Chapter VI: Dirge

Not to-day he the young rose sought,
For she was fairer than the rose:
Hers be the cypress, dark as thought;
Yew that over the still grave grows.
Can ye remember her sigh, her tear
O’er a departed one, fair as she?
Such were a tribute meet for her,
Meet for us, and our misery.

O forget her sweet smiles--forget
All that she was:--she is nothing now.
Scatter the purple violet;
O’er her green pillow the snow-drop throw!
Come with the eve; let your requiem
Mount on the breeze o’er the grassy heap:
Thousand spirits shall join the hymn,
Watching over her slumbers deep.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This composition refers, no doubt, to some historical or traditionary tale, without the knowledge of which it would seem unintelligible. I translate it as rather a striking specimen of popular Russian songs.

[2] The peculiarities of the original are preserved in this song; such repetitions as here occur are quite characteristic of the national poetry of Russia.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL NOTICES.

LOMONOSOV.

Michael Vassiljevich Lomonosov was born in Cholmognie in 1711. He was the son of a sailor. He studied Latin and Greek, rhetoric and poetry, in Sakonospaskoe Uchilishchœ. In 1734 he entered the imperial academy, and two years afterwards was sent to Germany as a student. On his return to Petersburg he was appointed to the professorship of Chemistry; in 1751 he was made associate of the academy, and in 1760 called to the directorship of the academical gymnasium and of the university. He died in 1765.

The Petersburg Academy of Sciences published a complete collection of his works, in sixteen volumes, which reached a third edition in 1804. They comprise the following remarkable list, exhibiting a rare diversity of subjects: among them his prose productions are: _Kratkii Lœtopisetz_, Short Russian Annals; _Drevnjeje Rossiiskaje Istorije_, Oldest Russian History, from the beginning of the Russian people to the death of the great prince Jaropolk the First, _i. e._ down to the year 1054; _Rossiiskaje Grammatika_, Russian Grammar; _Kratkoe Rukovodetvo k Krasnorœchiiu_, Short Introduction to Rhetoric; _Pismo o pravilakh Rossiiskago Stikhomvorstva_, Letter on the Rules of Russian Poetry; _Predislovie o polzœ Knig Tzerkovnĭkh_, Remarks on the Uses of Church-Books; _Slovo Pokhvalnoe Imperatritzœ Elisavetœ I._, Eulogium on the Empress Elizabeth (which he himself translated into Latin); _Slovo pokhvalnoe Imperatoru Petru Velikomu_, Eulogium on Peter the Great; _Slovo o polzœ Khimii_, On the Use of Chemistry; _Slovo o jevlenijekh vosdushnĭkh ot Elektricheskoi silĭ proizkhodjeshchikh_, On Electrical Phenomena; _Slovo o proizkhozhdenii sœta novuiu teriiu o tzvœtakh predstavljeiushchee_, On the Origin of Light, exhibiting the new theory of Colours; _Slovo o pozhdenii Metallov ot trjesenije zemli_, On the Changes produced on Metals by earthquakes; _Rosuzhdenie o bolshei tochnosti Morskago puti_, On the means of obtaining the greatest correctness in Sea Voyages; _Jevlenie Venerĭ na solntzœ_, Appearance of Venus on the Sun’s Disk; _Programma sochinennaje tri nachalæ chenije is jesnenije Phisiki_, Programma, introductory to Lectures on Physic; _Opisanie v nachalœ 1744 goda jevivshijesje Kometĭ_, Description of the Comet of 1744; _Pervĭje osnovanije Metallurgii_, Introduction to Metallurgy; _Shestnadtzat’ piset k J. J. Shuvalovu_, Sixteen Letters to J. J. Shuvalov.

His poems are--two books of an Heroic Epic entitled _Peter Velikii_, Peter the Great; _Tamira i Selim_, a Tragedy; _Demophont_, a Tragedy; _Pismo o Pol’sœ Stekla_, A Poetical Epistle on the Merits of Glass, addressed to Shuvalov, of which a French prose translation was published in Paris in 1800; _Oda na Shchastiee_, Ode to Happiness, from the French of J. B. Rousseau; _Vanchannaje nadezhda Rossiiskoi Imperii_, The Garlanded Hope of the Russian Empire, from the German of Professor Junker; eleven spiritual odes; encomiastic odes; forty-nine laudatory inscriptions; poem on a firework; _Polydore_, an Idyl, and sundry smaller pieces; imitations of Anacreon, poetical epistles, translations, &c. &c.

Besides his philosophical prose writings, he published _Rasgovor v tzarstvœ Mertvĭkh_, Dialogue in the Realms of Death, between Alexander the Great, Hannibal, and Scipio, from the Greek of Lucian; and _Rasgavor utro_, A Discourse on Morning, from Erasmus.

DERZHAVIN.

Gabriel Romanovich Derzhavin was born at Kasan on the 3d of July, 1736. The elements of instruction were given to him in the house of his parents; he then studied in private academies, and afterwards completed his education in the imperial gymnasium. In 1760 he was inscribed in the engineer military service; and in the following year, as a reward for his great progress in the mathematics, and for his excellent description of the Bulgarian ruins on the banks of the Wolga, he was placed in the ranks of the Preobrashenshe regiment. From the year 1762 he was promoted through the different gradations to the rank of ensign, which he held in 1772, and he obtained great credit for his prudence and ability while engaged as lieutenant in the corps sent to reduce Pugachev in 1774. He advanced uninterruptedly in his military career till in 1784 he was made a counsellor of state, and appointed to the government first of Oloretz and afterwards of Tambov. In 1791 the Empress Catherine the Second gave him the office of secretary of state; in 1793 he was called to the senate, and the next year he was made president of the college of Commerce. In the year 1800 he was appointed to the post of public cashier, and in 1802 to that of minister of justice. His official career was soon after closed by his retiring on his full allowance, in the evening of his days, to the enjoyment of the fruits of his long and active labours.

Such a life would appear little calculated for the pursuit of intellectual pleasures, or for the cultivation of poetical talents; but the energies of these seem to be alike uninfluenced by the burthens of pomp or the privations of poverty. None is too high to bend down to the attractive voice of song--none too low to be raised by the awakening call of the lyre.

The most celebrated compositions of Derzhavin are, his Ode to God; Felitza; On the Birth of Alexander; The First Neighbour; On the Death of Count Meshchersky; On the Swedish Peace; The Fountain; The Waterfall; Autumn; and the Anacreontic Songs. His Poems were printed in four volumes in 1808.

Of his prose works (his official ones of course excepted) the most celebrated are: _Rœch ot litza Kazanskago Dvorjenstva Imperatritzœ Ekaterinœ II._, Address of the Kasan Eagle to the Empress Catherine the Second; _Topographicheskoe Opshanie Tambovskoi Gubernii_, Topographical Description of the Tambov Government; _Rœch na otkrĭtie v Tambovœ Narodnago Ichilishcha_, Address on the opening of the Tambov Public School, republished in Petersburg, and translated into several languages; _Razsuzhdenie o Liricheskom Stikhotvorstvœ_, On Lyric Poetry, published by a Society of Amateurs of Russian Literature in 1811.

BOGDANOVICH.

TRANSLATED FROM KARAMSIN’S VŒSTNIK[1].

Hippolïtus Bogdanovich was born under the beautiful heaven of Little Russia, in the village of Perevolotchno, in the year 1743. His father was a respectable physician, to whose affectionate care and to that of an excellent mother he owed the first rudiments of knowledge. The talents which often require long years to ripen and to perfect, sometimes exhibit their blossoms in very early youth, and Bogdanovich while quite a child showed a passionate fondness for reading and writing, for music and poetry.

He was brought to Moscow in 1754, and placed in the college of justice. The President Sheljebushsky noticed the active and inquiring spirit of the boy, and allowed him to attend the mathematical school, which was at that time in the neighbourhood of the senate. But mathematics were nothing to him;--the sweet poetry of Lomonosov, who now began to captivate his countrymen, was dearer to his mind than all the transpositions of lines or figures. Nothing, perhaps, is so likely to produce a strong and permanent impression on the heart of a young enthusiast, as the pomp, parade, and poetry of the Drama. What wonder then that a fiery boy, introduced for the first time to its witcheries, should be led to some act of giddy imprudence! A youth of fifteen once presented himself to the director of the Moskow theatre, modestly and almost unwillingly owning--he was a nobleman--he would be an actor. The director had some conversation with him, and soon ascertained his love of knowledge and his poetical ardour. He painted in strong colours the incompatibility of an actor’s character with that of nobility,--he urged him to inscribe himself in the university, and to visit him at his house. This young man was no other than our Bogdanovich,--that director was no other than Michael Matveevich Kheraskov, the poet of the Russiad. Thus did a lucky accident bring this scholar of the muses to their favourite bard; one who, possessed of extraordinary talent himself, was not slow to discover and to honour it in others. From him did Bogdanovich learn the rules and the ornaments of poetry; he studied foreign languages, and acquired whatever else might give strength and encouragement to his natural powers. Study, it is true, is no _creator_ of genius, but it serves to exhibit it in all its most beautiful and mighty influence. Kheraskov gave him examples, precepts, encouragements; and in the university-journal of this period, _Polesnoe Uveselenie_, we find many specimens of the powers of the young bard. These, though yet far removed from perfection, are striking proofs of his ability to reach it.

Besides Kheraskov, our young poet possessed, while he remained at the university, another invaluable protector in Count Michael Ivanovich Dashkov. The favours conferred by rank and influence on talents just developing themselves, create a grateful and well-rewarding return; while, on the other hand, the fair and delicate flowers of youthful genius are but too often and too early blasted by the cold winds of neglect. But let it be said in Russia’s honour, that talent has never wanted patronage there, especially if accompanied by moral worth. This was eminently the case with Bogdanovich. Like La Fontaine, in whose poetical steps he seems to have trodden, he was distinguished by the most attractive ingenuousness. Ere he was eighteen he held his station in the great and busy world, but held it with the simplicity of a child. Whatever he felt he uttered, whatever pleased him he did; he listened willingly to the wisdom of others, and fell asleep during the tiresome lessons of folly. It was our young bard’s good fortune to live with a poet who exacted the productions of his muse as the price of his protection and his counsels, leaving every thing else to his own waywardness. His open heartedness often led him into perplexities, but no sooner did he perceive that his conversation had inflicted on any a feeling or thought of sorrow than he lamented his inconsiderateness with tears. He determined again and again to talk more warily; the resolution was, however, soon forgotten, and succeeded by regret and repentance and renewed vows.

He was not rich; he often had nothing to give the poor but sympathy. Is not this often more grateful to the receiver, and always more honourable to the giver, than the pieces of gold extorted by misery from the coldness of pride and of affluence? Towards his friends and acquaintances he was kindness and urbanity itself. On one occasion a fire broke out in the neighbourhood of one of his connexions. Bogdanovich sprung from his bed, and, in spite of the bad weather and the distance, hurried to the assistance of his friend, clad only in his night garment.

His dwelling was with an estimable family, who treated him as a near and dear relative, and he returned their kindness with ever-active affection.

We must here linger a little on one mark of character, common indeed to all genuine poets;--a lively sensibility to female charms, a sensibility which has been the creator of some of the sweetest songs of the choir of bards. In one who, like Bogdanovich, was born to be the poet of the graces, this mighty sympathy could not but be early developed among the sensibilities of his character. In its origin it is timid and unpretending--in him it was peculiarly so. He saw, he felt, he supplicated, he blushed--and uttered his emotions in his harmonious songs. Stern indeed must have been the beauty that could not be moved by that melodious lyre!

In 1761 Bogdanovich was appointed inspector of the Moscow university, with the rank of officer. Soon after he was joined to the commission appointed to make the arrangements for celebrating the coronation of Catherine the Second, in Moscow. He was fixed on for preparing the inscriptions on the triumphal gates and arches. In 1763, through the recommendation of the Countess Dashkov, he was employed by Panin as a translator; and at this period he published a journal entitled, _Nevinnoe Uprashnenie_, Innocent Recreation, to which his protectress, and the protectress of literature, of native literature especially, most generously contributed. And now our poet soared in loftier flights: he translated most felicitously many of Voltaire’s poems, especially that on the Destruction of Lisbon, in which his version has added greatly to the beauty and the strength of the original. A number of pieces, distinguished for the exquisiteness of the feeling and the peculiar harmony of the expression, directed the public attention to him. Among these is that beautiful song to Climene:

Yes! since bliss is now my lot,
I will live to love thee, fairest:
Thou, that _I_ may live, wilt not
Now refuse to love me, dearest!

In 1765 he published a poem with the title, The Doubled Bliss. It is divided into three parts, the first of which is a description of the golden age; the second, a history of the progress of civilization and of knowledge, with pictures of the misdirection and misuse of the human passions; the last, on the salutary influence of laws and governments. This undertaking was too vast for the youthful strength of the poet. The work had some redeeming beauties, but it made little impression upon society in general. At this period, notwithstanding, the laurels were rapidly growing that were to crown the brow of Bogdanovich;--but those laurels were then unnoticed.

In 1766 he went with Count Beloselsky as secretary of legation to Dresden. The amiable character of this ambassador, the brilliant society which he took with him and gathered round him, the attractive and picturesque neighbourhood of his dwelling, and his high appreciation of the arts, made the poet’s abode so delightful to him that it left the fairest record on his memory, and produced a happy influence on the character of his writings. While he wandered enchanted on the flowery borders of the Elbe, whose nymphs, worthy of that magnificent stream, excited all the strength of his glowing fancy; while the works of Correggio, Rubens, and Paul Veronese charmed his eye and guided his mind in the beautiful creation of his _Dushenka_, which now engaged it; he was at the same time busied in writing a Description of Germany, and in all the duties of his office he united the charms of a man of the world, a friend of science, and a poet.

He left Dresden in 1768 and hastened back to his own country, devoting himself wholly to the cultivation of knowledge and the charms of song. He translated many articles from the _Encyclopédie_, Vertot’s History of the Changes of the Roman Republic, St. Pierre’s Treatise on Permanent Peace, and the Poem of an Italian writer, Michael Angelo Gignetti, then settled at Petersburg. The subject was Catherine the Great, which led to his introduction to that empress. He next published a periodical, of which sixteen numbers appeared (_Vœstnik Petersburgsky_); and at last, in 1775, he laid his beautiful poem _Dushenka_ on the altar of the Graces. He ever afterwards spoke with enthusiastic delight of that part of his life which had been employed in this work. His abode was then at Petersburg, on the _Vassiliostrov_, in a silent solitary dwelling, wholly rapt in poetry and music, enjoying an enviable and care-divested liberty. He had agreeable acquaintances;--he sometimes went out, but always to return with keener pleasure to a home where the muses welcomed him with renewed fondness, with hope and fancy’s fairest flowers. The tranquil, unuttered, unutterable joy of the poet is perhaps the sweetest and brightest that this world can witness. How triumphantly do the favoured sons of song scatter the misty shades of vanity and the more palpable array of earth-born passion! Who that ever tasted the charm of such enviable moments, does not turn away from the sparkling follies of the substantial world to the memory of those holy hours of rapture? One energetic and harmonious line--one well-conveyed emotion--a gentle, graceful transit from one thought to another--can fill the soul of the poet with innocent and natural delight, leaving behind it a soft and placid gladsomeness which will be doubly grateful if it can be participated by some sympathizing and sensible friend, who can enter into its enthusiasm and forgive its excess. It is indeed a guiltless and a spiritual joy, created by an effort, which effort is in itself enjoyment: and then it brings the prospect of the approbation, the encouragement of the wise and good!--But envy! envy!--the pitiful efforts of envy itself only make its triumphs the more splendid--they dash and murmur like the little waves against the firm foot of the mountain, on which true merit raises itself in its own majesty, for the glory of its country and of mankind.

The story of Psyche is one of the most attractive which has been handed down to us by classic mythology. It originally conveyed a beautiful and impressive allegory, whose charm has been obscured and whose interest almost lost in the many embellishments with which a series of poets have crowded the simple tale; a tale in fact only intended to describe the nuptials of the god of love with Psyche, and the consequent birth of the goddess of enjoyment: the obvious sense of which is, that when the soul is filled with love, it enjoys the highest possible portion of pleasure. From this unadorned fable Apuleius drew a charming story, more indeed like the fairy-tales of modern days than the μυθοι of the old Grecian age. On this production of Apuleius La Fontaine founded his fascinating Psyche, adding numberless beauties to his original, and delightfully mingling verse and prose--the strikingly impressive with the playfully good-humoured. To the Psyche of France we owe the Russian Dushenka; but our poet, though he never loses sight of his exemplar, goes onwards in his own path of flowers, and gathers many a one which the French poet overlooked or disregarded. La Fontaine has more of art--Bogdanovich of nature;--and the current of the latter flows in consequence more refreshingly. Besides, Dushenka is wholly in verse, and good verse is certainly greatly better than good prose, and rarer too. The most laborious efforts of art are also the most valued[2]; and thus it is that the purest and most harmonious prose can never give to a representation the energy or the interest which it may derive from the power of verse, to which indeed whatever is mysterious and supernatural more especially belongs. This La Fontaine constantly felt, and sought shelter for his highest efforts and sweetest fancies in the regions of song. How much better had he done, if he had made his Psyche a continuous poem! Bogdanovich’s Dushenka is so. Where exists the Russian who has not read Dushenka?

This production must not be weighed in the scales of Aristotle. It is a display of the powers of a gay and joyous imagination, directed by good taste. It is sportive, excursive, ingenuous, faithful:--Why must rules of art be intruded here?

[Karamsin then goes on to compare the French with the Russian fabulist, giving the most striking passages from the Dushenka, and “strewing,” as he says, “the grave of the poet with his own flowers.”]

Is it surprising that such a poem produced so great an impression? Six or seven sheets thrown uncalled for into the world, wholly changed the fate of the author. Catherine was then reigning in Russia. She saw, she admired the Dushenka--sent for the poet, and inquired of him how she could gratify him.--It was enough--who doubts the taste of a sovereign? Nobles and courtiers learnt Dushenka by heart, each rivalling the rest in the attentions showered upon the author. Epistles, odes, and madrigals in his honour were scattered profusely. He was mounted above the clouds.--Alas! that the destructive influence of such distinctions should have overshadowed him in the brightest epoch of his poetic talents. He was thirty years old--he abandoned the muses--and the garland woven for him by his Dushenka was the only one that encircled his brow in his listless lethargy. It is an imperishable wreath, no doubt, but the friends of poetry mourn that it should have satisfied him. Even the thirst for fame may be quenched. Our poet afterwards wrote much, but against his own will and against the will of his inspiring genius. Perhaps he would set up no rival to his beloved Dushenka.

From 1775 to 1789 he published the following works: Historical Description of Russia--an imperfect essay, which however is very well written; only the first volume appeared. A Comedy in verse--The Joy of Dushenka;--The Sclavonian Woman, and two dramatised proverbs. Catherine encouraged him to write for the stage, and sent him _brilliant_ presents on the production of these pieces. The Sclavonian piece made a strong impression. It represents the festivities with which the old Sclavonians welcomed the return of the twenty-fifth year of the reign of their “Great Princes,” and it was produced just at the period when Catherine had swayed the Russian sceptre for a quarter of a century.

At the request of the Empress he also published a collection of Russian proverbs, and wrote some small poems in the _Sobesœdnik_, The Companion, a weekly periodical, which appeared at Petersburg in 1788 and 9. Many of these graceful trifles are full of wit and gaiety, and the song “I’m fourteen summers old,” &c. (p. 168) has become one of the most popular national songs in Russia. He also translated at this time the best eulogiums, such as Voltaire’s and Marmontel’s, on the Empress, and the compositions lost nothing of their effect in being thus transferred to our language.

In the poet let us not forget the man. He was made associate of the Archives at Petersburg in 1780, and in 1788 was elected president. In 1795 he was dismissed from service, in which he had been engaged forty-one years. The salary was continued to him in the form of a pension. He left Petersburg the following year. The then unfortunate state of Europe--those dreadful revolutions which shook individuals as well as nations, added to many personal sorrows, excited in his sensitive mind the ardent longing after a peaceful solitude. A beautiful climate--the sweet recollections of youth--the bonds of early friendship and of brotherhood--invited him to the fair fields of Little Russia. He went to Sumii, intending to glide calmly and silently through the evening of life, in the circle of his connections, and reposing on the bosom of nature. The first weeks and months he passed in those retreats were ineffably happy. His spirits had never been so free and so tranquil. No phantoms disturbed his peace. A pure conscience, the recollections of fifty years passed in unbroken but serene activity--a poetical but strong mind--an active strength of fancy--an excellent library--the friendliest union with good men and beloved relatives--and the uniformity of an ingenuous and happy life, a life which had been so full of allurements--these were the sources of that happiness which he here enjoyed--a real enviable happiness, such as is sought by all, who amidst the world’s tumultuousness strive after their own fame, and their fellow-creatures’ well-being;--that happiness _he_ had sighed after to decorate the peaceful though sometimes gloomy days of eventide:--but “In this world where shall peace be found?”

And Bogdanovich did not enjoy it long:--An unfortunate attachment drove him from the haven where he deemed himself to be safely anchored from all the storms of life. He abandoned friends, relatives, the silent abodes of peace and happiness, that he might fly from this ever-ruling passion. In the years when the sun of life sinks rapidly towards its setting, and the calm of nature seems to invite to closer communion with what is left of earthly pleasure, it is then the passions are most terrible.--Youth is supported by hope--but age has no such stay. It hears alone the strong voice of reason, which will not approve of the useless murmurs against destiny. Every heart that can feel will look with sorrow on this period of our poet’s existence.

In the year 1798 he again returned to Kursk, in whose neighbourhood he had long been wandering. Alexander mounted the Russian throne. And when every eye of patriotism, bright with hope and joy, was turned upon the young monarch, Bogdanovich again seized his long neglected lyre, and received from the Emperor a ring as the token of his approval. The poet of Dushenka had had the honour of gratifying Catherine the Great; should not her illustrious grandson deign also to honour him?

The health of Bogdanovich had been always indifferent; in the beginning of December, 1802, it began visibly to decay, and on the 6th of January, 1803, he died, mourned by his acquaintances and friends, and by every friend of the literature of his country; for he had not yet attained those venerable years when the last and only blessing which heaven can confer on the son of mortality is to soothe and brighten his passage to the realms of eternity.

It is said that the character of an author is best painted in his works; but it is surely safer to take into account the opinions and observations of those who knew him best. And here then we must listen to the unvarying voice of praise. All speak of his meekness, his feeling heart, his unselfishness, and that innocent gaiety which played around him to the end of his days, and gave a peculiar charm to his society. He had no pride of authorship. He seldom spoke of literature or of poetry, and always with an unaffected modesty, which seemed to have been born with him. He loved not criticism, which often destroys even the honestest self-complacency, and he often confessed that its severity would have driven him wholly away from the exercises of his pen.

His memory will be cherished by his friends and the friends of Russian genius; and the sweet--the feeling--the acute--the joyous poet of Dushenka will be honoured by the future age.

KHEMNITZER.

Ivan Ivanovich Khemnitzer was born of German parents at Petersburg, in the year 1744. His father was of Saxon origin, and was attached as physician to the country hospital of the Russian capital. From parents of distinguished excellence our poet received the elements of a careful education. It was his father’s wish that his son should succeed him in his profession, but the unconquerable aversion of the latter to the study of anatomy could never be subdued. He was enrolled in consequence when thirteen years old in the regiment of guards, as sub-officer, and made two campaigns against the Prussians and the Turks. This, however, as he was wont to say, was “out of the rain into the river”--from the theatre of anatomy to the martyr-chamber of surgery. He became in consequence an engineer in the Berg cadet corps, having obtained the rank of lieutenant in the Russian service. He won the love and the confidence of all his superiors by his activity and uprightness. In the year 1776, he accompanied one of his superior officers through Germany, Holland, and France; and after his return to his country applied himself ardently to his literary labours. In 1778 he published the first volume of his fables; and on its reaching a second edition about three years afterwards, he added to it another volume. One of his particular friends and protectors quitting the service at this period, he determined to do the same. He had no means of living independently of his salary, and being compelled to look round him for another engagement, he soon obtained the consul-generalship of Smirna. The emoluments attached to this office led him to hope that in the progress of a few years he should be enabled to retire comfortably from active life, and this hope induced him to accept an office which banished him from his country. That country he abandoned with a heavy heart; and on separating from his friends, whom he loved with indescribable affection, he seemed to sink under the thought that he was bidding them a final farewell. In the autumn of 1782 he reached Smirna;--indisposition greeted him on his arrival. The climate was perhaps unfriendly; but his mind was more keenly affected by his exile from that society in which he had so long breathed and lived, and which had become a necessary element of his existence. He struggled long against his illness:--it subdued him in the spring of 1784.

This is a short outline of the serene and unpretending career of an excellent man and an admirable poet, whose manners were as ingenuous and unobtrusive as his life. In many respects he may be compared to La Fontaine, his pattern and forerunner. The same goodness of heart, the same blind confidence in his friends, the same carelessness and inoffensiveness, and the same absence of mind, which formed the prominent features of La Fontaine’s character, were developed with singular fidelity in that of Khemnitzer. Of the last trait we will give an example or two. When in Paris he once went to see the representation of Tancred. On Le Cain’s appearance, he was so struck with the noble and majestic presence of that renowned actor, that he rose from his seat and bowed with lowly reverence. An universal roar of laughter brought him back to himself. One morning a friend, for whom he had the highest regard, related to him an interesting piece of news. Khemnitzer dined with him afterwards, and as a piece of remarkable intelligence narrated to his host that which his host had before communicated to him. His friend reminded him of his forgetfulness. Khemnitzer was greatly distressed, and in his perplexity, instead of his handkerchief, he put his host’s napkin into his pocket. On rising from table Khemnitzer endeavoured to slip away unobserved; his friend saw him, followed him, and tried to detain him. Khemnitzer reproached him for unveiling his weaknesses, and would not listen to any entreaties. “Leave my napkin then, at least, which you pocketed at table,” said the other. Khemnitzer drew it forth, and stood like a statue. The loud laugh of the company recovered him from his trance, and with the utmost good nature he joined in the general mirth.

A very handsome edition of his fables was published in Petersburg, 1799, under the title _Basni i Skaski I. I. Khemnitzera v Trekh Chastœkh_, Khemnitzer’s Fables and Tales. The third part consists of posthumous fables, printed for the first time in this edition.

In Germany the works of Khemnitzer have been often spoken of as models and master-pieces[3]. Some of them are imitations of La Fontaine, some of Gellert[4], but they are principally original. They are remarkable for their purity of style--genuine Russian character--their _naïveté_ and descriptive charms--their poetical smoothness--their singular simplicity--and an original epigrammatic wit, most felicitously applied.

KOSTROV.

Ermil Ivanovich Kostrov was born in the Vjetskish province. His father was a vassal of the crown. He received the first part of his education in the common school of his neighbourhood, and, in consequence of his display of talent, was sent to the Moscow university, where he obtained the rank of bachelor of arts, and was advanced to the post of provincial secretary in 1782. He died on the 9th of December, 1796. A collection of his poetry, which had been scattered in different publications, was made in 1802 in two volumes. His translations, which are much admired, are Homer’s Iliad, of which the seventh, eighth, and ninth books were first printed in the European Herald, _Vœstnik Evropĭ_. It is said he offered the last six books to a bookseller, and the liberal tradesman offering him only one hundred and fifty rubles (about 7_l._ 10_s._ sterling) for his labours, the offended poet threw the translation into the fire. The first six books are the only ones which have been collected. _Apuleev Solotoi Osel_, Apuleius’s Golden Ass; Ossian, from a French version, on which he has greatly improved; _Elvir i Zenotemsh_, a Poem of Ardouro; and Voltaire’s Tactique in verse.

KARAMSIN.

Nicolai Michaelovich Karamsin was born in the province of Limbersk on the 1st of December, 1765. His earliest instructor was Professor Schaden, of Moscow, from whose care he was removed to the university of that place. In 1789-91 he travelled through central Europe, and published in 1791 and 1801 his _Pi’sma Russkago Puteshestvennika_, Letters of a Russian Traveller, which have been translated into English. He took up his abode at Moscow on his return, and was appointed the imperial historiographer in 1803. From his earliest youth he exhibited a striking fondness for literary pursuits, and a great number of his translations were printed in the Journal _Dœtskoechenie_, Children’s Reading Book. The Idyl _Derevannaje_, The Wooden Foot, was published in 1787. In the years 1792 and 1793 he published the _Moskovskij Zhurnal_, Moscow Journal, in eight volumes. In 1794, two parts of _Aglaia_, In 1797-8 and 9, a Collection of Poems, entitled _Lonidĭ_. In 1798, his _Panteon Inostrannoi Slovesnosti_, Pantheon of Foreign Literature, in three parts. In 1802-3, _Vœstnik Evropĭ_, European Herald, in twelve volumes. His compositions which were printed in the newspapers at Moscow, he published in 1794 with the title _Moi Besdœlki_, My Trifles. Besides these, have been published his _Rosgavor o Shchastii_, Discourse on Happiness; 1798, _Julia_, a Tale; and _Pokhval’noe slovo Ekaterinœ Velikoi_, Eulogium on Catherine the Great. In 1804 a collection of his works was printed in eight volumes. His great work, The History of Russia, has been mentioned elsewhere in this volume.

ZHUKOVSKY.

Vassilj Andrejevich Zhukovsky was born in 1783. He was educated in the public school at Tula and in the Moscow University, which he left in 1803. He held afterwards an appointment from the Russian government. In 1808 and 1809 he edited the _Vœstnik Evropĭ_, European Herald, in which he was afterwards joined by Kachenovsky. He has translated Florian’s Don Quixote into Russian, and published in 1810-11, the best collection of Russian poetry I am acquainted with, _Sobranie Rushkikh Stikhotvorenii_, in 5 vols. Most of his productions were originally printed in the above periodical. Of his poetical compositions, the most esteemed are _Marina Roshcha_, Mary’s Goat, a tale; The _Moje Boginje_, My Goddess, from Göthe: _Liudmilla_, and _Dvenadtzat Spjeshchikh Dœv_, The twelve sleeping Virgins.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A Periodical Journal.--See p. 238.

[2] This is a maxim of the French school, and a very untenable one. The characteristic of eminent genius is, that it produces the same and even greater effect without laborious effort, which inferior merit requires intense application to accomplish.

[3] In No. 22 of the “_Freimüthigen_,” Kluschin speaks very approvingly of the fables of Khemnitzer, and gives as an example “The Lion’s mandate.” In a following number an anonymous writer claims this fable for La Fontaine. It is singular enough that the Russian copy was never written by Khemnitzer, though it was published in a volume of his fables, but under the title of _Chuzhiiæ Basni_, Fables by other Authors.

[4] The imitations are always distinguished in the index from the originals.

LONDON:
PRINTED BY R. AND A. TAYLOR,
SHOE LANE.

Transcriber’s Notes

‣ Italics represented by surrounding _underscores_.

‣ Small caps converted to ALL CAPS.

‣ Footnotes renumbered consecutively within each chapter and moved
to the end of those respective chapters.

‣ Obvious typographic errors silently corrected.

‣ Variations in hypenation and spelling kept as in the original.

‣ Duplicate chapter titles omitted.