[84]And a ruddy-mugged Silenus: from “Bas-relief” (1842) by Apollon Maikov (1821-79), a friend of Dostoevsky’s.
[85]Darkly hid in cave and cleft...: stanzas 2-4 from Schiller’s “Eleusinian Festival” (1798). The version here is adapted from an anonymous English translation of 1843, as is the version of the ode “To Joy” that follows.
[86]That men to man . . .: from “Eleusinian Festival, ‘ stanza 7.
[87] Joy is the mainspring . . .: Schiller’s “Tojoy,” stanzas 4 and 3.
[88]Paul de Koch (1794-1871), French writer, author of innumerable novels depicting petit bourgeois life, some of which were considered risqué.
[89] There was sweet confusion ...: verses of unknown origin, possibly by Dostoevsky himself (Terras, p. 176).
[90]bringup my life from the Pit: Jonah 2:6 (Revised Standard Version).
[91]Balaam’s ass: Numbers 22:30. The ass of the false prophet Balaam suddenly speaks to its master.
[92]The Lord God created ... :see Genesis 1:3-5,14-17.
[93]falling sickness: Dostoevsky prefers this old term for epilepsy.
[94] Evenings on a Farm near Dikanha: the first book of tales by Nikolai Gogol (1809-52).
[95]Smaragdov’s Universal History: a common Russian textbook of the earlier nineteenth century.
[96]Kramskoy: I. N. Kramskoy (1837-87), well-known Russian painter. The Contem-plator was first exhibited in 1878.
[97]a Russian soldier . . .: an actual event, which Dostoevsky wrote about in his Diaryof a Writer (1877).
[98]Jesuits: popularly considered masters of casuistry.
[99]my fine young Jesuit: in wording and rhythm, an ironic paraphrase of a line from Pushkin’s Tale of Tsar Saltan (1831): “Greetings, my fine young prince.”
[100] in the Scriptures . . .: see Matthew 17:20,21:21; Mark 11:23; Luke 17:6.
[101] For as you measure ...: see Matthew 7:2, Mark 4:24, Luke 6:38. Fyodor Pavlovichmisquotes.
[102] Tout cela c’est de la cochonnerie: “That’s all swinishness.”
[103]Best of all . . .: after the emancipation of 1861, peasants had their own courts, along-side the official courts, and often used whipping as a punishment.
[104]il ya du Piron là-dedans: “there’s a bit of the Piron in him’ Alexis Piron (1689-1773), French poet, the author of many songs, satires, and epigrams; witty, but often licentious.
[105] Arbenin: protagonist of Mikhail Lermontov’s play Masquerade; the protagonist of A Hero of Our Time (1840) is Pechorin.
[106]all five: Dmitri confuses the number of cardinal points with the number of continents, considered to be five in the nineteenth century.
[107]the rite of holy unction, in the Orthodox Church, a sacrament of healing, consisting of anointing with oil and remission of sins, administered to the sick and the dying.
[108] on behalf of all and for all: a liturgical formula often repeated or alluded to in B.K.
[109]falling asleep: in Orthodox understanding, death is a “falling asleep in the Lord.”
[110]prosphora: a small, round yeast bread specially prepared for the sacrament of the Eucharist; the Greek word means “offering.”
[111] blessed: the Russian word blazhennyi can mean either “blessed” or “silly, odd,” as in the English phrase “blessed idiot.”
[112] Holy Week: the last week of Lent, between Palm Sunday and Easter; each of the days is called “Great and Holy.”
[113]Laodicea: a council of the Church held in Laodicea (modern Latakia, Syria) in the mid fourth century a.d.
[114]Pentecost: the feast celebrating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles (Acts 2:1-4), fifty days after Easter.
[115]in the form of a dove: the Holy Spirit appeared “like a dove” only once, at Christ’s baptism in the Jordan (see Matthew 3:16, Mark 1:10, Luke 3:22).
[116] Elijah: Luke 1:17 (Revised Standard Version).
[117]the gates of hell: Matthew 16:18.
[118] Den Dank, Dame, begehr ich nicht: “Madame, I want no thanks.” From Schiller’s ballad “The Glove” (1797).
[119]And in all nature . . .: lines from Pushkin’s poem “The Demon” (1823).
[120]Chernomazov: Arina Petrovna inadvertently brings out the implicit meaning of Alyosha’s surname: cherny is Russian for “black”; however, in the Turkish and Tartar languages, kara also means “black” (the root, maz, in Russian conveys the idea of “paint” or “smear”).
[121]Now I’m likeFamusov ...: Famusov, Chatsky, and Sophia are characters in A. S. Griboyedov’s celebrated comedy Woe from Wit (1824), in which the last scene takes place on a stairway.
[122]An invincible power . . .: the Russian original was heard and written down by Dostoevsky in Moscow ca. 1839. Smerdyakov sings the last stanza a bit further on.
[123]You opened her matrix: a biblical expression (see Exodus 13:2, 12; 34:19); Grigory often uses such language, and Smerdyakov has picked up some of it, e.g., “nativity” just before.
[124]father of the present one: Napoleon 1 was the uncle, not the father, of Napoleon III.
[125]Petrovka: a street in the center of Moscow.
[126]sticky little leaves . . .: allusion to Pushkin’s poem “Chill Winds Still Blow” (1828).
[127]professions de foi: “professions of faith.”
[128]a tinge of nobility: a borrowing from Pushkin’s epigram “A tsar was once told . . .” (1825): “Flatterers, flatterers, try to preserve / A tinge of nobility even in your baseness.”
[129]And how believest thou ...: this first half of Ivan’s question comes from the Orthodox order for the consecration of a bishop; in response the bishop-elect recites the Creed.
[130]an old sinner . . .: Voltaire. The quotation comes from his Epistles, 111, “To the Author of a New Book on the Three Impostors” (1769); cf. note 3 to page 24 in section 1.1.4.
[131]the Word . . .: see John 1:1-2.
[132] John the Merciful: a saint, patriarch of Alexandria (611-19). The episode comes, however, from Flaubert’s “La Légende de Saint-Julien - l’Hospitalier” (1876), “Saint Julian the Merciful” in Turgenev’s Russian translation (1877). Ivan significantly substitutes the name John (Ioann, in Russian, i.e., Ivan) for Julian: Flaubert’s Julian is a parricide.
[133]they ate ...: see Genesis 3:5.
[134]as Polonius says ... .Hamlet, 1.3.129 (we have substituted an appropriate line from the passage Dostoevsky quotes in Russian translation).
[135]image and likeness: here, as just earlier, Ivan plays perversely on Genesis 1:26 (“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”).
[136]on its meek eyes: from “Before Evening,” a poem from the cycle About the Weather (1859) by Nikolai Nekrasov.
[137]Tartars: see note 5 to page 27 in section 1.1.5.
[138]A little girl ...: this and the preceding story are both based on actual court cases. Dostoevsky discussed the first at length in Diary of a Writer (1876); the defense attorney there, V. D. Spassovich, is thought to be a possible model for Fetyukovich in B.K.