Eugene Onegin, Alexander Pushkin [best books to read for teens TXT] 📗

is a vehicle with a hood not unlike a big cradle. ↩

The allusions in the foregoing stanza are in the first place to a poem entitled “The First Snow,” by Prince Viazemski and secondly to “Eda,” by Baratynski, a poem descriptive of life in Finland. ↩

The Russian clergy are divided into two classes: the white or secular, which is made up of the mass of parish priests, and the black who inhabit the monasteries, furnish the high dignitaries of the Church, and constitute that swarm of useless drones for whom Peter the Great felt such a deep repugnance. ↩

Refers to the Sviatki or Holy Nights between Christmas Eve and Twelfth Night. Divination, or the telling of fortunes by various expedients, is the favourite pastime on these occasions. ↩

During the sviatki it is a common custom for the girls to assemble around a table on which is placed a dish or basin of water which contains a ring. Each in her turn extracts the ring from the basin whilst the remainder sing in chorus the podbliudni pessni, or “dish songs” before mentioned. These are popularly supposed to indicate the fortunes of the immediate holder of the ring. The first-named lines foreshadow death; the latter, the kashourka, or “kitten song,” indicates approaching marriage. It commences thus: “The cat asked the kitten to sleep on the stove.” ↩

The superstition is that the name of the future husband may thus be discovered. ↩

See Note 37. ↩

Lel, in Slavonic mythology, corresponds to the Morpheus of the Latins. The word is evidently connected with the verb leleyat to fondle or soothe, likewise with our own word “to lull.” ↩

Malvina, a romance by Madame Cottin. ↩

The above three lines are a parody on the turgid style of Lomonossoff, a literary man of the second Catherine’s era. ↩

Pushkin calls Bouyànoff his cousin because he is a character in the “Dangerous Neighbour,” a poem by Vassili Pushkin, the poet’s uncle. ↩

The “Donskoe Champanskoe” is a species of sparkling wine manufactured in the vicinity of the river Don. ↩

Francesco Albano, a celebrated painter, styled the “Anacreon of Painting,” was born at Bologna 1578, and died in the year 1666. ↩

Mikhailovskoe, 1826: the two final stanzas were, however, written at Moscow. ↩

Hospitality is a national virtue of the Russians. On festal occasions in the country the whole party is usually accommodated for the night, or indeed for as many nights as desired, within the house of the entertainer. This of course is rendered necessary by the great distances which separate the residences of the gentry. Still, the alacrity with which a Russian hostess will turn her house topsy-turvy for the accommodation of forty or fifty guests would somewhat astonish the mistress of a modern Belgravian mansion. ↩

There must be a peculiar appropriateness in this expression as descriptive of the sensation of extreme cold. Mr. Wallace makes use of an identical phrase in describing an occasion when he was frostbitten whilst sledging in Russia. He says (vol. i p. 33): “My fur cloak flew open, the cold seemed to grasp me in the region of the heart, and I fell insensible.” ↩

A line of Griboyédoff’s. (Woe from Wit) ↩

The fact of the above words being italicised suggests the idea that the poet is here firing a Parthian shot at some unfriendly critic. ↩

Lepage⁠—a celebrated gunmaker of former days. ↩

In Russia and other northern countries rude shoes are made of the inner bark of the lime tree. ↩

Written 1827⁠–⁠1828 at Moscow, Mikhailovskoe, St. Petersburg and Malinniki. ↩

Levshin⁠—a contemporary writer on political economy. ↩

The crown used in celebrating marriages in Russia according to the forms of the Eastern Church. See Note 34. ↩

The Russians not unfrequently adorn their apartments with effigies of the great Napoleon. ↩

Matushka, or “little mother,” a term of endearment in constant use amongst Russian females. ↩

In former times, and to some extent the practice still continues to the present day, Russian families were wont to travel with every necessary of life, and, in the case of the wealthy, all its luxuries following in their train. As the poet complains in a subsequent stanza there were no inns; and if the simple Làrinas required such ample store of creature comforts the impediments accompanying a great noble on his journeys may be easily conceived. ↩

This somewhat musty joke has appeared in more than one national costume. Most Englishmen, if we were to replace verst-posts with milestones and substitute a graveyard for a palisade, would instantly recognize its Yankee extraction. In Russia however its origin is as ancient at least as the reign of Catherine the Second. The witticism ran thus: A courier sent by Prince Potemkin to the Empress drove so fast that his sword, projecting from the vehicle, rattled against the verst-posts as if against a palisade! ↩

The aspect of Moscow, especially as seen from the Sparrow Hills, a low range bordering the river Moskva at a short distance from the city, is unique and splendid. It possesses several domes completely plated with gold and some twelve hundred spires most of which are surmounted by a golden cross. At the time of sunset they seem literally tipped with flame. It was from this memorable spot that Napoleon and the Grand Army first obtained a glimpse at the city