Varia.
Maksudov?
Who?
Posting #2.
“…I
will cover my head with white,
I
will scream and jump into the stream,
And
swaying over the body will buoy up
A
fragrant river flower.”
Alexander Blok. Verses About a Fair Lady.
Returning now to M. Bulgakov’s novel Master and Margarita, a ‘divan’ shows up
here already in the 15th chapter Nikanor
Ivanovich’s Dream. Bulgakov writes that before getting into Dr.
Stravinsky’s psychiatric clinic, N. I. Bosoy had been brought to another place.
“Of the other place, little had been
retained in Nikanor Ivanovich’s memory. He only remembered a desk, a wardrobe,
and a divan.”
In other words, it becomes clear that the men who had
arrested Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy had brought him to an office in their
organization. Having lost patience with his seemingly senseless babble, they
hinted that –
“—it was time for him to start talking in a
human language. Here the room with this same divan burst in a wild roar coming
from Nikanor Ivanovich…”
[See my chapter Nikanor
Ivanovich’s Dream, in order to find out what this dream is about and also who is who in this 15th chapter of Master and Margarita.]
Before this one, not just one but two divans appear in
the 13th chapter of Bulgakov’s Master
and Margarita: The Appearance of the
Hero. Bulgakov writes:
“…I
opened the little window and was sitting in the other, perfectly tiny room… The
guest started measuring with his hands. – So,
here is a sofa, and here across from it is another sofa, and a small table between them…”
In this excerpt it becomes clear that master’s
prototype here is the Russian poet Alexander Blok. [See my chapter Who is Who in Master?]
Running somewhat ahead, I must note that a “divan” in
Bulgakov signifies a connection to the theater. A. Blok, who is one of master’s
prototypes, did write plays, and so did Marina Tsvetaeva who happens to be the
prototype of Margarita.
As for Nikanor Ivanovich, having found himself in the
interrogation room, he starts simulating Pushkin’s play in verse Boris Godunov.
Are you getting it now? In his office at the
Independent Theater, Gavriil Stepanovich is sitting on a spinning stool,
pointing to Professor Bure, the neuropathologist coming to help his friend
Professor Kuzmin in the last 18th chapter of the First Part of the
novel Master and Margarita. [See my chapter
The Bard: A Barbarian at the Gate.]
Bulgakov portrays Gavriil Stepanovich like he would
portray the Russian poet K. D. Balmont, drawing the researcher’s attention by
the fact that Maksudov has forgotten his last name, providing only the line
that he looks terribly like the captain of the musketeers in Dumas. (It
figures: K. Balmont was of French descent.)
Considering that this personage is sitting on a ta-Bure-t, where the central part of the
word corresponds to the name of Professor Bure, and also, as I have
established, that the personage of Afranius in the subnovel Pontius Pilate of Master and Margarita is also a representation of Balmont, it makes
perfect sense. In the 16th chapter of Master and Margarita: The Execution, Bulgakov explicitly writes
that “the man in the hood had positioned himself nearby the poles on a
three-legged taburet.”
Because of K. Balmont’s three poetry cycles: Only Love, Let us Be Like The Sun, and Burning Buildings (after all, this is a
three-legged taburet, isn’t it?), M. Bulgakov makes a big emphasis on the sun, love, and burning buildings.
By the same token, Bulgakov portrays Afranius with his
eyelids dropped, turning his eyes into “narrowed slits,” which means
“screwed-up eyes.”
Under the gaze of Gavriil Stepanovich, Maksudov
started “fidgeting on the divan.”
In the 18th chapter of Master and Margarita: The Luckless Visitors Bulgakov draws the
following picture:
“The astounded buffet vendor [Andrei
Fokich Sokov, see my chapter The
God-Fearing Lecher] suddenly heard a heavy basso
voice: Well, how can I be of assistance? Here
the buffet vendor discovered in the shade the one person he had come to see.
The black magus spread himself on some kind of enormous divan [there is
an indication here that this “some kind of” divan is present elsewhere as well,
for instance, in the Theatrical Novel], low and with pillows scattered all over it...”
I would really like to ask the reader whether this may
be that selfsame divan that appears in Bulgakov’s Theatrical Novel in the office of the Director of the Material Fund
of the Independent Theater Gavriil Stepanovich, but already placed nearby a
Turkish hookah.
In the Theatrical
Novel Bulgakov writes: “A colossal
divan with cushions.” In Master and
Margarita, this: “The black magus
spread himself on some kind of enormous divan, low and with cushions scattered
all over it.”
Naturally, if there is a Turkish hookah by the
colossal divan with cushions, it also must be low, boundless and colossal, and
both such divans must have a profusion of cushions for comfort. Isn’t that the
reason why master’s basement apartment also has two divans? Out of master’s
three prototypes, two – Blok and Gumilev – wrote plays, and both perished in
August 1921.
Rereading Blok’s poetry for the umpth time with great
pleasure, I found corroboration for my thought that in Maksudov’s character
there are traits of Alexander Blok. In the last poem of the Sixth cycle of Verses About a Fair Lady, Blok closes it
with the following words:
“You
Orpheus have lost your bride, --
Who whispered to you – Look
back…?”
And Blok continues:
“…I
will cover my head with white,
I
will scream and jump into the stream,
And
swaying over the body will buoy up
A
fragrant river flower.”
There is another poem in the same cycle which explains
the last name Maksudov. I see two words in this name: “mak [poppy]” and “sud
[judgment].” Blok writes:
“…Secret
signs are burning
On the solid wakeless wall,
Golden and red poppies
Are oppressing me in my
sleep…”
In the last poem of the poetry cycle Iambs (1907-1914) I find the necessary
lines:
“In
the fire and chill of anxieties
Our
life will pass and we shall both remember
That
God judged that we meet
At
the hour of redemption – by the coffin.”
Here Blok yet again returns to the motif of the
triangle, which involves Blok himself, his wife Lyubov D. Mendeleeva, and
Blok’s friend Andrei Bely. So this is no longer important with whom Blok is
going to meet: with his wife or with her lover.
The second stanza of the poem confirms my thought:
“…I
believe that a new age will rise
Amidst
all wretched generations.
It’s
for a reason that every generation glorifies
The
mortally insulted genius.”
The mortally insulted genius in this case is Blok
himself, whom Blok thus connects to A. S. Pushkin, as this great poet of the
Golden Age was killed in a duel defending the honor of his wife and his own.
And so, in the Russian word “poppies [mak]” I see the
first syllable of the name Maksudov, while in the Russian word “Judgment [sud]”
I see the second syllable of the hero’s name in Bulgakov’s Theatrical Novel.
***
No comments:
Post a Comment