NPPF Preliminary: The Epigraph

[jbor]

on 11/7/03 10:12 PM, Malignd wrote:

>> There is also the matter of where Kinbote is, holed up
>> outside an amusement park.  His having access to
>> Boswell's Life of Johnson is unlikely, as is his
>> having such a quote committed to memory.

on 11/7/03 11:33 PM, Jasper Fidget wrote:

> C. 172 (p. 154): "In a black pocketbook that I fortunately have with me I
> find, jotted down, here and there, among various extracts that had happened
> to please me (a footnote from Boswell's Life of Dr. Johnson[...])"
> 
> It's not direct evidence linking the epigraph to Kinbote, but it allows for
> the possibility.  It may be that this is the *only* part of Life of Johnson
> that Kinbote possesses -- why he has it is another question.

on 11/7/03 11:55 PM, Malignd wrote:

> I stand corrected.

Ah, but is the extract used for the novel's Epigraph actually in "a
footnote" in Boswell's _Life of Dr Johnson_? If it had been, then that would
pretty much confirm the Kinbote hypothesis re. the Epigraph. But it isn't.

The fact that Kinbote cites the actual lines from Shakespeare's _Timon_ but
misses the derivation of Shade's poem's title in them because it's a
"Zemblan" translation of the play he possesses ("Commentary: Lines 39-40")
makes me think this might similarly be a red herring. (And, it gives pause
to wonder which actual footnote from Boswell's _Life_ he might have written
down in that pocketbook of his.)

best