Subject
Re: Lord Byron's Hock
From
Date
Body
I suspect VN may also be punning on the slang meaning of hock¹ = pawn.¹
You pawn/hock diverse objects at the pawn/hock-shop, depositing them as
security for short-term cash loans. Later your goods are REDEEMED = returned
to you, by paying back the loan plus, of course, an exorbitant interest. It
was a regular weekly feature of working-class cash-trickle management¹ in
my Liverpool youth: Paid Friday; Broke Monday; Pawn Tuesday; Redeem Friday.
Failure to redeem on time means you relinquish your goods, which then go on
sale in the pawn-shop window. That fate overtook my granny¹s false-teeth,
but I digress ...
Much celebrated in folksong & shanty:
³Me boots and clothes is all in pawn;
Chorus: ³Go down you Blood-Red Roses ... Go down!
³An¹ it¹s bleedin¹ drafty round Cape Horn!
Chorus.
There are fanciful ditties where the object being pawned is one¹s heart or
dream. VN¹s Our Lady¹s Tears¹ falls into this category.
Stan Kelly-Bootle.
On 03/02/2013 00:11, "Alexey Sklyarenko" <skylark1970@mail.ru> wrote:
> 'Ah!' said Demon, tasting Lord Byron's Hock. 'This redeems Our Lady's Tears.'
> (Ada, 1.38)
>
> Hock is mentioned in Byron's The Waltz (1813):
>
> Imperial Waltz! Imported from the Rhine
> (Famed for the growth of pedigrees and wine),
> Long be thine import from all duty free,
> And hock itself be less esteem¹d than thee;
> In some few qualities alikefor hock
> Improves our cellarthou our living stock.
> The head to hock belongsthy subtler art
> Intoxicates alone the heedless heart:
> Through the full veins thy gentler poison swims,
> And wakes to wantonness the willing limbs.
>
> In vain I hoped that VN's play The Waltz Invention had something to do with
> Byron's poem.* But his hock redeemed my disappointment.
>
> *According to some commentators, "Calembourg" mentioned in VN's play by Waltz
> is London. Yet, the poet Turvalski (whose poem is recited by one of the
> generals) seems to be in no way related to the Countess of Waltzaway (a
> distant relation of Horace Hornem's spouse). Horace Hornem, the fictitious
> author of The Waltz, was invented by Byron.
>
> Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/
You pawn/hock diverse objects at the pawn/hock-shop, depositing them as
security for short-term cash loans. Later your goods are REDEEMED = returned
to you, by paying back the loan plus, of course, an exorbitant interest. It
was a regular weekly feature of working-class cash-trickle management¹ in
my Liverpool youth: Paid Friday; Broke Monday; Pawn Tuesday; Redeem Friday.
Failure to redeem on time means you relinquish your goods, which then go on
sale in the pawn-shop window. That fate overtook my granny¹s false-teeth,
but I digress ...
Much celebrated in folksong & shanty:
³Me boots and clothes is all in pawn;
Chorus: ³Go down you Blood-Red Roses ... Go down!
³An¹ it¹s bleedin¹ drafty round Cape Horn!
Chorus.
There are fanciful ditties where the object being pawned is one¹s heart or
dream. VN¹s Our Lady¹s Tears¹ falls into this category.
Stan Kelly-Bootle.
On 03/02/2013 00:11, "Alexey Sklyarenko" <skylark1970@mail.ru> wrote:
> 'Ah!' said Demon, tasting Lord Byron's Hock. 'This redeems Our Lady's Tears.'
> (Ada, 1.38)
>
> Hock is mentioned in Byron's The Waltz (1813):
>
> Imperial Waltz! Imported from the Rhine
> (Famed for the growth of pedigrees and wine),
> Long be thine import from all duty free,
> And hock itself be less esteem¹d than thee;
> In some few qualities alikefor hock
> Improves our cellarthou our living stock.
> The head to hock belongsthy subtler art
> Intoxicates alone the heedless heart:
> Through the full veins thy gentler poison swims,
> And wakes to wantonness the willing limbs.
>
> In vain I hoped that VN's play The Waltz Invention had something to do with
> Byron's poem.* But his hock redeemed my disappointment.
>
> *According to some commentators, "Calembourg" mentioned in VN's play by Waltz
> is London. Yet, the poet Turvalski (whose poem is recited by one of the
> generals) seems to be in no way related to the Countess of Waltzaway (a
> distant relation of Horace Hornem's spouse). Horace Hornem, the fictitious
> author of The Waltz, was invented by Byron.
>
> Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/