Stan K-B toJM [A PS,
concerning the mention of John Ray in relation to Ergotism]: why not link to the
popular crooner Johnnie Ray (1927-90), surely well known to VN and, especially,
Lo? He was known as the NABOB of SOB. Add OK to NABOB and stir gently! Spooky
beyond coincidence.
Frances
Assa: Moreover, a John Ray Society has been around since the 19c
(see below). Notice it's lodged in the Natural History Museum in
London. I wonder if VN joined?
S.Blackwell,Ed: I remember seeing a
bust of John Ray at the Trinity College library. Ray's likely significance
for VN has been mentioned in various studies; bibliographic contributions would
be welcome at this point (the first of course was Appel's annotations or, maybe,
Proffer's Keys to Lolita?
JM:This is great, Stan! The Nabob of Sob coincidence,
well stirred. Coincidences bob up and down when we let ideas float (and
the internet brings up surprising data none could otherwise
reach in the olden days).
The surprise for me rises not from Prof. John Ray's story
and achievements in general, but his link to St.Anthony's
fire and "ergotism" [ergot: F: lit., a
rooster's spur; OF argos, argoz, argot
spur(s) ].
See, this item came up while I was researching into RLSK's "Cock Robin", Silberman's "Adam's apple as an arrased eaves-dropper", medieval
minstrels ( Le Puy d'Arras and Adam de la Halle's "Robin et
Marion") and the French city of Arras' "Our Lady of
the Ardents".
It's almost impossible
that VN could have been aware of, and applied to his fiction, such a
load of quaint interlinked information.
Ergotoxins stimulate lisergic hallucinatory
effects (data from wiki) - but they are equally useful in relation to
abortions (this is a link to Ada or Ardor's Marina/Aqua's lost babies
and doctors, plus references to poisons and belladonna drugs - also in the
same novel).
Ergotism and the witches of Salem, and Hawthorne's "The
Scarlet Letter", is another possible branching with old John Ray
nomenclature ( Nabob of Sob or "Lolita's" prefacer would, indeed, be JR. to
that one)
Signs and Symbols, indeed.