Although not an authority on LOLITA, I
happen to know that some commentators deny Quilty the independent
existence as a character and believe him to be a figment of mad
Humbert's imagination. Considering Humbert's constant appeals to the jury,
perhaps the name Quilty, of the man who looks like Humbert's alter ego and
double, is a play on "guilty"? In that case the title of Vivian Darkbloom's
biography, "My Cue," would have a different meaning yet (hinting at the
fact that Q was substituted for G by Nabokov, Vivian's anagramatic
alter ego).
Alexey Sklyarenko