She [Ada] turned
to him [Van] and next moment he was kissing her
bare shoulder, and pushing against her like that soldier behind in the
queue.
First time I hear about him. I thought old Mr
Nymphobottomus had been my only predecessor.
Last spring. Trip to town. French theater
matinée. Mademoiselle had mislaid the tickets. The poor fellow probably thought
'Tartuffe' was a tart or a stripteaser. (1.19)
In his memoir essay A. P. Chekhov (included in
Chekhov v vospominaniyakh sovremennikov, M., 1947) A. S.
Lazarev-Gruzinski (1861-1927) speaks of "literary Tartuffes" who accused Chekhov
of satirizing Isak Levitan in Poprygun'ya (The Grasshopper,
1892) and Lidia Yavorski in Ariadna (1895):
Литературные Тартюфы, кроме "Попрыгуньи",
называют "прямым пасквилем" чеховскую "Ариадну". В "Ариадне" Чехов будто бы
вывел известную артистку Л. Б. Яворскую. Это уже решительный вздор.
Л. Б. Яворская в пору знакомства с Чеховым
играла в московском театре Корша. Это была красивая, изящная женщина и не
блестящая, но весьма и весьма интересная комедийная актриса. Благодаря ей и
талантливой игре Яковлева (Наполеон) известная пьеса Сарду "Мадам Сан-Жен" при
первой её постановке в Москве прошла у Корша свыше ста раз в одном сезоне. Вся
Москва бегала смотреть "Мадам Сан-Жен". И действительно, Катрин Юбше в
исполнении Яворской и Наполеона в исполнении Яковлева стоило и стоило
посмотреть. Чехов чуть-чуть был увлечён Яворской. Однажды, зайдя в театр Корша
днём за редакционными билетами, я увидел Чехова выходящим откуда-то из глубины
театральных недр.
- Антон Павлович, что вы тут делаете? - с
удивлением спросил я. - Я думал, вы в Мелихове. Ах, да! я и забыл, что вы
ухаживаете за Яворской!
- Откуда вы знаете это?
- Откуда? Да об этом вся Москва
говорит!
- Tout Moskou, tout Moskou! - рассмеялся Чехов,
но в дальнейшем разговоре (мы ушли вместе) не отрицал ухаживанья. А затем
увлечение прошло, Яворская уехала из Москвы в Петербург, и к мимолётному роману
Чехова была поставлена точка.
Ariadne was the
daughter of Minos and Pasiphaё who gave Theseus the thread by which he escaped
from the labyrinth. Ada's husband Andrey Vinelander calls his father-in-law
Demon Veen (son of Dedalus) "Dementiy Labirintovich"
(3.8).
Andrey Andreevich Vinelander is a namesake of Van's Russian
tutor, Andrey Andreevich Aksakov (AAA),* and of Andrey Andreich, Nadya
Shumin's fiancé in Chekhov's story Nevesta (The Bride,
1903). Ada's poor deceived husband has nothing in common with vulgar
Andrey Andreich, but resembles Osip Dymov, the heroine's deceived husband in
Chekhov's Poprygun'ya, and, to a certain degree, Chekhov
himself.
Spring in Fialta and a
torrid May on Minataor, the famous artificial island, had given a nectarine hue
to her [Lucette's] limbs, which looked lacquered
with it when wet, but re-evolved their natural bloom as the breeze dried her
skin. (3.5)
An anagram of Taormina (a city in Sicily), Minataor also hints
at Minotaur, the bull-headed monster who lived in the Cretan Labyrinth (built by
Daedalus, a legendary architect). As to Fialta, it brings to mind
Yalta, a city in the Crimea where Chekhov lived in the last years of his
life. Yalta is directly mentioned in Vesna v Fialte (the Russian title
of VN's story):
Я этот городок люблю; потому ли, что во
впадине его названия мне слышится сахаристо-сырой запах
мелкого, тёмного, самого мятого из цветов, и не в тон, хотя внятное,
звучание Ялты...
I am fond of Fialta; I am fond of it because I feel in the
hollow of those violaceous syllables the sweet dark dampness of the most rumpled
of small flowers, and because the altolike name of a lovely Crimean town is
echoed by its viola... (Spring in Fialta)
Interestingly, Jean Shcheglov was "a literary Tartuffe"
himself. In a letter of February 5, 1893, to Suvorin Chekhov
compares Merezhkovski, the author of Proshla groza (The
Thunderstorm Has Passed, a play criticized by Chekhov for its hypocrisy),
to Jean Shcheglov:
В январской книжке "Труда" напечатана
пьеса Мережковского "Гроза прошла". Если не хватит времени и охоты прочесть
всю пьесу, то вкусите один только конец, где Мережковский перещеголял даже
Жана Щеглова. Литературное ханжество самое скверное
ханжество.
According to Chekhov, literary hypocrisy is the worst kind of
hypocrisy.
This seems to confirm that "old Mr Nymphobottomus" (Paul J. Gigment, the
painter who came several times to dinner at Ardis Hall, 1.18) was not Van's
only predecessor. In fact, we later find out (thanks to Kim Beauharnais's
photos) that Van was not Ada's first lover.
Btw., note that Napoleon is a character in Sardou's play
Madame Sans Gêne (in which Yavorski played Cathérine Huebscher,
"Madame Sans Gêne"). I notice only now that Chekhov (who "spoke all
languages except foreign ones"), in his letter to Suvorin, misspells its
title. I followed Chekhov's spelling.
*Aksakov is a great friend of S. A. Vengerov, a celebrated
Pushkinist (1855-1954). The characters of Chekhov's Pyesa bez
nazvaniya (The Play without a Title, 1880-81, first published in
1923) include Abram Abramovich Vengerovich, a rich Jew, and his son Isak
Abramovich, a student. Platonov (the play's main character) predicts
to Vengerovich père (who is
about fifty) that he will live to become twice as old and die
peacefully.
Alexey Sklyarenko