|
From A Literary History of Russia, Aleksander Brückner 1905 (Engl. trans. 1908)
At the beginning of the seventeenth century it seemed certainly as if there would be no need of Kiev intervention to introduce Western life, art, and knowledge into Moscow. The native dynasty had died out, the Tartar scion—Boris, after setting aside the last heir to the throne (Demetrius), had himself elected Tsar and anointed ; and although he trod wholly in the footsteps of the late rulers, posed as quite as pious and proceeded quite as ruthlessly against all " suspicious folk," exerted himself honestly for Russia's prosperity, and to please the nobility deprived the peasants of their right of transfer, he seems to have anticipated the needs of the new age and to have been more ready to make concessions to them. But he was allowed no time to do so : a conspiracy set up against him a supposed son of Ivàn, that Demetrius whom he had had murdered at Úglich, and, supported by Polish and Cossack help as well as by the discontented peasants flocking to him, Grishka Otrépiev entered Moscow as Tsar Dmitri.
The former pupil of Moscow monastic schools had in the best years of his youth sojourned in Kiev and Volhynia, consorted with religious freethinkers or Arians, and allowed the splendour of Polish life and customs to have its effect on him ;
of his having in Poland gone over to Catholicism people certainly knew nothing at Moscow ; his autograph declaration to the Pope has recently come to light out of the Vatican archives. What a century later Peter the Great was only to carry through with the help of iron determination and most terrible cruelty the frivolous youth thought that he could do in sport. He fell—not because of the falseness of his birth, for that point was quite secondary, and has been made prominent by Schiller quite contrary to the facts. Even the most genuine scion of Rurik would infallibly have come to grief over roast veal, table music, and not washing oneself in the " bànya " before going to church. In spite of his vanity Demetrius was really eager to know and thirsted for European knowledge, and the Jesuits who accompanied him could not serve him fast enough in that respect : he contemplated the immediate opening of High Schools in Moscow, even if he fetched the scholars at first from abroad. By this over-great eagerness for what was new, which did not go hand in hand with the necessary strictness and seriousness, he dug his own grave, wounded the religious feelings of his subjects, the only ones that they had, and irritated them into revolts which with his leniency and want of foresight had only too easy work of it. The attempt to let in freely the customs and knowledge of the West through widely opened gates was destined to fail this time. Nay, in consequence of fresh conflicts, of the threatening of Russian independence by the possibility of a Polish domination, which was only prevented by the putting forth of the whole powers of the nation, an orthodox reaction developed . . . ; the exceptional activity of the years 1603-13 caused indeed a whole flood of writings and counter-writings to appear, in which often among the tawdry phrases of ecclesiastical eloquence the basis of facts was there, though obscured as much as possible, but soon everything seemed to fall back into the old dead grooves. What fanatical intolerance and ignorance still prevailed was shown at the Moscow Synod of 1618. The Abbot of the Trinity Monastery, Dionysius, had been entrusted with the " purging " of the text
of a Book of Ritual : after a year and a half's work he handed it to the Deputy Metropolitan. He had on the strength of old MSS. and Greek texts made many corrections ; amongst others in the prayer for the consecration of water had had set aside an absurd addition to " Enlighten this water with Thy spirit "—" and fire," because it was wanting in the Greek original and in good Slavonic texts. For this he was found guilty of heresy, excommunicated, starved and smoked, and flogged. On holy days he was brought in chains before the Metropolitan, then tied up in the courtyard and exposed to the mockings and blows of the populace. Only by energetic intercession with the Tsar and Patriarch the Patriarch of Jerusalem saved the hapless man, whom they at the same time made to expiate other equally uncommitted sins.
Naturally Moscow Orthodoxy met the Kiev people also with similar mistrust : when one of them laid his newly worked out catechism before the Moscovites, he and his work failed to stand the test ; he had amongst other things included in it an explanation of clouds, storms, and the like, which they rejected as " Hellenic," heathen, and Aristotelian subtleties. To his indignant rejoinder " How then could the matter be explained ?" they referred him to the work of the angels ascending and descending . . .
Even in the last decades of the century Moscow presented in many ways a replica of Constantinople or towns in Asia Minor in the fourth century, when temple and market re-echoed with theological wranglings . .
( pages 36 - 38 )
London and Leipsic : Unwin 1908.
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=6790
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6790
http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/schiller/demetriu/Druckversion_demetriu.htm
Schiller, Friedrich, 1759-1805.
Title Early dramas and romances. The robbers, Fiesco, Love and intrigue, Demetrius, The ghost-seer, and The sport of destiny. Tr. from the German, chiefly by Henry G. Bohn.
Publisher London, H. G. Bohn, 1849.
Description xvii, [1] p., 2 l., 493 p., [1] p. 19 cm.
Series The works of Frederick Schiller.[vol. IV]
Note Half-title: Bohn's standard library. Schiller's early dramas and romances.
Forms vol. [IV] of Schiller's Works tr. by various hands in Bohn's standard library.
"The robbers" tr. by H. G. Bohn; "Demetrius," by Theodore Martin; the other translations are based upon those by Dr. Noëhden, Dr. Stodart and others. cf. Pref.
Language English
Added Entry Bohn, Henry George, 1796-1884.
Martin, Theodore, Sir, 1816-1909.
Schiller, Friedrich, 1759-1805.
Title Briefe an den Freiherrn Heribert von Dalberg [und] Demetrius, ein Trauerspiel; nach dem hinterlassenen Entwurfe des Dichters bearbeitet von Franz von Maltiz.
Edition 2. Aufl.
Publisher Carlsruhe, D.R. Marr, 1824.
Description xvi, 400 p. 14 cm.
Series Supplement to Friedrich von Schiller's s�mmtlichen Werken
Note Bound with: D�ring, H. Friedrichs von Schiller Leben. Weimar, 1824.
|