Alpha And Omega.
Posting #34.
“…One of them, pleasant, round, and very polite,
was wearing a modest military french and
reithosen. On his nose, like a crystal butterfly,
sat a pince-nez. In a general sort of way
he
reminded of an angel in lacquered boots…”
M. Bulgakov. Fateful
Eggs.
It
is becoming increasingly clear that the personage of Lieutenant Shervinsky is
drawn by M. A. Bulgakov in careful contrariness to the character of M. Yu.
Lermontov.
It
is demonstrated even more in the conversation between Shervinsky and
Myshlayevsky:
“…Why are you bothering me? –
replied Shervinsky. – Am I guilty of something
here? What do I have to do with it? I was almost killed myself! [sic!] I was
the last to leave the Headquarters precisely at noon, when enemy chains showed
up from Pechersk…”
Bulgakov
is certainly playing out here the report of a general from the Caucasus War,
which led to Lermontov’s award of a Golden Saber. It is all to the contrary
with Shervinsky, as supported by the words of Myshlayevsky: “You are a hero!” The
sarcasm is obvious here, but this sarcasm ought to attract the attention of the
researcher, and make one think.
For
Bulgakov does portray Lieutenant Shervinsky after Petlura enters the City as
follows:
“The black suit was fitting him flawlessly; the shirt and underwear
were amazing, so was the bow tie, with lacquered shoes on his feet.”
Well,
isn’t this close to the description of Kot Begemot’s appearance in chapter 22 With Candles of Master and Margarita?
Greeting
Margarita, Kot Begemot drops a chess piece and crawls under the bed to recover
it:
“…There was also in the room, sitting on a high stool in front of a
chess table, an enormous black giant of a cat holding a chess knight [this
piece is called “horse” in the
Russian chess language] in his right paw. Shuffling his right hind paw, he
dropped the horse and crawled under the bed in its pursuit… [Woland orders him to get back from under the bed.] “Can’t find the
horse,” responded the cat from under the
bed in an intimate, false voice. – He
must have galloped someplace, and in his stead, some kind of frog keeps getting
in my way. – There was no frog down there before, said Woland, in feigned
anger. – And unless you reappear up here
right away, we are going to consider this an act of surrender, you cursed
deserter! – Never, messire!, yelled the cat, and that same instant he was
out from under the bed, holding the horse in his paw.”
Seeing
the cat, Woland draws attention to his appearance. “Look what he has turned himself into, under
the bed! Standing on his hind paws and all covered in dust, the cat
meanwhile was making his bows before Margarita.”
The
word “dust” in Bulgakov is always pointing to Lermontov. –
“I am
a madman! You are right, you’re right!
Ridiculous is immortality on
earth.
How could I wish for loud
glory,
When you are happy in the dust?”
“...Now the cat had on his neck a white tuxedo bowtie...” Compare this to Shervinsky’s “butterfly tie.”
The
words: “The black suit was fitting him flawlessly”
also fit Kot Begemot, as the cat’s fur is all black. So that the researcher
would have a correct understanding of the parallel between Shervinsky in White Guard and Kot Begemot in Master
and Margarita, Bulgakov resorts to Woland:
“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?”
The
reader of the novel in Russian may also note that Bulgakov is slightly changing
the spelling of the Russian word “galstuk” (necktie) from its contemporary form
to the archaic “galstukh.”
Answering
Woland’s playful jab “with great dignity,” Kot Begemot also draws the
researcher’s attention to the “boots”:
“Each
one adorns themselves the way they can… Pants are not part of a cat’s attire.
Perhaps you would order me to wear boots? A cat in boots can be found only in
fairytales…”
Remember that Shervinsky,
aside from his black suit, is wearing lacquered shoes.
In
describing the transformation of the cowardly hetman into a German major,
Bulgakov first undresses him.
“Taken off first
was the Circassian caftan, followed by the wide sharovary trousers and
lacquered high boots.”
Remarkable!
If we add “Vasenka” from Fateful Eggs,
written shortly after White Guard,
and the novella Diaboliada (1925)!
Giving an interview “to a certain illustriously
adorned citizen (without a name or surname)”, namely, to the “plenipotentiary chef [sic!] of the trade departments of
foreign missions to the Republic of the Soviets,” Professor Persikov,
trembling with rage because of a bribe of 5.000 rubles upfront offered to him,
throws out his visitor, who in the ensuing haste leaves his galoshes behind.
When
Professor Persikov demands that the galoshes be thrown away, his housekeeper
impresses on him that this would be a wrong thing to do. Instead of throwing
the galoshes away, Professor Persikov submits them to the Chairman of the
Building Committee. –
“To the Committee. Let them receive
the spy galoshes under signature.
Without stopping there, an unfulfilled Persikov picked up the
phone: Put me through – what’s its name?
– Lubyanka ! – I’m having here some suspicious characters. Wearing galoshes,
yes. Professor of the Fourth University Professor Persikov…”
Bulgakov
writes:
“The telephone receiver suddenly cut off the conversation.
Precisely ten minutes later, Professor was receiving new guests in his study.
One of them, pleasant, round, and very polite, was wearing a modest military
french and reithosen. On his nose, like a crystal butterfly, sat a pince-nez.
In a general sort of way he reminded of an angel [sic!] in lacquered boots.”
There
is a good reason why Bulgakov in Master
and Margarita is drawing the researcher’s attention to the boots for Kot
Begemot, and also before that, in Fateful
Eggs to the “lacquered boots.” Everything begins already in White Guard, when during the hetman’s
change of dress there are two Russians present.
“One was wearing a Circassian dress, like the central man [the
hetman] himself, the other had on a french and reithosen, revealing their
cavalerguard origin, but in wedge-shaped
hetman shoulder straps. They helped the foxy man to change. (That is, they were
not of a very high rank themselves if they were helping with the hetman’s
transformation.)
To
be continued…
***
No comments:
Post a Comment