C.Kunin: “But the only error I can see in calling the three main characters S, K and G is that, if as Matt says it is the poem and not the novel that is being indexed, the three main characters should by J, S and H (the Shades). hmm - J,K; G,H; and S.”

Jansy Mello:  For me, it in the long run of arguments, became quite obvious that it’s not the poem that’s being indexed, but “the commentary” ( which is “the work,” lovingly presented by a “writer”, C.K). Matt Roth, if I got his point, considers that one of the hints about that is conclusion probably results from Nabokov’s mistake, and not from a deliberate Kinbotean “slip,” so he would not agree with my conclusion about the overall novel “Pale Fire” as being produced by C.Kinbote while he is extracting the juice from John Shade’s poem.

I never liked to read “books for boys” (RLStevenson’s “Treasure Island” and such) and unfortunately I get very impatient when I follow the adventures outlined in “Solus Rex.”  However the fragment of CK’s name, “bot”, the link to the “bot-fly” implies in the meaning of the “messenger bt Kings.” CKinbote’s emblematic signature using a chess “horse” (the Knight that cannot use the K for his algebraic notation because the K serves the King) confirms this “secondary” role in a royal court. This implies in that he is twice an usurper: of a King’s place (there’s something in this line in “Solus Rex” discussing the rightful heirs of a dying king) and of Shade’s poem.