The scion of a princely family devoted to a gallery of a dozen
Tsars, my father resided on the idyllic outskirts of history. (LATH,
2.5)
At least one of the Tsars to whom Vadim's ancestors were
devoted was an harlequin:
Напрасно видишь тут ошибку:
Рука искусства
навела
На мрамор этих уст улыбку,
А гнев на хладный лоск чела.
Недаром
лик сей двуязычен.
Таков и был сей властелин:
К противочувствиям
привычен,
В лице и в жизни арлекин.
(Pushkin, K byustu zavoevatelya, "To the Bust of a
Conquerer", 1828-29. According to the poet, the tsar Alexander I, whose bust was
made by Thorvaldsen, was an harlequin in his face and in his life.)
Speaking of Fonfizin (the author of Nedorosl', "The
Minor"): in his EO Commentary (vol. II, p. 82) VN misspels the title
of Fonfizin's fable Lisitsa kaznodey ("Fox the Preacher",
1774; kázan', kázanie means in some dialects "sermon") as
Lisitsa koznodey (most editions of Fonfizin's Works have it
wrong!) mistranslating it (in the Index) as Reynard
the Schemer. Even VN nods (I notice that Dahl in his Dictionary makes
the same mistake). Btw., Pushkin is the author of Ten' Fonfizina
("Fonvizin's Shade", 1815), a satirical poem quoted by VN in EO Commentary
(vol. III, p. 141).
Alexey Sklyarenko