Sumarokoff's dramatic work formed but a small part of his writings, which included a great mass of odes, eclogues, elegies, ballads, and so forth; and although he ranks as a dramatist, he is most important in his series of fables, epigrams, and epitaphs, which are permeated with biting satire on his own period, though the subjects are rather monotonous--the bad arrangement of the courts of justice, which permitted bribery and other abuses among lawyers, the injurious and oppressive state monopolies, attempts at senseless imitations of foreigners in language and customs, and ignorance concealed by external polish and culture. Coarse and imperfect as are these satires, they vividly reproduce the impressions of a contemporary gifted with keen observation and the ability to deal dispassionately with current events. As we shall see later on, this protest against the existing order of things continued, and blossomed forth in the succeeding--the sixth--period of literature in productions, which not only form the flower of the century, but also really belong to modern literature, and hold the public attention at the present day. This Sumarokoff's dramatic and other works do not do, and their place is rather in the archives of the preparatory school. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. What was the general character of the reign of Peter the Great? 2. How important did the printing press become in his time? 3. Why did Peter the Great deprive the monks of pens, ink, and paper? 4. What interesting works were written by Pososhkoff? 5. Who was Feofan Prokopovitch? 6. Give an account of the life and writings of Kantemir. 7. What literary influence had Tatishtcheff and Trediakovsky? 8. Describe the early life of Lomonosoff. 9. Give an account of his many activities. 10. How did he regard literature, and what were his best works. 11. In what way did he exert a strong literary influence? 12. What attention did the Court give to theatrical representations at this time? 13. What new relations with Europe marked the reign of Elizaveta? 14. When and where was Volkhoff's theater established? 15. What share had Sumarokoff in developing the Russian drama? 16. How did he protest against the abuses of his times? BIBLIOGRAPHY _History of Russia._ Alfred Rambaud. Vol. II., Chapter VI. _The Story of Russia._ W. R. Morfill. _Specimens from the Russian Poets._ Two volumes, Sir John Bowring, contain many specimens from Lomonosoff to Zhukovsky inclusive. CHAPTER VII SIXTH PERIOD, THE REIGN OF KATHERINE II. (1762-1796).