VP wrote: Kinbote is a very sly Zemblan...the more I look at Conmal - in the note to line 962 Kinbote makes him resemble John Shade, but Conmal's "extraordinary sonnet" in "colorful, if not quite correct, English," takes a viewpoint that is precisely Kinbotean,
namely that the study of botany (acanthus) is no match for the study of
nobility (architrave).

Dear Vic Perry,
I had a vague remembrance of the acanthus leaf in association to the military, besides the ornamentation of medieval manuscripts. 
In Brazil the "acanthus leaf" stands for purity and the maintenance of the Honor Code in the Army division that deals with Logistics ( arms,fuel,provisions,etc) . Google, through the "acanthus leaf/military" led me to Anglo-Saxon England, Roman Britain, Herodotus ( Persian & Greek battles, name of a city) and The Weimar Republic. 
 
I don't see a clear connection bt this thorny leaf and "Botany"   (anthos: flower; acanthus: thorns or spikes ), nor do I understand your interpretation of "architrave" as representative of nobility ( although it seems that the Greek "arch" does stand for "higher").  Both are linked to the "corynthian column", but this is as far as I went on foreign grounds.
 
Let drawing students copy the acanthus,
I work with Master on the architrave!

Search the Nabokv-L archive at UCSB

Contact the Editors

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.

Visit Zembla

View Nabokv-L Policies