Pale Fire: Illustrated Sports Illustrated Sports Pale Fire Journal | Page 14

matter” (273) which reveal even deeper layers to this one part of Kinbote. Now
this is not the only pair to which he belongs, another quite striking similarity
lies between Kinbote and the poet John Shade. Proof of this lies in the calendar,
when Kinbote states that “it was [his] birthday too – small difference of sixteen
years, that’s all” (161). The difference in years refers to the fact that Kinbote is
the younger version of Shade, and they coexist simultaneously with the same
date of birth. In Shade’s own canto one line one we have “I was the shadow of
the waxwing slain” (33) which makes it seem like Shade is the shadow. We can
also understand it to be Kinbote as John’s shadow in the sense that if Kinbote is
the younger version of him then he would be the shadow of the past. “[Shade’s]
whole being constituted a mask. John Shade’s physical appearance was so little
in keeping with the harmonies hiving inside the man, that one felt inclined to
dismiss it as a coarse disguise” (25). Word for word this describes a man who is a
mirror image of someone else, and the man who wrote these lines (Kinbote), is
that someone else. Another couple to which Kinbote belongs is that of Hazel
and him, however team Etobnik and Lezah already covered most of that story so
we will move on. The final duo for Kinbote is that of him and King Charles the
Beloved. “All brown-bearded, apple-cheeked, blue-eyed Zemblans look alike, and
I who have not shaved now for a year, resemble my disguised king” (76). The dis-
guise for the King was in fact masquerading as Kinbote the Professor. There are
frequent comments made on Kinbotes part about things such as being “afraid of
offending an authentic king” (203). The most common one is the intention “to
divulge to you an ultimate truth, an extraordinary secret” (215), that is of Kin-
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