ANTHOLOGY OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE.
Anthology of Russian Literature. By Leo Wiener. Vol. I. (G. P. Putnam's Sons. 12s. 6d.)—Professor Wiener has found room in this first volume of his for representative specimens of some nine centuries of Russian literature, and eight of these occupy the first two hundred pages. The folk-lore is curious; so is "The Holy Virgin's Descent into Hell" (belonging to the twelfth century). Professor Wiener tells, us that it is of Manichaean origin. Certainly it is not orthodox. The souls in torment say to her: "Your blessed Son came upon earth and did not ask for us, nor Abraham the Patriarch, nor Moses the Prophet, nor John the Baptist, nor Paul the Apostle, the Lord's favourite. But you, Holy Virgin and intercessor, are a protection to Christian people." At p. 202 the eighteenth century begins, but the names are strange, save a few that are known in other ways. There is the Empress Catharine, for instance, who coquetted with Western culture till she began to scent the Revolution in it.
The Princess Dolgortiki is known by her romantic story. She had been betrothed to the Prince during the life of his patron, Peter II.; she married him in order to share his exile when the Empress Anne banished him to Siberia. Her grandson was a poet of some note. We may quote a stanza from Sir John Bovrring's translation of the "Legacy "
•• When time's vicissitudes are ended
Be this, be this my place of rest Here let my bones with earth be blended, Till sounds the trumpet of the blest.
For here in common home are mingled Their dust, whom fame or fortune singled, And those whom fortune, fame passed by,
All mingled and all mouldering :—felly And wisdom, mirth and melancholy,
Slaves and tyrants—all mixt carelessly."
Professor Wiener will have a more interesting task in his second volume, but he deserves the recognition and gratitude of Western readers for what he gives them here.
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