Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/127

Rh LITERATURE.] RUSSIA 109 the Polish rebellion of 1863 by Berg, published in 1873, which gave many startling and picturesque episodes of this celebrated struggle, has now been withdrawn from circulation. It appeared originally in the pages of the Russian magazine, Starina. Since the death of Lermontoff the chief Russian poet who has appeared is Nicholas Nekrasoff, who died in 1877. He has left six volumes of poetry, which in many respects remind us of the writings of Crabbe ; the poet dwells mainly upon the melancholy features of Russian life. He is of that realistic school in which Russian authors so much resemble English. Another writer of poetry deserving mention is Ogarieff, for a long time the companion in exile of Herzen in England; many of his compositions appeared in the Polar Star of the latter, a medley of prose and verse, which contains some very important papers, including the interesting autobiographical sketches of Herzen, entitled Biloe i Dumi ("The Past and my Thoughts"). Maikoff at one time enjoyed great popu- larity as a poet ; he is a kind of link between the present generation and that of Pushkin, of whose elegance of versification he is somewhat of an imitator. Another poet of a past generation was Prince Viazemski, whose works are now being collected. Graceful lyrics have also been written by Mei, Fet (whose name would apparently prove Dutch extraction, Veth), Stcherbina, and, going a little farther back, Yazikoff, the friend of Pushkin, and Khomi- akoflf, celebrated for his Slavophile propensities. To these may be added Mdlle Zhadovskaia, who died a short time ago, Benediktoff, Podolinski. and Tiutcheff. It will be seen that in Russia (as in England) lyrical poetry is almost the only form now cultivated. It is becoming more and more coloured with imitations of the bilini and reproduc- tions of the p old Russian past, which is perhaps getting treated somewhat fantastically, as was the old Irish life in the Irish melodies of Moore. Occasionally Polonski con- tributes one of his exquisite lyrics to the Viestnik Yevropi ("European Messenger"). Excellent works on subjects connected with Slavonic philology have been published by Vostokoff, who edited the Ostromir Codex, mentioned above (p. 103), and Sreznevski and Bodianski, who put forth an edition of the celebrated codex used at Rheims for the coronation of the French kings. Since their deaths their work has been carried on by Prof. Grote (Philological Investigations, also many critical editions of Russian classics). Budilovich, now a professor at Warsaw, Potebnya of Kharkoff, and Baudoin de Courtenay, who, among other services to philology, has described the Slavonic dialect spoken by the Resanians, a tribe living in Italy, in two villages of the Julian Alps. The songs (bilini) of the Russians have been collected by Zakrevski, Ribnikoff, Hilferding, Barsoff, and others, and their national tales by Sakharoff, Afanasieff, and Erlen- vein. Kotliarevski, Tereshenko, and others have treated of their customs and superstitions, but it is to be regretted that no one as yet has made a complete study of the vexed question of Slavonic mythology. At the present time Stanislaus Mikutzki, prof essor a at the university of Warsaw, is publishing his Materials for a Dictionary of the Hoots of the Russian and all Slavonic Dialects, but, unfortunately, it represents a somewhat obsolete school of philology. The Early Russian Text Society continues its useful labours, and has edited many interesting monu- ments of the older Slavonic literature. Quite recently two valuable codices have been printed in Russia, Zogra- phus and Marianus, interesting versions of the Gospels in Palaeoslavonic. They were edited by the learned Croat Jagi<5, who now occupies the chair of Sreznevski in St Petersburg. An excellent Tolkovi Slovar Velikorusskago Yazika ("Explanatory Dictionary of the Great Russian Language"), by Dahl, has gone into a second edition. Alexander Hilferding published some valuable works on ethnology and philology, among others on the Polabes, an extinct Slavonic tribe who once dwelt on the banks of the Elbe. Although they have produced some good Sla- vonic scholars, the Russians have not exhibited many works in the field of classical or other branches of philo- logy. Exception, however, must be made in favour of the studies of Tchubinoff in Georgian, Minayeff in the Indian, and Tzvetayeff in the old languages of Italy. In moral and mental philosophy the Russians have pro- duced but few authors. We meet with some good mathe- maticians, Ostrogradski among others, and in natural science the publications of the Society for Natural History at Moscow have attracted considerable attention. Since the Boris Godunoff of Pushkin, which was the Eecent first attempt in Russia to produce a play on the Shake- drama, spearian model, many others have appeared in the same style. A fine trilogy was composed by Count A. Tolstoi on the three subjects, The Death of Ivan the Terrible (1866), The Czar Feodor (1868), and The Czar Boris (1869). Other plays of merit have been written by Ostrovski and Potiekhin. Many excellent literary journals and magazines make Serials. their appearance in the country ; among these may especially be mentioned the time-honoured Viestnik Yevropi (" Messenger of Europe "), which contains some of the most brilliant writing produced in the Russian empire. The Istoricheski Viestnik (" Historical Messenger ") is full of curious matter, and does not confine itself merely to Russian subjects. It is edited by M. Shubinski, the author of some pleasant sketches on the manners of Russia in the old time. On the contrary Starina (the "Antiquary," if we may so freely translate the original name) is entirely Russian, and is a valuable repertory of documents concerning the history of the country, and memoirs, especially relating to the latter part of the 17th century. The highly interesting magazine Drevnaia i Novaia Rossia did not protract its existence beyond six years, having come to an end in 1881. Many of the best Russian writers contributed to it; it contains much valuable material for the student of history. The Russkii Arkhiv is edited by M. Bartenieff, and has long been celebrated ; some of the most important notes on Russian history of the 18th and 19th century have appeared in this journal. During the last few years extensive excava- tions have been made in many parts of Russia, and much has been done to throw light upon the prehistoric period of the country. A large " kurgan," called Cherna Mogila, or the Black Grave, was opened by Samokvasoff in the government of Tchernigoff and described in the pages of Old and New Russia. Explorations have been carried on on the site of Bolgari, the ancient capital of the Ugrian Bolgars on the Volga. One of the most active workers in this field was the late Count Uvaroff (d. 1884), who pub- lished a valuable monograph on the Stone Age in Russia, and many other important works. A few words must be said on the literature of the Russian The Little dialects, the Little and White Russian. The Little Russian is Russian rich in skazki (tales) and songs. Peculiar to them is the duma, dialect, a narrative poem which corresponds in many particulars with the or Malo- Russian Mlina. Since the commencement of the present century, russian. when curiosity was first aroused on the subject of national poetry, the Little Russian dumt have been repeatedly edited, as by Maksimovich Metlinski and others. An elaborate edition (far surpassing the earlier ones) was commenced by Dragomanoff and Antonovich, but as yet only one volume and a portion of a second have made their appearance. Just as the bilini of the Great Russians, so also these duml of the Little Russians admit of classification, and they have been divided by their latest editors as follows : (1) the songs of the druzhina, treating of the early princes and their followers ; (2) the Cossack period (Kozachestvo), in which the Cossacks are found in continual warfare with the