Lebedeva O.B. History of Russian literature of the 18th century

Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov (1717-1777), the third founder of Russian classicism, a younger contemporary of Trediakovsky and Lomonosov, belonged to an old noble family. The creative range of Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov is very wide. He wrote odes, satires, fables, eclogues, songs, but the main thing with which he enriched the genre composition of Russian classicism was tragedy and comedy. Having started out in poetry as a student of Trediakovsky, Sumarokov then changed his creative style, following in the footsteps of Lomonosov. Trediakovsky’s “wrong”, “non-exemplary” creativity began to be perceived by Sumarokov as a defeated idol, as a violation of the “eternal” canons of art, perhaps even as a desecration of the altar of the Beautiful. That is why Sumarokov attacks Trediakovsky with such fierce criticism: he seeks to bring down the false gods and glorify the only Deity - Truth. (Subsequently, for the same reason, Sumarokov would conduct a polemic with Lomonosov, meticulously analyzing almost every line of his, trying to completely prove that he was right.) With regard to the ode genre, the polemic with Lomonosov touched mainly on two questions: should there be a break in the discussion of the main topic? works (i.e. the so-called lyrical disorder) and what should be the style of a poet who has chosen this genre? First of all, the mind captivated by a “daring thought” is the mind of Lomonosov, not filled with delight (“the sudden delight captivated the mind”), which makes an inspired flight through the Universe, twists the edges of the veil of Time, in a moment overcomes the vast expanses of the Earth, i.e. . "mind-spirit", inspired mind. “The thought is delighted” Sumarokov moves in a strictly defined direction, it is “given”, verified; it is characterized by “ascents” and “descents” - but not free soaring.

Sumarokov’s ode is a strictly “complimentary” genre, formed as a result of the poet’s refusal of the principle of a break in disclosure main topic. If Lomonosov could insert into the ode a poetic arrangement of an excerpt from Cicero’s speech in defense of the poet Archias, subordinating it to educational goals (“Sciences nourish the young, give joy to the old...”), then Sumarokov “loses” the educational sound of the ode, deliberately abandoning the “inserted episodes", narrowing his poetic task to a clear "leading" a single theme. Sumarokov’s style, “gentle” as defined by his contemporaries, is also much simpler and more concise. Sumarokov's epithets are often accurate. The poet's metaphors are built on the use of already established image-symbols, a kind of poetic formulas: “bloody sword” (in Lomonosov - “sword washed in blood”), “loud noise of glorious deeds” (in Lomonosov “loud noise” of the Neva, announcing “that here in winter there is a golden spring" - "Ode on the arrival of Elizabeth Petrovna", 1752). The genre of the laudable ode, as Sumarokov himself admitted, was not the main thing in the poet’s work: not possessing Lomonosov’s versatile genius and his desire for enlightenment, Sumarokov considers this type of ode mainly as “complimentary.” “Spiritual” odes, or arrangements of psalms, opened up much greater prospects for Sumarokov’s creative gift. Since the time of Simeon of Polotsk, Russian poets have often used the Psalter as a basis for poetic transcriptions, seeing in the book of psalms ample opportunities for expression own feelings and thoughts. Like his predecessors, he translated, or rather, re-arranged psalms and Sumaroks into verse. Translations of the psalter were not something secondary for the poet, only paraphrastic exercises in versification - most likely, the poet turned to the psalter in difficult moments of life, in moments of sorrow, giving biblical heroes autobiographical features to convey one’s own grief, anxiety, and excitement. So, perhaps, the twists and turns personal life the poet, who married a serf and as a result was forced to end all relations with noble relatives, were reflected in the lines of the transcription of Psalm 145 about the natural equality of people. Mixed rhyme - aabccb. Rhyme aa, ss - masculine, bb - feminine. This kind of stanza construction is unusual in Russian poetry, but is often found in German. It is known that A.P. Sumarokov translated the psalms from the Slavic translation of the Bible. However, the poet was also interested in the Hebrew original, therefore, without knowing Hebrew language, he used European translations and, above all, “a new and very close to the original translation in German.” Sumarokov was also familiar with German poetic transcriptions of psalms. Perhaps, when creating his “spiritual odes,” he was guided by the rhythmic structure of German works of this type. In general, Sumarokov was characterized by using the rich experience of ancient and Western European poetry in his work. As N. Bulich writes, “Sumarokov has... a whole department of odes, called different... This department includes the so-called anacreontic, sapphic, Horatian odes, written in imitation of the external form of these ancient poets.” Since Sumarokov did not know the languages of antiquity, he used prose translations by Kozitsky, which he translated into poetry.

Epigram in theory and poetic practice Sumarokov acts artistic structure, close in its tasks to satire and fable, but differing from them in the lack of declarativeness and allegory, as well as formal features(volume, poetic meter). In the epistle “On Poetry” the following lines are dedicated to epigrams:

They then live rich in their beauty,

When they are composed sharp and knotty;

They must be short, and their whole strength lies in

To say something mockingly about someone.

Structural appearance of epigrams presented in 3 types: 1) witty satirical scene, dialogue; 2) author’s reflection, maxim;
3) epigram-epitaph. Themes: denunciation of clerks; the fate of a writer; literary controversy; love relationships, marriage and family. For example, an epigram “The robbers shout: “He scolds us!”...” composed against tsarist officials - “clerks”, for the destruction of whose class "in jealousy of the fatherland" the poet spoke: “ Satire to thieves: rope and ax" In the epigram "Dancer! You are rich. Professor! You're wretched..."(1759) presumably we're talking about about Timofey Bublikov, one of the first Russian ballet actors. Rich spectators, admiring the dancer's skill, threw wallets filled with gold coins onto the stage. Under professor, apparently, meant Academician S.N., who had died by that time. Krasheninnikov, author of the book “Description of the Land of Kamchatka,” in the fate of whose children Sumarokov took part: “ Of course, the head is respected less than the legs" A hint of the plight after the death of the children’s father, Krasheninnikov, was also made by Sumarokov in the comedy “Guardian.” Epigram "Kotora better life: Is the golden bird in a cage..."(1759) is directed against Lomonosov, whose poems, in his opinion literary opponent, « in shining feigned beauty» « although they are marvelous to the mind, / But they are disgusting to nature...»: « A bubble is always a bubble, no matter how empty or inflated».

Sumarokov's favorite satirical genre was parody. In their "nonsense odes" he parodied Lomonosov’s solemn odes, subtly capturing and bringing to the point of absurdity the most characteristic techniques and features of his creative manner: “disorder” in the presentation of the theme, delight and pathos, soaring in abstract lyricism, metaphors, incongruous (in Sumarokov’s opinion) epithets. Sumarokov considered the shortcomings of Lomonosov’s poetic system "polyverbalism", "ornateness", "volume" od. Sumarokov himself did not use the name “nonsense odes” anywhere. This is Novikov's term. But for the first time it appears in the order of Lomonosov, vice-president of the Academy, to the censors of the magazine “Hardworking Bee” about the prohibition of printing “nonsensical odes” there. For Sumarokov, his parodies were a serious matter, one of the weapons in the fight against the Lomonosov trend in poetry. “Nonsense Odes” illustrate statements from Sumarokov’s theoretical and polemical articles about “plumpiness, vagueness, confusion, puffiness, nonsense” in verses of a direction hostile to him and aimed at his overthrow:

With his feet he is only in the world,

He hides his head on the air,

Touching it to the heavens.

I, muses, open my whole mouth

And I sing so cunningly,

That I don’t understand the song myself

(Ode absurd II).

The subject of Sumarokov's parodies were also Trediakovsky's love songs, which were perceived by the poet's contemporaries as archaic and absurdly absurd. Sumarokov ridiculed Trediakovsky’s song style in his comedy-pamphlet “Tresotinius”, including in it a scene of the pedant Tresotinius-Trediakovsky reading a mediocre opus he had composed. In a polemically sharpened form of parody, Sumarokov masterfully reproduced the “vicious”, from his point of view, properties of his opponent’s song style: excessive passion for verbal beauty, heterogeneity of vocabulary and its exaggerated emotionality, a heap of nonsense, addiction to mythological images.

3.3. In the 2nd volume " Full meeting all works" by Sumarokov

(1781) placed department "Different Odes". In the literature of Russian classicism during its heyday, the ode received preferential development as the leading genre of high civil lyrics, although it retained the features of a laudatory work (connection with the ode of ancient poets). The main thing in a Russian ode is the poet’s attitude to the general issues of modern life, his reflections and thoughts about the fate of the nation. The Russian ode was a means of shaping public consciousness.

Contemporaries did not place Sumarokov’s solemn odes too highly, and for a long time he himself wrote a few of them, gradually overcoming the influence of the example of Lomonosov, whose odes became classic. Already at the end of its life path Sumarokov rebuilt the solemn ode in a new way, giving this genre the illusion of spoken, natural speech:

My mind is delighted now,

Curiosity of captivity;

In vain in Catherine’s heart,

He informs me

What is she thinking on the throne...

He thinks this way about the glory of the throne:

"I have a vast country

Toward the correction of the law

Entrusted from heaven.

Me in the days of my power

I'm not looking for any other fun

In addition to the happiness of people...

Oh my dear children!

That caresses me to possess:

You all love me.

Whatever is of benefit to you, that’s good for me.

I love you and you equally,

Keeping the position of mother”...

("Ode...to Catherine II

on her birthday in 1768").

Never without common benefit

We cannot like the king.

The crown's shine darkens then,

The king will not be loved and glorious,

And the subjects always suffer.

The name of a great soul is flattering,

But she needs intelligence and work,

And without labor, kings are everywhere

Not scepters, but they carry dignity.

Yours, O prince, and our mother

He seeks his glory in ours,

Russia is trying to uplift...

Prosperous are those peoples

The king of whom is the image of the Divine

(“Ode... to Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich on the first day of 1774”)

Sumarokov was the creator "dry" odes, which avoided Lomonosov's hyperbolism, metaphorism, symbolic use of words, allegories and was based primarily on logical development specific topic, which gave her greater rationality. The general and special in the solemn odes of Lomonosov and Sumarokov are summarized in the following table:

Solemn ode

No.	Artistic Features	Lomonosov	Sumarokov	General
1.	Ideological and artistic meaning	Poetic expression of a broad program of national reforms	A means of educating civic consciousness and forming public opinion	Recommendations (teachings) and even warnings to kings. Ode is a lyrical and journalistic work, both programmatic and laudatory.
2.	Thematic composition	“Lyrical disorder” in the presentation of the theme (free flow of poetic thought)	Rational consistency of plan and simplicity of presentation	Cross-cutting theme – Russia and the Russians
3.	Lyrical hero	An enthusiastic “singer”, a bearer of lyrical excitement	A poet who remains “within the boundaries of truth and reason,” reflecting on important topics	The embodiment of social virtues and the bearer of high civic feelings
4.	Style	Ornate beginning (lyrical rise, delight, “soaring of thought”). Increased expressiveness. Oratory techniques as a means emotional impact on the reader (listener). Elements of Baroque (intense metaphorism, allegorism, picturesqueness). Monumentality, hyperbolism, ornamentation	Deviation from oratorical intonations. Logic, rationality of thought. A calmer, prosaic, down-to-earth tone of emotion. Decreased lyrical pathos. Weakening all methods of influencing the perceiver. Didactic elements. Simplicity and naturalness (“natural explanation”)	Panegyric character
5.	Language	The majesty of the syllable. "Floorate speeches." Abundant use of conventionally solemn “Slavic sayings”, biblical expressions along with “Slavic Russian”	Ease and clarity of style. Parallel use of “Slavic”, “Slavonic” and “Russian” sayings with preference colloquial vocabulary. The principle of scientific, unadorned speech
6.	Means of expression	-Colorful descriptions; Rhetorical figures (exclamations, questions); Inversions; Tropes: sharp metaphors, bold comparisons, fantastic hyperboles, personifications, oxymorons; Biblical, mythological and ancient images	-Avoidance of rhetorical figures (except for questions with negation) and inversions; The use of tropes is reduced to a minimum (the most typical are personifications, symbols and synecdoches)
7.	Rhythmic structure	The most common use is 4 tbsp. and 6-st. iambic and 10-line stanza	Use of various metric schemes (polymetry)

Yu.N. Tynyanov in the article “Ode as an oratorical genre” wrote: “Sumarokov denies the high – “loud” – florid ode and puts the “middle” ode in its place.”

In addition to official ceremonial odes, Sumarokov wrote spiritual odes(philosophical, “translations” of psalms), moralizing, anacreontic And sapphic, which are intimate lyrics. Yes, in ode "Against the Villains"("On sea shores I sit...", 1759) created the image of a lonely, persecuted and suffering man, crying " to the throne of the Creator: / Soften, O God, evil hearts!" The lyrical hero of another ode with the same name "Against the Villains"(“You are iambic verse in color...”, 1760) exclaims in despair:

O rude morals! O eyelids!

How long will there be people

To torture and destroy each other,

And will they ever love?

Not heeding the nature of evil thoughts,

Your kind and all your own kind,

Without flattery, honoring them

Your image and yourself?

At the beginning of the poem, the name of Archilochus is mentioned - an ancient Greek poet (VII century BC), the founder of a special literary genre“iambs” with a sharply accusatory orientation. Sumarokov ends his ode with a warning "villains":

Neither Last Judgment, nor darkness is eternal,

Neither the shame nor the torment is endless,

Not a burning voice of conscience

They cannot restrain us.

Evildoers, fear, fear God

And the almighty Creator!

Beware of the strict judge in him,

When they forgot their father in him.

"Ode to the Vanity of the World"(1763) is a reflection on the transience of human life and the frailty of earthly existence, combined with the maxim:

...Nature leads us to death,

Remember, O man!

We will moderate the flame of passions;

Why should we worry too much?

Let's leave unnecessary desire;

We cannot live in this world forever.

IN "Ode on Virtue"(1759) Sumarokov preaches the necessity "mortal" win "weaknesses are natural" virtue and calls to live according to conscience and truth:

...Don’t wish another’s share

None, against my will,

Taco, as if to yourself.

Do not like villainy, flattery,

Drive away the love of money;

Sacrifice everything, and life - honor,

Devoting all my days to her...

Sumarokovsky transcriptions from the Psalter turned into deeply personal prayers of a suffering person. The tradition of rethinking the content of the psalm, its free interpretation while preserving the theme of the original source and the original moral and psychological situation was adopted and developed later by Derzhavin. The “suggestions” of Sumarokov’s psalms significantly influenced Pushkin’s “Imitations of the Koran.” Having developed a genre Anacreontic ode As an imitation of the Epicurean poetry of the ancient Greek poet Anacreon (or Anacreon, late 6th - early 5th centuries BC), Sumarokov contributed to the development of Russian anacreontics. In Russian syllabic-tonic poetry, Sumarokov’s imitations of Anacreon are one of the first experiments in blank (rhymeless) verse.

The poet gave examples of almost all lyrical genres and types of Russian syllabic-tonic verse. He is the author elegies, idyll (eclogue), friendly messages, rondo, triplets, stanzas, sonnets, songs And romances. In intimate lyrics, Sumarokov develops a poetic “language of love”, teaching the noble class to love and compassion. He raised a sensitive and significant topic in one of sonnets “O beings, the composition is mixed without an image...”(1755) - before him and long years after him this theme was not found in Russian poetry:

...The baby that burdened my womb,

And, not yet born, he pitifully tasted death

To close the shame of deprived girlhood!

Love, having defeated honor, ordered you to give life,

And honor, having defeated love, ordered to kill.

The painful dispute between feeling and duty is resolved by the victory of the latter, but the woman is sacrificed to honor " unhappy fruit created by love"; under the weight of her sin she cannot calm down "concerns" and tears.

Songs Sumarokov continued the tradition of love cants and arias - song genres that became especially widely popular in the post-Petrine period. In contrast to the ubiquitous cants, the poet’s songs became widespread in the living rooms of the nobility, expressing tendencies inherent in noble culture and responding primarily to the needs of the aristocratic circle. The songs, which were not published, but were sung both in St. Petersburg and in the provinces, brought Sumarokov his first literary success. They were published for the first time (129 in number)
N.I. Novikov in volume VIII of “Complete collection of all works in verse and prose.” Sumarokov wrote songs varied in theme and style. He has Masonic, soldier, historical, “philosophical”, hunting, satirical, parody and humorous songs, dedicated to friends, stylized folklore, pastoral and anacreontic songs. But most of all Sumarokov’s songs are romances, i.e. songs of a chamber nature, conveying graceful intimate feelings with their various shades in the form of lyrical outpouring and gallant manner. Going back to the song-arias of Peter the Great's time, they were intended for solo performance to music in order to delight the refined ears of enlightened art lovers (they served as a kind of elite version of a lyrical love song), for example:

Those hours disappeared when you were looking for me,

And all my joy has been taken away by you.

I see that you have become unfaithful to me now,

Against me, you have become completely different.

My moan and sadness are fierce

imagine

And remember those moments

How nice I was to you.

I became unhappy because I confessed to you,

The beginning was that I endure torment,

What’s even more unfortunate is that I was seduced by you,

The most unfortunate thing is that I love you.

She ignited it herself

You keep my blood cold.

Why did you change it?

In unfriendliness is love?.. (No. 28).
Is it because I am captivated by you?

So that, loving passionately, you sigh all the time?

Is that why my soul is infected with love,

So that I can shed streams of the bitterest tears?

To ruin young summers,

To feed a fruitless passion

In you, and you torment me without pity,

You have brought both your heart and spirit to despair!

Or don’t you know my ardor yet?

Consider, tormentor, how you have taken possession of me.

What I feel in my heart

Understand from my eyes, -

How I suffer from you

None of them are written... (No. 89).

The song, which, according to the genre hierarchy of classicism, was prescribed to depict or express feelings and passions, easily evoked a lively emotional response from listeners, significantly reinforced by the influence of music, and this revealed social significance in the eyes of the poet, convinced that “ education is more honorable than birth", perspective " purification of hearts», « aversion from vices"through the means of art. By creating romance songs, Sumarokov sought to, by destroying the “low”, often cynical ideas about passion as an elementary flirtation, widespread in his era among the noble class, to exalt the spiritual needs of a person who seeks in love, first of all, sympathy and spiritual disposition, to give them the meaning of “norm”, sample, to ennoble eroticism, to spiritualize sensuality. The characterization of the song as a poetic genre equivalent to others was included by Sumarokov in the epistole “On Poetry”:

The style of the songs should be pleasant, simple and clear,

There is no need for flair; he is beautiful in his own right.

So that the mind is hidden in it and passion speaks;

It is not he who is big over him - he has power over his heart.

The artistic features of Sumarokov’s songs are associated with the fact that in this genre the poet is a classicist, proceeding from the sensualism of Locke (“ everything that we do not understand is explained to the mind by feelings"), took the first step from the abstractness of classicism, from the rational analysis of love to the depiction of heartfelt experiences in a sentimental spirit, to the pre-romantic idea of fatal passion beyond the control of reason:

...I accept flattery with the truth

I am in your answer.

To me, and flattering, everything that is,

You are the cutest in the world.

In what I see clearly now,

I don’t believe myself;

Day and night I burn with you,

To the heart of a hypocrite (No. 72).

...The minute I try

Forget you forever

I'm captivated by you again:

I cannot stop loving (No. 121).

In Sumarokov’s love songs, unlike his tragedies, the conflict between duty and passion is resolved in favor of the “heart,” because, as the poet believed, “ When the heart of love becomes involved, all evidence is weak..." The feeling he depicted did not fit into the classicist framework of “reasonable” feeling:

The position determines me

To stop loving you,

The heart transgresses its duty:

I can't forget you (No. 87).

L.I. Kulakova wrote: “By allowing a song into the classical parnassus, Sumarokov opened the way to poetry for the “ordinary person” as an individual and accelerated the possibility of further movement of literature along the path to sentimentalism and pre-romanticism.”

Sumarokov’s songs were often written to some well-known motive (“to an extremely tender voice,” as was customary to say at that time). They are distinguished not only by the simplicity of the plot situation (separation, betrayal, love triangle, unrequited feeling) and the system artistic images, “uniqueness” of the poetic word, but also the extreme richness of the strophic pattern, the variety of the rhyme system used, special intonation-rhythmic expressiveness and melody.
G.A. Gukovsky s with good reason called the poet’s songs “a true laboratory of Russian verse.” He rightly noted that “Sumarokov introduces themes of personal, individual human experiences into poetic use.”

The direct voice of passion became the subject of other genres of the poet’s love lyrics - in particular, his eclogue (idyll) And elegies. He outlined his “philosophy of love” in a tendentious moralistic dedication "Beautiful Russian people female» to the collection “Eclogues of Alexander Sumarokov”(1774): " Love that has only voluptuousness at its core is despicable; despicable lovers who strive to deceive weak women; Women who have been deceived are also subject to some reproach; ignoble voluptuousness is despicable, but loving tenderness and fidelity have been respected from the beginning of the world and will remain respectable until the end of the world. Love is the source and foundation of all breath, and in addition to this, the source and foundation of poetry..." The basis of the structure eclogues (idyls) is a combination of a conventional landscape (an elegant “scenery”) with the dialogue of the characters, including elements of frivolity, eroticism and playfully conveying “ love heat» shepherd boys, the struggle between passion and shame. Sumarokov addresses the writer of idylls in his epistle “On Poetry” with the following advice:

Leave your magnificent voice in your idylls

And in the flocks, do not drown out their pipes with a trumpet.

Pan hides in the forests from this sonorous weather,

And the nymphs by the stream will go out of fear into the waters.

Are you writing a love speech or a shepherd's argument?

So that their conversation is neither polite nor rude,

So that your shepherd does not be an example to the peasant

And he would not, again, be a court gentleman.

Sing in the idyll, the skies are clear to me,

Green meadows, bushes, forests,

gushing springs, springs and groves,

Spring, a pleasant day and the quiet of a dark night;

Let me feel the shepherd's simplicity

And forget, while reading poetry, the vanity.

Elegy depicts the state of " most unfortunate soul": the melancholy of a lover, overwhelmed by an irresistible passion, from separation from his beloved; consciousness focused on the psychological antithesis “love - death”. The single emotional and lyrical theme of this genre is the theme of love loss. Historian of Russian elegy L.G. Frizman very accurately noted that “Sumarokov’s elegy is always or almost always an excited speech addressed to someone or something.” Regarding the elegy, the epistle “On Poetry” says:

The voice of the mournful muse penetrates faster,

When she torments her hair in love,

But all her delight paints her tender fold

United only by what the heart says:

The lover in these verses proclaims lamentation,

When Avrorin gets in the way of being with her sweetheart,

Or he, sighing, curses his watch,

In which there is no Iris in his eyes,

Or remembers Phylisa’s cruelty,

Or opens its flame with its treasure,

Or, having parted with her, imagining those beauties,

With sighs he repeats the passing hours.

But the verse will be cold and all your crying will be a pretence,

Once upon a time only poetry speaks;

But the warehouse will be pitiful, leave it and don’t bother:

If you want to write something, then first you fall in love!

The idea of love as the focus of the strongest sorrows in human life, the poeticization of “illegal”, “unreasonable” feelings, the “struggle of passions” with reason, the identification of the internal drama of the love experience determine psychologism lyrics by Sumarokov. And although this is still an abstract psychologism, built on antitheses, on the collision of opposing experiences of the lyrical hero (“ I thirst for love, / I burn and suffer, / I tremble, yearn, tear and groan...") and conveying feelings common to all lovers in eternally repeating situations, Sumarokov was the first of the Russian poets to embark on the path of mastering the ability to psychologically reliably convey variability state of mind person (which was inaccessible to the ancient Russian tradition of psychological analysis). Thus, he anticipated the further development of the psychological line of Russian lyrics.

For intimate lyrical genres, Sumarokov created poetic love phraseology, close to colloquial speech the educated part of society, in accordance with: 1) with its own linguistic program (addressing the average “calm”, following the principle of “natural simplicity”); 2) with the interpretation of love as a destructive passion (“ Curly in grief no one spoke“, he proclaimed in the epistle “On Poetry”); 3) with borrowing ready-made verbal formulas European descent: “blood ignited”, “tears of the river”, “pierced heart”, “fate is cruel”, “unmerciful fate”, “sorrows of the heart”, “love heat”, “sweet dream”, “hour of separation”, “wound of evil” , “the disease is fatal”, etc. (except for mythological imagery, which he resolutely rejected in the epistle “On Poetry,” declaring: “ When a lover breaks up with his beloved, / Then Venus will not enter his mind"). However, Sumarokov in love lyrics It was not always possible to avoid rhetoric and declarativeness. He failed to free lyrical speech from length and forced tension; Church Slavonicisms and vernacular words remained “indispensable” in the language of works of the middle “calm”. All this provoked an undeservedly harsh assessment of Sumarokov’s lyrics, given by the young Pushkin in his letter “To Zhukovsky” (1816):

The grace of the cynical pipe was afraid,

And the rough fingers on the lyre became numb.

Nevertheless, as G.A. wrote. Gukovsky, " namely Sumarokov’s lyrics, not his official lyrics laudable odes, namely the lyrics of feelings and moods, are perhaps that part of his work that is more aesthetically effective than others to this day».

In the literary environment of the last quarter of the 18th century, a respectful attitude towards Sumarokov prevailed. So, N.I. Novikov in “Experience” historical dictionary about Russian writers" highly appreciated him as a playwright and satirist, A.N. Radishchev considered him an “excellent poet” and in “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” (in “The Tale of Lomonosov”) he stated: “A great husband can give birth to a great husband... O Lomonosov, you gave birth to Sumarokov”.

V.G. Belinsky rightly emphasized that “Sumarokov had among his contemporaries great success, and without talent, your will, you cannot have any success at any time.".

Literature

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1 Erata is the muse of love poetry.

2 Melpomene is the muse of tragic poetry and theater.

3 Thalia is the muse of comedy.

Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov (1718 – 1777). The son of a general and an aristocrat. At the age of 14 he entered the Gentry Cadet Corps, opened in 1732 by the government of Anna Ioannovna. Art, including literature, occupied a significant place in the corpus. Sumarokov was the first to take up literary work professionally.

Sumarokov's life was extremely sad. He was a nervous man who reacted sharply to the surrounding savagery of morals; had extraordinary ideas about serving the Fatherland, honor, culture, virtue. He was the creator of a new type of drama, the first director, and theater director.

Sumarokov’s first poems are odes from 1739 in a brochure entitled: “To Her Imperial Majesty, the most merciful Empress Anna Ivanovna, the All-Russian autocrat, congratulatory odes on the first day of the new year 1740 from the cadet corps, composed through Alexander Sumarokov.

He was influenced by the work of Trediakovsky, and then Lomonosov, with whom he was friends. Late 40s - early. 50x – discrepancy with Lomonosov.

Sumarokov believed that his poetic activity was a service to society, a form of participation in political life countries. By political views he is a noble landowner. He considered serfdom necessary, believed that the state was based on two classes - the peasantry and the nobility. Nevertheless, the nobleman, in his opinion, does not have the right to consider the peasants his property, to treat them as slaves. He must be the judge and commander of his vassals and has the right to receive food from them. Sumarokov believed that the tsar must obey the laws of honor embodied in state laws.

In January 1759, Sumarokov began publishing his own magazine, “The Hardworking Bee.” Published monthly, published in the Academy of Sciences. Published mainly by one person. In the eyes of the government, such a body of independent noble public opinion was undesirable, and the magazine had to be closed.

Being one of Nikita Panin’s friends, after the coup that brought Catherine the Second to power, Sumarokov was close to the palace and received support as a writer. However, by the end of the 60s he found himself in disgrace, because Catherine began to crack down on all kinds of freethinking. Sumarokov gradually made enemies for himself. There was also unhappy love in Sumarokov’s life. He fell in love with a simple girl - his serf, and married her. Relatives of Sumarokov's first wife began a process against him, demanding that his children from his second marriage be deprived of the rights. Although the case ended in Sumarokov’s favor, it caused damage to his health, he began to drink; He became so poor that when he died, there was no money even for a funeral. The writer's coffin was carried in their arms to the cemetery by actors from the Moscow Theater. Besides them, two people came to see him off.

As a poet and theorist, Sumarokov completed the construction of the style of classicism in Russia. The basis of Sumarokov’s concrete poetics is the requirement of simplicity, naturalness, clarity poetic language. Poetry should avoid the fantastic and vaguely emotional. Preaches simplicity in verse and prose.

Sumarokov polemicizes a lot with Lomonosov, does not agree with his grammar and word usage. Sometimes he turns directly to the analysis of Lomonosov’s works. Sumarokov considered changing the meaning of a word as a violation of grammatical correctness.

In 1747, Sumarokov published his first tragedy - “Khorev”, in next year- “Hamlet.” "Khorev" was installed in the cadet corps in 1949. A kind of cadet troupe was created that played at court. Her soul was Sumarokov. Later he was the director of the theater organized by F. Volkov. (see ticket about the tragedy)

Sumarokov wrote tragedies and comedies. He was a brilliant comedian, but he was soon surpassed in this by Fonvizin, Knyazhnin, and Kapnist. As an author of tragedies he was unsurpassed. In total, Sumarokov wrote 12 comedies: “Tresotinius”, “An Empty Quarrel” and “Monsters”, written in 1750. Then, after 14 years - “Dowry by Deception”, “Guardian”, “Reddy Man”, “Three Brothers Together”, “Poisonous”, “Narcissus”. Then three comedies from 1772 - “Cuckold by Imagination”, “Mother Companion to Daughter”, “Crazy Woman”. Sumarokov's comedies have minimal connection to the traditions of French classicism. All of his comedies are written in prose; none has the full volume and correct arrangement of the composition of the classical tragedy of the West in five acts. Eight comedies have one act, four have three. These are small plays, almost sideshows. Sumarokov very conditionally maintains three unities. There is no unity of action. In the first comedies there is a rudimentary plot in the form of a couple in love, who at the end get married. The composition of the comic characters in them is determined by the composition of the stable masks of Italian folk comedy. They are enlivened by Sumarokov’s language - lively, sharp, cheeky in its unvarnishedness.

The six comedies of 1764–1768 were noticeably different from the first three. Sumarokov switches to the type of comedy of characters. In each play, the focus is on one image, and everything else is needed either to shade it or to create a fiction of the plot. The undoubted masterpiece of Sumarokov’s entire comedic work is his comedy “Cuckold by Imagination.” (In general, I think there’s no need to go into much detail about the comedy, because we were mostly going through tragedy, so I think that’s enough.)

Sumarokov’s poetic creativity amazes with its diversity, richness of genres and forms. Considering himself the creator of Russian literature, Sumarokov sought to show his contemporaries and leave for his descendants examples of all types of literature. He wrote exceptionally a lot and, apparently, quickly. Sumarokov wrote songs, elegies, eclogues, idylls, parables (fables), satires, epistles, sonnets, stanzas, epigrams, madrigals, solemn, philosophical odes, etc. He also translated the Psalter.

In total, Sumarokov wrote 374 parables. It was he who discovered the fable genre for Russian literature. He borrowed a lot from La Fontaine. Sumarokov's parables are often topical, aimed at ridiculing specific disorders of the Russian public life his time. Sometimes they were very small in volume. The most important theme of the fables is the Russian nobility. The language of fables is lively, bright, interspersed with sayings and colloquial expressions... In the mid-18th century, the main direction in the development of fables was determined. 1st model: the fable is written in the middle style, Alexandrian verse. Moral story. 2nd model (Sumarokov model): offers mixed verse, elements of low style - a fable story. IN satirical works Sumarokov feels bile, conceit, and scandalous temperament.

In Lyrics, Sumarokov strives to give a generalized analysis of man in general. The love face gives the image of love in " pure form" In songs and elegies, Sumarokov speaks only about love, happy or unhappy. Other feelings and moods are not allowed. We will also not find individual characteristics of lovers and loved ones. There are no facts or events of real life in lyrical poems. Sumarokov wrote songs from the perspective of a man and a woman. The text consists of repeated formulas, devoid of specific character expression. Sumarokov created the language of love as a high feeling. Sumarokov did not publish his songs. Pastoral motifs appear in a number of songs and idylls. Elegies and eclogues are written in iambic hexameter, and songs give all kinds of rhythmic combinations.

1747 “Epistole on Language”, “Epistole on Poetry”. The “Epistole on Language” gives general principles for the assimilation of antiquity. The “Epistole on Poetry” has its own theory, exemplary writers, genres. (at first General characteristics, then the main samples, then the characteristics of individual genres.)

The tragedy of Sumarokov.

Sumarokov, the author of the first Russian tragedies, took advantage of the example of French tragedians of the 17th and 18th centuries. A number of characteristic features of their system are Alexandrian verse (iambic hexameter with a caesura on the 3rd foot), 5 acts, the absence of extra-plot insertions and digressions, the absence of comic elements, “high syllable”, etc. Sumarokov transferred it to his tragedies. However, it cannot be said that Sumarokov borrowed the tragedy from the French, since there it was constantly developing, and, by borrowing, he would have to transfer the final version to Russian soil, i.e. Voltaire's version. Sumarokov built his tragedy on the principles of extreme economy of means, simplicity, restraint, and naturalness. The simplicity of the dramatic plot of his plays does not allow us to talk about intrigue, because... there is no hub of events, the whole action tends to be limited to one peripeteia. The initial situation stretches through the entire tragedy and is lifted at the end. Sumarokov's roles are also usually motionless. The tragedy is filled to a large extent by revealing the main situation in its significance for each pair of heroes separately. Dialogues, especially those of the central characters (lovers), receive a lyrical coloring. No narrative inserts. The central place of the drama, the third act, is marked mainly by an extra-plot device: the heroes draw swords or daggers from their scabbards. (because there is no plot climax). The action of most of Sumarokov's tragedies is attributed to ancient Rus'; here Sumarokov breaks the custom of depicting distant eras and distant countries in tragedy. Unlike the French tragedy, Sumarokov has almost no confidants, their role is extremely small. He either turns into a messenger, or, on the contrary, becomes a separate hero. The departure from the confidante system led to the development and abundance of monologues, since a monologue can replace a false dialogue with a confidant. Monologue is used to communicate to the viewer the thoughts, feelings and intentions of the characters. The desire to reduce the total number of characters. Thus, Sumarokov created a very unified compositional system of tragedy, in which all elements are fused and conditioned by the principle of simplicity and economy.

Sumarokov believed that “tragedy is done in order... to instill in the caretakers love for virtue, and extreme hatred for vices.” Sumarokov’s plays strive to arouse in the viewer admiration for virtue, to influence his emotional sensitivity. She wanted to correct the souls of the audience, not the minds, not state machine. Hence the predominance of happy endings. (Only “Khorev” and “Sinav and Truvor” end tragically for the heroes.) The presence of a clear moral and evaluative characteristic. Before us are either wise, virtuous heroes (Semira, Dimisa, Truvor) or black villains (Dimitri the Pretender, Claudius in Hamlet), the villains die, the virtuous heroes emerge victorious from disasters.

Conflict is understood as the conflict between a person's life and how he should live. (“Dimitri the Pretender”) is not a conflict between feeling and duty. The tragedy of a person who does not live the way he should live. A man's collision with fate. At these moments, the scale of the hero’s personality is revealed. In tragedies, the location of the action is not important. The heroes are devoid of characteristic features. Classicism negatively perceived everything concrete - it was perceived as a distortion of human nature. Existential image of life. Tragic hero must be unhappy. Kupriyanova writes that “the hero of a classical tragedy should be neither good nor bad. He must be miserable." Tragedy elevates viewers and readers (catharsis... blah blah blah ).

The tragedy of Sumarokov gave rise to a tradition. His successors - Kheraskov, Maikov, Knyazhnin - nevertheless introduced new features into the tragedy.

He was influenced by the work of Trediakovsky, and then Lomonosov, with whom he was friends. Late 40s - early. 50x – discrepancy with Lomonosov.

Sumarokov believed that his poetic activity was a service to society, a form of participation in the political life of the country. According to his political views, he is a noble landowner. He considered serfdom necessary, believed that the state was based on two classes - the peasantry and the nobility. Nevertheless, the nobleman, in his opinion, does not have the right to consider the peasants his property, to treat them as slaves. He must be the judge and commander of his vassals and has the right to receive food from them. Sumarokov believed that the tsar must obey the laws of honor embodied in state laws.

As a poet and theorist, Sumarokov completed the construction of the style of classicism in Russia. The basis of Sumarokov’s concrete poetics is the requirement of simplicity, naturalness, and clarity of poetic language. Poetry should avoid the fantastic and vaguely emotional. Preaches simplicity in verse and prose.

In 1747, Sumarokov published his first tragedy, Horev, and the following year, Hamlet. "Horev" was staged in cadet corps in '49. A kind of cadet troupe was created that played at court. Her soul was Sumarokov. Later he was the director of the theater organized by F. Volkov. (see ticket about the tragedy)

Poetic creativity Sumarokova amazes with its diversity, richness of genres and forms. Considering himself the creator of Russian literature, Sumarokov sought to show his contemporaries and leave for his descendants examples of all types of literature. He wrote exceptionally a lot and, apparently, quickly. Sumarokov wrote songs, elegies, eclogues, idylls, parables (fables), satires, epistles, sonnets, stanzas, epigrams, madrigals, solemn, philosophical odes, etc. He also translated the Psalter.

In total, Sumarokov wrote 374 parables. It was he who discovered the fable genre for Russian literature. He borrowed a lot from La Fontaine. Sumarokov's parables are often topical, aimed at ridiculing specific disorders in Russian social life of his time. Sometimes they were very small in volume. The most important topic fables - Russian nobility. The language of fables is lively, bright, interspersed with sayings and colloquial expressions... In the mid-18th century, the main direction in the development of fables was determined. 1st model: the fable is written in the middle style, Alexandrian verse. Moral story. 2nd model (Sumarokov model): offers mixed verse, elements of low style - a fable story. In Sumarokov’s satirical works one can feel bile, conceit, and scandalous temperament.

In Lyrics, Sumarokov strives to give a generalized analysis of man in general. The love face gives an image of love in its “pure form.” In songs and elegies, Sumarokov speaks only about love, happy or unhappy. Other feelings and moods are not allowed. We will also not find individual characteristics of lovers and loved ones. There are no facts or events of real life in lyrical poems. Sumarokov wrote songs from the perspective of a man and a woman. The text consists of repeated formulas, devoid of specific character expression. Sumarokov created the language of love as a high feeling. Sumarokov did not publish his songs. Pastoral motifs appear in a number of songs and idylls. Elegies and eclogues are written in iambic hexameter, and songs give all kinds of rhythmic combinations.

1747 “Epistole on Language”, “Epistole on Poetry”. The “Epistole on Language” gives general principles for the assimilation of antiquity. The “Epistole on Poetry” has its own theory, exemplary writers, genres. (first general characteristics, then main samples, then characteristics of individual genres.)

The tragedy of Sumarokov.

Sumarokov, the author of the first Russian tragedies, took advantage of the example of French tragedians of the 17th and 18th centuries. A number of characteristic features of their system are Alexandrian verse (iambic hexameter with a caesura on the 3rd foot), 5 acts, the absence of extra-plot insertions and digressions, the absence of comic elements, “high syllable”, etc. Sumarokov transferred it to his tragedies. However, it cannot be said that Sumarokov borrowed the tragedy from the French, since there it was constantly developing, and, by borrowing, he would have to transfer the final version to Russian soil, i.e. Voltaire's version. Sumarokov built his tragedy on the principles of extreme economy of means, simplicity, restraint, and naturalness. The simplicity of the dramatic plot of his plays does not allow us to talk about intrigue, because... there is no hub of events, the whole action tends to be limited to one peripeteia. The initial situation stretches through the entire tragedy and is lifted at the end. Sumarokov's roles are also usually motionless. The tragedy is filled to a large extent by revealing the main situation in its significance for each pair of heroes separately. Dialogues, especially those of the central characters (lovers), receive a lyrical coloring. No narrative inserts. Central location dramas - the third act, is marked mainly by an extra-plot device: the heroes draw swords or daggers from their sheaths. (because there is no plot climax). The action of most of Sumarokov's tragedies is attributed to ancient Rus'; here Sumarokov breaks the custom of depicting distant eras and distant countries in tragedy. Unlike the French tragedy, Sumarokov has almost no confidants, their role is extremely small. He either turns into a messenger, or, on the contrary, becomes a separate hero. The departure from the confidante system led to the development and abundance of monologues, since a monologue can replace a false dialogue with a confidant. Monologue is used to communicate to the viewer the thoughts, feelings and intentions of the characters. The desire to reduce the total number of characters. Thus, Sumarokov created a very unified compositional system of tragedy, in which all elements are fused and conditioned by the principle of simplicity and economy.

Sumarokov believed that “tragedy is done in order... to instill in the caretakers love for virtue, and extreme hatred for vices.” Sumarokov’s plays strive to arouse in the viewer admiration for virtue, to influence his emotional sensitivity. She wanted to correct the souls of the audience, not the minds, not the state apparatus. Hence the predominance of happy endings. (Only “Khorev” and “Sinav and Truvor” end tragically for the heroes.) The presence of a clear moral and evaluative characteristic. Before us are either wise, virtuous heroes (Semira, Dimisa, Truvor) or black villains (Dimitri the Pretender, Claudius in Hamlet), the villains die, the virtuous heroes emerge victorious from disasters.

Conflict is understood as the conflict between a person's life and how he should live. (“Dimitri the Pretender”) is not a conflict between feeling and duty. The tragedy of a person who does not live the way he should live. A man's collision with fate. At these moments, the scale of the hero’s personality is revealed. In tragedies, the location of the action is not important. The heroes are devoid of characteristic features. Classicism negatively perceived everything concrete - it was perceived as a distortion of human nature. Existential image of life. A tragic hero must be unhappy. Kupriyanova writes that “the hero of a classical tragedy should be neither good nor bad. He must be miserable." Tragedy elevates viewers and readers (catharsis... blah blah blah ).

The tragedy of Sumarokov gave rise to a tradition. His successors - Kheraskov, Maikov, Knyazhnin - nevertheless introduced new features into the tragedy.

12. Sumarokov “Dmitry the Pretender”.

Since Dimitri tricked him into taking Russian throne, he committed many atrocities: he exiled and executed many innocent people, ruined the country, and turned Moscow into a prison for the boyars. But in 1606 his tyranny reached its limit. He wants to convert Russians to the false Catholic faith and, moreover, to give the entire people under the yoke of the Poles. In vain, the king's confidant Parmen turns to Demetrius with admonitions: the king does not repent of anything. “I despise the Russian people from the throne / And I involuntarily extend tyrant power,” he declares to his confidant. The only thing that makes him suffer is his love for Ksenia, the daughter of boyar Shuisky. However, Dimitri is going to soon achieve the possession of his beloved, despite the fact that he is already married; your spouse can be poisoned. Hearing this terrible confession, Parmen decides to protect the king’s wife.

Then the head of the guard comes with a message that the people are worried and that some even dare to say directly: the current sovereign is not the royal son, but a runaway monk Otrepiev, an impostor. “The rebellion is from Shuisky,” Dimitri guesses and demands that Shuisky and Ksenia be brought to him.

Shuisky assures the tsar that both the people and he himself, Shuisky, love Demetrius and are obedient to his will. Then, as proof of submission, the impostor orders Ksenia to be given for himself. But the girl proudly refuses him: even the threat of death cannot make her forget her fiancé George. Shuisky promises the king to change his daughter’s thoughts.

As soon as Ksenia is left alone with her father, he reveals to her that he intends to soon overthrow the tyrant from the throne; but until the time comes, you need to remain silent and hide. Shuisky asks his daughter to pretend to be submissive to Dimitri. Ksenia and then Georgy agree to deception for the good of the fatherland.

However, when Dimitri, believing their lies, begins to mock his rival (“Disappear, you petty creature to be sacrificed to the Tsar!”), George is indignant and, although Ksenia tries to restrain him, he calls the impostor to his face a murderer and a tyrant. When Dimitri orders George to be taken to prison, Ksenia also ceases to restrain herself. The angry tsar promises death to both of them, but Shuisky, who arrives in time, softens him and assures him that Ksenia will no longer resist. He even takes a ring from Dimitri to give it to his daughter as a pledge of royal love. Instilling in the tsar the idea that he is a faithful support for the throne, Shuisky also undertakes to calm the popular unrest caused by the imprisonment of George in chains. The impostor does not object, but at the same time gives orders to increase his guard.

Demetrius himself understands that with his bloodthirstiness he is turning his subjects against himself and is bringing the end of his reign closer, but he cannot help himself.

Thanks to Parmen's intervention, Demetrius frees George. In a conversation with Shuisky, Parmen says: “Even though he is Otrepiev, he is also among deception, / If he is a worthy king, he is worthy of the king’s dignity. / But does high rank benefit us alone? / Even if Dimitri is the son of this Russian monarch, / But if we don’t see this quality in him, / So we worthily hate the monarch’s blood, / Not finding in ourselves the love of our children for our father...” and adds that he would have remained faithful to the king if he was the true father of the people. However, Shuisky is not sure of the feelings of Dimitriev’s confidant and therefore does not reveal his thoughts to him.

Ksenia and Georgy promise Shuisky from now on to endure all the impostor’s curses and not give themselves away. The lovers vow again and again that they will belong only to each other. “And if I am not united with you, / I will be laid in the grave with you,” says Ksenia. And the young man is not inferior to her in nobility, tenderness and sublimity of feelings.

This time their deception is crowned with success. Although their faces turn pale and tears appear in their eyes, both firmly tell Dimitri that they strive to overcome love. The king is happy to look at their suffering, he likes that his subjects are in his complete power: “...submitting to me, seek my love... / And if not so, fear and tremble!” - he teaches Ksenia.

Suddenly the chief of the guard brings the news that both the nobility and the people are becoming embittered and, apparently, this night will be the night of treason. Dimitri immediately calls Parmen to him. Ksenia tries to intercede for the instigators of the riot - her father and lover, but in vain. And in vain the confidant shows the king the path to salvation - repentance and mercy. Dimitri's character is opposed to virtue; he has only new atrocities on his mind. Parmen receives the order to execute the boyars.

When Shuisky and Georgy are announced that they are condemned to execution, both are ready to proudly and without timidity accept death; Shuisky asks only that he be allowed to say goodbye to his daughter. The impostor agrees because he knows that by doing so he will increase their torment. They bring Ksenia. Her father and groom say goodbye to her touchingly. The girl, deprived of everything that made her happiness, in despair asks to hit her with a sword... But Parmen already wants to take the boyars to prison. Ksenia rushes to Parmen, asking if he “has really exchanged his pitiful disposition for atrocity?” He does not answer the prayers of the unfortunate woman, but sends prayers to heaven so that his dream of overthrowing the tyrant will come true.

At night, Dimitri is awakened by the ringing of a bell, and the impostor realizes that a popular revolt has begun. Seized with horror, he feels that both people and the sky have taken up arms against him, that there is no salvation for him anywhere. Demetrius then demands from the few surviving guards to overcome the crowd of people surrounding royal house, then he conjures not to leave him, then he thinks about escaping... But even now he is afraid not of approaching death, but of the fact that he will die without taking revenge on his enemies. He turns the rage that has seized him on Ksenia: “Mistress and daughter of my traitors! / When they were saved, then die for them!”

The warriors, led by Georgy and Shuisky, burst into the royal chambers just at the moment when the impostor raises a dagger over Ksenia. Both her lover and her father would be glad to die in her place. And Dimitri agrees to give the girl life only on one condition - if power and the crown are returned to him. Shuisky is forced to say: “For the fatherly city, taste fierce death!” Georgiy rushes at the villain, already knowing that he will not have time... Dimitri rushes to stab Ksenia... But at that moment Parmen with a drawn sword snatches the girl from the hands of the impostor. With a final curse on his lips, Dimitri pierces his own chest with a dagger and dies.

13. “Sumarokovsky” classicism and its representatives.

"Sumarokovsky" classicism. Sumarokov as a theorist of classicism; his programmatic poetic epistles “On the Russian Language” and “On Poetry”; “Be patient, my soul, endure various torments...”, “Tolithiness”, “Crow and Fox”, “Naughty”, “Ambassador Donkey”, “Axis and Bull”, “Beetles and Bees”, etc.
Sumarokov's participation in the reform of Russian versification; Sumarokov about the role of pyrrhichians and spondeans in verse. Sumarokovsky school of especially precise rhyming (“rhymes as smooth as glass”).
Sumarokov-playwright. Tragedies "Horev" (1747), "Hamlet" (1748), "Sinav and Truvor" (1750), "Dimitri the Pretender" (1771), etc. Comedies "Tresotinius" (1750), "Guardian" (1764 - 1765), “Cuckold by Imagination” (1772), etc.
Satires "O French", "About thin rhymers.").

Thus, in Russian classicism the “Sumarokov” and “Lomonosov” movements stand out. Classicism - literary direction, which originated in the 17th century. but France in the conditions of the formation of an absolutist state. Classical writers chose ancient art as a role model, but interpreted it in their own way. Classicism is based on the principle of rationalism (racio). Everything must be subject to reason, both in the state and in personal life, and selfish feelings and passions must be brought within the framework of civil and moral duty by reason. The theorist of classicism was the French poet Nicolas Boileau, who outlined the program of the movement in the book “Poetic Art”. In classicism, certain creative rules (norms) were established: 1. The main conflict of works is the struggle between egoistic feeling and civic duty or between passion and reason. In this case, duty and reason always win. 2. In accordance with their attitude to public duty, the actors were divided into positive and negative. The characters were imprinted with only one quality, one dominant trait (cowardice or courage, deceit or nobility, etc.), i.e. the characters were one-line. 3. A strict hierarchy of genres was established in literature. All of them were divided into high (ode, heroic poem, tragedy) and low (fable, satire, comedy). Outstanding events were depicted in high genres; the heroes were monarchs, statesmen, and generals. They glorified deeds for the benefit of the state and the monarchy. The language in works of high genres was supposed to be solemn and majestic. In low genres, the life of people of the middle classes was depicted, everyday phenomena and individual character traits of a person were ridiculed. The language of fables and comedies was close to colloquial. Dramatic works in the aesthetics of classicism were subject to the requirement of three unities: time, place and action. The unity of time and place meant that the action in the play should take no more than a day and take place in one place. The unity of action dictated a plot line that was not complicated by side episodes. In France, the leading writers of classicism were playwrights P. Corneille and J. Racine (in the genre of tragedy), Moliere (comedy), J. Lafontaine (fable). In Russia, classicism developed from the 18th century. Although Russian classicism had much in common with Western European, in particular with French, national specificity was clearly manifested in literature. If Western European classicism turned to ancient subjects, then Russian writers took material from national history. In Russian classicism, a critical note sounded clearly, the denunciation of vices was sharper, and interest in vernacular and in general to folk art. Representatives of classicism in Russian literature - A.D. Kantemir, M.V. Lomonosov, A.P. Sumarokov, D.I. Fonvizin.

14. “Three paraphrastic odes” (poetic competition between Trediakovsky, Lomonosov and Sumarokov).

Paraphrase is a retelling, a presentation of the text in your own words. Paraphrases are called different types processing of text (literary work): detailed explanation short text, abbreviated summary large text(adaptation), simplified presentation of a difficult-to-understand text with brief explanations, transcription prose text into poetry, translating poetry into prose. A paraphrase can also be called a partial retelling of a text.

An example of poetic paraphrase in Russian literature is numerous poetic transcriptions of psalms, one of the most famous is “Three Paraphrastic Odes” (1743, published 1744). In this book, V.K. Trediakovsky, M.V. Lomonosov and A.P. Sumarokov competed in writing a poetic transcription of the 143rd Psalm to find out which poetic meter is most suitable for works of high “calm”. Lomonosov and Sumarokov rearranged the psalm in iambic, Trediakovsky - in trochee.

After all, they compete precisely in the aesthetically individual “utterances” of paraphrastic odes. As we know, in a poetic competition the goal is to determine which plan of expression of which paraphrastic ode is “higher” and “more magnificent.” Therefore, in “Three Odes” (as, indeed, in later transcriptions) the goal of the poets is to improve the aesthetic quality of the verbal series. Their style is embellished with loosely constructed figurative systems and paths that serve the task of multiplying and increasing the meaning to which the reader is raised. Lomonosov in his translation uses the allegorical metaphor “horn”, quite traditional for the Bible, but, combining it with verbal adjective"ascended", creates

a conventionally pictorial image that transforms its previous meaning. Trediakovsky strives to increase the aesthetic quality of his transcription by using the technique of “amplification” (verbal dissemination): his paraphrastic ode consists of 130 poetic lines (Lomonosov - from 60, Sumarokov - from 66). Trediakovsky transforms the first four words of the psalm into a grandiose stream of words, which is deployed in ten lines of the odic stanza. Apparently, Sumarokov also had something similar (in the aspect of aesthetic quality and individuality of expression) in mind when he wrote to G.V. Kozitsky: “I am sure that my psalms are not made according to Lomonosov. And the last aspect. A text whose premise is its “spiritual benefit” cannot be used for a secular purpose. If the only function of the psalm text for medieval culture was “salvation,” then the participants in the first Russian poetry competition use this text for the knowledge of art as a tool for resolving the problem of the theory of verse.

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Sumarokov’s ode is a strictly “complimentary” genre, formed as a result of the poet’s refusal to take a break in the disclosure of the main theme. If Lomonosov could insert into the ode a poetic arrangement of an excerpt from Cicero’s speech in defense of the poet Archias, subordinating it to educational goals (“Sciences nourish the young, give joy to the old...”), then Sumarokov “loses” the educational sound of the ode, deliberately abandoning the “inserted episodes", narrowing his poetic task to a clear "conduct" of a single theme. Sumarokov’s style, “gentle” as defined by his contemporaries, is also much simpler and more concise. Sumarokov's epithets are often accurate. The poet's metaphors are built on the use of already established image-symbols, a kind of poetic formulas: “bloody sword” (in Lomonosov - “sword washed in blood”), “loud noise of glorious deeds” (in Lomonosov “loud noise” of the Neva, announcing “that here in winter there is a golden spring" - "Ode on the arrival of Elizabeth Petrovna", 1752). The genre of the laudable ode, as Sumarokov himself admitted, was not the main thing in the poet’s work: not possessing Lomonosov’s versatile genius and his desire for enlightenment, Sumarokov considers this type of ode mainly as “complimentary.” “Spiritual” odes, or arrangements of psalms, opened up much greater prospects for Sumarokov’s creative gift. Since the time of Simeon of Polotsk, Russian poets have often used the Psalter as a basis for poetic transcriptions, seeing in the book of psalms ample opportunities for expressing their own feelings and thoughts. Like his predecessors, he translated, or rather, re-arranged psalms and Sumaroks into verse. Translations of the psalter were not something secondary for the poet, only paraphrastic exercises in versification - most likely, the poet turned to the psalter in difficult moments of life, in moments of grief, endowing biblical characters with autobiographical features in order to convey his own sorrow, anxiety, and excitement. So, perhaps, the vicissitudes of the personal life of the poet, who married a serf and as a result was forced to end all relations with noble relatives, were reflected in the lines of the arrangement of Psalm 145 about the natural equality of people. Mixed rhyme - aabccb. Rhyme aa, ss - masculine, bb - feminine. This kind of stanza construction is unusual in Russian poetry, but is often found in German. It is known that A.P. Sumarokov translated the psalms from the Slavic translation of the Bible. However, the poet was also interested in the Hebrew original, therefore, not knowing the Hebrew language, he used European translations and, above all, “a new and very close to the original translation in German.” Sumarokov was also familiar with German poetic transcriptions of psalms. Perhaps, when creating his “spiritual odes,” he was guided by the rhythmic structure of German works of this type. In general, Sumarokov was characterized by using the rich experience of ancient and Western European poetry in his work. As N. Bulich writes, “Sumarokov has... a whole department of odes, called different... This department includes the so-called anacreontic, sapphic, Horatian odes, written in imitation of the external form of these ancient poets.” Since Sumarokov did not know the languages of antiquity, he used prose translations by Kozitsky, which he translated into poetry.