Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/125

Rh LITERATURE.] RUSSIA 107 Zhuk- ovski. Gnedich, Bati- ushkoff. Pushkin Griboie- doff. Kozloff. ,. montoff. showed the same simplicity of character. As Derzhavin was the poet of the age of Catherine, so Zhukovski (1783- 1852) may be said to have been that of the age of Alexander. He is more remarkable, however, as a trans- lator than as an original poet. With him Romanticism began in Russia. The pseudo-classical school, led by the French, was now dead throughout Europe. In 1802 he published his version of Gray's Elegy, Avhich at once became a highly popular poem in Russia. Zhukovski translated many pieces from the German (Goethe, Schiller, Uhland) and English (Byron, Moore, Southey). One of his original productions, " The Poet in the Camp of the Russian Warriors," was on the lips of every one at the time of the war of the fatherland (Otechestvennaia Voina) in 1812. He attempted to familiarize the Russians with all the most striking specimens of foreign poetical litera- ture. He produced versions of the episode of Nala and Damayanti from the Maliabharata, of Rustam and Zohrab from the Shah-Namah, and of a part of the Odyssey. In the case of these three masterpieces, however, he was obliged to work from literal translations (mostly German), as he was unacquainted with the original languages. The Iliad was translated during this period by Gnedich, who was familiar with Greek. He has produced a faithful and spirited version, and has naturalized the hexameter in the Russian language with much skill. Constantino Batiushkoff (1787-1855) was the author of many elegant poems, and at the outset of his career promised much, but sank into imbecility, and lived in this condition to an advanced age. MerzliakofE and Tziganoff deserve a passing notice as the writers of songs some of which still keep their popularity. As the poet of the age of Catherine was Derzhavin, and of that of Alexander Zhukovski, so the next reign, that of Nicholas, was to have its representative poet, by the common consent of his critics the greatest whom Russia had yet seen. During his short life (1799-1837) Alex- ander Pushkin produced many celebrated poems, which will be found enumerated in the article devoted to him (see POUSHKIN). It may suffice to say here that he tried almost all styles of composition the drama, lyric poetry, the novel, and many others. In Alexander Griboiedoff (1794-1829) the Russians saw the writer of one of their most clever comedies (Gore ot Uma), which may perhaps be translated " The Misfortune of being too Clever " (lit. "Grief out of Wit"). The fate of Griboiedoff was sad; he was murdered in a riot at Teheran, where he was residing as Russian minister at the court of Persia. The poet is said to have had a presentiment of his fate and to have been unwilling to go. Pushkin, while travelling in the Caucasus, in the track of the army of Paskewitch, met the body of his friend, which was being carried to Tiflis for burial. The satirical powers of Griboiedoff come out in every line of his play; he was unquestionably a man of genius. A few words may be allowed to Ivan Kozloff (1774-1838), the author of some pretty original lyrics, and some translations from the English, among others Burns's Cotter's Saturday Night. He became a cripple and blind, and his misfortunes elicited some cheering and sympathetic lines from Pushkin, which will always be read with pleasure. Since the death of Pushkin, the most eminent Russian poet is Lermontoff (1814-41); his life terminated, like that of his predecessor, in a duel. He has left us many exquisite lyrics, mostly written in a morbid and melan- choly spirit. In quite a different vein is his clever imita- tion of a Russian bilina, " Song about the Czar Ivan Vasilievich, the Young Oprichnik, and the Bold Mer- chant Kalashnikoff." The poet was of Scotch extrac- tion (Learmont), the termination being added to Russify his name. In one of his pieces he has alluded to his Caledonian ancestors. His chief poems are " The Demon," "The Novice" ("Mtziri," a Georgian word), and "Hadji Abrek." He also wrote a novel, A Hero of our Time. He has faithfully reproduced in his poems the wild and varied scenery of the Caucasus and Georgia ; from them he has drawn his inspiration feeling, no doubt, that the flat grey landscapes of northern Russia offered no attractions to the poet. A genuine bard of the Koltzoff. people, and one of their most truly national authors, was Koltzoff (1809-1842), the son of a tallow merchant of Voronezh. He has left us a few exquisite lyrics, which are to be found in all the collections of Russian poetry. He died of consumption after a protracted illness. Another poet who much resembled Koltzoff was Nikitin, born Nikitin. in the same town, Voronezh. His life was spent in poverty ; his father was an incurable drunkard, and brought his family to the greatest distress. Nikitin, to support his relations, was obliged to keep an inn ; this he was afterwards enabled to change for the more congenial occupation of a bookseller. He died in 1861. The novel in Russia has had its cultivators in Zagoskin and Lazhechnikoff, who imitated Sir Walter Scott. The most celebrated of the romances of Zagoskin was Yuri Milo- Zagoskin. slavski, a tale of the expulsion of the Poles from Russia in 1612. The book may even yet be read with interest; it gives a very spirited picture of the times ; unfortunately, as is but too often the case with the writings of Sir Walter Scott himself, a gloss is put upon the barbarity of the manners of the period, and the persons of the novel have sentiments and modes of expressing them which could only have existed about two centuries afterwards. There is also too much of the sentimentalism which was prevalent at the time when the author wrote. Among the better known productions of Lazhechnikoff are The Heretic and The Palace of Ice. A flashy but now forgotten writer of novels was Bulgarin, author of Ivan Vfehigin, a work which once enjoyed considerable popular- ity. The first Russian novelist of great and original talent Gogol, was Nicholas Gogol (1809-1852). In his Dead Souls he satirized all classes of society, some of the portraits being wonderfully vivid ; take, for example, that of Pliush- kin, the miser. Being a native of Little Russia, he is very fond of introducing descriptions of its scenery and the habits of the people, especially in such stories as the Old-fashioned Household, or in the more powerful Taras Bulba. This last is a highly-wrought story, giving us a picture of the savage warfare carried on between the Cossacks and Poles. Taras is brave, but perhaps too much of a barbarian to be made interesting to Western readers. He reminds us of some of the heroes of the Cossack poet Shevchenko. Gogol was also the author of a good comedy, The Reviser, wherein the petty pilferings of Russian muni- cipal authorities are satirized. In his Memoirs of a Mad- man and Portrait, he shows, a weird and fantastic power which proves him to have been a man of strong imagina- tion. The same may be said of The Cloak, and the curious tale Vii (" The Demon "), where he gives us a picture of Kieff in the old days. He has very dexterously interwoven his tales with the traditions and superstitions of Little Russia. The fate of Gogol was sad ; he sank into religious melancholy, and ultimately into imbecility. He made great efforts to destroy all his writings, and indeed burnt most of the second part of his Dead Souls ; only fragments have been preserved. His Confessions of an Author is the production of a mind verging on insanity. He died in 1852, aged forty-two. Since his time the novel has been very much cultivated in Russia, the school culminating in Ivan Turgenieff, but it is the school of Thackeray and Dickens, not that of Balzac and George Sand. The Russians seem to affect especially the realistic