Carolyn Kunin [ to JM: And, as Carolyn advised
the VN-L, "A dip into the archives will reward the interested
Nabokovian in associations of larks with madness in poems by Pushkin and
Tiutchev"...] Try spelling it Tyutchev. I have noticed that the archives'
search engine is more than a little perverse. Why are you so interested, I
wonder. //[ to JM: "Please note that only the first limerick was creatred by
Knox. At least, according to the entries in "The Oxford Dictionary of
Quotations" (Oxford University Press, 1979) where God's answer is
fittingly listed under "Anonymous."] What you
call the "first limerick" doesn't make sense without the second, so I think they
are both the work of MRK, who, being a monsignor, was very Catholic, and being
very Catholic, was very anti-atheism, which of course is part of the force of
the limerick ...
Jansy Mello: Sometimes the names of Russian authors I
meet are "Brazilianized.." It varies according to the translator, critic
or to an absentmindedness of my own. (And guess who is "Renato
Cartesio" in some Catholic circles?)
CK, Thanks for a good tip: I'll search for nightingale and spell
Tyutchev and hope for the best.
. .
Why am I interested in skylarks? Personally, one of my wishes has
always been to see a skylark soaring and singing. In a
"Nabokovian way" I'm interested in anything that might become a piece of
one of VN' multiple puzzles which I know.to exist, although I
haven't yet identified any particular pattern: there's a
violet corner here, an orange cloud there or an
alder decoy that fits nowhere. .By the way, Demon Veen seems to have
been an expert fisherman in Ada.while, in Pale Fire, when
explaining the iridule, Charles Kinbote will mention "an ardent
fisherman." Yesterday, for the first time, I related the fish (perch) to Shade's
distinct references to his (favorite) perches. Winged sirens?*
In relation to RK, I don't see why I should doubt the information presented
by the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations that distinguishes two limericks
where C.Kunin finds only one. .
..................................................................................................................................................................
* The "chauntecleer" (or Chantecleer) association to Cantaboff is
far-fetched, true. However, it landed me in the realm of the medieval
fabliaux (a theme that frequently arises in VN and that, departing
from carnivalesque obscene mockeries, would later
inspire Lafontaine's moral tales...), in line with folkloric
festivities and several curious monsters (such as the
evil "Cockatrice" who is not a bird, not a siren, but a winged serpent
with the head of a bird). But you certainly know more about that than I
do!