NPPF - Canto 4 - Notes

[The Great Quail]

839: "speaking of this wonderful machine:" -- Why that metaphor? I
understand the mock-heroic tone, but why "machine?"

844: "Is soaping a third time one leg" -- Foreshadowing that Shade muses a
lot in the bathtub, it seems.

857-860: Shade here admits that when in the grip of the Muse, he becomes
absentminded. This may be important later, with the shoe incident.

874: "midsummer" -- Generally considered a scared/magical time, and possibly
ringing with Shakespearean allusions.

880-881: "this half too/Was fast asleep" -- Shade obviously has very vivid
dreams of dislocation and possible paralysis. Related to his fits? To
Hazel's possible mental illness? Or just one of those weird dream-moments?

884: "a brown shoe lay!" -- Either we accept that some sort of supernatural
transference has occurred, or we examine two possibilities: Shade was
sleepwalking during his "dream," or more likely, had merely left a shoe
there previously. He has already hinted at his absentmindedness. The mocking
tone of his opening may suggest a bit of irony to the lines 884-886, "My
secret stamp,/The Shade impress, the mystery inborn,/Mirages, miracles,
midsummer morn."

887: "Since my biographer may be too staid" -- Some irony for us, knowing
Kinbote will serve as his most immediate biographer. We later find out that
Kinbote has indeed spied on Shade in the bath.

894: "and like Marat bleed." -- Jean-Paul Marat, 1743-1793. Writer and
doctor, associated with the French Revolution. He was murdered in his
bathtub by Charlotte Corday. Also features in Peter Weiss' bizarre play,
"The persecution and assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as performed
by the inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under the direction of
the Marquis de Sade."

More on Marat from Wikipedia:
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Marat

897: "wick" -- "A piece of material that conveys liquid by capillary
action." (American Heritage Dictionary)

900: "Newport Frill" -- I am assuming this is a species of Frill lizard, but
I cannot find any direct references. Perhaps related to the Blind Albino
Cave Hoek? Here's some lovely images of Frilled Lizards.

http://home.mira.net/~areadman/liz.htm

911: "fussy bimanists" -- I cannot find a reference for "bimanist." Possibly
a made-up word implying one who needs both hands to shave? ("Bi" = two and
"mani" = hands?")

912: "ephebe" -- "A youth between 18 and 20 years of age in ancient Greece."
(American Heritage Dictionary) Sounds right up Kinbote's alley!

922: "Our Cream" -- Ostensibly, a commercial brand of shaving cream that ran
TV ads in the 50s. Kinbote later corrects Shade, remarking that "Our Cream"
is a "bubbly foam" rather than a cream.

932: "screaks" -- a real word, means "shriek" or "creak." (As if you
couldn't guess that!)

937: "Sunglassers tour Beirut" -- I assume "sunglassers" means tourists. Any
ideas? 

938: "Zembla's fields" -- This inelegant mention of Zembla is the poem's
second and only mention of Zembla. Sorry, Charlie.

940: "Unfinished poem." -- "Pale Fire" itself, maybe?

944-945: "Or a shoehorn, which turns into the spoon/I eat my egg with" --
Please, God, let this not be literal....

948: "versipel" -- Shade is comparing his muse to a lycanthrope, a
shapeshifter --  "versipel: a creature that is supposed to change
from one form to another, as the werewolf." From:

http://members.aol.com/rstark1957/Words.html

Keith seems to find this more evidence of something weird going on. Maybe
Maud digs wolves? 

951: "above the syllable" -- her name *is* Sybil after all....

967-962: Regarding Shade's books, this link might be fun:

http://www.invisiblelibrary.com/libauthor4.htm

967: "Night Rote" -- Kinbote glosses this as "the nocturnal sound of the
sea." Your mileage may vary.

968: "Hebe's Cup" -- Hebe was the Greek gods' cup-bearer, from which they
quaffed the ambrosia that made them immortal. She later marries Hercules.

Here's a lovely picture, with some rocking good music:

http://www.mythinglinks.org/autumnequinox2000.html

And more:

http://www.facethemusic.org/fantasy/myth/ggoddess3.html

962: "Pale Fire" -- Much discussed around here, probably from "Timon of
Athens." Also used throughout the book....

965: "brown ament" -- Two interesting definitions: Webster's has " A species
of inflorescence; a catkin." American Heritage has "A person with severely
deficient intellectual capacity." I would assume Shade means the later, as a
parody of a "brown study?" Or is "ament" the actual noun he couldn't think
of earlier? 

967-968: "consonne/D'appui" --  an intrusive consonant, something that Shade
clearly does love. 

977-978: "I'm reasonably sure that we survive/And that my darling somewhere
is alive" -- Obviously meaning Hazel; a rather powerful admission at the end
of the poem. 

979-982: The irony of these lines is sharp, as Shade will be murdered this
evening. 

993 -- "A dark Vanessa" -- Nabokov's beloved Red Admirable butterfly.

998: "Some neighbor's gardener, I guess" -- Kinbote's gardener, in fact. He
plays an important role in the murder scene.

--Quail