In Russia, when a blind beggar is laid to rest even the Emperor knows for whom the bell tolls.
ByOlga Alekseevna Novikova1840-1925
before1856
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The Illustrious Mourner
By Nikolai Sverchkov (1817–1898), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain. Source
Emperor Nicholas I on a Winter Outing.
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Emperor Nicholas I of Russia on a Winter Outing, by Nikolai Sverchkov (1817-1898). Nicholas reigned from 1822 to 1855. An army faction failed to prevent him inheriting the crown (skipping his brother Constantine, who refused it) from his brother Alexander I. In 1828, Nicholas’s Russia allied with England to help Greece break from the Ottoman Empire (Turkey); but after war broke out in 1853 between Russia and Turkey, England and France intervened on Turkey’s side in the Crimean War of 1854-56. The war was still going on when Nicholas died, and the crown passed to his son, Alexander II.
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Emperor Nicholas I on a Winter Outing.
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By Nikolai Sverchkov (1817–1898), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
Emperor Nicholas I of Russia on a Winter Outing, by Nikolai Sverchkov (1817-1898). Nicholas reigned from 1822 to 1855. An army faction failed to prevent him inheriting the crown (skipping his brother Constantine, who refused it) from his brother Alexander I. In 1828, Nicholas’s Russia allied with England to help Greece break from the Ottoman Empire (Turkey); but after war broke out in 1853 between Russia and Turkey, England and France intervened on Turkey’s side in the Crimean War of 1854-56. The war was still going on when Nicholas died, and the crown passed to his son, Alexander II.
Olga Novikova came to London in 1868. In 1916, when she published Russian Memories, the Russians were our allies in the Great War, and our pro-German, anti-Russian politics of the last fifty years was looking a little stale. Novikova told us a touching anecdote of the late Emperor Nicholas I, whom we knew only as the Russian leader we had fought in the Crimean War of 1854-56.
The Emperor Nicholas I was undoubtedly a superior man in many respects. Imperious he was, no doubt — it is an Imperial fault! — but he was not only disinterested,* he was generous and noble in the highest degree. Books could be written about his kind actions.
He was once driving on a cold winter’s day, when he perceived a poor hearse, and a still poorer coffin. There were no followers, but the young driver, almost a child, was sobbing bitterly, and evidently overwhelmed with his grief. The Emperor stopped his horse and asked who the departed was.
“It was my father,” answered the boy, through a new torrent of tears. “He was a blind beggar, and I had him under my care.”
The Emperor left his sledge and followed the humble coffin to the burial ground. Naturally, many people followed His Majesty’s example, and the procession became a strange sight. Strange, but fine — paternal, showing once more the link between the great autocrat and his people — a link based on devotion and trust. As a very young child I have myself experienced the kindness of his smile, and felt the protection of his powerful hand.
* The similarity of this word to ‘uninterested’ may cause misunderstandings. The word ‘disinterested’ means without vested interests, that is, fair and unbiased.
Questions for Critics
1. What is the author
aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that
strike you. How do they help the author communicate her
ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you?
How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939)
by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at
Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn,
Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University,
USA.
Précis
Olga Novokova told how Nicholas I of Russia, while on a sleigh-ride, saw a weeping boy driving a cart. The cart, it seemed, carried the body of the boy’s father, a blind beggar. Shocked that the man had no mourners, Nicholas at once fell in behind. Soon others joined him. He could be stern, Novikova admitted, but also kind.(59 / 60 words)
Olga Novokova told how Nicholas I of Russia, while on a sleigh-ride, saw a weeping boy driving a cart. The cart, it seemed, carried the body of the boy’s father, a blind beggar. Shocked that the man had no mourners, Nicholas at once fell in behind. Soon others joined him. He could be stern, Novikova admitted, but also kind.
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Variations:
1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words.2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words.3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, besides, if, not, or, ought, unless, whereas.
Suggest answers to this question. See
if you can limit one answer to exactly
seven words.
Why was the driver of the hearse weeping?
Suggestion
Because the dead man was his father.
(7 words)
Variations:
1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words.2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words.3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
JigsawsBased on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single
sentence, using different words as much as possible.
Do not be satisfied with the first answer you
think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Nicholas walked behind the hearse. People saw him. They began to walk behind the hearse too.
Variation:
Try rewriting your sentence so that it uses one or more of
these words:
1.Grow 2.Join 3.Procession
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1Bitter.New.Under.
2Cold.Imperial.Procession.
3I.Base.High.
Variations:1.include direct and indirect speech2.include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who3.use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
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