Matt Roth:"Lincoln
certainly had a "barbe en collier" but he did not, technically speaking, have a
Newgate Frill, since the NF runs entirely below the chin and jawline. Lincoln's
beard covered most of his chin and part of his jowls. The composer Richard
Wagner had a real one, if you want to see the difference. In any case, despite
BB's commendation, I don't see any real reason to think of Lincoln here, since
there have been plenty of other famous people with similar (and even more
accurate) beard styles. Sorry to be a poor sport."
JM: Thanks for the comments,
Matt. Btw, I don't see why you'd be "a
poor sport" simply because you are in disagreement with my
interpretation.
There's certainly no Richard Wagner lurking
in Pale Fire, but a murdered American president, such as Abe Lincoln (
who is often mentioned in Nabokov's works, at least I remember him in "Ada") and
his "barbe en collier" makes sense to me, as did Brian Boyd's additional
comments on "prickly pear" and the shift from Newport to
Newgate.
On another matter (related to a different
posting, on "Medusa"): I'm aware that Nabokov's reference to a "medusa" applied
to the jellyfish, not directly to the mythological poisonous snakes
growing like hair on the head of a
mortal gorgon.