Three Deaths (drama)
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| Author | Apollon Maykov |
|---|---|
| Original title | Три смерти |
| Language | Russian |
| Subject | Philosophy of death in the Ancient Rome |
| Genre | lyrical drama |
Publication date | 1857 |
| Publication place | Russian Empire |
Three Deaths (Russian: Три смерти, romanized: Tri smerti) is a lyric drama by Apollon Maykov. Its original version, called "The Choice of Death", finished in 1851, had problems with censorship and was first published, severely cut, under the title Three Deaths in 1857, in the October (No.10) issue of Biblioteka Dlya Chtenyia. The final version of it appeared in the Complete A.N. Maykov (1893).[1]
Three Deaths belongs to the series of Maykov's poems dealing with the history of early Christianity and its conflict with the ancient cultures of Ancient Greece and Rome. The idea, originated in the late 1830s, was first implemented in the 1841 poem "Olynthus and Esther", subtitled: "The Scenes of Rome of the 5th century AD". In the preface to Three Deaths Maykov explained that he wanted to "show the antagonism of the two ideas" that clashed in the late Roman Empire and "just couldn't co-exist peacefully... Sensuality and spirituality, the outer and the inner life emerged as enemies, in direct opposition to each other and were doomed to fight a deadly battle."[1] Vissarion Belinsky disliked the poem but suggested some constructive criticism.[2]
Before setting out to work upon the poem, Maykov had done a lot of research. "It took a long time for me to write The Three Deaths, the play came out of studying the philosophical ideas [of the time]. In fact, I started upon it several times, trying to improve one character or the other, depending which school of thought I was under the influence of, the Epicureanism or the Stoicism," he wrote in his 1850 autobiographical notes.[3]
History
In the preface for the original version Maykov wrote: "The play centers upon the three different views upon the meaning of life, belonging to the people of the [doomed] ancient world... My objective was to represent the general character of this particular epoch, and create human characters... I might have been negligent in terms of factual correctness, but those looking for strict history should apply for Tacitus, not my play, for the latter is but a poetic representation of the spirit of the epoch."[1]
The drama was finished in 1851. Its first version, titled "Choice of Death", was much more radical than the final one, which was published in 1893. At the time it could be neither published nor produced by the Imperial Theatres, and circulated in hand-written versions, praised by many as a strong artistic statement for individual freedoms in general and freedom of speech in particular.[1]
In December 1854 an amateur production of the play was presented in the house of the architect A.Stackensheider, featuring Maykov as Seneca, Vladimir Benediktov as Lucan and the art teacher N.O. Osipov as Lucius.[4] The play, under the title Three Deaths, was first published in the October 1857 issue of Biblioteka Dlya Chtenya.[1]