From the history and textology of V.A. Zhukovsky's collection of letters. Letters to N.I. Gnedich (Article Two)

At the end of May and in June 1822, V.A. Zhukovsky dealt with translating Virgil, selling "The Prisoner of Chillon" and reading of Pushkin's "Prisoner of the Caucasus", as N.I. Gnedich reported in a long letter. The following three letters dated October - November 1823 were devoted to a new theater project V.A. Zhukovsky was not willing participate in. M.A. Miloradovich (1771-1825) asked him to translate a comedy by E. Scribe and Melville, "Valerie, ou l'Aveugle" ("Valery, or The Blind", 1822), for the benefit of A.M. Kolosova (married name: Karatygina, 1802-1880). V.A. Zhukovsky had to agree. The letters allow dating the work on the play which lasted from mid-October to mid-November 1823. A short note on February 9, 1824 was also associated with ordinary friendship matters. It deals with the lifting a ban for E.A. Baratynsky to hold public office, except military; the ban was imposed after an offense he committed in the Corps of Pages. N.I. Gnedich and A.A. Delvig, a close friend of E.A. Baratynsky, were to give information about work record. The following letter is short, not completely preserved in a manuscript and not dated. Te circumstances referred to therein allow dating them by March 1824 (after March 5) when Poems by Vasily Zhukovsky (St. Petersburg, 1824) were published and sent to Moscow. The publication was made possible by a loan from Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna. To return the debt V.A. Zhukovsky wanted to most profitably sell the new edition of his works, which was the cause of a request to N.I. Gnedich to introduce Zhukovsky to I.P. Glazunov (1782-1831), a known bookseller and publisher. Two undated notes became a lamentable evidence of the failing health of the two friends. The first could be written in the first half of 1825, when the N.I. Gnedich felt signs of a severe chest illness, the second in the period around May 11, 1826, on the eve of V.A. Zhukovsky's departure for treatment in Europe (May 12, 1826). The friends did not interrupt their communication abroad. On October 15, 1826 N.I. Gnedich finished translating the Iliad and informed his friend about it probably asking Zhukovsky to become his publisher. Not yet feeling recovered, V.A. Zhukovsky, rejoicing the completion of the great work, advised his friend not to hurry with the release of the translation (letter dated November 26, 1826, from Dresden). At the beginning of 1827 (until mid-April, the time of departure from Dresden), V.A. Zhukovsky had an opportunity to congratulate his friend with another joyous event: on November 13, 1826, Emperor Nicholas I granted a pension of 3000 rubles a year to N.I. Gnedich. Returning to St. Petersburg in October 1827, V.A. Zhukovsky did not find the friend: in the hope to cure chest catarrh, N.I. Gnedich went to the south on 9 August 1827. There he met A.P. Sontag (1786-1864), a childhood friend and correspondent of Zhukovsky. The poet devoted a poetic epistle written in hexameter to this humorous episode in March or April 1828 (no later than April 12). The chronologically last note between the two poets was connected with A.P. Sontag, who became a friend and correspondent of N.I. Gnedich. It is attributed to January - February 1831, as evidenced by reference to the disease of Mary, a daughter of A.P. Sontag.

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