JM: In "Dear Bunny
and dear Volodya," one of Nabokov's important images, "Arcady,"is
brought up by E.Wilson concerning a poem by Schiller
and his inquiries into its original source: Vergil?
From their exchanges I gained the impression that VN's various references to
"Arcady" may be derived from different writers and painters. Poussin's
"Les Bergers d' Arcadie," comes after Guercino's, Angelica Kauffman's
and Sir Joshua Reynolds's. I also found a reference to a painting in
the Colonna Collection in Rome, set in words by Bartolomeo
Schidoni.
Edmund Wilson wrote about
Poussin (but his wording is none too clear): "In the picture, the
“ego does not refer to Death, as I
understood you to say it originally had, but to the dead man in the tomb. The
live shepherds are reading the
inscription. Says Death: Even in Arcadia am I."
What spurred my interest was the similarity between Nabokov's
interpretation and a story concerning King George III and Dr. Johnson,
concerning Reynold's.
"In 1769 Sir Joshua Reynolds showed to his friend Dr. Johnson
his latest picture: the double portrair of Mrs. Bouverie and Mrs. Crewe(...) It
shows two lovely ladies seated before a tombstone and sentimentalizing over its
inscription... Et in Arcadia Ego [...] "What can this mean?" exclaimed Dr.
Johnson. "It seems very nonsensical - I am in Arcadia". The King could have told
you," replied Sir Joshua. "He saw it yesterday and said at once: 'Oh, there is a
tombstone in the background; Ay, Ay, death is even in Arcadia.' (C.R.Leslie and
Tom Taylor, "Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds," London, 1865, p.325.)
There is an interpretation in the "Humanitora"
digitalized transcription that leads to a sentence
E.Wilson rememebred when he wrote "I seem distinctly to remember
that the phrase originally ended with a vixit - though I
sometimes imagine such things. But it must have ended with
something.")
This "something" is probably a verb : "Et in
Arcadia ego has come to be synonymous with such paraphrases as 'Et tu in Arcadia
vixisti.' ...and all these and many similar versions amount to
what Mrs. Felicia Hermans expressed in the immortal words: " I, too, shepherds,
in Arcadia dwelt." (The Poetical Works of Mrs Felicia Hermans,
Philadelphia, 1847).
E.Wilson made no reference to this lady's Song ( from " Songs
for Sunny Hours").
Is it possible that VN had been acquainted with Sir Joshua's
painting and knew about King George's appraisal of it, in contrast to Dr.
Johnson's?
Lord Byron, Schiller, Goethe, ETA Hoffmann wrote lines (some of
them satirical), about shepherds and Arcadia. There is a long listing available
in the
internet!
In Virgil we find two mentions in his Eclogues VII,4 and
X,31:
"Arcadians both, equal in the song and ready in the
response." [Lat., Arcades ambo,/ Et cantare pares, et respondere
parati.]; "Arcadians skilled in song will sing my woes upon the hills.
Softly shall my bones repose, if you in future sing my loves upon your
pipe." [Lat., Tamen cantabitis, arcades inquit montibus/ Haec vestris:
soli cantare periti Arcades./O mihi tum quam molliter ossa
quiescant,/ Vestra meos olim si fistula dicat
amores.]
...........................................................................................................................................
More information can be found at: Nothing to admire: the politics of poetic
satire from Dryden to ... by Christopher Yu - 2003 - Literary Criticism ...
"portrait of two women, Mrs. Bouverie and Mrs. Crewe, by
Sir Joshua Reynolds. ... purported and added that it
seemed "very nonsensical — I am in Arcadia. ..."
books.google.com.br/books?isbn=0195155300...
British Museum shop online - Portrait of
Mrs Bouverie and Mrs ...
ARCADIA. EGO."", Mrs Bouverie,
face in profile to left, leans her chin on her left hand ... Object
artists: John Wesson;Sir Joshua Reynolds;Joseph Marchi;
...
A friend of Reynolds, Angelica Kaufman
(1741-1804), painted a scene that was inspired in Guercino :
"
Another instance of her intimacy with Reynolds is to be found in her
variation of Guercino's Et in Arcadia ego, a subject which Reynolds repeated a
few years later in his portrait of Mrs Bouverie and Mrs Crewe. When, in about
November 1767, she was entrapped into a clandestine marriage with an adventurer
who passed for a Swedish count (the Count de Horn), Reynolds helped extract
her."
Angelica Kauffmann Biography:
"Her firmest friend, however, was
Sir Joshua Reynolds.
... Reynolds is to be found in her variation of
Guercino's "Et in
Arcadia ego", a subject which
Reynolds repeated a few years later in his portrait of Mrs
Bouverie and Mrs
Crewe."
...www.biographybase.com/.../Kauffmann_Angelica.html .................................................................................................................................