Part 40 (1/2)

27. A jackanapes... overstarched: The reference is possibly to Thomas Raikes, an Englishman who claims he met Pushkin in 1829. Beau Brummell had set the fas.h.i.+on for a lightly starched cravat in the first decade and a half of the century. Overstarching, which became the fas.h.i.+on in the late twenties, in France and Russia, was considered vulgar.

28. Morpheus: G.o.d of sleep.

29. I shall offend you: An echo of St Preux's letter to Julie (part 1, letter 2) in Rousseau's La Nouvelle Heloise: 'Je sens d'avance le poids de votre indignation...'

30. Manzoni, Gibbon: Alessandro Manzoni (1785a1873), Italian novelist, author of I promessi sposi (The Betrothed, 1825a7), which laid the basis for modern literary Italian. Edward Gibbon (1737a94), English historian. Onegin would have read his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776a88) in a French translation.

31. Chamfort: Sebastien Roch Nicolas Chamfort (1741a94), author of Maximes et Pensees (Maxims and Thoughts, 1803). Pushkin liked his aphorisms.

32. b.i.+.c.hat and Herder and Tissot: Marie Francois Xavier b.i.+.c.hat (1771a1802), French anatomist and physiologist. Johann Gottfried Herder (1744a1803), German philosopher and critic, notable collector of folk songs, and writer on history, literature and language. Simon Andre Tissot (1728a97), famous Swiss doctor, author of De la sante des gens de lettres (On the Health of Men of Letters, 1768).

33. Bayle: Pierre Bayle (1647a1706), French philosopher, author of famous Dictionnaire historique et critique (Historical and Critical Dictionary, 1697).

34. Fontenelle: Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657a1757), French sceptical philosopher, author of Entretiens sur la pluralite des mondes (Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds, 1686), the Russian translation of which was banned by the Church.

35. The almanachs... treating me with animus: Almanachs, unlike journals or reviews, appeared irregularly and were more like anthologies. While he was writing Chapter VIII, Pushkin came under attack from the main literary journals, especially The Northern Bee, edited by the police spy Bulgarin.

36. E sempre bene: 'And excellently'.

37. magnetism: 'Magnetism' became a fas.h.i.+onable word at the time to designate immaterial influences.

38. Idol Mio, Benedetta: The barcarolle was popular in Russia at the time. Pushkin's neighbours at Trigorskoye enjoyed singing Kozlov's poem 'Venetian Night' to the tune of a gondolier's recitative ('Benedetta sia la madre' ('Blest be the mother')). 'Idol mio' is probably a duet by the Italian composer Vicenzo Gabusi: 'Se, o cara, sorridi' ('If you were to smile, my dear'), the refrain of which is: 'Idol mio, piu pace non ho' ('My idol, I have no peace any more').

39. blue blocks of hewn-out ice: In winter huge blocks of ice were cut from the Neva to be stored in refrigerators. During the March thaw sledges would transport them to buyers.

40. Sadi: Sadi or Saadi (b. between 1203 and 1210, d. 1292) was a Persian poet, born in s.h.i.+raz. Pushkin's quotation from Saadi gave cause to official suspicion that he was referring to the Decembrists.

FRAGMENTS OF ONEGIN'S JOURNEY

1. Fragments of Onegin's Journey: This was originally intended to be chapter VIII (with the preceding chapter in the present volume intended as chapter IX). It was published separately and includes stanzas written at various times. The description of Odessa was composed in 1825 while Pushkin was working on Chapter IV. The beginning of the published text was written in the autumn of 1829 and the final stanzas were completed on 18 December 1830, when Pushkin was staying at his Boldino estate. The Foreword first appeared in a separate 1832 edition of Chapter VIII. In the 1833 edition of the entire novel Pushkin included the Foreword and the Journey after his Notes. It is unclear whether a completed version of the Journey ever existed despite Pushkin's reference to it in the Foreword.

The route of the Journey is unclear. It is possible that Onegin spent some time abroad. He is away for some three and a half years. Since the surviving stanzas of the Journey represent him rus.h.i.+ng from place to place, driven by ennui, it is unlikely that he spent all of that time in Russia. Moreover, his return to St Petersburg is compared with Chatsky's leap from boat to ball' in Chapter VIII, stanza 13, line 14.

Some of the stanzas were omitted with an eye to censors.h.i.+p, especially Onegin's visit to the notorious military settlements set up by Count Arakcheev (1769a1854), Alexander I's military adviser. These were harsh detention centres to which peasants were conscripted. Katenin (see below) wrote to Annenkov, Pushkin's first biographer, on 24 April 1853, that the poet had decided to sacrifice the entire chapter because of the violence of his comments. In his Foreword Pushkin is silent about his intentions and simply acknowledges Katenin's very different criticism of the omission there. Since Novgorod was one of the locations of these settlements, it has been suggested that Onegin's visit to them coincides with his stay in the town. In other words, the Fragments may have begun with such a visit. It is possible that Onegin also saw the settlements outside Odessa, the town that takes up most of the Journey. Pavel Ivanovich Pestel' (1793a1826), one of the leaders of the Decembrists in the South, wanted to foment a revolt in these camps.

2. nine Camenae: Roman water nymphs identified with the nine Greek Muses.

3. Makaryev: Annual fair originating outside the Makaryev monastery some sixty miles east of Nizhny and transferred into the town in 1817.

4. Terek: Caucasian river.

5. Kura, Aragva: Caucasian rivers. The Kura is the most important river in Transcaucasia.

6. There were the Russian tents unfurled: The Caucasus was first annexed by Peter the Great in 1722.

7. Beshtu: One of the five peaks of Besh Tau, a mountain, another one of which is Mashuk.

8. Pylades, Orestes: In Greek mythology, Orestes, accompanied by his friend Pylades, sails to Tauris to seek absolution from matricide. The rule of the small kingdom requires all strangers to be sacrificed to Diana, the local deity. Each of the two friends wants to die in the place of the other.

9. Mithridates: King of Pontus, who in 63 BC ordered a Gallic mercenary to kill him.

10. Mickiewicz sang his pa.s.sion: Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (1798a1855), Polish poet, spent four and a half years in Russia, visiting the Crimea in 1825 and composing the Crimean Sonnets. A friend of Pushkin until the Polish uprising of 1830, the suppression of which Pushkin enthusiastically supported.

11. What yearning pressed my flaming heart: Pushkin was in love with a daughter of the Raevsky family, with whom he was staying.

12. trepak: An energetic peasant dance.

13. 'And cabbage soup, while I'm the squire': Quotation from the poet Antiokh Dimitrievich Kantemir's (1708a44) fifth satire, 'On Human Depravity in General, in literal translation: 'A pot of cabbage soup, but I m the big one, master of the house. A similar Russian proverb reads: 'My fare is plain, but I am my own master.

14. O fountain of Bakhchisaray: Pushkin's narrative poem The Fountain of Bakhchisaray, composed in 1822 and published in 1824. Zarema is one of two female characters.

15. Morali: Born in Tunis, Morali (Ali) was a sea captain, suspected of piracy. He cut an extravagant figure in Odessa and was a close friend of Pushkin who referred to him as the Corsair (hero of Byron's eponymous poem).

16. Tumansky: Vasily Ivanovich Tumansky (1800a1860), a minor poet, worked with Pushkin as a clerk for Count Vorontsov, Pushkin's employer in Odessa.

17. Why, water... must be wrought: Water was transported to the town for about two miles uphill in small barrels. Later, aqueducts were used.

18. casino: Pushkin spells 'casino in Western letters. It was called 'casino de commerce, where not only gambling, but all manner of financial transactions took place, and it doubled as a ballroom.