Charskaya L A
living glove
Lidia Alekseevna Charskaya
living glove
There lived a knight, ferocious and cruel. So ferocious that everyone was afraid of him, everyone - both their own and others. When he appeared on a horse in the middle of the street or in the city square, the people scattered in different directions, the streets and squares were empty. And there was something to be afraid of the knight to the people! As soon as someone got caught on his path at an unkind hour, accidentally crossed his path, and in the blink of an eye, a fierce knight trampled to death the unfortunate hooves of his horse or pierced him through and through with his heavy, sharp sword.
Tall, thin, with eyes that shot out flames, with sullenly knitted eyebrows and a face twisted with anger, he terrified everyone. In moments of anger, he did not know mercy, became terrible and invented the most cruel punishments for those who were the cause of his anger, and for those who accidentally caught his eye at that time. But it was useless to complain to the king about the fierce knight: the king valued his fierce knight because he was a skilled commander, more than once at the head of the royal troops he won victories over enemies and conquered many lands. That is why the king highly valued the fierce knight and let him down what he would not let down to anyone else. And other knights and warriors, although they did not like the ferocious knight, appreciated in him courage, intelligence and devotion to the king and country ...
The fight was drawing to a close.
A ferocious knight, clad in golden armor, rode between the ranks of troops, inspiring his tired and exhausted warriors.
This time the fight was very hard and difficult. For the third day the warriors fought under the command of a fierce knight, but victory was not given to them. The enemies who attacked the royal lands had more troops. Another minute or two, and the enemy would undoubtedly have prevailed and would have burst straight into the royal castle.
In vain, the fierce knight appeared here and there on the battlefield, and now with threats, now with entreaties he tried to force his soldiers to gather their last strength in order to drive away the enemies.
Suddenly, the knight's horse shied away, noticing an iron glove on the ground, such as almost all knights wore at that time. The fierce knight spurred the horse, wanting to make him jump over the glove, but the horse did not move. Then the knight ordered the young squire to pick up the glove and give it to himself. But as soon as the knight touched it, the glove, as if alive, jumped out of his hand and again fell to the ground.
The knight ordered to give it to himself again - and the same thing happened again. Not only that: having fallen to the ground, the iron glove moved like a living hand; her fingers moved convulsively and unclenched again. The knight ordered to raise it again from the ground, and this time, holding it tightly in his hand, he rushed to the front ranks of his troops, shaking his glove in the air. And every time he lifted the glove high, the fingers of the glove first clenched, then unclenched again, and at that very moment, as if on cue, the troops rushed at the enemy with renewed vigor. And wherever a knight appeared with his glove, his tired and exhausted warriors seemed to come to life and rushed at the enemy with redoubled strength. Only a few minutes passed, and the enemies fled, and the messengers of the fierce knight began to trumpet victory...
Proud and triumphant, the knight now circled the ranks of his tired, exhausted fighters, asking who the strange glove belonged to, but no one had seen such a glove until then, no one knew where it came from ...
By all means, the fierce knight decided to find out who the strange glove belonged to, and began to go around all the cities, all the villages and villages and, shaking his find in the air, asked whose glove it was. The owner of the living glove was nowhere to be found. In one city, a fierce knight met a little boy and said:
I heard from my grandfather that old Maab lives in the forest. She knows all the secrets of the world and, perhaps, will be able to reveal to you the meaning of a living glove, knight.
Let's go to her! - was a stern order, and, spurring his horse, the fierce knight rushed to the forest. The submissive retinue rushed after him.
The old woman Maab lived in the heart of a dense, dark forest. She barely moved from decrepitude. When she saw the glove, her eyes lit up like bright torches in the darkness of the night, and she turned purple with delight.
Great happiness fell into your hands, noble knight, - she said in a hollow voice. - Not all people come across such a treasure! This living glove is the glove of victory... Fate deliberately threw it in your way. You just have to put it on your hand, and victory will always be yours!
The fierce knight beamed with happiness, put on a glove on his hand, generously awarded Maab with gold and rushed off from the dense forest to the royal capital.
A week has passed.
Nothing is heard about the usual cruel tricks of a knight, it is not heard that he executed anyone in a fit of anger, it is not heard that he offended anyone.
Even so awkwardly, blood flowed like a river around the ferocious knight, groans were heard, crying was heard. And now?
True, a week ago the knight tried to strike one of the passers-by with his sword. But suddenly his hand, convulsively clenched by the living fingers of the glove, dropped, and the heavy sword fell to the ground with a clang.
The knight wanted to throw off the annoying glove from his hand, but he remembered in time that she would give him victory, and he held himself back.
Another time the knight wanted to direct his horse to the crowd of people surrounding him, and again the living fingers of the glove squeezed his hand painfully, and he could not move them to control the horse. From that very moment the knight understood that it was useless to go against the living glove, that it, this glove, kept him from the most cruel deeds. And he stopped drawing his sword from its scabbard for the death of innocent people.
And people were not afraid now to go out of their houses into the streets at a time when a fierce knight was passing through them.
They now appeared on his path without fear and praised the knight for his victories over his enemies.
The war is on again...
For a long time, the distant neighbor of the king, the ruler of a rich country, tempted the eyes of the knight. And he said to his king:
Look! Your distant neighbor is richer than you, and although you swore eternal friendship and peace to him, but if you defeat him and appropriate his possessions, you will become the most powerful and richest king in the world.
The king obeyed the words of his favorite. “The knight is right,” the king thought, “I will conquer the country of my neighbor and get rich from his wealth!” And ordered to blow a new campaign.
Two armies met on the battlefield.
The squads of the knight met with the squads of the distant king.
The knight was quite calm and confident in advance of the outcome of the battle.
He knew that the glove of victory was on his hand.
The sun rose and set again. The moon shone and merk and shone again. The birds sang, fell silent and sang again, and the people fought and fought without end.
It was a long battle.
Long and hard as ever.
The fierce knight stood aside, directing the battle, confident in advance of the victory of his squads.
Suddenly, an unprecedented sight struck his eyes: the enemies were victorious, and his warriors fled.
Enraged, he himself rushed into battle. And ... was forced to retreat. Enemies surrounded him from all sides.
Beside himself, he spurred his horse and drove him from the battlefield.
A knight galloped to the capital, all spattered with blood, and fell at the feet of the king.
Don't blame me king! he cried. - Not I, but the old woman Maab is the culprit of the death of your army. She tricked me into putting on the gauntlet of doom and defeat. Order them to execute her, king, to execute her with a cruel, terrible death, which you can think of!
With the first rays of the sun, the whole city poured into the square. At this early morning hour, the execution of the old woman Maab, who had been brought from the forest the day before, was decided. It was decided to burn Maab at the stake, so that from now on she would not fool people, would not give out the glove of death for the glove of victory.
They brought them to Maab Square, removed them from the chariot, and led them to a raised platform, where there were firewood piled up for a fire.
They put Maab on them and tied them with ropes to a pole. A fierce knight stood in front of the pillar and shouted with an evil laugh in the very face of Maab:
You tricked me, Maab! For this you will die a cruel death! And I will give a sign for execution with the very glove that, according to you, was supposed to bring me victory.
With these words, he raised his hand to signal the executioners to light the fire, and cried out in fright. The hand didn't move. As if poured with lead, she hung lifelessly along the body. Then he opened his mouth, wanting to give the order to begin the execution, but at the same moment a living glove rose along with his hand and, pressing tightly against his mouth, almost strangled him.
Distraught with terror, the knight exclaimed:
Save me Maab! Save!
Maab slowly stepped down from the fire, breaking the ropes without any effort, and, approaching the knight, said:
I didn't lie to you. The living glove is truly the glove of victory. In every right deed, she will give you victory everywhere and everywhere. And in the last unsuccessful battle, she would have given you victory if you had not gone to the neighboring king with selfish goals to take possession of his wealth, but defended your king, your homeland, your honor.
He mainly wrote ballads based on legendary or mythological plots - they are what give his works brightness and originality. The poem "Glove" was no exception. Schiller described the era of brave, strong knights and beautiful ladies, and although these times are long gone, the themes of the works are still relevant and interesting for readers.
All ballads of the poet are filled with a special drama that hides deep knowledge. The heroes in them must constantly prove to society their courage and devotion to their homeland, show nobility, courage, fearlessness and selflessness. In many of Schiller's works, there is a similarity with the works of Shakespeare, the great English playwright. It can be said with all certainty that Friedrich became his faithful follower.
Schiller based the ballad "The Glove" on a real historical fact. The plot takes us to the time of the knights and It may seem rather banal and unremarkable, but the author managed to show the real deep meaning of the work, made the reader think about the situation, find out who is right and who is wrong. The events that happened at the court of the French king in the 15th century are described in his ballad by Schiller - “The Glove”.
The summary of the work can be divided into several scenes. Initially, the king and nobles gathered for a performance to watch the fight between wild animals. The first to be released into the arena was a huge lion, which soon lay down on the sidelines. Then a brave tiger came out, but, seeing a stronger opponent, did not get into trouble. Two leopards that ran after them attacked the striped animal, but the lion's formidable roar forced them to step aside. But she wanted to continue the bloody spectacle ... Creating the ballad "The Glove", Schiller wanted to emphasize human cruelty and heartlessness.
Among the spectators shone the young beauty Kinigunda, who wished to test the sincerity of the feelings of the knight Delorge for her, and at the same time to have fun. The lady deliberately threw her glove into the arena, which fell right between the predators. Kinigunda turns to the knight with an innocent request to bring the dropped thing and thereby prove his devotion. Delorge understands that the beauty did it on purpose, but she cannot refuse the request, because refusal will undermine his reputation. With the help of the ballad "Glove" Schiller wanted to draw the reader's attention to how valuable human life is.
The animals did not touch Delorge - he brought the glove to his lady, but he did not want her praises and confessions, because he realized that Kinigund did not love him and did not appreciate his actions. Moreover, the glove flew to the arrogant beauty in the face.
The main meaning of the work is that nothing can be more valuable than a person's life, and it is stupid to risk it for the whim of a spoiled girl. Despite the fact that so much time has passed, the ballad still attracts attention and makes one think about the meaning - Schiller created the eternal work... sacrifices and meaningless proofs of feelings... When reading a ballad, one involuntarily thinks about the true value of love and life.
Ballads are not only a fabulous story about fatal love or personal drama. Often in this genre legends and curious incidents - anecdotes are set forth. One of the most famous works of this kind is Schiller's Glove, which was very popular with Russian poets-translators of the 19th century. V.A. Zhukovsky, who had a great interest in German ballads, also did not bypass this poem.
The plot of the ballad is based on a historical fact. King Francis I, who ruled in France, liked to amuse his subjects with bloody entertainments. On one of these evenings, the court lady Cunigunde, famous for her beauty and cruel heart, drops her glove into the arena with wild animals in order to test her faithful knight Delorge. This anecdote attracted Schiller at the end of the 18th century.
Translations of ballads by German poets V.A. Zhukovsky was engaged in the mature period of his work, in particular, this ballad was first published in 1831. Zhukovsky's text is as close as possible to the original, although it has compositional and rhythmic differences, and V.K. Küchelbecker considered this interpretation to be an "exemplary translation", which is fully proved by the analysis of the poem "The Glove".
Genre and size
Features of the speech of different languages cannot but be reflected in the translation. What looks colloquial and narrative in German sounds better in Russian soil iambic. So Zhukovsky chooses for his translation a free iambic with a varying number of feet in verse.
A lot of controversy is the definition of the genre "Gloves". The author of the original gave the subtitle "story", perhaps trying to indicate, in this way, the authenticity of the events described. Zhukovsky, on the other hand, drew attention to the narrative nature of the work and gave an appropriate definition to the genre.
There are few direct references specifically to the ballad in The Glove. There are no traditional mystical motives here, there is only a love conflict and unusual circumstances under which the action unfolds. Rather, this is an anecdote in its literary, rather than generally accepted, meaning, since there is a curious short story told in a special manner.
Direction
The era of romanticism arouses interest not only in folk art, but also in the development of existing historical sketches and legends. So in 1797, Schiller created the ballad "The Diver", which is based on the legend of Nikolaus Pesce, a Sicilian diver. A little later he writes The Glove, which, according to Goethe, is a "successful parallel and antithesis" to The Diver. V.A. Zhukovsky translated both of these ballads into Russian, "The Diver" in his interpretation was called the "Cup".
The ballad "Glove" occupies a special place in Russian literature. In addition to Zhukovsky, it was translated by M. Zagorsky, N. Devite, but M.Yu. Lermontov. In his version, the conflict is presented much sharper, the name of the fatal beauty is not omitted, and the characters of the characters are written out more vividly.
Main characters and their characteristics
Comparison of Zhukovsky's translation of The Gloves with Lermontov's interpretation allows a deeper understanding of the characters of the main characters. For example, if Zhukovsky’s character only throws down the glove with the words “I don’t demand a reward,” then Lermontov’s wounded knight “immediately” leaves the narcissistic Kunigunde.
- Zhukovsky gives an exact description of the cruel beauty: she “with a hypocritical / / And looks with a sharp smile” at her admirer. Kunigunde laughs at his love, for her it is only the satisfaction of self-esteem.
- Delorge is a knight of honor and dignity, he will not allow his heart to be treated like a toy. He openly expresses his feelings and performs, perhaps, the most wise and worthy deed, within the framework of the ethics of romanticism. Raising the glove, he does not drop his dignity: the knight performs a kind of feat! Proudly returning the glove to its owner, he lets her know that he no longer intends to let her play with his feelings.
Themes
- Pride. Beauty Kunigunda is proud of her beauty and believes that she is allowed a lot. She is flattered that many fans are ready to fall at her feet, but she is in for a miscalculation. Delorge - courageous and strong in spirit. He knows what manhood is, and how to act in order not to lose face.
- Dignity. The ballad raises the question of honor and dignity, condemning the worship of the thoughtless entertainments of the “powerful ones”. Undoubtedly, the appearance of the daredevil in the arena to the predators added entertainment to the performance. It is cruel to play with the lives of wild animals, but the risk of human life is the limit of bloodlust.
- Selfishness and indifference. Bored in her idleness, the beauty is devoid of all feelings. The lack of humanity in her knows no bounds: she is ready to risk the life of a person who loves her to satisfy her naive curiosity.
- Love. Delorge is in love with Cunigunde and is willing to do much to prove it. The beauty cleverly uses this, but goes too far. She may yet regret her cruelty, but the story ends with the return of the ill-fated glove.
Idea
The debunking of courtly ideals was relevant even in the era of classicism. Romanticism has a completely different idea of love, does not tolerate the oppression of the individual and the tyranny of the rulers, so this plot was very attractive to V.A. Zhukovsky and other poets. The idea of a feat for the sake of love is presented here in a completely different way. Delorge is not able to disinterestedly, as in the chivalric code, have a platonic feeling for Kunigunde and endure all her whims. The incident in The Glove is viewed from the standpoint of romanticism. For the hero there is a risk for the sake of love, but there is the indulgence of an eccentric lady who does not even put human life in anything. Kunigunde remained defeated and disgraced in the eyes of the world - it is difficult to think of a more cruel punishment for her.
Before your menagerie
With the barons, with the crown prince,
King Francis was seated;
From a high balcony he looked
In the field, waiting for the battle;
Behind the king, bewitching
blooming beauty look,
The ladies of the court were in a magnificent row.
The king gave a sign with his hand -
The door opened with a thud.
And a formidable beast
With a huge head
shaggy lion
Comes out;
Around the eyes sullenly leads;
And so, looking at everything,
He wrinkled his forehead with a proud posture,
Moved his thick mane,
And stretched and yawned,
And lay down. The king again waved his hand -
The shutter of the iron door rattled,
And the bold tiger sprang from behind the bars;
But he sees a lion, he is shy and roars,
He beats himself with his tail on the ribs,
And sneaks, squinting,
And licks the face with the tongue,
And, bypassing the lion around,
He growls and lays next to him.
And for the third time the king waved his hand -
Two leopards as a friendly couple
In one jump they found themselves over the tiger;
But he gave them a blow with a heavy paw,
And the lion stood up with a roar...
They reconciled
Bared their teeth, moved away,
And they growled and lay down.
And the guests are waiting for the battle to begin...
Suddenly the woman fell from the balcony
The glove...everyone is looking after it...
She fell among the animals.
Then on the knight Delorge with a hypocritical
And looks with a sharp smile
His beauty and says:
You love the way you say
You will return the glove to me."
Delorge, without answering a word,
Goes to the animals
He boldly takes the glove
And returns to the meeting again.
Knights and ladies, with such impudence,
My heart was troubled by fear;
A young knight
Like nothing happened to him
Calmly ascends to the balcony;
He was greeted with applause;
He is greeted by beautiful looks ...
But, coldly accepting the greeting of her eyes,
In her face a glove
He threw and said: "I do not require a reward."
Analysis of the ballad "The Glove" by Schiller
In 1979 I.F. Schiller, a German poet of the era of romanticism, writes the ballad "The Glove", taking as a basis a case that occurred in real life. The action of the work takes place in the era of beautiful ladies and brave knights, but the feelings, aspirations and motives that guide the characters are also inherent in modern man, so the idea of the poem does not lose its relevance today.
Story line
The action takes place in the 15th century at the court of the French king Francis the First, who gathered his courtiers to have fun and watch a bloody spectacle - the battle of wild animals. In the midst of the performance, when an angry lion and a tiger clashed in the arena, one of the society ladies, the beautiful Kinigunda, deliberately drops a glove that falls right between wild animals and asks her knight, who sought her reciprocity, to bring her the dropped thing and thereby prove her devotion and love:
"When me, my faithful knight,
You love the way you say
You will return the glove to me."
Knight Delorge understands that he cannot fail to fulfill this reckless request, because his refusal will be regarded as cowardice, and his reputation will be forever undermined. And he fulfills the desire of the lady: silently descending to the animals and taking out a glove, he returns to Kinigunda and throws a trophy in her face: "I do not demand a reward."
The reckless act ended happily for Delorge: the animals did not touch him and he calmly returned to the auditorium, but the cruel behavior of his beloved opened his eyes to their relationship and he understood the emptiness of the arrogant beauty.
At first glance, a simple, uncomplicated plot raises an important question about the value of human relationships and human life. The author of the work contrasts the hypocrisy, coquetry and spiritual emptiness of Kinigund with the courage, inner independence, dignity of Delorge, reminding the reader that nothing can be more valuable than a person's life.
Artistic and expressive means and poetic size
The poem is written in multi-foot iambic, which additionally adds drama to the narrative. The author uses various metaphors: for example, the glove personifies someone else's will, imposed by society, and requiring ridiculous sacrifices and meaningless evidence.
Coming out with dignity from a difficult and dangerous situation, Delorge not only gets out of the circle of animals, but also does not lose his "I" in the no less cruel world of people: the author puts these two worlds side by side, showing the reader how similar they are to each other.
Condemning the despotic laws of society, personified by Kinigund, Schiller speaks of the priority of humanity and the inevitable victory of the fortitude, which is embodied in a knight, over the darkness and cruelty of this world.
