Beschreibung:

MOCHALOV, Pavel Stepanovich (1800-1848). Autograph letter signed (‘Pavel Mochalov’) to Dmitrii Danilovich Chistiakov (‘Pochtenneishii Dmitrii Danilovich!’), in Russian, 17 December [1843], n.p., asking him to explain to his aunt that he has been ill and penniless, but that he is now better and returning the thirty rubles that she loaned him. A very rare manuscript by this major figure in the history of Russian theatre. Mochalov was one of the greatest, most intuitive actors of his age, famously relying on the inspiration of the moment to deliver his passionate and temperamental performances. In 1827 Pushkin attended a performance of Kerim Girei, based on his The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, and jumped in his seat when Mochalov began his monologue, exclaiming almost aloud that he had altogether forgotten where he was; ‘Pushkin was delighted. He went up to the stage after the play and showered Mochalov with praise’ (Laskina, p.128). With Mochalov’s Hamlet, in 1837, ‘the genius of a great Russian tragedian unfurled in all its magnificence’ (Belinsky, in Schuler), and ‘Mochalov became the most powerful theatrical signifier of Russian national culture between 1812 and the Crimean War’ (Schuler). In this letter, published in Laskina, Mochalov asks Chistiakov, the Nizhny-Novgorod merchant and father of actress Evdokiia Nemchinova, to make amends for him with his aunt, from whom he had borrowed money. Mochalov uses the distinctive expression ‘bez viny vinovat’ [guilty but blameless] to justify himself to her, an expression which playwright Aleksandr Ostrovskii reprised for the title of one of his plays. Mochalov’s illness, and the loan of money, no doubt relate to the prodigious drinking which ultimately killed him. There is no record of any Mochalov manuscript having sold at auction in ABPC, RBH, or any of the usual databases; we could trace no Mochalov manuscript in any public institution other than in the collection in the Bakrushin Museum catalogued by Laskina. Laskina, P.S. Mochalov (Moscow: 2000), p.413; Schuler, Theatre and Identity in Imperial Russia (Iowa City, 2009), p.115. Together with: a 19th-century transcription of a piece about Mochalov from Niva (no. 1, 1887, p.25), an article evidently not known to Laskina when compiling her otherwise comprehensive work on Mochalov. one page, 8vo (220 x 165mm), docketed in a 19th-century hand (some spotting).