The Poor Bride
| The Poor Bride | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Aleksander Ostrovsky |
| Date premiered | 12 October 1853 |
| Place premiered | Maly Theatre in Moscow |
| Original language | Russian |
| Genre | Romantic comedy |
The Poor Bride (Бедная невеста, Bednaya nevesta) is a play by Alexander Ostrovsky, written in 1851 and first published in the #4, 1852 issue of Moskvityanin magazine. It was his first play to be staged at the Maly Theater, where it was premiered on October 12, 1853.[1]
Background
His second large play cost Ostrovsky many a sleepless night. Later he wrote: "I've had an iron-like creative prowess when I was learning how to write, but still, after having worked for a year and a half on The Poor Bride (my 2nd one) I came to detest it so much I didn't want to see it on stage. I agreed to stage it only answering the continuous actors' request and only after two years after it's been finished". The author has changed the plot three times. The play's central figure, Marya Andreevna caused the author most of the trouble for showing the suffering young woman’s soul; was something novel to him.[2]
The target of Ostrovsky's satire was the Petersburg's pretentious romantic poseurs. Merich (Zorich in the rough version) was "a parody on Lermontov's heroes, Grushnitsky, trying to act Pechorin," according to scholar Vladimir Lakshin. His name came from Lermontov's Meri (with typical Lermontov's surname ending, like in Vulich, Zvezdich or Kazbich). In one of the play's versions Marya Andreevna was holding Lermontov's book in hand. "The charisma of a disappointed romantic hero which became a cliché in the Russian literature of the 1840s demanded a literary backlash", Lakshin wrote.[2]
Meanwhile, another biographer, S.V.Maksimov, insisted the play's characters were not schemes but portraits of people who surrounded the author. The Nezabudkin family had similarities with the Korsh family (three brothers and five sister were all known in the artistic circles one way or another), Benevolensky was looking a bit like professor Krylov, one of the Korsh sisters' husband and the main reason for Ostrovsky's leaving the university. It was Krylov who, known for penchant for taking bribes, drunken scandals and rudeness, served as a prototype for Benevolensky. The unhappy romance of Khorkov and Marya Andreevna reminded the similar relations between one of the Korsh sisters, Antonina, and Apollon Grigoryev, according to Lakshin. But according to V.A.Grigoriev (Apollon's grandson), in Marya Andreevna' character the author depicted Zinaida Korsh, the sister he himself was romantically involved with. Singer, folk songs collector (and later a senior state official) Tertiy Filippov was portrayed as Milashin. "Benevolensky, Dobrotvorsky and Merich were all real people among those Ostrovsky was meeting in the Korsh's house, or elsewhere. In reality there was no such marriage as the one shown in the play. Z.F.Korsh died a maiden in the early 1880s", V.A.Grigoryev wrote.[2]
History
Ostrovsky first mentioned The Poor Bride in a letter to Pogodin in the summer of 1850. On October 31 that year he recited fragments of it in his editor’s home. In the summer of 1851 the play was finished but the author continued to make changes to the text. On November 3 he informed Pogodin: "The comedy has lagged behind a bit for I've heard Pisemsky's comedy [The Hyppochondriac] and found it necessary to embellish my own a bit so as not to blush for it".[3]
In December the play was submitted to censors and on January 1, 1852 Ostrovsky received the permission for a separate edition of it to be published. On February 19 the permission for the magazine publication was obtained and the play appeared in the February (book 2) issue of Moskvityanin. In 1859 The Poor Bride was re-issued as part of The Works by A.N.Ostrovsky in two volumes (published by Count Kushelev-Bezborodko), again with numerous changed to the text, made by its author. This version of the text is considered to be the final one and it has been reproduced in numerous collections and anthologies that appeared later.[1] Ostrovsky approached a Maly Theater inspector Alexey Verstovsky, a well-known composer and he received The Poor Bride conditionally, pending consors' verdict. It took half a year for censors to give the permission. On September 1852 The Poor Bride was pronounced eligible for stage production much to the credit of censor Gederstern who saw it as a romantic drama and ignored its social undercurrents. Two roles, those of Dunya and Pasha, though, have been retrieved and returned only in October 1861. Much rile by the way the text has been mangled, Ostrovsky asked Verstovsky to delay the production of the Bride and wait for his next play (Keep to Your Own Sledge) he's been working upon already.[2]
The Poor Bride was premiered in Maly Theater on August 20, 1853 with Saburova as Nezabudkina, E.N.Vasilieva (Marya Andreevna), Cherkassov (Merich), S.S.Vasiliev (Milashin), Shuisky (Dobrotvorsky), Prov Sadovsky (Benevolensky), Poltavtsev (Khorjkov), Akimova (Khorjkova). On October 12, 1863, the play was performed in Aleksandrinka, as a benefice for actreess Maria Chitau (Marya Andreevna). The play was permitted for production in people's theaters only on May 3, 1893, with roles of Dunya and Pasha excised.[1]
Reception
On March 20, 1852, Aleksey Pisemsky wrote to Ostrovsky: "I've read the comedy of yours with the greatest of pleasure and found it not just equal but even superior to It's a Family Affair - We’ll Settle It Ourselves Its humour is more subtle and soulful while characters are so vivid they even visit me in dreams."[4] Ivan Turgenev opined that the play failed to meet the expectations which were too high after Family Affair, but found "it's general colour very true" and "the second act beautiful from the first word to the last.[5] In 1879, re-issuing his article, Turgenev admitted in the comment that he was wrong in his assessment of the play and called it "one of the dramatist's best".[2] Nikolai Chernyshevsky found the play "very good" even if finding it, next to Family Affair, as lacking the latter's "main virtue, the sense of revelation".[6]
In 1859 Nikolai Dobrolyubov provided the most full analysis of the play. Having described in full the difficult situation Marya Andreevna, the "poor bride", found herself in, the critic asked: "What this hapless creature suffers all these insults for, what keeps her in this mire?" - and gave the answer: "It is obvious, what: she is a poor bride, she has nothing to do other than sit there waiting or go seeking for the right kind of fiancée... Modern liberals scorn this, but one would like to know - what is there left in our society to do for a young girl who fails to marry?" According to Dobrolyubov, in his play Ostrovsky gave "the direct answer" to the most important question of the day: "why in our families a woman finds herself in a slave-like situation and why does samodurstvo [petty tyranny] torments her especially bad."[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Revyakin, A.I. (1949). "The Poor Bride. Commentary". The Complete A.N. Ostrovsky. Volume 1. Plays 1847-1854. Khudozhestvennaya literature Publishers, 1949. Retrieved 2012-03-01.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Lakshin, Vladimir (1982). "Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky". Iskusstvo, Moscow. Life in Art series. Retrieved 2012-03-01.
- ↑ A.N.Ostrovsky's letters to Pogodin. The Lenin's Library collection, 1939, vol. IV, p. 12.
- ↑ The Unpublished letters to A.N.Ostrovsky. (Неизданные письма к Н.А.Островскому), Moscow, 1932, p.346.
- ↑ Turgenev, I.S. Some words on the new comedy by g.Ostrovsky The Poor Bride. Sovremennik, 1852, IV.
- ↑ Chernyshevsky, N.G. Poverty is no Vice, Sovremennik, 1854, V.
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