(1717-1777) Russian poet and playwright

Sumarokov Alexander Petrovich belonged to that generation of writers who began to update Russian literature, focusing it on the European experience. It is with his works that the new Russian dramaturgy begins. In addition, Sumarokov entered the history of culture as a talented fabulist, as well as one of the first critics.

From the very birth Sumarokov Alexander Petrovich was in the midst of the historical events of his time. He was born in the small Finnish town of Vilmanstrand (modern Lappeenranta), where at that time there was a regiment commanded by his father during the Northern War.

Since the family constantly moved to new places of work of his father, the boy was raised by his mother, as well as home teachers. Only in 1732 did his father assign Alexander Petrovich to the St. Petersburg land gentry cadet corps. It was a privileged educational institution, where children of the highest nobility were admitted.

The model of education in the corps was later borrowed during the organization of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, where, as you know, young men received the widest and most comprehensive education.

Alexander Sumarokov, like the rest of the pupils, was prepared for public service, so he studied the humanities, foreign languages, as well as the intricacies of secular etiquette. Literature was especially encouraged. The corps even created its own theater, and the pupils employed in it were obliged to attend the performances of all foreign troupes who came to St. Petersburg. It is not surprising that in such an environment Sumarokov became interested in dramaturgy. He was considered the first student, and writing was easy for him.

The first poetic experiments of the young writer were odes dedicated to the Empress Anna Ioannovna. However, Alexander Sumarokov soon realized that they were much inferior to the works of the leading authors of that time - Lomonosov and Trediakovsky. Therefore, he left the ode genre and turned to love songs. They brought Sumarokov fame in court circles.

After graduating from the corps, he becomes an adjutant to the Vice-Chancellor of Russia, Count M. Golovkin. A talented and sociable young man attracted the attention of the all-powerful favorite of the Empress, Count A. Razumovsky. He took Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov to his retinue and soon made him his adjutant.

Apparently, Sumarokov managed to win over Razumovsky, since less than three years later he already had the rank of adjutant general. Note that at this time he was not yet twenty years old.

But the opening court career was never the goal of Sumarokov's life. He devoted all his free time to literature. He attends theatrical performances, reads many books, in particular the works of Racine and Corneille, and even submits to the empress a scholarly treatise in verse from the Epistle on Poetry. In it, the author talks about the need to create a Russian literary language and about what Russian young people who want to devote themselves to literature should do. Later, the treatise became the manifesto of Russian classicism, on which all writers and poets later relied.

In the same year, 1747, Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov composed the first dramatic work - the tragedy "Khorev" based on a legendary plot from Russian history. Her presentation took place on the stage of the amateur theater of the gentry corps. The tragedy was enthusiastically received by the audience, and rumors about this production soon reached the Empress. At her request, Sumarokov repeated the production already on the stage of the court theater in 1748 at Christmas time.

Encouraged by the success, the playwright wrote several more tragedies based on subjects from Russian history, as well as a reworking of W. Shakespeare's drama Hamlet.

Since in those years an entertaining comedy was supposed to be on stage simultaneously with the tragedy, Sumarokov had to turn to this genre as well. He creates several entertaining comedies in one act. The empress liked them so much that she appointed him director of the court theater. At the time, this was the most difficult position, because the director had to not only write plays, but also direct their productions, as well as select actors for the stage and train them.

The money allocated from the treasury was constantly not enough, and in order to continue working, Alexander Sumarokov had to sacrifice his own salary. Nevertheless, the theater lasted for five whole years. And only in 1761 Sumarokov ceased to lead him and went into journalism.

He began publishing a magazine, The Hardworking Bee. It was the first purely literary magazine in Russia. Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov also printed translations of the works of ancient and modern European authors - Horace, Lucian, Voltaire, Swift.

Gradually, a group of literary gifted young people gathered around him. They waged a fierce debate about the development of Russian literature with Lomonosov, Trediakovsky, as well as with M. Chulkov and F. Emin. Sumarokov believed that it was impossible to plant a cult of antiquity in literature, since the writer is obliged to respond to all the events of contemporary reality.

In the mid-sixties, he returned to dramaturgy and wrote a series of satirical comedies under the names "Guardian", "Likhoimets" and "Poisonous". Apparently, the playwright wanted to tell about the difficult events of his own life. Just at this time, the writer's father suddenly dies, and Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov finds himself involved in a long lawsuit over the division of the inheritance. Only in 1769 did he receive his share and immediately resign.

In order not to be distracted in the noisy and bustling Petersburg, Sumarokov moved to Moscow and completely immersed himself in literary work. For several years he diligently works with historical sources and writes his largest work - the historical tragedy "Demetrius the Pretender".

The plot of the play was based on the true events of Russian history and sounded extremely modern: quite recently, as a result of a coup, Catherine II came to power. This is probably why the tragedy was almost immediately staged on the St. Petersburg stage and enjoyed great success with the public.

Since Alexander Sumarokov collected a lot of historical material, he was able to start writing his own historical works. They told about the uprising of Stepan Razin, the streltsy riots in Moscow. In the same years, Sumarokov begins a new page in his work - he releases a collection of fables. They were written in simple and even rude language, but they were easy to remember and therefore became a model for many authors. By the way, I. Krylov turned to the fable only because he was inspired by the example of Sumarokov. The caustic denunciation of all sorts of vices did not please the Moscow authorities. It is known that in the last years of his life the writer suffered from the chicanery of the Moscow mayor. Therefore, he was never able to get a permanent service in Moscow and lived in solitude and constant need. But he had many friends and followers who became famous writers - Y. Knyaznin, M. Kheraskov, V. Maikov, A. Rzhevsky.

When Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov died, he was modestly buried in the Donskoy Monastery. Only four years after his death, when his friend N. Novikov published a ten-volume collected works of the writer, the contribution that he made to the development of Russian culture became obvious to everyone.

Russian nobleman, poet, writer and playwright of the 18th century. He is often referred to as the "father of the Russian theatre".

In 1756, by decree of the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna The Senate established a permanent theater and A.P. Sumarokova appointed him director. To ennoble the title of actors in the eyes of the poorly educated public, the new director procured the last noble distinction - the right to wear a sword.

A.P. Sumarokov wrote numerous plays for the theatre. While working for the theater, at the same time he wrote: odes, elegies, fables, satires, parables, eclogues, madrigals, articles, etc. Unlike M.V. Lomonosov, he believed that poetry should be, first of all, not majestic, but "pleasant".

In January 1759 A.P. Sumarokov succeeded in obtaining a new decree Elizabeth: "of the Russian theater to comedians and others ... from now on to be in the department of the Court Office and be called courtiers by them." 3,000 rubles were added to the maintenance of the troupe. Actors' salaries were increased, their position became more stable.

“But the character of the Russian theater has changed dramatically. He completely lost his independence. and even in the choice of repertoire, he now completely depended on the Court Office and the ignorant Chamberlain Karl Sivsrs, who headed it. Sumarokov tirelessly quarreled with him, complained about him who did so much for Russian culture and, it would seem, is still influential, taking out insults on innocent actors.

“I only ask that,” he wrote in one of his letters, annoyed and offended, “that if I deserve to be thrown away from the theater, then at least that it be done without continuation ... For my work in the theater, which it seems to me more than what Volkov did shishaki, and I can’t be in Volkov’s team, but ask me to be dismissed from the theater, I won’t be until I go crazy.

In his letters, Sumarokov either asked for his resignation or threatened that if he was dismissed, he would cease to be a writer, at least a dramatic one. He swore this on his honor, his last name, hoping that his threat would frighten Elizabeth and he would be able to defend himself as director of the theater. But Elizaveta Petrovna had long been fed up with his complaints. She did not like everything in his tragedies, which constantly emphasized the idea that the indulgence of the monarch's own passions leads to the misfortune of his subjects. And although in these tragedies there was always a conversation about the ideal monarch, by which Elizabeth was allegedly meant, she could not help but understand the true meaning of the edifications of their creator. After another letter from Sumarokov to Shuvalov in the summer of 1761, his resignation was sanctioned. Sumarokov threw thunder and lightning. But he was outgoing. And passionately loved the theater. In addition, the Russian theater continued to play his compositions - no decrees could break Sumarokov's indissoluble connection with the Russian stage.

Kulikov K.F., the first actors of the Russian theater, L., "Lenizdat", p. 50-51.

A.P. Sumarokov left us an impression of the Russian theater of his time: “For a clerk to weave praises ... it’s only inappropriate, if it’s indecent ... for those who came to see Semira, sit near the orchestra itself and gnaw nuts and think that when money has been paid for entry into a disgrace, you can fight in the stalls, and in the boxes tell the stories of your week loudly. You, travelers who have been in Paris and London, tell me, do they gnaw nuts there during the performance of the drama, and when the performance is in its greatest heat, are the drunken coachmen who quarreled among themselves whipped to the alarm of the entire stalls, boxes and theater?

Lunacharsky M.V., Russian criticism from Lomonosov to the predecessors of Belinsky, in Sat.: M.V. Lomonosov: pro et contra / Comp. M.A. Maslin, St. Petersburg, Russian Christian Humanitarian Academy, 2011, p. 640.

The inscription on the pedestal of the Bronze Horseman: "Petro Primo Catharina Secunda" - "To Peter the Great Catherine the Second" proposed exactly A.P. Sumarokov.

After establishment Peter I Petersburg Vedomosti newspaper, the government maintained a monopoly on the printed word, but in 1759 A.P. Sumarokov was allowed to publish the first private magazine in Russia: "Hard-working bee", published in circulation 1200 copies.

And in 1759 he wrote an epigram that became famous:

Dancer! You are rich. Professor! You are poor.
Of course, the head is much smaller than the legs.

Sumarokov Alexander Petrovich

Sumarokov Alexander Petrovich (1717 - 1777), poet, playwright. Born on November 14 (25 N. S.) in Moscow in an old noble family. Until the age of fifteen, he was educated and brought up at home.

In 1732-40 he studied at the land gentry corps, where he began to write poetry, imitating Trediakovsky. He served as adjutant to Count G. Golovkin and Count A. Razumovsky and continued to write, at that time being strongly influenced by Lomonosov's odes.

After some time, he finds his own genre - love songs, which received public recognition and diverged in the lists. He develops poetic techniques for depicting mental life and psychological conflicts, which he later applied in tragedies.

Sumarokov's lyrics were disapprovingly received by Lomonosov, a supporter of civic themes. The controversy between Lomonosov and Sumarokov on questions of poetic style represented an important stage in the development of Russian classicism.

From love songs, Sumarokov moves on to poetic tragedies - "Khorev" (1747), "Hamlet" (1748), "Sinav and Truvor" (1750). In these works, for the first time in the history of the Russian theater, the achievements of French and German educational dramaturgy were used. Sumarokov combined in them personal, love themes with social and philosophical issues. The appearance of tragedies served as an impetus for the creation of the Russian theater, of which Sumarokov (1756-61) became the director.

In 1759, he published the first Russian literary magazine, The Hard-working Bee, which acted on the side of the court group, which was guided by the future Empress Catherine II.

At the beginning of the reign of Catherine II, Sumarokov's literary fame reaches its zenith. Young satirists, grouped around N. Novikov and Fonvizin, support Sumarokov, who writes fables against bureaucratic arbitrariness, bribery, and the inhuman treatment of serfs by landowners.

In 1770, after moving to Moscow, Sumarokov came into conflict with the Moscow commander-in-chief P. Saltykov. The Empress took the side of Saltykov, to which Sumarokov replied with a mocking letter. All this worsened his social and literary position.

In the 1770s, he created his best comedies (The Cuckold by Imagination, The Buffoon, 1772) and the tragedies Dmitry the Pretender (1771), Mstislav (1774). Participated as a director in the work of the theater at Moscow University, published collections of "Satire" (1774), "Elegy" (1774).

The last years of his life were marked by material deprivation, loss of popularity, which led to addiction to alcoholic beverages. This was the cause of Sumarokov's death on October 1 (12 N. S.) 1777 in Moscow.

Brief biography from the book: Russian writers and poets. Brief biographical dictionary. Moscow, 2000.

Russian literature of the 18th century

Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov

Biography

Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov, the most consistent of the classicist writers, along with the practice of literary activity, managed to give a theoretical justification for classicism as a literary trend characteristic of Russia in the middle of the century. In literature, Sumarokov acted as a successor at the same time as an antagonist of Lomonosov. In 1748, in the Epistle on Poetry, Sumarokov writes about Lomonosov: “He is Malgerb of our countries; he is like Pindar. Subsequently, Sumarokov recalled the time when he and Lomonosov were friends and daily interlocutors "and took advice from each other sensible" ("On versification"). Then the literary-theoretical and personal enmity of writers began.

A.P. Sumarokov is an outstanding playwright and poet of his time, passionately devoted to literary work, believing in the almighty power of the word addressed to the mind. One of the most prolific and active writers of the 18th century, he turned his literary work to the nobility. And his classicism was of a narrow noble class character, in contrast to the nationwide and nationwide character of Lomonosov's classicism. According to Belinsky, "Sumarokov was excessively extolled by his contemporaries and excessively humiliated by our time." At the same time, Sumarokov's work was an important milestone in the history of the development of the Russian literary process in the 18th century.

Biography

Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov was born on November 14 (25), 1717 in an aristocratic, but by that time impoverished family. Having received his initial home education, in 1732, at the age of 14, Sumarokov entered the land gentry corps, open only to nobles. In this corps, which was obliged to produce the "chiefs" of the military, civil and court service, Sumarokov received an excellent education and became familiar with literature and theater. Here such general educational disciplines as history, geography, legal sciences, languages, fencing and dances were taught. The building becomes the center of a new noble culture. Much time was devoted to literature and art. No wonder future writers studied in the corps at different times: A. P. Sumarokov, M. M. Kheraskov, I. P. Elagin, A. A. Nartov and others. In 1759, a group of students and officers of the corps undertook the publication of the journal Idle time, for the benefit of the used, ”in which Sumarokov also collaborated, graduating from the corps in 1740. Literary interests also determined the fact that it was in the gentry corps that the first Russian tragedy written by Sumarokov and laid the foundation for the creation of the Russian dramatic repertoire was played. Already in the years of study, the poetic talent of Sumarokov was revealed. His first published works were two odes to the new year, 1740, published as a separate brochure. At the end of the course of sciences, Sumarokov, despite military service, which was mostly of a formal nature, devotes all his time to literature. He writes odes, elegies, songs, fables, acts as a playwright, treating literature for the first time as a professional matter.

During the years of study in the corps, Sumarokov developed firm and high ideas about the dignity of a nobleman, about the need for public service to the fatherland, ideal ideas about noble honor and virtue were formed. In the spirit of these ideals, he dreamed of educating a noble society, and chose literature as a means for this. Sumarokov addressed the government on behalf of the nobility, on which he focused his main attention. He becomes the ideologist of the nobility, the ideologist of the new nobility, born of Peter's time. A nobleman must serve for the good of society. And Sumarokov, in turn, protects the interests of the nobles. Seeing in the existing feudal system a completely natural and legal phenomenon, Sumarokov at the same time opposed the excessive cruelty of the feudal landowners, against the transformation of serfdom into slavery. “People should not be sold like cattle,” he said in his remarks on Catherine II’s “Instruction”. And at the same time he was convinced that "peasant freedom is not only harmful to society, but also pernicious, and why it is pernicious, that should not be interpreted." Recognizing the natural equality of people, he believed that it was upbringing and education that made the nobles "the first members of society", "sons of the fatherland":

What is the difference between a gentleman and a peasant?

And that, and that - earth animate clod,

And if you do not clear the mind of the master's man,

So I don't see any difference.

("About nobility")

The nobility, according to Sumarokov, occupying a privileged position in society, must be educated, enlightened, must prove their right to manage the "slaves of the fatherland", that is, the peasants. In this regard, the program poem was his satire "On Nobility":

I bring this satire to you, nobleman!

I am writing to the first members of the fatherland.

The nobles know their duty well enough without me,

But many remember one nobility,

Not remembering that born from women and from ladies

Without exception, all forefather Adam.

Is that why we are nobles, so that people work,

And we would have swallowed their works of nobility?

This satire repeats the main provisions of Cantemir's satire about the nobility of birth and the nobility of merit, about the natural equality of people. “Our honor does not consist in titles,” wrote Sumarokov, “that radiant one who shines with heart and mind, that superior one who surpasses other people with dignity, that boyar who is sick of the fatherland.” Sumarokov never managed to bring the nobility closer to the ideal he bore.

Being a monarchist, a supporter of enlightened absolutism, Sumarokov sharply opposed the monarchs, who, in his opinion, do not fulfill their duties to their subjects, forgetting that “we were born for you. And you were born for us." Sumarokov never tired of recalling this in his odes and tragedies. He now and then becomes in opposition to the government.

Sumarokov's life, outwardly full of success and recognition, was extremely difficult. Not seeing worthy representatives of his class among the nobles, he tirelessly denounces the cruel, unenlightened nobles, who are so far from the ideal he created. He ridicules them in fables and satires, denounces bribery and lawlessness of officials, favoritism at court. The noble society, which did not want to listen to Sumarokov, began to take revenge on the writer. Proud, irritable, accustomed to the recognition of his literary success by writers, Sumarokov, according to the memoirs of his contemporaries, often lost his temper, could not restrain himself. Honest and direct, he never let anyone down. “His indomitability and hysteria are proverbial. He jumped up, scolded, ran away when he heard how the landowners called the serf servants "the boorish knee." He reached the point of hysteria, defending his copyright from the encroachments of the Moscow commander in chief; he loudly cursed arbitrariness, bribes, the savagery of society; noble "society" took revenge on him, infuriating him, mocking him.

The name of Sumarokov is associated with the emergence of a permanent "Russian, for the performances of tragedies and comedies, theater", the first director of which in 1756, Elizabeth appointed Sumarokov. Sumarokov saw in the theater the possibility of fulfilling an educational role in relation to the nobility. The creation of the theater depended largely on the appearance of Sumarokov's tragedies, which made up his repertoire. By the time the theater opened, Sumarokov was the author of five tragedies and three comedies. His contemporaries rightly called him "the founder of the Russian theatre". For five years he stood at the head of the theater, the work in which was unusually difficult: there was no permanent premises, there was not enough money for productions, the actors and the director did not receive a salary for months. Sumarokov wrote desperate letters to Shuvalov, entering into constant conflicts. A passionate love of art, devoted to the cause, Sumarokov was neither a sufficiently accommodating person, nor a good administrator. In 1761 he had to leave the theater.

The last period of life is especially difficult for Sumarokov. He moves to Moscow, continues to write a lot. At the end of the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, he joined the noble opposition, who succumbed to the liberal declarations of Catherine, who by all means went to power. The coup of 1762, which brought Catherine II to the throne, did not fulfill Sumarokov's political hopes. He becomes in opposition to the queen and creates politically acute tragedies "Demetrius the Pretender", "Mstislav". In the first tragedy, the plot is based on a sharp exposure of the despot monarch and a call for his overthrow. The nobility is still dissatisfied with the writer. He enjoys fame mainly in literary circles, but she cannot console Sumarokov. Sharp in his views and irreconcilable in his judgments, he sets the Empress against him. The persecution intensified when he, an aristocrat by birth, an ideologue of the nobility, having violated all class prejudices, married a serf girl. Relatives of the first wife began a lawsuit against the writer, demanding the deprivation of the rights of his children from his second wife. The process ended in favor of Sumarokov. However, bankrupt, entangled in debt, Sumarokov was forced to humiliate himself in front of the rich man Demidov, who drives him out of the house for an unpaid debt. There is gossip about him all over town. The commander-in-chief of Moscow, Saltykov, organizes the failure of the Sinav and Truvor tragedy. A beggar, abandoned and ridiculed by everyone, Sumarokov descends and begins to drink. In the poem "Complaint" he writes:

... Weak consolation to me that glory will not fade,

Which the shadow will never feel.

What need do I have in mind

If I only carry crackers in my bag?

What an honor to me as a writer,

If there is nothing to drink or eat?

On October 11, 1777, after a short illness, Sumarokov died. There was not a single ruble to bury the poet. According to Pavel Ivanovich Sumarokov, the writer's nephew, Sumarokov was "buried at his own expense by the actors of the Moscow theater" in the cemetery of the Donskoy Monastery.

Sumarokov was the first noble writer for whom literature became the main business of life. It was impossible to live by literature at that time, this largely determined the severity of Sumarokov's material hardships. In a petition addressed to Catherine II, Sumarokov wrote about his plight: “The main reason for all this is my love for poetry, because I relied on it and verbal sciences, not so much about ranks and about the estate, as about my muse.” Sumarokov himself was inclined to consider himself the founder of syllabic-tonic poetry, and in an article polemically directed against Lomonosov, “To the senseless rhymers,” he stated that when he began to write, “we didn’t even have poets and there was no one to learn from. It was as if I was passing through a dense forest, hiding from my eyes the dwelling of the muses, without a guide ... ". This, of course, was far from the truth, but Sumarokov's merits in the development of Russian poetry are beyond doubt.

If Trediakovsky discovered that Russian poetry should be tonic, and Lomonosov made a true reform, then Sumarokov provided samples of almost all types of tonic verse. Speaking as a playwright, poet, theorist, critic, Sumarokov believed that his literary activity was a service to society, a form of active participation in the public life of the country. He was an advanced man of his time, a noble educator, whose work was highly valued by Radishchev and Novikov.

Sumarokov - theorist of classicism

A. P. Sumarokov, with his literary work, contributed to the establishment of classicism on Russian soil. He acted both as a theoretician of classicism and as a writer who, in his literary practice, gave examples of the diverse genres provided for by the poetics of classicism. Sumarokov began by writing odes, the first two odes dedicated to Anna Ioannovna were published in 1740. In them, the novice poet imitated Trediakovsky. Since the appearance of Lomonosov's odes, Sumarokov has been strongly influenced by his creative genius. However, the ode genre did not become dominant in the work of Sumarokov, who was destined to find fame as a great playwright and lyric poet, creators of love songs, idylls, elegies, eclogues.

An important literary event was the two poetic epistles printed in 1748 by Sumarokov - "On the Russian Language" and "On Poetry", in which Sumarokov acted as a theorist of classicism. In the first, he speaks of the need to enrich the literary language with timeless Church Slavonic words and to avoid foreign words. In this he approaches Lomonosov. In the Epistle on Poetry (1747), already unlike Lomonosov, Sumarokov, theoretically substantiating the genres of classicism, asserts the equality of all genres, without giving preference to any of them:

Everything is laudable: drama, eclogue or ode -

Write down what your nature attracts you to ...

Subsequently, both of these epistles were revised and made up one - "Instruction to those who want to be writers", published in 1774.

To Trediakovsky’s reproach for borrowing epistles from The Art of Poetry, Sumarokov replied that he “took no weight from Boileau,” referring to his understanding of the aesthetic code and his independent development of individual genres. Nevertheless, Sumarokov does not deny his dependence on Boileau's theory. “My epistle on poetry,” he says, “is all Boalova, and Boalo took from Horace. No: Boalo did not take everything from Horace, and I did not take everything from Boalo ... "

The beginning of Sumarokov's dramaturgical activity also dates back to the 40s, for he considered the theater to be the strongest means of educating the nobility. In his tragedies, one of the most characteristic genres of classicism, Sumarokov poses big, socially significant problems. Contemporaries highly appreciated this type of Sumarokov's dramaturgy, calling him "Northern Racine", the founder of the dramaturgy of Russian classicism.

Tragedies of Sumarokov

In the tragedies, Sumarokov's political views were especially clearly manifested. He strove to create a harmonious society in which each member of society would know his duties and honestly fulfill them. He longed to return the "golden ages", believing that they are possible under the existing social order, but for this it is necessary to eliminate the lawlessness and disorder that exist in the absolutist-noble monarchy. His tragedies were supposed to show what a true enlightened monarch should be, they were supposed to educate the “first sons of the fatherland”, the nobility, arousing in them a sense of civic duty, love for the fatherland, true nobility. Sumarokov did not get tired of convincing the monarchs that "we (subjects) were born for you, and you were born for us." And although Sumarokov constantly repeats that "monarchical rule, I do not say despotic, is the best," he did not stop at a sharp condemnation of monarchs who did not correspond to the ideal he had outlined. Standing in opposition to Elizabeth Petrovna, he soon understood the pseudo-enlightened absolutism of Catherine's reign and, while promoting the ideas of enlightened absolutism in his tragedies, at the same time exposes the despotism of the reign of monarchs. The tyrannical tendencies in his tragedies sharply intensified by the end of the 60s and the beginning of the 70s, reflecting the general growth of noble opposition to the regime of Catherine II. The socio-political pathos of the tragedies of Sumarokov had a huge impact on the development of the subsequent Russian tragedy, which retained its political orientation.

For 28 years, Sumarokov wrote nine tragedies. The first group of tragedies, 1740-1750, is "Khorev" (1747), "Hamlet" (1748), which was a free adaptation from the French prose translation of Shakespeare's tragedy, "Sinav and Truvor" (1750), "Ariston" (1750 ), "Semira" (1751), "Dimiza" (1758), later revised and called "Yaropolk and Dimiza" (1768).

Sumarokov's first tragedy "Khorev" was published in 1747. This is the first experience of the playwright, it only outlines the main provisions, motives, situations that will develop later. The tragedy is addressed to Ancient Rus', however, the connection with ancient Russian history is very conditional, it is actually limited to names, nevertheless it is important to note that, taking plots from his native history, Sumarokov considered them more effective in educating the "virtue" of the nobility. This, undoubtedly, gave the most pronounced patriotic character to the tragedies of the playwright and was a distinctive feature of Russian classicism, because Western European dramaturgy was built mainly on ancient subjects.

In the tragedy "Khorev" the central image is Prince Kiy. His brother Horev loves Osnelda, the daughter of Zavlokh, who was expelled from Kyiv by Prince Kiy. Osnelda reciprocates Khorev, but her love is contrary to the duty of a daughter and a patriot. By order of Kiy, who wants to test Horev's loyalty, the latter must march with an army against his beloved's father. This is how the conflict between public and personal, between duty and passion, which is characteristic of Sumarokov's subsequent tragedies, is determined.

The denouement is tragic, and Prince Kiy, who trusted the scammer Stalverh, is to blame for it. In this first tragedy of Sumarokov, there is not yet that clarity of the main idea, that rigor and integrity in construction that will be characteristic of his best tragedies, but the main collisions are outlined, and the moralistic, didactic orientation of the tragedy is decisive. The monarch, who subjugated the voice of reason to the pernicious passion that gripped him, becomes a tyrant for his subjects. In the speeches of Khorev and Osnelda, lessons of noble morality were concluded.

The next group of tragedies, in which tyrannical motifs sounded most clearly, was written after a ten-year break: Vysheslav (1768), Dimitry the Pretender (1771), Mstislav (1774). However, even in these tragedies, despite the sharper socio-political sound, the plot-compositional structure is subordinated to the clarification of the main problem: the attitude of the tsarist authorities to the subjects and the subjects to this authority. In the center of the tragedies is the monarch, invested with power, his subjects - princes, nobles, representatives of a noble family, often subjects of the monarch - two lovers, but this love is undesirable, it is condemned by the law of honor and duty. Devotion to one's feelings and one's duty creates a tragic collision. Usually, a tragic conflict is based on a violation of duty by a monarch who does not know how to control his passions and becomes a tyrant in relation to his subjects. In the tragedies of Sumarokov, the monarch, unable to suppress his passion, attraction, has no right to control others. And hence, in most tragedies, an important moment in the development of the plot is a speech against a tyrant. This speech is successful if it is directed against despots (Hamlet, Demetrius the Pretender). In other cases, when the ruler is a reasonable monarch (“Semira”, “Vysheslav”) or a monarch who repented of his actions (“Artiston”, “Mstislav”, etc.), the uprising ends in failure. Characteristically, the triumph of Sumarokov's didactic concept of morality leads to happy endings in tragedies (exceptions: "Sinav and Truvor" and "Khorev").

Creating patterns of behavior of a true monarch and a true subject, whose high feelings and thoughts were to educate the Russian nobility, Sumarokov divides his heroes into positive and negative, virtuous and villains, who are revealed to the viewer primarily in his monologues. The action in tragedies is reduced to a minimum, the monologues of the characters are turned into the auditorium and are an expression of certain ideas of the author.

The tragedy "Sinav and Truvor" translated into French was approved by Voltaire. Sumarokov's last tragedies Vysheslav (1768), Dimitry the Pretender (1771) and Mstislav (1774) were written at a time when the playwright was in disgrace and clearly saw that the Russian monarchy was despotic. Sumarokov's opposition to the government and his fight against favoritism were reflected in these tragedies, which were clearly political in nature.

The goal of Sumarokov is the education of monarchs, an indication of their duties towards their subjects:

He reigns over the people to bliss

And the common benefit leading to perfection:

The orphan does not cry under his scepter,

The innocent fear no one,

The flatterer does not bow down at the feet of a nobleman.

The king is an equal judge and an equal father to all.

("Vysheslav")

Proceeding from his ideal of a class monarchy, Sumarokov, with his characteristic vehemence and insolence, attacked those social phenomena and social forces that he regarded negatively. In his latest tragedies, tyrannical motives are intensified. A monarch who is unable to establish order in the state and be the father of his subjects is worthy of contempt, he is a “vile idol”, an “enemy of the people”, who must be overthrown from the throne (“Demetrius the Pretender”). Sumarokov spoke about the "villains" on the throne. It is not for nothing that the tragedy Dimitry the Pretender was included in a collection of the best works of Russian literature published in Paris in 1800. Its compilers explained the choice of this play by the fact that “its plot, almost revolutionary, is obviously in direct conflict with the morals and political system of this country: minor characters (Shuisky, George, Parmen and Xenia) make speeches about the rights of the people and the duties of sovereigns. The theme of the violent overthrow of the tyrant by the people sounds in the tragedy. And although Sumarokov has in mind only a palace coup, and the concepts of “people”, “society”, “sons of the fatherland” are nobles, which P. N. Berkov rightly pointed out in his work on Sumarokov, nevertheless, the socio-political sound this tragedy was very strong.

Sumarokov's tragedies were of great educational value. Spectators sitting in the hall received lessons in morality, listened to lofty words about duty, nobility, love for the Motherland, learned to resent tyranny. N. I. Novikov, the most prominent educator of the 18th century, wrote about Sumarokov: “... although he was the first Russian to write tragedies according to all the rules of theatrical art, he managed so much in them that he deserved the name of northern Racine.” It is characteristic that Sumarokov himself expressed dissatisfaction with the audience. In the preface to Demetrius the Pretender, complaining about the frivolity and indifference of the public, he wrote: “You who traveled, who were in Paris and London, tell me! do they gnaw nuts there during the performance and, when the performance is in its greatest heat, do the drunken coachmen who quarreled with each other flog to the alarm of the entire stalls, boxes and theater?

Designed for the education and upbringing of the nobility, the tragedy of Sumarokov had a wider resonance, a wider sphere of influence. The play "Demetrius the Pretender", according to contemporaries, was "the people's favorite" even in the 20s of the XIX century. The socially progressive role of Sumarokov's tragedies was great, and the type of classical tragedy he created remained for a long time a model followed by modern playwrights and playwrights of later times.

Comedy Sumarokov

Sumarokov said his word in the genre of comedy. In the Epistle on Poetry, the playwright defines the social and educational function of comedy: “The property of comedy is to correct temper with a mockery; / To laugh and use - its direct charter. By exposing human vices in a ridiculous form, denouncing them, comedy should thereby contribute to liberation from them. In "Epistole", formulating the theory of the comedy genre, Sumarokov wrote that comedy should be separated from tragedy, on the one hand, and from farcical games, on the other:

For knowledgeable people, you do not write games:

To laugh without reason is the gift of a vile soul.

Separating comedy from folk games, Sumarokov nevertheless turned to the practice of folk theater in his comedies. His comedies are small in volume (from one to three acts), written in prose, they often lack a plot basis (this applies especially to Sumarokov's first comedies), comedies are characterized by farcical comedy, the characters are a clerk, a judge, a dandy and other characters noticed Sumarokov in Russian life.

Imagine a soulless podyachev in an order,

The judge that he does not understand what is written in the decree.

Imagine me a dandy who picks up his nose,

That the whole age thinks about the beauty of hair,

Who was born, as he imagines, for Cupid,

In order to persuade such a fool somewhere to yourself.

In an effort to imitate, above all, the French comedy of Moliere, Sumarokov was far from the comedies of Western classicism. Classical comedy had to consist of five acts in verse (Molière's comedy The Misanthrope served as an example), it had to have compositional rigor, completeness, obligatory observance of unity (of course, in Western comedy there were deviations from the classical model: comedies in prose were written and Molière). With Sumarokov, the imitation of French comedy and Italian interludes was reflected primarily in the borrowing of conditional names of characters: Erast, Dulizh, Dorant, Isabella, etc.

Sumarokov wrote twelve comedies, which, although they had a number of undoubted merits, were lower in their ideological significance and artistic value than his tragedies.

The first comedies "Tresotinius", "Monsters", "Empty Quarrel" he writes in 1750. The next group of comedies appears in the 60s: "Dowry by deceit", "Guardian", "Poisonous", "Likhoimets", "Narcissus" , "Three brothers are partners", and, finally, in 1772 three more comedies were written - "Cuckold by imagination", "Mother daughter's partner", "Squat". Most often, Sumarokov's comedies served him as a means of polemic, hence the pamphlet nature of most of them. Unlike tragedies, Sumarokov worked on comedies for a short time. In his first comedies, each of the characters who appeared on the stage showed the public his vice, and the scenes were mechanically connected. In a small comedy, there are many actors (in Tresotinius - 10, in Monsters - 11). The portraiture of the characters made it possible for contemporaries to find out who in reality served as the prototype of this or that character. Real faces, everyday details, negative phenomena of Russian life - all this gave Sumarokov's comedies, despite the conventionality of the image, a connection with reality. The strongest side of Sumarokov's comedies was their language: bright, expressive, it is often colored with features of a lively dialect. This manifested the writer's desire to individualize the characters' speech, which is especially characteristic of Sumarokov's later comedies.

The polemical nature of the early comedies, often directed against enemies in the literary field, can be traced in the comedy-pamphlet Tresotinius, in the main character of which, the scientist-pedant, Trediakovsky was depicted in an exaggerated and grotesque form. A parody of Trediakovsky's poems sounds in Tresotinius's song:

Looking at your beauty, I was inflamed, she-she!

Oh, if you please, save me from my passion,

You torment me, Clymene, and knocked me down with an arrow.

The images created in the first comedies were conditional and far from typical generalizations.

Despite the fact that the method of conditional representation of characters is also characteristic of the second group of comedies, nevertheless, they differ from the first ones in a greater depth and conditionality of the image of the main characters. The second group of comedies, written between 1764-1768, refers to the comedies of characters, when all attention is focused on the main character, while other characters serve only to reveal the character traits of the main character. So, "Guardian" is a comedy about a nobleman-usurer, swindler and hypocrite Outsider, "Poisonous" - about the slanderer Herostratus, "Narcissus" - a comedy about a narcissistic dandy. The rest of the characters are positive characters who act as reasoners. The most successful in Sumarokov's comedies are the images of negative characters, in whose characters many satirical and everyday features are noticed, although their portrayal is still far from creating a socially generalized type.

One of the best comedies of this period is the comedy "The Guardian", which focuses on the image of a bigot, a miserly nobleman Outlander, ripping off orphans who fell under his care. The “original” of the Outsider was a relative of Sumarokov Buturlin. It is characteristic that he is also depicted as a central image in other comedies (The Likhoimets, Dowry by Deception). In the comedy "Guardian" Sumarokov does not show the bearer of some kind of vice, but draws a complex character. Before us is not only a miser who knows neither conscience nor pity, but also a hypocrite, an ignoramus, a debauchee. With some resemblance to Moliere's Tartuffe, Sumarokov creates a generalized conditional satirical image of a vicious Russian nobleman. Disclosure of character is facilitated by both speech characteristics and everyday details. The speech of the Outsider is saturated with proverbs and sayings: “the purse is empty, the head is also empty”, “what an honor, if there is nothing to eat?”, “Swearing does not hang on the collar”, “what is taken is sacred”. In his sanctimonious repentance, the Outsider turns to God, saturating his speech with Church Slavonicisms: “Lord, I am a swindler and a soulless person and have not the slightest love for you or for my neighbor; alone trusting in your benevolence, I cry out to you: remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.

The positive characters of Sumarokov's comedies are deprived of vitality, they often act in comedies as reasoners - such is Valery in the comedy "Guardian". The pictorial names of negative characters characteristic of classicism also corresponded to the moralizing goals: the Outsider, Kashchei, Herostratus.

The late 60s - 70s are characterized by the growth of oppositional sentiments in relation to enlightened absolutism among the advanced nobility and the raznochintsy intelligentsia. This was the time when Russian enlightenment thought turned to the formulation of the peasant question. The issue of the relationship between landowners and peasants began to be addressed more closely, socially meaningful in various genres of literature. Attention to the everyday life surrounding a person, the desire for a more complex psychological disclosure of characters in certain social conditions are characteristic of the best dramatic works of the second half of the century. At this time (between 1766-1769) Fonvizin wrote the first everyday comedy from the life of the Russian provincial nobility "The Brigadier", the influence of which affected Sumarokov's last comedies. Following Fonvizin's Brigadier, the best play in Sumarokov's comedy work, The Cuckold by Imagination, appeared, which, in turn, anticipated the appearance of Fonvizin's Undergrowth (some commonality of situations, characters).

The focus of the writer's attention is the life of the provincial poor landowners, Vikul and Khavronya. Limited interests, ignorance, narrow-mindedness characterize them. At the same time, the characters of Sumarokov's comedy are devoid of one-sidedness. Ridiculing the savagery, the absurdity of these people, who only talk about “sowing, reaping, threshing, chickens,” whose peasants go around the world, Sumarokov also shows features that evoke sympathy for them. Vikul and Khavronya touch with their mutual affection (here they precede Gogol's "Old World Landowners"). "Cuckold by imagination" is the pinnacle of Sumarokov's comedy creativity.

Poetry Sumarokov

The diverse work of Sumarokov was also manifested in the richness of poetic genres. Sumarokov sought to give samples of all types of poetry provided for by the theory of classicism. He wrote odes, songs, elegies, eclogues, idylls, madrigals, epigrams, satires, parables. In his poetry, two directions were fundamental - lyrical and satirical. He began writing love songs in the first decade of his creative activity. In the field of love lyrics, which was very popular with his contemporaries, Sumarokov made undoubted discoveries. His lyrics are addressed to a person, to his natural weaknesses. Despite the still conventional image of the lyrical hero, in his songs Sumarokov seeks to reveal the inner world, depth and sincerity of the feelings of the hero or heroine. His lyrics are distinguished by sincere simplicity, immediacy, sincerity and clarity of expression are inherent in it. After the lyrics of the time of Peter the Great, Sumarokov's lyrics, both in the field of content and in the field of verse technique, made a big step forward.

Here is an example of one of those love songs that created Sumarokov's first fame:

Hidden those hours, as you were looking for me,

And all my joy is taken away by you.

I see that you have become unfaithful to me now,

Against me, you have become completely different.

My moan and sadness are fierce,

imagine

And remember those moments

How sweet I was to you.

Look at the places where you saw me

All tenderness they will bring to memory.

Where are my joys? Where has your passion gone?

Gone and never come back to me.

Another life has come;

But was I expecting this?

Lost life dragging

Hope and peace.

Sumarokov often uses the antithesis technique to reveal

Sumarokov Alexander Petrovich was born in Moscow in 1717. He is known to readers of his contemporaries as a poet and playwright.

Alexander Petrovich grew up in a noble family. He received his upbringing and primary education at home. At the age of 15 he entered the land gentry corps. Here begins his work as a young poet.

Sumarokov is known to his fans as a writer of love songs that have received success and public recognition. In his lines, the poet uses the theme of interpersonal conflicts, which he later begins to apply in his tragedies. The most famous of them: "Khorev" (1747), "Hamlet" (1748), "Sinav and Truvor" (1750). Poetic tragedies became an incentive for the playwright to create a theater in Russia, which was headed by Sumarokov himself.

During the reign of Catherine II, the popularity of Alexander Petrovich reaches its full flowering. He has support in the circles of Novikov and Fonvizin. His works are aimed at ridiculing bribe-takers, landowners who treated their serfs cruelly.

But in 1770, a conflict arose between Sumarokov and Saltykov. In this situation, the empress supported the poet, and he wrote her a mocking letter. This event had a negative impact on his literary position.

Throughout his life, the playwright wrote the most interesting works of comedy and tragedy. But in his dying years, he somewhat lost his popularity, which contributed to the passion for bad habits. The consequence is the sudden death of Sumarokov in 1777.

1.10.1777 (14.10). - Died writer, playwright Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov

(11/14/1717 - 10/1/1777) - poet and playwright. Born in St. Petersburg in a noble family. Sumarokov's father was a major military officer and official at. Sumarokov was educated at home, his teacher was a foreigner - the teacher of the heir to the throne, the future. In 1732 he was sent to a special educational institution for children of the higher nobility - the Land Gentry Corps, arranged according to the Prussian model, which was called the "Knight's Academy". There, Sumarokov soon stood out for his serious attitude to scientific studies and, in particular, his attraction to literature.

Sumarokov's first works, written while still in the Corpus, were transcriptions of psalms, love songs and odes; French poets and verses by Tredyakovsky served as models for them. By the time the corpus was finished (1740), two lush and empty odes were printed, in which the poet sang. The students of the Land Gentry Corps received a superficial education, but a brilliant career was secured for them. Sumarokov was no exception, who was released from the corps as an adjutant to Vice-Chancellor Count M. Golovkin, and in 1741, after accession, became adjutant to her favorite, Count A. Razumovsky. Service under him gave Sumarokov the opportunity to be in the high society of the capital and led to acquaintance with famous figures of that time.

During this period, Sumarokov called himself a poet of "tender passion": he composed fashionable love and pastoral songs (about 150 in total), which were very successful, he also wrote shepherd's idylls (7 in total) and eclogues (65 in total). In a dedication to the collection of his eclogues, Sumarokov wrote: “In my eclogues, tenderness and fidelity are proclaimed, and not malicious voluptuousness, and there are no such speeches that would be repugnant to hearing.”

Work in these genres contributed to the fact that the poet developed a light verse, close to the spoken language of that time. The main size used by Sumarokov was iambic six-foot, a Russian variety of Alexandrian verse.

In the odes written in the 1740s, Sumarokov was guided by the patterns given in this genre. This did not prevent him from arguing with the teacher on literary and theoretical issues. Lomonosov and Sumarokov represented two currents of Russian classicism. Unlike the statesman Lomonosov, Sumarokov considered the main tasks of poetry not to raise national problems, but to serve moral ideals. Poetry, in his opinion, should be primarily "pleasant". In the 1750s Sumarokov even made parodies of Lomonosov's odes in a genre that he himself called "absurd odes."

In the second half of the 1740s. Sumarokov introduced the genre of poetic tragedy into Russian literature, creating 9 works of this genre: Khorev (1747), Sinav and Truvor (1750), Dimitry the Pretender (1771), etc. In tragedies written in accordance with the canons of classicism and largely borrowed from French tragedies (plan, ideas, character, even whole scenes and monologues), Sumarokov's critical views regarding the shortcomings of rulers, which cause suffering for many people, also appeared. Nevertheless, in 1756 Sumarokov was appointed the first director of the Russian Theater in St. Petersburg and had an undoubted influence on Russian theatrical art. Sumarokov also composed operas and ballets, in which he introduced a dramatic element and allusions to contemporary events. After retiring in 1761 (many court officials were dissatisfied with his criticism), the poet devoted himself entirely to literary activity.

At the end of the reign of Empress Elizabeth, Sumarokov opposed the established style of government. He was outraged that the nobles did not correspond to the ideal image of the "sons of the fatherland", that bribery flourished. In 1759, he began publishing the journal The Hardworking Bee, dedicated to the future wife of the heir to the throne, with whom he linked his hopes for arranging life according to more moral principles. The magazine contained attacks on the nobles, which is why it closed a year after its foundation due to lack of funds and the unwillingness of the Empress to finance it.

Sumarokov's opposition and his constant struggle with censorship was not least based on his difficult, irritable character. Everyday and literary conflicts - in particular, the conflict with Lomonosov - are also partly explained by this circumstance. And the coming of Catherine II to power disappointed Sumarokov with the fact that a handful of her favorites, first of all, took up not serving the common good, but satisfying their personal needs. Sumarokov may have hinted at his own position in the tragedy Dimitry the Pretender: “I must subdue my tongue to pretense; / To feel differently, to speak differently, / And to be vile sly ones I am like. / Here is the step if the king is unjust and evil. During the reign of Catherine II, Sumarokov paid great attention to the creation of parables, satires, epigrams and pamphlet comedies in prose ("Tresotinius", 1750; "Guardian", 1765; "Cuckold by Imagination", 1772; etc.).

However, for all the difficulties of his character, Sumarokov was guided by moral principles, which he considered obligatory for the nobility. Here is the attitude of Sumarokov to the upper stratum of society: “The word black, belongs to the low people, not the word vile people; for a vile people are convicts and other despicable creatures, and not artisans and farmers. We give this name to all those who are not nobles. Nobleman! Great importance! A reasonable priest and preacher of the majesty of God, or briefly theologian, naturalist, astronomer, rhetorician, painter, sculptor, architect, etc. according to this stupid position [that is, not ranked among the nobility. - Ed.] are members of the mob. O unbearable noble pride, deserving of contempt! The true mob is the ignorant, even if they had great ranks, the wealth of Krezovo and would have drawn their family from Zeus and Juno, who never existed.

Empress Ekaterina appreciated Sumarokov's adherence to principles and, despite the need to sometimes make suggestions to this "hot head", did not deprive him of her favor. All his writings were printed at the expense of the Cabinet. However, she cooled him in conflicts with court nobles: “In this way you will keep the peace of mind necessary for the works of your pen, and it will always be more pleasant for me to see the presentation of passions in your dramas than in your letters.”

According to his philosophical convictions, Sumarokov was a rationalist and formulated his views on the structure of human life as follows: “What is based on nature and truth can never change, and what has other grounds is boasted, blasphemed, introduced and withdrawn at the discretion of each and without any mind." His ideal was enlightened noble patriotism, opposed to uncultured provincialism, metropolitan francomania and bureaucratic venality. In a sense, Sumarokov can be called a Westerner, and although at that time the entire ruling stratum, including the Empress, was like that, his self-conceit was extremely high: he called Voltaire the only one, along with Metastasius, worthy of his "co-worker". And this Voltaire standard also characterizes him as "flesh of flesh" of the Petrine era.

Simultaneously with the first tragedies, Sumarokov began to write literary and theoretical poetic works - epistles. In 1774 he published two of them - "Epistole on the Russian language" and "On poetry in one book. Instruction to those who want to be writers." One of his most important themes was the idea of ​​the greatness of the Russian language. Sumarokov's language is much closer to the spoken language of enlightened nobles than the language of his contemporaries Lomonosov and Trediakovsky. By this, Sumarokov's work had a great influence on contemporary and subsequent Russian literature. In particular, he considered his main merit that "Sumarokov demanded respect for poetry" at a time of neglect of literature.

The conflicted Sumarokov was not happy in family life either. He was married three times. Of the four sons, one died young; three others drowned trying to save each other. From 1771, Sumarokov lived either in Moscow or in the countryside, occasionally visiting St. Petersburg, on business or at the call of the Empress. He died on October 1, 1777 in Moscow, aged 59, and was buried in the Donskoy Monastery.

During the life of Sumarokov, a complete collection of his works was not published, although many poetry collections were published, compiled according to genre. After the poet's death, the freemason Novikov twice published The Complete Collection of All Works of Sumarokov (1781, 1787).

Materials used: