GALINA SEDOVA’S BULGAKOV. CCLVIII.

Dress Rehearsal for Master and

Margarita Continues.

 

“…Onegin enters,

And walks between the stalls stepping on toes,

Askance, he directs his double lorgnette

Into the loges of unfamiliar ladies…”

A. S. Pushkin. Eugene Onegin.

 

Having related to the reader all my evidence on the subject, I am now turning to my own stunning discovery on the same page of the Theatrical Novel as the above mentioned laundry list. (See my previous posting.)

Among the visitors of Filipp Filippovich there are a number of individuals, particularly those coming last, who have attracted my special attention.

“…Also a military man, one rhomb.

Somebody shaven, with bandaged head…

An old woman with a trembling jaw, dead eyes, for some reason talking to her female companion in French, and the companion wearing man’s galoshes. Padded coat…”

This is where Bulgakov takes that story from about a certain French queen who was Margarita’s great-great-great-grandmother.

The “female companion” herself presents us with a riddle. She has to be Margarita impoverished after the Revolution, before a prominent Soviet specialist of national importance married her.

This is the only reference to Margarita in the Theatrical Novel, apart from that actress of the Independent Theater who has the same first name (Margarita Petrovna Tavricheskaya).

So, what do these two Margaritas have in common, in Bulgakov? Diamonds!

Describing Margarita Petrovna Tavricheskaya, Bulgakov shows us –

“…a presentable lady in a crimson blouse, a brown jacket sprinkled with buttons like [the night sky] with stars, with sable furs thrown over the jacket. A little hat was daringly sitting on the graying hair of the lady, her eyes were sparkling under the black eyebrows, and her fingers also sparkled with heavy diamond rings.”

In Master and Margarita Bulgakov calls Margarita a “Diamond Donna,” giving these words to none other than A. S. Pushkin, aka Koroviev. –

“Diamond Donna, -- this time I advise you to be more prudent. Otherwise, Fortuna may just slip away.”

This similarity leads us to the next part of my chapter. Namely, Margarita’s connection to theater.

Without the Theatrical Novel it is very hard to understand the 23^rd chapter of Master and Margarita: The Grand Ball at Satan’s. The origin of the Ball’s guests becomes clear from the 11^th chapter of the Theatrical Novel: I Get Acquainted with the Theater where Bulgakov writes about “tens of thousands of people” passing through the office of F. F. Tulumbasov.

But most importantly, the clever Margarita tells Koroviev in the chapter With Candles:

“What strikes me the most is where all of this can fit. She made a sweeping gesture with her hand, underscoring the vastness of the hall.”

And prior to this she thinks:

“...But the most amazing thing was the dimensions of this place. How could all of this be squeezed inside a Moscow apartment?..”

And she has the answer:

“…Plain and simple, it couldn’t!”

Bulgakov asks all these questions for a reason, drawing the reader’s attention to the next puzzle hidden here.

Koroviev’s pseudo-scientific babble on this account is virtually nonsensical. --

“Those who are familiar with the fifth dimension [sic!] can easily expand any given space to the required limits. I can say even more, dear lady, to devil knows what limits!”

And only fifteen pages later, -- in the chapter The Grand Ball at Satan’s, -- the situation clears up somewhat, as Margarita is getting ready to receive guests.

Bulgakov writes:

“Margarita was high up there, and down from her feet descended a grandiose staircase covered with a carpet. Down there, so far down as though Margarita were looking down through the opposite end of binoculars, she could see a colossal entrance hall with an utterly immense fireplace, into whose cold and black jaws a five-ton truck could easily be driven. The entrance hall and the staircase, flooded with so much light that it hurt the eyes, were empty… Where are the guests? – asked Margarita.”

Our greatest attention ought to be drawn to the words: “Down there, so far down as though Margarita were looking down through the opposite end of binoculars…”

How can we explain this? Why does Bulgakov make a reference to binoculars for a second time in a row? For, ten pages before, describing Kot Begemot, Bulgakov writes:

“Standing on his hind paws and smudged with dust, the cat was meanwhile making bows to Margarita. Now on the cat’s neck there appeared a white tuxedo bowtie and on his chest were mother-of-pearl ladies’ binoculars on a strap. Besides that, the cat’s whiskers were gilded.”

Once again a clever distraction. An amused Woland exclaims:

“What is all this? Why did you gild your whiskers? And what the devil do you need the bowtie for, if you do not wear pants?”

Please note that there is no mention here of the “mother-of-pearl ladies binoculars” [sic!]. Bulgakov also goes out of his way not to say explicitly that the binoculars are theater binoculars, but in their descriptive words “mother-of-pearl” and “ladies” he makes sure that he is describing theater binoculars.

One more puzzle. – If we put together Margarita’s questions and Kot Begemot’s binoculars, plus those very strange words: “...as though Margarita were looking down through the opposite end of binoculars…” – we cannot escape the conclusion that the action of the novel Master and Margarita is taking place on a theater stage.

The question arises right away about the “5-ton truck.”

There is a mention of a truck in the Theatrical Novel. Bulgakov has a scene of a fireman’s funeral where F. F. Tulumbasov accompanies the body on its final journey (to the crematorium) in the back of a truck. However, the truck is not inside the theater, but outside it. It seems that I am out of luck. Had it not been for a fairly recent television program from the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, after its ambitious remodeling and restoration. Right there, on its magnificent stage (but not in the jaws of a fireplace) was a five-ton truck with people in its back wearing hard hats…

Why am I writing about this? Having worked for six years at the Moscow Arts Theater (which he calls “Independent Theater” in the Theatrical Novel), Bulgakov moved on to the Bolshoi Theater. It was easy for Bulgakov to combine the features of both theaters in order to make his text even more interesting, and to confuse the reader even more.

To be continued…