[284] Les femmes tricottent: “Women are knitters.”
[285] The Belclass="underline" the two lines of verse Kolya quotes are from an anti-government satire that appeared in the émigré magazine North Star (no. 6,1861) and elsewhere, but not in The Bell, published in London by Alexander Herzen (1812-70), where a sequel to it appeared. The “Third Department” was the imperial secret police, whose headquarters were near the Chain Bridge in Petersburg.
[286] If I forget thee . . .: see Psalm 137, “By the rivers of Babylon . . .”
[287] Skotoprigonyevsk: roughly “Cattle-roundup-ville.”
[288] They want to setup ...: the question of a monument to Pushkin began to be discussed in the press in 1862; on 6 June 1880 the monument was finally unveiled. Dostoevsky gave a famous address on the occasion.
[289] vous comprenez . . .: “you know, this business and the terrible death of your papa.”
[290] like a Swede at Poltava: a common Russian saying; the original has “like a Swede,” the “at Poltava” being implied. Charles XII of Sweden was roundly defeated at Poltava in 1709 by Peter the Great.
[291] wisdom: in this context, the Old Slavonic word premudrost’ (wisdom) most likely refers to the Scriptures.
[292] Apocryphal Gospels: accounts of the life of Christ (such as the Gospels of Thomas or James) not accepted as canonical.
[293] Claude Bernard: French physiologist (1813-78), whose Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine defined the basic principles of scientific research.
[294] de thoughtibus ...: Mitya’s variation on the Latin saying de gustibus non est disputandum (“there is no arguing over taste”).
[295] image and likeness: see note 4 to page 239 in section 2.5.4.
[296] Ah, what a charming little foot . . .: Dostoevsky’s (not Rakitin’s) jesting response to D. D. Minaev’s parody of a poem by Pushkin. Minaev (1835-89) was a poet of civic themes.
[297] to the uttermost farthing: see Matthew 5:26.
[298] Alyosha was startled . . .: Katerina Ivanovna suddenly addresses Ivan in the familiar second person singular, indicating greater intimacy than social conventions would have allowed them.
[299] with obvious coldness: here Ivan suddenly addresses Alyosha in the formal second person plural.
[300] Ah, Vanka’s gone ....: Vanka is a diminutive of Ivan. The song must unconsciously remind Ivan of his departure on the eve of the catastrophe (see Terras, p. 381).
[301] Licharda: see note 2 to page 269 in section 2.5.6.
[302] The Homilies . . .: see note 7 to page 27 in section 1.1.5.
[303] qui frisait la cinquantaine: “who was pushing fifty.”
[304] Thomas believed ...: see note 1 to page 26 in section 1.1.5.
[305] c’est noble ... c’est chivaleresque: “it’s noble, it’s delightful ... it’s chivalrous.”
[306] I donated ten roubles ... . that is, to a fund to help liberate Slavs under Turkish domination in the Balkans.
[307] Satan sum ...: the devil adapts a famous line from the Roman playwright Terence (190-159 b.c.): homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto (“I am a man, nothing human is alien to me”).
[308] C’est de nouveau, n’est-ce pas?: “That’s something new, isn’t it?”
[309] the waters above the firmament: see Genesis 1:7.
[310] Gattsuk ...: A. A. Gattsuk (1832-91) was a Moscow publisher who published a yearly almanac in the 1870s and 1880s.
[311] great ... beautifuclass="underline" see note 2 to page 71 in section 1.2.6.
[312] Le diable n’existe point: “The devil does not exist.”
[313] and various little vaudevilles ... Khlestakov: the quoted line is spoken by Khlestakov, the impostor-hero of Gogol’s comedy The Inspector-General (1836).
[314] Je pense donc je suis: “I think, therefore I am,” the well-known phrase of the philosopher René Descartes (1596-1650).
[315] a certain department .... see note 5 to page 555 in section 4.10.6.
[316] rejected all ...: the quoted words are spoken by Repetilov in Griboyedov’s Woe from Wit (see note 1 to page 221 in section 2.5.1)
[317] the ‘mellowing . . .’: a commonplace in the eighteenth-century debate on the progress of civilization.
[318] the desert fathers ...: first line of a poem by Pushkin (1836) that goes on to paraphrase the fourth-century Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, recited in weekday services during the Great Lent.
[319] the actor Gorbunov: I. F. Gorbunov (1831-96), a personal friend of Dostoevsky, also a writer and talented improvisor.
[320] Ah, mon père ...: “Ah, father, it is such pleasure for him, and so little trouble for me.” This witticism goes back to an anonymous epigram on the French actress Jeanne-Catherine Gaussain (1711-67).
[321] great and beautifuclass="underline" again, see note 2 to page 71 in section 1.2.6.
[322] Belinsky: see note 3 to page 555 in section 4.10.6.
[323] I did think ...: Dostoevsky plays in this passage on the names of certain decorations and of certain publications: the “Lion and Sun” was a Persian order, which might be awarded to a Russian serving in the Caucasus; the “North Star” was a Swedish order, but also a Russian radical almanac; “Sinus,” the Dog Star, is also the hero of Voltaire’s Micro-mégas (1752), The devil teases Ivan with being a liberal.
[324] Mephistopheles . . .: see Goethe, Faust, part 1, lines 1335-36.
[325] à la Heine: Heinrich Heine (1797-1856), German poet and essayist of irreverent wit.
[326] Ah, mais c’est bête enfin!: “Ah, but how stupid, really!”
[327] Luther’s inkstand: it is said that Martin Luther (1483-1546) was tempted by the devil while translating the Bible and threw his inkstand at him.
[328] Monsieur sait-il ...: “Does the gentleman know what the weather is like? One wouldn’t put a dog outside . . “The first half of a joke, the punch line being: “Yes, but you are not a dog.” The whole joke appears in Dostoevsky’s notebooks of 1876-77.
[329] Le mot de l’énigme: “the key to the riddle.”
[330] the doors of heaven open: see Revelation 4:1.
[331] Herrnhufer or “Moravian Brother”: the Herrnhufers emerged as a religious sect in eighteenth-century Saxony and subsequently spread to Russia. Their beliefs were rooted in the teachings of the fifteenth-century Moravian Brethren.
[332] Gott der Vater ...: Herzenstube teaches Mitya to say “God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit” in German.