Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

only upon fictions, or at least, on nothing more than hopes !

True power, beneficent power, has no need of artifices; but what stratagems, what falsehoods, what disguises, have not you Russians to avail yourselves of, to conceal a part of your object, and to })rocure toleration for the other! You!—the regulators of the destiny of Europe ! you ! pretend to defend the cause of civilisation among nations super-civilised, when the time is not yet long elapsed since you were yourselves a horde, whose only discipline was terror, and whose commanders were savages! On searching for the cause, we shall find that all these vain aspirations are nothing more than the inevitable consequences of the system of false civilisation adopted by Peter the Great. Russia will feel the effects of that man's pride long after she has ceased to admire his greatness. There are many of her people who already agree with me, without daring to avow it, that he was more extraordinary than heroic.

96ТПЕ TRUE POLICY OF RUSSIA.

If the Czar Peter, instead of amusing himself with dressing up bears and monkeys—if Catherine II., instead of meddling with philosophy—if, in short, all the Russian sovereigns had wished to civilise their nation by cautiously cultivating and developing the admirable seed which God had implanted in the hearts of this people—these last comers from Asia — they would have less dazzled Europe, but they would have acquired a more solid and durable glory ; and we should now see them pursuing their providential task of making war with the old Asiatic governments. Turkey in Europe herself would have submitted to their influence, without the other states being able to complain of such extension of a power really beneficent. Instead of this irresistible strength, Russia has, among us, the power only that we accord to her — the power of an upstart, more or less skilful in making us forget her origin. The sovereignty over neighbours more barbarous and more slavish than herself is her due and her destiny ; it is written, if I may use the expression, in her future chronicles; but her influence over more advanced people is contingent and uncertain.

However, this nation once launched on the great higli road of civilisation, nothing will be able to make her return to her own line. God alone knoAvs the result. Peter the Great, it must be remembered, or rather Peter the Impatient, was the cause of her error. The world will also not forget that the only institutions whence Russian liberty could have sprung —the two chambers—were abolished by that prince.

In politics, arts, sciences, and all other branches of human attainment, men are only great by com pa-

SONGS OF THE RUSSIAN GYPSIES.97

rison. It is owing to this that there are some ages and some countries in which people have become great men with very little difficulty. The Czar Peter appeared in one of those epochs and countries: not but that he also had extraordinary energy of character, but his minute mind limited his views.

I leave to-morrow for Nijni. Were I to prolong my stay in Moscow, I should not see this fair/which is drawing to a close. I shall not conclude the present chapter until after my return this evening from Pctrowski, where I am going to hear the Russian gypsies.

I have been selecting a room in the hotel, which I shall continue to keep during my absence at Nijni: having made it a hiding-place for my papers: for I dare not venture on the road to Kazan with all that 1 have written since I left Petersburg; and I know no one here to whom I should like to confide these dangerous chapters. Exactness in the recital of facts, independence in the judgments funned, truth, in short, is more suspicious than anything else in Russia: it is truth which peoples Siberia, not, however, to the exclusion of robbery and murder, an association which frightfully aggravates the fate of political offenders.

I have returned from Pctrowski, where I saw the dancing-saloon, which is beautifid; it is called, I believe, the Vauxhall. Before the opening of the ball, which appeared to me a dull affair, I was taken to hear the Russian gypsies. Their wild and impassioned song has some distant resemblance to that of the Spanish gitanos. The melodies of the north are

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98MUSICAL REVOLUTION OF DUrREZ

less lively, less voluptuous, than those of Andalusia, but they produce a more profoundly pensive impression. There are some which mean to be gay, hut they are more melancholy than the others. The gypsies of Moscow sing, without instruments, pieces which possess originality; but when the meaning of the words that accompany this expressive and national music is not understood, much of the effect is lost.

Duprez has disgusted me with songs which eonvey ideas by sound only. His manner of intonating the music and accenting the words carries expression to the utmost verge that it is capable of reaching : the power of feeling is thus multiplied a hundredfold, and thought, borne on the wings of melody, soars to the farthest limits of human sensibility, which takes its spring in the confines where mind and body blend. Things that speak to mind only do not soar so far. Such is the achievement of Duprez in the field of poetical song: he has realised lyric tragedy, long so vainly sought in France by incompetent talents. To have thus succeeded in revolutionising the art, it was needful that the artist should know his profession better than did any other. Admiration of such a marvel inclines us to be hard to please, and often unjust as regards others. To neglect the power of words as a means of musical expression, is to reject the true poetry of vocal music ; it is to eon-fine the power, whose full capabilities had not been completely and systematically revealed to the French public until Duprez restored Guillaume Tell. These are the facts that procure for that great artist his place in the history of art.

THE THEATRE IN RUSSIA.99

The new school of Italian singing, of which Kon-coni is now the head, is also reviving the powerful effect of ancient music by the expressive auxiliary of words; but it is still Diiprez who has, since his brilliant debuts on the Naples' theatre, contributed to this return, for he pursues his work through all languages, and carries his conquests among all people. The women who took the higher parts in the songs of the gypsies have Oriental faces; their eyes possess a brightness and vivacity that is very unusual. The youngest among them appeared to me very beautiful; the others, with their deep, though premature wrinkles, their darkly-stained complexions, and their black hair, would also serve as models for painters. They express in their various melodies many different sentiments ; the passion of anger they especially depict with admirable effect. I am told that the troop of gypsy singers that I shall find at Nijni is the most celebrated in Russia. Meanwhile, to render justice to these itinerant virtuosi, I can say that those of Moscow have given me much enjoyment, especially when they sung, in chorus, pieces, the harmony of which appeared to me scientific and complicated.

I found the national opera a detestable exhibition, though represented in a very handsome hall. The piece was The God and the Bayadere, translated into Russian ! What is the use of employing the language of the country further to disfigure a Parisian libretto ?

There is also at Moscow a French theatre, where M. Hervet, whose mother had a name in Paris, plays the parts of Bouffe very naturally. I saw Miehel Perrin г 2

100FRENCH LANGUAGE IN RUSSIA.

given by this actor with a simplicity and a gusto which greatly pleased me, notwithstanding my recollections of the Gymnase. When a piece is really spirituelle, there are several styles of performing it. The works which are lost in foreign lands are those in which the author depends upon the actor for the spirit of his character; and this has not been done by Messieurs Melesville and Duveyrier in the Michel Perrin of Madame de Bawr. I am ignorant how far the Russians understand our