The Garden.
Posting #22.
“...And
then you point to the She-Bear-night
To
your Warrior-Dog.
The Dog bites in a deadly hold,
He
is brave, strong, and cunning,
He
has carried his beastly hatred for bears
From
times immemorial…”
N. S. Gumilev. In the
Skies.
The
theme of the dog is very prominent both in the main novel of Master and Margarita and in the
sub-novel Pontius Pilate.
A
“dog” appears for the first time already in the 2nd chapter of Master and Margarita: Pontius Pilate, and in a very unexpected
place at that. In the process of Yeshua’s interrogation, Pontius Pilate asks
him:
“So it was you who were going
to destroy the Temple building and incited the people to do so?.. It is clearly
written here: incitement to destroy the Temple. This is what people testify to.”
Yeshua
explains to Pilate that people understand him incorrectly:
“These good people… have
learned nothing and got totally mixed up over what I had told them. Generally
speaking, I am beginning to worry that this mix-up is going to last for a very
long time. And all because he was writing down after me incorrectly.”
Taking
shape here, even in such a small capsule, is the political thriller of Master and Margarita. All the more so
considering that Bulgakov does not describe master’s interrogation following
his arrest, substituting it by Yeshua’s interrogation by Pontius Pilate. Hence
two parallel realities emerge, making it even clearer why Bulgakov was so
adamantly refusing to publish Master and Margarita
without Pontius Pilate in it.
When
Pontius Pilate asks the question who it is who is following Yeshua and making
notes after him, Bulgakov’s answer – Matthew Levi – is rather misleading for
the reader plunging into the political thriller of Master and Margarita. The obvious follower of Nikolai Gumilev,
scribbling notes after him and then delivering them to the authorities, leading
to the poet’s arrest and execution, had to be “Judas.” This fact stands out
once we are prepared to rise above the literalness of Bulgakov’s text, giving
credit to his ingenious manner of pouring puzzles on the reader every step of
the way.
Yeshua’s
story about Matthew Levi presents us with a deep plunge into the dog theme.
Here is the first time that the word “dog” emerges from under Bulgakov’s quill
in Master and Margarita:
“At first he was treating me
with hostility, and even insulted me, that is, he thought he was insulting me
by calling me a ‘dog.’ – Here the arrestee grinned. – Personally, I see nothing bad in this animal, to be offended by the
word.”
Before
I turn to the next incidence of the word “dog,” relating to Pontius Pilate
himself, I ought to note that in this instance Bulgakov for the very first time
resorts to the supernatural, in order to confuse the researcher and the reader.
To
make the narrative even more interesting and mysterious, Bulgakov introduces
the “voice.” But considering that V. Ya. Bryusov serving as Bulgakov’s
prototype of Pontius Pilate may in all likelihood have committed suicide of
some sort (the circumstances of his death are quite vague), Bulgakov here
allows the possibility of poisoning.
Being
a Symbolist and very well versed in the lives and deaths of the French
Symbolists, Bryusov may well have followed in their footsteps, experimenting in
drugs… For instance, in absinthe, the highly dangerous drug, a darling of the
French?
“Absinthe has often been portrayed as a
dangerously addictive psychoactive drug and hallucinogen… By 1915, absinthe had
been banned in the United States and in much of Europe, including France, the
Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Austria-Hungary… A revival of absinthe began
in the 1990s, following the adoption of modern EU food and beverage laws that
removed longstanding barriers to its production and sale. [Taken from the Wikipedia.]
I
learned about the likelihood of Bryusov’s experimentation with drugs from
Tsvetaeva’s memoirs:
“It seems to me that Bryusov had never had his own dreams, but
realizing that all poets must have dreams, he substituted the absent dreams by invented
ones.
Wasn’t it from this inability to see dreams as such that
[Bryusov’s] sad addiction to narcotics had come from?”
V.
Bryusov may have suffered from delirium which Bulgakov, being a physician,
describes in the sub-novel Pontius Pilate.
It reveals itself in hearing voices and strange body movements, like an effort
to pat a dog which is not there, and also lip movements without saying
anything.
It
is this “voice” apparently telling Pontius Pilate what he wishes to hear, that
his torment is about to end, that his headache will be over…
“...You are only dreaming
that your dog [sic!] will come, apparently the only being whom you are attached
to…”
And
then Bulgakov writes:
“The
problem is – continued the bound man without being interrupted by anyone – that you are too introvert, and that you’ve
terminally lost your faith in people. But you must agree that it isn’t right to
place all your attachment in a dog. Your life is meager, Igemon! – And here the speaker allowed himself to
smile.”
It
is impossible not to agree here that Bulgakov enriches the character of his
Pontius Pilate with some features of that selfsame Andrei Bely. Although once
again in Marina Tsvetaeva’s memoirs of V. Ya. Bryusov we find an episode which
might also have inspired Bulgakov in the writing of that scene.
In
the announced by Bryusov competition “for two A. S. Pushkin lines,” Marina
Tsvetaeva shares the second place, while the first place has not been awarded.
Marina Tsvetaeva writes:
“The award is a personalized golden token with a black Pegasus on
it, handed over by Bryusov himself. Although not in a handshake, but still our
hands met! And I [M. Tsvetaeva], attaching it to the chain of my bracelet – loudly and merrily:
So, this means that I am now
a prize-winning puppy?
[sic!]”
Doesn’t
this Marina Tsvetaeva quote say it all?
And
one more flash from Marina Tsvetaeva’s memoir:
“Bryusov had it all: charm, will, passionate speech. The one thing
he did not have was love.”
A
fuller picture is now emerging: if Andrei Bely wanted to belong to somebody,
Valery Bryusov demanded complete submission.
As
Marina Tsvetaeva compares Bryusov to a wolf, M. A. Bulgakov allows himself in
this chapter a comparison of persons to dogs. When Yeshua asks Pilate who it
was who had disfigured Mark Ratkiller, Pilate responds:
“Good people attacked him
like dogs attack a bear. The Germans clung to his neck, his arms, his legs… it
was in the Battle of Idistavisus, in the Valley of Virgins.”
Here
Bulgakov plays upon N. S. Gumilev’s poem In
the Skies. (See the epigraph to this posting.)
I
wonder who it was that V. Bryusov interceded on behalf of, in his professional
life, having been head of the LITO, considering that most characters in Master and Margarita have Russian poets
as their prototypes. Alas, I have nor touched upon the character of Mark
Ratkiller yet…
To
be continued…
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