Eugene Onegin

the author of Recherches physiologiques sur la vie et la mort; Simon Tissot (1728-1797), a famous Swiss doctor, author of the treatise De la sant des gens de lettres; Pierre Bayle (1647-1706), French philosopher, author of the famous Dictionnaire historique et critique; Bernard Fontenelle (1657-1757), French rationalist philosopher and man of letters, author of Dialogues des morts.

205 Benedetta: 'Benedetta sia la madre' (Blessed be the mother), a popular Venetian barcarolle.

Idol mio: 'Idol mio, piu pace non ho' (My idol, I have peace no longer), the refrain from a duet by Vincenzo Gabussi (1800-46).

212 ''Some are no more, and distant. . . others': though probably written in 1824, these lines were taken almost immediately as an allusion to Pushkin's friends among the executed or exiled Decembrists (participants in the ill-fated revolt of December 1825).

Sadi: the thirteenth-century Persian poet.

Appendix

215 Camenae: water-nymphs identified with the Greek Muses.

Katenin: Pavel Katenin (1792-1853). A minor poet and critic, whose Recollections of Pushkin were published in the twentieth century.

217 Makriev Market: a famous market fair held in midsummer in the town of Makariev, to which it moved in 1817 from Nizhni Novgorod.

218 Terek: a river in the Caucasus.

Kara's and Argva 's banks: refers to two mountain rivers in the Caucasus.

Beshtu: (or Besh Tau): a five-peaked mountain eminence in the northern Caucasus.

Mashuk: one of the peaks in the northern Caucasus.

219 Orestes with his friend here vied: a reference to the tale of Orestes and his friend Pylades, who argued over which of them would be sacrificed to the goddess Artemis, each wishing to die in the other's place. In the end both escaped, along with the temple priestess, who turned out to be Iphigenia, Orestes' sister.

Mithridates: King of Pontus, who in 63 #62058; #62073;, after being defeated by Rome, ordered one of his soldiers to kill him. Pushkin visited his alleged tomb while travelling in the Crimea in 1820.

219 Adam Mickiwicz: Polish national poet (1798-1855), who spent almost five years in Russia, where he made the acquaintance of Pushkin. His visit to the Crimea in 1825 provided material for his Crimean Sonnets.

220 Cypris: Venus or Aphrodite.

221 Bakhchisarai: the reference is to a fountain in the garden of the Crimean Khan's palace. See Pushkin's narrative poem 'The Fountain of Bakhchisarai'.

Zarma: the jealous wife of the Khan, one of the heroines in Pushkin's poem 'The Fountain of Bakhchisarai'.

222 Morali: (or Moor Ali): apparently a Moorish seaman or pirate, whom Pushkin met during his stay in Odessa.

Tumnsky: a minor poet who served along with Pushkin as a clerk to the governor of Odessa.

225 Automne: Csar Automne, a well-known restaurateur in Odessa.

226 Ausonia: Italy.