53 Ochdkov decoration: a medal that commemorated the taking of the Black Sea fortress of Ochakov in 1788, during the Turkish campaign.
Chapter 3
55 Elle. . . amoureuse: 'She was a girl, she was in love.'
58 A drink . . . coach: in most editions the final six lines of this stanza are omitted.
59 Svetlana: the reference is to the heroine of a ballad by Vasily Zhukovsky (1783-1852), a talented poet and Pushkin's friend.
61 Julie Wolmr: the heroine in a novel by Rousseau, Julie, ou La Nouvelle Hlose.
Malk-Adhl: the hero of Mathilde, a novel by Mme Cottin (1773-1807).
de Linr: a character in the novel Valrie by Baroness von Krudener (1764-1807).
Clarissa: the heroine of Richardson's Clarissa.
Julia: again, the character from Rousseau's Julie.
Delphine: the heroine in a novel of the same name by Mme de Stal.
62 The Vampire. . . Sbogar: the Vampire is presumably from the 1819 tale of that name by John Polidori, Byron's physician. Melmoth is the hero of Melmoth the Wanderer, published in 1820 by Charles Robert Maturin. The Corsair is the poem by Byron. The legend of the wandering Jew was widely used by writers in the Romantic era. Jean Sbogar is the title of a short French novel published in 1818 by Charles Nodier. These are all works of Pushkin's own time, whereas Tatyana's reading comes from an earlier generation; only in Chapter Seven will she discover Byron in Onegin's abandoned library.
70 The Good Samaritan: a Moscow literary journal, actually called the Well-intentioned (Blagonamerennyj).
71 Bogdanovich: I. F. Bogdanovich (1743-1803): a minor poet and translator from the French. His narrative poem Dushen 'ka (Little Psyche) exerted some influence on the young Pushkin.
Parny: Evariste-Dsir de Parny (1753-1814). French poet famed for the elegance of his love poetry. His Posies erotiques influenced Russian poetry of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Bard of The Feasts: the reference is to Evgeny Baratynsky (1800-44), a friend of Pushkin's and a fellow poet. His elegy The Feasts was written in 1820, while its author was serving in the
ranks in Finland, after having been expelled from military school for theft. Set in a gloomy Finland, his poem evokes a happier time with poet-friends in the Petersburg of 1819.
72 Freischutz: the reference is to the overture from Der Freischiitz, an opera by Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826).
Chapter 4
83 La morale . .. choses: 'Morality is in the nature of things.'
96 Tolstoy: Count F. P. Tolstoy (1783-1873): a well known and fashionable artist.
97 No madrigals. . . flows: the octave of this stanza exhibits a rare divergence from the usual pattern: like the Italian sonnet, it employs but two rhymes in the eight lines and thus provides a rather pleasing accompaniment to a discussion of poetic form.
Yazykov: N. M. Yazykov ^180346): a minor poet and acquaintance of Pushkin.
trumpet, mask, and dagger: emblems of the classical drama.
odes: for Pushkin the term 'ode' suggested bombastic and heavy pieces in the eighteenth-century Russian manner; his own preference was clearly for the romantic 'elegy', by which term he would have described any short contemplative lyric. The mock debate conducted in this and the following stanza reflects an actual dispute between the 'archaists' and 'modernists' of Pushkin's day.
98 The Other: the allusion is to Chuzhoi talk (Another's View), a satire on the writers of odes by I. Dmitriev (1760-1837).
99 36: this stanza appeared only in the separate edition of Chapters 4 and 5.
100 Gulnare's proud singer: Byron, in The Corsair.
102 Pradt: Dominique de Pradt (1759-1837): a prolific French political writer.
103 Hippocrene: a fountain or spring on Mount Helicon in Boeotia, sacred in Greek mythology to the Muses.
104 A: or Ay; a champagne whose name derives from a town in the Marne district of northern France.
entre chien et loup: dusk, or the time of day 'between the dog and the wolf (i.e., when the shepherd has difficulty in distinguishing between the two).
106 Lafontaine's: August Lafontaine (1758-1851). A German writer, author of numerous novels on family life.
