humorous) A mock title."Your Elegancy ..." (Robert Southey).
>
> *curtal *(plural curtals)
> Noun:(historical) A variety of short-barrelled cannon.
> (obsolete) A horse or other animal having a docked tail.
> (music) An early type of bassoon.
> Adjective: (comparative more curtal, superlative most curtal)
> (obsolete) Of horses, having a docked tail.
> (now rare) Physically shortened; short. [quotations ▼]
> (obsolete) Abridged, curtailed.
>
> *Ivorine:* from Old French ivorin, ivoirin, from ivoire (“ivory”); later
> also from ivory + -ine.
> Adjective ivorine (comparative more ivorine, superlative most ivorine)
> (obsolete) Made of ivory.
> Resembling ivory; white, smooth. [quotations ▼]
> Noun ivorine (plural ivorines)
> A type of man-made imitation ivory.
>
> Here are the respective wiktionary quotations:
>
> 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin 2011, p. 98:
> she had loosened her hair and changed into the curtal frock of sunbright
> cotton that he was so fond of and had so ardently yearned to soil in the so
> recent past.
> 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin 2011, p. 162:
> All Van saw there of his new Ada were her ivorine thighs and haunches, and
> the very first time he clasped them she bade him, in the midst of his
> vigorous joy, to glance across her shoulder over the window ledge
>
> Jansy Mello
>
>
>
> .................................................................................................................................................................
>
> # - Across the narrow courtyard, where the rain tinkled in the dark
> against some ash cans, windows were blandly alight, and in one of them a
> black-trousered man, with his hands clasped under his head and his elbows
> raised, could he seen lying supine on an untidy bed. (Symbols and Signs:
> http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1948/05/15/1948_05_15_031_TNY_CARDS_000214135#ixzz2GFjoWgGA
> )
> *She was more Ada than ever, but a dash of new elegancy had been added
> to her shy, wild charm
>
> Google Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> Contact
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> Visit "Nabokov
> Online Journal" <http://www.nabokovonline.com> Visit Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> View
> Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm> Manage
> subscription options <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/> Visit AdaOnline<http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/> View
> NSJ Ada Annotations <http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> Temporary
> L-Soft Search the archive<https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L&X=58B9943B29972AFF64&Y=nabokv-l%40utk.edu>
>
> ****All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
>
> Google Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> Contact
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> Visit "Nabokov
> Online Journal" <http://www.nabokovonline.com> Visit Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> View
> Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm> Manage
> subscription options <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/> Visit AdaOnline<http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/> View
> NSJ Ada Annotations <http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> Temporary
> L-Soft Search the archive<https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L&X=58B9943B29972AFF64&Y=nabokv-l%40utk.edu>
>
> ****All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
>
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
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
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/