Four Plays | Page 2

mangled version the play was acted in 1861;
in its original text it did not appear on the stage until 1881. Besides all
this, the drama was the cause of the dismissal of Ostróvsky from the
civil service, in 1851. The whole episode illustrates the difficulties
under which the great writers of Russia have constantly labored under a
despotic government.
Beginning with 1852 Ostróvsky gave his whole strength to literary
work. He is exceptional among Russian authors in devoting himself
almost exclusively to the theatre. The latest edition of his works
contains forty-eight pieces written entirely by him, and six produced in
collaboration with other authors. It omits his translations from foreign
dramatists, which were of considerable importance, including, for
example, a version of Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew."
The plays of Ostróvsky are of varied character, including dramatic
chronicles based on early Russian history, and a fairy drama, "Little
Snowdrop." His real strength lay, however, in the drama of manners,
giving realistic pictures of Russian life among the Russian city classes
and the minor nobility. Here he was recognized, from the time of the
appearance on the stage of his first pieces, in 1853 and the following
years, as without a rival among Russian authors for the theatre. Of this
realistic drama the present volume gives four characteristic examples.
The tone of "Poverty Is No Crime" (1854), written only four years after
"A Family Affair," is in sharp contrast with that of its predecessor. In
the earlier play Ostróvsky had adopted a satiric tone that proved him a
worthy disciple of Gógol, the great founder of Russian realism. Not one
lovable character appears in that gloomy picture of merchant life in
Moscow; even the old mother repels us by her stupidity more than she
attracts us by her kindliness. No ray of light penetrates the "realm of
darkness"--to borrow a famous phrase from a Russian critic--conjured
up before us by the young dramatist. In "Poverty Is No Crime" we see
the other side of the medal. Ostróvsky had now been affected by the
Slavophile school of writers and thinkers, who found in the traditions
of Russian society treasures of kindliness and love that they contrasted
with the superficial glitter of Western civilization. Life in Russia is
varied as elsewhere, and Ostróvsky could change his tone without

doing violence to realistic truth. The tradesmen had not wholly lost the
patriarchal charm of their peasant fathers. A poor apprentice is the hero
of "Poverty Is No Crime," and a wealthy manufacturer the villain of the
piece. Good-heartedness is the touchstone by which Ostróvsky tries
character, and this may be hidden beneath even a drunken and degraded
exterior. The scapegrace, Lyubím Tortsóv, has a sound Russian soul,
and at the end of the play rouses his hard, grasping brother, who has
been infatuated by a passion for aping foreign fashions, to his native
Russian worth.
Just as "Poverty Is No Crime" shows the influence of the Slavophile
movement, "A Protégée of the Mistress" (1859) was inspired by the
great liberal movement that bore fruit in the emancipation of the serfs
in 1861. Ostróvsky here departed from town to a typical country manor,
and produced a work kindred in spirit to Turgénev's "Sportsman's
Sketches," or "Mumu." In a short play, instinct with simple poetry, he
shows the suffering brought about by serfdom: the petty tyranny of the
landed proprietor, which is the more galling because it is practised with
a full conviction of virtue on the part of the tyrant; and the crushed
natures of the human cattle under his charge.
The master grim, the lowly serf that tills his lands; With lordly pride
the first sends forth commands, The second cringes like a slave.
--_Nekrasov._
Despite the unvarying success of his dramas on the stage, Ostróvsky for
a long time derived little financial benefit from them. Discouragement
and overwork wrecked his health, and were undoubtedly responsible
for the gloomy tone of a series of plays written in the years following
1860, of which "Sin and Sorrow Are Common to All" (1863) is a
typical example. Here the dramatist sketches a tragic incident arising
from the conflict of two social classes, the petty tradesmen and the
nobility. From the coarse environment of the first emerge honest,
upright natures like Krasnóv; from the superficial, dawdling culture of
the second come weak-willed triflers like Babáyev. The sordid plot
sweeps on to its inevitable conclusion with true tragic force.
Towards the end of his life Ostróvsky gained the material prosperity
that was his due. "There was no theatre in Russia in which his plays
were not acted" (Skabichévsky). From 1874 to his death he was the
president of the Society of Russian Dramatic Authors. In 1885 he

received the important post of artistic director of the Moscow
government