Just before the execution in VN’s novel Priglashenie na kazn’ (“Invitation to a Beheading,” 1935) the deputy city director mentions a comic opera Sokratis’, Sokratik (Socrates Must Decrease):
На помост, ловко и энергично (так что Цинциннат невольно отшатнулся), вскочил заместитель управляющего городом и, небрежно поставив одну, высоко поднятую ногу на плаху (был мастер непринужденного красноречия), громко объявил:
- Горожане! Маленькое замечание. За последнее время на наших улицах наблюдается стремление некоторых лиц молодого поколения шагать так скоро, что нам, старикам, приходится сторониться и попадать в лужи. Я еще хочу сказать, что послезавтра на углу Первого бульвара и Бригадирной открывается выставка мебели, и я весьма надеюсь, что всех вас увижу там. Напоминаю также, что сегодня вечером идет с громадным успехом злободневности опера-фарс "Сократись, Сократик". Меня ещё просят вам сообщить, что на Киферский Склад доставлен большой выбор дамских кушаков и предложение может не повториться. Теперь уступаю место другим исполнителям и надеюсь, горожане, что вы все в добром здравии и ни в чём не нуждаетесь.
Nimbly and energetically (so that Cincinnatus involuntarily recoiled) the deputy city director jumped up on the platform, and casually placing one high-raised foot on the block (he was a master of relaxed eloquence) proclaimed in a loud voice:
‘Townspeople! One brief remark. Lately in our streets a tendency has been observed on the part of certain individuals of the younger generation to walk so fast that we oldsters must move aside and step into puddles. I would also like to say that after tomorrow a furniture exhibit will open at the comer of First Boulevard and Brigadier Street and I sincerely hope to see all of you there. I also remind you that tonight, there will be given with sensational success the new comic opera). I have also been asked to tell you that the Kifer Distributing Centre has received a large selection of ladies’ belts, and the offer may not be repeated. Now make way for other performers and hope, townspeople, that you are all in good health and lack nothing. (Chapter XX)
Sokratik is a diminutive of Sokrat (Socrates in Russian spelling), “little Socrates.” In Scylla and Charybdis, episode 9 of Joyce’s Ulysses (1922), Stephen Dedalus mentions Socratididion's Epipsychidion:
John Eglinton looked in the tangled glowworm of his lamp.
— The world believes that Shakespeare made a mistake, he said, and got out of it as quickly and as best he could.
— Bosh! Stephen said rudely. A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.
Portals of discovery opened to let in the quaker librarian, softcreakfooted, bald, eared and assiduous.
— A shrew, John Eglinton said shrewdly, is not a useful portal of discovery, one should imagine. What useful discovery did Socrates learn from Xanthippe?
— Dialectic, Stephen answered: and from his mother how to bring thoughts into the world. What he learnt from his other wife Myrto (absit nomen!), Socratididion's Epipsychidion, no man, not a woman, will ever know. But neither the midwife's lore nor the caudlelectures saved him from the archons of Sinn Fein and their naggin of hemlock.
— But Ann Hathaway? Mr Best's quiet voice said forgetfully. Yes, we seem to be forgetting her as Shakespeare himself forgot her.
His look went from brooder's beard to carper's skull, to remind, to chide them not unkindly, then to the baldpink lollard costard, guiltless though maligned.
Socratididion is a diminutive of Socrates, frequently translated as "sweet Socrates." In Aristophanes' comedy The Clouds (423 B.C.) a country bumpkin whose prodigal son has taken to gambling comes to Socrates to learn "the unjust logic that can shirk debts" (i.e., sophistry). When Socrates enters overhead in a basket (symbolic of his remoteness from worldly concerns), the countryman calls: "Socrates, Socratididion." Epipsychidion (1821) is a poem by P. B. Shelley. Its title is a coined word (Greek) usually translated as "this soul out of my soul." The poem articulates Shelley's concept of "true love," a transcendental (from Shelley's point of view, Platonic) identification with a sister spirit.
Socrates died in prison, in 399 BC, aged around 71, by drinking hemlock poison. Sokratis’, Sokratik clearly hints not only at Socrates’ death, but also at "Socrates, Socratididion” (the countryman’s words in Aristophanes' Clouds). Socrates' mother, Phaenarete, was a midwife (Plato describes Socrates' behavior in a dialogue as "midwifery," since Socrates seemed to help his students "give birth" to understanding that they in fact already possessed before the dialogue began). In VN’s novel Cecilia C. (Cincinnatus’ mother who visits her son in the fortress) is a midwife.
On his way to Interesnaya ploshchad’ (Thriller Square), the site of the execution, Cincinnatus looks at the white clouds that move jerkily across the whole sky:
Где-то впереди духовой оркестр нажаривал марш "Голубчик". Через все небо подвигались толчками белые облака, - по-моему, они повторяются, по-моему, их только три типа, по-моему, все это сетчато и с подозрительной прозеленью...
Somewhere ahead a brass band was scorching away at the march Golubchik. White clouds moved jerkily across the whole sky — I think the same ones pass over and over again, I think there are only three kinds, I think it is all stage-setting, with a suspicious green tinge… (Chapter XX)
In VN's story Oblako, ozero, bashnya ("Cloud, Castle, Lake," 1937) Vasiliy Ivanovich says that he does not want to return to Berlin and mentions priglashenie na kazn':
-- Я буду жаловаться, -- завопил Василий Иванович. -- Отдайте мне мой мешок. Я вправе остаться где желаю. Да ведь это какое-то приглашение
на казнь, -- будто добавил он, когда его подхватили под руки.
"I shall complain," wailed Vasiliy Ivanovich. ‘Give me back my bag. I have the right to remain where I want. Oh, but this is nothing less than an invitation to a beheading’ — he told me he cried when they seized him by the arms.
The third word in the title of VN's story, bashnya is Russian for "tower." In Ulysses the action begins in the tower where Stephen Dedalus lives. Joyce's novel takes place during one ordinary day. In Quercus, the novel that Cincinnatus reads in the fortress, the action takes place during at least six hundred years.
On the other hand, Sokratis’, Sokratik brings to mind Olga Sokratovna, the name and patronymic of N. G. Chernyshevsky’s wife. Fyodor’s book Zhizn’ Chernyshevskogo (“The Life of Chernyshevsky”) is Part Four of VN’s novel Dar (“The Gift,” 1937). The title of Chernyshevsky’s novel Chto delat’ (“What to Do?” 1864) written in the Peter-and-Paul Fortress reminds one of chik-chik delat’ (to do chop-chop), a phrase used by M’sieur Pierre (the executioner) in Invitation to a Beheading:
Красиво подрумяненный м-сье Пьер поклонился, сдвинув лакированные голенища, и сказал смешным тонким голосом:
-- Экипаж подан, пожалте.
-- Куда? -- спросил Цинциннат, действительно не сразу понявший, так был уверен, что непременно на рассвете.
-- Куда, куда... -- передразнил его м-сье Пьер, -- известно куда. Чик-чик делать.
Attractively rouged M’sieur Pierre bowed, bringing together his patent-leather boot tops, and said in a comic falsetto:
‘The carriage is waiting, if you please, sir.’
‘Where are we going?’ asked Cincinnatus, genuinely not understanding at first, so convinced had he been that it must happen at dawn.
‘Where, where . . M’sieur Pierre mimicked him. ‘You know where. Off to do chop-chop.’ (Chapter XIX)
In Chekhov’s play Chayka (“The Seagull,” 1896) Arkadina asks her son Treplev (who already attempted to commit suicide), if in her absence he opyat’ ne sdelaet chik-chik (is not up to any more of these silly tricks):
Аркадина. Садись. (Снимает у него с головы повязку.) Ты как в чалме. Вчера один приезжий спрашивал на кухне, какой ты национальности. А у тебя почти совсем зажило. Остались самые пустяки. (Целует его в голову.) А ты без меня опять не сделаешь чик-чик?
Треплев. Нет, мама. То была минута безумного отчаяния, когда я не мог владеть собою. Больше это не повторится. (Целует ей руку.) У тебя золотые руки. Помню, очень давно, когда ты еще служила на казенной сцене — я тогда был маленьким, — у нас во дворе была драка, сильно побили жилицу-прачку. Помнишь? Её подняли без чувств… ты все ходила к ней, носила лекарства, мыла в корыте её детей. Неужели не помнишь?
Аркадина. Нет. (Накладывает новую повязку.)
Треплев. Две балерины жили тогда в том же доме, где мы… Ходили к тебе кофе пить…
ARKADINA. Sit down. [She takes the bandage off his head] You look as if you had a turban on. A stranger that was in the kitchen yesterday asked to what nationality you belonged. Your wound is almost healed. [She kisses his head] You won't be up to any more of these silly tricks again, will you, when I am gone?
TREPLEV. No, mother. I did that in a moment of insane despair, when I had lost all control over myself. It will never happen again. [He kisses her hand] Your touch is golden. I remember when you were still acting at the State Theatre, long ago, when I was still a little chap, there was a fight one day in our court, and a poor washerwoman was almost beaten to death. She was picked up unconscious, and you nursed her till she was well, and bathed her children in the washtubs. Have you forgotten it?
ARKADINA. Yes, entirely. [She puts on a new bandage.]
TREPLEV. Two ballerinas lived in the same house, and they used to come and drink coffee with you. (Act Three)
In a letter of Feb. 18, 1889, to Leontiev-Shcheglov (a fellow writer who nicknamed Chekhov Potyomkin) Chekhov says that he is not Potyomkin, but Cincinnatus:
Голова моя занята мыслями о лете и даче. Денно и нощно мечтаю о хуторе. Я не Потёмкин, а Цинцинат. Лежанье на сене и пойманный на удочку окунь удовлетворяют моё чувство гораздо осязательнее, чем рецензии и аплодирующая
галерея. Я, очевидно, урод и плебей.
In Pushkin's Table-Talk (1835-36) there are several anecdotes about Prince Potyomkin (a favorite of the Empress Catherine II, mother of Paul I). The surname Potyomkin comes from potyomki (darkness) and brings to mind the saying chuzhaya dusha - potyomki (you cannot read in another's soul). Cincinnatus was sentenced to death because others (all of whom are transparent to each other) cannot see through him.
It seems that the original Russian title of VN’s novel, Priglashenie na kazn' (Invitation to an Execution), can be traced back to a line in an old anonymous poem about Gatchina, the residence of the Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich (in 1796-1801 Paul I, the Emperor of Russia):
В старом замке трясётся за шкафом скелет
и капрал заряжает свой старый мушкет,
куртизанке амур шепчет про короля;
на весёлую казнь приглашают меня.
In the old castle a skeleton shivers behind the closet
and a corporal loads his old musket.
To a courtesan a cupid whispers about the king.
They invite me to a merry execution.
Btw., M'sieur Pierre also brings to mind rue Monsieur-le-Prince (infamous for its brothels) in Paris mentioned by Stephen Dedalus in the same episode 9 (Scylla and Charybdis) of Joyce's novel:
Are you condemned to do this?
— They are sundered by a bodily shame so steadfast that the criminal annals of the world, stained with all other incests and bestialities, hardly record its breach. Sons with mothers, sires with daughters, lesbic sisters, loves that dare not speak their name, nephews with grandmothers, jailbirds with keyholes, queens with prize bulls. The son unborn mars beauty: born, he brings pain, divides affection, increases care. He is a male: his growth is his father's decline, his youth his father's envy, his friend his father's enemy.
In rue Monsieur-le-Prince I thought it.
In his Parizhskaya poema ("The Paris Poem," 1943) VN mentions Boulevard Arago (where until quite recently "public decapitations took place in Paris, with local grocers getting the closest view of a reasonably sensational but generally rather messy show"):
Бродит боль позвонка перебитого
в чёрных дебрях Бульвар Араго.