Anthony Stadlen: Matt Roth's report* about the stages in Nabokov's development towards his final version in this one instance is revelatory, in the way that studies of Beethoven's sketches of early stages of a theme or passage can be. (Though quite what it reveals is a matter for discussion.)

Jansy Mello: Learning about the stages in VN's development towards his chosen version is, indeed, quite revelatory and a matter for discussion. Why not discuss it, then?

I don't think there are any particular Freudian Ucs elements to unearth through them, but a writer's hesitations, related to what sport would best fit in with his purposes, either in describing Kinbote's traits (consistent with Barrie's hypothesis about the beloved King's snobbishness), and CK's points of view concerning "our" (?) most important games, or else, inserting entomological resonances and setting traps.

I wonder if in the holograph manuscript Shade shows any hesitation about what he set down in his poem. Kinbote's conjectures lack the naturalness of Shade's confession (a child bounces a ball and I think he was presenting himself as a young clumsy boy with no specific game in mind).

*- " In the holograph manuscript, Kinbote’s note to line 98 (“On Chapman’s Homer”) includes a line of conjecture as to what sport is being referenced. Nabokov tried out both lacrosse and hockey but canceled those and settled on baseball and basketball instead. This passage, however, was later removed and the current first sentence of n. 130 was added. This sentence, in its original form, does not mention cricket at all, but instead mentions “soccer or hockey, our two main games.” So it seems that Barrie was right in finding the insertion of cricket a bit odd. And the later change to “cricket” does seem to show that Nabokov thought about what he wanted and chose cricket over hockey in order to achieve some effect. " (MR)