The Death of Ivan the Terrible
Encyclopedia
The Death of Ivan the Terrible is an historical drama
by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy
written in 1863 and first published in the January 1866 issue of Otechestvennye zapiski
magazine. It is the first part of a trilogy
that is followed by Tsar Fiodor Ioannovich
and concludes with Tsar Boris
. All three plays were banned by the censor
. It dramatises the story of Ivan IV of Russia
and is written in blank verse
. Tolstoy was influenced by the work of William Shakespeare
in writing the trilogy, which formed the core of his reputation as a writer in the Russia of his day and as a dramatist to this day.
in a letter from Dresden
that he was working upon "a large poem in verse The Death of Ioann Grozny… Two acts of it are being finished and, as people tell me, are good", he added. The deterioration of health hindered the creative process, but Act 3 has been completed by the summer of that year and in the end of 1863 the play was virtually ready.
Some details as to the original draft of it have been traced through Tolstoy's correspondence with Karolina Pavlova
who was translating the text into German
, and was being asked to make changes according to those Tolstoy was making to his original text. Some of the scenes that have been excluded by the author from the final version of the play looked significant, one being Boris Godunov
's conversation with tsarina Anastasia Romanovna
about her granting him trusteeship right over Dmitry after Ioann and Fyodor
's respective deaths. Also cut has been the scene of Godunov's talk with Dmitry's nanny. Both, according to Tolstoy, precipitated Tsar Fiodor Ioannovich, the second play of the trilogy and both have made their way into it later, although, as critics noticed, some fragments of which exactly the same could be said, have been kept in the original text.
Making preparations for the first separate edition of the play, which came in November, 1866, Tolstoy again made changes. In the magazine version in both scenes of Act 1 there's been no mention of any negotiations with the British ambassador. The final Zakharyin's words ("Forgive us all! Here's the price we have to pay for edinovlastye, for our own corruption") also appeared for the first time in the book version, summing up what was obviously the drama’s main idea. Tolstoy was taking into account other people’s opinions he was becoming aware of. In the Act 5 he dropped some archaisms and also several of the skomorokh
s’ couplets, so as to avoid the unwanted comic effect.
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The major source for Tolstoy as he was working upon the drama (as it was with the whole trilogy) was History of the Russian State by Nikolay Karamzin. The whole of the Act 1 is based upon one small fragment in Vol.IX of it describing Ioann's feelings after the killing of his son, his relinquishing the throne, boyar
s' reaction to this and his consent to (as he put it) "bear this burden of rule for some more time" Details of this fragment of History have been expanded by Tolstoy into full-blown scenes: Zakharyev addressing boyars, Ioann's musing on the possibility of taking a schema oath, his conversation with boyars. The messengerэs tale in the Scene 2, Act 1 was based upon Karamzin's description of the Pskov siege which Tolstoy has taken numerous details from, moving them together, chronologically. The Garaburda scene (exceptionally important for the play's structure, according to the author's "Production plan") has been totally made up, but again, some details involved have been taken from Karamzin (Mikhail Garaburda's negotiations with Grozny in 1573, among others).
Apart from Karamzin's History Tolstoy used, albeit to a lesser extent, Tales of Prince Kurbsky, published in 1831 by N.Ustryalov. Kurbsky's letters in Scene 2, Act 1, present a mosaic of his real letters, the 1679 one featuring most prominently. In the Act 4 the Ivan Grozny synodic text reading quotes a real document. The play's major characters are historical figures, most of the minor ones (servants, stolniks) are fictional. One notable exception is a Pskovian messenger, a figure featuring in historical chronicles. The Boyar duma members have names of real people, one exception being Sitsky, a totally fictitious part.
, the fire in Aleksandrovskaya sloboda all relate to the second half of 1581. Tolstoy was improvising a lot when it came to motives and undercurrents, occasionally creating links between things historians thought were unrelated. Having greatly increased the historical role of Boris Godunov, he's made him take part in several events had no bearing to. According to I.Yampolsky, Boris' speech in Duma
, the clash with Sitsky, addressing Tsar Ivan on behalf of Duma asking for his return to the throne, his opposition to the monarch's marrying Princess of Hastings and unwilling support for tsarina Maria, Ivan's advise for Fyodor to always listen to what Boris would say, - were all author's artistic inventions.
The idea of expanding it into a trilogy came to Tolstoy while he was working on Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, but, as I.Yampolsky notes, The Death of Ioann the Terrible gives the impression some future development of Godunov's character already having been on author’s mind. The appearance of Mikhail Bityagovsky in the play, the figure which according to historical sources would come upon the scene many years later, could be seen as pointing to this, too. Besides, Tolstoy created new logical threads between Bityagovsky's taking part in the conflict between Boris and boyars, his agitation of people against Shuisky
and Belsky - to the murder of Dmitry.
in 1867. It was not a success, due to the lead role having been given to a comic actor.
The world-famous Moscow Art Theatre
began its second season with a production of the play, which opened on 29 September 1899. It was directed by the seminal theatre practitioner
Constantin Stanislavski, who also played the lead role initially. When Stanislavski fell ill after the first few performances, he was replaced by Vsevolod Meyerhold
.
The play received its first New York production in 1904, which opened on 1 March at the New Amsterdam Theatre
on Broadway
in a translation by S. R. DeMeissner.
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy
Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy
Count Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, often referred to as A. K. Tolstoy , was a Russian poet, novelist and playwright, considered to be the most important nineteenth-century Russian historical dramatist...
written in 1863 and first published in the January 1866 issue of Otechestvennye zapiski
Otechestvennye Zapiski
Otechestvennye Zapiski was a Russian literary magazine published in St Petersburg on a monthly basis between 1818 and 1884. The journal served liberal-minded readers, known as the intelligentsia...
magazine. It is the first part of a trilogy
Trilogy
A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected, and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, or video games...
that is followed by Tsar Fiodor Ioannovich
Tsar Fiodor Ioannovich
Tsar Fiodor Ioannovich is a 1868 historical drama by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy. It is the second part of a trilogy that begins with The Death of Ivan the Terrible and concludes with Tsar Boris. All three plays were banned by the censor...
and concludes with Tsar Boris
Tsar Boris (drama)
Tsar Boris is a 1870 drama by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, written in 1868-1869 and first published in 1870 in the #3, March issue of the Vestnik Evropy magazine...
. All three plays were banned by the censor
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
. It dramatises the story of Ivan IV of Russia
Ivan IV of Russia
Ivan IV Vasilyevich , known in English as Ivan the Terrible , was Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533 until his death. His long reign saw the conquest of the Khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, and Siberia, transforming Russia into a multiethnic and multiconfessional state spanning almost one billion acres,...
and is written in blank verse
Blank verse
Blank verse is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the sixteenth century" and Paul Fussell has claimed that "about three-quarters of all English poetry is in blank verse."The first...
. Tolstoy was influenced by the work of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
in writing the trilogy, which formed the core of his reputation as a writer in the Russia of his day and as a dramatist to this day.
Background
In the early 1863 Aleksey Tolstoy informed Yakov PolonskyYakov Polonsky
Yakov Petrovich Polonsky was a leading Pushkinist poet who tried to uphold the waning traditions of Russian Romantic poetry during the heyday of realistic prose....
in a letter from Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
that he was working upon "a large poem in verse The Death of Ioann Grozny… Two acts of it are being finished and, as people tell me, are good", he added. The deterioration of health hindered the creative process, but Act 3 has been completed by the summer of that year and in the end of 1863 the play was virtually ready.
Some details as to the original draft of it have been traced through Tolstoy's correspondence with Karolina Pavlova
Karolina Pavlova
Karolina Pavlova was a 19th century Russian poet and novelist who stood out from other writers on account of her unique appreciation of exceptional rhymes and imagery.-Biography:...
who was translating the text into German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, and was being asked to make changes according to those Tolstoy was making to his original text. Some of the scenes that have been excluded by the author from the final version of the play looked significant, one being Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov
Boris Fyodorovich Godunov was de facto regent of Russia from c. 1585 to 1598 and then the first non-Rurikid tsar from 1598 to 1605. The end of his reign saw Russia descend into the Time of Troubles.-Early years:...
's conversation with tsarina Anastasia Romanovna
Anastasia Romanovna
Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina-Yurieva was the first wife of the Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible and the first Russian tsarina...
about her granting him trusteeship right over Dmitry after Ioann and Fyodor
Feodor I of Russia
Fyodor I Ivanovich 1598) was the last Rurikid Tsar of Russia , son of Ivan IV and Anastasia Romanovna. In English he is sometimes called Feodor the Bellringer in consequence of his strong faith and inclination to travel the land and ring the bells at churches. However, in Russian the name...
's respective deaths. Also cut has been the scene of Godunov's talk with Dmitry's nanny. Both, according to Tolstoy, precipitated Tsar Fiodor Ioannovich, the second play of the trilogy and both have made their way into it later, although, as critics noticed, some fragments of which exactly the same could be said, have been kept in the original text.
Making preparations for the first separate edition of the play, which came in November, 1866, Tolstoy again made changes. In the magazine version in both scenes of Act 1 there's been no mention of any negotiations with the British ambassador. The final Zakharyin's words ("Forgive us all! Here's the price we have to pay for edinovlastye, for our own corruption") also appeared for the first time in the book version, summing up what was obviously the drama’s main idea. Tolstoy was taking into account other people’s opinions he was becoming aware of. In the Act 5 he dropped some archaisms and also several of the skomorokh
Skomorokh
The skomorokhs were medieval East Slavic harlequins, i.e. actors, who could also sing, dance, play musical instruments and compose most of the scores for their oral/musical and dramatic performances. The etymology of the word is not completely clear...
s’ couplets, so as to avoid the unwanted comic effect.
Sources
Boyar
A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....
s' reaction to this and his consent to (as he put it) "bear this burden of rule for some more time" Details of this fragment of History have been expanded by Tolstoy into full-blown scenes: Zakharyev addressing boyars, Ioann's musing on the possibility of taking a schema oath, his conversation with boyars. The messengerэs tale in the Scene 2, Act 1 was based upon Karamzin's description of the Pskov siege which Tolstoy has taken numerous details from, moving them together, chronologically. The Garaburda scene (exceptionally important for the play's structure, according to the author's "Production plan") has been totally made up, but again, some details involved have been taken from Karamzin (Mikhail Garaburda's negotiations with Grozny in 1573, among others).
Apart from Karamzin's History Tolstoy used, albeit to a lesser extent, Tales of Prince Kurbsky, published in 1831 by N.Ustryalov. Kurbsky's letters in Scene 2, Act 1, present a mosaic of his real letters, the 1679 one featuring most prominently. In the Act 4 the Ivan Grozny synodic text reading quotes a real document. The play's major characters are historical figures, most of the minor ones (servants, stolniks) are fictional. One notable exception is a Pskovian messenger, a figure featuring in historical chronicles. The Boyar duma members have names of real people, one exception being Sitsky, a totally fictitious part.
Inaccuracies and inventions
According to Tolstoy, the action of drama takes place in 1584, a year if Ioann's death. Yet, Ivan's murdering his son, the abdication, the siege of PskovPskov
Pskov is an ancient city and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, Russia, located in the northwest of Russia about east from the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population: -Early history:...
, the fire in Aleksandrovskaya sloboda all relate to the second half of 1581. Tolstoy was improvising a lot when it came to motives and undercurrents, occasionally creating links between things historians thought were unrelated. Having greatly increased the historical role of Boris Godunov, he's made him take part in several events had no bearing to. According to I.Yampolsky, Boris' speech in Duma
Duma
A Duma is any of various representative assemblies in modern Russia and Russian history. The State Duma in the Russian Empire and Russian Federation corresponds to the lower house of the parliament. Simply it is a form of Russian governmental institution, that was formed during the reign of the...
, the clash with Sitsky, addressing Tsar Ivan on behalf of Duma asking for his return to the throne, his opposition to the monarch's marrying Princess of Hastings and unwilling support for tsarina Maria, Ivan's advise for Fyodor to always listen to what Boris would say, - were all author's artistic inventions.
The idea of expanding it into a trilogy came to Tolstoy while he was working on Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, but, as I.Yampolsky notes, The Death of Ioann the Terrible gives the impression some future development of Godunov's character already having been on author’s mind. The appearance of Mikhail Bityagovsky in the play, the figure which according to historical sources would come upon the scene many years later, could be seen as pointing to this, too. Besides, Tolstoy created new logical threads between Bityagovsky's taking part in the conflict between Boris and boyars, his agitation of people against Shuisky
Alexander Gorbatyi-Shuisky
Prince Alexander Borisovich Gorbatyi-Shuisky was probably the most celebrated and popular general of Ivan the Terrible. The town of Gorbatov in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast bears his name....
and Belsky - to the murder of Dmitry.
Production history
The Death of Ivan the Terrible was first performed at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
in 1867. It was not a success, due to the lead role having been given to a comic actor.
The world-famous Moscow Art Theatre
Moscow Art Theatre
The Moscow Art Theatre is a theatre company in Moscow that the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Constantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright and director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, founded in 1898. It was conceived as a venue for naturalistic theatre, in contrast to the melodramas...
began its second season with a production of the play, which opened on 29 September 1899. It was directed by the seminal theatre practitioner
Theatre practitioner
Theatre practitioner is a modern term to describe someone who both creates theatrical performances and who produces a theoretical discourse that informs his or her practical work. A theatre practitioner may be a director, a dramatist, an actor, or—characteristically—often a combination of these...
Constantin Stanislavski, who also played the lead role initially. When Stanislavski fell ill after the first few performances, he was replaced by Vsevolod Meyerhold
Vsevolod Meyerhold
Vsevolod Emilevich Meyerhold was a great Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre setting made him one of the seminal forces in modern international theatre.-Early...
.
The play received its first New York production in 1904, which opened on 1 March at the New Amsterdam Theatre
New Amsterdam Theatre
The New Amsterdam Theatre is a Broadway theater located at 214 West 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in the Theatre District of Manhattan, New York City, off of Times Square...
on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in a translation by S. R. DeMeissner.
Sources
- Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. ISBN 0521434378.
- Benedetti, Jean. 1999. Stanislavski: His Life and Art. Revised edition. Original edition published in 1988. London: Methuen. ISBN 0413525201.
- Braun, Edward. 1995. Meyerhold: A Revolution in Theatre. Rev. 2nd ed. London: Methuen. ISBN 0413727300.
- Eriksen, Gordon, Garrard MacLeod, and Martin Wisneski, ed. 1960. Encyclopædia Britannica 15th Edition. Volume 11.
- Hartnoll, Phyllis, ed. 1983. The Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford UP. ISBN 0192115464.
- Moser, Charles A., ed. 1992. The Cambridge History of Russian Literature. Rev. ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. ISBN 0521425670.
- Tolstoy, Aleksey KonstantinovichAleksey Konstantinovich TolstoyCount Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, often referred to as A. K. Tolstoy , was a Russian poet, novelist and playwright, considered to be the most important nineteenth-century Russian historical dramatist...
(Alexis K. Tolstoi). 1926. The Death of Ivan the Terrible: A Drama in Verse. Trans. Alfred Hayes. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner. - ---. 1933. The Death of Ivan the Terrible: A Tragedy in Five Acts. Trans. George Rapall Noyes. In Masterpieces of the Russian Drama. Ed. George Rapall Noyes. Vol. 2. New York: Appleton/Dover. 457-546.
- Worrall, Nick. 1996. The Moscow Art Theatre. Theatre Production Studies ser. London and NY: Routledge. ISBN 0415055989.