Soon after leaving the military school Lermontoff wrote a drama, "The Masquerade" (1834), and the fine poem, "Boyarin orsha," but his fame began only in 1837, with his splendid poem on the death of Pushkin, "The Death of the Poet," beginning, "The poet perished, the slave of honor,"
in which he expressed his entire sympathy with the poet in his untimely death, and poured out all his bitterness upon the circle which was incapable of appreciating and prizing the genius. This, in a mult.i.tude of ma.n.u.script copies, created a great sensation in St. Petersburg. Soon afterwards, on hearing contradictory rumors as to the duel and Pushkin"s death, he added sixteen verses, beginning, "And you, ye arrogant descendants." One of the prominent persons therein attacked having had his attention called to the matter in public by an officious gossip (he had probably known all about it before, and deliberately ignored the matter), felt obliged to report Lermontoff. The result was that Lermontoff was transferred as ensign to a dragoon regiment which was serving in Georgia, and early in 1837 he set out for the Caucasus.
Through his grandmother"s efforts he was permitted to return from the Caucasus about eight months later, to a hussar regiment. By this time people were beginning to appreciate him; he had written his magnificent "Ballad of Tzar Ivan Vasilievitch, the Young Lifeguardsman, and the Bold Merchant Kalashnikoff," which every one hailed as an entirely new phenomenon in Russian literature, amazing in its highly artistic pictures, full of power and dignity, combined with an exterior like that of the inartistic productions of folk-poetry. This poem was productive of all the more astonishment, because his "The Demon,"[13] written much earlier (1825-1834), was little known. "The Demon" is poor in contents, but surprisingly rich in wealth and luxury of coloring, and in the endless variety of its pictures of Caucasian life and nature.
In 1838, while residing in St. Petersburg, Lermontoff wrote little at first, but in 1839 he wrote "Mtzyri," and a whole series of fine tales in prose, which eventually appeared under the general t.i.tle of "A Hero of Our Times." This work, which has lost much of its vivid interest for people of the present day, must remain, nevertheless, one of the most important monuments of that period to which Lermontoff so completely belonged. In the person of the hero, Petchorin, he endeavored to present "a portrait composed of the vices of the generation of which he was a contemporary," and he "drew the man of the period as he understood him, and as, unfortunately, he was too often met with." Lermontoff admitted that in Petchorin he had tried to point out the "malady" which had attacked all Russian society of that day. All this he said in a preface to the second edition, after people had begun to declare that in the novel he had represented himself and his own experiences. Naturally Petchorin was drawn on Byronic lines, in keeping with the spirit of the "30"s, when individuality loudly protested against the oppressive conditions of life. Naturally, also, all this now appears to be a caricature, true to the life of the highest Russian society as it was when it was written. Before he had quite completed this work, in February, 1840, Lermontoff fought a duel with the son of Baron de Barante, a well-known French historian, and was transferred, in consequence, to an infantry regiment in the Caucasus, whither he betook himself for the third time. A year later, after being permitted to make a brief stay in St. Petersburg, he returned to the Caucasus, and three months afterwards he was killed in a duel (on July 25, O. S., 1841) with a fellow officer, Martnoff, and was buried on the estate in the government of Penza, where he had been reared by his grandmother. The latest work of the poet, thus cut off almost before his prime, consisted of lyrics, which were full of power and perfection, and gave plain promise of the approaching maturity of the still young and not fully developed but immense talent.
His famous "Ballad of Tzar Ivan Vasilievitch, the Young Lifeguardsman, and the Bold Merchant Kalashnikoff" must be given in a summary and occasional quotations, as it is too long to reproduce in full. It lends itself better to dignified and adequate reproduction than do his lyrics, because it is not rhymed.[14] After a brief preface, the poet says: "We have composed a ballad in the ancient style, and have sung it to the sound of the dulcimer."
The red sun shineth not in the heaven, The blue clouds delight not in it; But at his banqueting board, in golden crown, Sitteth the Terrible Tzar Ivan Vasilievitch.
Behind him stand the table-deckers, Opposite him all the boyars and the princes, At his side, all about, the lifeguardsmen; And the Tzar feasteth to the glory of G.o.d, To his own content and merriment.
The ballad goes on to relate how the Tzar then ordered the beakers to be filled with wine from beyond the seas, and how all drank and lauded the Tzar. One brave warrior, a gallant youth, did not dip his mustache in the golden cup, but dropped his eyes, drooped his head, and meditated.
The Tzar frowned, rapped on the floor with his iron-tipped staff, and finding that the young man still paid no heed, called him to account.
"Hey, there, our faithful servant Kiribyeevitch, art thou concealing some dishonorable thought? Or art thou envious of our glory? Or hath our honorable service wearied thee?" and he reproaches the youth. Then Kiribyeevitch answered him, bowing to his girdle, begging the Tzar not to reproach his unworthy servant, but if he has offended the Tzar, he begs that the latter will order his head to be cut off. "It oppresseth my heroic shoulders, and itself unto the damp earth doth incline." The Tzar inquires why the lifeguardsman is sad. "Has his kaftan of gold brocade grown threadbare? Has his cap of sables got shabby? Has he exhausted his treasure? Has his well-tempered saber got nicked? Or has some merchant"s son from across the Moscow River overcome him in a boxing match?" The young lifeguardsman shakes his curly head, and says that all these things are as they should be, but that while he was riding his mettlesome steed in the Trans-Moscow River quarter of the town (the merchant"s quarter), with his silken girdle drawn taut, his velvet cap rimmed jauntily with black sables, fair young maidens had stood at the board gates, gazing at him, admiring and whispering together; but one there was who gazed not, admired not, but covered her face with her striped veil, "and in all Holy Russia, our Mother, no such beauty is to be found or searched out. She walketh swimmingly, as though she were a young swan. She gazeth sweetly, as though she were a dove. When she uttereth a word, "tis like a nightingale warbling. Her cheeks are aflame with roses, like unto the dawn in G.o.d"s heaven. Her tresses of ruddy gold, intertwined with bright ribbons, flow rippling down her shoulders, and kiss her white bosom. She was born in a merchant"s family. Her name is Alyona[15] Dmitrievna."
He describes how he has fallen in love with her at first sight, and cares no more for anything in all the world save her, and begs that he may be sent away to the steppes along the Volga, to live a free kazak life, where he may lay his "turbulent head" on a Mussulman"s spear (in the fights with the Tatars of Kazan is what is meant), where the vultures may claw out his tearful eyes, and his gray bones be washed by the rain, and his wretched dust, without burial, may be scattered to the four quarters of the compa.s.s. Tzar Ivan Vasilievitch laughs, advises him to send gifts to his Alyona, and celebrate the wedding. The lifeguardsman then confesses that he has not told the whole truth; that the beauty is already the wife of a young merchant.
In Part II., the young merchant is represented as seated at his shop-board, a stately, dashing young fellow, Stepan Paramonovitch Kalashnikoff, spreading out his silken wares, beguiling his patrons (or "guests") with flattering speech, counting out gold and silver. But it is one of his bad days; the wealthy lords pa.s.s and do not so much as glance at his shop. "The bells of the holy churches have finished chiming for Vespers. The cloudy glow of evening burneth behind the Kremlin. Little clouds are flitting athwart the sky. The great Gostiny Dvor[16] is empty." And Stepan Paramonovitch locks the oaken door of his shop with a German (that is, a foreign) spring-lock, fastens the fierce, snarling dog to the iron chain, and goes thoughtfully home to his young housewife beyond the Moscow River. On arriving there he is surprised that his wife does not come to meet him, as is her wont. The oaken table is not set, the taper before the _ikona_ (the holy picture) is almost burned out. He summons the old maid-servant and asks where his wife is at that late hour, and what has become of his children? The servant replies that his wife went to Vespers as usual, but the priest and his wife have already sat down to sup, yet the young housewife has not returned, and his little children are neither playing nor in bed, but weeping bitterly. As young Merchant Kalashnikoff then looks out into the gloomy street he sees that the night is very dark, snow is falling, covering up men"s tracks, and he hears the outer door slam, then hasty footsteps approaching, turns round and beholds his young wife, pale, with hair uncovered (which is highly improper for a married woman), her chestnut locks unbraided, sprinkled with snow and h.o.a.rfrost, her eyes dull and wild, her lips muttering unintelligibly. The husband inquires where she has been, the reason for her condition, and threatens to lock her up behind an iron-bound oaken door, away from the light of day. She, weeping bitterly, begs her "lord, her fair little red sun," to slay her or to listen to her, and she explains, that as she was coming home from Vespers she heard the snow crunching behind her, glanced round, and beheld a man running. She covered herself with her veil, but the man seized her hands, bade her have no fear, and said that he was no robber, but the servant of the Terrible[17] Tzar, Kiribyeevitch, from the famous family of Maliuta, promised her her heart"s desire--gold, pearls, bright gems, flowered brocades--if she would but love him, and grant him one embrace. Then he caressed and kissed her, so that her cheeks are still burning, while the neighbors looked on, laughed, and pointed their fingers at her in scorn. Tearing herself from his hands, she fled homewards, leaving in his hands her flowered kerchief (her husband"s gift) and her Bokhara veil. She entreats her husband not to give her over to the scorn of their neighbors, she is an orphan, her elder brother is in a foreign land, her younger brother still a mere child.
Stepan Paramonovitch thereupon sends for his two younger brothers, but they send back a demand to know what has happened that he should require their presence on a dark, cold night. He informs them that Kiribyeevitch, the lifeguardsman, has dishonored their family; that such an insult the soul cannot brook, neither a brave man"s heart endure. On the morrow there is to be a fight with fists in the presence of the Tzar himself, and it is his intention to go to it, and stand up against that lifeguardsman and fight him to the death until his strength is gone. He asks them, in case he is killed, to step forth for "Holy Mother right,"
and as they are younger than he, fresher in strength, and with fewer sins on their heads, perchance the Lord will show mercy upon them. And this reply his brethren spake: "Whither the breeze bloweth beneath the sky, thither hasten the dutiful little clouds. When the dark blue eagle summoneth with his voice to the b.l.o.o.d.y vale of slaughter, summoneth to celebrate the feast, to clear away the dead, to him do the little eaglets wing their flight. Thou art our elder brother, our second father, do what thou see"st fit, and deemest best, and we will not fail thee, our own blood and bone."
Part III. picturesquely and vividly describes the scene of the encounter; the challenge to the combatants to stand forth, by command of the Tzar, with a promise in the latter"s name that the victors shall receive from him rewards. Then the redoubtable Lifeguardsman Kiribyeevitch steps forth. Thrice the challenge is repeated before any one responds. Then young Merchant Kalashnikoff comes forward, makes his reverence to the Tzar, and when Kiribyeevitch demands his name, he announces it, and adds that he was born of an honorable father and has always lived according to G.o.d"s law; he has not cast his eyes on another man"s wife, nor played the bandit on a dark night, nor hid from the light of heaven, and that he means to fight to the death. On hearing this, Kiribyeevitch "turned pale as snow in autumn, his bold eyes clouded over, a shiver ran through his mighty shoulders, on his parted lips the words fell dead." With one blow, the young merchant crushes in the lifeguardsman"s breast, and the latter falls dead, the death being beautifully described in stately, picturesque language. At sight thereof, the Tzar Ivan Vasilievitch waxed wroth, stamped on the earth, scowled with his black brows; ordered that the young merchant be seized and hauled before him. He then demands whether Kalashnikoff has slain his faithful servant Kiribyeevitch "voluntarily, involuntarily, or against his will." Kalashnikoff boldly makes answer that he has done it with deliberate intent, and that the reason therefor he will not tell to the Tzar, but only to G.o.d alone. He tells the Tzar to order him to be executed, but not to deprive his little children or his young widow and his brothers of his favor. The Tzar replies that it is well Kalashnikoff has answered truthfully; he will give the young widow and the children a grant from his treasury, and give command that, from that day forth, his brothers may traffic throughout the wide Russian realm free of taxes.
But Kalashnikoff must mount the scaffold, lay down his turbulent head, and the executioner shall be ordered to make his axe very sharp, and the great bell shall be tolled in order that all the men of Moscow may know that the Tzar has not deprived him of his favor. The execution and Kalashnikoff"s farewell speeches to his brothers, with his last messages to his wife not to grieve so greatly, and his commands that she is not to tell his children how their father died, together with requests for prayers for his soul, are described in very touching and lofty terms, as are also the burial, and the scenes at the grave.
The influence of Sch.e.l.ling"s philosophy on the society of Moscow (the literary center until half-way through the "30"s of the nineteenth century) was very great. This philosophy held that every historical nation should express some idea or other; that a nation could be called historical only on condition of its being independent in this respect; and that its importance in the progress of general civilization is determined by its degree of independence. This set all thoughtful people to considering the place of Russia among the European nations; and all the problems suggested by this philosophy came up with special force in the Russian literature of the end of the "30"s, and split society into two great camps--the Slavyanophils (slavophils)[18] and the Westerners.
These camps had existed earlier, but had concerned themselves only with the purification of the Russian language, or with sentimental admiration for everything Russian, or for everything foreign, as the case might be.
But now both parties undertook to solve the problems connected with the fate of the nation.
Sch.e.l.ling"s philosophy also suggested new views as to the theory of art and the significance of literature in the life of a nation, and evolved the conclusion, that a nation"s literature, even more than its civilization, should be entirely independent. This naturally led the Slavyanophils to reflect upon the indispensability of establishing Russian literature on a thoroughly national, independent basis.
Naturally, also, this led to the Slavyanophils contesting the existence of a Russian literature in the proper sense of the term; since the whole of it, from Lomonosoff to Pushkin, had been merely a servile imitation of Western literature, and did not in the least express the spirit of the Russian people, and of the Sch.e.l.lingists. A number of the professors in the Moscow University belonged to this party. Naturally the students in their department--the philological faculty--came under their influence, and under this influence was reared the famous Russian critic, Vissarion Grigorievitch Byelinsky (1811-1848). His name is chiefly identified with the journal "The Annals of the Fatherland" (of St. Petersburg), where he published his brilliant critical articles on Griboyedoff, Gogol"s "The Inspector," on Lermontoff"s works, and on those of other writers; on French contemporary literature, and on current topics at home and abroad, among them articles condemning many characteristics of Russian society, both intellectual and moral, such as the absence of intellectual interests, routine, narrowness, and egotism in the middle-cla.s.s merchants; self-satisfied philistinism; the patriarchal laxity of provincial morals; the lack of humanity and the Asiatic ferocity towards inferiors; the slavery of women and children under the weight of family despotism. His volume of articles on Pushkin const.i.tutes a complete critical history of Russian literature, beginning with Lomonosoff and ending with Pushkin. By these Byelinsky"s standing as an important factor in literature was thoroughly established, and all the young writers of the succeeding epoch, that of the "50"s, gathered around him. Grigorovitch, Turgeneff, Gontcharoff, Nekrasoff, Apollon Maikoff, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and the rest, may be said to have been reared on Byelinsky"s criticism, inspired by it to creative activity, and indebted to it for much of their fame. Byelinsky, moreover, educated the minds of that whole generation, and prepared men for the social movement of the "60"s, which was characterized by many reforms.
After 1846 Byelinsky was connected with the journal, "The Contemporary,"
published by the poet Nekrasoff, and I. I. Panaeff, to which the best writers of the day contributed. Here, during the brief period when his health permitted him to work, he expressed even bolder and more practical ideas, and became the advocate of the "natural school," of which he regarded Gogol as the founder, wherein poetry was treated as an integral part of every-day life. Turgeneff has declared, that Byelinsky indisputably possessed all the chief qualities of a great critic, and that no one before him, or better than he, ever expressed a correct judgment and an authoritative verdict, and that he was, emphatically, "the right man in the right place."
One author who deserves to be better known outside of Russia produced the really original and indescribably fascinating works on which his fame rests during the last ten or twelve years of his long life, late in the "40"s and "50"s, although he was much older than the authors we have recently studied, and began to write much earlier than many of them. His early writing, however, was in the cla.s.sical style, and does not count in comparison with his original descriptions of nature, and of the life of the (comparatively) distant past. Sergyei Timofeevitch Aksakoff (1791-1859), the descendant of a very ancient n.o.ble family, was born in far-away eastern Russia, in Ufa, and was very well educated by his mother, at schools, and at Kazan University. His talents first revealed themselves in 1847, in his "Notes on Angling," and his "Diary of a Sportsman with a Gun," in the Orenburg Government (1852). Most famous of all, and most delightful, are the companion volumes, "A Family Chronicle and Souvenirs" (1856) and "The Childhood"s Years of Bagroff"s Grandson"
(1858). In these Russian descriptive language made a great stride in advance, even after Pushkin and Gogol; and as a limner of landscape, he has no equal in Russian literature. The most noteworthy point about his work is that there is not a trace of creative fancy or invention; he describes reality, takes everything straight from life, and describes it with amazing faithfulness and artistic harmony. He was the first Russian writer to look on Russian life from a positive instead of from a negative point of view.[19]
Pushkin"s period had been important, not only in rendering Russian literature national, but still more so in bringing literature into close connection with life and its interests. This had in turn led to a love of reading and of literature all over the country, and had developed latent talents. This love spread to cla.s.ses. .h.i.therto unaffected by it; and among the talents it thus developed, none was more thoroughly independent than that of Alexei Vasilievitch Koltzoff (1809-1842), who was so original, so wholly unique in his genius, that he cannot rightly be a.s.signed to any cla.s.s, and still stands as an isolated phenomenon. He was the son of a merchant of Voronezh, who was possessed of considerable means, and he spent the greater part of his youth on the steppes, helping his father, a drover, who supplied tallow-factories. After being taught to read and write by a theological student, young Koltzoff was sent to the district school for four months, after which his education was regarded as finished, because he knew as much as the people about him, and because no more was required for business purposes. But the lad acquired a strong love of reading, and devoted himself to such literature as he could procure, popular fairy-tales, the "Thousand and One Nights," and so forth. He was sixteen years of age when Dmitrieff"s works fell into his hands, and inspired him with a desire to imitate them, and to "make songs" himself. As yet he did not understand the difference between poetry and popular songs, and did not read verses, but sang them. The local book-seller was the first to recognize his poetical tendency, and in a degree, guided him on the right road with a "Russian Prosody," and other suitable books, such as the works of Zhukovsky, Pushkin, and other contemporary poets. A pa.s.sion for writing poetry was in the air in the "20"s. But although he yielded to this and to the promptings of his genius, it was a long time before he was able to clothe his thoughts in tolerable form. An unhappy love had a powerful influence on the development of his poetical talent, and his versified efforts suddenly became fervent songs of love and hate, of melancholy, soulful cries of grief and woe, full of melodious expressions of the world about him. One of Byelinsky"s friends, whose family lived near Voronezh, made his acquaintance, read his poems and applauded much in them. Three years later, in 1833, at the request and expense of this new friend, Koltzoff published a small collection, containing eighteen poems selected by him, which showed that he possessed an original and really noteworthy poetical gift. In 1835 Koltzoff visited St. Petersburg and made acquaintance with Pushkin, Zhukovsky, and many other literary men, and between 1836 and 1838 his fame penetrated even to the knowledge of the citizens in his native town. He continued to aid his father in business, but his heart was elsewhere--he longed for the intellectual companionship of his friends in Moscow, and all this rendered him extremely unhappy. In 1840 he spent three months with Byelinsky in St.
Petersburg, and after that he remained in Voronezh, had another unhappy love affair, and dreamed continually of the possibility of quitting the place for good. But his father would not give him a kopek for such a purpose. His health gave way, and he died in 1842, aged thirty-three.
His poems are few in number, and the best of them belong to an entirely peculiar style, which he alone in Russian literature possesses, to which he alone imparted significance--the ballad, the national ballad compact, powerful, rich in expression, and highly artistic. The charm of nationality is so great, as expressed in Koltzoff"s songs, that it is almost impossible to read them; one wants to sing them as the author sang the verses of others in his boyhood. Even his peculiar measures, which are not at all adapted to popular songs, do not destroy the harmonious impression made by them, and such pieces as "The Forest,"
"The Ballads of Cabman Kudryavitch," "The Perfidy of the Affianced Bride," and others, not only belong to the most notable productions of Russian lyric poetry, but are also representatives of an important historical phenomenon, as the first attempt to combine in one organic whole Russian artistic literature and the inexhaustible vast inartistic poetry of the people. "The Perfidy of the Affianced Bride," which is not rhymed in the original, runs as follows:
Hot in heaven the summer sun doth shine, But me, young though I be, it warmeth not!
My heart is dead with cold Through the perfidy of my affianced bride.
Woe-sadness upon me hath fallen, Upon my sorrowful head; My soul by deadly anguish is tormented, And from my body my soul doth long to flee.
Unto men have I resorted for help-- With a laugh have they turned away; To the grave of my father, my mother-- But they rise not at my call.
The world grew dark before mine eyes, Upon the gra.s.s I swooned.
At dead of night, in a dreadful storm, They lifted me from the grave.
At night, in the storm, I saddled my steed; I set out, caring not whither I went-- To lead a wretched life, to console myself, With rancor to demand satisfaction from men.
Romanticism established, as its first principles, freedom of creation and nationality of poetry, and these principles survived romanticism itself. Now, while romanticism preached freedom of creation, it circ.u.mscribed this freedom by selecting as subjects for poetical compositions chiefly the extraordinary sides of life, its majestic moments. Its heroes were always choice, powerful natures, who suffered profoundly because of the lot of all mankind, and were capable of gigantic conflicts against the whole world. Cla.s.sicism had bequeathed this habit of regarding as worthy of poetical treatment only heroes who stood out from the ma.s.s, and of depicting these heroes only at critical crises. All this depended, in a great degree, upon the political and social conditions which prevailed at that epoch--the beginning of the nineteenth century. But quieter, more peaceful times dawned, and with them men"s tastes and habits of mind underwent a change. They grew tired of scorning and hating reality, because it did not conform to their cherished dreams, and they began coolly to study it. The t.i.tanic heroes, who had become tiresome and anti-pathetic to the last degree, made way for ordinary mortals in their everyday surroundings. Lyrical exaltation was superseded by calm observation, or disintegrating a.n.a.lysis of the different elements of life; pathetic misery made way for cold irony, or jeeringly melancholy humor; and at last poetry was succeeded by prose, and the ruling poetical forms of the new epoch became the romance and the novel. This change took place almost simultaneously in all the literatures of Europe.
We have seen that Pushkin, towards the end of his career, entered upon this new path, with his prose tales, "The Captain"s Daughter,"
"Dubrovsky," and so forth, and throughout the "30"s of the nineteenth century, the romance and novel came, more and more, to occupy the most prominent place in Russian literature. We may pa.s.s over the rather long list of second-cla.s.s writers who adventured in this field (of whom Zagoskin and Marlinsky are most frequently referred to), and devote our attention to the man who has been repeatedly called "the father of modern Russian realism," Nikolai Vasilievitch Gogol (1809-1852). He is credited with having created all the types which we encounter in the works of the great novelists who followed him, and this is almost literally true, at least so far as the male characters are concerned. In particular, this applies to his famous "Dead Souls," which contains if not the condensed characterization in full of these types, at least the readily recognized germs of them. But in this respect, his early Little Russian Stories, "Tales from a Farm-house Near Dikanka," and the companion volume, "Mirgorod," as well as his famous comedy, "The Inspector," must not be forgotten, for they contributed their full quota. Pushkin was one of Gogol"s earliest and most ardent admirers, and it was because he recognized the latter"s phenomenal talent in seizing the national types that he gave to him the idea for "Dead Souls," which he had intended to use himself. Thanks to his own genius (as well as to the atmosphere of the epoch in which he lived), he solved for himself, quite independently of any foreign influence, the problem of bringing Russian literature down from the clouds to everyday real life. He realized that the world was no longer living in a sort of modern epic, as it had been during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic campaigns, and that literature must conform to the altered conditions.
Naturally, in his new quest after truth, Gogol-Yanovsky (to give him his full name) mingled romanticism and realism at first. But he soon discovered the true path. He was born and reared in Little Russia, at Sorotchinsky, Government of Poltava, and was separated only by two generations from the famous epoch of the Zaporozhian kazaks, who lived (as their name implies) below the rapids of the Dniepr. He has depicted their life in his magnificent novel "Taras Bulba." His grandfather had been the regimental scribe--a post of honor--of that kazak army, and the spirit of the Zaporozhian kazaks still lingered over the land which was full of legends, fervent, superst.i.tious piety, and poetry.
Gogol"s grandfather, who figures as "Rudy Panko, the bee-farmer," in the two volumes of Little Russian stories which established his fame, narrated to him at least one-half of those stories. His father, also, who represented the modern spirit, was an inimitable narrator of comic stories, and the talents of father and grandfather rendered their house the popular center of a very extensive neighborhood.
At school Gogol did not distinguish himself, but he wrote a good deal, all of an imitative character. After leaving school, it was with difficulty that he secured a place as copying-clerk, at a wretched salary, in St. Petersburg. He promptly resigned this when fame came, and secured the appointment as professor of history. But he was a hopelessly incompetent professor of history, despite his soaring ambitions, both on account of his lack of scholarship and the natural bent of his mind. The literary men who had obtained the position for him had discerned his immense talent in a perfectly new style of writing; and after failure had convinced him that heavy, scientific work was not in his line, he recognized the fact himself, and decided to devote himself to the sort of work for which nature had intended him. The first volume of his "Tales from a Farm-house Near Dikanka" appeared at the end of 1831, and had an immense success. The second volume, "Mirgorod," was equally successful, all the more so, as it introduced, together with the pure merriment which had characterized the earlier tales, and the realism which was his specialty, so to speak, a new element--pathos; "laughter piercing through a mist of tears." In this style "Old-fashioned Gentry"[20] and "How Ivan Ivanovitch Quarrelled with Ivan Nikiforovitch"
are famous examples. Success always turned Gogol"s head, and he immediately aspired to some undertaking far beyond his powers. In this case, for instance, despising, as usual, what he could do best, he planned a huge work, in nine volumes, on the history of the Middle Ages. Fortunately, his preparatory studies in the history of Little Russia led him to write his splendid epic, which is a composition of the highest art, "Taras Bulba," and diverted him from his ill-digested project.
He began to recognize that literary work was not merely a pastime, but his moral duty; and the first result of this conviction was his great play "The Inspector," finished in April, 1836. The authorities refused to produce it, but the Emperor Nicholas I. heard about it, read it, and gave imperative orders that it should be put on the stage, upholding Gogol with rapturous delight. Everybody--officials, the police, literary people, merchants--attacked the author. They raged at this comedy, refused to recognize their too lifelike portraits, and still endeavored to have the play prohibited. Gogol"s health and spirits failed under this persecution, and he fled abroad, whence thereafter he returned to Russia only at long intervals and for brief visits, chiefly to Moscow, where most of his faithful friends resided. He traveled a great deal, but spent most of his time in Rome, where his lavish charities kept him perennially poor despite the eventual and complete success, both artistically and financially, of "The Inspector," and of Part I. of "Dead Souls," which would have enabled him to live in comfort. He was wont to say that he could see Russia plainly only when he was at a distance from her, and in a measure, he proved the truth of his contention in the first volume of "Dead Souls." Thereby he justified Pushkin"s expectations in giving him the subject of that work, which he hoped would enable Gogol to depict the cla.s.ses and localities of the fatherland in the concentrated form of types. But he lived too long in Rome. The Russian mind in general is much inclined to mysticism, and Little Russia, in Gogol"s boyhood, was exceptionally permeated with exaggerated religious sentiment. Mysticism seems to be peculiarly fatal to Russian writers of eminence; we have seen how Von Vizin and Zhukovsky were affected toward the end of their lives; we have a typical and even more p.r.o.nounced example of it in a somewhat different form at the present time in Count L. N. Tolstoy. Lermontoff had inclined in that direction. Hence, it is not surprising that the moral and physical atmosphere of Rome, during a too prolonged residence there, eventually ruined Gogol"s mind and health, and extinguished the last sparks of his genius, especially as even in his school-days he had shown a marked tendency (in his letters to his mother) to religious exaltation. Now, under the pressure of his personal tendencies and friendships, and the clerical atmosphere of Rome, he developed into a mystic and an ascetic of the most extreme type. He regarded all his earlier writings as sins which must be atoned for (precisely as Count L. N. Tolstoy regards his masterpieces at the present time); and nevertheless, his overweening self-esteem was so flattered by the tremendous success of "The Inspector" and the first part of "Dead Souls" that he began to regard himself as a sort of divinely commissioned prophet, on whom it was inc.u.mbent to preach to his fellow-men. It will be seen that the parallel holds good in this respect also. Extracts from his hortatory letters which he published proved to Russians that his day was over. His failure in his self-imposed mission plunged him into the extremes of self-torment, and his lucid moments grew more and more rare. He destroyed what he had written of the second part of "Dead Souls," in the attacks of ecstatic remorse at such profane work which followed. (By some authorities it is believed that he did this unintentionally, meaning to destroy an entirely different set of papers.) In 1848 he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and went thence to Moscow, where he resided until his death, becoming more and more extreme in his mysticism and asceticism. He spent sleepless nights in prayer; he tried to carry fasting to the extent of living for a week on one of the tiny double loaves which are used for the Holy Communion in the Eastern Catholic Church, a feat which it is affirmed can be performed with success, and even to more exaggerated extent, by practiced ascetics. Gogol died. His observation was acute; his humor was genuine, natural, infectious; his realism was of the most vivid description; his power of limning types was unsurpa.s.sed, and it is these types which have entered, as to their essential ingredients, into the works of his successors, that have rendered the Russian realistic literary school famous. He wrote only one complete play besides "The Inspector," and it is still acted occasionally, but it is not of a sort to appeal to the universal public, as is his famous comedy. The fantastic but amusing plot of this lesser comedy, "Marriage," is founded upon a young girl"s meditations on that theme, and the actions which lead up to and follow them. The wealthy heroine of the merchant cla.s.s, being desirous of marrying, enlists the services of the professional match-maker, the old-time Russian matrimonial agent, in the merchant and peasant cla.s.ses. This match-maker offers for her choice several eligible suitors (all strangers), and the girl makes her choice. She is well pleased with it, but suddenly begins to speculate on the future; is moved to tears by the prospect that her daughter may be unhappy in a hypothetical marriage, in the dim future; and at last, driven to despair by this painful picture of her fancy, she evades her betrothed and breaks off the match.
The interest of "The Inspector" is perennial and universal; official negligence, corruption, bribery, masculine vanity and boastfulness, and feminine failings to match, are the exclusive prerogatives of no one nation or epoch. The comedy is not a caricature, but it is a faithful society portrait and satire, with intense condensation of character, and traits which are not only truly and typically Russian, but come within the ken of all fair-minded persons of other lands. The scene opens in a room at the house of the Chief of Police in a provincial town. Those present are: The Chief himself, the Curator of the Board of Benevolent Inst.i.tutions, the Superintendent of Schools, the Judge, the Commissioner of Police, the Doctor, and two policemen.
CHIEF.--I have summoned you hither, gentlemen, in order to communicate to you an unpleasant piece of news. An Inspector is coming.
JUDGE.--What! An Inspector?
CHIEF.--An Inspector from St. Petersburg, incognito, and with secret orders, to boot.
JUDGE.--I thought so!
CURATOR.--If there"s not trouble, I"m mistaken!
CHIEF.--I have warned you, gentlemen. See to it! I have made some arrangements in my own department, and I advise you to do the same. Especially you, Artemy Philipp"itch! Without a doubt, this traveling official will wish, first of all, to inspect your inst.i.tutions, and therefore, you must arrange things so that they will be decent. The nightcaps should be clean, and the sick people should not look like blacksmiths, as they usually do in private.
CURATOR.--Well, that is a mere trifle. We can put clean nightcaps on them.
CHIEF.--Moreover, you ought to have written up, over the head of each bed, in Latin or some other language--that"s your affair--the name of each disease; when each patient was taken sick, the day and the hour. It is not well that your sick people should smoke such strong tobacco that one has to sneeze every time he goes in there. Yes, and it would be better if there were fewer of them; it will be set down at once to bad supervision, or to lack of skill on the doctor"s part.
CURATOR.--Oh, so far as the doctoring is concerned, Christian Ivan"itch and I have already taken measures; the nearer to nature, the better--we don"t use any expensive medicines. Man is a simple creature; if he dies, why then, he dies; if he gets well, why then, he gets well; and moreover, it would have been difficult for Christian Ivan"itch to make them understand him; he doesn"t know one word of Russian.
CHIEF.--I should also advise you, Ammos Feodor"itch, to turn your attention to court affairs. In the anteroom, where the clients usually a.s.semble, your janitor has got a lot of geese and goslings, which waddle about under foot. Of course it is praiseworthy to be thrifty in domestic affairs, and why should not the janitor be so, too? Only, you know, it is not proper in that place. I intended to mention it to you before, but always forgot it.
JUDGE.--I"ll order them to be taken to the kitchen this very day. Will you dine with me?
CHIEF.--And moreover, it is not well that all sorts of stuff should be put to dry in the court-room, and that over the very desk with the doc.u.ments, there should be a hunting-whip....
Yes, and strange to say, there is no man who has not his faults. G.o.d himself has arranged it so, and it is useless for free-thinkers to maintain the contrary.