Many readers of "The Event" and those who saw Annenkov's stage
version of VN's play, including Khodasevich, were puzzled by
Vagabundova's rhymed speech.
In his "Святочная шутка" (A
Christmas-Tide Joke, 1830) Vyazemski asks a young woman who traveled in
Europe if she saw the devil, if the devil spoke to her in verses or talked
nonsense in prose:
Что, говорил ли он стихами
Иль чертовщину
прозой драл?
Barboshin talks nonsense in prose, but he quotes the poet
Apollon Grigor'yev: "Но вы так хороши, и ночь такая
лунная, что я как-то стесняюсь поднимать этот вопрос." ("The
Event," Act Three)
In his article in memory of A. S. Suvorin's second wife
(Suvorin's first wife was shot dead by her lover) Amfiteatrov mentions
Apollon Grigor'yev calling him романтик-вагабунд
(a vagabond romantic).
Alexey Sklyarenko