The Bard. Genesis.
M. A. Berlioz.
Posting #21.
“You see the old
respectable devil.
V. Mayakovsky. Mysteria-Bouffe.
Bulgakov
recognized Mayakovsky as a poet of the Silver Age of Russian poetry:
“...The sun was striking at the centurion without causing him any
harm, and one could not look at the lion faces, as the eyes were burned out by
the blinding blaze of the silver as though boiling in the sun.”
Bulgakov
was of the highest opinion of Mayakovsky’s poetry. Who should give a darn about
some kind of poet named Ryukhin? Bulgakov did it as a false pretense, but at
the same time he showed the reader that there can be other poets hidden behind
masks in his novel. Thus, V. V. Mayakovsky was indeed very skillfully masked in
the personage of Woland. Has the reader noticed in the Epilogue of the play Vladimir Mayakovsky the main proof that
Mayakovsky is Woland’s prototype?
In
Chapter 3 of Master and Margarita we
find the following dialog between Berlioz and Woland:
“Do forgive me, responded
the professor with a condescending smirk, You
of all people ought to know that nothing whatsoever of what is written in the
Gospels, ever happened in reality, and once we start referring to the Gospels
as a historical authority… He smirked again, and Berlioz caught his breath,
because it was precisely the thing he had been telling Bezdomny, walking with
him from Bronnaya to Patriarch Ponds.
It is so, replied Berlioz. – Nikto (No one) can prove that what you have told us was ever taking
place in reality.
Oh, no! Kto (One) can prove
it!” – the professor
responded with great assurance.”
And
so, it is now official that despite the fact that the character of Woland
contains certain features of the erratic Andrei Bely, it is Mayakovsky himself
who shows his own devil in the play Mysteria-Bouffe,
his name Beelzebub being borrowed from Andrei Bely, and as much erratic:
“Now what are you arguing
about, for God’s sake? They are devils like all devils!”
This
is what Beelzebub tells the “unclean” industrial workers arriving at Hell,
after they start verbally attacking Hell and the devils, and Beelzebub finds
himself with nothing to trump their cards.
Also
when Compromiser attempts to
reconcile the two arguing sides (the unclean workers and the devils):
“You see the old respectable
devil [Beelzebub].
Stop the frictions, it’s time
to come to an agreement!”
…the
Compromiser is attacked from both
sides:
“Ah, you toady! [Beelzebub]”
“Ah, you fox! [The Farm
Laborer]”
And
as Mayakovsky writes: “Both sides start beating up
Compromiser.”
The
idea of cannibalism comes to Bulgakov from the same Mayakovsky play. –
“Beelzebub sadly to the Unclean:
I would have invited you to
partake of bread-salt [as
guests to a dinner party], but these days
what kind of food can one expect? – Skin and bones. You know it yourselves –
that’s what people have become: You fry them and won’t notice them on a
platter. The other day, they brought me a worker from the outhouses, and you
won’t believe it – nothing to treat the guests to!”
See
my chapters Cannibalism, Woland Identity,
Blood, Oil and Wine. Meanwhile I’d like to point out that it is now
becoming clear why the golden platter on the table in Master and Margarita happens to be empty. Pyatnazhko cannot be
noticed on it!
There
is precisely such a scene in the 18th chapter The Hapless Visitors/in Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita. The buffet vendor Andrei Fokich Sokov comes
to visit Woland, and, although in Chapter 12: Séance of Black Magic Woland is introduced as a famous foreign
artiste, more frequent words used in
reference to Satan are: magus, black
magician, and of course the name Woland
itself.
But
in Chapter 18, the housemaid [Gella] calls Woland “M. Artiste,” as she talks on the phone with Baron Meigel. The same
title is used by Sokov, whose prototype is the poet Osip Mandelstam. Bulgakov
writes:
“The black magus spread himself on some kind of enormous sofa, low
and with cushions scattered on it. The buffet vendor had an impression that the
artiste was wearing only black
underwear and black narrow-toe shoes. The artiste stretched his arm forward.
His fingers were sparkling with gemstones. I
like sitting low, spoke the artiste.”
However
when the buffet vendor starts talking about “magic tricks” at the séance of
black magic, Woland decides to reveal a secret:
“I am not an artiste at all. I just wanted to
see Muscovites en masse, and the most convenient way to do it is in a theater.”
And
so in this chapter Bulgakov uses several names for Satan, as I have just quoted
a few. This reminds me once again of Pushkin’s inscription for the French
artiste Alexandre Vattemare:
“Votre nom est Legion car
vous etes plusieurs.”
Indeed,
Bulgakov must have studied Pushkin to the minutest detail, as he calls his
Pushkin personage by as many names or even more. By the same token, Bulgakov
gives himself the highest praise as the creator of characters whom no one
either during his lifetime or 70+ years after his death had been able to solve.
Can we also come to the
conclusion now that the character of Woland contains certain Pushkin features?
Yes. For instance, the black
color, which gets such a prominence in Bulgakov’s portrayal of Woland. The
black magus, the black underwear, the black narrow-toed shoes…
If we remember the black
magus in Chapter 12 A Séance of Black
Magic, this is what Bulgakov writes:
“The arriving celebrity stunned everybody by his tuxedo, unseen in
its length and of an amazing design, as well as by the fact that he was wearing
a black half-mask.”
The
half-mask can indicate that the character of Woland may contain features of two
persons (poets). But the next sentence is even more important:
“But the most surprising of all were the two companions of the
black magus: the long checkered-one in a cracked pince-nez and the black cat,
who, having walked into the change-room on his hind legs, quite relaxedly sat
down on the sofa.”
And
so, the only black personage in Master
and Margarita, namely “the checkered-one, the regent, Fagot, Koroviev,” in
a word, Pushkin, is present together with the black magus, and then, between
the black magus and the black cat (Kot Begemot – Lermontov).
Thus
is being revealed Bulgakov’s unusual sense of humor, as he is always using the
word ‘black’ around this personage,
but each time leaving this fact ambiguous. Only once does Bulgakov call
Koroviev (Pushkin) “black,” but even in this case he somehow manages to divert
the reader from the realization that this personage does have a black prototype.
He is being helped by the surrounding darkness and the blackness of the tuxedo:
“…The first thing that struck Margarita was
the darkness in which she found herself. It was dark, like in a dungeon and she
involuntarily grabbed Azazello’s cloak, afraid that she might stumble… They
started ascending over some broad steps, and it seemed to Margarita that there
would be no end to them. She was struck how the anteroom of a regular Moscow
apartment could accommodate this extraordinary, invisible, but well-perceptible
endless staircase…Then far and up, there appeared a blinking light coming from
some kind of oil-lamp and started getting nearer… The light came close, and
Margarita saw the illuminated face of a man, long and black [sic!], holding
that selfsame oil-lamp in hand. Those who already had the misfortune of
crossing paths with him would even in that weak light coming from the tongue of
the oil-lamp surely recognize him. That was Koroviev…”
Bulgakov
does not leave the resulting question unattended:
“As for Koroviev’s blackness, it was very easily explained. He was
wearing a tuxedo. Only his chest was white.”
What
a delicious obfuscation!
To
be continued…
***
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