The Uncensored Boris Godunov: The Case for Pushkin’s Original Comedy

578 Pages·2006·2.18 MB·English

by  Chester Dunning

the uncensored
(cid:2) Boris Godunov
Frontispiece. Final page of the original manuscript of Pushkin’s Komediia o tsare
Borise i o Grishke Otrep’eve,dated 7 November 1825. From Institut russkoi literatury
(Pushkinskii Dom) RAN, Rukopisnyi otdel, fond 244, opis’ 1, No. 891, list 51.
Courtesy of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
the uncensored
Boris Godunov
(cid:2) The Case for Pushkin’s
Original Comedy, with
Annotated Text and
Translation
Chester Dunning
with Caryl Emerson, Sergei Fomichev,
Lidiia Lotman, and Antony Wood
the university of wisconsin press
This book was published with the support of Texas A&M University, the Princeton University
Committee for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Wisconsin Center for
Pushkin Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
The University of Wisconsin Press
1930 Monroe Street
Madison, Wisconsin 53711
www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/
3 Henrietta Street
London WC2E 8LU, England
Copyright © 2006
The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
All rights reserved
5 4 3 2
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dunning, Chester S. L., 1949–
The uncensored Boris Godunov : the case for Pushkin’s original comedy, with annotated text
and translation / Chester Dunning with Caryl Emerson ... [et al.].
p.cm. – (Publications of the Wisconsin Center for Pushkin Studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-299-20760-9 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Pushkin, Aleksandr Sergeevich, 1799–1837. Boris Godunov. 2. Boris Fyodorovich Godunov,
Czar of Russia, 1551?–1605– Drama. I. Emerson, Caryl. II. Pushkin, Aleksandr Sergeevich,
1799–1837. Boris Godunov. III. Pushkin, Aleksandr Sergeevich, 1799–1837. Boris Godunov.
English. IV. Title. V.Series.
PG3343.B64D86 2005
891.72(cid:2)3– dc22
2004025636
ISBN 0-299-20764-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Dedicated to the memory of Philip Vellacott,
a great friend and teacher

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Preface to the First Edition xi
Prefaces to the Paperback Edition xv
Acknowledgments xxv
Introduction: Reconsidering History and Expanding the Canon 3
Caryl Emerson and Chester Dunning
1 The Problem of Boris Godunov: A Review of Interpretations
and the So-Called Canonical Text 25
Chester Dunning
2 The Exiled Poet-Historian and the Creation of His Comedy 51
Chester Dunning
3 The Tragic Fate of Pushkin’s Comedy 94
Chester Dunning
4 The World of Laughter inPushkin’s Comedy 136
Sergei Fomichev
vii
viii Contents
5 Tragedy, Comedy, Carnival, and History on Stage 157
Caryl Emerson
6 The Ebb and Flow of Influence: Muffling the Comedic
in the Move toward Print 192
Caryl Emerson
Concluding Remarks: Boris Godunovand the Russian
Literary Canon 233
Caryl Emerson and Chester Dunning
Translator’s Preface 239
Antony Wood
Komediia o tsare Borise i o Grishke Otrep’eve 246
Comedy about Tsar Boris and Grishka Otrepiev 247
Translated by Antony Wood
Notes to Pushkin’s Comedy 454
Chester Dunning with Lidiia Lotman
and Antony Wood
Bibliography 511
Index 535
Illustrations
1. Pushkin’s drawing of Grishka Otrepiev 33
2. Pushkin’s drawing of Historian Laureate Nikolai Karamzin
and some devils 63
3. Early seventeenth-century woodcut of the Pretender
Dmitry Ivanovich 108
4. Preliminary title page of Pushkin’s play 146
5. Early seventeenth-century woodcut of Princess
Maryna Mniszech 211
ix