Russian fate of “The tragical history of Doctor Faustus” by Christopher Marlowe (The 19th century – The first half of the 20th century)

Abstract

Objectives: The article, prepared in a year of the 425th anniversary from the date of the tragic death of one of the brightest Shakespeare’s contemporaries and predecessors Christopher Marlowe, is devoted to the study of literary and critical and translation perception of one of his most considerable works – “The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus” – in Russia of the 19th century – the first half of the 20th century. Methods: The comparative and historical and comparative and typological research methods, technics of the comparative analysis were used in the article.

Findings: The history of Russian reception of “The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus”, having almost two centuries, dates back to the first mention of this tragedy in 1825 in the diary entry of “the Russian European” A.I. Turgenev. Literary and critical articles by I.S. Turgenev, N.A. Nekrasov, E.M. Feoktistov, S.F. Uvarov, V.P. Botkin, D.D. Minayev, M.L. Mikhaylov testified gradual and, at the same time, harmonious penetration of Marlowe’s “Faustus” into Russian literature and culture of the 19th century. The early literary studies, comprehending Marlowe’s tragedy in general or its certain details, were written in the last third of the 19th century by N.I. Storozhenko, Alexander N. Veselovsky, N.V. Shakhovskoy, M.Ya. Frishmut. The appearance of the full translation of “The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus”, made by K.D. Balmont in 1899, and judgments of Marlowe and his most famous tragedy in the articles “How I Learned to Write” (1928), “About Plays” (1933), in the note “Concerning the Plan of the Anthology” (<1935>) by A.M. Gorky became considerable events of the subsequent time. The outstanding philosopher G.G. Shpet’s interest to the playwright’s creative work was notable against the background of the vulgar-sociological statements about Marlowe’s play in the articles of Russian literary critics of the 1930-s (S.R. Babukh, I.A. Aksenov, early A.A. Smirnov). He addressed to the translation of Marlowe’s “Faustus”.

Novelty: The research conducted allows to claim that the attention of Russian literature and literary criticism to Marlowe’s tragedy had a systematic character and, at the same time, differed in variety of manifestations. The most considerable translations of Marlowe’s “Faustus” were created at the end of the 1850-s – the beginning of the 1870-s and at the turn of the 20th century. During the era of the Silver Age interest in the work found its reflection in creative work of such leading writers as K.D. Balmont, V.Ya. Bryusov, M.I. Tsvetaeva, M.A. Kuzmin.