> But in my opinion, what immediately follows Sybil's
speech removes > all doubt: > >
And
still > Old Pan would call from every painted hill, > And still the
demons of _our_ pity spoke: > No lips would share the lipstick of her
smoke... > > (Emphasis mine.) > > Jerry
Friedman >
I didn't think of it before, but Hazel doesn't
smoke, does she? Or wear lipstick. I wonder if Shade is thinking of someone else
here (you know I don't trust him).
If I may change the emphasis, why do
you think he speaks of demons of our pity? Since we know that Nabokov
associates pity with art, the diabolical association seems strange.
Old
Pan may be calling, but if I remember my mythology, the virgin huntress doesn't
hear his call. Old Pan is more likely calling old Shade. But it also
sounds like a reference to a painting. I have looked cursorily through John
Boardman's book Pan, the Survival of an Image and not found anything
showing Pan on a hill - but there's a poem, isn't there? 20th century English or
American, my memory is imprecise.