Libmonster ID: U.S.-1617
Author(s) of the publication: P. BICILLI

I. One of Eugene Onegin's sources

Reading the monuments of Russian and foreign literature, every now and then you come across more and more new sources of Pushkin. I will give two examples, the comparison of which clearly shows the range of interests of the poet. Dona Anna says: "poor widow, I remember everything about my loss, I mix my tears with a smile, like April." Pushkin found this image in Karamzin: "Twilight and clarity, bad weather and a bucket are now changing in my soul, just like in the fickle April" (Letters of a Russian traveler under February 28, 1790). The verse from Anchar "Here and the bird does not fly and the beast will not enter" is taken from a folk tale: "It is not enough to wander here and the bird does not fly and the beast rarely runs" (The tale of a quiet peasant and a pugnacious wife, Rovinsky, Russian folk file 1, 216 cf.) 1 . The fairy tale, as can be seen already from the title, is close in motif to the Tale of the Fisherman and the fish. So the work on Russian folklore nourished Pushkin's creativity in general.

Of particular interest are Pushkin's borrowings from the then Russian "literature for the occasion" - journalism, literary polemics, intimate or impersonating letters, literature partly scattered in magazines and almanacs, and partly passed around in manuscripts. Two sources of this kind have already been indicated by me. Slavia, 1931, p. 575 villages. Here is another similar example. In the Son of the Fatherland for 1813, anonymous Letters were published from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod (reprinted in R. Arch. 1876. III. 129-154) 2 . They are dedicated to the hackneyed theme of "Frenchomania". But the author interprets it in his own way. Rejecting the French language, denying its significance as a model for Russian, the author, however, opposes the French language not Slavic, as such, on the model of which Russian should be formed, but the languages of classical antiquity: "None of the latest literature has been improved... from the imitation of the latest ones: all of them, without exception, drew their beauty from the only and inexhaustible source of all that is elegant - from the Greeks and Romans... until we learn, i.e. devote all the time to the first age... to study Greek, or at least Latin together with Russian, until then, we will... we will not talk, but talk, not write, but only dirty the paper." The author does not even mention the Slavic language. The author's reasoning about the literature-

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They were converted to the then-favorite form of writing letters to an unnamed "friend." In one of them, the author cites a letter allegedly received by him, of course, written by himself, from the Guards of Captain-Lieutenant Afrikan Nazutovsky. The name of the fictitious captain is "speaking", because the letter deals with the ill-fated arrangement of the captain's nose, which made it impossible for him to pronounce the French "nasal en" properly, which "decided the fate of life" of the captain forever. Once, at a St. Petersburg ball, he saw a certain beauty and inquired about her from a friend. "It's Temira," he said... "Temira! So she's a stranger... "Nothing happened! Russian. At Holy epiphany, she was named Tatiana, to please her grandmother; but this name is so rude that it was impossible for her to stay with it, and for this reason, both in her family and in the city, she is known by the name of Temira." The captain meets Temira, and she becomes his bride. However, his inability to cope with the "vile en"is soon discovered, and moreover in public. He is ridiculed, Temira, embarrassed by this, hurries away and sends him a refusal letter. The author notes that the letter was written in French.

That is why in" Eugene Onegin "and the name of Tatiana, and the author's apologies to the reader for the first time that he consecrated the tender pages of the novel with such a name, and the indication that she wrote a letter to Onegin in French, and what is said about her mother - "she began to call the former Selina Akulka"... "and she knew how to pronounce Russian N as well as French N in her nose." It seems that the stanza " Latin is now out of fashion.".. It is suggested by the author's thoughts about the meaning of the Latin language and the Latin quotes scattered in the Letters. It is also very likely that the poet's wish to never meet an academician in a cap at a ball is also related to the Letters. In" Onegin "we also find Temira's name..." Temira, Daphne and Lileta, like a dream, have been forgotten by me for a long time "(ch. IV, p. III).

According to Bartenev's correct guess, the author of the Letters was Ivan Matveyevich Muravyov-the Apostle, father of the Decembrists Sergei, Matvey and Ippolit (1765-1851). He was known as a connoisseur of the classics, translated Aristophanes and Horace, and wrote in ancient languages himself. After the catastrophe with his sons (Sergei Ivanovich, as is known, was executed, Matvey Ivanovich was sentenced to indefinite hard labor, and Ippolit Ivanovich shot himself after the failure of the Chernihiv regiment uprising), Ivan Matveyevich wrote an elegy in Greek, in which he lamented their fate (see Yakushkin, M. I. Muravyov - Apostol, R. Star. 1886. Vol. 51, p. 164) 3 .

He owns a trip to Taurida, which attracted the attention of Pushkin. From Odessa Pushkin asks Vyazemsky to write a preface to the Bakhchisarai Fountain: "Look," he wrote among other things, in the Journey of the Apostle - Muravyov, the article Bakhchisarai, write out from

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her, what is more tolerable, but enchant her with your prose... "(November 4, 1823). In another letter dated November of the same year, he again tells Vyazemsky about this book. From Trigorsky, he instructs L. S. Pushkin to send it to him (November 1824). In the same month, he wrote to Delvig: "I read the Journey to Tauris with extreme pleasure..."

If Ivan Matveyevich Muravyov-Apostol was definitely the author of the Letters, [Gershenzon, a connoisseur of the era, accepted Muravyov-Apostol's authorship without reservations. See Griboyedov Moscow, Berl. 1922, p. 23] 4, then Pushkin could not have been unaware of this: the connections between them were too diverse, even if not directly personal (Muravyov, the father of the Decembrists, was also a member of the Russian Academy, as well as a member of the famous Conversation of Lovers of the Russian Word). So it was easy for him to pay attention to the Letters. But, of course, he could also come across them accidentally, when in the village he happened to " tinker with old neighbor's magazines before lunch."

II. Symbolism of the Queen of Spades

I have already had occasion to point out one feature of Pushkin's poems: the frequent repetition of the same words in each one, the method of suggesting a certain image, an image-idea, an image of emotion. [Etudes on Russian Poetry, Prague, 1926, passim]. This technique is no stranger to Pushkin's prose. In the Queen of Spades, it is widely used by them. Here we find several words and phrases that are constantly repeated and imposed on our consciousness. One of these words is directly related to Hermann's "fixed idea": the idea of three cards. This is the very word three. The owner of the secret of the three cards appears surrounded by three maids: "The old Countess was sitting in her dressing room... Three girls surrounded her...""Less than two minutes later, the Countess started calling... Three girls ran in through one door, and the valet through the other." The Countess returns from the ball: "three old maids ran into the bedroom... "An" old (masterly) lady appears at the Countess's coffin, led by two girls on the arm." Three women - three men, three who killed the Countess and drove Hermann mad, cards. The fateful date is mentioned several more times: "Three days after that, a young, quick-eyed mamselle brought a note to Lizaveta Ivanovna...""It hasn't been three weeks... and (she) is already in correspondence with him..." Hermann, says Tomsky, has "at least three crimes on his conscience." Ivanovna is tormented by this thought: "this man has at least three villainies in his soul." "Three days after the fateful night... Hermann went to ***The monastery..." The dead Countess comes to Hermann at a quarter to three.

In the Queen of Spades, the exact time of each event is precisely determined. The players "sat down to dinner at five o'clock in the morning." At the end of the chapter-slo-

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wa of one of the players: "however, it's time to go to bed: it's already a quarter to six." Lizaveta Ivanovna saw Hermann for the first time "two days after the evening" (at Narumov's). When she saw Hermann, " she lowered her head... five minutes later, I looked again...", then "I sewed for about two hours..." For brevity, I omit all further, numerous, equally accurate time indications. They all stand in connection with the central episode, when Hermann, with his eyes fixed on the hour hand, waits for the appointed moment to enter the Countess's house, and then waits for her arrival. The idea-a symbol of the passage of time ("time passed slowly"), marked by the striking of the clock ("in the living room struck twelve, in all the rooms the clock struck twelve one after another-and everything was silent again"), here, in this episode, on the one hand, is strengthened, on the other it is supplemented in semantic terms by the symbol of the heartbeat ("his heart was beating steadily..."). Further amplification of the symbol is the "distant knock of the carriage" heard by Hermann, then "the sound of the footboard being lowered". Fate draws near: So klopft das Schicksal an die Pforte. The new meaning of these symbols is revealed in a few lines below: "The Countess was sitting... swinging right and left... One would think that the rocking motion of the terrible old woman was not due to her will, but to the action of hidden galvanism." Swinging like a pendulum, the Countess seems to be identified with the clock. Countess Destiny Hermann, arriving at the appointed time. Life, fate, as it were, are subordinated to the movement of the clock. "The movement of the clock is only a monotonous sound heard near me..." And at Blok: "in the blue distant bedroom, your child slept, a small dwarf quietly came out and stopped the clock." In the Queen of Spades of the word hour, the clock occurs nine times. Pushkin brings the reader to the" stop of the clock", to the death of the Countess, from several sides at once. The Countess herself is depicted from the very beginning as already half-dead, living automatically "by the action of hidden galvanism": "She participated in all the vanities of the great world; she dragged herself to balls, where she sat in a corner, flushed and dressed in the old fashion..., visiting guests approached her with low bows, as if according to an established rite, and then no one was doing it anymore " (I will note in passing that this image is probably inspired by Anna Mikhailovna Scherer's "aunt" in War and Peace). Here is a hint of the rite of farewell to the deceased Countess: "the relatives were the first to say goodbye to the body. Then came the many guests who had come to see her, the one who had so long been a participant in their hectic amusements." In the strict symbolic subordination of parts - up to verbal coincidences, the unity of the artistic word in Pushkin consists. Only when he has read the passage where Hermann reflects on the relationship between Chaplitsky and the Countess and says to himself:: "and the heart of his elderly mistress stopped beating today, "the" second " symbolic meaning becomes clear

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the words: "when Tomsky asked permission to introduce his friend to the Countess, the poor girl's heart began to beat." The words "the dead old woman sat petrified" reveal the second meaning of the remark about Hermann venturing into the Countess's bedroom: "he was petrified." The image of Lizaveta Ivanovna waiting for Hermann to come to her ("she was sitting with her bare hands folded in a cross..."), and the image of Hermann sitting "with her hands folded", prepare the image of the deceased countess: "the deceased was lying down... with his hands folded on his chest ...". The same function of preparing the future is performed by the description of Hermann's farewell to Lizaveta Ivanovna. "Hermann shook her cold, unresponsive hand, kissed her bowed head, and left." Here again we have before us an example of a double artistic motivation, so to speak, since this episode prepares the episode of the lordly lady's farewell to the Countess. "Her... one of them shed a few tears as she kissed the cold hand of her mistress." The impression of the coldness of death is prepared and reinforced, moreover, by the repeated repetition of the corresponding words:" So it is - the wind is very cold, " says the Countess. Lizaveta Ivanovna was "a hundred times sweeter than impudent and cold brides." Having received Hermann's letter, Lizaveta Ivanovna "did not know what to do: should we stop sitting at the window and inattentively cool the young officer's desire for further persecution?.. Should I respond coldly and decisively?.." She gets into the carriage "in a cold cloak". "Hermann was leaning against the cold stove." Saying goodbye to the Countess's body, Hermann "lay on the cold floor for a few minutes." The Englishman, hearing that Hermann was the Countess's natural son, replied coldly: "Oh?" When Lizaveta Ivanovna heard the name Hermann from Tomsky, "her hands and feet turned cold." Images of death and burial are prepared by repeating another symbol: candles and lamps. In Lizaveta Ivanovna's room, where she went to weep for her share, "a tallow candle burned darkly in a copper vandal." In the Countess's bedroom, " a golden lamp glowed in front of Kivot." When the Countess was undressed, " the candles were taken out, and the room was again illuminated by a single lamp." "Morning came, Lizaveta Ivanovna extinguished the dying candle." Servants "with candles in their hands" were standing around the Countess's coffin. Hermann, after the ghost's arrival, "lit a candle and recorded his vision." To enhance the mood of anxiety, expectation, and being caught up in passion, Pushkin several times uses words that are generally very frequent with him: awe, tremble. Lizaveta Ivanovna was startled at the sight of Hermann... and she got into the carriage with such an inexplicable thrill" (on Pushkin's" mystical " inexplicable, see the article by ak. P. B. Struve in the Pushkin Collection, Prague, 1931). Hermann "followed with feverish trepidation the various turns of the game." After learning that the house that interests him belongs to-

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live to the Countess, " Hermann trembled." As he waited to enter the house, he "trembled like a tiger." When he asked the Countess about the three cards, he "waited with trepidation for an answer." Lizaveta Ivanovna, returning from the ball, "entered her room with trepidation... "" Suddenly the door opened and Hermann entered. It fluttered." In the Queen of Spades, a semi-fantastic narrative reveals the meaning of the "dark language" of the night, which Pushkin taught during insomnia: "the trembling of the sleeping night". Together with Hermann, Pushkin looks "there", into the unknown, into the "other plane" of being. This corresponds to a special window symbol. "At the window, a young lady, her pupil, was sitting at an embroidery frame..."One day Lizaveta Ivanovna, sitting under the window at her embroidery frame, accidentally looked out into the street and saw a young engineer ... with his eyes fixed on her window." "Lizaveta Ivanovna left her work and began to look out of the window." "After dinner, she went to the window... but the officer was not there. "" Since that time, not a day has passed that the young man... Drawn by "an unknown force," Hermann stopped at the Countess's house "and began to look out of the window." During the last explanation with Lizaveta Ivanovna, Hermann "sat on the window seat." All these repetitions prepare the scene when "someone" looks through Hermann's window-his Fate: "Someone from the street looked at him through the window and immediately left." It's the dead Countess. After giving him three cards, she left. "Hermann heard the door slam in the hall and saw that someone was looking out of the window at him again."

All the everyday details of Pushkin are strictly motivated by the circumstances of this moment and this situation. And they all have a second meaning, even several such meanings that are gradually revealed. Layered on top of each other, these little things form a deliberately vague, but quite distinct, inexplicable image-symbol, the meaning of which is revealed in the central moment of the story. This method of gradual preparation, the gradual formation of the symbol, gives Pushkin the opportunity to present this very central moment, the highest tension of the tragic conflict of individual destinies and passions, as fluently, as easily, and at first glance carelessly, as everything else. Due to the absence of delays, pauses, the impression of tragedy only increases. The rapid movement of life does not stop for a moment. Pushkin's technique is organically linked to his vision of life. [Wed. My etudes on Russian poetry, p. The" otherworldly"," occult "[The" occult " side of the Queen of Spades must have been perceived by Pushkin's contemporaries more acutely than it is now, for they were more clearly aware of the corresponding hints scattered in the story: references to Saint-Germain, Casanova," Mesmer's magnetism "and"hidden galvanism".] and" this-worldly", everyday, for Pushkin is the same, so, strictly speaking, the words "otherworldly", "this-worldly" do not belong here. People's destinies are immanent to their characters.-

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ram and therefore there is an internal need for the interweaving of these destinies - "and there is no protection from the destinies." Therefore, everything about the Queen of Spades can be explained in accordance with"simple common sense". The fantastic is explained quite simply. Pushkin does not have any" objective " Devil (like Gogol). From this, everyday life itself only becomes more mysterious and, if you like, surreal: "Or is our whole life nothing but an empty dream, a mockery of Fate over the earth"?

Notes

* The text of "Notes on Pushkin" is given in the author's version: P. M. Bicilli did not always quote the names of works, often unconventionally placed punctuation marks. The text retains the brackets of P. M. Bicilli himself, while his footnotes are enclosed in square brackets. Below the figures are footnotes and notes made by the publisher.

1 Apparently, this refers to the work of Dmitry Alexandrovich Rovinsky (1824-1895)" Russian Folk Pictures " (1881-1893). The first book (there were 9 volumes in total) contained Fairy tales and funny sheets (1881). (Other volumes included Historical Sheets, Calendars, Primers, Parables, and Spiritual Sheets). It is to her that P. M. Bicilli refers. D. A. Rovinsky's main passion was collecting prints. He created a unique collection of national engraved art. Materials from this part of the collection formed the basis of the 4-volume "Detailed Dictionary of Russian Engraved Portraits" (1886-1889). D. A. Rovinsky was an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Arts. A lawyer, art historian, bibliophile, graphic collector, he bequeathed all his collections, all his capital and all his real estate to museums and libraries. More than 600 engravings by Rembrandt have been delivered to the Hermitage. The famous collector presented the Russian part of the collection to Moscow.

2 "Russian Archive", a monthly magazine published by Peter Bartenev (1863-1917).

3 "Russian antiquity". Monthly historical publication (1870-1918).

4 Mikhail Osipovich Gershenzon's book "Griboyedov's Moscow" was first published in Russia in 1914. By 1931, two more publications appeared in the metropolis: in 1916 - the second, in 1928 - the third. All three editions were carried out by the publishing house of M. and S. Sabashnikov.

The publication and notes were prepared by I. V. Annenkova


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