Eugene Onegin Part 37

And soon... by a secret network Russia...

Our Tsar was dozing...

Notes.

Pushkin added a series of notes to his edition of Eugene Onegin. I have referred to several of these in the Notes below, but have not translated them as a whole because they include long quotations, often from secondary poets, which themselves would require further annotation, and would, I think, interest only a tiny minority of readers.

I am indebted to the commentaries on Onegin by Vladimir Nabokov, Yuri Lotman and N. L. Brodsky.

1. 'Steeped in vanity, he had even more the kind of pride that will accept good and bad actions with the same indifference a the result of a feeling of superiority, perhaps imaginary. (From a private letter.)' There is no known source for this quotation.

DEDICATION.

1. Addressed to P. A. Pletnyov (1792a1865), man of letters and minor poet, in later years academician and rector of St Petersburg University. He met Pushkin in 1817 and remained one of his closest friends. From 1825 he was his princ.i.p.al publisher and, after the poet's death, his first biographer.

CHAPTER 1.

1. And it hurries... Prince Vyazemsky: The epigraph is from 'The First Snow' (1819), a poem by Pushkin's close friend Prince Pyotr Vyazemsky (1792a1878), mentioned several times in Onegin and appearing in person in Chapter VIII. The 'it' is 'youthful ardour', compared to the intoxication of a sleigh ride.

2. Zeus: Supreme G.o.d of the ancient Greek pantheon.

3. Ruslan and Lyudmila:(1820) A mock-epic and Pushkin's first major work. Pushkin signals his return to a light-hearted manner after a series of impa.s.sioned Romantic poems.

4. But now the North's unsafe for me: Pushkin's note 1 to the chapter reads: 'Written in Bessarabia', his initial place of exile.

5. Madame... pa.s.sed on her trust: Refugees from revolutionary France were employed as tutors by aristocratic families.

6. the Summer Park: The Summer Gardens, a fas.h.i.+onable park in St Petersburg.

7. Juvenal:(c. 42ac. 125 AD), Roman satirical poet, popular with the Decembrists (see Introduction) for his denunciations of despotism and depravity.

8. the Aeneid: Epic poem by Roman poet Virgil (70a19 BC).

9. Homer: Ancient Greek poet, somewhere between the twelfth and seventh centuries BC, supposed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

10. Theocritus: Ancient Greek poet of idylls, third century BC. Russian pre-Romantics, seeking a national alternative to Russian rococo, drew on Homer and Theocritus. Decembrist economists, on the other hand, dismissed the entire cla.s.sical poetic tradition as of no practical use.

11. Adam Smith: Scottish economist (1723a90) who influenced the Decembrists.

12. in the land... The simple product: A princ.i.p.al tenet of physiocrat economic theory, originating in eighteenth-century France, according to which national wealth was based on the 'produit net' of agriculture.

13. Ovid: Roman poet (43 BC-16 AD), author of Metamorphoses and The Art of Love, with whom Pushkin felt a kins.h.i.+p during his exile. Ovid died in exile on the Black Sea.

14. [9]: The omitted stanzas are of three kinds: those written and dropped; those which Pushkin intended to write but never got round to; and fict.i.tious ones in the ironic manner of Sterne, Byron and Hoffmann. Together they const.i.tute an invisible subtext.

15. Faublas: A sixteen-year-old seducer of young wives in a picaresque novel by Louvet de Couvrai (1760a97). But none of the husbands in the novel can be described as 'cunning'.

16. bolivar: A silk hat with a wide, upturned brim, named after Simon Bolivar (1783a1830), the Latin American liberator and idol of European liberals in the 1820s and of Latin American revolutionaries today.

17. Breguet: A repeater watch, invented by Parisian watchmaker Abraham Louis Breguet (1747a1823). A spring mechanism allowed the watch, while shut, to strike the hour or minute. A real dandy would not have carried one.

18. 'Away, away': The postilion's cry to pedestrians.

19. Talon's: A restaurant on the Nevsky Prospekt owned by a Frenchman until 1825.

20. Kaverin: Pyotr Kaverin (1794a1855), hussar and duellist, school friend and companion of Pushkin during his early Petersburg years, student at Gottingen (1810a11) and Decembrist.

21. comet wine: Champagne of vintage comet year 1811.

22. b.l.o.o.d.y roast beef: Fas.h.i.+onable in the early decades of the nineteenth century.

23. Strasbourg pie, that keeps for ever: Made from goose liver and imported in tins, therefore 'kept for ever'. Tinned food was invented during the Napoleonic wars.

24. ananas: Pineapple, an expensive taste throughout the nineteenth century and of Latin American revolutionaries today.

25. Limburg's cheese's living ma.s.s: Sharp, strong, soft and runny Belgian cheese, hence perhaps the epithet 'living' or, alternatively, because of the 'living dust' of microbes that covered it.

26. liberty's admirers: The Russian has: 'Where everyone, breathing liberty', a Gallicism from 'respirer l'air de la liberte'. At the Decembrist rising, the poet Ryleyev remarked: We are breathing freedom.'

27. Cleopatra, Phaedra... Moena: It is unclear what work Cleopatra figured in. Phaedra: heroine of an opera adapted from Racine's eponymous tragedy. Moena: heroine of Ozerov's tragedy Fingal.

28. Fonvizin: Denis Fonvizin (1745a92), author of The Minor, a satirical play about cruelty, smugness and ignorance.

29. Knyazhnin: Yakov Knyazhnin (1742a91), imitator of French tragedies and comedies.

30. Ozerov: Vladislav Ozerov (1769a1816), author of five tragedies in the French style, including Fingal (note 27 above), considered 'very mediocre' by Pushkin, who put his success down to the acting of Yekaterina Semyonova, whom he regarded highly.

31. Katenin: Pavel Katenin (1792a1853), playwright, critic and Decembrist, translated Corneille's Le Cid, firing Decembrist ideals. See Chapter I, stanza 18.

32. Shakhovskoy: Prince Alexander Shakhovskoy (1777a1846), theatre director and author of comedies satirizing contemporary writers.

33. Didelot: Charles Louis Didelot (1767a1837), well-known ballet master in St Petersburg.

34. Terpsich.o.r.e: Ancient Greek G.o.ddess of dance.

35. Istomina: Avdotya Istomina (1799a1848), prima ballerina of Petersburg ballet with whom Pushkin was smitten, pupil of Didelot.

36. Aeolus: Ancient Greek G.o.d of wind.

37. even Didelot's boring stuff: Pushkin in his note 5 comments: 'A feature of chilled feeling, worthy of Childe-Harold. Didelot's ballets are filled with a liveliness of imagination and unusual charm. One of our romantic writers found in them far more poetry than in the whole of French literature.' This 'romantic writer' was Pushkin himself.

38. Tsargrad: Old Russian name for Constantinople.

39. Perfumes: A fas.h.i.+onable novelty at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

40. Rousseau: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712a78), French writer and philosopher. In his note 6 Pushkin quotes at length from the description in Rousseau's Confessions of Grimm's toiletry.

41. Grimm: Melchior Grimm (1723a1807), French encyclopedist of German extraction.

42. Chaadaev: Pyotr Chaadaev (1794a1856), dandy and libertarian thinker, later a mystic, influenced the young Pushkin, famous for his later Philosophical Letters, contrasting Russian history unfavourably with the West, with which Pushkin disagreed. The journal carrying the first Letter was suppressed, Chaadaev being declared insane and placed under house arrest.

43. pantalons, frac and gilet: These were relatively new items of clothing at the beginning of the nineteenth century as yet without Russian names.

44. Chevalier Gardes: A privileged regiment of heavy cavalry created under Paul I to counterbalance the already existing Horse Guards regiment. Chevaliers Gardes were distinguished by their tall height and embroidered uniforms. However, in a ma.n.u.script note Pushkin mentions that in fact they wore court dress and shoes, but he included the spurs to give the picture a poetic touch.

45. Diana: Virgin G.o.ddess of the moon in ancient Rome.

46. Flora: Ancient Roman G.o.ddess of spring and flowers.

47. Elvina: Conventional name in erotic poetry of the time.

48. Armida: Chief heroine of the epic poem La Gerusalemme liberata (Liberated Jerusalem, 1580) by Torquato Ta.s.so (1544a95), here meaning an enchantress.

49. Okhta: An outlying region of St Petersburg, populated by Finns supplying the capital's dairy needs. The 'Okhta girl' is a milkmaid.

50. vasisdas: A window-pane. 'Vasisdas' has been taken to be a corruption either of fortochka, a ventilation-pane used in Russian windows, or of the French word vasistas (a small spy-window), which in turn is a corruption of the German was ist das? Pushkin keeps the more German spelling no doubt because the baker is German.

51. khandra: Russian for 'chondria', asin 'hypochrondia'.

52. Childe Harold: The disillusioned and languid hero of Byron's first great narrative poem, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1813), which brought him fame.

53. boston: A member of the whist family. Russian boston differs only slightly from ordinary boston.

54. bon ton: The Russian has 'higher tone', meaning well-bred conversation and manners. A near English equivalent would be 'good form'.

55. Say and Bentham: Jean-Baptiste Say (1767a1832), French publicist and economist, follower of Ricardo and Adam Smith, author of Traite d'economie politique (A Treatise on Political Economy, 1803). Jeremy Bentham (1748a1832), liberal English publicist and jurist.

56. Capricious ladies... spleen: In note 7 Pushkin remarks: 'The whole of this ironic strophe is nothing other than a subtle form of praise for our fair compatriots. So Boileau, in the guise of reproach, praises Louis XIV. Our ladies combine enlightenment with amiability, and strict purity of morals with that Eastern charm that so captivated Mme de Stael (see Dix ans d'exil).' Posthumously published in 1818, the latter work describes de Stael's visit to Russia in 1812.

57. How often... bright: Pushkin's note 8 refers the reader to Nikolai Gnedich's (1784a1833) idyllic poem 'The Fishermen' (1822) for its 'charming description' of the Petersburg night, from which he quotes at length.

58. the Poet: An ironic reference, underlined by the capital 'P' and the archaic Russian spelling, to Mikhail Muravyov (1757a1807), an insignificant poet and founder of Russian Sentimentalism. In his note 9, Pushkin quotes the lines of Muravyov's poem 'To the G.o.ddess of the Neva', from which he lifts the phrase 'leaning on the granite'.

59. Millionaya: A street in Petersburg, alluding to Katenin's habit of returning from the theatre at this hour to his regimental barracks on Millionaya Street.

60. Brenta: River with Venice at its delta.

61. Albion's proud poetry: Byron's poetry.

62. Petrarch: Francesco Petrarca (1304a74), Italian poet.

63. Above the sea, forever roaming: Pushkin's note 10 has: 'Written in Odessa.' It was from here that Pushkin sought to escape from Russia.

64. my Africa: In his note 11 Pushkin refers the reader to the first edition of the chapter, where he provides an extended footnote on his African forebears.

65. Salgir: A river in the Crimea. The captive maids are the harem girls of Pushkin's narrative poem The Fountain of Bakhchisaray (1824). The 'maid of the mountain' is the Circa.s.sian heroine of his poem The Captive of the Caucasus (1822). In Chapter VIII of Onegin he reviews his literary heroines up to the point where they transmogrify into Tatiana.

CHAPTER II.

1. Endowed with Gottingenian soul: Gottingen university, where Lensky studied, was one of the most liberal universities, not just in Germany, but in Europe as a whole. Situated on Hanoverian territory, it was subject to English law. The future Decembrists N. I. Turgenev and Pyotr Kaverin (see Chapter I, stanza 16, and note 20) studied there.

2. Kant: Immanuel Kant (1724a1804), German philosopher, author of three Critiques a of Pure Reason, Practical Reason and Judgement. His emphasis on imagination and genius in the third Critique influenced the Romantic movement in Germany and beyond.

3. vessel: The Church Slavonic use of this term, which adds to the heightened language of this stanza, can mean 'weapon', which is what is meant here.

4. Schiller, Goethe: Friedrich Schiller (1759a1805), German poet, philosopher, historian and dramatist. His early plays Die Rauber (The Robbers, 1781) and Kabale und Liebe (Intrigue and Love, 1784) and his idealist poetry fired the Romantics throughout Europe. He later joined Goethe in Weimar to promote a cla.s.sical aesthetic. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749a1832), German poet, dramatist, novelist and scientist. His masterpiece Faust and his novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (Wilhelm Meister's Apprentices.h.i.+p, 1795a6) strongly influenced the Romantics in Germany, although he came to see himself (with Schiller) as a defender of cla.s.sical values. Pushkin's knowledge of German literature was largely drawn from Mme de Stael's De l' Allemagne (On Germany, 1813), which put a Romantic gloss on Kant, Schiller and Goethe. His ability to read German was very limited.

5. Richardson: Samuel Richardson (1689a1761), English novelist, author of Pamela or Virtue Rewarded (1740), Clarissa Harlowe (1748) and Sir Charles Grandison (1754).

6. A Lovelace for a Grandison: Respectively villain of Clarissa Harlowe and hero of Sir Charles Grandison (see note 5 above).

7. She shaved the conscripts' foreheads: Shaving foreheads was the way of marking out recruits for the army, thereby getting rid of unwanted serfs, who were torn away from their families and often had to serve for life.

8. shed tears... b.u.t.tercups: A way of atoning for sins: the number of teardrops represents the number of sins.

9. kvas: Russian national soft drink (sometimes mildly fermented), usually made of leavened rye, dough or rye bread with malt. In other varieties honey or fruit is used.