part two
years later.
The impulse given by Sir John Bowring found a ready response in the periodic press of that time. In 1824 the Westminster Review brought out an article on _Politics and Literature of Russia_, which gave a short review of eighteenth-century literature. In 1827, R. P. Gillies gave a good sketch of _Russian Literature_ in vol. i of the Foreign Quarterly Review, based on the Russian work of Grech. The same year, the Foreign Review brought out a short account, and the next year an elaborate article on _Russian Literature and Poetry_, also after Grech, which for some decades formed the basis of all the articles and chapters dealing with the same subject in the English language. The Foreign Quarterly Review brought out similar matter in vol. viii, xxi, xxiii, xxix, xxx. But more interesting than these, which are nearly all fashioned after some Russian articles, are the excellent literary notes in every number, that kept the readers informed on the latest productions that appeared in Russia. There seems hardly to have been a public for these notes in England, and indeed they get weaker with the twenty-fourth volume, and die of inanity in the thirtieth. This early period of magazine articles is brought to an end by _Russian Literary Biography_, in vol. xxxvi (1841) of the Westminster Review.
The example set by Sir John Bowring found several imitators. We have several anthologies, generally grouping themselves around Púshkin, for the first half of the century: W. H. Saunders, _Poetical Translations from the Russian Language_, London, 1826; [George Borrow], _The Talisman, with Other Pieces_, St. Petersburg, 1835; W. D. Lewis, _The Bakchesarian Fountain, and Other Poems_, Philadelphia, 1849. The Foreign Quarterly Review brought out in 1832 translations from Bátyushkov, Púshkin, and Rylyéev, and in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine for 1845 T. B. Shaw gave some excellent translations of Púshkin’s poems. Other articles, treating individual authors, will be mentioned in their respective places.
While these meagre accounts of Russian Literature, at second hand, and the scanty anthologies were appearing, there was published in the Biblical Repository of Andover, Mass., in 1834, the remarkable work by Talvi, the wife of Dr. Edward Robinson, entitled: _Historical View of the Languages and Literatures of the Slavic Nations_, and this was republished in book-form, and enlarged, in New York, in 1850. Though there existed some special works by Slavic scholars, Talvi’s was the first to encompass the whole field in a scholarly and yet popular manner. It is authoritative even now in many departments that have not been overthrown by later investigations, and it is a matter of surprise that none of the later English writers should have based their Russian Literatures on this important work, or should have proceeded in the path of Slavic studies which she had so beautifully inaugurated. There is no excuse for G. Cox’s translation of F. Otto’s _History of Russian Literature, with a Lexicon of Russian Authors_, which appeared at Oxford in 1839, and adds a number of its own inaccuracies to the blunders of the German original. Nor is there any notice taken of Talvi in [C. F. Henningsen’s] _Eastern Europe and the Emperor Nicholas_, London, 1846, which gives a chapter on Russian Literature, mainly on Púshkin.
In the sixties W. R. Morfill began to translate some poems from the Russian, and towards the end of that decade, but especially in the next, Ralston published his excellent studies on the Folksongs and Folktales and Krylóv, and in the Contemporary Review, vols. xxiii and xxvii, two articles on the _Russian Idylls_. The magazines that in the seventies reviewed Russian Literature got everything at second hand, and are of little value: National Quarterly Review, vol. xxiv (1872); Catholic World, vol. xxi (1875); Harper’s Magazine, 1878. Of books there were issued: Sutherland Edwards’s _The Russians at Home_, London, 1861, a very useful work for contemporary literature, and F. R. Grahame’s _The Progress of Science, Art and Literature in Russia_, London [1865], which contains a great deal of interesting material badly arranged and ill-digested. The chapter on Literature in O. W. Wahl’s _The Land of the Czar_, London, 1875, is unimportant.
Since the eighties there have appeared a number of translations from good foreign authors bearing on Russian Literature: Ernest Dupuy, _The Great Masters of Russian Literature in the Nineteenth Century_, translated by N. H. Dole, New York [1886]; E. M. de Vogüé, _The Russian Novelists_, translated by J. L. Edmands, Boston [1887]; Dr. George Brandes, _Impressions of Russia_, translated by S. C. Eastman, New York, 1889; E. P. Bazán, _Russia: Its People and its Literature_, translated by F. H. Gardiner, Chicago, 1890.
The following more or less original works will be found useful: W. R. Morfill, _Slavonic Literature_, London, 1883, and _The Story of Russia_, New York and London, 1890; also his _The Peasant Poets of Russia_ (Reprint from Westminster Review), London, 1880; C. E. Turner, _Studies in Russian Literature_, London, 1882, and before, in Fraser’s Magazine for 1877; Ivan Panin, _Lectures in Russian Literature_, New York and London, 1889; _Memorials of a Short Life: A Biographical Sketch of W. F. A. Gaussen_ (chapter on _The Russian People and their Literature_), London, 1895; Prince Serge Wolkonsky, _Pictures of Russian History and Russian Literature_ (Lowell Lectures), Boston, New York and London, 1897; K. Waliszewski, _A History of Russian Literature_, New York, 1900, but this work must be used with extreme caution, on account of the many inaccuracies it contains. W. M. Griswold’s _Tales Dealing with Life in Russia_, Cambridge, 1892, is a fair bibliography of all the prose translations that have appeared in the English language before 1892. But few anthologies have of late seen daylight: C. T. Wilson, _Russian Lyrics in English Verse_, London, 1887; John Pollen, _Rhymes from the Russian_, London, 1891 (a good little book); E. L. Voynich, _The Humour of Russia_, London and New York, 1895. The periodical “Free Russia,” published in London since 1890, contains some good translations from various writers and occasionally some literary essay; but the most useful periodic publication is “The Anglo-Russian Literary Society,” published in London since 1892, and containing valuable information on literary subjects, especially modern, and a series of good translations from contemporary poets. Nor must one overlook the articles in the encyclopedias, of which those in Johnson’s Cyclopedia are especially good.
Very exhaustive statements of the modern literary movement in Russia appear from year to year in the Athenæum. More or less good articles on modern literature, mainly the novel, have appeared since 1880 in the following volumes of the periodical press: Academy, xxi and xxiii; Bookman, viii; Chautauquan, viii and xxii; Critic, iii; Current Literature, xxii; Dial, xx; Eclectic Magazine, cxv; Forum, xxviii; Leisure Hours, ccccxxv; Lippincott’s, lviii; Literature, i; Living Age, clxxxv; Nation, lxv; Public Opinion, xx; Publisher’s Weekly, liv; Temple Bar, lxxxix.
In conclusion, I desire to express my gratitude to my friends and colleagues who have aided me in this work: to Prof. A. C. Coolidge, for leaving at my disposal his collection of translations from the Russian, and for many valuable hints; to Dr. F. N. Robinson, for reading a number of my translations; to Prof. G. L. Kittredge, to whom is largely due whatever literary merit there may be in the introductory chapters and in the biographical sketches. I also take this occasion to thank all the publishers and authors from whose copyrighted works extracts have been quoted with their permission.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE v
A SKETCH OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE 1
I. The Oldest Period 3
II. The Folklore 18
III. The Eighteenth Century 26
THE OLDEST PERIOD 39
Treaty with the Greeks (911) 41
Luká Zhidyáta (XI. c.) 44
Instruction to his Congregation 44
The Russian Code (XI. c.) 45
Ilarión, Metropolitan of Kíev (XI. c.) 48
Eulogy on St. Vladímir 48
Vladímir Monomákh (1053-1125) 50
His Instruction to his Children 51
Abbot Daniel, the Palmer (XII. c.) 56
Of the Holy Light, how it Descends from Heaven upon the Holy Sepulchre 56
Epilogue 61
Cyril, Bishop of Túrov (XII. c.) 62
From a Sermon on the First Sunday after Easter 62
Néstor’s Chronicle (XII. c.) 65
The Baptism of Vladímir and of all Russia 65
The Kíev Chronicle (XII. c.) 71
The Expedition of Ígor Svyatoslávich against the Pólovtses 72
The Word of Ígor’s Armament (XII. c.) 80
The Holy Virgin’s Descent into Hell (XII. c.) 96
Daniel the Prisoner (XIII. c.) 100
Letter to Prince Yarosláv Vsévolodovich 101
Serapión, Bishop of Vladímir (XIII. c.) 104
A Sermon on Omens 104
The Zadónshchina (XIV. c.) 106
Afanási Nikítin (XV. c.) 111
Travel to India 111
Apocryphal Legends about King Solomon (XV. c.) 114
The Story of Kitovrás 114
Prince Kúrbski (1528-1583) 115
The Storming of Kazán 116
Letter to Iván the Terrible 118
Iván the Terrible (1530-1584) 121
Letter to Prince Kúrbski 121
The Domostróy (XVI. c.) 126
How to Educate Children and Bring them up in the Fear of God 126
How to Teach Children and Save them through Fear 127
How Christians are to Cure Diseases and all Kinds of Ailments 128
The Wife is always and in all Things to Take Counsel with her Husband 128
How to Instruct Servants 129
Songs Collected by Richard James (1619-1620) 130
Incursion of the Crimean Tartars 131
The Song of the Princess Kséniya Borísovna 132
The Return of Patriarch Filarét to Moscow 133
Krizhánich (1617-1677) 134
Political Reasons for the Union of the Churches 135
On Knowledge 136
On Foreigners 136
Kotoshíkhin (1630-1667) 136
The Education of the Princes 137
The Private Life of the Boyárs and of other Ranks 139
Simeón Pólotski (1629-1680) 149
On the Birth of Peter the Great 150
An Evil Thought 151
The Magnet 151
The Story of Misery Luckless-Plight (XVII. or XVIII. c.) 152
THE FOLKLORE 161
Epic Songs 163
Volkh Vseslávevich 163
Ilyá of Múrom and Nightingale the Robber 165
Historical Songs 172
Yermák 172
The Boyár’s Execution 174
The Storming of Ázov 176
Folksongs 177
Kolyádka 178
Bowl-Song 179
A Parting Scene 179
The Dove 180
The Faithless Lover 182
Elegy 182
The Farewell 183
Sing, O sing again, lovely lark of mine 184
Wedding Gear 185
The Sale of the Braid 185
Marriage Song 186
Beggars’ Song 186
An Orphan’s Wailing 187
Conjuration of a Mother 188
Fairy Tales 189
Frost 190
The Cat, the Goat and the Ram 195
The Fox and the Peasant 198
Proverbs 199
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 203
Pososhkóv (1670-1726) 205
On Merchants 205
On the Peasantry 209
Prokopóvich (1681-1763) 211
The Spiritual Reglement 212
Funeral Sermon on Peter the Great 214
Tatíshchev (1686-1750) 218
From the “Russian History” 219
Kantemír (1708-1744) 223
To my Mind 224
Tredyakóvski (1703-1769) 230
Ode on the Surrender of Dantzig 230
Princess Dolgorúki (1714-1771) 233
From her “Memoirs” 234
Lomonósov (1711-1765) 241
Letters to I. I. Shuválov 242
Ode on the Capture of Khotín 246
Morning Meditations 252
Evening Meditations 253
Sumarókov (1718-1777) 254
The False Demetrius 255
Instruction to a Son 257
To the Corrupters of Language 260
The Helpful Gnat 260
Four Answers 261
Vasíli Máykov (1728-1778) 263
The Battle of the Zimogórans and Valdáyans 263
The Cook and the Tailor 267
Danílov (1722-1790) 269
From his “Memoirs” 269
Catherine the Great (1729-1796) 272
O Tempora 272
Prince Khlor 276
Shcherbátov (1733-1790) 287
On the Corruption of Manners in Russia 287
Petróv (1736-1799) 291
On the Victory of the Russian over the Turkish Fleet 291
Kheráskov (1733-1807) 298
The Rossiad 298
Metropolitan Platón (1737-1812) 300
What are Idolaters? 300
Address upon the Accession of Alexander I. 304
Khémnitser (1745-1784) 306
The Lion’s Council of State 306
The Metaphysician 307
Knyazhnín (1742-1791) 308
Vadím of Nóvgorod 309
Odd People 311
Princess Dáshkov (1743-1810) 316
The Establishment of a Russian Academy 316
Poroshín (1741-1769) 321
From his “Diary” 321
The Satirical Journals (1769-1774), and Nóvikov (1744-1818) 326
From _All Kinds of Things_ 328
Sound Reasoning Adorns a Man 329
From the _Drone_ 332
Recipe for His Excellency Mr. Lacksense 332
The Laughing Democritos 333
From _Hell’s Post_ 335
From the _Painter_ 337
Fon-Vízin (1744-1792) 341
The Minor 342
An Open-Hearted Confession 351
Letters to Count Pánin 355
Kostróv (1750-1796) 358
Letter to the Creator of the Ode in Praise of Felítsa 359
Radíshchev (1749-1802) 361
Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow 362
Ablesímov (1742-1783) 370
The Miller 370
Bogdanóvich (1743-1803) 374
Psyche. From