As already notes, the Dr.Sutton on line 119 of John
Shade's poem is not the one mentioned on line 986, but the
Dr.Sutton who "lives higher up on the same wooded
hill...an old clapboard house" and who sees
to Hazel Shade, during the poltergeist and haunted barn episodes. Kinbote
mentions him in his note to line 119 and in the notes to lines 230 and 347.
The other Sutton has a
daughter and is mentioned by Kinbote on lines 181 and 1000. Both are
retired from their practice.
Kinbote obviously mistrusts doctors since Dr. Sutton (one of
them) disturbs his theory about Aunt Maud's influence over Hazel Shade's
insanity. Still following Kinbote we learn that Shade's
theories inquire into a genetic disturbance that
might have affected him and his daughter( "My poor friend could not help
recalling the dramatic fits of his early boyhood and wondering if this was not a
new genetic variant of the same theme, preserved through
procreation" cf. CK note to line
230)
In his poem, John Shade writes
about "old Dr.Sutton" and about "old doctor Colt" (this
was the one who followed his first anxiety attacks while still a young
boy).
There are at least two other doctors in the novel. One of them
is mentioned in Shade's poem, and he remains anonymous in it.* He was in
the front row during a talk delivered by the poet and offered
professional help when Shade had a fainting fit and "died."
The other doctor emerges only in Kinbote's notes. He
is Dr. A or Dr. Ahlert, probably a heart-doctor who is
consulted by both Shade and Kinbote (at least, according to CK). He
is criticized by Kinbote for believing that John Shade had
suffered from a heart ailment (in his heart attack in October 17,1958) and
for his equally "incorrect" diagnosis of (perhaps!) Aunt
Maud's illness.**
.....................................................................................................................
* - Apparently Kinbote knew this other doctor, too: " "The doctor is made to suggest that not only did Shade retain in his
trance half of his identity but that he was also half a ghost.
Knowing the particular medical man who treated my friend at
the time, I venture to add that he is far too stodgy to have displayed any such
wit" (CK note to lines 727-728).
In another entry, writing about Gradus, Kinbote addresses
still another imaginary doctor and he employs, for Gradus, a similar image
as the one he used for Shade and following Shade's original lines
"we may concede, doctor, that our half-man was
also half mad." (CK line
949)
When dealing
with the adventures of Gradus Kinbote refers to this vague figure of a "doctor"
at least twice (just like Humbert addresses the "members of the jury")
**- ""The poet’s recovery turned out indeed to be
very speedy and would have to be called miraculous had there been anything
organically wrong with his heart. There was not; a poet’s nerves can play the
queerest tricks but they also can quickly recapture the rhythm of
health.[ ]. Incidentally: the reader
should not take too seriously or too literally the passage about the alert
doctor (an alert doctor, who as I well know once confused neuralgia with
cerebral sclerosis)." (CK to line 691).