Subject
Meshaev the Second
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Date
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Meshaev, the name of the twins in "The Event," comes from meshat', "to prevent; hinder; disturb." This verb is used by a character (who becomes the victim of an attempt) in Gorky's play "Враги" ("The Enemies"):*
Михаил. Глубоко убежден, что всё на земле создано затем, чтобы нарушать его интересы. Всё ему мешает — солнце, Англия, новые машины, лягушки... (Everything disturbs Pologiy: the sun, England, new machines,** frogs; Act One)
Another character in Gorky's play compares Pologyi ("Mr. Gently-Sloping") to komar (a mosquito):
Аграфена. Да перестаньте, Пологий... точно вы не человек, а комар...
In Speak, Memory VN mentions the terrible winter mosquitoes ("satanic insects") in Mentone (where "The Event" was written). Besides, one Komarov killed Suvorin's first wife and then shot himself dead (see my article "Barboshin instead of Barbashin...").
Barboshin insists that Meshaev the Second (who denies it) is left-handed (levsha). The characters in "The Enemies" include one Levshin (the name comes from levsha; cf. Revshin, a character in "The Event"). Levshin has a bald spot, and Meshaev the Second admits that his bald spot is more spacious than that of his brother. Among Levshin's fellow workers is one Grekov. Tamara Georgievna Grekov, a blond of twenty-three with a lap-dog who lives in the same street as the Troshcheykin-Opayashin family, was involved, according to Barboshin, in the ultraadulter of the B type, series 18 ("The Event," Act Three).
There are other affinities between VN's play and that of Gorky:
Трощейкин. А... Ну, знаешь... Ах, Люба, Люба, я тебе тысячу раз говорил, что нельзя так жить, в сослагательном наклонении. Ну - пять, ну - ещё пять, ну - ещё... А потом было бы ему пятнадцать, он бы курил, хамил, прыщавел и заглядывал за дамские декольте. ("The Event," Act One)
Михаил. Вы думаете? Уважаемая Полина Дмитриевна, когда дети малы, они все забавные, но постепенно они растут, и однажды — мы встречаемся с большими мерзавцами... (Troshcheykin's thought that children when they grow up can become very unpleasant is expressed less vulgarly; "The Enemies," Act One)
*In VN's play (Act Three), Antonina Pavlovna has to explain to Meshaev the Second that "Aleksei Maksimovich" has enemies (враги) and fears an attempt upon his life.
**Meshaev the Second, who lives in the country, came to the city to buy a tractor.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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Михаил. Глубоко убежден, что всё на земле создано затем, чтобы нарушать его интересы. Всё ему мешает — солнце, Англия, новые машины, лягушки... (Everything disturbs Pologiy: the sun, England, new machines,** frogs; Act One)
Another character in Gorky's play compares Pologyi ("Mr. Gently-Sloping") to komar (a mosquito):
Аграфена. Да перестаньте, Пологий... точно вы не человек, а комар...
In Speak, Memory VN mentions the terrible winter mosquitoes ("satanic insects") in Mentone (where "The Event" was written). Besides, one Komarov killed Suvorin's first wife and then shot himself dead (see my article "Barboshin instead of Barbashin...").
Barboshin insists that Meshaev the Second (who denies it) is left-handed (levsha). The characters in "The Enemies" include one Levshin (the name comes from levsha; cf. Revshin, a character in "The Event"). Levshin has a bald spot, and Meshaev the Second admits that his bald spot is more spacious than that of his brother. Among Levshin's fellow workers is one Grekov. Tamara Georgievna Grekov, a blond of twenty-three with a lap-dog who lives in the same street as the Troshcheykin-Opayashin family, was involved, according to Barboshin, in the ultraadulter of the B type, series 18 ("The Event," Act Three).
There are other affinities between VN's play and that of Gorky:
Трощейкин. А... Ну, знаешь... Ах, Люба, Люба, я тебе тысячу раз говорил, что нельзя так жить, в сослагательном наклонении. Ну - пять, ну - ещё пять, ну - ещё... А потом было бы ему пятнадцать, он бы курил, хамил, прыщавел и заглядывал за дамские декольте. ("The Event," Act One)
Михаил. Вы думаете? Уважаемая Полина Дмитриевна, когда дети малы, они все забавные, но постепенно они растут, и однажды — мы встречаемся с большими мерзавцами... (Troshcheykin's thought that children when they grow up can become very unpleasant is expressed less vulgarly; "The Enemies," Act One)
*In VN's play (Act Three), Antonina Pavlovna has to explain to Meshaev the Second that "Aleksei Maksimovich" has enemies (враги) and fears an attempt upon his life.
**Meshaev the Second, who lives in the country, came to the city to buy a tractor.
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/