The name of Vadim's grand-aunt, Baroness Bredow, and of
Vadim's first cousin, Ada Bredow, seems to be connected to bred
(delirium) in Annenski's poem "The Bow and the Strings" included in
Kiparisovyi larets ("The Cypress Box", 1910).
Annenski's Cypress Box is actually a coffin.
Grob (coffin) is mentioned by Mephistopheles in
Pushkin's Stsena iz Fausta ("A Scene from Faust," 1825):
И всяк зевает да
живёт —
И всех вас гроб, зевая,
ждёт.
And everybody yawns but lives,
and a coffin, yawning, waits you all.
According to Mephistopheles, Faust called him out, like
an harlequin, from the fire:
Но — помнится —
тогда со скуки,
Как арлекина, из
огня
Ты вызвал наконец
меня.
In Pushkin's poem Mephistopheles says: ty
bredish', Faust, nayavu (Faust, you are
day-dreaming).
The name of Vadim's second wife, Annette Blagovo, seems to
refer to blagovonie (fragrance) in Pushkin's poem Vertograd moey
sestry... ("My sister's garden..." 1825):
Вертоград моей сестры,
Вертоград
уединенный;
Чистый ключ у ней с
горы
Не бежит запечатленный.
У меня плоды блестят
Наливные,
золотые;
У меня бегут, шумят
Воды чистые, живые.
Нард, алой
и киннамон
Благовонием
богаты:
Лишь повеет аквилон,
И закаплют ароматы.
Garden of my sister,
secluded garden;
No clear spring
there
runs down, captured from the mountains.
In my garden gleam
fruits
golden and ready to eat;
In my garden runs noisily
clear,
living water.
Spikenard, aloe and cinnamon,
rich in fragrance:
So long
as the aquilon wind is blowing,
the aromas will spread!
Miss Vertograd
is a character in VN's Ada, Demon's librarian. The novel's main
characters, the lovers Van and Ada are brother and sister. Ada
corresponds to Ardis (1970), Vadim's novel about a pair of passionate
siblings.
Alexey Sklyarenko