ital
ever could have been. All his poetry bears strong testimony to Byron's
influence; but he would be wrongly judged if taken as a mere imitator
of that great poet. His poetical tales, _Ruslan and Ludmilla_, from
the heroic times of Russia; _The Prisoner of the Mountains_, a
Caucasian scene (1823): and the _Fountain of Baktshiserai,_ a Tartar
Story (1824); have each great beauties. The emperor Nicholas, when at
Moscow on the occasion of his coronation, recalled him, and showed
himself his patron. He made him one of the historiographers of the
empire: and the archives were opened to him. The effect on the whole
was not favourable to the poet's genius. The first production after
his return to fashionable life was 'Eugene Onegin,' a novel in
verse, the life of _un homme blase_. Of this Byronic tendency, his
Prisoner, and a great many of his small poems likewise, bear strong
evidence. And it is this feature chiefly, which, in turn, Pushkin's
followers and imitators have seized upon; for instance, Lermontof. It
is painful to see, how, instead of the freshness, the vigour, the
joyfulness, which we ought to meet in the representatives of a young
and rising literature, resting on the foundation of a rich,
uncorrrupted, original language, we find in them the ennui, the
dissatisfaction, and the indifference of a set of _roues_ disgusted
with life. It seems as if after having emptied the cup of the vanities
of the world to the very dregs, this world, which has nothing left for
their enjoyment, is despised by them; unfortunately, however, without
having educated their minds for a better one. In his later
productions, especially in his _Boris Godunof_, a drama, which may be
rather called a tragical historical picture than a regular tragedy,
Pushkin showed a more elevated mind, and a more objective way of
viewing things. His last work, we believe, was his _Istorija Bunta_,
History of the Insurrection of Pugatshef; no noble struggle for
liberty, but a mere mutiny. He died in St. Petersburg in 1835, a short
time after a marriage of choice and inclination; in a duel occasioned
by a fit of jealousy, maliciously provoked by some of the courtiers.

Other successful lyrical poets of this period are, Chomiakof,
Baratinski, N. Jazikof, A. Timofeyef, Benedictof, Sokolovski, A.
Podolinski, Lucian Jakubovitch, A. Ilitshevski, etc. Several ladies
also have recently mounted the Pegasus. A Princess Volkonski, a
Countess Rostoptshin, a Miss Teplef