In 1782, the not yet very famous poet Derzhavin wrote an ode dedicated to the “Kirghiz-Kaisak princess Felitsa.” That's what the ode was called "To Felitsa" . A difficult life taught the poet a lot; he knew how to be careful. The ode glorified the simplicity and humanity of Empress Catherine II in dealing with people and the wisdom of her reign. But at the same time, in ordinary, if not rude, colloquial language, she spoke about luxurious amusements, about the idleness of Felitsa’s servants and courtiers, about the “Murzas” who were by no means worthy of their ruler. In the Murzas, Catherine’s favorites were clearly visible, and Derzhavin, wanting the ode to fall into the hands of the Empress as quickly as possible, was at the same time afraid of this. How will the autocrat look at his bold trick: mockery of her favorites! But in the end, the ode ended up on Catherine’s table, and she was delighted with it. Far-sighted and intelligent, she understood that courtiers should be put in their place from time to time, and the hints of the ode were an excellent occasion for this. Catherine II herself was a writer (Felitsa was one of her literary pseudonyms), which is why she immediately appreciated the artistic merits of the work. Memoirists write that, having called the poet to her, the empress generously rewarded him: she gave him a golden snuffbox filled with gold ducats.
Fame came to Derzhavin. The new literary magazine "Interlocutor of Lovers of the Russian Word", which was edited by the Empress's friend Princess Dashkova, and Catherine herself published in it, opened with the ode "To Felitsa". They started talking about Derzhavin, he became a celebrity. Was it just a matter of successful and bold dedication of the ode to the empress? Of course not! The reading public and fellow writers were struck by the very form of the work. The poetic speech of the “high” odic genre sounded without exaltation and tension. Lively, imaginative, mocking speech of a person who understands well how real life works. Of course, they spoke laudably about the empress, but also not pompously. And, perhaps, for the first time in the history of Russian poetry as about a simple woman, not a celestial being:
Without imitating your Murzas, you often walk, and the simplest food happens at your table.
Strengthening the impression of simplicity and naturalness, Derzhavin dares to make bold comparisons:
You don’t play cards like me, from morning to morning.
And, moreover, he is frivolous, introducing into the ode details and scenes that were indecent by the secular standards of that time. This is how, for example, a Murza courtier, an idle lover and an atheist, spends his day:
Or, sitting at home, I will play a trick, Playing fools with my wife; Sometimes I go to the dovecote with her, sometimes I frolic in blind man's buff, sometimes I have fun in a pile with her, sometimes I look in my head with her; Then I love to rummage through books, I enlighten my mind and heart: I read Polkan and Bova, I sleep over the Bible, yawning.
The work was filled with funny and often sarcastic allusions. Potemkin, who loves to eat well and drink well (“I wash down my waffles with champagne / And I forget everything in the world”). On Orlov, who boasts of magnificent trips (“a magnificent train in an English, golden carriage”). On Naryshkin, who is ready to give up everything for the sake of hunting (“I leave worry about all matters / Leaving behind, go hunting / And amuse myself with the barking of dogs”), etc. In the genre of a solemn laudatory ode, nothing like this has ever been written before. Poet E.I. Kostrov expressed a general opinion and at the same time slight annoyance at his successful opponent. In his poetic “Letter to the creator of an ode composed in praise of Felitsa, Princess of Kirgizkaisatskaya” there are the lines:
Frankly, it is clear that soaring odes have gone out of fashion; You knew how to elevate yourself among us with simplicity.
The Empress brought Derzhavin closer to her. Remembering the “fighting” qualities of his nature and incorruptible honesty, she sent him to various audits, which, as a rule, ended with noisy indignation of those being inspected. The poet was appointed governor of the Olonets, then Tambov province. But he could not resist for long: he dealt with local officials too zealously and imperiously. In Tambov, things went so far that the governor of the region, Gudovich, filed a complaint to the empress in 1789 about the “arbitrariness” of the governor, who did not take anyone or anything into account. The case was transferred to the Senate Court. Derzhavin was dismissed from office and until the end of the trial he was ordered to live in Moscow, as they would say now, under a written undertaking not to leave.
And although the poet was acquitted, he was left without a position and without the favor of the empress. Once again, one could only rely on oneself: on enterprise, talent and luck. And don't lose heart. In the autobiographical “Notes” compiled at the end of his life, in which the poet speaks about himself in the third person, he admits: “There was no other way left but to resort to his talent; as a result, he wrote the ode “Image of Felitsa” and by the 22nd on the day of September, that is, on the day of the empress’s coronation, he handed her over to the court<…>The Empress, having read it, ordered her favorite (meaning Zubov, Catherine’s favorite - L.D.) the next day to invite the author to dinner with him and always take him into her conversation.”
Read also other topics in Chapter VI.
History of creation. Ode “Felitsa” (1782), the first poem that made the name of Gabriel Romanovich Derzhavin famous. It became a striking example of a new style in Russian poetry. The subtitle of the poem clarifies: “Ode to the wise Kyrgyz-Kaisak princess Felitsa, written by the Tatar Murza, who has long settled in Moscow, and lives on his business in St. Petersburg. Translated from Arabic." This work received its unusual name from the name of the heroine of “The Tale of Prince Chlorus,” the author of which was Catherine II herself. She is also named by this name, which in Latin means happiness, in Derzhavin’s ode, glorifying the empress and satirically characterizing her environment.
It is known that at first Derzhavin did not want to publish this poem and even hid the authorship, fearing the revenge of the influential nobles satirically depicted in it. But in 1783 it became widespread and, with the assistance of Princess Dashkova, a close associate of the Empress, was published in the magazine “Interlocutor of Lovers of the Russian Word,” in which Catherine II herself collaborated. Subsequently, Derzhavin recalled that this poem touched the empress so much that Dashkova found her in tears. Catherine II wanted to know who wrote the poem in which she was so accurately depicted. In gratitude to the author, she sent him a golden snuff box with five hundred chervonets and an expressive inscription on the package: “From Orenburg from the Kirghiz Princess to Murza Derzhavin.” From that day on, literary fame came to Derzhavin, which no Russian poet had known before.
Main themes and ideas. The poem "Felitsa", written as a humorous sketch from the life of the empress and her entourage, at the same time raises very important problems. On the one hand, in the ode “Felitsa” a completely traditional image of a “god-like princess” is created, which embodies the poet’s idea of the ideal of an enlightened monarch. Clearly idealizing the real Catherine II, Derzhavin at the same time believes in the image he painted:
Give me some advice, Felitsa:
How to live magnificently and truthfully,
How to tame passions and excitement
And be happy in the world?
On the other hand, the poet’s poems convey the idea not only of the wisdom of power, but also of the negligence of performers concerned with their own profit:
Seduction and flattery live everywhere,
Luxury oppresses everyone.
Where does virtue live?
Where does a rose without thorns grow?
This idea in itself was not new, but behind the images of the nobles depicted in the ode, the features of real people clearly emerged:
My thoughts are spinning in chimeras:
Then I steal captivity from the Persians,
Then I direct arrows towards the Turks;
Then, having dreamed that I was a sultan,
I terrify the universe with my gaze;
Then suddenly, I was seduced by the outfit.
I'm off to the tailor for a caftan.
In these images, the poet’s contemporaries easily recognized the empress’s favorite Potemkin, her close associates Alexei Orlov, Panin, and Naryshkin. Drawing their brightly satirical portraits, Derzhavin showed great courage - after all, any of the nobles he offended could deal with the author for this. Only Catherine’s favorable attitude saved Derzhavin.
But even to the empress he dares to give advice: to follow the law to which both kings and their subjects are subject:
You alone are only decent,
Princess, create light from darkness;
Dividing Chaos into spheres harmoniously,
The union will strengthen their integrity;
From disagreement to agreement
And from fierce passions happiness
You can only create.
This favorite thought of Derzhavin sounded bold, and it was expressed in simple and understandable language.
The poem ends with the traditional praise of the Empress and wishing her all the best:
I ask for heavenly strength,
Yes, their sapphire wings spread out,
They keep you invisibly
From all illnesses, evils and boredom;
May the sounds of your deeds be heard in posterity,
Like the stars in the sky, they will shine.
Artistic originality.
Classicism forbade combining high ode and satire belonging to low genres in one work, but Derzhavin not only combines them in characterizing different persons depicted in the ode, he does something completely unprecedented for that time. Breaking the traditions of the laudatory ode genre, Derzhavin widely introduces colloquial vocabulary and even vernacular into it, but most importantly, he does not paint a ceremonial portrait of the empress, but depicts her human appearance. That is why the ode contains everyday scenes and still life;
Without imitating your Murzas,
You often walk
And the food is the simplest
Happens at your table.
“God-like” Felitsa, like other characters in his ode, is also shown in everyday life (“Without valuing your peace, / You read, write under the cover...”). At the same time, such details do not reduce her image, but make her more real, humane, as if exactly copied from life. Reading the poem “Felitsa”, you are convinced that Derzhavin really managed to introduce into poetry the individual characters of real people, boldly taken from life or created by the imagination, shown against the backdrop of a colorfully depicted everyday environment. This makes his poems bright, memorable and understandable.
Thus, in “Felitsa” Derzhavin acted as a bold innovator, combining the style of a laudatory ode with the individualization of characters and satire, introducing elements of low styles into the high genre of ode. Subsequently, the poet himself defined the genre of “Felitsa” as a mixed ode. Derzhavin argued that, in contrast to the traditional ode for classicism, where government officials and military leaders were praised, and solemn events were glorified, in a “mixed ode” “the poet can talk about everything.” Destroying the genre canons of classicism, with this poem he opens the way for new poetry - “real poetry™”, which received brilliant development in the work of Pushkin.
The meaning of the work. Derzhavin himself subsequently noted that one of his main merits was that he “dared to proclaim Felitsa’s virtues in a funny Russian style.” As the researcher of the poet’s work V.F. rightly points out. Khodasevich, Derzhavin was proud “not that he discovered Catherine’s virtues, but that he was the first to speak in a “funny Russian style.” He understood that his ode was the first artistic embodiment of Russian life, that it was the embryo of our novel. And, perhaps,” Khodasevich develops his thought, “if “old man Derzhavin” had lived at least to the first chapter of “Onegin,” he would have heard echoes of his ode in it.”
Godlike princess
Kirghiz-Kaisak horde!
Whose wisdom is incomparable
Discovered the right tracks
To Tsarevich young Chlorus
Climb that high mountain
Where does a thornless rose grow?
Where virtue lives, -
She captivates my spirit and mind,
Let me find her advice.Bring it on, Felitsa! instruction:
How to live magnificently and truthfully,
How to tame passions and excitement
And be happy in the world?
Your voice excites me
Your son is accompanying me;
But I am weak to follow them.
Disturbed by the vanity of life,
Today I control myself
And tomorrow I am a slave to whims.Without imitating your Murzas,
You often walk
And the food is the simplest
Happens at your table;
Not valuing your peace,
You read and write in front of the lectern
And all from your pen
You shed bliss on mortals;
Like you don't play cards,
Like me, from morning to morning.You don't like masquerades too much
And you can’t even set foot in the club;
Keeping customs, rituals,
Don't be quixotic with yourself;
You can't saddle the horse of Parnassus,
You don’t enter a gathering of spirits,
You don’t go from the throne to the East;
But walking the path of meekness,
With a charitable soul,
Have a productive day.And I, having slept until noon,
I smoke tobacco and drink coffee;
Transforming everyday life into a holiday,
My thoughts are spinning in chimeras:
Then I steal captivity from the Persians,
Then I direct arrows towards the Turks;
Then, having dreamed that I was a sultan,
I terrify the universe with my gaze;
Then suddenly, seduced by the outfit,
I'm off to the tailor for a caftan.Or am I at a rich feast,
Where do they give me a holiday?
Where the table glitters with silver and gold,
Where are thousands of different dishes:
There's a nice Westphalian ham,
There are links of Astrakhan fish,
There are pilaf and pies there,
I wash down the waffles with champagne;
And I forget everything in the world
Among wines, sweets and aroma.Or among a beautiful grove
In the gazebo where the fountain is noisy,
When the sweet-voiced harp rings,
Where the breeze barely breathes
Where everything represents luxury to me,
To the pleasures of thought he catches,
It languishes and revitalizes the blood;
Lying on a velvet sofa,
The young girl feels tender,
I pour love into her heart.Or in a magnificent train
In an English carriage, golden,
With a dog, a jester or a friend,
Or with some beauty
I'm walking under the swing;
I go to taverns to drink mead;
Or, somehow I’ll get bored,
According to my inclination to change,
With my hat on one side,
I'm flying on a fast runner.Or music and singers,
Suddenly with an organ and bagpipes,
Or fist fighters
And I make my spirit happy by dancing;
Or, taking care of all matters
I leave and go hunting
And I am amused by the barking of dogs;
Or over the Neva banks
I amuse myself with horns at night
And the rowing of daring rowers.Or, sitting at home, I’ll play a prank,
Playing fools with my wife;
Then I get along with her at the dovecote,
Sometimes we frolic in blind man's buff;
Then I’m having fun with her,
Then I look for it in my head;
I like to rummage through books,
I enlighten my mind and heart,
I read Polkan and Bova;
Over the Bible, yawning, I sleep.That's it, Felitsa, I'm depraved!
But the whole world looks like me.
Who knows how much wisdom,
But every person is a lie.
We do not walk the paths of light,
We run debauchery after dreams.
Between a lazy person and a grumbler,
Between vanity and vice
Did anyone accidentally find it?
The path of virtue is straight.I found it, but why not be mistaken?
To us, weak mortals, on this path,
Where does reason itself stumble
And one must follow passions;
Where are the learned ignoramuses for us?
Like the darkness of travelers, their eyelids are dark?
Seduction and flattery live everywhere,
Pasha oppresses everyone with luxury.-
Where does virtue live?
Where does a rose without thorns grow?You alone are only decent,
Princess! create light from darkness;
Dividing Chaos into spheres harmoniously,
The union will strengthen their integrity;
From disagreement to agreement
And from fierce passions happiness
You can only create.
So the helmsman, sailing through the show-off,
Catching the roaring wind under sail,
Knows how to steer a ship.You just won’t offend the only one,
Don't insult anyone
You see through your fingers the tomfoolery
The only thing you cannot tolerate is evil;
You correct misdeeds with leniency,
Like a wolf, you don’t crush people,
You know right away their price.
They are subject to the will of kings, -
But God is more just,
Living in their laws.You think sensibly about merit,
You give honor to the worthy,
You don't consider him a prophet,
Who can only weave rhymes,
What crazy fun is this?
Honor and glory to the good caliphs.
You condescend to the lyrical mode:
Poetry is dear to you,
Pleasant, sweet, useful,
Like delicious lemonade in summer.There are rumors about your actions,
That you are not at all proud;
Kind in business and in jokes,
Pleasant in friendship and firm;
Why are you indifferent to adversity?
And in glory she is so generous,
That she renounced and was considered wise.
They also say it’s not false,
It's like it's always possible
You should tell the truth.It's also unheard of,
Worthy of you alone
It's like you're bold to the people
About everything, and show it and at hand,
And you allow me to know and think,
And you don’t forbid about yourself
To speak both true and false;
As if to the crocodiles themselves,
All your mercies to Zoilas,
You are always inclined to forgive.Pleasant rivers of tears flow
From the depths of my soul.
ABOUT! when people are happy
There must be their destiny,
Where is the meek angel, the peaceful angel,
Hidden in the porphyry lightness,
A scepter was sent down from heaven to wear!
There you can whisper in conversations
And, without fear of execution, at dinners
Don't drink to the health of kings.There with the name Felitsa you can
Scrape out the typo in the line,
Or a portrait carelessly
Drop it on the ground.
They are not fried in ice baths,
They don’t click on the nobles’ mustaches;
Princes don't cluck like hens,
Favorites don't want to laugh at them
And they don’t stain their faces with soot.You know, Felitsa! are right
And men and kings;
When you enlighten morals,
You don't fool people like that;
In your rest from business
You write lessons in fairy tales
And you repeat to Chlorus in the alphabet:
"Don't do anything bad,
And the evil satyr himself
You will make a despicable liar.”You are ashamed to be considered great,
To be scary and unloved;
The bear is decently wild
Tearing animals and shedding their blood.
Without extreme distress in the heat of the moment
Does that person need lancets?
Who could do without them?
And how nice it is to be a tyrant,
Tamerlane, great in atrocity,
Who is great in goodness, like God?Felitsa glory, glory to God,
Who pacified the battle;
Which is poor and wretched
Covered, clothed and fed;
Which with a radiant eye
Clowns, cowards, ungrateful
And he gives his light to the righteous;
Equally enlightens all mortals,
He comforts the sick, heals,
He does good only for good.who gave freedom
Jump into foreign regions,
Allowed his people
Seek silver and gold;
Who allows water
And it doesn’t prohibit cutting down the forest;
Orders to weave, and spin, and sew;
Untying the mind and hands,
Tells you to love trading, science
And find happiness at home;Whose law, right hand
They give both mercy and judgment.-
Prophecy, wise Felitsa!
Where is a rogue different from the honest?
Where does old age not wander around the world?
Does merit find bread for itself?
Where does revenge not drive anyone?
Where do conscience and truth live?
Where do virtues shine? -
Isn't it yours at the throne?But where does your throne shine in the world?
Where, branch of heaven, do you bloom?
In Baghdad? Smyrna? Cashmere? -
Listen, wherever you live, -
I appreciate my praises to you,
Don’t think about hats or beshmetya
For them I wanted from you.
Feel the good pleasure
Such is the wealth of the soul,
Which Croesus did not collect.I ask the great prophet
May I touch the dust of your feet,
Yes, your words are the sweetest current
And I will enjoy the sight!
I ask for heavenly strength,
Yes, their sapphire wings spread out,
They keep you invisibly
From all illnesses, evils and boredom;
May the sounds of your deeds be heard in posterity,
Like the stars in the sky, they will shine.
Analysis of Derzhavin’s poem “Felitsa”
In 1781, “The Tale of Prince Chlorus” appeared in print, which Empress Catherine II composed for her grandson, the future Emperor Alexander I. This instructive work influenced not only little Alexander Pavlovich, but also Gabriel Romanovich Derzhavin (1743–1816). It inspired the poet to create an ode to the empress, which he called “Ode to the wise Kyrgyz princess Felitsa, written by the Tatar Murza, who had long settled in Moscow, and lived on his business in St. Petersburg. Translated from Arabic 1782."
The poem was first published in 1783 in the magazine Sobesednik. The poet did not leave a signature under the work, but like the entire text of the ode, the title is full of hints. For example, the “Kyrgyz-Kaisak princess” means Catherine II, who was the mistress of the Kyrgyz lands. And under Murza is the poet himself, who considered himself a descendant of the Tatar prince Bagrim.
The ode contains many allusions to various events, people and sayings related to the reign of Catherine II. Take, for example, the name given to it by the author. Felitsa is the heroine of The Tale of Prince Chlorus. Like the empress, she has a husband who prevents her from realizing her good intentions. In addition, Felitsa, according to Derzhavin’s explanation, is the ancient Roman goddess of bliss, and it was with this word that many contemporaries characterized the reign of Catherine II, who favored the sciences, arts and held rather free views on the social structure.
These and other numerous virtues of the empress are praised by Gabriel Romanovich. In the first stanzas of the ode, the poet walks through the empress’s entourage. The author allegorically describes the unworthy behavior of the courtiers, speaking as if about himself:
With my hat on one side,
I'm flying on a fast runner.
In this passage we are talking about Count Alexei Orlov, who is eager for fast races.
Another fragment speaks of the idle Prince Potemkin, soaring in the clouds:
And I, having slept until noon,
I smoke tobacco and drink coffee;
Transforming everyday life into a holiday,
My thoughts are spinning in chimeras.
Against the background of these playmakers, the figure of the wise, active and fair empress acquires an aura of virtue. The author rewards her with the epithets “generous”, “kind in business and jokes”, “pleasant in friendship”, “wise”, metaphors “branch of heaven”, “meek angel”, etc.
The poet mentions the political successes of Catherine II. Using the metaphor of “Dividing Chaos into spheres orderly,” he points to the establishment of the province in 1775 and the annexation of new territories to the Russian Empire. The author compares the reign of the empress with the reign of her predecessors:
There are no clownish weddings there,
They are not fried in ice baths,
They don’t click on the mustaches of nobles...
Here the poet hints at the reign of Anna Ioannovna and Peter I.
Gabriel Romanovich also admires the queen’s modesty. In lines:
You are ashamed to be considered great,
To be scary, unloved...
indicates Catherine II’s renunciation of the titles “Great” and “Wise”, which were offered to her by the Senate nobles in 1767.
As an artist, the poet is especially captivated by the empress’s attitude towards freedom of expression. The author is fascinated by the queen’s love for poetry (“Poetry is dear to you, Pleasant, sweet, useful...”), the opportunity she affirmed to think and speak out as you want, to travel, organize enterprises, etc.
Catherine II herself highly appreciated the poet’s skill. She liked the ode “Felitsa” so much that the Empress presented Derzhavin with a richly decorated snuff box, which she herself sent to her entourage. Contemporaries also reacted very favorably to the poem. Many reviews noted not only the truthfulness and lack of flattery in the lines of the ode, but also its elegant composition and poetic style. As Russian philologist J. K. Grot wrote in his commentary, this ode gave rise to a new style. “Felitsa” is devoid of pompous expressions and does not contain a list of gods, as was previously customary.
Indeed, the language of the ode is simple but exquisite. The author uses epithets, metaphors, pictorial comparisons (“like stars in the sky”). The composition is strict but harmonious. Each stanza consists of ten lines. First comes a quatrain with a cross rhyme of the form abab, then a couplet cc, followed by a quatrain with a ring rhyme of the form deed. Meter: iambic tetrameter.
Although the poem contains quite a few expressions that are outdated today, and many of the hints may be incomprehensible, it is still easy to read.
In the last third of the 18th century, great changes took place in poetry, as well as in drama. The further development of poetry could not occur without change, disruption, and then destruction of familiar old forms. These violations began to be committed by the classic writers themselves: Lomonosov, Sumarokov, Maikov, and later by Kheraskov and the young poets from his circle.
But the real revolt in the world of genres was made by Derzhavin. The poet, having recognized true nature as a polyphonic and multi-colored world, in eternal movement and change, limitlessly expanded the boundaries of the poetic. At the same time, Derzhavin’s main enemies were all those who forgot the “public good”, the interests of the people, indulging in sybarism at court.
A significant expansion of the object of poetry required new forms of expression. Derzhavin began this search by changing the established genre system of classicism.
Derzhavin began the immediate “destruction” of the genre of solemn ode with his “Felitsa”, combining praise with satire in it.
The ode “Felitsa” was created in 1782 in St. Petersburg. The friends to whom Derzhavin read it passed an inexorable verdict on the work: the ode is excellent, but it is impossible to publish it due to the non-canonical image of the empress and the satirical portraits of Catherine’s nobles, easily recognizable by contemporaries. With a sigh, Derzhavin put the ode in the bureau drawer, where it remained for about a year. One day, while sorting out the papers, he laid out the manuscript on the table, where the poet Osip Kozodavlev saw it. He begged to read the manuscript, swearing that he would not show the poems to anyone. A few days later, the famous nobleman and lover of literature I.I. Shuvalov, in great alarm, sent for Derzhavin, informing him that His Serene Highness Prince Potemkin was asking for his poems to be read. “What poems? - the poet was surprised. - “Murza to Felitsa.” - “How do you know them?” - “Mr. Kozodavlev gave them to me out of friendship.” - “But how did Prince Potemkin recognize them?” - “Yesterday I had dinner with a company of gentlemen, such as: Count Bezborodko, Count Zavadovsky, Strekalov and others who love literature; when we were talking about how we don’t yet have an easy and pleasant poem, I read your creation to them.” One of the guests, as Shuvalov believed, wanting to please Prince Potemkin, immediately reported these verses to the empress’s favorite. Shuvalov, as an experienced courtier, advised Derzhavin to remove the lines from the ode concerning the “weaknesses” of his Serene Highness, but the poet did not deceive him, rightly believing that if Potemkin received the full text of the ode, he would consider himself insulted. Having received the poem and familiarized himself with it, the clever prince pretended that this work had nothing to do with him. Derzhavin breathed a sigh of relief.
In the spring of 1783, President of the Russian Academy Ekaterina Dashkova in the magazine “Interlocutor of Lovers” Russian word“On the recommendation of Kozodavlev, without the knowledge of the author, she anonymously published the ode “Felitsa”. Dashkova presented the first issue of the magazine to Empress Catherine P. After reading the ode, she was moved to tears and became interested in the author of the work. “Don’t be afraid,” she told Dashkova, “I’m just asking you about someone who knew me so closely, who could describe me so pleasantly that, you see, I’m crying like a fool.” The princess revealed the poet's name and told a lot of good things about him. After some time, Derzhavin received an envelope in the mail containing a gold snuff box sprinkled with diamonds and five hundred gold rubles. Soon the poet was introduced to the empress and was favored by her. The publication of the ode immediately made Derzhavin famous; he became one of the first poets of Russia.
Ode “Felitsa” is an innovative work, bold in thought and form. It includes high, odic, and low, ironic-satirical. Unlike Lomonosov’s odes, where the object of the image was the lyrical state of the poet, for whom state, national interests merged with personal ones, Derzhavin’s ode made the object of poeticization “the man on the throne” - Catherine II, her state affairs and virtues. “Felitsa” is close to a friendly literary message, a word of praise and at the same time a poetic satire.
The poet included in the ode a literary portrait of the empress, which has a moral, psychological, idealized character. Derzhavin tries to reveal the inner world of the heroine, her morals and habits through a description of the actions and orders of Catherine II, her acts of state:
Without imitating your Murzas,
You often walk
And the food is the simplest
Happens at your table;
Not valuing your peace,
You read and write in front of the lectern
And all from your pen
Shedding bliss to mortals...
The lack of portrait descriptions is compensated by the impression that the heroine of the ode makes on others. The poet emphasizes the most important, from his point of view, features of the enlightened monarch: her democracy, simplicity, unpretentiousness, modesty, friendliness, combined with an outstanding mind and talent as a statesman. The poet contrasts the high image of the queen with an ironic portrait of her courtier. This is a collective image that includes the features of Catherine II’s closest associates: His Serene Highness Prince Grigory Potemkin, who, despite his breadth of soul and brilliant mind, is distinguished by his whimsical and capricious disposition; favorites of the Empress Alexei and Grigory Orlov, guardsmen-revelers, lovers of fist fights and horse racing; Chancellor Nikita and Field Marshal Pyotr Panin, passionate hunters who forgot the affairs of public service for the sake of their favorite entertainment; Semyon Naryshkin, the huntsman of the imperial palace and a famous music lover, who was the first to host an orchestra of horn music; Prosecutor General Alexander Vyazemsky, who loved to enjoy reading popular popular stories in his spare time, and ... Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin. The Russian poet, who by that time had become a state councilor, did not distinguish himself from this noble sphere, but, on the contrary, emphasized his involvement in the circle of the elite:
That's it, Felitsa, I'm depraved!
But the whole world looks like me.
Later, defending himself from reproaches that he had created an evil satire on famous and respectable courtiers, Derzhavin wrote: “In the ode to Felitsa, I turned ordinary human weaknesses onto myself... I contrasted the virtues of the princess with my stupidities.” The poet, laughing at the quirks of those close to the empress, is not alien to their inherent epicurean attitude to life. He does not condemn their human weaknesses and vices, for he understands that Catherine II surrounded herself with people whose talent serves the prosperity of the Russian state. Derzhavin is flattered to see himself in this company; he proudly bears the title of Catherine’s nobleman.
The poet glorifies the beautiful Nature and Man living in harmony with her. Landscape paintings are reminiscent of scenes depicted on tapestries decorating the salons and living rooms of the St. Petersburg nobility. It is no coincidence that the author, who was fond of drawing, wrote that “poetry is nothing more than talking painting.”
Drawing portraits of important dignitaries, Derzhavin uses the techniques of literary anecdote. In the 18th century, an anecdote was understood as an artistically processed story of folklore content about a famous historical person or event, having a satirical sound and instructive character. Derzhavin’s portrait of Alexei Orlov takes on an anecdotal character:
Or music and singers,
Suddenly with an organ and bagpipes,
Or fist fights
And I make my spirit happy by dancing;
Or, taking care of all matters
I leave and go hunting
And amused by the barking of dogs...
Indeed, a winner of fist fights, a guards officer, a prize-winner at horse races, a tireless dancer and a successful duelist, a reveler, a ladies' man, a gambling hunter, the killer of Emperor Peter III and the favorite of his wife - this is how Alexei Orlov remained in the memory of his contemporaries. Some lines depicting courtiers resemble epigrams. For example, about the “bibliophile” preferences of Prince Vyazemsky, who prefers popular literature to serious literature, it is said:
I like to rummage through books,
I will enlighten my mind and heart,
I read Polkan and Bova;
Over the Bible, yawning, I sleep.
Although Derzhavin’s irony was soft and good-natured, Vyazemsky could not forgive the poet: he “at least became attached to him, not only mocked him, but almost scolded him, preaching that poets are incapable of doing anything.”
Elements of satire appear in the ode where it concerns the reign of Anna Ioannovna. The poet indignantly recalled how the well-born prince Mikhail Golitsyn, at the whim of the empress, was married to an ugly old dwarf and made a court jester. In the same humiliating position were representatives of noble Russian families - Prince N. Volkonsky and Count A. Apraksin. “These jesters,” Derzhavin testifies, “while the empress was listening to mass in the church, “sat in baskets in the room through which she had to pass from the church to the inner chambers, and clucked like hens; the rest all the same "They laughed, straining themselves." The violation of human dignity at all times, according to the poet, is the greatest sin. The teaching contained in the satire is addressed to both the reader and the main character of the ode.
The poet, creating an ideal image of an enlightened monarch, insisted that she was obliged to obey the laws, be merciful, and protect the “weak” and “poor.”
Throughout the ode there are images and motifs of “The Tale of Prince Chlorus,” composed by the empress for her grandson. The ode begins with a retelling of the plot of the fairy tale, in the main part the images of Felitsa, Lazy, Grumpy, Murza, Chlorine, Rose without thorns appear; the final part has an oriental flavor. The ode ends, as it should, with praise to the empress:
I ask the great prophet
May I touch the dust of your feet,
Yes, your sweetest words
And I will enjoy the sight!
I ask for heavenly strength,
Yes, I spread out my sapphire wings,
They keep you invisibly
From all illnesses, evils and boredom;
May the sounds of your deeds be heard in posterity,
Like the stars in the sky, they will shine.
The theme and image of Catherine II in Derzhavin’s poetry is not limited only to Felitsa; He dedicates the poems “Gratitude to Felitsa”, “Vision of Murza”, “Image of Felitsa”, “Monument” and others to the empress. However, it was the ode “Felitsa” that became Derzhavin’s “calling card”; it was this work that V. G. Belinsky considered “one of the best creatures"Russian poetry of the 18th century. In “Felitsa,” according to the critic, “the fullness of feeling was happily combined with the originality of the form, in which the Russian mind is visible and Russian speech is heard. Despite its considerable size, this ode is imbued with an internal unity of thought and is consistent in tone from beginning to end.”
Derzhavin Gavrila Romanovich (1743-1816). Russian poet. Representative of Russian classicism. G.R. Derzhavin was born near Kazan into a family of small landed nobles. The Derzhavin family originated from the descendants of Murza Bagrim, who voluntarily went over to the side of Grand Duke Vasily II (1425-1462), which is attested in a document from the personal archive of G.R. Derzhavin.
Derzhavin's work is deeply contradictory. While revealing the possibilities of classicism, he at the same time destroyed it, paving the way for romantic and realistic poetry.
Derzhavin's poetic creativity is extensive and is mainly represented by odes, among which civil, victorious-patriotic, philosophical and anacreontic odes can be distinguished.
A special place is occupied by civil odes addressed to persons endowed with great political power: monarchs, nobles. Among the best of this cycle is the ode “Felitsa” dedicated to Catherine II.
In 1762, Derzhavin received a call to military service in St. Petersburg, in the Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment. From this time on, Derzhavin’s public service began, to which the poet devoted over 40 years of his life. The time of service in the Preobrazhensky Regiment is also the beginning of Derzhavin’s poetic activity, which undoubtedly played an exceptionally important role in his career biography. Fate threw Derzhavin into various military and civilian positions: he was a member of a special secret commission, the main task of which was to capture E. Pugachev; For several years he was in the service of the all-powerful Prosecutor General Prince. A.A. Vyazemsky (1777-1783). It was at this time that he wrote his famous ode "Felitsa", published on May 20, 1873 in the "Interlocutor of Lovers of the Russian Word".
"Felitsa" brought Derzhavin noisy literary fame. The poet was generously rewarded by the empress with a golden snuffbox sprinkled with diamonds. A modest official of the Senate department became the most famous poet throughout Russia.
The fight against the abuses of nobles, nobility and officials for the good of Russia was a defining feature of Derzhavin’s activities both as a statesman and as a poet. And Derzhavin saw the power capable of leading the state with dignity, leading Russia to glory, to prosperity, to “bliss” only in an enlightened monarchy. Hence the appearance in his work of the theme of Catherine II - Felitsa.
In the early 80s. Derzhavin was not yet closely acquainted with the empress. When creating her image, the poet used stories about her, the dissemination of which Catherine herself took care of, a self-portrait painted in her literary works, ideas preached in her “Instructions” and decrees. At the same time, Derzhavin knew very well many prominent nobles of Catherine’s court, under whose command he had to serve. Therefore, Derzhavin’s idealization of the image of Catherine II is combined with a critical attitude towards her nobles,
The very image of Felitsa, a wise and virtuous Kyrgyz princess, was taken by Derzhavin from “The Tale of Prince Chlorus,” written by Catherine II for her grandchildren. "Felitsa" continues the tradition of laudable odes of Lomonosov and at the same time differs from them in its new interpretation of the image of the enlightened monarch. Enlightenment scholars now see in the monarch a person to whom society has entrusted the care of the welfare of citizens; he is entrusted with numerous responsibilities towards the people. And Derzhavin’s Felitsa acts as a gracious monarch-legislator:
Not valuing your peace,
You read and write in front of the lectern
And all from your pen
Shedding bliss to mortals...
It is known that the source of the creation of the image of Felitsa was the document “Order of the Commission on the Drafting of a New Code” (1768), written by Catherine II herself. One of the main ideas of the “Nakaz” is the need to soften existing laws that allowed torture during interrogations, the death penalty for minor offenses, etc., so Derzhavin endowed his Felitsa with mercy and leniency:
Are you ashamed to be considered great?
To be scary and unloved;
The bear is decently wild
Rip animals and drink their blood.
And how nice it is to be a tyrant,
Tamerlane, great in atrocity,
There you can whisper in conversations
And, without fear of execution, at dinners
Don't drink to the health of kings.
There with the name Felitsa you can
Scrape out the typo in the line
Or a portrait carelessly
Drop it on the ground.
What was fundamentally new was that from the very first lines of the ode the poet depicts the Russian Empress (and in Felitsa, readers easily guessed it was Catherine) primarily from the point of view of her human qualities:
Without imitating your Murzas,
You often walk
And the food is the simplest
It happens at your table...
Derzhavin also praises Catherine for the fact that from the first days of her stay in Russia she strove to follow in everything the “customs” and “rites” of the country that sheltered her. The Empress succeeded in this and aroused sympathy both at court and in the guard.
Derzhavin's innovation was manifested in "Felitsa" not only in the interpretation of the image of an enlightened monarch, but also in the bold combination of laudatory and accusatory principles, ode and satire. The ideal image of Felitsa is contrasted with negligent nobles (in the ode they are called “Murzas”). “Felitsa” depicts the most influential persons at court: Prince G. A. Potemkin, Counts Orlov, Count P. I. Panin, Prince Vyazemsky. Their portraits were so expressively executed that the originals were easily recognizable.
Criticizing the nobles spoiled by power, Derzhavin emphasizes their weaknesses, whims, petty interests, unworthy of a high dignitary. So, for example, Potemkin is presented as a gourmet and glutton, a lover of feasts and amusements; The Orlovs amuse “their spirit with fist fighters and dancing”; Panin, “giving up worry about all matters,” goes hunting, and Vyazemsky enlightens his “mind and heart” - he reads “Polkan and Bova”, “he sleeps over the Bible, yawning.”
Enlightenmentists understood the life of society as a constant struggle between truth and error. In Derzhavin’s ode, the ideal, the norm is Felitsa, the deviation from the norm is her careless “Murzas”. Derzhavin was the first to begin to depict the world as it appears to an artist.
The undoubted poetic courage was the appearance in the ode “Felitsa” of the image of the poet himself, shown in an everyday setting, not distorted by a conventional pose, not constrained by classical canons. Derzhavin was the first Russian poet who was able and, most importantly, wanted to paint a living and truthful portrait of himself in his work:
Sitting at home, I'll do a prank,
Playing fools with my wife...
The “eastern” flavor of the ode is noteworthy: it was written on behalf of the Tatar Murza, and eastern cities are mentioned in it - Baghdad, Smyrna, Kashmir. The end of the ode is in a laudatory, high style:
I ask the great prophet
I will touch the dust of your feet.
The image of Felitsa is repeated in Derzhavin’s subsequent poems, caused by various events in the poet’s life: “Gratitude to Felitsa”, “Image of Felitsa”, “Vision of Murza”.
The high poetic merits of the ode “Felitsa” brought it wide fame at that time in the circles of the most advanced Russian people. A. N. Radishchev, for example, wrote: “If you add many stanzas from the ode to Felitsa, and especially where Murza describes himself, almost poetry will remain without poetry.” “Everyone who can read Russian found it in their hands,” testified O. P. Kozodavlev, editor of the magazine where the ode was published.
Derzhavin compares Catherine's reign with the cruel morals that reigned in Russia during the Bironism under Empress Anna Ioannovna, and praises Felitsa for a number of laws useful for the country.
The ode "Felitsa", in which Derzhavin combined opposite principles: positive and negative, pathetic and satire, ideal and real, finally consolidated in Derzhavin's poetry what began in 1779 - mixing, breaking, eliminating the strict genre system