Alexey
Sklyarenko: I mention balagan
(low farce) and Balaganov, a character in Ilf and Petrov's "The Golden Calf"
(1931), in my article THE NAKED TRUTH, OR THE READER’S SENTIMENTAL EDUCATION IN
ADA’S QUELQUE CHOSE UNIVERSITY (http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/sklyarenko7.doc). An anagram that may amuse you: BALAGAN + URSUS + MARINA = BALAGUR +
SUSANNA + IRMA ...As to Balaganchik, it is a play in verse, interspersed with prose
monologues, by Blok (1906). It was dedicated to Meyerhold who
produced the play's stage version. It shouldn't be confused with
Blok's poem of the same title (1905), or Balagan, another short poem by Blok
(1906).
Dmitri Nabokov: I have been unable to
connect with TRUMP CARDS, and wonder if James Twiggs might be so kind as to help
me obtain the Banville
review...
JM [to J. Twiggs] Could I also get a copy of the
Banville review?
Thank you Alexey for the help and the amusing anagram morfs.
I supose, then, that Nabokov's "balagur" is related
to "wag" and to "low farce"*.
The internet explanation
for "waggish" quoted James Fenimore Cooper's "The Deerslayer"
and Muskrat (almost a play with Pale Fire's muscat/mouse-cat
reference**): "Muskrat Castle as the house has been facetiously named by some
waggish officer".
btw: Muskrats share the same habitat as, and are
perhaps related to, beavers ( CK's nickname).
................................................................................................................................................................................................
* (excerpt from Sklyarenko's
article):"The name Balaganov comes
from balagan, which means, among other things, “low farce.” If Van’s college
tutor ...had spoken Russian, he would have used this word when he scolds Van for
combining his university studies with the circus (that is, low
farce)...(1.30)."
** -
note to line 49: John Shade’s ...Hebe’s Cup ( title: The
Sacred Tree)
"The ginkgo leaf, in golden hue, when shed,/
A muscat grape,/ Is an old-fashioned butterfly, ill-spread,/ In shape." [...]I
do not know if it is relevant or not but there is a cat-and-mouse game in the
second line, and "tree" in Zemblan is grados."