At forty, not long before the collapse of
his throne, he had attained such a degree of scholarship that he dared accede to
his venerable uncle's raucous dying request: "Teach, Karlik!" (Pale
Fire, Kinbote's Note to Line 12)
Karlik being Russian for "dwarf," one is
reminded of Mayakovski's poem Monte Carlo
(1929), in which VN's "late namesake" contemptuously calls the inhabitants
of the gambling resort
poganen'kie montekarliki
("the vile dwarfish Monte Carlians").
In fact, this is the poem's closing line.
Alexey Sklyarenko