The Annotated Lolita: Revised and Updated (65 page)

loan God
: from a cultural sequence (e.g., Greek-Roman, Hebrew-Christian); “lone” in the first mass paperback edition, and thus an “existential image” to one critic.

Dr. Quilty
: the “playwright” is his nephew (or cousin), Clare Quilty. For a summary of Quilty allusions, see
Quilty, Clare
.

Shirley Holmes
: after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s (1850–1930) famous detective hero, Sherlock Holmes (see
Arsène Lupin
). Between the ages of ten and fifteen, Nabokov was a Holmes devotee. That enthusiasm faded, though traces remain. “I spent a poor night in a charming, airy, prettily furnished room where neither window nor door closed properly, and where an omnibus edition of Sherlock Holmes which had pursued me
for years supported a bedside lamp,” writes the narrator of
Pnin
, at the end of the novel (p. 190). The narrator of
The Real Life of Sebastian Knight
“use[s] an old Sherlock Holmes stratagem” (p. 151); and, in
Despair
, Hermann addresses Conan Doyle directly: “What an opportunity, what a subject you missed! For you could have written one last tale concluding the whole Sherlock Holmes epic; one last episode beautifully setting off the rest; the murderer in that tale should have turned out to be not the one-legged bookkeeper, not the Chinaman Ching and not the woman in crimson, but the very chronicler of the crime stories, Dr. Watson himself—Watson, who, so to speak, knew what was Whatson. A staggering surprise for the reader” (pp. 121–122)—and a figurative description of several of Nabokov’s own narrative strategies. “Was he in
Sherlock Holmes
, the fellow whose / Tracks pointed back when he reversed his shoes?” wonders John Shade in Canto One of
Pale Fire
(lines 27–28). After identifying Holmes in the Commentary, Kinbote says he “suspect[s] that our poet simply made up this Case of the Reversed Footprints” (p. 78), alluding to
The Hound of the Baskervilles
(1902). He is wrong, but his suspicion summarizes the way that Nabokov frequently parodies and transmutes the methods and themes of that genre, just as “Shirley Holmes” is a jocular reminder that
Lolita
is, among other things, a kind of mystery story demanding a considerable amount of armchair detection. See the remarks on Poe and the detective story,
Lo-lee-ta
. For the penultimate moment in this “tale of ratiocination,” see
Waterproof
; and for a telling allusion to Holmes, drawn from
The Defense
, see
everything fell into order … the pattern of branches … the satisfaction of logical recognition
.

Camp Q
: “Cue” is Quilty’s nickname. “The ‘Q,’ ” noted Nabokov, “had to be changed to ‘Kilt’ in the French translation because of the awful pun, Q =
cul!
” (which means “ass”).

Botticellian pink
: Sandro Botticelli (1444 or 1445–1510), master of the early Italian Renaissance, known for his tender renderings of sensual but melancholy femininity. That pink is most manifest in the vision of the three graces in his painting “Primavera,” while the “wet, matted eyelashes” suggest his famous “The Birth of Venus,” which H.H. invokes
here
and
here
. In
Laughter in the Dark
, blind Albinus tries to transform incoherent sounds into colors: “It was the opposite of trying to imagine the kind of voices which Botticelli’s angels had” (p. 242).

her coccyx
: the end of the vertebral column.

iliac
: anatomical word; pertaining to the
ilium
, “the dorsal and upper one of the three bones composing either lateral half of the pelvis.”

Catullus … forever
: Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84–54
B.C.
), Roman lyric, erotic, and epigrammatic poet. H.H.’s “
that
Lolita,
my
Lolita
” echoes Catullus’s evocation of his enchanting Lesbia, as well as imitations such as “My sweetest Lesbia” (1601), by Thomas Campion (1567–1620), English poet. See
the writer’s ancient lust
and
my Lolita … her Catullus
.

D.P.
: during and shortly after World War II, refugees were officially described as “Displaced Persons”; hence “D.P.”s.

Berthe au Grand Pied
: Bertha (or Bertrade) with the Big Feet (or Bigfoot Bertha); the epithet is not pejorative. A French historical figure (d. 783), she was Pépin le Bref’s wife and Charlemagne’s mother, and is alluded to by François Villon in his ballad with the refrain “
Mais où sont les neiges d’antan?
”

mais rien
: French; but nothing.

mon cher, cher monsieur
: French; my dear, dear sir.

Départez
: the wrong French for “leave!” Correct:
Partez!

chéri
: French; darling.

mon très, très cher
: French; my very, very dear.

crooner’s mug
: many younger readers of the rock-and-roll persuasion do not know that
to croon
is to “sing in half voice especially into a closely held microphone” (Webster’s 3rd), a poor definition of the romantic style of ballad singing best represented by the oeuvre of Harry Lillis (Bing) Crosby (1904–1977), known affectionately as “The Groaner”; Frank Sinatra (1915–      ); and Mel Tormé (1925–      ). They are not mentioned by H.H. when he complains about pop singers (
the nasal voices
). Nabokov’s high standards prevailed quite instinctively, even on such foreign ground.

Morell … “conquering hero”
: Thomas Morell (1703–1784), an English classical scholar, wrote the song “See the Conquering Hero Comes.” George Frederick Handel (1685–1759) used it in his oratorios
Joshua
and
Judas Maccabeus.
Sung by a Chorus of Youths in
Joshua
, it begins, “See the conquering hero comes! Sound the trumpet, beat the drums” (Act III, scene 2). It was also used in later versions of Nathaniel Lee’s (1653–1692) tragedy,
The Rival Queens
(1677), and is quoted in Joyce’s
Ulysses
in reference to Molly’s seducer, Blazes Boylan (1961 Random House edition, p. 264). It is apt that the “conquering hero” should be above Quilty’s picture, since that motto predicts his victory. As for the c. 1949 magazine ad which is said to resemble H.H., his description of it is quite accurate. The ad is for Viyella robes, and is of some interest. It’s reproduced in color in David Ogilvy,
Ogilvy on Advertising
(1983), p. 86. See the following page. For Joyce, see
outspoken book: Ulysses
.

A distinguished playwright … Drome
: Quilty. A
dromedary
is a one-humped camel, and H.H. is both playing with the familiar brand name and correcting the manufacturer’s error: the beast on the cigarette wrapper is not a camel, strictly speaking. H.H.’s aside, “The resemblance was slight,” refers to
resemble … actor chap
, where he is said to resemble Quilty. Note, too, that “Lo’s chaste bed” is under Quilty. See
Quilty, Clare
for a summary of Quilty allusions.

pavor nocturnus
: Latin; night panic. Quilty lives in “
Pavor Manor
.”

peine forte et dure
: French; strong and hard torture.

Dostoevskian grin
: Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–1881), the famous Russian novelist, was long one of Nabokov’s primary targets. In the
Playboy
interview he said, “Non-Russian readers do not realize two things; that not all Russians love Dostoevsky as much as Americans do, and that most of those Russians who do, venerate him as a mystic and not as an artist. He was a prophet, a claptrap journalist and a slapdash comedian. I admit that some of his scenes, some of his tremendous, farcical rows are extraordinarily amusing. But his sensitive murderers and soulful prostitutes are not to be endured for one moment—by this reader anyway.” “Heart-to-heart talks, confessions in the Dostoevskian manner are also not in my line,” he writes in
Speak, Memory
(p. 286). But H.H. is the ultimate in “sensitive murderers,” and by casting his tale as a “confession,” Nabokov lets Dostoevsky lay down the rules and then beats “old Dusty” at his own game. See
Blank … Blankton, Mass.
for remarks on another convention allied with the confession—the literary diary.

Well-read Humbert
:
the lines he quotes are from Canto III, stanza 116 of
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
(1812, 1816, 1818), by George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824), English poet. These lines occur almost at the end of the Canto (lines 1080–1081), and are addressed to Ada, Harold’s absent daughter. Byron was in Italy at this time, estranged from the wife he had married for the sake of tranquility and respectability—a gesture H.H. would no doubt appreciate, as he would sympathize with the difficulties occasioned by the amorous poet’s incestuous relationship with his half sister. Dr. Byron is the Haze family physician, and he too has a daughter (see
child of Dolly’s age
). But, as an unwitting accomplice to a seduction, he belies his name, for the sleeping pills he dispenses prove ineffective at The Enchanted Hunters hotel (see
here
). Byron’s works and Byron’s Augusta Ada, a gifted girl in her own right, resonate in Nabokov’s longest novel,
Ada
, as does the “Byronic” (and Chateaubriandesque) theme of incest; Ada Veen even has a bit part in a film called
Don Juan’s Last Fling.
Nabokov’s deep knowledge of Byron is made evident throughout his
Eugene Onegin
Commentary (see the “Byron” entry in the Index, Vol. IV).

Charlotte
: the name of Werther’s tragic love in
The Sorrows of Young Werther
(1774), by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832). The choice of a name is clearly ironic, since Goethe’s Charlotte marries another. Weepy Werther, an artist of sorts, remains hopelessly in love with her and eventually takes his own life. “A faded charm still clings about this novel, which artistically is greatly inferior to Chateaubriand’s
René
and even to Constant’s
Adolphe
,” writes Nabokov in his
Eugene Onegin
Commentary (Vol. II, p. 345). See
Lottelita, Lolitchen
. Goethe is also invoked on
heterosexual Erlkönig in pursuit
. For Chateaubriand, see
Chateaubriandesque trees
.

quel mot
: French; what a word.

incubus
: an evil spirit or demon, originally in personified representations of the nightmare, supposed to descend upon persons in their sleep, and especially to seek sexual intercourse with women. In the Middle Ages their existence was recognized by ecclesiastical and civil law. The epithet “Humbert the Cubus” is of course his own variant. For more on enchantments, see
not human, but nymphic
.

mauvemail
: H.H.’s coinage; mauve is pale pinkish purple.

“
The orange … grave
”
: a parody of a “poetic” quotation.

raree-show
: a show carried about in a box; a peep show.

Une petite attention
: a nice thought (a favor).

Incarnadine
: flesh-colored or bright pink. This word appears in a stanza from
The Rubáiyát
; see
Wine, wine … for roses
.

eructations
: violent belches.

by Pan!
: H.H.’s “by God!” In Greek mythology, a god of forests, flocks, and shepherds, having the horns and hoofs of a goat.

soi-disant
: French; so-called (also used
here
).

a Turk
: Charlotte is not quite sure of H.H.’s “racial purity.” Neither is Jean Farlow, who intercepts an anti-Semitic remark (
here
), nor The Enchanted Hunters’ management (
here
). See
Babylonian blood
and
spaniel … baptized
.

contretemps
: French; an embarrassing or awkward occurrence.

rattles
: the sound-producing organs on a rattlesnake’s tail.

rubrique
: a newspaper section.

“Edgar”… “writer and explorer”
: Edgar A. Poe, whose
Narrative of A. Gordon Pym
was the product of an alleged polar expedition (see
Pym, Roland
). For the Poe allusions, see
Lo-lee-ta
.