On wisdom background in The Gift of the Wise Bees by F. Sologub

The play The Gift of the Wise Bees was written in 1906 and was the first one in the chain of dramatic works created by F. Sologub. The drama is a personal interpretation of the myth about Laodamia and Protesilaus, which was rather popular in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. The same plot was used in dramas Protesilaus and Laodamia by S. Wyspianski (1899), Laodamia by I. Annensky (1902), Dead Protesilaus by V. Bryusov (1913). The probable textual source of Sologub's play is the philosophical essay The Life of the Bee by M. Maeterlinck. The papers which are represented in the archives of the Manuscript Department of the Institute of Russian Literature (the Pushkin House), Russian Academy of Sciences let us reckon M. Maeterlinck among the writers whose works Sologub was particularly interested in. Firstly, it can be proved by the number of Maeterlinck's books represented in Sologub's personal library: nine originals and eleven translations. Secondly, Sologub translated some of Maeterlinck's poems: ''The Prayer'', ''The Greenhouse" and ''The Temptation". The Prayer'' was published, ''The Greenhouse'' remained unpublished, ''The Temptation'' is mentioned in the translation files by Sologub while the text itself was not found. One should also admit the fact that Sologub could probably take part in some translations of Maeterlinck's plays made by An. Chebotarevskaya, Sologub's wife. Furthermore, in the archives there is an unpublished article devoted to the works by Maeterlinck. This article is regarded as an exceptional item for Sologub was not inclined to decode belles-lettres for ''ordinary readers''. The philosophical essay The Life of the Bees was published in Paris in 1901. One of the items was represented in Sologub's personal library. The book is a narration about life in a beehive, interwoven with philosophical generalisations. This work became a background for the development of some themes and images in The Gift of the Wise Bees. Bees, honey and wax in the play are metaphors of life, love and art respectively. Maeterlinck's idea about the interconnection of love and death becomes the leading one in Sologub's drama. Not only images and themes of The Gift of the Wise Bees, but also the idea of an innovative play originated in Maeterlinck's works. Belles-lettres by Maeterlinck were among the literary leads for Sologub, which can be proved by his unpublished article and fragments of published works devoted to art and theatre. Sologub's interest in Maeterlinck's works is considered to be an impulse for the former to write plays at the beginning of the 20th century, to address the problems of stage arts and to seek for the new theatre.

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