''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses

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257
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all reappear in Kinbote can be taken as a further
proof of Shade being the primary poet in Pale Fire:
It is in keeping with what has been said above that
in this, too, he should follow Nabokov, that he
should use the same device as his creator and, in
turn, pass them all on to Kinbote: Kinbote, although
to others "technically a loony" is for him certainly
a "responsible character": he considers him as "a
fellow poet" (238).
Now the strong resemblance between the creative
process at work in Kinbote's transformation of real-
ity into art and the principles that Shade follows
in his creative work can also be accounted for. Shade
bestows not only a number of his views and ideas, but
also some of his creative and artistic principles on
his "created poet", just as Nabokov has given his
own to him (and to Sebastian Knight).
Kinbote is (or is made) aware of Shadean echoes
in his work:
There is
... a symptomatic family resemblance
in the coloration of both poem and
story. I have reread, not without pleasure,
my comments to his lines, and in many cases
have caught myself borrowing a kind of opalescent
light from my poet's fiery orb... (81),
and provides with this passage a clue to the meaning
of the title of the novel.
There are a number of theories about the choice
and meaning of this title, all of them of course
based on the Shakespeare lines from which it is taken:
I'll example you with thievery:
The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction
Robs the vast sea; the moon's an arrant thief,
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun;