Introduction
THE plays selected for translation in this volume are, for the most part, modern. Von Vízin alone belongs to an earlier date, that of the late eighteenth century. Nevertheless it will be found that they have this in common: they are, while still Russian, at the same time European. This separation of artists into two categories, the national and the European, is quite simple of comprehension.
The national author, often the favourite in his own country and one who has strengthened and enriched its language to a great degree, is nevertheless hardly to be appreciated in translation by readers of other European countries. Lomonósov, the “father of the Russian language,” poet, panegyrist and critic, is an example; so is Dr. Johnson. But a European artist can be appreciated by any foreign reader in an adequate translation, that is, a translation approximating to what the author would have written in that language.
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