The Bard. Genesis.
M. A. Berlioz.
Posting #27.
“...Rest easy, an
opportunity will present itself…”
A. S. Pushkin. Bova.
Bulgakov’s
choice of Marina Tsvetaeva as the sole prototype of Margarita shows us that Marina
Ivanovna was an extremely intelligent woman who also had a set of political
views which somehow coincided with the views of Bulgakov himself. It is quite
possible that Bulgakov saw in Tsvetaeva some sort of Jeanne d’Orleans, to say
nothing about Pushkin’s Zoinka.
“Koroviev went on: But let us
get down to business, Margarita Nikolaevna. You are an intelligent woman and
you have surely figured out who our host is... Margarita’s heart pounded
and she nodded her head.”
No,
Bulgakov does not want Margarita to take master’s place in a dungeon, like
Pushkin’s Zoinka. In order to reunite with master, Margarita needs only to act
as a hostess at Messire’s Ball.
“Each year messire throws one
ball. So, here is the point. Messire is a bachelor, but a hostess is required.
You must agree that without a hostess…
– I am not going to refuse! –
firmly replied Margarita.”
This
invitation to become the hostess at Satan’s Ball is precisely the kind of
opportunity which Bendokir-the Dimwitted tells about to Zoinka:
“...Rest
easy, an opportunity will present itself,
Only you must swear to me,
dear,
Not to pass on such an
opportunity
Once it yields itself to you…”
It’s
time to explain to the reader that just as Pushkin’s fairytale Bova is an obvious allegory, so is Bulgakov’s
Master and Margarita, within which we
find a political thriller alluding to the tragic death of the great Russian
poet of the 20th century N. S. Gumilev.
Pushkin
gives away his conception in the character of Tsar Dadon. He is Napoleon, who
had drowned the Christian world in blood… and, brought into nothingness by [the
Russian Emperor] Alexander, like a proud angel, spends his life in humiliation.
And forgotten by all he is now nicknamed the Emperor of Elba.
Using
a preliminary sketch of the long poem Bova,
Bulgakov wants to show the reader that, like Pushkin, he is also depicting his
contemporary political life allegorically. [See my chapters A Swallow’s Nest, The Garden, and The Guests at Satan’s Great Ball.]
Naturally,
Margarita did not take master’s place behind bars, but returned together with
him to master’s basement apartment.
Let
me remind the reader how that happened. Having performed all her heroic feats
“in the expanses of [her, Margarita’s] soul” (to use Marina Tsvetaeva’s words
about herself), Margarita was hoping for a reward. And, having shown her
magnanimity in the pardon of Frieda, for which well-appreciated act she was
given a second chance, she then summons master, who flies into the no-good
apartment #50 through the window, exactly like Tsar Bendokir the Dimwitted
comes and leaves through Zoinka’s window.
If
Zoinka in the poem Bova has
intentionally left the window open so that her lover Svetozar could visit her
chamber, then Bulgakov’s Margarita expresses herself in the following way:
“I want right now, this very
second, that my lover master be returned to me! – said Margarita, and her
face was distorted by a grimace.
Here a burst of wind entered the room, bringing the flame of the
candles in the chandeliers down. The heavy curtain on the window was pushed
aside, and in the distant height there opened a full moon, not a morning moon,
but a midnight moon. From the windowsill down across the floor there spread out
a greenish kerchief of nightly light, and in it appeared Ivanushka’s guest calling
himself master.” He was wearing his
hospital clothes, a gown, shoes, and a black cap, with which he never parted.
His unshaven face was twitching in a grimace. He was throwing sideways glances
at the flames of the candles in an insane-scared look, and the lunar stream was
boiling around him. He clutched the windowsill with one hand, as if going to
jump on it and run, and snarled, peering into those seated in the room. And
then he screamed: I am frightened, Margo,
my hallucinations have started again!” The sick man lowered down his head,
and went on peering into the ground with his sulky sick eyes.”
Here
Bulgakov is clearly portraying two Russian poets: Blok and Bely, the way they
present themselves through their poetry. But it’s also obvious that Bulgakov is
talking about N. S. Gumilev as well, as he was
the only one of the three who was arrested on false evidence and
imprisoned shortly before his execution.
Bulgakov
was probably hoping that the researcher would be able to figure out the
correlation of this line in his novel with Pushkin’s Bova, and thus to realize the fact of Gumilev’s presence in the
novel.
Pushkin
puts it straight:
“So
what that he is behind bars? –
He is still dangerous to my
designs…
The hero Gromobur responds to
the impostor-tsar:
Quoth the hero: What is there
to think about?
Tsar! You have no need for
Bova,
So let the Prince go to the
devil!..”
[Mind
you, they are talking about the lawful heir to the throne. In Bulgakov, Gumilev
is such an heir.]
“...It’s
decided: he is not to stay alive.
Afterwards, you will figure
it out, brethren,
How we are going to get rid
of him…”
[Marina
Tsvetaeva has a name for such “brethren”:
“poetic vermin.” If I may repeat this
again, Gumilev was arrested on false report, which I discuss in my chapter Guests: The Green Lady.]
Speaking
in favor of this whole discussion of mine is the fact that it is precisely
Koroviev who is meeting Margarita and talking to her both about the “fifth
dimension” and about the “responsibility of being the hostess.” Only thus can
she learn about master. And also after Margarita has been tested (to the effect
that she, like Zoinka, has, in Pushkin’s words, “a kind soul and a gentle genuine heart…”) – Koroviev gives her a good piece of advice:
“Diamond Donna, this time I
advise you to be more prudent. Otherwise, Fortuna [‘opportunity,’ in Bova] may just slip
away.”
[Through the window?]
Bulgakov
likes to pick little-known unfinished works and to get his ideas from them,
which, in this case, also speaks in favor of Bova.
A.
S. Pushkin has also left his draft plans for the poem Bova. Having been unaware of this old Russian fairytale, I still
learned from these Plans that Bova
escapes from prison together with his lover (probably, Zoinka). The maiden’s
name is of Greek origin, “Zoe” meaning “life.”
Having
been captured by robbers, Bova finds himself in a dungeon where he finds a
sword. As he is about to be killed, he kills his executioner and escapes from
the dungeon. Later on, he kills Tsar Dadon himself,
To
be continued…
***
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