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In note to line 71, Kinbote mentions that Lukin shares the same root as
Locock, Luxon and Lukashevich. Some years back Don Johnson noted that
while these names do not allude to writers, they do derive from a
writer
(the gospel writer). I am still unsure of any connections for
Lukashevich
and Luxon (though Benjamin Luxon was a rather famous baritone). I
believe,
however, that VN meant Locock as a tribute to Charles Dealtry (C.D.)
Locock.
C.D. Locock would have been interesting to VN for two reasons. First,
he
was the original collator and annotator of Shelley's manuscripts. In
1903
he published _An Examination of the Shelley Manuscripts in the Bodleian
Library_." Subtitle reads: "Being a collation thereof with printed
texts,
resulting in the publication of several long fragments hitherto unknown
and
the introduction of many improved readings into Prometheus Unbound, and
other poems." Lolock's voice comes through quite strongly in his notes.
For example, in criticizing a previous printed version of Shelley's
translation of Virgil, Locock begins, "The printed version seems to be
in a
hopeless state. Probably the shortest way will be to quote it in full.
[quotes the poem]. Here we have a translation starting in defective
terza
rima, breaking into some unknown lyrical measure, dropping for two or
three
lines into blank verse, and finished off by a rhymed couplet." Heavens!
So
here we have, in a branching root of Shade's mother's name, an allusion
to
someone related (by trade) to Kinbote.
VN would also know and admire Locock because Locock was a chess
champion
and noted composer of chess problems. He is featured in _The Chess
Bouquet: Or, The Book of the British Composers of Chess
Problems_(1897).
The section in which he is featured includes a very humorous note about
his
method, as follows: "After making the necessary preparations for an all-
night sitting, I first set up the 'idea' on a chess-board....Having
finished the idea in a decent and economical form, with two or three
variations, I proceed, if desirable, to add variations, always with a
strict regard to economy of force, turning the board round every half
hour
or so, until I have composed perhaps a half-dozen problems or so, all
on
the same theme. These I send in for a tournament, in which one (usually
the
worst) gets first prize, another second, and the rest honourable
mention.
But perhaps I am confusing my dreams with the reality." Near the end of
the section, Locock reveals what he admires most in a chess
problem: "strategy, combined with difficulty, a cunning key, and
good 'tries.' This latter quality especially, I think, is not
sufficiently
taken into consideration by the problem judge. Occasionally I construct
a
problem purely for the sake of the 'tries.' [One problem] has a 'try,'
which deceived dozens of solvers in the Morning Post two or three years
ago." To my mind, this cunning, try-oriented approach to problems seems
akin to VN's own method of composing novels.
Matt Roth