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

4. The World of Laughter in Pushkin's Comedy

Pushkin was inspired to begin work on his Comedy about Tsar Boris and Grishka Otrepiev by reading volumes 10 and 11 of Nicholas Karamzin’s History of the Russian State. In one of Pushkin’s working notebooks (the “Second Masonic Notebook”), in an entry dated November 1824, is a synopsis of events taken from Karamzin’s History, concerned primarily with “The murder of S[aint] Dmitry” in 1591. After this event the synopsis moves straight to the year 1598: “The State Secretary and pechatnik Vasily Shchelkalov asks for an oath in the name of the Boyar Duma. Elect[ion] of Godunov.” Following the synopsis, however, is a list of “banishments and executions 1584–1587” as well as a list of the members of the boyar council in 1584, the last-mentioned of whom is “Godunov, son-in-law of Maliuta Skuratov.”1 This supplementary information was no doubt important to Pushkin as evidence of Boris Godunov’s longstanding , systematic, and treacherous preparations for clearing a path to the throne for himself – dating back to the beginning of the reign of Ivan the Terrible’s power-shy successor Tsar Feodor. On the next page of Pushkin’s “Second Masonic Notebook” is a synopsis of the play:2 God[unov] in monastery. Princes’ conversation – news – square, news of election. God[unov] holy fool – Chronicler. Otrepiev – flight of Otrepiev. God[unov] in monastery. His repentance – fugitive monks. God[unov] with his family – 4 The World of Laughter in Pushkin’s Comedy  Sergei Fomichev 136 God[unov] in Council. Talk on the square. – News of betrayals, death of Irina. God[unov] and sorcerers. Pretender [in the midst of] battle – Death of Godunov ( – news of first victory, feasting, appearance of the Pretender) boyars’ oath, betrayal. Pushkin and Pleshcheev on the square – Dmitry’s letter – veche – murder of the tsar – Pretender enters Moscow. In the course of the play’s composition this plan was radically altered in the following respects: 1) The Polish scenes are added. 2) The death of Irina and the tsar’s consultation with sorcerers are barely mentioned; there are no individual scenes relating to these subjects or to “Godunov in monastery.” 3) The Pretender appears in a greater number of scenes (but not his entry into Moscow) and acquires parity with Godunov in the plot. Especially noteworthy in this synopsis (and also in Karamzin’s History ) is the absence of comic scenes, with the possible exception of “Godunov holy fool [iurodivyi]” – but even that is deleted from the first manuscript of the Comedy. Pushkin’s note regarding “Godunov holy fool” is usually taken as a reference to scene 18 (“Square in front of the Cathedral, Moscow”), even though that scene is surely being referred to in the synopsis two paragraphs below by the words: “Talk on the square.” In fact, another interpretation of Pushkin’s intentions here is possible – that Boris, after agreeing to accept the throne, did not immediately leave the monastery, but instead spent more time there and indeed began his reign there. Following the course of events surrounding Boris Godunov’s election expounded in volume 11 of the History of the Russian State, Pushkin might, at this early stage, have been fixing his attention on the following observation of Karamzin’s:3 Both prelates and great lords attempted in vain to persuade the tsar to leave a dwelling-place that was sad for him, to settle with his wife and children in the Kremlin palace and show himself to the people crowned and enthroned; Boris replied: “I cannot part from the great queen [Tsar Feodor’s widow], my ill-fated sister,” and once again, indefatigable in his hypocrisy [italics – S. F.], declared that he had no wish to be tsar. This episode in the enthronement of a Boris who was a hypocrite (or who played the “holy fool”) might have served as the content of the scene The World of Laughter in Pushkin’s Comedy 137 noted in the synopsis and then dropped. However, among variant drafts for the beginning of the first scene, which was written immediately after the synopsis, the following exchange takes place between Vorotynsky and Shuisky about Boris’s behaviour before his accession: – What do you think? How will this business end? – How will it end? Not difficult to guess – The people will still groan upon their knees, Boris will show a little more impatience, And then at last, from generosity, Most...