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    Boris Godunov: a drama in verse
    Boris Godunov: a drama in verse
    Boris Godunov: a drama in verse
    Ebook157 pages1 hour

    Boris Godunov: a drama in verse

    By Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin and Alfred Hayes

    4/5

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateJan 1, 1976
    Boris Godunov: a drama in verse

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    Reviews for Boris Godunov

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    • 5/5
      This is a splendid play by Pushkin focusing on the dramatic conflict at the beginning of the seventeenth century between Tsar Boris Godunov and the pretender to the throne, the False Dimitri. He was a young man who claimed to be the Tsarevich Dimitri, youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, and who had died at the age of seven. The story is vividly and clearly told and sticks pretty closely to the main historical facts. Quite a gem of a play.
    • 5/5
      A fascinating story from history, told by a brilliant writer.The play takes place over 1598-1605, the beginning of a period known in Russia as the “time of troubles,” after Feodor I (Ivan the Terrible’s son) died childless and his regent Boris Godunov became tsar. Godunov had been practically ruling already for 14 years, as Feodor was weak-minded and Ivan the Terrible had killed his other son, the heir to be, in a fit of rage (recall Repin’s brilliant painting of this in Tretyakov). Seven years into the reign of Feodor/Godunov, Ivan’s much younger son Dimitry from wife #7 died under very suspicious circumstances, and the rumors were that Godunov had had him killed to pave the way for his eventual rule.While starting off with promise, Godunov’s reign soon grew unpopular, hindered by famine and the fact that the Russian nobility (the boyars) resented his lower-class origins. He began repressing dissent through tighter controls, murder, and exile. Suddenly in Poland a Russian claimed to be Dimitry, and thus should be tsar. This “pretender to the throne” was actually a monk, Grigory Otrepyev, and it’s hard to fathom how people could have believed his story, but then again, the Poles under Władysław IV and a segment of Russia were eager to go along with the ruse for political reasons. The populace was mostly ignorant, and as Pushkin tells it, easily duped.Pushkin writes this story with his trademark brevity and grace, skating through scenes lightly and with great effectiveness. What could be a dry history is delightfully brought to life in a manner that rivals Shakespeare, who Pushkin admired. He skillfully paints portraits of all these characters – e.g. the tormented Godunov, the crafty Vasily Shuysky (who himself would later become tsar), and the ambitious Maryna Mniszech (the Polish aristocrat who married the false Dimitry). He gets into the psychology of these people, and the forces surrounding ambition and the will to power.It’s remarkable that the play was constructed with such symmetry, scene 1 mirroring 25, scene 2 mirroring 24, etc, which is the subject of one of the fascinating appendices in this edition. Aside from how elegant this is, it also signals one of the play’s themes and Pushkin’s observation about history – namely, that the pattern of vying for power and corruption in the ruling class recurs, along with the masses simply going along for the ride out of ignorance, ambivalence, or fear. While Pushkin was telling this story 200+ years in Russia’s past, the parallel to his own time was remarkable, and he was well aware of it. Alexander I had come to power under suspicious circumstances when his father Paul I had been assassinated, and over his reign had become increasingly reactionary. Pushkin himself had been exiled by Alexander when he was writing this. So while the tale is deeply historical, it was also highly relevant to Pushkin’s day (and thus suppressed for six years), and still relevant to our own. Quotes:On aging:“In my old age I live my life anew,The expired years pass before me in procession – Was it so long ago that they swept by,Full of events, tempestuous as the ocean?Now they are calm and silent; just a fewOf the main actors live on in my mind,Just a few words of theirs I still recall,All else has perished irretrievably…”On guilt:“Our conscience, if it’s sound, will ride in triumphOver black calumny and spitefulness…But if by some unlucky chance a blemish,One single blemish, should have lodged in it,Then – trouble! For the soul becomes inflamedAs with the plague, the heart swells up with poison,Reproaches ring in the ears like hammer blows,There’s constant nausea and dizziness,And visions of young boys streaming with blood…One longs to escape; there’s nowhere, though … ugh, ghastly!Yes, pity one whose conscience is unclean.”On people being easily duped; compare it to the present today:“As you know yourself, the unreasoning mobIs superstitious, fickle and unruly,Too ready to indulge in idle hope,Too prone to obey the impulse of the moment;They neither hear the truth nor wish to hear it;Pure fabrication – that’s what they thrive best on.They like a man to show brazen bravado;And if this unknown vagabond in CracowShould cross the Polish frontier into Russia,The idiots will flock to him, attractedBy the revival of Dimitry’s name.”

    Book preview

    Boris Godunov - Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin

    The Project Gutenberg EBook of Boris Godunov, by Alexander Pushkin

    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

    almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or

    re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

    with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

    Title: Boris Godunov

           A Drama in Verse

    Author: Alexander Pushkin

    Translator: Alfred Hayes

    Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5089]

    Last Updated: February 7, 2013

    Language: English

    *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BORIS GODUNOV ***

    Produced by Stephen D. Leary and David Widger

    BORIS GODUNOV

    A Drama in Verse

    By Alexander Pushkin

    Rendered into English verse by Alfred Hayes

    CONTENTS

    DRAMATIS PERSONAE*

    PALACE OF THE KREMLIN

    THE RED SQUARE

    THE VIRGIN'S FIELD

    THE PALACE OF THE KREMLIN

    NIGHT

    FENCE OF THE MONASTERY*

    PALACE OF THE PATRIARCH

    PALACE OF THE TSAR

    TAVERN ON THE LITHUANIAN FRONTIER

    MOSCOW. SHUISKY'S HOUSE

    PALACE OF THE TSAR

    CRACOW. HOUSE OF VISHNEVETSKY

    CASTLE OF THE GOVERNOR

    A SUITE OF LIGHTED ROOMS.

    NIGHT

    THE LITHUANIAN FRONTIER

    THE COUNCIL OF THE TSAR

    A PLAIN NEAR NOVGOROD SEVERSK

    OPEN SPACE IN FRONT OF THE CATHEDRAL IN MOSCOW

    SYEVSK

    A FOREST

    MOSCOW. PALACE OF THE TSAR

    A TENT

    PUBLIC SQUARE IN MOSCOW

    THE KREMLIN. HOUSE OF BORIS

    DRAMATIS PERSONAE*

      BORIS GODUNOV, afterwards Tsar.

      PRINCE SHUISKY, Russian noble.

      PRINCE VOROTINSKY, Russian noble.

      SHCHELKALOV, Russian Minister of State.

      FATHER PIMEN, an old monk and chronicler.

      GREGORY OTREPIEV, a young monk, afterwards the Pretender

      to the throne of Russia.

      THE PATRIARCH, Abbot of the Chudov Monastery.

      MISSAIL, wandering friar.

      VARLAAM, wandering friar.

      ATHANASIUS MIKAILOVICH PUSHKIN, friend of Prince Shuisky.

      FEODOR, young son of Boris Godunov.

      SEMYON NIKITICH GODUNOV, secret agent of Boris Godunov.

      GABRIEL PUSHKIN, nephew of A. M. Pushkin.

      PRINCE KURBSKY, disgraced Russian noble.

      KHRUSHCHOV, disgraced Russian noble.

      KARELA, a Cossack.

      PRINCE VISHNEVETSKY.

      MNISHEK, Governor of Sambor.

      BASMANOV, a Russian officer.

      MARZHERET, officer of the Pretender.

      ROZEN, officer of the Pretender.

      DIMITRY, the Pretender, formerly Gregory Otrepiev.

      MOSALSKY, a Boyar.

      KSENIA, daughter of Boris Godunov.

      NURSE of Ksenia.

      MARINA, daughter of Mnishek.

      ROUZYA, tire-woman of Ksenia.

      HOSTESS of tavern.

    Boyars, The People, Inspectors, Officers, Attendants, Guests, a Boy in attendance on Prince Shuisky, a Catholic Priest, a Polish Noble, a Poet, an Idiot, a Beggar, Gentlemen, Peasants, Guards, Russian, Polish, and German Soldiers, a Russian Prisoner of War, Boys, an old Woman, Ladies, Serving-women.

         *The list of Dramatis Personae which does not appear in the

         original has been added for the convenience of the reader—

         A.H.

    PALACE OF THE KREMLIN

    (FEBRUARY 20th, A.D. 1598)

    PRINCE SHUISKY and VOROTINSKY

       VOROTINSKY. To keep the city's peace, that is the task

       Entrusted to us twain, but you forsooth

       Have little need to watch; Moscow is empty;

       The people to the Monastery have flocked

       After the patriarch. What thinkest thou?

       How will this trouble end?

       SHUISKY.                 How will it end?

       That is not hard to tell. A little more

       The multitude will groan and wail, Boris

       Pucker awhile his forehead, like a toper

       Eyeing a glass of wine, and in the end

       Will humbly of his graciousness consent

       To take the crown; and then—and then will rule us

       Just as before.

       VOROTINSKY.   A month has flown already

       Since, cloistered with his sister, he forsook

       The world's affairs. None hitherto hath shaken

       His purpose, not the patriarch, not the boyars

       His counselors; their tears, their prayers he heeds not;

       Deaf is he to the wail of Moscow, deaf

       To the Great Council's voice; vainly they urged

       The sorrowful nun-queen to consecrate

       Boris to sovereignty; firm was his sister,

       Inexorable as he; methinks Boris

       Inspired her with this spirit. What if our ruler

       Be sick in very deed of cares of state

       And hath no strength to mount the throne? What

       Say'st thou?

       SHUISKY. I say that in that case the blood in vain

       Flowed of the young tsarevich, that Dimitry

       Might just as well be living.

       VOROTINSKY.                 Fearful crime!

       Is it beyond all doubt Boris contrived

       The young boy's murder?

       SHUISKY.              Who besides? Who else

       Bribed Chepchugov in vain? Who sent in secret

       The brothers Bityagovsky with Kachalov?

       Myself was sent to Uglich, there to probe

       This matter on the spot; fresh traces there

       I found; the whole town bore witness to the crime;

       With one accord the burghers all affirmed it;

       And with a single word, when I returned,

       I could have proved the secret villain's guilt.

       VOROTINSKY. Why didst thou then not crush him?

       SHUISKY.                        At the time,

       I do confess, his unexpected calmness,

       His shamelessness, dismayed me. Honestly

       He looked me in the eyes; he questioned me

       Closely, and I repeated to his face

       The foolish tale himself had whispered to me.

       VOROTINSKY. An ugly business, prince.

       SHUISKY.                    What could I do?

       Declare all to Feodor? But the tsar

       Saw all things with the eyes of Godunov.

       Heard all things with the ears of Godunov;

       Grant even that I might have fully proved it,

       Boris would have denied it there and then,

       And I should have been haled away to prison,

       And in good time—like mine own uncle—strangled

       Within the silence of some deaf-walled dungeon.

       I boast not when I say that, given occasion,

       No penalty affrights me. I am no coward,

       But also am no fool, and do not choose

       Of my free will to walk into a halter.

       VOROTINSKY. Monstrous misdeed! Listen; I warrant you

       Remorse already gnaws the murderer;

       Be sure the blood of that same innocent child

       Will hinder him from mounting to the throne.

       SHUISKY. That will not baulk him; Boris is not so timid!

       What honour for ourselves, ay, for all Russia!

       A slave of yesterday, a Tartar, son

       By marriage of Maliuta, of a hangman,

       Himself in soul a hangman, he to wear

       The crown and robe of Monomakh!—

       VOROTINSKY.                   You are right;

       He is of lowly birth;

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