BATYUSHKOV Konstantin Nikolaevich, Russian poet.
Childhood and youth. Start of service
Born into an old but impoverished noble family. Batyushkov's childhood was overshadowed by the death of his mother (1795) from a hereditary mental illness. In 1797-1802 he studied in private boarding schools in St. Petersburg. From the end of 1802, Batyushkov served in the Ministry of Public Education under the leadership of M. N. Muravyov, a poet and thinker who had a deep influence on him. When war with Napoleon was declared, Batyushkov joined the militia (1807) and took part in the campaign against Prussia (he was seriously wounded near Heilsberg). In 1808 he took part in the Swedish campaign. In 1809 he retired and settled on his estate Khantonovo, Novgorod province.
Beginning of literary activity
Batyushkov's literary activity began in 1805-1806 with the publication of a number of poems in the magazines of the Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Sciences and Arts. At the same time, he became close to writers and artists grouped around A. N. Olenin (N. I. Gnedich, I. A. Krylov, O. A. Kiprensky, etc.). The Olenin circle, which set itself the task of resurrecting the ancient ideal of beauty on the basis of modern sensitivity, opposed itself to both the Slavicizing archaism of the Shishkovists (see A.V. Shishkov), and the French orientation and cult of trifles widespread among the Karamzinists. Batyushkov’s satire “Vision on the Shores of Lethe” (1809), directed against both camps, becomes the literary manifesto of the circle. During these same years, he began translating T. Tasso’s poem “Jerusalem Liberated,” entering into a kind of creative competition with Gnedich, who translated Homer’s “Iliad.”
"Russian Guys"
Batyushkov’s literary position underwent some changes in 1809-1810, when he became close in Moscow with a circle of younger Karamzinists (P. A. Vyazemsky, V. A. Zhukovsky), and met N. M. Karamzin himself. Poems of 1809-1812, including translations and imitations of E. Parni, Tibullus, a cycle of friendly messages (“My Penates”, “To Zhukovsky”) form the image of the “Russian Parni” - an epicurean poet, singer - that determines Batyushkov’s entire subsequent reputation laziness and voluptuousness. In 1813 he wrote (with the participation of A.E. Izmailov) one of the most famous literary and polemical works of Karamzinism, “The Singer or Singers in the Conversation of the Slavic Russians,” directed against the “Conversation of Lovers of the Russian Word.”
In April 1812, Batyushkov became an assistant curator of manuscripts at the St. Petersburg Public Library. However, the outbreak of war with Napoleon prompts him to return to military service. In the spring of 1813 he went to Germany to join the active army and reached Paris. In 1816 he retired.
The military upheavals, as well as the unhappy love experienced during these years for the Olenins’ pupil A.F. Furman, lead to a deep change in Batyushkov’s worldview. The place of the “little philosophy” of Epicureanism and everyday pleasures is taken by the conviction in the tragedy of existence, which finds its only resolution in the poet’s acquired faith in reward after death and the providential meaning of history. A new set of moods permeates many of Batyushkov’s poems of these years (“Nadezhda”, “To a Friend”, “Shadow of a Friend”) and a number of prose experiments. At the same time, his best love elegies dedicated to Furman were created - “My Genius”, “Separation”, “Tavrida”, “Awakening”. In 1815, Batyushkov was admitted to Arzamas (under the name Achilles, associated with his past merits in the fight against archaists; the nickname often turned into a pun, playing on Batyushkov’s frequent illnesses: “Ah, heel”), but disappointed in literary polemics, the poet did not played a significant role in the activities of the society.
"Experiments in poetry and prose." Translations
In 1817 Batyushkov completed a series of translations “From the Greek Anthology”. In the same year, a two-volume publication “Experiments in Poetry and Prose” was published, which collected the most significant works of Batyushkov, including the monumental historical elegies “Hesiod and Omir, Rivals” (an adaptation of the elegy of C. Milvois) and “The Dying Tass ”, as well as prose works: literary and art criticism, travel essays, moralizing articles. "Experiments..." strengthened Batyushkov's reputation as one of the leading Russian poets. The reviews noted the classical harmony of Batyushkov’s lyrics, who connected Russian poetry with the muse of southern Europe, primarily Italy and Greco-Roman antiquity. Batyushkov also owns one of the first Russian translations of J. Byron (1820).
Mental crisis. Last verses
In 1818 Batyushkov received an appointment to the Russian diplomatic mission in Naples. A trip to Italy was a long-term dream of the poet, but the difficult impressions of the Neapolitan revolution, work conflicts, and a feeling of loneliness lead him to an increasing mental crisis. At the end of 1820 he sought a transfer to Rome, and in 1821 he went to sea in Bohemia and Germany. The works of these years - the cycle “Imitations of the Ancients”, the poem “You awaken, O Baya, from the tomb...”, the translation of a fragment from “The Bride of Messina” by F. Schiller are marked by increasing pessimism, the conviction of the doom of beauty in the face of death and the ultimate unjustification of earthly things existence. These motives reached their culmination in a kind of poetic testament of Batyushkov - the poem “Do you know what the gray-haired Melchizedek said / saying goodbye to life?” (1824).
At the end of 1821, Batyushkov began to develop symptoms of hereditary mental illness. In 1822 he travels to Crimea, where the disease worsens. After several suicide attempts, he is admitted to a psychiatric hospital in German city Sonnestein, from where he was discharged due to complete incurability (1828). In 1828-1833 he lived in Moscow, then until his death in Vologda under the supervision of his nephew G. A. Grevens.
K. N. Batyushkov (1787 - 1855)
“Poet of Joy” according to Pushkin’s will
The future founder of the anacreontic movement in Russian lyric poetry was born into a noble noble family in 1787 in Vologda. He spent his childhood near Bezhetsk on the Danilovskoye estate in the Tver province. The descendant of an ancient family lost his mother at an early age, who went crazy and died in 1795, when the boy had just turned 8. Having received an excellent upbringing at home, and then studying in private foreign boarding schools in St. Petersburg, he became fluent in French. In the original he reads Voltaire, whose cynical mind for a long time became for Batyushkov the most fascinating reflection of the Age of Enlightenment.
The poet owned many foreign languages and gained fame as a polyglot. Since 1802, he has lived under the same roof with his uncle M. Muravyov, a famous educator and writer who played a decisive role in the development of the poet’s personality. He made his debut in print with satirical poems entitled “Message to My Poems.”
Self-portrait of Batyushkov: “either healthy, then sick at the point of death”
The poet was very successful in the genre of satire - from his pen came numerous accusatory epigrams, “Message to Chloe”, “To Phyllis”. Carefully and with interest studying the literature and philosophy of the French Enlightenment, the Italian Renaissance and ancient poetry, he became the author of “The Bacchae”, “The Merry Hour” and the message to Vyazemsky and Zhukovsky “My Penates”.
Subsequently, finding himself with the Russian army in Europe, when the defeat of Napoleon became clear, Batyushkov created the essay “Travel to the Castle of Sirey.” According to legend, the owner of the castle, Marquise Emilie du Châtelet, hospitably received Voltaire here, where the Ferney sage spent his years of exile. However, Batyushkov is extremely incomprehensible to Voltaire’s thirst for honor and glory, and the 27-year-old poet abandoned the greedy curiosity and vanity of the French Enlightenment.
However, summing up conscious life, Batyushkov will write:
A man was born a slave,
He will go to his grave as a slave.
Poet of Pushkin's era
The author of “My Penates” spent the last 30 years of his life in madness, crushed either by mania of persecution or by delusions of grandeur, and only before his death, having settled in quiet Vologda, Batyushkov calmed down a little and read with curiosity newspapers about Crimean War. Over the years, the poet's reading circle expanded significantly: the heart expert Rousseau, the inquisitive Montaigne, the singer of the sorrows of love, Guys, whom Batyushkov willingly translated into the great and mighty tongue, slightly softening the Frenchman’s naughty eroticism.
Based on one of Parni’s creations, Batyushkov wrote “The Bacchae” in 1815, which especially delighted Pushkin, who considered Batyushkov’s work “better and more lively than the original.” French culture, a strong impetus for immersion into which was the well-known boarding house Jacquinot, became the cradle of Batyushkov, but later he sharply changed his attitude towards it, preferring the Italian Renaissance and antiquity.
So, by 1801 Batyushkov had already moved to the Tripoli boarding house for in-depth study melodic language, the elegance of which encourages Batyushkov to look for lyrical softness in Russian poetry. Batyushkov tries to find sonority and purity, sunny clarity, excited passion after the harsh odes of Lomonosov, the simple-minded style of Derzhavin and the gentle poems of Zhukovsky.
For Batyushkov this turned out to be a difficult task, from which he even fell into despair, calling himself ridiculous in conscience in an attempt to sing praises on a balalaika after hearing a virtuoso on the harp. Batyushkov called the Russian language balalaika, considering it harsh. Batyushkov had no shortage of friendly attention: he had warm relations with Olenin, Turgenev, Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky. However, none of them could influence the course of his life. For all his amiable courtesy and modesty, Batyushkov was so original that the true content of his life was a mystery to everyone.
The poet with “a face as kind as a heart”
In 1814, he wrote the elegy “Shadow of a Friend,” which was born upon Batyushkov’s return from England. Readers are presented with the sad complaints of a subtle sentimentalist, in whom the memory of the heart is still alive. We also see the flights of a romantic who denies the boundaries of life and death. According to the will of the critics, Batyushkov cannot be placed into any of the known literary traditions. His elegies contain tender sensitivity, Shakespearean power of passion, and dark bitterness. However, at the same time, everything is based on deep fidelity to the feeling characteristic of Italian poetry and Russian consciousness.
N.V. Friedman wrote “Batyushkov’s Poetry,” in which he examined in detail the author’s artistic method and style, gave him the highest rating and put him on a par with greatest poets century. He was also friendly with Pushkin, but he was afraid of his frivolity, love of life, and most of all his reckless generosity in constant waste of himself.
Batyushkov experienced a spiritual crisis, which resulted in the works “To a Friend”, “Hope”, and in the genre of elegy there are motifs of unrequited love (“My Genius”, “Separation”), and in the poems “The Saying of Melchizedek” and “Dying Tass” there is high tragedy . Remaining a “poet of joy” in his dreams, Batyushkov confessed in his message “To Friends”:
He lived exactly as he wrote...
Neither good nor bad!
Russian poet. The head of the anacreotic trend in Russian lyric poetry ("The Merry Hour", "My Penates", "Bacchae"). Later he experienced a spiritual crisis (“Hope”, “To a Friend”); in the genre of elegy - motives of unrequited love ("Separation", "My Genius"), high tragedy ("The Dying Tass", "The Saying of Melchizedek").
Biography
Born on May 18 (29 NS) in Vologda into a noble noble family. Childhood years were spent on the family estate - the village of Danilovskoye, Tver province. Home education was supervised by his grandfather, the leader of the nobility of the Ustyuzhensky district.
From the age of ten, Batyushkov studied in St. Petersburg in private foreign boarding schools and spoke many foreign languages.
From 1802 he lived in St. Petersburg in the house of his uncle M. Muravyov, a writer and educator who played a decisive role in shaping the poet’s personality and talent. He studied the philosophy and literature of the French Enlightenment, ancient poetry, and the literature of the Italian Renaissance. For five years he served as an official in the Ministry of Public Education.
In 1805 he made his debut in print with the satirical poems “Message to My Poems.” During this period, he wrote poems predominantly of the satirical genre (“Message to Chloe”, “To Phyllis”, epigrams).
In 1807 he joined the people's militia; his unit was sent to the site of military operations against Napoleon in Prussia. In the battle of Heilsberg he was seriously wounded and evacuated to Riga, where he was treated. Then he moved to St. Petersburg, where he suffered a serious illness and upon recovery returned to the regiment. In the spring of 1808, having recovered, Batyushkov went to the troops operating in Finland. He reflected his impressions in the essay “From the Letters of a Russian Officer in Finland.” After retiring, he devoted himself entirely to literary creativity.
The satire “Vision on the Shores of Lethe,” written in the summer of 1809, marks the beginning of the mature stage of Batyushkov’s work, although it was published only in 1841.
In 1810 - 1812 he actively collaborated in the magazine “Dramatic Herald”, became close to Karamzin, Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky and other writers. His poems “Merry Hour”, “Happy Man”, “Source”, “My Penates”, etc. appeared.
During the War of 1812, Batyushkov, who did not join the active army due to illness, experienced “all the horrors of war,” “poverty, fires, hunger,” which was later reflected in the “Message to Dashkov” (1813). In 1813-14 he took part in the foreign campaign of the Russian army against Napoleon. The impressions of the war formed the content of many poems: “The Prisoner”, “The Fate of Odysseus”, “Crossing the Rhine”, etc.
In 1814 - 1817 Batyushkov traveled a lot, rarely staying in one place for more than six months. He experienced a severe spiritual crisis: disappointment in the ideas of Enlightenment philosophy. Religious sentiments grew. His poetry is painted in sad and tragic tones: the elegy “Separation”, “To a Friend”, “Awakening”, “My Genius”, “Tavrida”, etc. In 1817 the collection “Experiments in Poems and Prose” was published, which included translations , articles, essays and poems.
In 1819 he left for Italy for a new service - he was appointed an official at the Neopolitan mission. In 1821 he was overcome by an incurable mental illness (persecution mania). Treatment in the best European clinics was not successful - Batyushkov never returned to normal life. His last twenty years were spent with relatives in Vologda. Died of typhus on July 7 (19 n.s.) 1855. Buried in the Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery.
The boy came into a family where both parents had severe mental disorders. His mother, shortly after the birth of her son, went crazy and was placed in an appropriate institution. My father was a very difficult person. All this could not but affect the psychology of little Kostya. His only salvation was the family of his cousin, Mikhail Nikitich Muravyov, where the future poet was loved and tried in every possible way to develop his literary interests. Thanks to his uncle, he receives an education and is assigned to work in the Ministry of Public Education.
In 1807-1808 he took part in military campaigns. In 1809 he retired and settled on his estate in the Novgorod province.
Batyushkov’s first poetic works were published in 1805-1806 in the literary publications of the Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Sciences and Arts. In them, the poet appears as a follower of one of the new literary ideas of that time - the resurrection of the ideal of ancient beauty through modern sensual comprehension. Later, Batyushkov would more often turn to Russian themes in his work, but would still remain an epicurean poet, glorifying voluptuousness and laziness.
Mental "rift"
Batyushkov’s life and work would change radically after the War of 1812. Being a man of passions and free entertainment, he goes through all military campaign fight against Napoleon and this has a devastating effect on him. Suddenly seeing the horrors of war, the poet turns out to be unprepared for this and his work “breaks down” into extremely tragic and even “doomed” works. An additional pessimistic mood is given to the poems by the unrequited love that Batyushkov experienced during these years.
He is accepted into the Arzamas literary society, the poet makes excellent translations of “From the Greek Anthology” and the best European authors, writes prose works and travel essays. But in Russia he becomes “cold”; he dreams of leaving for Italy - a country he has dreamed of since childhood.
"End of the Road"
Since 1818, Batyushkov was transferred to Italy to the Russian diplomatic mission. But the mental crisis that has begun does not leave him alone. The poet does not find a place for himself either in Italy, or in Bohemia or Germany, where he later moves. Here his poetic gift flares up for the last time, but already completely permeated with pessimism and doom.
In 1821, the poet showed the first symptoms of mental illness, and the next year in Crimea he finally fell ill. After attempts at treatment in various clinics abroad and in Russia, he was discharged as hopelessly ill under the care of relatives. In July 1855, Batyushkov completed his life path in the same place where he was born - in the city of Vologda.
This is interesting: A.S. Pushkin considered Batyushkov his teacher and in his early work imitated him in many ways.