A presentation on Alexander Pushkin's "Covetous Knight"

1. The Decline of Medieval Europe
in Alexander Pushkin’s
“Covetous Knight”
Viktor Vasnetsov

2. Stephanie Richards

PhD ABD
University of Wisconsin-Madison
about.me/skrichards
Research Interests: 19th century
Russian literature, Religious
studies, Pushkin, Pushkin and
History, Dostoevsky, Dostoevsky's
portrayal of women, Czech novels,
Čapek

3. The Little Tragedies


4. The Little Tragedies

The Covetous Knight
Mozart and Salieri
The Stone Guest
Feast in the Time of
Plague

5. The Little Tragedies

1830 Boldino Autumn

6. The Little Tragedies

1830 Boldino Autumn
Cholera Epidemic

7. The Little Tragedies

1830 Boldino Autumn
Cholera Epidemic
Impending Marriage

8. The Little Tragedies

1830 Boldino Autumn
Cholera Epidemic
Impending Marriage
Surge of Creativity

9. The Little Tragedies

The Covetous Knight
Mozart and Salieri
The Stone Guest
Feast in the Time of
Plague

10. The Little Tragedies

Knight Story/Miser Story
Mozart and Salieri
The Stone Guest
Feast in the Time of
Plague

11. The Little Tragedies

Knight Story/Miser Story
Mozart and Salieri
The Stone Guest
Feast in the Time of
Plague

12. The Little Tragedies

Knight Story/Miser Story
Mozart and Salieri
Don Juan
Feast in the Time of
Plague

13. The Little Tragedies

Knight Story/Miser Story
Mozart and Salieri
Don Juan
Wilson’s City of the Plague

14. The Little Tragedies

Extremely short

15. The Little Tragedies

Extremely short
New and unique
genre

16. The Little Tragedies

 “In form and range The Little
Tragedies are no more than
dramatic sketches, but in content
and development they comprise a
tragedy in the full sense of the
word.” ~Belinskii

17. The Little Tragedies

 “… a new genre of classical
tragedy, transformed in the style
and scope of a technical fragment.”
~Tynianov

18. The Little Tragedies

 the plays are not dramatic
fragments, but rather, something
completely new, in which “several
short forms” are uniquely combined
“in a new synthesis.”
~Evdokimova

19. The Little Tragedies

Extremely short
New and unique
genre
Semantically dense

20. The Little Tragedies

Extremely short
New and unique
genre
Semantically dense
Ambiguous

21. “The Covetous Knight”


22. “The Covetous Knight”
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23. “The Covetous Knight”
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24. “The Covetous Knight”
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25. “The Covetous Knight”
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26. “The Covetous Knight”
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27. “The Covetous Knight”
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28. “The Covetous Knight”
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29. “The Covetous Knight”
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30. “The Covetous Knight”
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31. “The Covetous Knight”
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32. “The Covetous Knight”


33. “The Covetous Knight”


34. “The Covetous Knight”


35. “The Covetous Knight”


36. “The Covetous Knight”


37. “The Covetous Knight”


38. “The Covetous Knight”


39. “The Covetous Knight”


40. “The Covetous Knight”


41. “The Covetous Knight”


42. “The Covetous Knight”


43. “The Covetous Knight”


44. “The Covetous Knight”

WHAT DREADFUL
TIMES ARE THESE!
WHAT DREADFUL
HEARTS!

45. Mystification

 Scenes from Chenstone’s tragi-comedy:
The covetous Knight
 Сцены из Ченстоновой траги-комедии:
The covetous Knight

46. Mystification

 Scenes from Chenstone’s tragi-comedy:
The covetous Knight
 Сцены из Ченстоновой траги-комедии:
The covetous Knight

47. Mystification

 Scenes from Chenstone’s tragi-comedy:
The covetous Knight
 Сцены из Ченстоновой траги-комедии:
The covetous Knight
 William Shenstone?

48. “The Covetous Knight”

 A translation from “European”
~Nikolai Minskii

49. “The Covetous Knight”

 “Shakespeare’s characters, unlike
Moliere’s, are not merely typical
representatives of a certain passion or
of a certain vice… Moliere’s miser is
only miserly – that is all.
Shakespeare’s Shylock is not only
miserly, but resourceful, vindictive,
child-loving, and witty.” ~Pushkin

50. Today’s talk

 A historical approach

51. Historical approach

 1830s Pushkin = historian

52. Historical approach

 Established historical sources
 Walter Scott essay on “Chivalry”
 Henry Hallam History of Europe
During the Middle Ages

53. Historical approach

 Each drama of The Little
Tragedies corresponds to a
different era and the crisis that
leads to its end
~ Beliak and Virolainen

54. Historical approach

 The Baron’s concept of Self
indicates a shift in the cultural
consciousness

55. Historical approach

 The “mad dream of self-deification
(безумная мечта самообожения)” is the
“root of European individualism.”
Thus, this psychological change is
historically significant.
~Beliak & Virolainen

56. Historical approach

 Established historical sources
 Walter Scott essay on “Chivalry”
 Henry Hallam History of Europe
During the Middle Ages

57. Historical approach

 Established historical sources
 Walter Scott essay on “Chivalry”
 Henry Hallam History of Europe
During the Middle Ages
 Chateaubriand Genius of Christianity

58. Inversions

Four Categories

59. Inversions

Devotion to God

60. Inversions

Devotion to Lady

61. Inversions

Generosity

62. Inversions

Self-abnegation

63. Pushkin’s dialogue

 French historical school
François Guizot, AugustinThierry, et al
 determined idea of progress
 external events of history
 everything fits into providential plan

64. Inversions

Four Categories

65. Inversions

Four Categories

66. Inversions

Four Categories

67. Inversions

Four Categories

68. Inversions

Four Categories

69. Inversions


70. Knighthood as Emblem

Spanned
centuries
Crossed
borders

71. Knighthood as Emblem

Spanned
centuries
Crossed
borders
Unified European Institution

72. Inversions

Devotion to God

73. Inversions

Devotion to God
Knighthood ≈ the church
Ranks correspond to clergy
Laws bound knights to defend the
faith
Scott
Chateaubriand

74. Inversions

Devotion to God
Knighthood ≈ the church
Ranks correspond to clergy
Laws bound knights to defend the
faith
The sword = symbol of this duty
Scott
Chateaubriand

75. Inversions

Devotion to God
Knighthood ≈ the church
Ranks correspond to clergy
Laws bound knights to defend the
faith
The sword = symbol of this duty
A knight … held … his sword before
him while the gospel was read, to
signify his readiness to support it.
Scott
Chateaubriand
Hallam

76. Inversions

Devotion to God
A knight … held … his sword before
him while the gospel was read, to
signify his readiness to support it.
The Baron replaces God
His sword defends his gold instead
of God
Pushkin

77. Inversions

Devotion to Lady

78. Inversions

Devotion to Lady
The baron’s ‘lady’ is his gold

79. Inversions

Devotion to Lady
The baron’s ‘lady’ is his gold
“Like a young rake awaits a
tryst … I waited all day the
minute I could come to my
secret vault, to my trusty
chests.”

80. Inversions

Devotion to Lady
“second only to the religious
zeal of its professors and
frequently predominated over it”
Scott

81. Inversions

Devotion to Lady
“second only to the religious
zeal of its professors and
frequently predominated over it”
“enjoined in one duty”
Scott/Hallam

82. Inversions

Devotion to Lady
“second only to the religious
zeal of its professors and
frequently predominated over it”
“enjoined in one duty”
Baron “enjoins” religious and
female devotion in aberration
Scott/Hallam
Pushkin

83. Inversions

Devotion to Lady
Devotion to the lady is of a
nature so extravagant it’s a form
Scott of idolatry

84. Inversions

Devotion to Lady
Devotion to the lady is of a
nature so extravagant it’s a form
of idolatry
The vault = temple to Baron’s
idol, his gold
Scott
Pushkin

85. Inversions

Devotion to Lady
Full of awe, engrossing and
powerful
Scott

86. Inversions

Devotion to Lady
Full of awe, engrossing and
powerful
women have “absolute power”
Scott/Michaud over their warriors’ minds

87. Inversions

Devotion to Lady
Full of awe, engrossing and
powerful
women have “absolute power”
over their warriors’ minds
The Baron thinks and acts only
for his gold
Scott/Michaud
Pushkin

88. Inversions

Devotion to Lady women motivate their men to do
Michaud good

89. Inversions

Devotion to Lady women motivate their men to do
good
Baron’s gold motivates him to
do evil
Michaud
Pushkin

90. Inversions

Devotion to Lady women motivate their men to do
good
Baron’s gold motivates him to
do evil. Albert inherits the flaw.
Michaud
Pushkin

91. Inversions

Generosity

92. Inversions

Generosity
Reference to “covetous
relative”story in Memoirs of
Bertrand du Guesclin
Scott

93. Inversions

Generosity
Reference to “covetous
relative”story in Memoirs of
Bertrand du Guesclin
(10 pages later)
Scott Lord Audley

94. Inversions

Generosity
Reference to “covetous
relative”story in Memoirs of
Bertrand du Guesclin
(10 pages later)
Scott Lord Audley & Gaston of Foix

95. Inversions

Generosity
Reference to “covetous
relative”story in Memoirs of
Bertrand du Guesclin
(10 pages later)
Scott Lord Audley & Gaston of Foix

96. Inversions

Generosity
Reference to “covetous
relative”story in Memoirs of
Bertrand du Guesclin
(10 pages later)
Lord Audley & Gaston of Foix
The Baron will not dress his
son and keeps his coffers
under lock and key
Scott
Pushkin

97. Inversions

Generosity
“All the romances inculcate
the duty of scattering wealth
with profusion, especially
towards … the poorer
members of their own order.
The last, who were pretty
numerous, had a constant
right to succor from the
opulent ….”
Hallam

98. Inversions

Generosity
The Baron treats his son
worse than a stranger
Pushkin

99. Inversions

Generosity
The Baron treats his son
worse than a stranger
and the average
prisoner
Pushkin

100. Inversions

Self-abnegation

101. Inversions

Self-abnegation
“The most admirable part of this
institution was the entire
abnegation of self, -- that loyalty
which made it the duty of every
knight to forget his own glory.”
The Baron = God
Michaud
Pushkin

102. Inversions

Self-abnegation
“The most admirable part of this
institution was the entire
abnegation of self, -- that loyalty
which made it the duty of every
knight to forget his own glory.”
The Baron = God
His glory is an aberration
Michaud
Pushkin

103. Inversions

Self-abnegation
Baron’s power = lifeforce

104. Inversions

Self-abnegation
Baron’s power = lifeforce
robbery = death

105. Inversions

Self-abnegation
Baron’s power = lifeforce
robbery = death
like Molière’s miser

106. Inversions

Self-abnegation
Untruthfulness is the most
shameful of crimes
Falsehood is grounds for official
forfeiture of rank
Michaud/Hallam/S
cott

107. Inversions

How dare you say such a thing
to me?

108. Inversions

How dare you say such a thing
to me?
Or am I not a knight?

109. Inversions

How dare you say such a thing
to me?
Or am I not a knight?
NO, YOU’RE NOT!

110. Inversions


111. Pushkin’s Dialogue

with the French historians

112. Pushkin’s Dialogue

In its first development, chivalry was an instrument of
peace, an agent of morality. The knight … swore 'to
fear, reverence, and save God religiously, to battle for
the faith, to die rather than renounce Christiantiy, to be
faithful to his lord, to support the rights of the weak, of
the widow and the orphan, never to offend the neighbor
deliberately, never to undertake an action through a
motive of sordid gain, and to keep his faith inviolably in
regard to all' .... Hence it became in the hands of the
Church a most powerful auxiliary for the advancement
of civilization.

113. Pushkin’s Dialogue

But, …we must carefully distinguish between this kind
of chivalry, which was a form or expression of Catholic
life, and that which, at a later period, was but the
embodiment of a worldly principle. … [the latter] …
[assumed] the existence of higher motives than those of
the Christian faith, which introduced an imaginary and
independent principle of honor outside the duty
imposed by the divine law, and which, consequently,
undertook to legitimize the duel, …--such chivalry, far
from being approved by the Church, was always held in
abhorrence.

114. Pushkin’s Dialogue

Knightly attire

115. Pushkin’s Dialogue

Knightly attire

116. Pushkin’s Dialogue

Knightly attire

117. Pushkin’s Dialogue

Knightly attire

118. Pushkin’s Dialogue

Knightly attire

119. Pushkin’s Dialogue


120. Pushkin’s Dialogue

X 5

121. Pushkin’s Dialogue


122. Pushkin’s Dialogue


123. Pushkin’s Dialogue


124. Pushkin’s Dialogue


125. Pushkin’s Dialogue

Superficial

126. Pushkin’s Dialogue

The grotesque inner state of the
Baron is the grand socio-historical
change for Pushkin

127. Pushkin’s Dialogue

François Guizot
formulaic history
within binds of progress
and providence
“external events, of the visible and
social world.”

128. Pushkin’s Dialogue

Henry Hallam
social life and manners
are history itself

129. Pushkin’s Dialogue

Henry Hallam
“The philosophy of history embraces far
more than the wars and treaties, the
factions and cabals of common political
narration: it extends to whatever illustrates
the character of the human species in a
particular period, to their reasonings and
sentiments, their arts and industry.” (italics mine)

130. Get in Touch

about.me/skrichards
the slides from my presentation
Pushkin’s Anti-Knight: The Decline
of Medieval Europe in “Covetous
Knight”
are available here