War And Peace

2 Emperor Alexander’s visit to Potsdam: In October 1805 Alexander I had gone to Berlin to solicit Friedrich Wilhelm III’s support in opposing Napoleon. Their secret agreement signed at Potsdam was overtaken by events on the battlefield.

3 Paris possessing his Helen: In Greek legend Paris, the son of Priam (King of Troy), precipitated the siege of Troy by abandoning his wife, Oenone, and abducting the beautiful Helen.

4 petizanfan, alley cooshey dormir: Phonetic version of the French ‘petits enfants, allez coucher dormir’ (‘off you go to bed, little children’).

VOLUME II

PART I

1 Will you call her ‘tu’ or ‘vous’: Russian is like French in using the second person plural in a formal situation and the second person singular between intimates. Sonya and Nikolay are at that delicate stage when it might, or might not, be appropriate to advance their relationship from the former to the latter.

2 Duport: Louis Duport (1782 – 1853), a celebrated French ballet-master currently enjoying great popularity in Russia.

3 the Arkharovs’ ball: The Arkharovs were a real-life Moscow family, very rich and famed for their lavish hospitality.

4 Sing hymns . . . fight us: These execrable verses by N. P. Nikolev were declaimed at a real-life banquet in honour of Bagration.

5 Pavel Ivanovich Golenishchev-Kutuzov: Golenishchev-Kutuzov was present at the real-life occasion, handing out copies of his verses, no less execrable than those of Nikolev.

6 How the devil . . . mess like that?: Géronte’s repeated question in Les Fourberies de Scapin (1671), ‘Mais que diable allait-il faire dans cette galère?’, had become proverbial in Russia.

7 frustik: Frühstück is German for breakfast.

8 when they had dropped . . . surface of the water: At baptism in the Russian Orthodox Church a little of the child’s hair is cut off and pressed into wax. If it floats rather than sinks in the font this is regarded as a good omen.

9 the talk was of war with Napoleon . . . last year: During the autumn of 1806 Napoleon, with two major victories behind him at Jena and Auerstadt, appeared to pose a direct threat to the borders of Russia. More than half a million men were conscripted into the army.

10 piquet: A two-handed card game played with a reduced pack of thirty-two cards.

11 corner there: Dolokhov and Rostov are adversaries in the game of faro (the game played by Herman in Pushkin’s and Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades). Bending down the corner of a card indicated a doubling of the stake.

PART II

1 Madame de Souza: Adelaide Filleul de Souza (1761—1836), a writer of sentimental romances set in eighteenth-century aristocratic French society.

2 freemasonry: Freemasonry on the Anglo-Scottish model was introduced into Russia in 1761. Although seen as subversive and frequently suppressed, it was undergoing a period of prosperity under Alexander I.

3 a leading freemason and Martinist since the days of Novikov: The Martinists were a branch of Russian freemasonry founded in 1780, taking their name from L. C. de Saint Martin, a noted theosophist. N. I. Novikov (1744—1818) was a satirical journalist and freemason who had been imprisoned under Catherine the Great for his outspoken anti-government opinions.

4 a volume of Thomas à Kempis: This would have been Imitation of Christ (1426), a highly influential religious treatise commonly attributed to Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380 – 1471). Mystical in tone, it explores the inner life and the value of contemplation.

5 Sic transit gloria mundi: Thus the glory of the world passes away.

6 Marat: Jean-Paul Marat (1743 – 93) was a Swiss-born French politician, active in republican and revolutionary circles.

7 Hard luck . . . George Dandin: A well-known quotation from Molière’s comedy George Dandin (1668).

8 a joke he had heard in Vienna: According to a current French idiom ‘to do something for the King of Prussia’ meant ‘to get nothing but trouble for your pains’.

9 Count Buxhöwden: The Russian general left in charge of the allied forces after the battle of Austerlitz.

10 complete liberation of his peasants from serf rule: Pierre is an early reformer in freeing his serfs; the serf system would survive officially in Russia until 1861.