The Annotated Lolita: Revised and Updated (76 page)

Bumper, Sheridan
: Bumper is a character in
The School for Scandal
(1777), by Richard Sheridan (1751–1816), Irish playwright.

Phineas Quimby, Lebanon, NH
: in mythology, Phineas provided Jason the directions to find the Golden Fleece; while Phineas Quimby (1802–1866) was an American pioneer in the field of mental healing, born in Lebanon, N.H. He initially specialized in mesmerism, and for several years gave public hypnotic exhibitions (1838–1847). H.H.’s coercion of both Lolita and the reader make him a latter-day specialist, and
here
he says that “Mesmer Mesmer” was one of the possible pseudonyms he had considered for his narrative.

Dr. Kitzler, Eryx, Miss.
: for
Kitzler
—H.H.’s tag, miraculously picked up by Quilty—see
kitzelans
; for
Eryx
, the cult of Aphrodite, where “religious prostitution” was indeed practiced, see
boat to Onyx or Eryx
. The abbreviated form of Mississippi adds to the pun cluster an incongruous note of formality; “translated,” it reads “Dr. Clitoris, Venus, Miss”—and “Miss Venus” is the archetypal if not the ultimate beauty contest winner.

living vacationists
: “Johnny Randall of Ramble was a real person, I think (as was also Cecilia Dalrymple Ramble, p. 252),” said Nabokov, but the two are linked to form another verbal “coincidence.”

N.S. Aristoff … NY
: Catagela is the comic name of a town in the play
The Acharnians
(425
B.C.
), by Aristophanes (445–385
B.C.
). It is from a Greek word meaning “to deride.”

James … Hoaxton
: James Mavor Morell is one of the main characters in
Candida
(1894), a play by George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950).
Hoxton
(Shaw’s spelling) is a place name therein. The additional
a
is well in the spirit of this “cryptogrammic paper chase,” since Quilty is a permanent resident of “hoax town,” and his maker has passed through that town more than once. Dreyer reads
Candida
in
King, Queen, Knave
(p. 263).

G. Trapp, Geneva, NY.
: H.H.’s relative is Swiss, so nationalistic Quilty chooses a city found in America as well as in Switzerland.

Aubrey Beardsley, Quelquepart Island
: “Aubrey McFate” (
Aubrey McFate … devil of mine
) and the Beardsleyan motif (
McFate, Aubrey
;
Gaston Godin
) are finally united by Quilty in “Quelquepàrt”—that is, “somewhere.” This French mirrors a Mérimée tag that lies ahead (
Changeons … séparés
).

Lucas Picador
: in Mérimée’s novella, Lucas the picador is Carmen’s last lover; José, tired of killing her lovers, kills Carmen (see
Little Carmen
). In
bullfighting, the picador is the member of the company who uses a lance to annoy and weaken the bull just prior to the kill. Although Quilty seems to cast himself as the picador, it is the tired bull who will ultimately make the kill.

Merrymay, Pa.… my Carmen
: a pun; Mérimée. The abbreviated
Pennsylvania
is a pun that nicely capsules Lolita’s insulting, mock-familiar tone, as though she were saying, “the merry May festival is now being celebrated by Quilty,
Dad.
” H.H.’s betrayed “pathetic endearments” are his frequent epithets from
Carmen.

Will Brown, Dolores, Colo.
: Quilty echoes H.H., whose “forsooth” acknowledges the “coincidence”; see
a saint
(“
Saint
, forsooth! While brown Dolores”) and
Bill Brown … Dolores
. For “Dolores, Colo.,” see
Dolores
and
Dolores, Colo.
.

Harold Haze
: Lolita’s deceased father.

Donald Quix
: this pseudonym is appropriate to the Sierras, because they constitute so elevated a target for a windmill-tilter such as Quixote.

bodkin
: a stiletto or dagger.

Chestnut Lodge
: although H.H. is very sensitive to numerical and verbal “combinations,” he is no match for Quilty, who is acute enough to have had miraculous access to H.H.’s previous pages: “Chestnut Lodge” completes H.H.’s cycle of changes on “Chestnut” (see
Chestnut Court
and
Chestnuts and Colts
); the key to the Lodge is held by Nabokov.

Ted Hunter, Cane, NH.
: an anagram of “Enchanted Hunter” (see
The Enchanted Hunters
), it is as expertly done as “Vivian Darkbloom.” Quilty’s punning allusion to Cain is appropriate and indeed perceptive, since H.H. has just referred to him as his brother (see
my brother
).

interrelated combinations
: the letters and numerals on the first two license plates offer William Shakespeare’s monograms and dates of birth and death (1564–1616). For Shakespeare, see
Elsinore Playhouse, Derby, N.Y.
and
God or Shakespeare
. The letters on the second set of plates refer to Quilty and his nickname (“Cue”). Less obvious and most literally “cryptogrammic” are the numbers, which add up to a highly significant fifty-two. H.H. and Lolita spent a year on the road—that is, fifty-two weeks—and there are as many lines in the poem addressed to her
here
. Ray’s Foreword indicates that Lolita, H.H., and Quilty all die in 1952 (see p. 4). There are fifty-two cards in a deck, and the author of
King, Queen, Knave
still has a few up his sleeve, as he demonstrates here.

cunningly contrived … a common denominator
: cunning or not, it
is
revealed, for it is quite impossible that either H.H. or Quilty could realize the full significance of the number fifty-two; only one person can, and the “common denominator” points to the author. The “paper chase” is contrived in the same spirit as Ray’s Foreword (see
“real people”
), the entomological motif (see
John Ray, Jr.
), the opening chapter (see
Lolita, light of my life
and
in point of fact
),
Who’s Who in the Limelight
(see
I have only words to play with
and
The reader will regret to learn … I had another bout with insanity
), and the Ramsdale class list (see
her class at … school
and
McFate, Aubrey
)—to name only the main clusters and interlacements of Nabokov’s grand anthemion. Of course, many of the allusions are within Quilty’s reach, and there are plausible explanations for his knowing certain things. But other details are extraordinary, and it is not simply a matter of Quilty’s brain having “
affinities with my own
,” as H.H. says. How could Quilty know that earlier in these pages H.H. had used “
Kitzler
,” identified “Aubrey” as his “McFate,” toyed with Chestnuts, alluded to Eryx (and Venus), and quoted “While brown Dolores”? Quilty knows all this—and everything else—because Nabokov wants him to know it, and because Quilty and H.H. can be said to “exist” only insofar as they have been created by the same man. In its concentrated effect, the “paper chase” is to the last part of the novel what
Who’s Who
is to the first.

garçon
: French; fellow.

Bill Brown … Dolores
: see
a saint
and
Will Brown, Dolores, Colo.
. This “Bill Brown” rings a final verbal change on H.H.’s “While brown Dolores” (
a saint
) and Quilty’s “Horribly cruel” (says H.H.) guest book entry, “Will Brown” (
Will Brown, Dolores, Colo.
). The echoic cross-references are placed almost back-to-back in order to give the astute reader a chance to make the association. Seeing the veracity of the narrative collapse, but not willing to grant that fiction is artifice, and rightly feeling that any cruelty
is
at his expense, the reader may anxiously wonder
who
is responsible for
what
here. The author, is, of course, and Nabokov immediately mocks such doggedly persistent literalism by having H.H. hire Bill Brown, an imbecilic private detective, to check the names and addresses collected from those guest books—a gesture that can only be for the benefit of the literal-minded reader, since H.H. himself plainly considers the material “nonsense data.” The “information” provides a non-solution that parodies the reader’s need for a solution and our belief that either literature or life will ever reveal
one, in the largest sense. A hyphen, omitted in 1958, has been added to Bill’s age.

Dolorès Disparue
: see
Has disappeared
. In the first French edition of Proust’s great novel,
Albertine disparue
is the next-to-last volume. The definitive Pléiade edition (1954) has restored Proust’s own title for it,
La Fugitive
(it is called
The Sweet Cheat Gone
in the Moncrieff translation). See
Proustian theme … Bailey”
.

daymares
: H.H.’s coinage.

chambres garnies
: French; furnished rooms.

auctioneered Viennese bric-à-brac
: Freudian trappings, secondhand symbols. See
a case history
and
Viennese medicine man
.

que … cela
: French; how far away all this was!

Comics
: the first two are generalized and invented comic strips.

gagoon … kiddoid gnomide
: on a visit to Montreux in 1968, I mentioned to Nabokov that I had been unable to identify that “repulsive strip” for this edition. Nabokov could not remember its name, but, expanding upon H.H.’s description, he dated it (the late nineteen-for-ties), noted that the strip “had science-fiction overtones,” and vividly recalled “a big gangster, and his very small, big-eyed, lemur-like dwarf wife wearing a lot of jewelry.” Because even that failed to awaken this annotator’s memory, the author provided the drawing shown on the facing page. A 1976 correspondent is certain that the strip was
Kerry Drake
, created in 1943 by Alfred Andriola, who featured
Dick Tracy
–like grotesques drawn in a Milton Caniff manner. For other comic strip allusions, see
caravansaries
and
Jutting Chin … funnies
.

Gagoon
is a portmanteau of
gag, goon
, and
baboon
, while
gnomide
draws on the common meaning of
gnome
(dwarf) and combines its original meaning (from the Greek: a general maxim, a saying) with the nearly synonymous
bromide
(a tiresome, commonplace person; a hackneyed expression).
Kiddoid
is also H.H.’s coinage. Because the -
oid
suffix (resembling, having the form of) is used in scientific terms formed on Greek words, its incongruous usage here becomes humorous (e.g.,
anthropoid
; H.H.’s word is defined as “genus of kid”). See
hypnotoid
.

Et moi … génie
: “And I was offering you my genius!” A bogus quotation, echoing any French Romantic poet (e.g., Alfred de Musset [1810–1857]). H.H. the cultivated European purposefully invokes French—the language of culture or genius—in ironic contrast with visual and verbal fragments of American mass culture. He catches perfectly the slangy neologisms and staccato beat of such forgotten voices as the gossip columnist and radio broadcaster Walter Winchell (1897–1972): “Joe-Roe marital enigma is making yaps flap.”

merman
: a fabled marine male creature; the mermaid’s counterpart. See
The Little Mermaid
. In
Pale Fire
, Odon, Zemblan actor and patriot, appears in
The Merman
, “a fine old melodrama” (p. 129).

losing contact with reality
: for an earlier incarceration, see
The reader will regret to learn … I had another bout with insanity
.

something I composed
: H.H.’s “something” is generally light enough, especially in its humorously blatant rhymes, but its fifty-two lines are
truly “composed” in the way they cohere with a larger pattern: the fifty-two weeks H.H. and Lo spend together on the road (August 1947-August 1948), the year of their deaths, and so forth (see
interrelated combinations
).

I cannot … starling
: a quotation from Laurence Sterne’s
A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy
(1768). On a visit to Paris, Yorick the narrator takes lightly the infamous Bastille. But his attention is drawn to a caged talking starling: “ ‘I can’t get out,’ said the starling.” He is unable to free the bird, whose constant refrain moves him deeply. It becomes a symbol of all enslavement and confinement, and, returning to his room, he imagines at length a solitary captive in the Bastille. He next explains how the starling was given to him and subsequently changed hands countless times; the reader has perhaps seen the bird, suggests Yorick. From that time, he adds, he has borne the starling as the crest to his coat of arms, which he includes in the text. It bears an uncaged bird (see the Penguin English Library edition [1967], pp. 94-100). The starling that had learned only those “four simple words” is most important because it partakes of
Lolita
’s origin, and its lament is at the book’s center.
Lolita
’s initial inspiration, writes Nabokov, was “prompted by a newspaper story about an ape [in the Paris zoo] who, after months of coaxing by a scientist, produced the first drawing ever charcoaled by an animal: this sketch showed the bars of the poor creature’s cage” (p. 311). H.H., the “aging ape” writing from prison, whose impossible love metaphorically connects him with that imprisoned animal, learns the language, in his fashion, and records his “imprisonment.” His narrative is the “picture” of the bars of the poor creature’s cage—and an orchestration of the starling’s four simple words.