The Bard. Genesis.
M. A. Berlioz.
Posting #20.
“…Two
other iron-cast creations
Attracted
me by their magic beauty:
They
were the images of two demons…”
A. S. Pushkin.
Untitled. 1830.
More
of the unmistakable Mayakovsky:
“I
see that Christ has fled from the icon.
Crying, the mire was kissing
The weather-beaten edge of
the chiton.
I am yelling: Sun, my father!
At least you have mercy,
Do not torture!”
Yes,
the reader has long recognized V. V. Mayakovsky as the prototype of Mark
Krysoboy. In his poem A Cloud in Pants, Mayakovsky
writes:
“…My
soul (in the tatters of the torn-to-shreds cloud)
In the burnt-out sky on the
rusted cross of the belfry…
Time! At least you, the
limping God-painter,
Paint my face for the
infirmary of the age’s cripple!
I am alone like the last eye
in a man going to the blind.”
Bulgakov
notices in Mayakovsky’s poems the poet’s faith in Jesus Christ, the Russian
Christ. And this is exactly why Woland comes out so sympathetic toward Christ
and master in Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita.
These two characters also have the same prototypes in the novel: Gumilev and
Blok.
Also,
in accordance with the wish of V. V. Mayakovsky himself, Bulgakov equips Woland
with just one eye and provides him with a single demonic companion: Azazello.
In Mayakovsky’s play Mysteria- Buff, the poet produces the following list of
demons:
1. Beelzebub. [Bulgakov’s Woland.]
2. Über-Demon. [Bulgakov’s Azazello, Mayakovsky’s
contemporary S. A. Yesenin.]
Considering
that the idea of the two principal devils comes to Mayakovsky from Pushkin, it
is quite possible, and perhaps even probable, that the devil’s name Beelzebub
comes to him from Andrei Bely’s poetry. [Here is an explanation why Bulgakov
uses certain features of Andrei Bely in his portrait of Woland.]
In
particular, from Bely’s poem The Evening
Sacrifice in the poetry collection Crimson
Mantle in Thorns:
“May
you be cursed, Beelzebub,
The sly tempter, –
Haven’t you whispered in my
ear
That I am the New Savior?
Oh, cursed be, be cursed!..”
In
an untitled poem (1830: “At the Beginning
of Life I Remember a School…”) A. S. Pushkin depicts the images of two
demons:
“…Two
other iron-cast creations
Attracted
me by their magic beauty:
They
were the images of two demons.
One
of them (the idol of Delphi), a youthful visage,
Was
furious and filled with terrible pride,
He
breathed a power not of this earth.
The
other one, effeminate and lascivious,
A
questionable, false ideal –
A
magic demon – false but beautiful.
In
front of them I often lost myself…”
M.
Bulgakov does not follow his idol Pushkin in this, but creates more fitting
characterizations of Woland and Azazello, considering that the prototypes of
these two Bulgakovian characters are the famous Russian poets Mayakovsky and
Yesenin, plus in Woland’s case with features of another Russian poet of the
Silver Age: Andrei Bely.
Still,
Bulgakov (like Mayakovsky) does follow Pushkin in the number of demons: there
are two of them.
The
first, Senior Demon, Woland is depicted as mocking and ironic, but without any
lust in him, which is unusual.
On
the other hand, the other one, the Lesser Demon Azazello is depicted in the fawnish
kind of way, as a lustful goat-legged creature surrounded by a swarm of
“transparent mermaids” and “naked witches” (in the river scene).
As
for Azazello’s red hair, I can suggest just for the fun of it, a line from
Pushkin’s letter to his wife:
“So how is my toothless
Puskina? [sic! Pushkin is thus referring to his little daughter Masha.] How
about those teeth! And what about Sashka the read-head? [Pushkin’s little son.]
Who has he taken after, I wonder? I never expected this from him.”
And
so, Bulgakov makes Azazello a red-head!
In
the next letter to his wife, Pushkin writes:
“And yes, my angel, please do
not flirt with men. You know how I detest everything that smells of a Moscow mademoiselle,
everything which is not comme il faut, everything which is vulgar. If upon my
return I am to find that your lovely aristocratic tone has changed [and here it
comes!] – I’ll divorce you, as Christ is my witness, and then I shall enlist
as a soldier, out of grief! [sic!]”
And
he also writes:
“First of all, I am growing a
beard: Mustache and a beard are flattering to a good man. [An old Russian
saying.]”
This
fact also speaks in my favor, remembering that Bulgakov’s Legate is sporting a
beard.
As
for the centurion Mark Krysoboy, he, naturally, has none of the shining golden
lion heads on his chest, but he does have silver appliqués. Which also speaks
in favor of Mayakovsky’s Epilogue to the play Vladimir Mayakovsky (could you expect anything less from...
Vladimir Mayakovsky?) –
“Vladimir Mayakovsky:
I was writing all of this
about you, poor rats [sic!]
I was sorry I did not have a
tit:
I would have fed you from
that mamma!
These days I ‘ve kind of
dried up. I am a holy fool of sorts.
But come to think of it, who
and where would have given to thoughts
Such a superhuman dimension?!”
This
is how it happened that Bulgakov made him a Ratkiller (Krysoboy) and hung
silver appliques lion heads on his shirted chest.
To
be continued…
***
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