In a letter to Van Ada calls Andrey Vinelander, an Arizonian Russian who proposed to her, ¡°my patient Valentinian:¡±
'O dear Van, this is the last attempt I am making. You may call it a document in madness or the herb of repentance, but I wish to come and live with you, wherever you are, for ever and ever. If you scorn the maid at your window I will aerogram my immediate acceptance of a proposal of marriage that has been made to your poor Ada a month ago in Valentine State. He is an Arizonian Russian, decent and gentle, not overbright and not fashionable. The only thing we have in common is a keen interest in many military-looking desert plants especially various species of agave, hosts of the larvae of the most noble animals in America, the Giant Skippers (Krolik, you see, is burrowing again). He owns horses, and Cubistic pictures, and "oil wells" (whatever they are-our father in hell who has some too, does not tell me, getting away with off-color allusions as is his wont). I have told my patient Valentinian that I shall give him a definite answer after consulting the only man I have ever loved or shall ever love. Try to ring me up tonight. Something is very wrong with the Ladore line, but I am assured that the trouble will be grappled with and eliminated before rivertide. Tvoya, tvoya, tvoya (thine). A.' (2.5)
Arizona became a state on February 14 (St Valentine Day), 1912, that¡¯s why Ada calls it ¡°Valentine State.¡± In a draft of his letter of Feb. 2 (Feb. 14, NS), 1830, to Karolina Sobanska Pushkin points out that today is St. Valentine¡¯s Day and the ninth anniversary of their first meeting. According to Pushkin, that day decided his life:
C¡¯est aujourd¡¯hui [la S<aint> Va<lentin>], c¡¯est le 9 anniversaire du jour ou je vous ai vu pour la premi¨¨re fois. Ce jour a [de] d¨¦cid¨¦ ma vie ¡ª [pour<?>] C¡¯est¡
A year and a fortnight after writing this, on Feb. 18 (OS), 1831, Pushkin married Natalia Goncharov.
Karolina Sobanska (born Rzewuska, 1894-1885) was the elder sister of Eveline Hanska (1805-82) who in 1850 married Honor¨¦ de Balzac. In Chekhov¡¯s play Tri sestry (¡°The Three Sisters,¡± 1901), known on Antiterra as Four Sisters (2.1, 2.9), Dr Chebutykin reads in a newspaper that Balzac got married in Berdichev:
§¹§Ö§Ò§å§ä§í§Ü§Ú§ß (§é§Ú§ä§Ñ§ñ §Ô§Ñ§Ù§Ö§ä§å). §¢§Ñ§Ý§î§Ù§Ñ§Ü §Ó§Ö§ß§é§Ñ§Ý§ã§ñ §Ó §¢§Ö§â§Õ§Ú§é§Ö§Ó§Ö.
§ª§â§Ú§ß§Ñ §ß§Ñ§á§Ö§Ó§Ñ§Ö§ä §ä§Ú§ç§à.
§¥§Ñ§Ø§Ö §Ù§Ñ§á§Ú§ê§å §ã§Ö§Ò§Ö §ï§ä§à §Ó §Ü§ß§Ú§Ø§Ü§å. (§©§Ñ§á§Ú§ã§í§Ó§Ñ§Ö§ä.) §¢§Ñ§Ý§î§Ù§Ñ§Ü §Ó§Ö§ß§é§Ñ§Ý§ã§ñ §Ó §¢§Ö§â§Õ§Ú§é§Ö§Ó§Ö. (§¹§Ú§ä§Ñ§Ö§ä §Ô§Ñ§Ù§Ö§ä§å.)
§ª§â§Ú§ß§Ñ (§â§Ñ§ã§Ü§Ý§Ñ§Õ§í§Ó§Ñ§Ö§ä §á§Ñ§ã§î§ñ§ß§ã, §Ù§Ñ§Õ§å§Þ§é§Ú§Ó§à). §¢§Ñ§Ý§î§Ù§Ñ§Ü §Ó§Ö§ß§é§Ñ§Ý§ã§ñ §Ó §¢§Ö§â§Õ§Ú§é§Ö§Ó§Ö.
CHEBUTYKIN. (Reading from a newspaper.) Balzac got married in Berdichev.
(Irina sings quietly.)
I must write that in my notebook. (He makes a note.) Balzac got married in Berdichev. (He reads the newspaper.)
IRINA. (Thoughtfully, as she sets out the Patience.) Balzac got married in Berdichev. (Act Two)
When Dr Chebutykin gets drunk, Masha¡¯s husband Kulygin (the teacher of classical languages) quotes a Latin saying:
§¬§å§Ý§í§Ô§Ú§ß (§ã§Þ§Ö§×§ä§ã§ñ). §¯§Ñ§Ù§ð§Ù§ð§Ü§Ñ§Ý§ã§ñ, §ª§Ó§Ñ§ß §²§à§Þ§Ñ§ß§í§é! (§·§Ý§à§á§Ñ§Ö§ä §á§à §á§Ý§Ö§é§å.) §®§à§Ý§à§Õ§Ö§è! In vino veritas, §Ô§à§Ó§à§â§Ú§Ý§Ú §Õ§â§Ö§Ó§ß§Ú§Ö.
KULYGIN. (Laughs.) You've had a good drop, Ivan Romanych! (Pats him on the shoulder.) A fine fellow. In vino veritas, - as the ancients used to say. (Act Three)
In Blok¡¯s poem Neznakomka (Incognita, 1906), alluded to in Ada (3.3), p'yanitsy s glazami krolikov (the drunks with the eyes of rabbits) cry out: In vino veritas! (¡°In wine is truth!¡±)
In her letter to Van Ada mentions Dr Krolik, her late teacher of natural history and beloved entomologist who ¡°is burrowing again.¡± Like Karolina Sobanska and her sister, Dr Krolik is Polish:
And perhaps, worst of all, that time when she [Ada] stood fiddling with a bunch of wild flowers, a gentle half-smile hanging back quite neutrally in her eyes, her lips pursed, her head making imprecise little movements as if punctuating with self-directed nods secret decisions and silent clauses in some sort of contract with herself, with him, with unknown parties hereinafter called Comfortless, Inutile, Unjust - while he indulged in a brutal outburst triggered by her suggesting - quite sweetly and casually (as she might suggest walking a little way on the edge of a bog to see if a certain orchid was out) - that they visit the late Krolik's grave in a churchyard by which they were passing - and he had suddenly started to shout ('You know I abhor churchyards, I despise, I denounce death, dead bodies are burlesque, I refuse to stare at a stone under which a roly-poly old Pole is rotting, let him feed his maggots in peace, the entomologies of death leave me cold, I detest, I despise -'); he went on ranting that way for a couple of minutes and then literally fell at her feet, kissing her feet, imploring her pardon, and for a little while longer she kept gazing at him pensively. (1.41)
¡°A roly-poly old Pole feeding his maggots in peace¡± hints at Polonius, in Shakespeare¡¯s Hamlet (1601) Ophelia¡¯s father whom Hamlet kills by mistake. In her letter to Van Ada makes several allusions to Shakespeare¡¯s play and, specifically, to Ophelia¡¯s song:
Tomorrow is Saint Valentine¡¯s day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose, and donned his clothes,
And dupped the chamber door.
Let in the maid that out a maid
Never departed more. (4.5)
Van believes that he was Ada¡¯s first lover. Actually, Ada must have lost her virginity to Dr Krolik¡¯s brother Karol (note Karolina Sobanska) even before she met Van:
'Well,' said Van, when the mind took over again, 'let's go back to our defaced childhood. I'm anxious' - (picking up the album from the bedside rug) - 'to get rid of this burden. Ah, a new character, the inscription says: Dr Krolik.'
'Wait a sec. It may be the best Vanishing Van but it's terribly messy all the same. Okay. Yes, that's my poor nature teacher.'
Knickerbockered, panama-hatted, lusting for his babochka (Russian for 'lepidopteron'). A passion, a sickness. What could Diana know about that chase?
'How curious - in the state Kim mounted him here, he looks much less furry and fat than I imagined. In fact, darling, he's a big, strong, handsome old March Hare! Explain!'
'There's nothing to explain. I asked Kim one day to help me carry some boxes there and back, and here's the visual proof. Besides, that's not my Krolik but his brother, Karol, or Karapars, Krolik. A doctor of philosophy, born in Turkey.'
'I love the way your eyes narrow when you tell a lie. The remote mirage in Effrontery Minor.'
'I'm not lying!' - (with lovely dignity): 'He is a doctor of philosophy.'
'Van ist auch one,' murmured Van, sounding the last word as 'wann.' (2.7)
Wann is German for ¡°when¡± (Van imitates Marina¡¯s mispronunciation of his name).
In a letter of about/not later than June 27, 1834, to his wife Pushkin calls Smirnov (in 1845-51 the governor of Kaluga), whose wife just gave birth to twins, krasnoglazyi krolik (a red-eyed rabbit):
§¬§Ñ§Ü§à§Ó§Ñ §Ò§Ñ§Ò§×§ß§Ü§Ñ, §Ú §Ü§Ñ§Ü§à§Ó §Ü§â§Ñ§ã§ß§à§Ô§Ý§Ñ§Ù§í§Û §Ü§â§à§Ý§Ú§Ü §³§Þ§Ú§â§ß§à§Ó?
Smirnov's wife was a close friend of Gogol. Like Andersen, Gogol feared that he will be buried alive. According to Ada, Dr. Krolik lay in his open coffin as plump and pink as in vivo. (1.35)
Alexey Sklyarenko