NOTE the Epigraph of Eugene Onegin

NOTE

J. DOUGLAS CLAYTON

The Epigraph of Eugene Onegin : A Hypothesis

A surprisingly neglected feature of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin is the French epigraph which stands at the beginning of the "novel in verse." In its final form, the epigraph reads as follows:

Petri de vanite, il avait encore plus de cette espece d'orgueil qui fait avouer avec la meme indifference les bonnes comme les mauvaises actions, suite d'un sentiment de superiorite, peut-etre imaginaire. Tire d'une lettre particuli�re.1

The position of the epigraph, which is placed immediately after the title, underlines its importance, for from it we receive our first im- pression of the eponymous hero to which it logically refers. Never- theless, few Russian or Western Pushkinists have given the epigraph any attention whatsoever. One attempt to discuss the role of the epigraph was made by L. P. Grossman who, in his study ��I-IYIUICHH H neHnn3M,» sees the emphasis on Onegin's vanity as a link with the typical dandy of western Europe, whose vanity was documented by the French writer J.-A. Barbey d'Aurevilly (1808-1889) 2 Grossman's argument has some validity,3 but it fails to account for the fact that Onegin's vanity is attested to in the quotation, only to be immediately qualified by the adduction of other traits. Despite this shortcoming, Grossman's interpretation of the role of the epigraph as an indicator that the hero is a dandy is

1. This and subsequent quotations from Eugene Onegin are taken from A. C. IIYIIIKJ1H, Co6pauue conunenuu a decsnu TOAax (M., 1958-1962), IV. In subsequent quotations from the poem, the number of the chapter is written, the roman numeral refers to the stanza, and the arabic numerals identify the lines within that stanza. Translations are everywhere my own. 2. JI. II. rpoccmah, 3nodbL o llyv-ixune (M.-IIr., 1923), erp. 29. Barbey's book was entitled Du dandysme et de G. Brummel (Paris, 1845). 3. In the light of Pushkin's characterisation of his hero: KaK dandy JIOH,lIOHCKJ1H oReT... (One: IV: 7). accepted by N. L. Brodskii in the first edition of his Commentary, where the decadence of the dandy as a representative of a doomed aristocracy is emphasized .4 In later editions Brodski excludes these remarks, and passes over the epigraph in silence.e Of western commentators on Eugene Onegin, D. Cizevskij contents himself with noting that the epigraph was probably composed by Pushkin himself.0 V. V. Nabokov is inclined to agree, although he also suggests a possible biographical source for the original of the "private letter" from which the epigraph is supposedly taken.7 The most detailed attempt to discuss the epigraph is made by S. M. Grombakh in his study «06 DriHrpaq)e x 'EBreHHIO OiierHHY',>>,' Grom- bakh argues that the epigraph applies not, as has been genrally accepted, to Onegin, but to Pushkin himself. This assertion is based mainly on the fact that the epigraph was placed at the head of the first chapter when it was first published in 1825, but that the Onegin described in that chapter does not correspond to the characteristics outlined in the epigraph. As it does not apply specifically to the Onegin of Chapter One, Grombakh sees sufficient justification for assuming that the epigraph refers to Pushkin himself. There are several factors which argue against Grombakh's theory. First, the wording of the epigraph is such that generations of readers, as Grombakh himself admits, have considered that it refers to Onegin. One finds it difficult to believe that a poet of Pushkin's caliber would not have realized that the epigraph could be read thus, and altered it to make it refer more specifically to himself, if that is what he intended. Secondly, although the epigraph was placed at the head of the original edition of 1825, which consisted only of Chapter One, we do know that Pushkm intended a longer work, and there is no rea- son for us to think that the epigraph was not designed for the entire work, rather than the first chapter alone.'1 Therefore, even if Grom-

6. A. S. Pushkin, Evgenij Onegin, ed. D. Cizevskij (Cambridge, 1953), p. 207. 7. Aleksandr Pushkin, Eugene Onegin, translated from the Russian, with a commentary, by Vladimir Nabokov, in four volumes (New York, 1964), II, 174, III, 212-213.