The most textbook Russian comedy, an inexhaustible source of proverbs and a freak show of immortal Russian types. Griboyedov combines love intrigue with social conflict and creates a universal image of a prophet who is not understood in his own country.

comments: Varvara Babitskaya

What is this book about?

In the mid-1820s, Alexander Chatsky, a young, witty nobleman and an ardent citizen, returned to Moscow after a three-year absence, where he grew up in the house of a prominent official Famusov, and hurries to his beloved girl, Famusov's daughter, Sophia. But the cultural distance turns out to be insurmountable: Sophia fell in love with the hypocrite and careerist Molchalin, and Chatsky himself is declared insane for inappropriate sermons.

A few years after the victory in the Patriotic War and the Moscow fire, the patriotic upsurge is replaced by a murmur against the onset of the reaction ("Arakcheevism"), and the patriarchal Moscow way of life fades into oblivion - and finally it is captured by a stinging Muscovite.

Ivan Kramskoy. Portrait of the writer Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov. 1875 year. State Tretyakov Gallery

When was it written?

Griboyedov conceived his main play in 1820 in Persia, where he served in the diplomatic line (evidence that the idea arose earlier is unreliable). Griboyedov wrote the first two acts in Tiflis, where he managed to transfer in the fall of 1821, and where he subsequently made a career under General Yermolov. Leaving the service for a while in the spring of 1823 and collecting new material for comedy at Moscow balls, Griboyedov wrote acts III and IV in the summer of 1823 in the village of Dmitrovskoe, Tula province, where he was staying with his old friend Stepan Begichev Stepan Nikitich Begichev (1785-1859) - military man, memoirist. Begichev, like Griboyedov, was General Andrei Kologrivov's adjutant, rose to the rank of colonel, and retired in 1825. In the 1820s, Odoevsky, Davydov, Kuchelbecker stayed in his house in Moscow, Griboyedov lived for a long time. Begichev wrote one of the first articles in defense of Woe from Wit, which he did not publish at the insistence of Griboyedov. He was a member of the Decembrist Union of Welfare, but left the organization before the uprising and was not brought to trial. ⁠ ... At the beginning of the summer of 1824, having gone to St. Petersburg to punch the finished comedy through censorship, Griboyedov came up with a new denouement on the way and already in St. Petersburg heavily reworked the comedy. He asks Begichev not to read the remaining manuscript to anyone, because since then Griboyedov "has changed over eighty verses, or, better to say, the rhyme has changed, now it is smooth as glass." Work on the comedy continued for a long time - the so-called Bulgarin list, which Griboyedov handed to his publisher and friend Thaddeus Bulgarin on June 5, 1828, on the eve of his return to the East, is considered the last authorized version.

A girl who is not stupid herself prefers a fool to a clever person (not because our sinful mind is ordinary, no! And in my comedy there are 25 fools for one sane person)

Alexander Griboyedov

How is it written?

Spoken language and free iambic Typical examples of free iambic can be found in Krylov's fables. For example, "Council of Mice": "A sign in mice that the one whose tail is longer / Always smarter / And quicker everywhere. / Is it clever, now we will not ask; / Moreover, we ourselves often judge the mind / By the dress or by the beard ... " ⁠ ... Both in Russian comedy were an absolute innovation. Before Griboyedov, free iambic, that is, iambic with alternating verses of different lengths, was used, as a rule, in small poetic forms, for example in Krylov's fables, sometimes in poems with "frivolous content" - such as "Darling" Bogdanovich Ippolit Fedorovich Bogdanovich (1743-1803) - poet, translator. Bogdanovich was an official: he worked in the Foreign Collegium, the Russian embassy at the Saxon court, the State Archives. In 1783 he published a novel in verse "Darling", a free adaptation of La Fontaine's novel "The Love of Psyche and Cupid." Thanks to "Darling" Bogdanovich became widely known, but his further compositions were not successful. ⁠ ... This size allows one to make the best use of both the attractiveness of poetic means (meter, rhyme) and the intonational freedom of prose. Lines of different lengths make the verse more free, close to natural speech; the language of "Woe from Wit" with a multitude of inaccuracies, archaisms and vernaculars reproduces the Moscow accent of the era even phonetically: for example, not "Alexei Stepanovich", but "Alexei Stepanoch". Thanks to the aphoristic syllable, the play immediately became proverbs after its appearance.

Having finished the first version of the comedy, which was immediately banned by the censorship, Griboyedov went to St. Petersburg in June 1824, hoping there, thanks to his connections, to put the play on stage and in print. Meanwhile, "Woe From Wit" was already circulating widely on the lists.

Having lost hope of publishing the comedy in its entirety, on December 15, 1824, the playwright published fragments (phenomena 7-10 acts I and all act III) in the Bulgarin almanac "Russian Waist" The first theatrical anthology in Russian, published by Faddey Bulgarin in 1825 in St. Petersburg. In addition to Griboyedov's Woe from Wit, Thalia published translations of Moliere, Voltaire, texts by Shakhovsky, Katenin, Gendre, Grech. ⁠ where the text has undergone censorship revisions and abbreviations. The discussion in print that followed the publication further stimulated readers' interest and the replication of handwritten copies. Andrey Zhandre ⁠ told that he “had a whole office at hand: she copied“ Woe from Wit ”and got rich, because they demanded a lot lists " 2 Fomichev S. A. The author of "Woe from Wit" and the readers of the comedy // A. S. Griboyedov: Creativity. Biography. Traditions. L., 1977. S. 6-10. ⁠ ... The comedy was first published as a separate edition after the death of the author, in 1833 - in full, but with censorship notes. Neither this edition, nor the subsequent one, in 1839, stopped the production of lists - Xenophon Field Xenophon Alekseevich Polevoy (1801-1867) - writer, critic, translator. From 1829 to 1834 he edited the "Moscow Telegraph", the magazine of his brother, the writer Nikolai Polevoy. In 1839 he published Woe from Wit with his introductory article. In the 1850s, Polevoy published in Severnaya Beele, Otechestvennye zapiski, and published the Picturesque Russian Library. He wrote critical texts about Pushkin, Delvig, Bogdanovich, became the author of memoirs about Nikolai Polev. ⁠ wrote later: “Can you find many examples so that the composition of sheets in twelve printed sheets was rewritten thousands of times, for where and who does not have a handwritten“ Woe from Wit ”? Have we ever had an even more striking example, so that a handwritten essay became the property of literature, so that it would be judged as a work known to everyone, knew it by heart, cited it as an example, referred to it, and only in relation to it did not need Gutenberg's invention? "

Thus, "Woe from Wit" became the first work massively circulated in samizdat. Completely and without cuts, the comedy was published only in 1862.

What influenced her?

In Woe from Wit, the influence of the French salon comedy, which reigned on the stage at that time, is evident. At the beginning of his literary career, Griboyedov himself paid tribute to this tradition - he parodied it in the play "Young Spouses" and together with Andrey Zhandrom Andrei Andreevich Zhandre (1789-1873) - playwright, translator. Gendre began his career as a civil servant as a clerk and finished with the rank of privy councilor with the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky. In his free time, Gendre translated from French: together with Griboyedov he translated the comedy "Feigned Innocence" by Nicholas Barthes, together with Shakhovsky - the opera "The Magic Lamp, or the Cashmere Pastries". Published in the almanac "Russian Thalia", magazines "Son of the Fatherland" and "Northern Observer". ⁠ wrote the comedy Feigned Infidelity, a reworking of a play by Nicholas Barthes. Influenced Griboyedov and the Russian poetry comedy of the 1810s, in particular Alexander Shakhovskoy Alexander Alexandrovich Shakhovskoy (1777-1846) - playwright. In 1802, Shakhovskoy left military service and began work in the directorate of the Imperial Theaters. His first successful comedy was "New Stern", a few years later the comedy "Polubarian Ventures, or Home Theater" was staged, in 1815 - "A Lesson to Coquettes, or Lipetsk Waters". In 1825, Shakhovskoy, compromised by his connections with the Decembrists, left the directorate of theaters, but continued writing - in total he wrote more than a hundred works. ⁠ , who developed the methods of free verse even in Lipetsk Waters and in the comedy “If you don’t like - don’t listen, but don’t interfere with lying”, with which “Woe from Wit” coincides in places both verbally and plot.

Contemporary criticism for Griboyedov pointed to the plot similarity of Woe from Wit to Moliere's Misanthrope and to Christoph Wieland's The History of the Abderites, in which the ancient Greek philosopher Democritus returns after wandering to his hometown; stupid and ignorant fellow citizens of Democritus consider his natural science experiments to be witchcraft and declare him insane.

Griboyedov himself was largely guided by Renaissance drama - primarily by Shakespeare, whom he (knowing English well) read in the original and appreciated for his freedom from genre canons and restrictions: the first plot, but handled it in my own way. In this work, he was great " 1 Bestuzhev-Marlinsky A. My acquaintance with Griboyedov // A. S. Griboyedov in the memoirs of contemporaries. S. 190. ⁠ .

Griboyedov learned the art of plotting under Beaumarchais. Finally, in the story of Sophia's love for Molchalin, researchers see a ballad plot - a kind of parody of Zhukovsky's ballad "Aeolian Harp"; apparently not unreasonable, because Zhukovsky was an important aesthetic opponent for Griboyedov.

The earliest comedy manuscript, 1823-1824. Belonged to Griboyedov's friend Stepan Begichev

How was she received?

Having barely finished the comedy in June 1824 in St. Petersburg, Griboyedov read it in familiar houses - and, according to his own testimony, with invariable success: "There is no end to thunder, noise, admiration, curiosity." After the publication of excerpts from the comedy in "Russian Talia", the discussion moved to print - all important Russian magazines responded: "Son of the Fatherland" Literary magazine published from 1812 to 1852. The founder was Nikolai Grech. Until 1825, the magazine published the authors of the Decembrist circle: Delvig, Bestuzhev, Zhukovsky, Pushkin, Kyukhelbeker, Vyazemsky, Griboyedov, Ryleev. After the defeat of the Decembrists, Thaddeus Bulgarin became the co-publisher of the magazine, who united his "Northern Archive" with the "Son of the Fatherland". Later the magazine was headed by Alexander Nikitenko, Nikolay Polevoy, Osip Senkovsky. ⁠ , "Moscow Telegraph" An encyclopedic journal published by Nikolai Polev from 1825 to 1834. The magazine appealed to a wide range of readers and advocated the "education of the middle class." In the 1830s, the number of subscribers reached five thousand people, a record audience at that time. The magazine was closed by personal decree of Nicholas I because of a negative review of the play by Nestor Kukolnik, which the emperor liked. ⁠ , "Polar Star" Literary anthology of the Decembrists, published by Kondraty Ryleev and Alexander Bestuzhev from 1822 to 1825. It published poems by Pushkin, Vyazemsky, Baratynsky, Ryleev. After the uprising of the Decembrists, the almanac was banned, and the issue for 1825 was arrested. Since 1855, Alexander Herzen began publishing a magazine of the same name in London as a sign of respect for the Decembrists. ⁠ etc. Here, along with praise for the living picture of Moscow mores, fidelity to types and the new language of comedy, the first critical voices were heard. The controversy was primarily caused by the figure of Chatsky, whom such critics as Alexander Pushkin and now forgotten Mikhail Dmitriev Mikhail Alexandrovich Dmitriev (1796-1866) - poet, critic, translator. Dmitriev spent most of his life as an official: he served at the archive of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs, the Moscow Court of Justice, and a department of the Senate. Thanks to his uncle, the poet Ivan Dmitriev, he got acquainted with the literary environment and began to engage in criticism - he published articles in Vestnik Evropy, Moskovsky Vestnik, Moskvityanin. He became famous for his polemic with Vyazemsky about the nature of romanticism and his dispute with Polevoy over Griboyedov's Woe from Wit. In 1865, a collection of Dmitriev's poems was published. Translated by Horace, Schiller, Goethe. ⁠ , reproached for lack of intelligence. The latter still presented to Griboyedov the seemingly unnatural development of the plot and the "hard, uneven and incorrect" language. Although Dmitriev's claims gave life to many years of discussion, he himself became an object of ridicule, for example, in the epigram of Pushkin's friend Sergei Sobolevsky Sergei Alexandrovich Sobolevsky (1803-1870) - poet. From 1822 he served in the archives of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs. It was Sobolevsky who became the author of the expression "archival youth", meaning a young man from a wealthy family, busy with unhindered work in the archive. Sobolevsky was known as the writer of especially caustic epigrams, communicated with Gogol, Lermontov, Turgenev, and was close friends with Pushkin. In 1840-60s he was engaged in publishing and collecting rare books. ⁠ : “Schoolchildren gathered, and soon / Mikh<айло>Dm<итриев>I scribbled a review, / In which he clearly proved, / That “Woe from Wit” is not Mishenka’s grief ”. Nadezhdin Nikolai Ivanovich Nadezhdin (1804-1856) - founder of the Teleskop magazine and predecessor of Belinsky: in many ways, under the influence of Nadezhdin, literary criticism in Russia acquires a conceptual basis. In 1836, Telescope was closed for publishing Chaadaev's Philosophical Letter, and Nadezhdin himself was sent into exile. Returning, Nadezhdin leaves criticism, gets a job at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and devotes himself to ethnography. ⁠ , who appreciated Woe from Wit highly, noted that the play was devoid of action and was written not for the stage, and Pyotr Vyazemsky called the comedy a "slander on manners."

Griboyedov's language surprised many of Griboyedov's contemporaries, but this surprise was most often joyful. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky praised "the unprecedented fluency and nature of the spoken Russian language in poetry", Odoevsky called Griboyedov "the only writer who comprehended the secret of translating our spoken language onto paper" and in whom "we find the color of Russian in one syllable."

In general, with the exception of one Belinsky, who in 1839 wrote devastating criticism on Woe From Wit, the originality, talent and innovation of comedy were no longer in doubt. As for the political background of "Woe from Wit", for understandable censorship reasons, it was not discussed directly until the 1860s, when Chatsky was increasingly brought closer to the Decembrists - first Nikolai Ogarev, followed by Apollon Grigoriev and, finally, Herzen; it was this interpretation of the image of Chatsky that subsequently reigned in Soviet literary criticism.

“I’m not talking about poetry, half of them should be a proverb,” said Pushkin immediately after the appearance of “Woe from Wit,” and he was right. In terms of citation frequency, Griboyedov was probably ahead of all Russian classics, including even the former champion Krylov. “Happy hours are not observed”, “The legend is fresh, but hard to believe” - it is pointless to multiply examples; even the line "And the smoke of the Fatherland is sweet and pleasant to us!" is now perceived as a Griboyedov aphorism, although Chatsky in this case quotes Derzhavin.

Famus society has become a household name, as well as its individual representatives - "all these Famusovs, Molchalins, Skalozubs, Zagoretskies." In a certain sense, “Griboyedov's Moscow” itself has become a household name - this is how Mikhail Gershenzon titled the book, describing a typical Moscow lordly way of life on the example of a particular family of Rimsky-Korsakovs, and in all households he directly saw Griboyedov's characters, and he backed up quotes from documents with quotes from comedy.

The classic Russian drama of the 19th century grew out of the Griboyedov tradition: Lermontov's "Masquerade", in whose disappointed hero Arbenin it is easy to recognize the features of Chatsky, Gogol's "Inspector General" is a "public comedy" where a district town with a gallery of cartoons embodies the entire Russian society, Alexander's social drama Sukhovo-Kobylin and Alexander Ostrovsky. Since that time, the discussion of dramatic social conflicts with comic means, which once amazed Griboyedov's contemporaries, became a commonplace, and the genre framework became blurred. Moreover, the play set a kind of new canon. For a long time, theatrical troupes were recruited under "Woe from Wit": it was believed that the cast of actors, among whom Griboyedov's roles were well distributed, could be played by the entire theatrical repertoire 3 Sukhikh I. Cool reading from gorukhscha to Gogol. Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov 1795 (1790) - 1829. // Neva. 2012. No. 8 ⁠ .

In crisis moments of social thought, the Russian intelligentsia invariably returned to the image of Chatsky, which more and more merged in the cultural consciousness with Griboyedov himself: from Yuri Tynyanov, who in 1928 investigated in The Death of Vazir-Mukhtar the eternal question of whether it is possible to serve in Russia " business, not persons "and not turn from Chatsky to Molchalin, - until Viktor Tsoi, who sang" Woe you are mine from the mind "(" Red-yellow days ") in 1990.

House of the Griboedovs at the corner of Novinsky and Bolshoy Devyatinsky lanes. Moscow, XIX century

Grave of Griboyedov in Tiflis

How did Woe From Wit make its way onto the stage?

The first attempt to stage a comedy was made in May 1825 by students of the St. Petersburg Theater School with the live participation of Griboyedov himself, who dreamed of seeing his impassable play "even on a home stage" (the comedy was not allowed on the big stage as a "lampoon against Moscow"). However, on the eve of the performance, the performance was banned by the Governor-General of St. Miloradovich Count Mikhail Andreevich Miloradovich (1771-1825) - general, participant in the Russian-Swedish war, the Italian and Swiss campaigns of Suvorov, the Russian-Turkish war of 1806-1812. In 1810 Miloradovich was appointed military governor of Kiev. In the Patriotic War of 1812 he took part in the Battle of Borodino, the Battle of Vyazma, the capture of Paris. After the war - St. Petersburg military governor-general. During the uprising on December 14, he was killed by the Decembrists in the Senate Square, before his death he bequeathed to release all his peasants. ⁠ , who considered that a play that was not approved by the censorship could not be staged in a theater school.

The next attempt was made in October 1827 in Yerevan, in the building of the Sardar Palace, by officers of the Caucasian Corps, among whom were the exiled Decembrists. The theater club was soon strictly forbidden, as the craze for the theater distracted officers from service.

According to some reports, amateur performances were staged in Tiflis with the participation of the author, and in 1830 several young people “traveled around Petersburg in carriages, sent a card to familiar houses with the inscription“ III act of Woe from Wit ”, entered the house and played there are separate scenes from comedy " 4 Gamazov M. The first performances of the comedy "Woe from Wit". 1827-1832. From the memoirs of a student // Bulletin of Europe. 1875. No. 7. S. 319-332. Cit. Quoted from: Orlov Vl. Griboyedov. Essay on life and work. Moscow: State Publishing House of Fiction, 1954, p. 93. ⁠ .

During his lifetime, Griboyedov never saw his comedy on the big stage, in a professional production. Beginning in 1829, when the excerpt was staged at the Bolshoi Theater, the play gradually made its way into the theater - first with separate scenes, which were played in an interlude divertissement among "recitations, singing and dancing." Completely (albeit with censorship cuts) "Woe from Wit" was first presented in St. Petersburg, at the Alexandrinsky Theater, in 1831 - the tragic actor Vasily Andreevich Karatygin, brother of Peter Karatygin, became the first professional performer of the role of Chatsky, on whose initiative the students Petersburg Theater School enthusiastically staged the play five years earlier. Pyotr Karatygin himself, later a famous playwright, in the same year made his debut in literature with two vaudeville - the second of them was called "Woe without Wit".

"Woe from Wit" at the Theater. Meyerhold, 1928. Production by Vsevolod Meyerhold

Did the heroes of the comedy have real prototypes?

The critic Katenin, in a letter to Griboyedov, noted that in his comedy "the characters are portrait", to which the playwright objected that although the heroes of the comedy had prototypes, their features are characteristic of "many other people, and others to the whole human race ... I hate caricature, in my you will not find a single picture. " Nevertheless, rumors and guesses about who exactly was bred in this or that role began to spread already in the winter of 1823/24, as soon as Griboyedov began to read the still unfinished play in familiar houses. His sister was worried that Griboyedov would make enemies for himself - and even more for her, “because they will say that the evil Griboyedov pointed out to her brother about originals" 5 ⁠ .

So, many consider Sofya Alekseevna Griboyedova, the playwright's cousin, to be the prototype of Sofia Famusova, while her husband, Sergei Rimsky-Korsakov, was considered a possible prototype of Skalozub, and the name of the house of her mother-in-law, Marya Ivanovna Rimskaya-Korsakova, was fixed on Strastnaya Square in Moscow "Famusov's house", its main staircase was reproduced in the play based on the play by Griboyedov at the Maly Theater. Uncle Griboyedov is called the prototype of Famusov himself, based on one passage from the playwright: “I leave it to the historian to explain why in the generation of that time some kind of mixture of vices and courtesy was developed everywhere; from the outside, chivalry is in morals, but in hearts there is an absence of any feeling.<...>Let us explain more roundly: everyone had dishonesty and deceit in their language in their souls. It seems that this is not the case today, but maybe it is; but my uncle belongs to that era. He fought like a lion with the Turks under Suvorov, then grovelled in the front of all the random people in Petersburg, in retirement he lived with gossip. The image of his teachings: "I, brother! .."

Nothing explains or justifies the unbridled indignation with which Chatsky smashes this, perhaps ridiculous, but not criminally criminal society

Pyotr Vyazemsky

In the famous Tatyana Yuryevna, whom “officials and officials - / All her friends and all relatives”, contemporaries recognized Praskovya Yuryevna Kologrivova, whose husband “asked at the ball by one tall person who he was, was so confused that he said that he was a husband Praskovya Yurievna, believing, probably, that this title is more important than all his titles. " The old woman Khlestova deserves a special mention - the portrait of Nastasya Dmitrievna Ofrosimova, the famous legislator of Moscow drawing rooms, who left a noticeable mark in Russian literature: Leo Tolstoy brought her, in the face of the rude, but certainly pretty Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova, in War and Peace.

In Chatsky's friend, Platon Mikhailovich Gorich, they often see the features of Stepan Begichev, a close friend of Griboyedov in the Irkutsk hussar regiment, as well as his brother Dmitry Begichev, once a member of Union of prosperity The organization of the Decembrists, created in 1818 to replace the Union of Salvation. It consisted of about two hundred people. The declared goals of the society are to spread knowledge and help the peasants. In 1821, the Welfare Union was dissolved due to mutual disagreements, on the basis of which the Southern Society and the Northern Society arose. ⁠ , an officer, and by the time of the creation of the comedy (which Griboyedov wrote directly on the Begichevs' estate) retired and happily married.

Such a multitude of prototypes among the most passable heroes of "Woe from Wit", indeed, can be considered proof of the good intentions of Griboyedov, who ridiculed not specific people, but typical traits. Probably the only absolutely unmistakable character of Griboyedov is off-stage. In the “night robber, duelist”, whom, according to Repetilov, “you don’t need to be named, you can recognize him by his portrait,” everyone really recognized right away Fyodor Tolstoy-American Count Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy, nicknamed the American (1782-1846) - military man, traveler. In 1803 he set off on a voyage around the world with Captain Kruzenshtern, but due to hooligan antics he was landed on the coast in Kamchatka and had to return to St. Petersburg on his own. Traveling in Russian America - Kamchatka and the Aleutian Islands - Tolstoy owes his nickname. He took part in the Russian-Swedish War, the Patriotic War of 1812, after the war he settled in Moscow. Tolstoy was known for his love of duels and card games, he married a gypsy dancer, from whom he had twelve children (only one daughter survived him). In old age, Tolstoy became devout and considered the death of children a punishment for the eleven people he killed in duels. ⁠ , who was not offended - only suggested making a few corrections. Nikolai Piksanov, a specialist in the work of Griboyedov, studied in 1910 the list of "Woe from Wit", which at one time belonged to the Decembrist Prince Fyodor Shakhovsky, where by the hand of Tolstoy the American against the words "he was exiled to Kamchatka, he returned aleut and was unclean on the hand," an amendment was proposed : “He wore the devil to Kamchatka” (“for he was never exiled”) and “in the cards he’s unclean” (“for the portrait to be correct, this amendment is necessary so that they don’t think that they are stealing snuff boxes from the table; at least I thought to guess intention author ") 6 Piksanov NK Creative history "Woe from Wit". M., L .: GIZ, 1928.S. 110. ⁠ .

Stepan Begichev. A close friend of Griboyedov and a possible prototype of Platon Mikhailovich Gorich

Dmitry Begichev. Another possible Gorich prototype

Nastasya Ofrosimova. The prototype of the old woman Khlestova

Well, Chatsky is Chaadaev?

Contemporaries, of course, immediately thought so. In December 1823, Pushkin wrote from Odessa to Vyazemsky: “What is Griboyedov? I was told that he wrote a comedy on Chedaev; in the present circumstances it is extremely noble of him. " With this sarcasm, Pushkin hinted at the forced resignation and departure abroad of Chaadaev, who had fallen a victim of slander; making fun of a victim of political persecution was not very nice. Probably, in the final version, Griboyedov renamed Chadsky to Chatsky, including in order to avoid such suspicions 7 Tynyanov Yu. The plot of "Woe from Wit" // Tynyanov Yu. N. Pushkin and his contemporaries. Moscow: Nauka, 1969. ⁠ It is curious that if Chatsky was indeed copied from Chaadaev, the comedy became a self-fulfilling prophecy: 12 years after the creation of the comedy, Pyotr Chaadaev was formally declared insane by order of the government after the publication of his first "Letters" From 1828 to 1830, Chaadaev wrote eight "philosophical letters". In them, he reflects on progressive Western values, the historical path of Russia and the meaning of religion. ⁠ In the magazine "Telescope" An educational magazine published by Nikolai Nadezhdin from 1831 to 1836. In 1834 Vissarion Belinsky became Nadezhdin's assistant. The journal published Pushkin, Tyutchev, Koltsov, Stankevich. After the publication of Chaadaev's "Letter", "Telescope" was closed, and Nadezhdin was sent into exile. ⁠ ... The magazine was closed, its editor was exiled, and the Moscow police chief placed Chaadaev under house arrest and compulsory medical supervision, which was removed a year later on condition that he did not write anything else.

There is no less reason to assert that in Chatsky Griboyedov brought out his friend, the Decembrist Wilhelm Kuchelbecker, who was slandered - namely, denounced as a madman in society - for the purpose of politically discrediting. When the old woman Khlestova complains about "boarding schools, schools, lyceums ... mutual learning Lancart" - this is the direct biography of Kuchelbecker, a pupil of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, a teacher Main Pedagogical Institute Founded in 1816 on the basis of the Pedagogical Institute. It trained teachers for gymnasiums and higher educational institutions. In 1819 it was transformed into St. Petersburg University, almost ten years later it was restored, but already closed in 1859, and all students were transferred to St. Petersburg University. ⁠ and the secretary of the "Mutual Learning Society" Lancaster system A peer education system whereby older students teach younger students. Invented in Great Britain in 1791 by Joseph Lancaster. The Russian "Society of Mutual Education Schools" was founded in 1819. The proponents of the Lancaster system were many members of secret societies; Thus, the Decembrist Vladimir Raevsky came under investigation in 1820 for "harmful propaganda among the soldiers" precisely in connection with teaching. ⁠ .

However, another character studied at the St. Petersburg Pedagogical Institute - the chemist and botanist Prince Fyodor, the nephew of Princess Tugoukhovskoy, who is not for nothing that she is indignant: "They practice splits and unbeliefs there / Professors !!"

In 1821, several professors were charged with denying the "truths of Christianity" and "calling for an encroachment on legitimate government" in their lectures and forbidding teaching; the case caused a lot of buzz and was used as an argument in favor of the danger of higher education. So it would be most accurate to say that although Griboyedov used the features of real people, including his own, when creating his hero, Chatsky is a collective portrait of the progressive part of his generation.

Peter Chaadaev. Lithograph by Marie-Alexandre Alof. 1830s

Is Chatsky smart?

This seems to be self-evident and is postulated in the title of the comedy, which Griboyedov originally wanted to call even more definitely: "Woe to the mind." In a letter to Pavel Katenin, the playwright, on this principle, contrasted Chatsky with all the other characters (except perhaps Sophia): "In my comedy there are 25 fools for one sane person."

Contemporaries, however, disagreed on this matter. Pushkin was the first to refuse Chatsky in his mind, writing to Peter Vyazemsky: "Chatsky is not at all an intelligent person, but Griboyedov is very smart." This view was shared by many critics; Belinsky, for example, called Chatsky "a phrase-monger, an ideal jester, profaning everything that is sacred about which he speaks at every step."

The accusation against Chatsky was based primarily on the discrepancy between his words and actions. “Everything he says is very clever,” says Pushkin. - But to whom does he say all this? Famusov? Skalozub? At the ball for Moscow grandmothers? Molchalin? This is unforgivable. The first sign of an intelligent person is to know at a glance who you are dealing with, and not to throw beads in front of the Repetilovs. "

Between the masterful features of this charming comedy - Chatsky's incredulity in Sofia's love for Molchalin is charming! - and how natural! This is what the whole comedy was supposed to be

Alexander Pushkin

The unfairness of this reproach is shown by careful reading of the text. Beser in front of Repetilov, for example, Chatsky does not rush at all - on the contrary, it is Repetilov who crumbles before him "about important mothers", and Chatsky answers in monosyllables and rather rudely: "Yes, it's full of nonsense to grind." Chatsky speaks of a Frenchwoman from Bordeaux, though at the ball, not to Moscow grandmothers, but to Sophia, whom he loves and considers to be an equal (and Griboyedov himself called her “not stupid girl”), in response to her question: “Tell me what makes you so angry ? " Nevertheless, it must be admitted that Chatsky finds himself in ridiculous and ridiculous situations, which did not seem to fit the "smart" hero.

However, Chatsky himself admits that his "mind and heart are out of tune." Ivan Goncharov finally cleared the hero's reputation, noting in the article "Million of Torments" that after all Chatsky is a living person experiencing a love drama, and this cannot be written off: "Every step of Chatsky, almost every word in the play is closely related to the play of his feelings for Sophia "- and this internal struggle" served as a motive, a reason for irritation, for that "million torments" under the influence of which he could only play the role indicated to him by Griboyedov, a role of much greater, higher significance than unsuccessful love, in a word, a role, for which the whole comedy was born ”. According to the critic, Chatsky not only stands out against the background of other heroes of the comedy - he is “positively smart. His speech is seething with intelligence, wit.<...>... Chatsky begins a new century - and this is his whole meaning and all "mind" 8 Goncharov I.A.Million of torment (Critical study) // Goncharov I.A. ⁠ .

Even Pushkin, the first accuser of Chatsky, paid tribute to the "thoughts, witticisms and satirical remarks" with which Chatsky was fed, according to the poet, from "a very clever man" - Griboyedov. The poet was confused only by the inconsistency of the hero, who thinks so clearly about abstractions and so absurdly acts in practical circumstances. But he immediately noted that the blindness of Chatsky, who does not want to believe in Sophia's coldness, is psychologically very reliable. In other words, if you do not try to squeeze Chatsky into the narrow role of a walking idea-reasoner, in which he does not fit, there is no reason to doubt his mind: a romantic hero who gets into a comedy inevitably plays a comic role - but this position is not funny, but tragic.

Dmitry Kardovsky. Illustration for the comedy "Woe from Wit". 1912 year

Why did Pushkin call Sofya Famusova an unprintable word?

The well-known unprintable expression of Pushkin from a letter to Bestuzhev - “Sophia is not drawn clearly: not that<б....>, not that Moscow cousin According to Yuri Lotman, "the Moscow cousin is a stable satirical mask, a combination of provincial panache and mannerism." ⁠ "- today it seems too harsh, but the same bewilderment was shared by many contemporaries. In the first home and theatrical productions, six acts from the first act were usually omitted: the scenes of Sofia's meeting with Molchalin (as well as the flirting of both Molchalin and Famusov with Lisa) seemed too shocking to be presented to the ladies, and were almost large for censorship problem than the political overtones of comedy.

Today the image of Sophia seems to be somewhat more complex and prettier than the Pushkin formula. In the famous article "A Million of Torments" Ivan Goncharov stood up for the reputation of the girl Famusova, noting in it "strong inclinations of a remarkable nature, a lively mind, passion and feminine softness" and comparing her with the heroine of "Eugene Onegin": in his opinion, Sofia, although spoiled environment, but, like Tatiana, childishly sincere, simple-minded and fearless in her love.

Neither Onegin nor Pechorin would have acted so stupidly in general, especially in the matter of love and matchmaking. But on the other hand, they have already turned pale and turned into stone statues for us, and Chatsky remains and will always live for this "stupidity"

Ivan Goncharov

This is a valid comparison. Pushkin got acquainted with "Woe from Wit" in the midst of work on "Eugene Onegin"; traces of Griboyedov's comedy can be seen both in the comic gallery of guests at Tatyana's birthday, and in her dream, varying the fictional dream of Sophia; Pushkin directly compares Onegin to Chatsky, who got “from the ship to the ball”. Tatiana, a kind of improved version of Sophia, a lover of novels, like that, endows a completely inappropriate candidate with the traits of her favorite literary heroes - Werther or Grandison. Like Sophia, she shows a love initiative, indecent by the concepts of her time - she composes a “letter for a dear hero” who did not fail to reprimand her for it. But if the love recklessness of Sofia Pavlovna Pushkin condemned, then he treats his heroine in a similar situation sympathetically. And when Tatyana marries a general without love, as Sophia could marry Skalozub, the poet took care to clarify that Tatyana's husband was “mutilated in battles” - unlike Skalozub, who obtains the general's rank by various channels far from military prowess. As the theater critic Sergei Yablonovsky put it in 1909 in the article "In Defense of S. P. Famusova", the theater critic Sergei Yablonovsky, "Pushkin cries over sweet Tanya and dissolves our heart so that we better hide this ... sleeping girl and woman in him", but Griboyedov "does not wanted to bring Sophia closer to us.<...>She was not given even the last word defendant " 9 "The present century and the past century ..." Comedy by A. Griboyedov "Woe from Wit" in Russian criticism and literary criticism. SPb .: Azbuka-Klassika, 2002.S. 249 ⁠ .

Sophia was often perceived as a girl of dubious morality, a typical representative of the vicious Famusian society, and Tatyana Larina - as the ideal of a Russian woman. This happened largely because the author refused to sympathize with Sophia - this was demanded by the interests of the protagonist, Chatsky. Interestingly, in the first edition of the comedy, Griboyedov did give Sophia the opportunity to justify himself:

What baseness! lie in wait!
Sneak up and then, of course, dishonor,
Well? by this you thought to attract me?
And to make you fall in love with fear, horror?
I owe the report to myself,
However, my deed to you
Why does it seem so angry and so insidious?
I was not hypocritical and I was right around.

And although in the final version the author took away this monologue from the heroine, exposing Chatsky in a bad light, he allowed her to maintain her dignity: "Reproaches, complaints, my tears // Don't you dare expect, you are not worth them ..." *****, nor a Moscow cousin.

Powder spray. Germany, XVIII-XIX centuries

Powder box. France, XIX century

What do the names of the heroes mean in Griboyedov?

Griboyedov, in the tradition of classic comedy, gives almost all of his heroes speaking surnames. Such surnames usually highlighted the main property of the character, personified vice, virtue or some other one-dimensional quality: for example, in Fonvizin, stupid landowners are called Prostakovs, a government official who puts things in order bears the surname Pravdin, and Tsyfirkin teaches arithmetic to the ignorant Mitrofanushka. In Woe From Wit, everything is less straightforward: all the speaking surnames in one way or another embody one idea - the idea of ​​verbal communication, mostly difficult. So, the surname Famusova is formed from the Latin fama - "rumor" (no wonder his main sadness at the denouement - "What will Princess Marya Aleksevna say!"). The surname of Molchalin, “who dares not have his own judgment,” speaks for itself. A double meaning can be seen in the name of Repetilov (from the French répéter - "to repeat by heart", "to repeat after someone"): this character, on the one hand, silently listens to the important conversations that the "juice of smart youth" has, and then repeats to others , and on the other hand, it acts as a comic double of Chatsky, illustrating his mental impulses with his own physical awkward movements. Prince Tugoukhovsky is deaf, Colonel Skalozub - "To joke and he is great, because nowadays who is not joking!" - a master of barracks wit. In the name of Khlestova, you can see a hint of a scathing word, which you can't refuse - she, for example, was the only one in the whole comedy that made the main witty Chatsky laugh, who noted that Zagoretsky "will not be happy with such praises." Khlestova's remark about Chatsky and Repetilov (the first one will be “treated, cured, perhaps,” the second is “incurable, at least give it up”) anticipates the later observations of literary scholars about the relationship between these two characters.

The surname of Chatsky himself (in the early version - Chadsky) was associated by various researchers with the word "child" on the basis of his general ardor and analysis of his remarks ("Well, the day has passed, and with him / All the ghosts, all the smoke and smoke / Nadezhd, who they filled my soul ”or maxims about the sweet and pleasant“ smoke of the Fatherland ”). But a more direct association, of course, with Chaadaev.

Dmitry Kardovsky. Illustration for the comedy "Woe from Wit". 1912 year

Is Chatsky a Decembrist?

The opinion that for Chatsky, as Griboyedov wrote him, the direct road lay on Senate Square, was first expressed by Ogarev, substantiated by Herzen, who argued that “Chatsky walked the straight road to hard labor,” and subsequently became undividedly established in Soviet literary criticism - especially after that, as the book of Academician Militsa Nechkina “A. S. Griboyedov and the Decembrists "received the Stalin Prize in 1948. Today, however, the question of Chatsky's Decembrism is no longer resolved so unambiguously.

The argumentation in this dispute often revolves around another question: was Griboyedov himself a Decembrist?

The writer was friends with many Decembrists, was, like many of them, in the Masonic lodge and at the beginning of 1826 spent four months in the guardhouse of the General Staff under investigation - he later described this experience in an epigram as follows:

- According to the spirit of the times and taste
He hated the word "slave" ...
- For that I got into the General Staff
And he was attracted to Jesus! ..

In the case of the Decembrists, Griboyedov, however, was acquitted, released "with a purification certificate" and an annual salary, and sent to his place of service in Persia, where a brilliant, albeit, unfortunately, short-lived career awaited him. And although his personal sympathies towards the Decembrists are beyond doubt, he himself was not in a secret society, as shown during interrogations by Bestuzhev and Ryleev, and spoke skeptically about their program: "One hundred warrant officers want to change the entire state life of Russia." Moreover, there is one directly named member of the "most secret union" in his comedy - the caricatured Repetilov, over whom Chatsky sneers: "Are you making a noise? But only?"

To this, supporters of the "Decembrist" concept object that Repetilov is a mirror of Chatsky, albeit a crooked one. Chatsky “writes gloriously, translates” - Repetilov “sculpts a vaudeville of six”, his quarrel with his father-in-law is a reflection of Chatsky’s connection and rupture with the ministers, when Repetilov first appeared on the stage “falls as fast as he could” - just like Chatsky, who “fell how many times ", jumping from St. Petersburg to be at the feet of Sophia. Repetilov is like a circus clown who, in between the performances of trainers and equilibrists, repeats their heroic numbers in an absurd light. Therefore, it can be considered that the author put into his mouth all those speeches that Chatsky himself, as the author's mouthpiece, could not utter for censorship reasons.

According to the spirit of the times and taste
I hated the word "slave"
I was called to the General Headquarters
And pulled to Jesus

Alexander Griboyedov

Of course, "Woe from Wit" had a political subtext - this is evidenced by the long-term censorship ban and the fact that the Decembrists themselves recognized their own in Chatsky and in every possible way contributed to the spread of the play (for example, at the apartment of the poet-Decembrist Alexander Odoevsky for several evenings a whole the workshop rewrote "Woe from Wit" under general dictation from the original manuscript of Griboyedov, in order to further use it for propaganda purposes). But there is no reason to consider Chatsky a revolutionary, despite the civic pathos with which he criticizes the tyranny of the serfs, sycophancy and corruption.

"Carbonary" From Italian - "coal miner". Member of the secret Italian society that existed from 1807 to 1832. The Carbonari fought against the French and Austrian occupation, and then for the constitutional order of Italy. Complex ceremonies and rituals were practiced in society, one of them is the burning of charcoal, symbolizing spiritual cleansing. ⁠ , “A dangerous person” who “wants to preach freedom” and “does not recognize the authorities”, calls Chatsky Famusov - who has plugged his ears and does not hear what Chatsky is telling him, who at this time is not calling for the overthrow of the system, but only for intellectual independence and meaningful activities for the benefit of the state. His spiritual brothers - "physicist and botanist" Prince Fyodor, nephew of Princess Tugouhovskaya, and cousin Skalozub, who "suddenly left the service, / In the village began to read books." His, as we would say today, a positive agenda is clearly articulated in the play:

Now let one of us,
Of young people, there is an enemy of quest,
Requiring neither places nor promotion,
In science he will stick a mind hungry for knowledge;
Or God himself will stir up a fever in his soul
To the creative arts, high and beautiful ...

Yuri Lotman in his article "Decembrist in Everyday Life" actually put an end to this dispute, considering "Decembrism" not as a system of political views or a type of activity, but as a worldview and style of behavior of a certain generation and circle, to which Chatsky certainly belonged: Contemporaries highlighted not only the "talkativeness" of the Decembrists - they also emphasized the harshness and straightforwardness of their judgments, the peremptory nature of the sentences, "indecent" from the point of view of secular norms ...<…>... a constant desire to express one's opinion bluntly, not recognizing the ritual and hierarchy of secular speech behavior approved by the custom. " The Decembrist openly and "publicly calls things by their proper names," thunders "at the ball and in society, since it is in this name that he sees the liberation of man and the beginning of the transformation of society." Thus, having resolved the issue of Chatsky's Decembrism, Lotman at the same time relieved him of suspicions of stupidity, once caused by critics by his "inappropriate" behavior.

Before Griboyedov, Russian comedy of the 1810s and 20s developed as usual. think 10 Zorin A. L. "Woe from Wit" and Russian Comedy of the 10-20s of the XIX century // Philology: Collection of works of students and post-graduate students of the philological faculty of Moscow State University. Issue 5.M., 1977.S. 77, 79-80. ⁠ , in two directions: the pamphlet-satirical comedy of mores (bright representatives - Alexander Shakhovskoy and Mikhail Zagoskin) and the salon comedy of intrigue (first of all, Nikolay Khmelnitsky Nikolai Ivanovich Khmelnitsky (1789-1845) - playwright. Khmelnitsky served in the College of Foreign Affairs and was engaged in theater: he published theater reviews in the St. Petersburg Bulletin, translated plays. The success of Khmelnitsky was brought by the staging of the comedies "Talker" and "Pranks of Lovers". It was in his house that the first reading of Griboyedov's "Woe from Wit" took place. After the war of 1812, Khmelnitsky served as a state councilor, was the governor of Smolensk, then Arkhangelsk. In 1838 he was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress for embezzlement, but later found innocent. ⁠ ). The comedy of intrigue was written mainly from French samples, often in a directly adapted translation. Griboyedov paid tribute to this tradition in his early comedies. And he builds a love affair in Woe From Wit according to a seemingly familiar scheme: the oppressive father of a pretty girl with the traditional name Sophia (meaning, note, "Wisdom") and two seekers - a hero-lover and his antagonist. In this classical scheme, as Andrei Zorin notes, the rivals were certainly endowed with a number of opposite qualities. The positive hero was distinguished by modesty, quietness, respectfulness, prudence, in general, "moderation and accuracy", the negative one was an evil-speaking boaster and an irreverent mockery (for example, in Khmelnitsky's comedy "The Talker", the positive and negative heroes carry the speaking names of Modestov and Zvonov, respectively). In short, in the literary context of his time, Chatsky was at first glance recognized as a negative hero, a buffoonish lover - and his rightness, like the author's obvious sympathy for him, caused cognitive dissonance among readers.

We add to this that before Griboyedov, love in comedy could not be wrong: an obstacle on the path of lovers was the seeker's poverty, the girl's parents' dislike of him - but in the end these obstacles were happily resolved, often due to external interference ( deus ex machina "God is out of the car." Latin expression meaning an unexpected resolution of a situation due to external interference. Initially, a technique in ancient drama: one of the gods of Olympus descended onto the stage with the help of a mechanical device and easily solved all the problems of the heroes. ⁠ ), the lovers united, and the ridiculed vicious rival was banished. Griboyedov, in spite of all the comedic rules, completely deprived Woe from Wit of a happy ending: vice is not punished, virtue does not triumph, the reasoner is expelled like a jester. And this happens because the playwright excluded the latter from the classic triad of the unity of time, place and action: in his comedy there are two equal conflicts, love and social, which was impossible in a classicist play. Thus, in the words of Andrei Zorin, he blew up the entire comedy tradition, turning both the familiar plot and the role inside out - sympathizing with yesterday's negative character and making fun of the former positives.

A Moscow young lady, a virgin with not high feelings, but with strong desires, barely abstained from secular decency. A romantic girl, as many believe, she can not be in any way: for in the most ardent frenzy of imagination it is impossible to dream before giving her heart and soul to a doll Molchalin».

However, if Sophia is just an empty Moscow young lady and she left not far from Molchalin, why does Chatsky himself love her, who knows her well? Not because of the vulgar Moscow young lady, he was three years old "the whole world seemed like dust and vanity." This is a psychological contradiction - meanwhile, among the merits of comedy, Pushkin noted its psychological reliability: “Chatsky's distrust of Sofia's love for Molchalin is lovely! - and how natural! "

In an attempt to explain this discrepancy, many critics have had to indulge in psychological speculation. Goncharov believed, for example, that Sophia was guided by a kind of maternal feeling - "the desire to patronize a loved one, poor, modest, not daring to look at her, - to raise him up to himself, to his circle, to give him family rights."

Chatsky is crushed by the amount of old power, inflicting a fatal blow on it with the quality of fresh power.

Ivan Goncharov

Another psychological motivation for Sophia's choice can be seen in the history of her relationship with Chatsky, which is described in the play in some detail.

Once they were bound by a tender childhood friendship; then Chatsky, as Sophia recalls, “moved out, he felt bored with us, / And rarely visited our house; / Then he again pretended to be in love, / Demanding and distressed !! "

Then the hero went on a journey and “didn’t write two words for three years”, while Sophia asked any visitor about him - “at least be a sailor”!

It is clear after this that Sophia has reason not to take seriously the love of Chatsky, who, among other things, “goes to women” and does not miss an opportunity to flirt with Natalya Dmitrievna, who “is fuller than ever, prettier fear” (just like Sophia “ blossomed beautifully, inimitable ").

⁠) - This was common practice for popular plays in the early 19th century, but the quantity and literary scale were unusual. Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin Mikhail Alekseevich Bestuzhev-Ryumin (1800-1832) - poet, journalist. He published the literary newspaper "Northern Mercury" and the almanacs "Garland", "Sirius", "Maisky leaf", "North Star". He published his poems and critical articles in them under the pseudonym of Aristarchus the Zaventny. Known for his attacks on Pushkin and fierce polemics with the editor of "Literary additions to the" Russian invalid "Alexander Voeikov, which ended with threats to expel the journalist from St. Petersburg. ⁠ published in his almanac "Sirius" a small story in letters "Consequence of the comedy" Woe from Wit ", where Sophia, first sent by her father to the village, soon returns to Moscow, marries an elderly" ace " travels in a train Zug is a team in which horses go in several pairs, tail to tail. Only very rich people could afford to travel in train. ⁠ , and is looking for an opportunity to reconcile with Chatsky in order to instruct her husband with him.

Dmitry Begichev, a friend of Griboyedov, on whose estate a comedy was written and who was considered one of the prototypes of Platon Mikhailovich Gorich, in the novel "The Kholmskys" brought Chatsky into old age, poor, living "quieter than water below the grass" in his village with a grumpy wife, then I have completely repaid my friend for the caricature.

In 1868, Vladimir Odoevsky published his Intercepted Letters from Famusov to Princess Marya Aleksevna in Sovremennye Zapiski. Evdokia Rostopchina, in the comedy "Chatsky's Return to Moscow, or a Meeting of Familiar Faces after 25 Years of Separation" (written in 1856, published in 1865) ridiculed both political parties of Russian society of that time - Westernizers and Slavophiles. The culmination of this literary tradition was the cycle of satirical essays "Lord Molchalina", written in 1874-1876 by Saltykov-Shchedrin: there Chatsky descended, lost his former ideals, married Sophia and is living out his life as director of the Department of State Mysteries, where he attached him godfather Molchalin, a reactionary bureaucrat who "reached the level of the known." But the most odious future was drawn to Chatsky at the beginning of the 20th century by Viktor Burenin in the play "Woe from Stupidity" - a satire on the 1905 revolution, where Chatsky, following the author, preaches Black Hundred ideas, denouncing not reactionaries, but revolutionaries, but instead of a "Frenchie from Bordeaux" his target is "the little black Jew of the lawyers."

bibliography

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• "The present century and the past century ..." Comedy by A. Griboyedov "Woe from Wit" in Russian criticism and literary criticism. SPb .: Azbuka-Klassika, 2002.
• Gershenzon M.O. Griboedovskaya Moscow // Gershenzon M.O. Griboedovskaya Moscow. P. Ya.Chaadaev. Sketches of the past. M .: Moscow worker, 1989.
• Lotman Yu. M. Decembrist in everyday life (everyday behavior as a historical and psychological category) // Literary heritage of the Decembrists: collection of articles. / ed. V. G. Bazanova, V. E. Vatsuro. L .: Nauka, 1975. P. 25–74.

• Nechkina M. V. A. S. Griboyedov and the Decembrists. M .: GIKHL, 1947.
• Orlov Vl. Griboyedov. A short sketch of life and work. Moscow: Art, 1952.
• Piksanov N.K. Chronicle of the life and work of A.S. Griboyedov. 1791-1829. Moscow: Heritage, 2000.
• Piksanov NK Creative history "Woe from Wit". M., L .: GIZ, 1928.
• A. Slonimsky "Woe from Wit" and the Comedy of the Decembrist Era (1815-1825) // A. Griboyedov, 1795-1829: Sat. Art. Moscow: Goslitmusey, 1946, pp. 39–73.
• Tynyanov Yu. N. The plot of "Woe from Wit" // Tynyanov Yu. N. Pushkin and his contemporaries. Moscow: Nauka, 1969.
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The entire list of references

EXISTING: Pavel Afanasevich Famusov state manager Sofia Pavlovna, his daughter. Lizanka, maid. Alexey Stepanovich Molchalin, the secretary of Famusov, who lives in his house. Alexander Andreevich Chatsky. Colonel Skalozub, Sergei Sergeevich. Natalia Dmitrievna, young lady, Platon Mikhailovich, her husband, - Gorichi. Prince Tugoukhovsky and Princess, his wife, with six daughters. Countess grandmother, Countess granddaughter, - Hryumins. Anton Antonovich Zagoretsky. Old woman Khlestova, sister-in-law of Famusova. G.N. G.D. Repetilov. Parsley and several speaking servants. A multitude of guests of all kinds and their lackeys on the way. Famusov waiters.

Action comedy in verse "Woe from Wit"

• Step 1
• Step 2
• Step 3
• Step 4
• Notes (edit)

Step 1

Phenomenon 1

The living room, there is a large clock in it, on the right is the door to Sophia's bedroom, from which you can hear a fortopian with a flute, which then fall silent. Lizanka in the middle of the room he sleeps, hanging from an armchair. (Morning, a little day breaks)

Lizanka(suddenly wakes up, gets up from the chair, looks around)

Day is breaking! .. Ah! how soon the night passed! Yesterday I asked to sleep - refusal, "We are waiting for a friend." - You need an eye and an eye, Do not sleep until you roll off your chair. Now I just took a nap, Already day! .. tell them ...

(Knocks at Sofia.)

Gentlemen, Hey! Sofya Pavlovna, trouble. Your conversation has come during the night; Are you deaf? - Alexey Stepanych! Madam! ..- And fear does not take them!

(Moves away from the door.)

Well, the guest is not invited, Perhaps the father will come in! I ask you to serve with the young lady in love!

(Again to the door)

What time is it now?

Lizanka

Everything in the house rose.

Sofia(from his room)

What time is it now?

Lizanka

Seventh, eighth, ninth.

Sofia(from the same place)

Not true.

Lizanka(away from the doors)

Oh! cupid * damned! And they hear, they do not want to understand, Well, what would they take away the shutters? I will translate the clock, even though I know: there will be a race, I will make them play.

(Climbs into a chair, moves the hand, the clock strikes and plays.)

Phenomenon 2

Lisa and Famusov.

Lisa

Oh! master!

Famusov

Master, yes.

(Stops clock music)

After all, what a minx you are, girl. I could not think of what kind of trouble it is! Now the flute is heard, now like a piano; Was it too early for Sophia ??

Lisa

No, sir, I ... just by chance ...

Famusov

Just by chance, take note of you; So, right, intentionally.

(Presses up to her and flirts)

Ouch! potion, * darling.

Lisa

You are a spoiled person, these faces suit you!

Famusov

Modest, but nothing but Leprosy and the wind on her mind.

Lisa

Let it go, you winds up yourself, Come to your senses, you old people ...

Famusov

Lisa

Well, who will come, where are we with you?

Famusov

Who should come here? Sophia is sleeping, isn't she?

Lisa

Now I have it.

Famusov

Now! And the night?

Lisa

I read the whole night.

Famusov

See, what whims have started!

Lisa

All in French, read aloud, locked.

Famusov

Tell her that it is not good for her to spoil her eyes, And it’s not very useful in reading: She has no sleep from French books, And I have a painful sleep from Russians.

Lisa

What will get up, I will report, Excuse me to go, wake me up, I'm afraid.

Famusov

Why wake up? You wind up the clock, You play a symphony for the whole quarter.

Lisa(as loud as possible)

Yes, fullness, sir!

Famusov(grips her mouth)

Have mercy on how you scream. Are you going crazy?

Lisa

I'm afraid it won't come out of that ...

Famusov

Lisa

It's time, sir, you know you are not a child; The girls' morning sleep is so thin; You creak a little the door, whisper a little: Everyone hears ...

Famusov

Famusov(hastily)

(Creeps out of the room on tiptoe.)

Lisa(one)

Gone ... Ah! give from the gentlemen; They have troubles for themselves at every hour, prepare, Pass us more than all sorrows And the lordly anger, and the lordly love.

Phenomenon 3

Lisa, Sofia with a candle, behind it Molchalin.

Sofia

What, Lisa, attacked you? Making noise ...

Lisa

Of course, it's hard for you to part? Locked up until the light, and everything seems small?

Sofia

Ah, it really is dawn!

(He puts out the candle.)

And light and sadness. How fast the nights are!

Lisa

Grieve, know, there is no urine from the outside, Your father has come here, I have died; Spun in front of him, I don't remember what I was lying; Well, what have you become? bow, sir, weigh. Come on, the heart is out of place; Look at the clock, look out the window: People have been knocking down the streets for a long time; And in the house knocking, walking, sweeping and cleaning.

Sofia

Happy hours are not observed.

Lisa

Don't watch, your power; And what is the answer for you, of course, I get.

Sofia(To Molchalin)

Go; the whole day we will endure boredom.

Lisa

God be with you, sir; take your hand away.

(Breaks them apart, Molchalin collides with Famusov at the door.)

Phenomenon 4

Sofia, Lisa, Molchalin, Famusov.

Famusov

What an opportunity! * Molchalin, you, brother?

Molchalin

Famusov

Why here? and at this hour? And Sophia! .. Hello, Sophia, that you have risen so early! a? for what care? And how did God bring you together at the wrong time?

Sofia

He just came in now.

Molchalin

Now from a walk.

Famusov

Friend. Is it possible to walk Farther to choose a nook? And you, madam, just jumped out of bed, With a man! with the young! - Busy for the girl! All night reading fables, And here are the fruits of these books! And all the Kuznetsky Most, * and the eternal French, From there fashion to us, both authors and muses: Destroyers of pockets and hearts! When the Creator will deliver us From their hats! cheptsov! and studs! and pins! And bookshops and biscuit shops! ..

Sofia

Excuse me, father, my head is spinning; I can hardly catch my breath from fright; You deigned to run in so quickly, I mixed up ...

Famusov

Thank you humbly, I soon ran into them! I got in the way! I scared! I, Sophia Pavlovna, am upset myself, a whole day. No rest, I rush about like crazy. According to the position, in the service of troubles, He bothers, the other, everyone cares about me! But was I expecting new troubles? to be deceived ...

Sofia

Who, father?

Famusov

Here they will reproach me, That I always chew to no avail. Don't cry, I’m talking about yours. About your upbringing! from the cradle! Mother died: I knew how to borrow In Madame Rozier a second mother. He put the old gold-woman in charge of you: She was smart, quiet disposition, rare rules. One thing is not to her credit: For an extra five hundred rubles a year She allowed herself to be enticed by others. But Madame's strength is not. No other model is needed, When the father's example is in the eyes. Look at me: I do not boast of folding; However, he is cheerful and fresh, and has lived to see the gray hair, Free, widows, myself I am a master ... I am known for monastic behavior! ..

Lisa

I dare, sir ...

Famusov

Be silent! Terrible age! Don't know where to start! All have contrived beyond their years. And more than a daughter, but they themselves are good-natured. These languages ​​were given to us! We take the vagabonds, * and into the house and on tickets, * To teach our daughters everything, everything - And dance! and singing! and tenderness! and sighs! As if we are preparing buffoons for their wives. * You, visitor, what? are you here, sir, why? He warmed Bezrodny and brought him into my family, gave the rank of assessor * and took him to secretaries; Transferred to Moscow through my assistance; And if not me, you would have smoked in Tver.

Sofia

I will not explain your anger in any way. He lives in the house here, great misfortune! I went into a room, got into another.

Famusov

Hit or wanted to hit? Why are you together? It is impossible to accidentally.

Sofia

That is, however, the whole case: How long ago you and Liza were here, Your voice terrified me extremely, And I rushed here as fast as I could ...

Famusov

Perhaps he'll put all the fuss on me. At the wrong time my voice caused them anxiety!

Sofia

In a vague dream, a trifle disturbs; Tell you a dream: you will understand then.

Famusov

What's the story?

Sofia

Tell you?

Famusov

(Sits down.)

Sofia

Let… see eh… first Flowery meadow; and I was looking for Some Grass, I don't remember in reality. Suddenly a dear person, one of those whom we will see - as if we have known each other for a century, Appeared here with me; and insinuating, and smart, But timid ... Do you know who was born in poverty ...

Famusov

Oh! mother, do not finish the blow! The poor man is not your match.

Sofia

Then everything disappeared: the meadows and the heavens. - We're in a dark room. To complete the miracle The floor was opened - and you from there, Pale as death, and hair on end! Then, with a thunder, the doors were thrown open Some not people and not animals, We were apart - and tortured the one who was sitting with me. He seems to me dearer than all the treasures, I want to see him - you drag with you: We are escorted by the groan, roar, laughter, whistle of monsters! He shouts after! .. - I woke up. - Someone says - your voice was; what i think is so early? I run here - and I find both of you.

Famusov

Yes, a bad dream, I see. Everything is here, if there is no deception: And devils and love, and fears and flowers. Well, my sir, and you?

Famusov

Molchalin

With papers, sir.

Famusov

Yes! they were missing. Have mercy that this zeal suddenly fell into writing!

Well, Sonya, I'll give you peace: There are strange dreams, but in reality they are stranger; You were looking for herbs, You came across a friend sooner; Get the nonsense out of your head; Where there are miracles, there is little stock. - Come on, lie down, sleep again.

(To Molchalin)

We go to sort the papers.

Molchalin

I only carried them for the report, That it is impossible to use it without certificates, without others, There are contradictions, and much is not practical.

Famusov

I am afraid, sir, I am alone deadly, So that many do not accumulate; Give free rein to you, it would have sat down; And for me, what is business, what is not business, My custom is this: Signed, so off your shoulders.

(He leaves with Molchalin, passes him ahead at the door.)

Phenomenon 5

Sofia, Lisa.

Lisa

Well, here's the holiday! Well, here's the fun! However, no, now it’s no laughing matter; It is dark in the eyes, and the soul froze; Sin is not a problem, rumor is not good.

Sofia

What is the rumor to me? Whoever wants to judge, Yes, the father will force you to think: Obese, restless, quick, This is always, and from now on ... You can judge ...

Lisa

I'm not judging by stories; He forbid you, - good is still with me; And then, have mercy on God, just at once Me, Molchalin and everyone out of the yard.

Sofia

Just think how capricious happiness is! It happens worse, get away with it; When sad nothing comes to mind, Forgotten by the music, and time passed so smoothly; Fate seemed to take care of us; No worry, no doubt ... And grief awaits from around the corner.

Lisa

Here's something, sir, you do not like my stupid judgment Never: But that's the problem. What is a better prophet for you? I repeated: in love there will be no good in this For ever and ever. Like everyone in Moscow, your father is like this: He would like a son-in-law with stars, but with ranks, And with the stars, not everyone is rich, between us; Well, of course, besides, money, to live, so that he could give balls; For example, Colonel Skalozub: And the golden bag, and marks the generals.

Sofia

How sweet! and the fear is fun to me To hear about the frunt * and the ranks; He hasn’t uttered a clever word at all, - I don’t care what is for him, what is in the water.

Lisa

Yes, sir, so to speak, he is spoken, but painfully not cunning; But be a military man, be he a civilian, * Who is so sensitive, and cheerful, and sharp, Like Alexander Andreich Chatsky! Not to embarrass you; It's been a long time ago, I can't turn it back, but I remember ...

Sofia

What do you remember? He gloriously knows how to laugh everyone; Chatting, joking, it's funny to me; You can share laughter with everyone.

Lisa

But only? as if? - I was shedding tears, I remember, poor man, how he parted with you. - What, sir, crying? live laughing ... And he answered: “No wonder, Liza, I cry: Who knows what I’ll find when I come back? And how much, perhaps, I will lose! " The poor thing seemed to know that in three years ...

Sofia

Listen, don't take too much liberty. I am very windy, maybe I did, And I know, and I blame; but where did she change? To whom? so that they could reproach infidelity. Yes, with Chatsky, it is true, we were brought up, grew up: The habit of being together every day inseparably Tied us with childhood friendship; but then He moved out, he felt bored with us, And he rarely visited our house; Then he again pretended to be in love, Demanding and distressed !!. Oster, clever, eloquent, He is especially happy in his friends, Here he conceived of himself high ... The hunt to wander attacked him, Ah! If someone loves whom, Why should the mind seek and travel so far?

Lisa

Where is it worn? in which parts? He was treated, they say, on sour waters, * Not from illness, tea, from boredom - more freely.

Sofia

And, probably, happy where people are funnier. Whom I love is not like that: Molchalin, ready to forget myself for others, Enemy of insolence - always shyly, timidly I kiss the night with whom you can spend this way! We are sitting, and the yard has turned white for a long time, What do you think? what are you doing?

Lisa

God knows, madam, is this my business?

Sofia

He will take his hand, shake his heart, Sighs from the depths of his soul, Not a word of freedom, and so the whole night goes by, Hand with hand, and does not take his eyes off me. - Laughing! is it possible! what reason did I give you for such laughter!

Lisa

Me, sir ?. your aunt came to mind now, How a young Frenchman ran away from her house. Darling! I wanted to bury My annoyance, I could not: I forgot to blacken my hair And after three days turned gray.

(He continues to laugh.)

Sofia(with chagrin)

They'll talk about me in the same way.

Lisa

Forgive me, really, as God is holy, I wanted this stupid laugh to help you cheer up a little.

Phenomenon 6

Sofia, Lisa, servant followed by Chatsky.

Servant

Alexander Andreevich Chatsky is here for you.

Phenomenon 7

Sofia, Lisa, Chatsky.

Chatsky

A little light already on my feet! and I am at your feet.

(She kisses her hand hotly.)

Well, kiss, didn’t you wait? speak! Well, for the sake of it? * No? Look me in the face. Are you surprised? but only? here's the trick! As if not a week had passed; As if yesterday we are together We have no urine to each other; Not a hair of love! where are so good! And meanwhile, I don’t remember, without a soul, I was forty-five hours, without squinting my eyes in an instant, More than seven hundred versts swept by, - the wind, the storm; And he was completely confused, and fell how many times - And here is the reward for the exploits!

Sofia

Oh! Chatsky, I am very glad to see you.

Chatsky

Are you for the sake of? good hour. However, who is sincerely happy about that? It seems to me, so in the end People and horses shivering, I only amused myself.

Lisa

Here, sir, if you were outside the door, by God, there are no five minutes, As we remembered you here. Madam, tell yourself.

Sofia

Always, not just now. - You cannot reproach me. Who flies by, opens the door, On the way, by chance, from a stranger, from far away - With a question I, even if it were a sailor: Didn't I meet you somewhere in the post carriage?

Chatsky

Suppose so. Blessed is he who believes, warmth to him in the world! - Ah! My God! if I'm here again, in Moscow! you! but how can I recognize you! Where is the time? where is that innocent age, When it used to be a long evening We will appear, disappear here and there, We play and make noise on chairs and tables. And here is your father with Madame, behind the picket; * We are in a dark corner, and it seems that in this! Do you remember? shudder that the table creaks, the door ...

Sofia

Childishness!

Chatsky

Yes, sir, and now, At the age of seventeen, you blossomed beautifully, Inimitable, and you know this, And therefore you are modest, do not look at the light. Are you in love? I ask you to give me an answer, Without a thought, to be embarrassed in fullness.

Sofia

Yes, at least someone will be confused Questions are quick and curious look ...

Chatsky

Have mercy, not you, why be surprised? What new will Moscow show me? Yesterday there was a ball, and tomorrow there will be two. He wooed - he was in time, and he made a mistake. All the same sense, * and the same verses in the albums.

Sofia

Persecution of Moscow. What does it mean to see the light! Where is better?

Chatsky

Where we are not. What is your father? all English klob Old, faithful member to the grave? Has your uncle jumped off his age? And this one, how is he, is he a Turk or a Greek? Тот черномазенький, на ножках журавлиных, Не знаю, как его зовут, Куда ни сунься: тут как тут, В столовых и в гостиных. And three of the tabloid faces * Who have been younger since half a century? They have a million relatives, and with the help of their sisters, they will become related throughout Europe. And our sun? our treasure? On the forehead it is written: Theater and Maskerad; * The house is painted with greenery in the form of a grove, He is fat himself, his artists are lean. At the ball, remember, we opened it together Behind the screens, in one of the more secret rooms, A man was hidden and clicked a nightingale, A singer of summer weather in winter. And that consumptive one, relatives to you, the enemy of books, In the scientific committee * which settled And with a cry demanded an oath, So that no one knew and did not learn to read and write? I am destined to see them again! You will get tired of living with them, and in whom you will not find stains? When you wander, you will return home, And the smoke of the Fatherland is sweet and pleasant to us!

Sofia

Here you and your aunt would meet, To re-read all your acquaintances.

Chatsky

And Auntie? all girl, Minerva? * All maid of honor * Catherine the First? Pupils and mosek is the house full? Oh! let's move on to education. That now, just as since ancient times, They bother to recruit regiments of teachers, More in number, at a cheaper price? Not that they are far off in science; In Russia, under a great fine, We are ordered to recognize everyone as a Historian and a geographer! Our mentor, * remember his cap, dressing gown, * index finger, all the signs of learning How our timid minds disturbed, How from an early time we used to believe, That we have no salvation without the Germans! And Guillaume, the Frenchman, blown away by the breeze? He's not married yet?

Sofia

Chatsky

At least on some princess Pulcheria Andrevna, for example?

Sofia

Dancemaster! is it possible!

Chatsky

Well, he is also a gentleman. They will demand of us to be with property and rank, And Guillaume! .. - What is the tone here today At congresses, at large, on parish holidays? A mixture of languages ​​still prevails: French with Nizhny Novgorod?

Sofia

A mixture of languages?

Chatsky

Yes, two, you can't live without it.

Sofia

But it's tricky to tailor one of them, like yours.

Chatsky

At least not inflated. Here's the news! - I take a minute, I am animated by a date with you, And talkative; But isn't there a time, That I’m more stupid than Molchalin? Where is he, by the way? Have you not yet broken the silence of the press? There used to be songs where the newcomers had a notebook. He would see it, bother: please write it off. However, he will reach the known degrees, After all, nowadays they love the dumb.

Sofia

Not a man, a snake!

(Loud and forced.)

I want to ask you: Has it ever happened that you were laughing? or in sorrow? A mistake? did you say good about someone? Though not now, but in childhood, maybe.

Chatsky

When is everything so soft? and tender and immature? Why so long ago? here's a good deed for you: Calls just rattling And day and night in the snowy desert, I hasten to you, head breaking. And how do I find you? in some strict rank! I endure coldness for half an hour! The face of the most holy praying mantis! .. - And yet I love you without memory.

(Minute silence.)

Listen, are my words all the pegs? And leaning towards someone else's harm? But if so: mind and heart are out of tune. I am in eccentrics to another miracle Once I laugh, then I will forget: Tell me into the fire: I’ll go as if to dinner.

Sofia

Yes, good - burn out, if not?

Phenomenon 8

Sofia, Lisa, Chatsky, Famusov.

Famusov

Here's another!

Sofia

Ah, father, sleep in hand.

Cursed dream.

Phenomenon 9

Famusov, Chatsky(looks at the door Sophia went through)

Famusov

Well, you threw the thing out! I haven't written two words for three years! And suddenly it burst out like from the clouds.

(They hug.)

Great, friend, great, brother, great. Tell me, you have tea ready. Gathering important news? Sit down, announce quickly.

(They sit down.)

Chatsky(absently)

How prettier you are with Sofya Pavlovna!

Famusov

You, young people, have no other business, How to notice the girlish beauty: She said something in passing, and you, I tea, were brought up with hopes, bewitched.

Chatsky

Oh! No; I am a little spoiled by hopes.

Famusov

"Sleep in hand" - she deigned to whisper to me, Here you are planning ...

Chatsky

I AM? - Not at all.

Famusov

Who was she dreaming of? what?

Chatsky

I am not a guesser of dreams.

Famusov

Don't trust her, everything is empty.

Chatsky

I believe my own eyes; I have not met a century, I will give a subscription, So that it was at least somewhat similar to her!

Famusov

He's all his own. Tell me in detail, Where have you been? Wandered for so many years! Where is it from now?

Chatsky

Now I don't care! I wanted to go around the whole world, And I did not go around a hundredth.

(Rises hastily.)

Sorry; I was in a hurry to see you sooner, I didn’t go home. Farewell! I will appear in an hour, I will not forget the slightest details; You first, then tell you everywhere.

(In the door.)

How good!

Phenomenon 10

Famusov(one) Which of the two? "Oh! Father, sleep in hand! " And he says it out loud to me! Well, it's my fault! What did I give the hook! Molchalin daviche introduced me into doubt. Now ... yes, half out of the fire: That beggar, this dandy friend; Notorious * mot, tomboy, What a commission, * Creator, To be a father to an adult daughter!

Step 2

Phenomenon 1

Famusov, servant.

Famusov

Petrushka, you are always with a new thing, With a torn elbow. Get out the calendar; Read not like a sexton, * But with feeling, with sense, with constellation. Wait a minute. - On a sheet of paper, write on a note, Against the next week: To Praskovya Fyodorovna's house On Tuesday I was invited to fish for trout. How wonderful is the light created! Philosophize - the mind will go round; Either you take care, then lunch: Eat for three hours, but in three days it won't cook! Note, on the same day ... No, no. On Thursday I am called to the burial. Oh, the human race! came into oblivion, That everyone himself must climb there, In that little casket, where neither stand nor sit. But whoever intends to leave the memory for himself With a meritorious life, here is an example: The deceased was a venerable chamberlain, With a key, and he knew how to deliver the key to his son; He is rich, and he was married to a rich man; Survived children, grandchildren; Died; everyone remembers him sadly. Kuzma Petrovich! Peace be upon him! - What aces live and die in Moscow! - Write: on Thursday, one to one, Or maybe on Friday, and maybe on Saturday, I have to baptize at the widow's, at the doctor's. She did not give birth, but according to the calculation In my opinion: she must give birth ...

Phenomenon 2

Famusov, servant, Chatsky.

Famusov

A! Alexander Andreevich, please, sit down.

Chatsky

You're busy?

Famusov(to the servant)

(Exit Servant.)

Yes, we bring various things into the book as a keepsake, Forget it, just look.

Chatsky

You have become something not cheerful; Tell me why? Arrival at my wrong time? Sophia Pavlovna, what kind of grief happened ?. There is vanity in your face, in your movements.

Famusov

Oh! Father, I have found a riddle: I am not cheerful! .. In my years I cannot go squatting!

Chatsky

Nobody invites you; I have just asked two words About Sofya Pavlovna: perhaps she is not well?

Famusov

Ugh, Lord forgive me! Five thousand times Repeats the same thing! Either Sophia Pavlovna is not fit in the world, Now Sophia Pavlovna is sick. Tell me, did you like her? Sprayed the light; do you want to get married?

Chatsky

What do you need?

Famusov

It would not be bad for me to ask, After all, I am somewhat akin to her; At least from time immemorial * Not without reason was they called Father.

Chatsky

Let me devote myself, what would you tell me?

Famusov

I would say, firstly: do not whims, In name, brother, do not manage in error, And, most importantly, serve as a gift.

Chatsky

I would be glad to serve, to serve is sickening.

Famusov

That's it, you are all proud! Would you ask how the fathers did? They would study at the elders looking: We, for example, or the deceased uncle, Maxim Petrovich: he was not on silver, He ate on gold; one hundred people at the service; All in orders; rode something forever in a train; * A century at court, but at what court! Then it is not what it is now, under the Empress served Catherine. And in those days, everyone is important! at forty poods ... Bow down - we’re dumb * do not nod. A nobleman in case * - all the more, Not like another, and drank and ate differently. And uncle! what is your prince? what is the count? Serious look, haughty disposition. When it is necessary to curry favor, And he bent forward: On the kurtag * he happened to encircle himself; He fell, so much so that he almost knocked the back of his head; The old man gasped, his voice hoarse; Was awarded the highest smile; They deigned to laugh; how is he? He got up, recovered, wanted to bow, Fell suddenly a row - already on purpose, And the laughter is worse, he is in the third the same way. A? what do you think? in our opinion, he's smart. He fell painfully, got up well. But, it happened, in whist * who is more often invited? Who hears a friendly word at court? Maxim Petrovich! Who knew honor before everyone? Maxim Petrovich! Joke! Who deduces the ranks and gives pensions? Maxim Petrovich. Yes! You, the present ones, are nootka!

Chatsky

And exactly, the light began to grow stupid, You can say with a sigh; How to compare and see The present century and the past century: Fresh tradition, but hard to believe, As he was famous, whose neck often bent; As not in war, but in the world they took their foreheads, They knocked on the floor without regretting! To those who need: those arrogance, they lie in the dust, And for those who are higher, flattery, like lace, weaved. Direct was the century of obedience and fear, All under the guise of zeal for the king. I'm not talking about your uncle; We will not revolt him ashes: But in the meantime, whom will the hunt take, Though in the most ardent servility, Now, in order to amuse the people, Courageously sacrifice the back of the head? A peer, and the old man Other, looking at that leap, And crumbling in shabby skin, Tea said: “Ax! if only me too! " Although there are hunters to podpodlich everywhere, Yes, now laughter frightens and keeps shame in check; No wonder the sovereigns favor them sparingly.

Famusov

Oh! My God! he's carbonari! *

Chatsky

No, the light is not like that today.

Famusov

Dangerous man!

Chatsky

Everyone breathes more freely And is in no hurry to fit into the regiment of jesters.

Famusov

What he says! and speaks as he writes!

Chatsky

The patrons yawn at the ceiling, Show up to be silent, rummage, dine, Substitute a chair, raise a handkerchief.

Famusov

He wants to preach liberty!

Chatsky

Who travels, who lives in the village ...

Famusov

Yes, he does not recognize the authorities!

Chatsky

Who serves the cause, not persons ...

Famusov

I would strictly forbid these gentlemen to drive up to the capitals for a shot.

Chatsky

I will finally give you rest ...

Famusov

Patience, no urine, annoying.

Chatsky

Your century I scolded mercilessly, I leave you

(1795–1829) A. S. Griboyedov is a poet, playwright, diplomat and public figure. At the age of 11 he became a student at Moscow University. For six and a half years, he completed a course in three faculties and prepared for a career as a scientist. He perfectly mastered several European languages, knew ancient and oriental languages. The war with Napoleon interrupted Griboyedov's studies; in August 1818 he went to secretary of the Russian mission at the Iranian court. In Tehran, Griboyedov successfully fulfilled a number of important diplomatic assignments: the return of Russian prisoner of war soldiers to their homeland, the preparation and signing of the Turkmanchay Peace Treaty (1828). On January 30, 1829, a huge crowd of Tehranians attacked the house occupied by the Russian embassy. A small convoy of Cossacks, Griboyedov himself heroically defended, but the forces were unequal. Griboyedov died. Griboyedov began to work in poetry while still at the university, his literary debuts (1815-1817) are associated with the theater: translations from French, original comedies and vaudeville, written in collaboration with the poet P.A.Vyazemsky, playwrights N.I. Khmelnitsky and A. A. Shakhovsky. The comedy "Woe from Wit" (in the original concept - Woe to Wit) Griboyedov finished in 1824. Due to opposition to censorship, he was not able to publish the entire text of the comedy, and to see it on stage as well. It was staged only after the death of the author, first in fragments, in full - on January 26, 1831.

Woe from wit. Action one

CHARACTERS:

Pavel Afanasevich Famusov, manager in the state
location.
Sofya Pavlovna, his daughter.
Lizanka, maid.
Alexey Stepanovich Molchalin, secretary of Famusov,
living in his house.
Alexander Andreevich Chatsky.
Colonel Skalozub, Sergei Sergeevich.
Natalia Dmitrievna, young lady) - Gorichi
Platon Mikhailovich, her husband)
Prince Tugoukhovsky and princess, his wife, with six
daughters.
Countess-grandmother) - Hryumins
Countess-granddaughter)
Anton Antonovich Zagoretsky.
Old woman Khlestova, sister-in-law of Famusov.
G. N.
D. D.
Repetilov.
Parsley and some speaking servants.
A multitude of guests of all kinds and their lackeys on the way.
Famusov waiters.

Action in Moscow at Famusov's house.

ACTION I

APPEARANCE 1
Living room, there is a large clock in it, on the right is the door to Sophia's bedroom,
otkudova one can hear a piano with a flute, which then become silent.
Liz and n and asleep in the middle of the room, hanging from an armchair. (Morning, a little
day dawns.)

L and z and n to and

(suddenly wakes up, gets up from the chair, looks around)
Day is breaking! .. Ah! how soon the night passed!
Yesterday I asked to sleep - refusal.
"We are waiting for a friend." - You need an eye and an eye,
Do not sleep until you roll off your chair.
Now I just took a nap,
It's day! .. tell them ...

(Knocks at Sofia.)
Gentlemen,
Hey! Sofya Pavlovna, trouble.
Your conversation has come during the night.
Are you deaf? - Alexey Stepanych!
Madam! ..- And fear does not take them!

(Moves away from the door.)
Well, the guest is not invited,
Perhaps the father will come in!
I ask you to serve with the young lady in love!

(Again to the door.)
Yes, disperse. Morning. - What?

(G o l o s S o f and i)

What time is it now?

L and z and n to and

Everything in the house rose.

S o f and me (from my room)

What time is it now?

L and z and n to and

Seventh, eighth, ninth.

S o f and I (from the same place)

Not true.

L and z and k and (away from the door)

Oh! damn cupid!
And they hear, they don't want to understand
Well, what would they take away the shutters?
I will translate the clock, even though I know: there will be a race,
I'll make them play.

Climbs into a chair, moves the hand, the clock strikes and plays.

APPEARANCE 2

Liz and F amus about in.
Lisa

Oh! master!

F a m u s o v

Master, yes.

(Stops clock music)
After all, what a minx you are, girl.
I could not think of what kind of trouble it is!
Now the flute is heard, now like a piano;
It was too early for Sophia ??.

No, sir, I ... just by chance ...

F a m u s o v

Just by chance, take note of you;
So, right, intentionally.

(He clings to her and flirts.)
Ouch! potion, darling.

You are a spoiled person, these faces suit you!

F a m u s o v

Modest, but nothing but
Leprosy and the wind on my mind.

Let go, the windy ones themselves,
Come to your senses, you old people ...

F a m u s o v

Well, who will come, where are we with you?

F a m u s o v

Who should come here?
Sophia is sleeping, isn't she?

Now I have it.

F a m u s o v

Now! And the night?

I read the whole night.

F a m u s o v

See, what whims have started!

All in French, read aloud, locked.

F a m u s o v

Tell me that it is not good for her to spoil her eyes,
And it's not very useful in reading:
She has no sleep from French books
And the Russians hurt me to sleep.

What will rise, I will report,
Please go, wake me up, I'm afraid.

F a m u s o v

Why wake up? You wind the clock yourself
You play a symphony for the whole quarter.

L and z a (as loud as possible)

Yes, fullness, sir!

F a musov (holds her mouth)

Have mercy on how you scream.
Are you going crazy?

I'm afraid it won't work out ...

F a m u s o v

It's time, sir, you know you are not a child;
The girls' morning sleep is so thin;
You creak the door a little, whisper a little:
Everyone hears ...

F a m u s o v

You're all lying.

(G o l o s S o f and i)

F a musov (hastily)

(Creeps out of the room on tiptoe.)
L and z and (one)

Gone ... Ah! give from the gentlemen;
They have troubles for themselves for every hour,
Pass us more than all sorrows
And lordly anger, and lordly love.

APPEARANCE 3

L and z and S about ph and I with a candle, behind her M O l chal and n.
S o f and I

What, Lisa, attacked you?
Making noise ...

Of course, it's hard for you to part?
Locked up until the light, and everything seems small?

Ah, it really is dawn!

(He puts out the candle.)
And light and sadness. How fast the nights are!

Grieve, know, there is no urine from the outside,
Your father has come here, I have died;
Spun in front of him, I don't remember what I was lying;
Well, what have you become? bow, sir, weigh.
Come on, the heart is out of place;
Look at the clock, look out the window:
The people have been knocking down the streets for a long time;
And in the house knocking, walking, sweeping and cleaning.

Happy hours are not observed.

Don't watch, your power;
And what is the answer for you, of course, I get.

S o f and I (to Molchalin)

Go; the whole day we will endure boredom.

God be with you, sir; take your hand away.

Breeds them, Molchalin at the door collides with Famusov.

APPEARANCE 4

S about f and I, Lis a, M o lchal in, F amus about v.
F a m u s o v

What an opportunity! Molchalin, are you brother?

M o l cha l and n

F a m u s o v

Why here? and at this hour?
And Sophia! .. Hello, Sophia, what are you
I got up so early! a? for what care?
And how did God bring you together at the wrong time?

He just came in now.

M o l cha l and n

Now from a walk.

F a m u s o v

Friend, is it possible for walks
Further to choose a nook?
And you, madam, just jumped out of bed,
With a man! with a young man! - An occupation for a girl!
Reads fables all night
And here are the fruits of these books!
And all the Kuznetsky Most, and the eternal French,
From there, fashion to us, both authors and muses:
Destroyers of pockets and hearts!
When the creator delivers us
From their hats! cheptsov! and studs! and pins!
And bookshops and biscuit shops! ..

Excuse me, father, my head is spinning;
I can hardly catch my breath from fright;
You deigned to run in so nimbly,
I got confused ...

F a m u s o v

Thank you humbly
I ran into them soon!
I got in the way! I scared!
I, Sofya Pavlovna, am upset myself, the whole day
There is no rest, I rush about like crazy.
According to the position, in the service of troubles,
The one sticks, the other, everyone cares about me!
But was I expecting new troubles? to be deceived ...

S o f and me (through tears)

Who, father?

F a m u s o v

They will reproach me,
That I always chew to no avail.
Don't cry, I'm talking about:
Didn't they care about yours?
About education! from the cradle!
Mother died: I knew how to borrow
Madame Rosier has a second mother.
I put the old gold lady in charge of you:
She was smart, quiet disposition, rare rules.
One thing does not serve her to honor:
For an extra five hundred rubles a year
She allowed herself to be enticed by others.
But Madame's strength is not.
No other sample is needed
When the father's example is in the eyes.
Look at me: I do not boast of folding,
However, he is cheerful and fresh, and has lived to see the gray hair;
Free, widows, I am my master ...
Monastic people are known for their behavior! ..

I dare, sir ...

F a m u s o v

Be silent!
Terrible age! Don't know where to start!
All have contrived beyond their years.
And more than a daughter, but they themselves are good-natured,
These languages ​​were given to us!
We take the vagrants, both to the house, and on tickets,
To teach our daughters everything, everything -
And dancing! and singing! and tenderness! and sighs!
As if we are preparing buffoons for their wives.
You, visitor, what? are you here, sir, why?
He warmed the rootless and introduced him to my family,
He gave the rank of assessor and took him to secretaries;
Transferred to Moscow through my assistance;
And if not me, you would have smoked in Tver.

I will not explain your anger in any way.
He lives in the house here, great misfortune!
I went into a room, got into another.

F a m u s o v

Hit or wanted to hit?
Why are you together? It is impossible to accidentally.

But here is the whole case:
How long ago you and Liza were here,
Your voice terrified me extremely,
And I rushed here as fast as I could ...

F a m u s o v

Perhaps he'll put all the fuss on me.
At the wrong time my voice caused them anxiety!

In a vague dream, a trifle disturbs.
Tell you a dream: you will understand then.

F a m u s o v

What's the story?

Tell you?

F a m u s o v

(Sits down.)

Let ... see eh ... first
Flowery meadow; and I was looking
Grass
Some, I don't remember in reality.
Suddenly a sweet person, one of those we are
We will see - as if the ages are familiar,
He appeared here with me; and insinuating, and clever,
But timid ... Do you know who is born in poverty ...

F a m u s o v

Oh! mother, do not finish the blow!
The poor man is not your match.

Then everything disappeared: the meadows and the heavens.
We are in a dark room. To complete the miracle
The floor opened up - and you are from there
As pale as death, and hair on end!
Then the doors were thrown open
Some are not people and not animals
We were apart - and they tortured the one who was sitting with me.
He seems to me dearer than all the treasures,
I want to see him - you drag with you:
We were seen off by the groan, the roar, the laughter, the whistle of monsters!
He shouts after! ..
I woke up. - Someone says -
Your voice was; what i think is so early?
I run here - and I find both of you.

F a m u s o v

Yes, a bad dream; as I can see.
Everything is there, if there is no deception:
And devils, and love, and fears, and flowers.
Well, my sir, and you?

F a m u s o v

M o l cha l and n

With papers, sir.

F a m u s o v

Yes! they were missing.
Have mercy that it suddenly fell
Diligence in writing!

(Stands up.)
Well, Sonya, I'll give you peace:
Dreams are strange, but in reality they are stranger;
You were looking for herbs
I came across a friend sooner;
Get the nonsense out of your head;
Where there are miracles, there is little stock.
Come on, lie down, sleep again.

(To Molchalin.)
We go to sort the papers.

M o l cha l and n

I only carried them for the report,
That cannot be used without certificates, without others,
There are contradictions, and much is not practical.

F a m u s o v

I'm afraid, sir, I'm deadly alone,
So that their multitude does not accumulate;
Give free rein to you, it would have sat down;
And I have, what is the matter, what is not the matter,
My custom is this:
Signed, off your shoulders.

He leaves with Molchalin, passes him ahead at the door.

APPEARANCE 5

S about ph and I, L and z a.
Lisa

Well, here's the holiday! Well, here's the fun!
However, no, now it’s no laughing matter;
It is dark in the eyes, and the soul froze;
Sin is not a problem, rumor is not good.

What is the rumor to me? Whoever wants to judge so,
Yes, the father will force you to think:
Obese, restless, quick,
This is always the case, and from now on ...
You can judge ...

I'm not judging by stories;
He forbids you; - good is still with me;
And then, have mercy on God, just at once
Me, Molchalin and everyone out of the yard.

Just think how capricious happiness is!
It happens worse, get away with it;
When sad nothing comes to mind,
Forgotten by the music, and time passed so smoothly;
Fate seemed to take care of us;
No worry, no doubt ...
And grief awaits from around the corner.

That's it, sir, of my stupid judgment
Never favor:
But that's the problem.
What is a better prophet for you?
I repeated: there will be no good in love
Not forever and ever.
Like everyone in Moscow, your father is like this:
He would like a son-in-law with stars and ranks,
And with the stars, not everyone is rich, between us;
Well, of course, besides
And money to live, so he could give balls;
For example, Colonel Skalozub:
And the golden bag, and marks the generals.

How sweet! and I have fun with fear
Hear about the frunt and the ranks;
He hasn’t uttered a clever word for a while, -
I don't care what is for him, what is in the water.

Yes, sir, so to speak, is eloquent, but painfully not cunning;
But be a military man, be he a civilian,
Who is so sensitive and cheerful and sharp,
Like Alexander Andreevich Chatsky!
Not to embarrass you;
Long gone, do not turn back,
But I remember ...

What do you remember? He is glorious
He knows how to laugh everyone;
Chatting, joking, it's funny to me;
You can share laughter with everyone.

But only? as if? - I was bursting with tears,
I remember, poor man, how he parted with you.
"What, sir, crying? Live laughing ..."
And he answered: "It's not for nothing, Liza, I'm crying:
Who knows what I will find on the way back?
And how much, perhaps, I will lose! "
The poor thing seemed to know that in three years ...

Listen, don't take too much liberty.
I am very windy, maybe I entered,
I know and I blame; but where did she change?
To whom? so that they could reproach infidelity.
Yes, with Chatsky, it is true, we were brought up, grew up;
The habit of being together every day is inseparable
Tied us with childhood friendship; but after
He moved out, he seemed bored with us,
And he rarely visited our house;
Then he pretended to be in love again,
Discerning and distressed !! ..
Sharp, smart, eloquent,
I'm especially happy with friends
Here he thought about himself high ...
The wanderlust attacked him,
Oh! if someone loves whom,
Why should the mind seek and travel so far?

Where is it worn? in which parts?
He was treated, they say, on sour waters,
Not from illness, tea, from boredom - more freely.

And, probably, happy where people are funnier.
Whom I love is not like that:
Molchalin is ready to forget himself for others,
The enemy of insolence is always shy, timid,
I kiss the night with whom you can spend this way!
We sit, and the yard has turned white for a long time,
What do you think? what are you doing?

God knows
Madam, is this my business?

He takes his hand, presses to his heart,
Sighs from the depths of his soul,
Not a word of freedom, and so the whole night goes by,
Hand with hand, and he does not take his eyes off me.
Laughing! is it possible! what is the reason
I am so laughing to you?

Me? .. your aunt has come to mind now,
How a young Frenchman ran away from her house,
Darling! wanted to bury
My annoyance, I could not:
I forgot to blacken my hair
And after three days she turned gray.

(He continues to laugh.)
S o f and I (with chagrin)

They'll talk about me in the same way.

Excuse me, really, as God is holy,
I wanted this stupid laugh
I helped to cheer you up a little.

APPEARANCE 6

S o f and I, Lis a, Sluga, followed by Chatsk and.
S l u g a

Alexander Andreevich Chatsky is here for you.

APPEARANCE 7

S about ph and I, Lis and, Chatsk and y.
Cha c k and th

A little light already on my feet! and I am at your feet.

(She kisses her hand hotly.)
Well, kiss, didn’t you wait? speak!
Well, for the sake of it? No? Look me in the face.
Are you surprised? but only? here's the trick!
As if not a week had passed;
As if yesterday together
We have no urine to each other;
Not a hair of love! where are so good!
And meanwhile, I don’t remember, without a soul,
I am forty-five hours, without squinting my eyes,
More than seven hundred versts swept by - wind, storm;
And he was completely confused, and fell how many times -
And here is the reward for the exploits!

Oh! Chatsky, I am very glad to see you.

Cha c k and th

Are you for the sake of? good hour.
However, who is sincerely happy that way?
It seems to me, so in the end
People and horses shivering,
I only amused myself.

Here, sir, if you were outside the door,
By golly, not five minutes
As we remembered you here.
Madam, tell yourself.

Always, not just now.
You cannot reproach me.
Who flies by, open the door,
On the way, by chance, from a stranger, from far away -
With a question I, at least be a sailor:
Have you met you somewhere in the post carriage?

Cha c k and th

Suppose so.
Blessed is he who believes, warmth to him in the world! -
Oh! My God! if I'm here again
In Moscow! you! but how can I recognize you!
Where is the time? where is that innocent age
When it used to be a long evening
You and I will appear, disappear here and there,
We play and make noise on chairs and tables.
And here is your father with Madame, behind the picket;
We are in a dark corner, and it seems that in this!
Do you remember? shudder that the table creaks,
a door...

Childishness!

Cha c k and th

Yes, and now,
At seventeen, you bloomed beautifully,
Inimitable and you know that
Therefore, they are modest, do not look at the light.
Are you in love? please give me an answer
Without a thought, fullness to be embarrassed.

Yes, at least someone will be confused
Questions are quick and curious ...

Cha c k and th

Have mercy, not you, why be surprised?
What new will Moscow show me?
Yesterday there was a ball, and tomorrow there will be two.
He wooed - he was in time, and he made a mistake.
All the same sense, and the same verses in the albums.

Persecution of Moscow. What does it mean to see the light!
Where is better?

Cha c k and th

Where we are not.
What is your father? all English klob
An ancient, faithful member to the grave?
Has your uncle jumped off his age?
And this one, how is he, is he a Turk or a Greek?
Тот черномазенький, на ножках журавлиных,
I don't know what his name is,
Wherever you go: here, as here,
In dining rooms and living rooms.
And three of the tabloid faces
Who have been younger since half a century?
They have a million relatives, and with the help of their sisters
They will become related with all of Europe.
And our sun? our treasure?
On the forehead it is written: Theater and Maskerad;
The house is painted with greenery in the form of a grove,
Himself fat, his artists are skinny.
At the ball, remember, we both opened
Behind the screens, in one of the more secret rooms,
A man was hidden and clicked a nightingale,
Singer in winter summer weather.
And that consumptive, akin to you, the enemy of books,
To the scientific committee that settled
And with a cry he demanded an oath,
So that no one knows and does not learn to read and write?
I am destined to see them again!
You will get tired of living with them, and in whom you will not find stains?
When you wander, you return home,
And the smoke of the Fatherland is sweet and pleasant to us!

Here I would like to meet you with my aunt,
To re-read all the acquaintances.

Cha c k and th

And Auntie? all girl, Minerva?
All the maid of honor of Catherine the First?
Pupils and mosek is the house full?
Oh! let's move on to education.
That today, the same as since ancient times,
They bother to recruit teachers of the shelf,
More in number, cheaper?
Not that they are far off in science;
In Russia, under a great fine,
We are told to recognize everyone
Historian and geographer!
Our mentor, remember his cap, robe,
Index finger, all signs of learning
How our timid minds troubled,
As from an early time we used to believe
That we have no salvation without the Germans! -
And Guillaume, the Frenchman, blown away by the breeze?
He's not married yet?

Cha c k and th

At least on some princess,
Pulcheria Andrevna, for example?

Dancemaster! is it possible!

Cha c k and th

Well? he and a gentleman.
We will be required to be with property and rank,
And Guillaume! ..- Here today the tone is
At conventions, at large, on parish holidays?
The confusion of languages ​​still prevails:
French with Nizhny Novgorod? -

A mixture of languages?

Cha c k and th

Yes, two, you can't live without it.

But it's tricky to tailor one of them, like yours.

Cha c k and th

At least not puffed up.
Here's the news! - I take a minute,
I am revived by a date with you,
And talkative; are there no times
That I’m more stupid than Molchalin? Where is he, by the way?
Have you not yet broken the silence of the press?
It used to be, songs where the new ones are the notebook
He will see it, sticks: please write it off.
However, he will reach the known degrees,
After all, nowadays they love the dumb.

S o f and I (aside)

Not a man, a snake!

(Loud and forced.)

I want to ask you:
Has it ever happened that you laughing? or in sorrow?
A mistake? did you say good about someone?
Though not now, but in childhood, maybe.

Cha c k and th

When is everything so soft? and tender and immature?
Why so long ago? here's a good deed to you:
The calls have just thundered
And day and night in the snowy desert,
I hurry to your head at breakneck speed.
And how do I find you? in some strict rank!
I endure coldness for half an hour!
The face of the holiest praying mantis! ..
And yet I love you without a memory.

(Minute silence.)
Listen, are my words all the pegs?
And leaning towards someone else's harm?
But if so: mind and heart are out of tune.
I'm in eccentrics to another miracle
Once I laugh, then I forget:
Tell me into the fire: I’ll go as if to dinner.

Yes, good - burn out, if not?

APPEARANCE 8

S o f and I, Lis a, Chatsk and f, F amus about in.
F a m u s o v

Here's another!

Ah, father, sleep in hand.

(Leaves.)
F a m us o v (after her in an undertone)

Cursed dream.

APPEARANCE 9

F amusov, Chatsky (looks at the door through which Sophia went out).
F a m u s o v

Well, you threw the thing out!
I haven't written two words for three years!
And suddenly it burst out, as from the clouds.

(They hug.)
Great, friend, great, brother, great.
Tell me, tea, you have it ready
Gathering important news?
Sit down, announce quickly.

(Sit down)
Chatsky (absentmindedly)

How prettier you are with Sofya Pavlovna!

F a m u s o v

You people are young, there is no other matter,
How to notice girly beauty:
I said something in passing, and you,
I am tea, hopes raised, bewitched.

Cha c k and th

Oh! no, I am a little spoiled by hopes.

F a m u s o v

"Sleep in hand" she deigned to whisper to me.
So you are planning ...

Cha c k and th

Me? - Not at all!

F a m u s o v

Who was she dreaming of? what?

Cha c k and th

I am not a guesser of dreams.

F a m u s o v

Do not believe her, everything is empty.

Cha c k and th

I believe my own eyes;
I have not met a century, I will give a subscription.
So that it was at least a little like her!

F a m u s o v

He's all his own. Tell me in detail
Where have you been? wandered for so many years!
Where is it from now?

Cha c k and th

Now I don't care!
I wanted to go around the whole world
And he did not go around a hundredth.

(Rises hastily.)
Sorry; I was in a hurry to see you sooner,
Didn't go home. Farewell! In one hour
I will appear, I will not forget the slightest details;
You first, then tell you everywhere.

(In the door.)
How good!

APPEARANCE 10
F a musov (one)

Which of the two?
"Ah! Father, sleep in your hand!"
And he says it out loud to me!
Well, it's my fault! What did I give the hook!
Molchalin daviche introduced me into doubt.
Now ... yes, half out of the fire:
That beggar, this dandy buddy;
Notorious as a bastard, a tomboy;
What a commission, creator,
To be a grown-up daughter's father!

Today the comedy of A.S. Griboyedov "Woe from Wit" would be called rather a tragicomedy, since there is nothing more sad in it than funny. The incident that prompted the writer to create this work also makes you laugh sadly. Being young and ardent, returning from abroad and traveling a lot, Alexander Sergeevich saw how obsequious the St. Petersburg high society treated a foreign guest, was indignant at this and expressed his indignation aloud. But society did not want to hear the truth, it was easier for them to declare the young man insane. On that day, the future protagonist of the work was born - Alexander Alexandrovich Chatsky. At that time, Russian literature was still dominated by the traditions of classicism, but if "Woe from Wit" is read from a modern point of view, then you can notice in the comedy features of realism, which were already beginning to come into their own. On the one hand, there are speaking surnames, a love conflict, the unity of time and place of action, on the other, a living language and a complete reflection of the then historical realities, coupled with well-written characters of the characters. Griboyedov wrote "Woe from Wit" as a bitter satire on Moscow society, and not only of his historical period. He himself noted that the basis of the work was a rather long period of time when ranks and honors were given not to the one who was worthy of them, but to the one who knew how to curry favor with others. And therefore, for the local nobility, those who did not want ranks and honors were mad. Unfortunately, the comedy "Woe from Wit" is largely understandable today: the realities have changed, but people have not.

In addition to the main character - Chatsky, other important characters act in it - the Famusov family, Skalozub, the careerist Molchanov and all that society that is pre-determined to condemn dissidents. The love one is connected with Sophia, who once loved Chatsky, and is now cold with him, since an unworthy, but completely understandable person took a place in her heart, and the social one is built on the confrontation of two centuries - the present and the past, which are embodied in the images of Chatsky and Famusova. If the first is a person of progressive views, then the second believes that it is quite normal to make those in power laugh in order to get the desired place. Today you can download Woe from Wit for free to see the two conflicts on which the development of the action of this simple and clear dramatic structure of the play is based.

Read the full text of the comedy "Woe from Wit" online or pick up a book - in any case, you need to know that the four acts of the play include the exposure (the first act to the sixth phenomenon), the set (only one phenomenon - the seventh of the first act) , the development of the action (from the end of the first phenomenon to the end of the third) and culmination (the fourth action). Such a composition allows you to fully demonstrate the characters of the characters and expand the storyline. The literature lesson, dedicated to Woe from Wit, will be of interest to everyone - the topic of confrontation between the old and the new is still relevant, and that is why Griboyedov's play belongs to the Russian classics.

Here is the story of the very successful career of the "rootless" Molchalin:

He warmed the rootless and introduced him to my family,
He gave the rank of assessor and took him to secretaries;
Transferred to Moscow through my assistance;
And if not me, you would have smoked in Tver.

The rank of the collegiate assessor (VIII class of the Taba-li about the ranks) gave the right to hereditary nobility, that is, as a minimum, he equated Molchalin with Chatsky, and corresponded to the military rank of major The collegiate assessor Kova-lion, the hero of Gogol's Nose, liked to call himself a major: “Kovalev was a Caucasian collegiate assessor. He had only been in this title for two years, and therefore could not for a minute be in his posture; and in order to give himself more wealth and weight, he never called himself a collegiate assessor, but always a major. "... Griboyedov himself, when he wrote Woe from Wit, was a titular advisor (IX grade).

Alexander Yuzhin as Famusov in the play "Woe from Wit". Maly Theater, Moscow, 1915

What is the secret of Molchalin's success? It can be assumed that it is partly in the fact that he was born in Tver, and, for example, not in Tula or Kaluga. Tver is located on the road connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg; the manager in the official place Famusov probably drove through Tver more than once, and, perhaps, some quick-witted local guy (wasn’t the son of the station watchman?) was able to successfully render him some kind of service. And then, using the patronage of Famusov and Tatyana Yurievna, Molchalin quickly and very successfully began to move up the career ladder.

In social terms, Molchalin begins his journey precisely as a "little man" who does not come to terms with his position, but with all his might strives to break out into people. “This is a man who, in swaddling clothes, has cognized the onslaught of fate and is therefore ready to give himself up into slavery to anyone and anywhere, ready to worship both the true God and the empty idol, having neither the ability nor the skill to penetrate the essence of things.<…>Everything in the activities of these people is imprinted by their lack of understanding and a firm determination to keep behind themselves that beggarly piece that fate has thrown out for them, "Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote about Molchalin.

2. The secret of Sophia's dream

Alexander Yuzhin as Famusov and Vera Pashennaya as Sophia in the play "Woe from Wit". Maly Theater, Moscow, 1915 Billy Rose Theater Collection / New York Public Library

Here is Sophia telling Famusov a dream, which she clearly came up with:

Then the doors were thrown open
Some are not people and not animals,
We were apart - and they tortured the one who was sitting with me.
He seems to me dearer than all the treasures,
I want to see him - you drag with you:
We were seen off by the groan, the roar, the laughter, the whistle of monsters!
He shouts after! ..

What does all this mean? Sophia did not invent her dream just like that, but with reliance on literature, namely on a romantic ballad: the heroine finds herself in a world on the other side, inhabited by villains and monsters.

The object of the parody for Griboyedov here is, first of all, Zhukovsky and his free translations of the ballad of the German poet Burger “Lenora” - “Lyud-Mila” (1808) and “Svetlana” (1811), in which dead suitors appear to the heroines and are carried away to the afterlife. peace. Famusov hardly read Zhukovsky, but Griboyedov puts into his mouth a caustic maxim, very similar to the ending of the ballad "Svetlana": "Everything is here, if there is no deceit: / And devils and love, and fears and flowers." And here is "Svetlana":

Smile, my beauty,
To my ballad;
There are great miracles in it,
Very little stock.

In Sophia's dream, ballad clichés are condensed: an innocent heroine and her lover are separated by a tormentor - a character from the afterlife (it is no coincidence that Famusov appears in a dream from under the opening floor). In the first edition, Famusov was described as an infernal hero: "Death on the cheeks, and the hair on the hole."

However, not only Sophia's dream, but also her relationship with Molcha-lin resembles a ballad plot. Their love affair is modeled on Zhukovsky's ballad Aeolian Harp (1814). Minwana, the daughter of a noble feudal lord, rejects the claims of eminent knights and gives her heart to the poor singer Arminius:

Young and beautiful
Like a fresh rose - the joy of the valleys,
Sweet-voiced singer ...
But not a noble, not a princely son by birth:
Minwana forgot
About his dignity
And I loved with my heart
Innocent, innocent heart in him.

Griboyedov parodies the picture of ideal love created by Zhukovsky. Poor singer Arminius seems to be replaced by the scoundrel Molchalin; the tragic expulsion of Arminius by Minwana's father - the finale of the comedy, when Sophia overhears the conversation between Molchalin and Lisa and expels the unlucky lover.

This parody is not accidental. In the literary controversy between the archaists and Archaists and innovators- supporters of opposite concepts of the development of Russian literature in the 1810s. The controversy between the two literary societies - "Conversation of lovers of the Russian word" and "Arzama-som" - revolved around the system of genres, language and style of literary behavior. Griboyedov adhered to the position of the younger archaists, who were very skeptical of Zhukovsky, and ridiculed the then fashionable dreaminess: “God be with them, with dreams,” he wrote in the analysis of translations of Burgess’s ballad “Lenora” in 1816, Look in, whatever you read, a song or a message, dreams are everywhere, and nature is not in the hair. " Molchalin is a parody of the sublime and quiet hero of sentimental stories and ballads.

3. The secret of Aunt Sophia and Chatsky's humor

Making fun of Moscow, Chatsky sarcastically asks Sofya:

At conventions, at large, on parish holidays?
The confusion of languages ​​still prevails:
French with Nizhny Novgorod?

Why is the French language mixed with the Nizhny Novgorod dialect? The fact is that during the war of 1812 it became a reality: Moscow nobles were evacuated to Nizhny Novgorod Vasily Lvovich Pushkin (the poet's uncle and the poet himself), addressing the residents of Nizhny Novgorod, wrote: "Take us under your protection, / Pets of the Volga banks."... At the same time, on a patriotic upsurge, the nobles tried to abandon the French speech and speak Russian (Leo Tolstoy described this in War and Peace), which led to a comic effect - mixing the French prononce with the Nizhny Novgorod okan.

Lexical incidents were no less amusing (and not only those from Nizhny Novgorod!). So, the Smolensk landowner Svistunova in one of her letters asked to buy her "English lace in the manner of drum (brabant), "Little clarinetka (lorgnette) since I am close with my eyes " (nearsighted), "Serogi (earrings) pisa gramova (filigree) works, perfumes of fragrant alambre, and for furnishing rooms - paintings of Talyan (Italian) in the manner of Rykhvaleeva (Rafaeleva) work on canvas and a tray with cups, if you can get it with peony flowers. "

In addition, it is possible that Chatsky is simply citing the famous publicistic text of the Napoleonic Wars, written by Ivan Muravyov-Apostle, the father of three future Decembrists. It is called "Letters from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod", and it contains a famous fragment about how the Moscow Noble Assembly ruthlessly treats the French language:

“I stood in the middle of the hall; waves of people rustled around me, but alas! .. Shu-me-whether everything is in French. Rarely, rarely where did the Russian word pop out.<…>Out of a hundred people in our country (and this is the most moderate proportion), one speaks pretty French, and ninety-nine speaks Gascon; no less than that, everyone babbles in some kind of barbaric dialect, which is revered as French just because we call it talk in franzuzski... Ask them: why is it? - because, they will say, it was so introduced. - My God! - But when will it come out?<…>Enter any society; a very funny mixture of languages! Here you will hear Norman, Gascon, Rusillon, Provencal, Geneva dialects; sometimes Russian - in half with the above. - Ears wither! ".

4. Mystery on August 3

Bragging about his successes, Skalozub mentions the battle, for his participation in which he was awarded the order:

For the third of August; we sat down in a trench:
It was given to him with a bow, around my neck The lower orders, that is, the III and IV degrees, were worn in a buttonhole, and the order ribbon was tied with a bow, the orders of the highest degrees were worn around the neck. Skalozub emphasizes that he received awards of a higher level than his cousin, and that by that time he already had a staff officer rank..

The exact date was named for a reason. Griboyedov's contemporaries, who well remembered the Patriotic War of 1812 and the events that followed it, could not help but laugh at this phrase. The fact is that no battle took place that day.

Sergei Golovin as Skalozub in the play "Woe from Wit". Maly Theater, Moscow, 1915 Billy Rose Theater Collection / New York Public Library

On June 4, 1813, the Plesvice Armistice was declared, which lasted until mid-August, and on August 3, in Prague, a meeting of the Russian Emperor Alexander I with Franz II, Emperor of Austria took place. Franz II- Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (1792-1806), as the Austrian emperor who ruled under the name of Franz I., which has been marked with many awards. Skalozub did not have any need to "sit in a tren-neck".

The static nature of Skalozub ("Wherever you order, just to sit down") sharply contradicts Chatsky's dynamism ("More than seven hundred versts swept by, the wind, storm; / And he was completely confused, and fell so many times ..."). However, in the conditions of military service in the last years of the reign of Alexander I, it is Skalozub's life strategy that is in demand. The fact is that the production for the next rank was carried out in the presence of vacancies; if Skalozub's more active comrades died in battles or turned out to be "turned off" for political reasons, then he calmly and systematically moved to the rank of general:

I'm pretty happy in my comrades,
The vacancies are just open;
Then the elders will turn off others,
Others, you see, have been killed.

5. The mystery of the broken rib

Scene from the play "Woe from Wit". Maly Theater, Moscow, 1915 Billy Rose Theater Collection / New York Public Library

Here Skalozub tells an anecdote about Countess Lasova:

Let me tell you the message:
There is some kind of princess Lasova here,
Horsewoman, widow, but no examples
So that many gentlemen went with her.
The other day I got hurt in fluff;
Joquet did not support, he believed that the flies were visible. -
And without that, as you can hear, she is clumsy,
Now the rib is missing
So he is looking for a husband for support.

The meaning of this anecdote is in an allusion to the biblical legend about the origin of Eve from the rib of Adam, that is, the secondary nature of a woman in relation to a man. In the Moscow world, everything happens exactly the opposite: here always and in everything women are the leaders. In Griboedov's Moscow, mat-ar-khat reigns, the feminine principle consistently displaces the masculine. Sophia teaches Molchalin to music ("One can hear a flute, then like a piano"); Natalya Dmitrievna surrounds the quite healthy Platon Mikhailovich with petty care; Tugoukhovsky, like a puppet, moves at the commands of his wife: “Prince, prince, here”, “Prince, prince! Back!" The feminine principle also prevails behind the scenes. The high patroness of Molcha-lin is Tatiana Yurievna Her prototype was Praskovya Yuryevna Kologrivova, whose husband, according to the memories of the Decembrist Zavalishin, “asked at the ball by one tall person who he was, was so confused that he said that he was Praskovya Yuryevna’s husband, probably believing that it was the title is more important than all his titles. "... Famusov tries to influence Skalozub through Nastasya Nikolavna and recalls some unknown to the reader, but important for him Irina Vlasyevna, Lukerya Alekse-vnu and Pulkheria Andrevna; the final verdict on what happened in the Famusovs' house should be made by Princess Marya Aleksevna.

“This female regime, to which the characters in Woe from Wit are subordinate, clarifies a lot,” writes Yuri Tynyanov. - For many years autocracy was female. Even Alexander I still reckoned with the power of his mother. Griboyedov knew, as a diplomat, what influence a woman has at the Persian court. " “Female power” and “male decline” become signs of the times: Griboyedov describes that turning point in Russian life, in which the courageous life of 1812 is a thing of the past, and gossip turns out to be more important than actions. It is in this situation that the slander against Chatsky arises.

6. The mystery of the yellow house

Mikhail Lenin as Chatsky in the play Woe from Wit. Moscow Art Theater, Moscow, 1911 Billy Rose Theater Collection / New York Public Library

Towards the end of the play, almost all the guests at the Famusovs' ball are sure that Chatsky has gone mad:

His uncle the rogue hid him in the mad;
They grabbed me into a yellow house and put me on a chain.

Why is it so scary? The fact is that the gossip about the madness of the hero, acquiring more and more new details Gossip about Chatsky's madness is developing like an avalanche. He himself was the first to pronounce the words about madness ("I can beware of madness ..."), meaning his unhappy love; Sophia picks them up in the same sense (“That’s reluctantly drove me crazy!”), and only on the third loop, driven out of herself by Chatsky’s attacks on Molchalin, Sophia says out of revenge: “He’s out of his mind” - giving the opportunity for Mr. N. to interpret these words in the literal sense. Further, the slander spreads anonymously through Messrs N. and D., then acquires fantastic details in the remarks of Zagoretsky, who in fact does not know Chatsky (“Who is Chatsky here? - A well-known surname. / With some Chatsky I once knew "). Griboyedov was well aware of the practice of spreading gossip and their influence on the fate of people from his diplomatic activities., in fact, turns into a political denunciation. Chatsky is reported to be a "freemason" (that is, a freemason Freemasonry- free masons; members of a secret religious charitable society, from the 18th century spread throughout Europe. In 1822, by your command, all Masonic lodges in Russia were closed, Freemasonry became the synonym of free-thinking.), "The accursed Voltairian", "in the pusurmans", sent to prison, sent to the army, "changed the law."

The accusation of insanity as a way to deal with a rival, objectionable person or political adversary was a well-known trick. So, in January 1817, rumors spread about Byron's madness, and his wife and her family let them in. Slander and noise around the poet's personal life spread almost throughout Europe. Rumors of insanity circulated around Griboyedov himself. According to the testimony of his biographer Mikhail Semevsky, one of Griboyedov's letters to Bulgarin contains a postscript of the latter: "Griboyedov in a moment of madness."

Twelve years after the creation of Woe from Wit, one of the prototypes of Chats-anyone, Pyotr Yakovlevich Chaadaev, will be accused of madness. After the publication of his first "Letter" in the Teleskop magazine, it was closed, and the Moscow police chief announced to Chaadaev that now, by order of the government, he was insane. A doctor came to him every day for examination, Chaadaev was considered under house arrest and could only go out for a walk once a day. A year later, the doctor's supervision over the "patient" was removed - but only on condition that he no longer write anything.

7. The secret of Ippolit Markelych

Vasily Lugsky as Repetilov in the play Woe from Wit. Moscow Art Theater, Moscow, 1906 Billy Rose Theater Collection / New York Public Library

Repetilov tells Chatsky about a secret society, reminiscent of the Decembrist:

But if you order a genius to be called:
Suffocating Ippolit Markelych !!!
You composing it
Have you read anything? At least a trifle?
Read it, brother, but he doesn't write anything;
Such people would be whipped
And condemn: write, write, write;
In magazines you can, however, find
His excerpt, look and something.
What are you talking about something? - about everything;
He knows everything, we herd him for a rainy day.

And how does Chatsky himself relate to the participants in secret societies? common place in school study "Woe from Wit".

In fact, Griboyedov's attitude to the Decembrists was very skeptical, and he ridicules the very mystery of societies. Repetilov immediately tells the first person he meets about the place and time of the meetings ("We have a society, and secret gatherings / On Thursdays. The secret union ..."), and then lists all its members: Prince Grigory, Evdokim Vorkulov, Levon and Borinka ("Wonderful guys! You don't know what to say about them ") - and, finally, their head -" genius "Ippolit Markelych.

The surname Udushiev, given to the leader of the secret gathering, clearly shows that Gri-Boyedov hardly harbored illusions about the Decembrist programs. Among the prototypes of Udushiev were named the head of the Southern Society Pavel Pestel, the Decembrist Alexander Yakubovich and even the poet Pyotr Vyazemsky The hero, bearing the surname Udushev, also appears in the novel by Griboyedov's friend Dmitry Begichev "The Kholmsky Family" (1832). It is interesting that his proto-type there is Fyodor Tolstoy-American, an unnamed non-stage character "Woe from Wit", about whom Repetilov also tells: "Night robber, duelist, / Was exiled to Kamchatka, returned as an Aleut, / And unclean on the hand; / Yes, an intelligent person cannot but be a cheat. "... In a word, the only member of the secret society among the heroes of "Woe from Wit" turns out to be Repetilov - and not Chatsky.

Sources of

• O. A. Levchenko Griboyedov and the Russian ballad of the 1820s ("Woe from Wit" and "Predators on Chegem"). Materials for the biography.
• Markovich V.M. Comedy in verse by A. Griboyedov "Woe from Wit".

  Analysis of a dramatic work. L., 1988.

• Tynyanov Yu. N. The plot of "Woe from Wit".
• Fomichev S. A Griboyedov's comedy "Woe from Wit". A comment. Book for the teacher.
• "The present century and the past century ...".

  Comedy A. S. Griboyedov "Woe from Wit" in Russian criticism and literary criticism. :: SPb., 2002.