In his earlier posting, Sergey translated a fragment of the Russian
annotations to PF in which Nabokov's Botkin was connected to Vasily
Petrovich Botkin who had written, among other things, an essay on
Elizabethean drama published in the third volume of the Russian
Collected Works of Shakespeare. I think everybody should know that
in this case the Russian annotators appropriated, without due reference,
observations made by Priscilla Meyer in her excellent book Find What
the Sailor Has Hidden (115-117). By the way, I have always had some
doubts about this connection as it hinges upon a problematic coincidence
of dates. Priscilla claims that Volume III of Shakespeare's works with
Botkin's article was published in 1888, a year that comes up repeatedly
in Kinbote's notes. This is correct but with an important
qualification. For the first time, Botkin's article was published in 1853
and then reprinted at least four times in all the subsequent editions of
Shakespeare's works, starting from 1865. In fact, the 1887-1888 edition
was the standard fourth one and therefore cannot serve as a marker
referring to Vasily Botkin who died in 1869.
There were some other, previously unmentioned Botkins that can have some
relevance to PF. Among them, the most notorious one was Mikhail Botkin
(1839-1914), an unscrupulous, maniacal collector of art and antiquities
who would go to any length to get a desirable object. After his death,
Botkin's renown collection of medieval enamels was discredited in a
sensational public scandal that made the news in the world media when it
was proved beyond any doubt that it consisted mostly of contemporary
fakes produced by a group of St. Petersburg con-men and jewelers. A
couple of years ago I was at an amazing exhibit of the most famous fakes
of the 20th century and the Botkin scandal was presented there as a
special treat. I guess Nabokov could have this story in mind when he
chose the Russian name for his deluded maniac who, like his namesake,
craved for "treasures" and could not tell the real from the
"fake".
As for a suggested anagram of "Nikto"(Nobody) in Botkin, I
would not dismiss it without closer consideration because it evokes the
story of Odysseus and Polyphemus, and, hence, the corresponding episode
of Ulysses as well as Innokentii Annensky's pseudonim Nik. T--o.
An extra letter "B" is, of course, a hindrance but the
associations are still rather tempting.
Alexander Dolinin