Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

168CODE OF THE EMPRESS CATHERINE.

Innocent games proposed by any member of the society, must be accepted by the others.

Eat slowly and with appetite: drink with moderation, that each may walk steadily as he goes out.

Leave all quarrels at the door; that which enters at one ear must go out at the other before passing the threshold of the Hermitage. If any member violate the above rules, for each fault witnessed by two persons he must drink a glass of fresh water {ladies not excepted) : furthermore he must read aloud a page of the Telemachiad (a poem by Frediakofsky). Whoever fails during one evening in three of these articles, must learn by heart six lines of the Telemachiad. He who fails in the tenth article must never more re-enter the Hermitage.

Before reading the above, I believed the Empress Catherine possessed a livelier and more pointed wit. Is this a simple pleasantry ? If so it is a bad one, for the shortest jokes are the best. The care which lias been taken to preserve the statutes, as though of great value, surprises me not less than the want of <«·ood taste which characterises them.

7~ì

What chiefly provoked my laughter on reading this social code, was the use that had been made of the poem of Frediakofsky. Woe to the poet immortalised by a sovereign !

Г leave to-morrow for Moscow.