Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.281 March 13, 1996 1) Sholem-Aleykhem's _Kenig Pik_ (Endnotes II) (Leonard Prager) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 13 Feb 96 21:42:39 IST From: rhle302@uvm.haifa.ac.il Subject: Sholem-Aleykhem's _Kenig Pik_ Endnotes 16. "Tsu der tsvetyer oyflage," vol. 4, Folksfond Edition, p. 43. Sholem-Aleykhem here alludes to the successful Polish-language production of _Tsezeyt un tseshpreyt_. 17. _Sholem-Aleykhem bukh_, p. 321. 18. Quoted from the Goodblatt manuscript of _Kenig Pik_, pp. 5-6. 19. Conceivably, this is the first citation for _mahine_. The single reference to the word I have found is in Yankev Apteyker, "Nokh verter fun smile un gegnt," _Yidishe shprakh_ 22:3 (December 1962), 87. Apteyker defines the word: "a gebeks, ongefilt mit vaynshl oder andere peyres tsi yagdes, enlekh tsum _pie_." He gives neither the word's origin nor its stress. 20. Nokhen Oyslender saw the beginnings of Sholem-Aleykhem's lifelong preoccupation with the urban nouveau riche in the first version of _Der dokter_ ('The Doctor') [1887; revised 1907]. See -Sholem-Aleykhem-oysgabe_, Kharkov, 1932, vol. 19, p. 229 (cited by Nakhmen Mayzl, _Undzer Sholem-Aleykhem_, Warsaw: Yidish Bukh, 1959, p. 1959. 21. _Yaknehoyz_, vol. 4, Folksfond Edition, p. 113. 22. Cardplaying in plot, theme, and setting functions is found throughout Sholem-Aleykhem's works. A number of shorter works, such as _Kenig Pik_ and _Shrage_ take their titles from names or elements of cardgames. The name _Shrage_ is said to be an acronym for _sherl_ 'diamonds', _royts_ 'hearts', _grin_ 'spades', _aykhl_ 'clubs'; it refers to a worthless hand of four different suits. _Sheraga_ is Aramaic for 'light'