-------- Original Message --------
In the commentary, Kinbote tells us that students sometimes called
Starover Blue "Colonel Starbottle," because of his "convivial" manner.
I'm
not sure if Kinbote is trying to imply that Blue is a bit of a lush, or
if
he is indeed referring to the Colonel Starbottle character featured in
several stories and novellas by Bret Harte. Harte's Starbottle does
indeed
seem to be convivial, so I don't doubt that this is the reference. In
any
case, I read "Colonel Starbottle's Client" today and found that the
story
centers around the concept of kin-bote--that is, paying restitution to
a
murder victim's family. The murderer, Corbin, contacts Starbottle, a
lawyer, hoping for some guidance, as follows:
--------
The suggestion did not, however, seem to raise the stranger's spirits
or
alter his manner. "His name was Jeffcourt, and this here was his
mother,"
he went on drearily; "and you see here she says"—pointing to the letter
again—"she's been expecting money from him and it don't come, and she's
mighty hard up. And that gave me an idea. I don't know," he went on,
regarding the Colonel with gloomy doubt, "as you'll think it was much;
I
don't know as you wouldn't call it a d——d fool idea, but I got it all
the
same." He stopped, hesitated, and went on. "You see this man, Frisbee
or
Jeffcourt, was my pardner. We were good friends up to the killing, and
then he drove me hard. I think I told you he drove me hard,—didn't I?
Well, he did. But the idea I got was this. Considerin' I killed him
after
all, and so to speak disappointed them, I reckoned I'd take upon myself
the care of that family and send 'em money every month."
The Colonel slightly straitened his clean-shaven mouth. "A kind of
expiation or amercement by fine, known to the Mosaic, Roman, and old
English law. Gad, sir, the Jews might have made you MARRY his widow or
sister. An old custom, and I think superseded—sir, properly
superseded—by
the alternative of ordeal by battle in the mediaeval times. I don't
myself
fancy these pecuniary fashions of settling wrongs,—but go on."
"I wrote her," continued Corbin, "that her son was dead, but that he
and
me had some interests together in a claim, and that I was very glad to
know where to send her what would be his share every month. I thought
it
no use to tell her I killed him,—may be she might refuse to take it. I
sent her a hundred dollars every month since. Sometimes it's been
pretty
hard sleddin' to do it, for I ain't rich; sometimes I've had to borrow
the
money, but I reckoned that I was only paying for my share in this here
business of his bein' dead, and I did it."
---
You can see that Starbottle even references the archaic practice. I
don't
know that there is much else of significance in the story, except
perhaps
for a passage at the end, which bears some likeness to PF's death scene.
---
He almost forced her—kneeling down—upon the mound below the level of
the
shrubs, and then ran quickly himself a few paces lower down the hill to
a
more exposed position. She understood it. He wished to attract
attention
to himself. He was successful—a few hurried shots followed from the
road,
but struck above him.
He clambered back quickly to where she was still crouching.
"They were the vedettes," he said, "but they have fallen back on the
main
skirmish line and will be here in force in a moment. Go—while you can."
She had not moved. He tried to raise her—her hat fell off—-he saw blood
oozing from where the vedette's bullet that had missed him had pierced
her
brain.
And yet he saw in that pale dead face only the other face which he
remembered now had been turned like this towards his own. It was very
strange. And this was the end, and this was his expiation! He raised
his
own face humbly, blindly, despairingly to the inscrutable sky; it
looked
back upon him from above as coldly as the dead face had from below.
----
Nice bit of naturalism there, perhaps more like Stephen Crane than VN,
but
the dead face upturned and the sky above, along with the bullet meant
for
another, did make me think of Shade's death. I would not, of course, go
so
far as to say that VN got any of his ideas from Harte. Yet the kinbote
reference does, it seems to me, bolster the notion that VN saw
restitution
as something of a theme in the book--esp. when combined with the
similar
scene of kinbote in Jekyll and Hyde.
You can read the story here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2784/2784-h/2784-h.htm
Matt Roth