Pale Fire: Illustrated Sports Illustrated Sports Pale Fire Journal | Page 105

is Disa, who will be analyzed with Fleur next. Disa was the Duchess of Payn
and was the queen of Zembla for a period of time before her ill-fated marriage
with the King ended. Thirteen years after the King’s brief relationship with
Fleur, he eventually ended up marrying the Duchess of Payn, who was thirteen
years his junior (102). Disa was deeply in love with the King and was quotes as
saying “I want you to know that no matter how much you hurt me, you cannot
hurt my love.” (205). Akin to Fleur’s relationship with the King, Disa’s feelings
towards the King are not reciprocated. In fact, Disa being the “Duchess of Payn”
could be interpreted as the “Duchess of Pain,” as the King was never able to
have the feelings for her that she had for him. The King even goes to great
lengths to try and act romantically towards Disa, even taking aphrodisiacs, but
nothing worked (208). Both Fleur and Disa were in doomed relationships with
the same man at different periods of time, a striking similarity that ties them to-
gether.
The final pairing that will be analyzed are Disa and Sybil. Sybil Shade is the
wife of the poet John Shade, and the two have been married for forty years (line
275). Though the marriage between Sybil and John has lasted (unlike the mar-
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