Aleksandr Sumarokov
Aleksandr Petrovich Sumarokov (Russian:
Александр Петрович Сумароков) (November
25, 1717 – October 12, 1777) was a
Russian poet and playwright who
single-handedly created classical
theatre in Russia, thus assisting
Mikhail Lomonosov to inaugurate the
reign of classicism in Russian
literature.
Life and works
Born of a good family of Muscovite
gentry, Sumarokov was educated at the
Cadet School in Petersburg, where he
acquired an intimate familiarity with
French polite learning. Neither an
aristocratic dilettante like Antiokh
Kantemir nor a learned professor like
Vasily Trediakovsky, he was the first
gentleman in Russia to choose the
profession of letters. He consequently
may be called the father of the Russian
literary profession. His pursuits did
not undermine his position in the
family; indeed, his grandson was made a
count and, when the Sumarokov family
became extinct a century later, the
title eventually passed to Prince Felix
Yusupov, who also styled himself Count
Sumarokov-Elston in memory of his
illustrious ancestor.
Sumarokov wrote much and regularly,
chiefly in those literary kinds
neglected by Lomonosov. His principal
importance rests in his plays, among
which Khorev (1749) is regarded as the
first regular Russian drama. He ran the
first permanent public theatre in the
Russian capital, where he worked with
the likes of Fyodor Volkov and Ivan
Dmitrievsky. His plays were based on the
subjects taken from Russian history
(Dmitry Samozvanets), proto-Russian
legends (Khorev) or on Shakespearean
plots (Makbet, Hamlet).
D.S. Mirsky believed that there could
be no doubt "the good acting made the
reputation of Sumarokov, as the literary
value of his plays is small. His
tragedies are a stultification of the
classical method; their Alexandrine
couplets are exceedingly harsh; their
characters are marionettes. His comedies
are adaptations of French plays, with a
feeble sprinkling of Russian traits.
Their dialogue is a stilted prose that
had never been spoken by anyone and
reeked of translation".
Sumarokov's non-dramatic work is by
no means negligible. His fables are the
first attempt in a genre that was
destined to flourish in Russia with
particular vigor. His satires, in which
he occasionally imitates the manner of
popular poetry, are racy and witty
attacks against the government clerks
and officers of law. His songs, of all
his writings, still attract readers of
poetry. They are remarkable for a
prodigious metrical inventiveness and a
genuine gift of melody. In subject
matter they are entirely within the pale
of classical, conventional love poetry.
Sumarokov's literary criticism is
usually carping and superficial, but it
did much to inculcate on the Russian
public the canons of classical taste. He
was a loyal follower of Voltaire, with
whom he prided himself on having
exchanged several letters. Vain and
self-conscious, Sumarokov considered
himself a Russian Racine and Voltaire in
one. In personal relations he was
irritable, touchy, and often petty. But
his exacting touchiness contributed,
almost as much as did Lomonosov's calm
dignity, to raise the profession of the
pen and to give it a definite place in
society.
