world and an afterlife. Allusions and references The first two lines of John Shade's 999-line poem, "Pale Fire", have become Nabokov's most quoted couplet: I was the shadow of the waxwing slain By the false azure in the window pane Like many of Nabokov's fictions, Pale Fire alludes to others of his. "Hurricane Lolita" is mentioned, and Pnin appears as a minor character. There are many resemblances to "Ultima Thule" and "Solus Rex", two short stories by Nabokov intended to be the first two chapters of a novel in Russian that he never continued. The placename Thule appears in Pale Fire, as does the phrase solus rex (a chess problem in which one player has no pieces but the king). The book is also full of references to culture, nature, and literature. They include: Bobolink Maud Bodkin The Brothers Karamazov Robert Browning, including "My Last Duchess" and Pippa Passes (inspired in a wood near Dulwich) Cedar, including a colloquial American meaning, juniper Ben Chapman. Some have said the newspaper headline "Red Sox Beat Yanks 5–4 On Chapman's Homer" was genuine and "[u]nearthed by Nabokov in the stacks of the Cornell Library", but others have stated no such game occurred. However, a different player, Sam Chapman of the Philadelphia Athletics, did hit a home run in the 9th inning on September 29, 1938, to defeat the Yankees, 5–4. Another player, Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians, was the only person killed in a Major League baseball game, dying after being struck in the head by a ball thrown by a Yankees pitcher. Charles II of England Charles VI of France, known as Charles the Well-Beloved and Charles the Mad Disa orchid and the butterflies Erebia disa and E. embla (which may lead to Disa and Embla) T. S. Eliot and Four Quartets "Der Erlkönig" Et in Arcadia ego Thomas Flatman Edsel Ford (poet) and the poem "The Image of Desire" Forever Amber Robert Frost and the poems "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" and possibly "Of a Winter's Evening" Oliver Goldsmith Gradus ad Parnassum Gutnish Thomas Hardy and the poem "Friends Beyond" (for the word "stillicide") Bret Harte and his character Colonel Starbottle Hebe and the poem "Vesennyaya Groza" ("Spring Thunderstorm") by Fyodor Tyutchev Sherlock Holmes and "The Adventure of the Empty House" A Hero of Our Time A. E. Housman, including "To an Athlete Dying Young" In Memoriam A.H.H.