As he speaks to Lucette, Van mentions a portrait of Vladimir Christian of Denmark:
'My notion of propriety may not be the same as yours. And what about Cordula de Prey? She won't mind?'
'The apartment is mine,' said Van, 'and besides, Cordula is now Mrs Ivan G. Tobak. They are making follies in Florence. Here's her last postcard. Portrait of Vladimir Christian of Denmark, who, she claims, is the dead spit of her Ivan Giovanovich. Have a look.'
'Who cares for Sustermans,' observed Lucette, with something of her uterine sister's knight move of specious response, or a Latin footballer's rovesciata.
No, it's an elm. Half a millennium ago.
'His ancestor,' Van pattered on, 'was the famous or fameux Russian admiral who had an ¨¦p¨¦e duel with Jean Nicot and after whom the Tobago Islands, or the Tobakoff Islands, are named, I forget which, it was so long ago, half a millennium.' (2.5)
In his essay on Herzen in ¡°The Silhouettes of Russian Writers¡± Ayhenvald calls Herzen Aleksandr Velikolepnyi (¡°Alexander the Magnificent¡±):
§¨§Ú§Ý §à§ß, §Ø§Ú§Ó §Ò§í§Ý, §Õ§å§Þ§Ñ§Ý §à §Ò§í§Ý§à§Þ, §å§ç§à§Õ§Ú§Ý §Ó §á§â§à§ê§Ý§à§Ö, §Ü§à§Ô§Õ§Ñ §ß§Ö §Ò§í§Ý§à §ß§Ñ§ã§ä§à§ñ§ë§Ö§Ô§à, §Ó§ã§á§à§Þ§Ú§ß§Ñ§Ý, §Ü§à§Ô§Õ§Ñ §ß§Ö§é§Ö§Ô§à §Ò§í§Ý§à §Ó§à§ã§á§â§Ú§ß§Ú§Þ§Ñ§ä§î, §Ù§Ñ§Þ§í§Ü§Ñ§Ý§ã§ñ §Ó§à§Ó§ß§å§ä§â§î, §Ü§à§Ô§Õ§Ñ §ß§Ö §Ò§í§Ý§à §Ó§ß§Ö§ê§ß§Ö§Ô§à (§Ó §ã§ã§í§Ý§Ü§Ö, §ß§Ñ§á§â§Ú§Þ§Ö§â), §à§ä§Õ§Ñ§Ó§Ñ§Ý§ã§ñ §Ó§ß§Ö§ê§ß§Ö§Þ§å, §à§ã§Ó§Ö§ë§Ñ§ñ §Ö§Ô§à §Ú§Ù§ß§å§ä§â§Ú, §ß§Ö §Ú§Þ§Ö§Ý §Þ§×§â§ä§Ó§í§ç §ä§à§é§Ö§Ü, §ß§Ö §à§ã§ä§Ñ§ß§Ñ§Ó§Ý§Ú§Ó§Ñ§Ý§ã§ñ, §Ô§à§â§Ö§Ý, §Ø§×§Ô, §Ó§à§Ý§ß§à§Ó§Ñ§Ý§ã§ñ, §â§Ñ§ã§ä§à§é§Ñ§Ý, - §Ó§ã§Ö§Ô§Õ§Ñ §Ò§Ý§Ú§ã§ä§Ñ§ä§Ö§Ý§î§ß§í§Û §Ú §Õ§å§ç§à§Ó§ß§à-§â§à§ã§Ü§à§ê§ß§í§Û, §Ü§ß§ñ§Ù§î §ï§Þ§Ú§Ô§â§Ñ§è§Ú§Ú, §Ó§Ý§Ñ§ã§ä§Ö§Ý§Ú§ß, §Ü§à§ä§à§â§à§Þ§å §ß§Ö§Õ§à§ã§ä§Ñ§Ó§Ñ§Ý§à §ä§à§Ý§î§Ü§à §á§â§Ö§ã§ä§à§Ý§Ñ, §¡§Ý§Ö§Ü§ã§Ñ§ß§Õ§â §£§Ö§Ý§Ú§Ü§à§Ý§Ö§á§ß§í§Û, §Ü§à§â§à§Ý§î §Ó §Ú§Ù§Ô§ß§Ñ§ß§Ú§Ú.
The allusion is to Lorenzo the Magnificent, the ruler of Florence who was one of the most powerful and enthusiastic patrons of the Renaissance. Lorenzo de¡¯ Medici (1449-92) lived half a millennium ago. An elm that pops up in Van¡¯s stream of consciousness brings to mind Ada¡¯s remark in Ardis the First:
¡®Well,¡¯ he [Greg Erminin] said, getting up, ¡®I must be going. Good-bye, everybody. Good-bye, Ada. I guess it¡¯s your father under that oak, isn¡¯t it?¡¯
¡®No, it¡¯s an elm,¡¯ said Ada. (1.14)
The name Ayhenvald (Eichenwald) means in German ¡°oak wood.¡± Van, Ada and Lucette are the descendants of Prince Peter Zemski, whose name hints Prince Peter Vyazemski (a friend of Pushkin). Vyaz is Russian for ¡°elm.¡± In mad Aqua¡¯s delirium there is the guide in Florence who mentions the ¡®elmo¡¯ that broke into leaf:
Soon, however, the rhythmically perfect, but verbally rather blurred volubility of faucets began to acquire too much pertinent sense. The purity of the running water¡¯s enunciation grew in proportion to the nuisance it made of itself. It spoke soon after she had listened, or been exposed, to somebody talking ¡ª not necessarily to her ¡ª forcibly and expressively, a person with a rapid characteristic voice, and very individual or very foreign phrasal intonations, some compulsive narrator¡¯s patter at a horrible party, or a liquid soliloquy in a tedious play, or Van¡¯s lovely voice, or a bit of poetry heard at a lecture, my lad, my pretty, my love, take pity, but especially the more fluid and flou Italian verse, for instance that ditty recited between knee-knocking and palpebra-lifting, by a half-Russian, half-dotty old doctor, doc, toc, ditty, dotty, ballatetta, deboletta¡ tu, voce sbigottita¡ spigotty e diavoletta¡ de lo cor dolente¡ con ballatetta va¡ va¡ della strutta, destruttamente¡ mente¡ mente¡ stop that record, or the guide will go on demonstrating as he did this very morning in Florence a silly pillar commemorating, he said, the ¡®elmo¡¯ that broke into leaf when they carried stone-heavy-dead St Zeus by it through the gradual, gradual shade; or the Arlington harridan talking incessantly to her silent husband as the vineyards sped by, and even in the tunnel (they can¡¯t do this to you, you tell them, Jack Black, you just tell them¡). (1.3)
¡°The gradual, gradual shade¡± hints at Gradus and Shade, two of the three main characters in VN¡¯s novel Pale Fire (1962). Shade, Kinbote (who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) and Gradus seem to represent three different aspects of Botkin¡¯s personality (an American scholar of Russian descent, Professor Vsevolod Botkin went mad and became Shade, Kinbote and Gradus after the suicide of his daughter Nadezhda). In his essay on Herzen Ayhenvald calls Herzen ¡°a potentate who only lacks the throne, king in exile¡± (see the quote above).
Aqua¡¯s doctor recites a poem by Guido Cavalcanti (1259-1300), the Florentine poet, a friend of Dante (the author of The Divine Comedy). In his essay on Dostoevski in ¡°The Silhouettes of Russian Writers¡± Ayhenvald says that Dostoevski was like olitsetvoryonnaya bol¡¯ (the personified pain), chyornoe solntse stradaniya (the black sun of suffering) and zhivaya Bozhestvennaya komediya (¡°the live Divine Comedy¡±):
§ª §Ô§ß§Ö§ä§å§ë§Ö§Û §Ù§Ñ§Ô§Ñ§Õ§Ü§à§Û §Ó§ã§ä§Ñ§×§ä §à§ß §á§Ö§â§Ö§Õ §ß§Ñ§Þ§Ú, §Ü§Ñ§Ü §à§Ý§Ú§è§Ö§ä§Ó§à§â§Ö§ß§ß§Ñ§ñ §Ò§à§Ý§î, §Ü§Ñ§Ü §é§×§â§ß§à§Ö §ã§à§Ý§ß§è§Ö §ã§ä§â§Ñ§Õ§Ñ§ß§Ú§ñ. §¢§í§Ý§Ú §Õ§à§ã§ä§å§á§ß§í §Ö§Þ§å §Ô§Ý§å§Ò§à§Ü§Ú§Ö §Þ§Ú§ã§ä§Ö§â§Ú§Ú §é§Ö§Ý§à§Ó§Ö§é§Ö§ã§Ü§à§Ô§à, §Ú §ß§Ö §ã§Ý§å§é§Ñ§Û§ß§à§ã§ä§î §à§ß, §ß§Ö §á§â§à§ã§ä§à §ï§á§Ú§Ù§à§Õ §á§ã§Ú§ç§à§Ý§à§Ô§Ú§é§Ö§ã§Ü§Ú§Û, §à§Õ§ß§Ñ §Ú§Ù §Ó§à§Ù§Þ§à§Ø§ß§í§ç §Ó§ã§ä§â§Ö§é §ß§Ñ §Õ§à§â§à§Ô§Ö §Ú§Ý§Ú §ß§Ñ §Ò§Ö§Ù§Õ§à§â§à§Ø§î§ñ§ç §â§å§ã§ã§Ü§à§Û §Ø§Ú§Ù§ß§Ú, §ß§Ö §á§å§Ô§Ñ§ð§ë§Ú§Û §Þ§Ú§â§Ñ§Ø §é§Ö§ç§à§Ó§ã§Ü§à§Ô§à §Þ§à§ß§Ñ§ç§Ñ §Ú§Ý§Ú §Ò§â§Ö§Õ§à§Ó§à§Ö §á§â§Ú§Ü§Ý§ð§é§Ö§ß§Ú§Ö §ß§à§é§ß§à§Û §Õ§å§ê§Ú: §ß§Ö§ä, §à§ß - §ä§â§Ñ§Ô§Ú§é§Ö§ã§Ü§Ñ§ñ §ß§Ö§à§Ò§ç§à§Õ§Ú§Þ§à§ã§ä§î §Õ§å§ç§Ñ, §ä§Ñ§Ü §é§ä§à §Ü§Ñ§Ø§Õ§í§Û §Õ§à§Ý§Ø§Ö§ß §á§Ö§â§Ö§Ò§à§Ý§Ö§ä§î §¥§à§ã§ä§à§Ö§Ó§ã§Ü§Ú§Þ §Ú, §Ö§ã§Ý§Ú §Þ§à§Ø§ß§à, §Ö§Ô§à §á§â§Ö§à§Õ§à§Ý§Ö§ä§î. §´§â§å§Õ§ß§Ñ §ï§ä§Ñ §Þ§à§â§Ñ§Ý§î§ß§Ñ§ñ §Ù§Ñ§Õ§Ñ§é§Ñ, §á§à§ä§à§Þ§å §é§ä§à §ã§Ñ§Þ §à§ß §Ò§í§Ý §ä§à§é§ß§à §Ø§Ú§Ó§Ñ§ñ §¢§à§Ø§Ö§ã§ä§Ó§Ö§ß§ß§Ñ§ñ §Ü§à§Þ§Ö§Õ§Ú§ñ; §Ó §ß§Ö§Û §Ø§Ö §ß§Ö§ä §ã§Ú§Ý§î§ß§Ö§Ö §Ú §ã§ä§â§Ñ§ê§ß§Ö§Ö - §¡§Õ§Ñ.
According to Ayhenvald, v ney zhe net sil¡¯nee i strashnee Ada (in The Divine Comedy the most powerful and terrible part is Inferno). Aqua¡¯s last note is signed ¡°My sister¡¯s sister who teper¡¯ iz ada (now is out of hell)¡± (1.3). In her last note Aqua mentions Nurse Joan the Terrible. In his essay on Dostoevski Ayhenvald calls Dostoevski ¡°Ivan the Terrible of Russian literature.¡± If Ayhenvald read Dar (¡°The Gift,¡± 1937), Lolita (1955), Pale Fire and Ada (1969), he would have called VN Vladimir Krasnoe Solnyshko (Vladimir the Fair Sun) of Russian (and American) literature. Vladimir the Fair Sun was the ruler of Kiev who baptized Russia in 988, a millennium ago. On Ada¡¯s sixteenth birthday Greg Erminin gives her a little camel of yellow ivory carved in Kiev, five centuries ago, in the days of Timur and Nabok:
Ada had declined to invite anybody except the Erminin twins to her picnic; but she had had no intention of inviting the brother without the sister. The latter, it turned out, could not come, having gone to New Cranton to see a young drummer, her first boy friend, sail off into the sunrise with his regiment. But Greg had to be asked to come after all on the previous day he had called on her bringing a ¡®talisman¡¯ from his very sick father, who wanted Ada to treasure as much as his grandam had a little camel of yellow ivory carved in Kiev, five centuries ago, in the days of Timur and Nabok. (1.39)
During a conversion in Ardis the First Van mentions ¡°deserts with bleached camel ribs:¡±
Now Lucette demanded her mother¡¯s attention.
¡®What are Jews?¡¯ she asked.
¡®Dissident Christians,¡¯ answered Marina.
¡®Why is Greg a Jew?¡¯ asked Lucette.
¡®Why-why!¡¯ said Marina; ¡®because his parents are Jews.¡¯
¡®And his grandparents? His arri¨¨re grandparents?¡¯
¡®I really wouldn¡¯t know, my dear. Were your ancestors Jews, Greg?¡¯
¡®Well, I¡¯m not sure,¡¯ said Greg. ¡®Hebrews, yes ¡ª but not Jews in quotes ¡ª I mean, not comic characters or Christian businessmen. They came from Tartary to England five centuries ago. My mother¡¯s grandfather, though, was a French marquis who, I know, belonged to the Roman faith and was crazy about banks and stocks and jewels, so I imagine people may have called him un juif.¡¯
¡®It¡¯s not a very old religion, anyway, as religions go, is it?¡¯ said Marina (turning to Van and vaguely planning to steer the chat to India where she had been a dancing girl long before Moses or anybody was born in the lotus swamp).
¡®Who cares ¡ª¡¯ said Van.
¡®And Belle¡¯ (Lucette¡¯s name for her governess), ¡®is she also a dizzy Christian?¡¯
¡®Who cares,¡¯ cried Van, ¡®who cares about all those stale myths, what does it matter ¡ª Jove or Jehovah, spire or cupola, mosques in Moscow, or bronzes and bonzes, and clerics, and relics, and deserts with bleached camel ribs? They are merely the dust and mirages of the communal mind.¡¯
¡®How did this idiotic conversation start in the first place?¡¯ Ada wished to be told, cocking her head at the partly ornamented dackel or taksik.
¡®Mea culpa,¡¯ Mlle Larivi¨¨re explained with offended dignity. ¡®All I said, at the picnic, was that Greg might not care for ham sandwiches, because Jews and Tartars do not eat pork.¡¯
¡®The Romans,¡¯ said Greg, ¡®the Roman colonists, who crucified Christian Jews and Barabbits, and other unfortunate people in the old days, did not touch pork either, but I certainly do and so did my grandparents.¡¯
Lucette was puzzled by a verb Greg had used. To illustrate it for her, Van joined his ankles, spread both his arms horizontally, and rolled up his eyes. (1.14)
In his essay on Herzen Ayhenvald says the imposing building of Herzen¡¯s writings was not crowned with the cupola that religion gives to it:
§±§í§ê§ß§à§Ö §Ù§Õ§Ñ§ß§Ú§Ö §¤§Ö§â§è§Ö§ß§Ñ §ß§Ö §Ò§í§Ý§à §å§Ó§Ö§ß§é§Ñ§ß§à §ä§Ö§Þ §Ü§å§á§à§Ý§à§Þ, §Ü§à§ä§à§â§í§Û §Õ§Ñ§×§ä §â§Ö§Ý§Ú§Ô§Ú§ñ.
Ayhenvald points out that Herzen (who was born in Moscow a few months before it was invaded by Napoleon¡¯s army) is the author of articles about Buddhism and dilettantism in science:
§¿§ß§è§Ú§Ü§Ý§à§á§Ö§Õ§Ú§Ù§Þ §¤§Ö§â§è§Ö§ß§Ñ §â§Ñ§ã§Ü§â§í§Ó§Ñ§Ý §á§Ö§â§Ö§Õ §ß§Ú§Þ §Õ§Ó§Ö§â§Ú §Ú §Ó §à§Ò§Ý§Ñ§ã§ä§î §ß§Ñ§å§é§ß§à-§æ§Ú§Ý§à§ã§à§æ§ã§Ü§à§Ô§à §Ù§ß§Ñ§ß§Ú§ñ. §£ §ã§Ó§à§Ú§ç §ã§ä§Ñ§ä§î§ñ§ç §à §Ò§å§Õ§Õ§Ú§Ù§Þ§Ö §Ú §Õ§Ú§Ý§Ö§ä§Ñ§ß§ä§Ú§Ù§Þ§Ö §Ó §ß§Ñ§å§Ü§Ö §à§ß §Õ§Ñ§Ý §å§Õ§Ú§Ó§Ú§ä§Ö§Ý§î§ß§å§ð §ç§Ñ§â§Ñ§Ü§ä§Ö§â§Ú§ã§ä§Ú§Ü§å §Ú §ä§Ñ§Ü§à§Ô§à §à§ä§ß§à§ê§Ö§ß§Ú§ñ §Ü §ß§Ñ§å§Ü§Ö, §Ü§à§ä§à§â§à§Ö §á§â§à§ß§Ú§Ü§ß§å§ä§à §á§Ý§Ñ§ä§à§ß§à§Ó§ã§Ü§Ú§Þ §ï§â§à§ã§à§Þ, §Ú §ä§Ñ§Ü§à§Ô§à, §Ü§à§ä§à§â§à§Ö §ñ§Ó§Ý§ñ§Ö§ä§ã§ñ §å§Õ§Ö§Ý§à§Þ §Ô§×§ä§Ö§Ó§ã§Ü§Ú§ç §£§Ñ§Ô§ß§Ö§â§à§Ó.
Like Greg Erminin (and VN¡¯s wife Vera), Ayhenvald was Jewish. ¡°The partly ornamented dackel or taksik¡± brings to mind the Nabokov¡¯s dachshunds. Besides, in his autobiography Speak, Memory (1967) VN mentions a Great Dane that accompanied him and his brother Sergey in their escape from the country house of their parents. That Great Dane brings to mind the three dogs in Hans Christian Andersen¡¯s fairy tale ¡°The Tinderbox¡± (1835). The Russian title of VN¡¯s memoirs, Drugie berega (¡°Other Shores¡±), hints at inye berega, inye volny (¡°other shores, other waves¡±), a line in Pushkin¡¯s poem Vnov¡¯ ya posetil¡ (¡°I revisited again¡¡± 1835), but also evokes the title of Herzen¡¯s book S togo berega (¡°From the Other Shore,¡± 1851).
VN¡¯s brother Sergey died in a German concentration camp. In her last note Aqua mentions Herr Doctor Sig (Dr Sig Heiler):
Aujourd'hui (heute-toity!) I, this eye-rolling toy, have earned the psykitsch right to enjoy a landparty with Herr Doktor Sig, Nurse Joan the Terrible, and several 'patients,' in the neighboring bor (piney wood) where I noticed exactly the same skunk-like squirrels, Van, that your Darkblue ancestor imported to Ardis Park, where you will ramble one day, no doubt. (1.3)
According to Dr Sig Heiler (a play on Sieg heil!, the Nazi salute), Aqua¡¯s dead body lay in a fetus-in-utero position:
She was discovered much sooner, but had also died much faster than expected, and the observant Siggy, still in his baggy khaki shorts, reported that Sister Aqua (as for some reason they all called her) lay, as if buried prehistorically, in a fetus-in-utero position, a comment that seemed relevant to his students, as it may be to mine. (ibid.)
Lucette is Van¡¯s and Ada¡¯s ¡°uterine¡± sister. The fetus-in-utero position of Aqua¡¯s dead body brings to mind the closing lines of Khodasevich¡¯s poem Iz dnevnika (¡°From the Diary,¡± 1925):
§¥§à§Ý§Ø§ß§à §Ò§í§ä§î, §Ø§Ú§Ù§ß§î §Ú §ç§à§â§à§ê§Ñ,
§¥§Ñ §é§ä§à §á§à§Û§Þ§×§ê§î §ä§í §Ó §ß§Ö§Û, §ã§á§Ö§ê§Ñ
§®§Ö§Ø§Õ§å §Ü§å§á§Ö§Ý§Ú§ð §Ú §Þ§à§â§Ô§à§Þ,
§¬§à§Ô§Õ§Ñ §Þ§í§ä§Ñ§â§Ú§ä§ã§ñ §Õ§å§ê§Ñ
§´§à §à§ä§Ó§â§Ñ§ë§Ö§ß§î§Ö§Þ, §ä§à §Ó§à§ã§ä§à§â§Ô§à§Þ?
§¯§Ö§á§à§ã§ä§Ú§Ø§Ú§Þ§à§ã§ä§Ö§Û §ã§Ó§Ú§ß§Ö§è
§£§ã§× §ä§à§Ý§ë§Ö, §ß§Ñ§Õ §Þ§Ö§é§ä§à§Û §á§à§ß§å§â§à§Û -
§£§à§ä §Ú §Õ§å§â§Ö§Ö§ê§î §ß§Ñ§Ü§à§ß§Ö§è,
§¬§Ñ§Ü §Ý§ð§Ò§à§Ù§ß§Ñ§ä§Ö§Ý§î§ß§í§Û §Ü§å§Ù§ß§Ö§è
§¯§Ñ§Õ §á§â§à§ã§Ó§Ö§ä§Ú§ä§Ö§Ý§î§ß§à§Û §Ò§â§à§ê§ð§â§à§Û.
§±§à§â§Ñ §ß§Ö §Ò§í§ä§î, §Ñ §á§â§Ö§Ò§í§Ó§Ñ§ä§î,
§±§à§â§Ñ §ß§Ö §Ò§à§Õ§â§ã§ä§Ó§à§Ó§Ñ§ä§î, §Ñ §ã§á§Ñ§ä§î,
§¬§Ñ§Ü §ã§á§Ú§ä §Ù§Ñ§â§à§Õ§í§ê §Ü§â§å§ä§à§Ý§à§Ò§í§Û,
§ª §Þ§ñ§Ô§Ü§à§Û §Ó§Ö§é§ß§à§ã§ä§î§ð §à§á§ñ§ä§î
§°§Ò§Ó§à§Ý§à§Ü§ß§å§ä§î§ã§ñ, §Ü§Ñ§Ü §å§ä§â§à§Ò§à§Û.
Like VN¡¯s brother, Khodasevich¡¯s widow Olga Margolin (who was Jewish) died in a concentration camp.
Alexey Sklyarenko