A discovered translation of A. Grazzini's play L'Arzigogolo made by A.N. Ostrovsky

The collection of the Pushkin House papers contains the mentioning of L'Arzigogolo, a play by the Italian playwright Antonfrancisco Grazzini. In the foreword to the first publication of the Bayaderka play fragment, S.F. Oldenburg writes that Ostrovsky's manuscript of 16 pages has a cover with a pencil note: "Devadessi (finished) L'Arzigogolo (not finished)". This remark does not coincide with today's condition of the manuscript which contains just a part of the first play Devadassi. The first person to write about this text, K.N. Derzhavin, notices that the manuscript contains just the text of the first part of the South Indian drama Devadassi (La Bayadere). Speaking of L'Arzigogolo, neither a translation, even unfinished, nor any mentions about Ostrovsky's work on it can be found in his documents. All scholars who studied A.N. Ostrovsky's manuscripts claim there is no evidence of L'Arzigogolo fragments. This fragment was found in the Pushkin House kept in the archive of Ostrovky's granddaughter M.M. Chatelain (code 23.049/СХШ5). The manuscript consists of 4 double-sided sheets. The cover the Pushkin House added to the fragment says: "Ostrovsky Aleksandr Nikolaevich. A fragment of his translation Prichudi ([Caprices]). Autograph". L.R. Kogan in Letopis' zhizni i tvorchestva A.N. Ostrovskogo [Chronicles of the life and work of A. Ostrovsky] dates the L'Arzigogolo translation back to 1874-1875, in accordance with S.F. Oldenburg's foreword. Oldenburg himself did not provide the exact date, just mentioned that the Devadassi translation was made after 1874. There is no direct evidence of Grazzini translations in the diaries and letters by Ostrovsky. In the autumn of 1876, Ostrovsky started writing Vgostyakh horosho, a doma luchshe ([There Is No Place Like Home]). The play has a character of nanny Feliciata, the type that seldom appears in Ostrovsky's plays and the play is full of Greco-Roman names. Another non-standard trait of that play is its final which resembles ancient comedies. Changes like that could have appeared in Ostrovsky's texts after reading and translating Grazzini's plays.

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