"The Stingy Knight"- one of Pushkin’s “little tragedies”, written in the Boldino autumn of 1830.

Plot

The young knight Albert complains to his servant Ivan about his lack of money, about the stinginess of his old father-baron, and about the reluctance of the Jewish moneylender Solomon to lend him money. During a conversation with Albert, the Jew hints that receiving the long-awaited inheritance can be brought closer by poisoning his miserly father. The knight indignantly drives Solomon out.

While the old baron languishes in the basement over his treasures, indignant that the heir will one day lose everything he has accumulated with such difficulty, Albert files a complaint against his parent to the local duke. Hiding in the next room, he overhears the Duke's conversation with his father.

When the old baron begins to accuse his son of intending to kill and rob him, Albert bursts into the hall. The father throws down the gauntlet to his son, who readily accepts the challenge. With the words “terrible age, terrible hearts,” the Duke, in disgust, expels both of them from his palace.

The last thoughts of the dying old man are again turned to money-grubbing: “Where are the keys? The keys, my keys!..."

Characters

• Baron
• Albert, son of the Baron
• Ivan, servant
• Jew (loan shark)
• Duke

Creation and publication

The idea for the play (possibly inspired by the poet’s difficult relationship with his stingy father) was in Pushkin’s head back in January 1826 (entry in the manuscript of that time: “The Jew and the Son. Count”). The Boldino manuscript has the date “October 23, 1830”; it is preceded by an epigraph from Derzhavin: “Stop living in cellars, Like a mole in underground gorges.”

Pushkin decided to publish “The Miserly Knight” only in 1836, in the first book of Sovremennik, signed by R. (the French initial of Pushkin’s surname). To avoid accusations that the play was unfinished, the publication was framed as a literary hoax, with the subtitle: “Scene from Chanston’s tragicomedy: The Covetous Knight" In fact, Chanston (or Shenstone) does not have a work with this title.

“The Miserly Knight” was scheduled for production at the Alexandrinsky Theater three days after the author’s death, but was eventually replaced by vaudeville (perhaps under pressure from the authorities, who feared the public’s expression of sympathy for the murdered poet).

Adaptations

• “The Miserly Knight” - opera by S. V. Rachmaninov, 1904
• "Little Tragedies" - Soviet film from 1979

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Notes

Excerpt characterizing the Miserly Knight

In Wikisource

"The Stingy Knight" - dramatic work(play), conceived in 1826 (plan dates back to early January 1826); created in the Boldino autumn of 1830, it is part of Pushkin’s cycle of small tragedies. The play was filmed.

The Miserly Knight shows the corrupting, dehumanizing, devastating power of gold. Pushkin was the first in Russian literature to notice the terrible power of money.

The result in the play is the words of the Duke:

...Terrible century - Terrible hearts...

With amazing depth, the author reveals the psychology of stinginess, but most importantly, the origins that feed it. The type of stingy knight is revealed as a product of a certain historical era. At the same time, in the tragedy the poet rises to a broad generalization of the inhumanity of the power of gold.

Pushkin does not resort to any moral teachings or discussions on this topic, but with the entire content of the play he illuminates the immorality and crime of such relations between people in which everything is determined by the power of gold.

Obviously, in order to avoid possible biographical connections (everyone knew the stinginess of the poet’s father, S.L. Pushkin, and his difficult relationship with his son), Pushkin passed off this completely original play as a translation from a non-existent English original.

Wikimedia Foundation.

2010.

See what “The Miserly Knight” is in other dictionaries: The hero of the dramatic scenes of the same name (1830) by A. S. Pushkin (1799 1837), a miser and a miser. A common noun for people of this type (ironic). encyclopedic Dictionary winged words and expressions. M.: Locked Press. Vadim Serov. 2003 ...

Dictionary of popular words and expressions - “THE MISTERY KNIGHT”, Russia, Moscow theater “Vernissage”/Culture, 1999, color, 52 min. Teleplay, tragicomedy. Based on the drama of the same name by A. S. Pushkin from the series “Little Tragedies”. Cast: Georgy Menglet (see MENGLET Georgy Pavlovich), Igor... ...

Encyclopedia of Cinema Noun, number of synonyms: 1 miser (70) ASIS Dictionary of Synonyms. V.N. Trishin. 2013…

Synonym dictionary

A.S. Pushkin

Complete works with criticism

STINGY KNIGHT

(SCENES FROM CHANSTON'S TRAGIC-COMEDY: THE COVETOUS KNIGHT.)

(In the tower.)

ALBERT AND IVAN.

Albert. By all means, I will appear at the tournament. Show me the helmet, Ivan.

(Ivan hands him a helmet.)

Punched through, damaged. It's impossible to put it on. I need to get a new one. What a blow! damned Count Delorge!

But still he is not at a loss; His breastplate is intact from the Venetian, And his chest is his own: it doesn’t cost him a penny; No one else will buy it for themselves. Why didn’t I take off his helmet right there? And I would take it off if I weren’t ashamed. I’ll even give you a duke. Damn Count! He'd rather punch my head in. And I need a dress. The last time All the knights sat here in satin and velvet; I was alone in armor at the ducal table. I made an excuse by saying that I got to the tournament by accident. What can I say today? Oh, poverty, poverty! How she humbles our hearts! When Delorge with his heavy spear pierced my helmet and galloped past, And with my head open, I spurred my Emir, rushed like a whirlwind, And threw the count twenty steps, Like a little page; how all the ladies rose from their seats when Clotilde herself, covering her face, involuntarily screamed, And the heralds praised my blow: Then no one thought about the reason And my courage and wondrous strength! I was furious about the damaged helmet; What was the fault of heroism? - stinginess Yes! It’s not difficult to become infected with it here Under one roof with my father. What about my poor Emir?

He keeps limping. You can't drive it out yet.

Albert. Well, there’s nothing to do: I’ll buy Bay. It's not expensive and they ask for it.

Ivan. It’s not expensive, but we don’t have money.

Albert. What does the idle Solomon say?

Ivan. He says that he can no longer lend you money without collateral.

Albert. Mortgage! where can I get a mortgage, devil!

Ivan. I told you.

He groans and squeezes.

Albert. Yes, you should have told him that my father is rich and like a Jew himself, that sooner or later I will inherit everything.

I told.

Albert. Well?

He squeezes and groans.

What a grief!

Ivan. He himself wanted to come.

Well, thank God. I won't release him without a ransom. (They knock on the door.) Who's there? (Jew enters)

Your servant is low.

Ah, buddy! Damned Jew, venerable Solomon, come here: so, I hear, you don’t believe in debt.

Ah, dear knight, I swear to you: I would be glad... I really can’t. Where can I get money? I was completely ruined, Helping all the knights diligently. Nobody pays. I wanted to ask you, can you give me at least part of it...

Robber! Yes, if I had money, would I bother with you? That's it, don't be stubborn, my dear Solomon; Give me some chervonets. Give me a hundred before they search you.

A hundred! If only I had a hundred ducats!

Listen: Aren't you ashamed of not helping out your friends?

I swear....

Full, full. Are you asking for a deposit? what nonsense! What will I give you as a pledge? pig skin? If I could pawn anything, I would have sold it long ago. Or is a chivalrous word not enough for you, dog?

Your word, While you are alive, means a lot, a lot. All the chests of the Flemish rich, like a talisman, it will open for you. But if you hand it over to Me, a poor Jew, and meanwhile Die (God forbid), then in my hands it will be like the Key to a box thrown into the sea.

Albert. Will my father outlive me?

Jew. Who knows? our days are not numbered by us; The young man blossomed one evening, and now he has died, And now four old men are carrying him on hunched shoulders to the grave. Baron is healthy. God willing, he will live ten, twenty years, and twenty-five and thirty.

Albert. You're lying, Jew: in thirty years I'll be fifty, then what will the money be of use to me?

Money? - money is always suitable for us at any age; But the young man is looking for nimble servants in them And without sparing he sends here and there. The old man sees them as reliable friends and protects them like the apple of his eye.

Albert. ABOUT! my father sees them neither as servants nor as friends, but as masters; and he himself serves them. And how does he serve them? like an Algerian slave, like a chained dog. He lives in an unheated kennel, drinks water, eats dry crusts, does not sleep all night, runs around and barks, and the gold lies quietly in chests. Shut up! someday It will serve me and forget to lie down.

Jew. Yes, at the baron's funeral it will spill more money, rather than tears. May God send you an inheritance soon.

Jew. Or maybe...

So, I thought that there was such a remedy...

What remedy?

So I have an old friend, a Jew, a poor pharmacist...

Moneylender Same as you, or more honest?

Jew. No, knight, Toy’s bargaining is conducted differently. He makes drops... it’s truly wonderful how they act.

What do I need in them?

Jew. Add three drops to a glass of water. Neither taste nor color is noticeable; And a person without pain in the stomach, without nausea, without pain dies.

Albert. Your old man is selling poison.

Yes And poison.

Well? loan in place of money You will offer me two hundred bottles of poison For a bottle of 1 chervonets. Is that so, or what?

Jew. Do you want to laugh at me? No; I wanted... maybe you... I thought it was time for the baron to die.

Albert. How! poison your father! and you dared your son... Ivan! hold it. And you dared me!... You know, Jewish soul, Dog, snake! that I will hang you right now on the gate.

Guilty! Sorry: I was joking.

Ivan, rope.

Jew. I... I was joking. I brought you money.

Albert. There you go, dog! (The Jew leaves.)

This is what my dear Father's stinginess brings me to! The Jew dared me What to offer! Give me a glass of wine, I'm trembling all over... Ivan, but I need money. Run after the damned Jew, take his ducats. Yes, bring me an inkwell here. I'll give the rogue a receipt. Don't bring this Judas here... Or no, wait, His ducats will smell of poison, Like the silver coins of his ancestor... I asked for wine.

We don't have a drop of wine.

And what about what Remon sent me as a gift from Spain?

Ivan. In the evening I took the last bottle to the Sick Blacksmith.

Yes, I remember, I know... So give me some water. Damn life! No, it’s decided - I’ll go seek justice from the Duke: let my father be forced to keep Me like a son, not like a mouse, Born in the underground.

The young knight Albert is about to appear at the tournament and asks his servant Ivan to show him his helmet. The helmet was pierced through in the last duel with the knight Delorge. It is impossible to put it on. The servant consoles Albert with the fact that he repaid Delorge in full, knocking him out of the saddle with a powerful blow, from which Albert’s offender lay dead for a day and has hardly recovered to this day. Albert says that the reason for his courage and strength was his rage over his damaged helmet. The fault of heroism is stinginess. Albert complains about poverty, about the embarrassment that prevented him from removing the helmet from a defeated enemy, says that he needs a new dress, that he alone is forced to sit at the ducal table in armor, while other knights flaunt in satin and velvet. But there is no money for clothes and weapons, and Albert’s father, the old baron, is a miser. There is no money to buy a new horse, and Albert’s constant creditor, the Jew Solomon, according to Ivan, refuses to continue to believe in debt without a mortgage. But the knight has nothing to pawn. The moneylender does not give in to any persuasion, and even the argument that Albert’s father is old, will soon die and leave his entire huge fortune to his son does not convince the lender.

At this time, Solomon himself appears. Albert tries to beg him for a loan, but Solomon, although gently, nevertheless resolutely refuses to give money even on his word of honor. Albert, upset, does not believe that his father can survive him, but Solomon says that everything happens in life, that “our days are not numbered by us,” and the baron is strong and can live another thirty years. In despair, Albert says that in thirty years he will be fifty, and then he will hardly need the money. Solomon objects that money is needed at any age, only “a young man looks for nimble servants in it,” “but an old man sees in them reliable friends.” Albert claims that his father himself serves money, like an Algerian slave, “like a chained dog.” He denies himself everything and lives worse than a beggar, and “the gold lies quietly in his chests.” Albert still hopes that someday it will serve him, Albert. Seeing Albert's despair and his readiness to do anything, Solomon hints that his father's death can be hastened with the help of poison. At first, Albert does not understand these hints. But, having understood the matter, he wants to immediately hang Solomon on the castle gates. Solomon, realizing that the knight is not joking, wants to pay off, but Albert drives him away. Having come to his senses, he intends to send a servant for the moneylender to accept the money offered, but changes his mind because it seems to him that they will smell of poison. He demands to serve wine, but it turns out that there is not a drop of wine in the house. Cursing such a life, Albert decides to seek justice for his father from the Duke, who must force the old man to support his son, as befits a knight.

The Baron goes down to his basement, where he stores chests of gold, so that he can pour a handful of coins into the sixth chest, which is not yet full. Looking at his treasures, he remembers the legend of the king who ordered his soldiers to put in a handful of earth, and how as a result a giant hill grew from which the king could survey vast spaces. The baron likens his treasures, collected bit by bit, to this hill, which makes him the ruler of the whole world. He remembers the history of each coin, behind which are the tears and grief of people, poverty and death. It seems to him that if all the tears, blood and sweat shed for this money came out of the bowels of the earth now, there would be a flood. He pours a handful of money into the chest, and then unlocks all the chests, places lighted candles in front of them and admires the shine of gold, feeling like the ruler of a mighty power. But the thought that after his death the heir will come here and squander his wealth makes the baron furious and indignant. He believes that he has no right to this, that if he himself had accumulated these treasures bit by bit through hard work, then he certainly would not have thrown gold left and right.

In the palace, Albert complains to the Duke about his father, and the Duke promises to help the knight, to persuade the Baron to support his son as it should be. He hopes to awaken fatherly feelings in the baron, because the baron was a friend of his grandfather and played with the duke when he was still a child.

The baron approaches the palace, and the duke asks Albert to hide in the next room while he talks with his father. The Baron appears, the Duke greets him and tries to evoke memories of his youth. He wants the baron to appear at court, but the baron is dissuaded by old age and infirmity, but promises that in case of war he will have the strength to draw his sword for his duke. The Duke asks why he does not see the Baron’s son at court, to which the Baron replies that his son’s gloomy disposition is a hindrance. The Duke asks the Baron to send his son to the palace and promises to teach him to have fun. He demands that the baron assign his son a salary befitting a knight. Turning gloomy, the baron says that his son is unworthy of the duke’s care and attention, that “he is vicious,” and refuses to fulfill the duke’s request. He says that he is angry with his son for plotting parricide. The Duke threatens to put Albert on trial for this. The Baron reports that his son intends to rob him. Hearing these slander, Albert bursts into the room and accuses his father of lying. The angry baron throws the glove to his son. With the words “Thank you.” This is my father’s first gift.” Albert accepts the baron’s challenge. This incident plunges the Duke into amazement and anger; he takes away the baron’s glove from Albert and drives father and son away from him. At this moment, with words about the keys on his lips, the baron dies, and the duke complains about “a terrible age, terrible hearts.”

The motif of gold, which permeates everything, is subject to especially varied changes. musical development in the second scene of the opera. In the small orchestral introduction to the picture, it sounds dull and gloomy, even somewhat mysterious, in the low register of tremulous strings. The same motif takes on a different color in the central section, beginning with the words of the Baron:

I want to throw myself a feast today:
I will light a candle in front of each chest,
And I’ll unlock them all, and I’ll stand there myself
Among them, look at the shining piles.

The gradual increase in light and brilliance, which reaches dazzling brightness at the moment when all the candles are lit in front of the open chests of gold and the gloomy basement seems to be flooded with the glow of a fire, was conveyed by Rachmaninov in a large symphonic episode, which is the pinnacle of this picture. A long organ point on the dominant prepares the culmination of the theme of gold in the shining D-dur (Rachmaninov chose D-dur as the “key of gold”, following Rimsky-Korsakov, in whom it also sounds extremely brightly and with great force in the fourth scene “Sadko” , in the episode of the transformation of fish into gold bars. Of course, when comparing these two examples, one must take into account their completely different expressive nature.). The brilliant sonority of four horns, accompanied by a powerful orchestral tutti, and the change in the rhythmic pattern of the theme give it a majestic knightly character:

Following this climax comes a sudden breakdown. The selfless delight of the Baron, exclaiming in ecstasy: “I reign!.., my power is strong...” - gives way to anxiety and despair at the thought of what will happen to the wealth he has accumulated after his death. The picture ends with an episode of an ariot character (Moderato: “Who knows how many bitter abstinences”) in d minor, a key that Rachmaninov usually used to express mournful and dramatic experiences. The basis of the dramatic structure of this picture is made up of three supporting points: an introduction built on the theme of gold, a central episode of the miser’s feast, in which the same theme develops, and a minor final structure. They assert the dominant importance in it of the tonalities D-dur - d-moll. The arioso (d minor) that completes the picture summarizes and partially rethinks the above three themes. Thus, from the motive of human tears and suffering, a pathetic theme of conscience arises, connecting with the theme of gloomy obsession and heavy, concentrated thoughts:

The theme of gold, “being neglected,” seems to fade, loses its shine and shimmer, and from it grows a mournful phrase, which alternates with the oboe, cor anglais and bassoon, descending into an increasingly lower register:

In the very last bars of the second picture, attention is drawn to the expressively sounding chromatic sequence of harmonies, “sliding” to the tonic d-minor:

This turn, imbued with a mood of gloomy despair, has similarities with both the theme of gold and Albert’s leitmotif, thus emphasizing the fatal connection between father and son, whom rivalry and the struggle for the possession of gold made irreconcilable enemies. The same turn of phrase sounds at the end of the entire opera, at the moment of the death of the old Baron.

Third picture the operas, the most brief and laconic, are almost entirely built on thematic material that has already been heard before; here he often appears in the same presentation and even in the same keys in which he was presented earlier (this picture begins with Albert’s theme in Es-dur, very reminiscent of the beginning of the first picture). If this achieves the integrity of the characteristics, then at the same time the abundance of repetitions becomes somewhat tiresome towards the end and weakens the power of the dramatic impact.

After the scene in the basement, in which, despite the well-known imbalance of the vocal and orchestral-symphonic beginnings, Rachmaninov managed to achieve high tragic pathos, in the final picture there is a clear decline in dramatic tension. One of the most acute dramatic moments, where there is a direct clash between father and son, ending in the death of the old Baron, turned out to be rather colorless and significantly inferior in power of expression to much of what preceded it. This imbalance affects the overall impression of the opera. The Baron's monologue rises so high above everything else that the two paintings bordering it seem to some extent to be unnecessary appendages to it.