D. MINÁYEFF (1835-1889), the author of a great number of satirical verses, also belongs to this group of translators. His renderings from Byron, Burns, Cornwall, and Moore, Goethe and Heine, Leopardi, Dante, and several others, were, as a rule, extremely fine. And finally I must mention one, at least, of the prose-translators, VVEDÉNSKIY (1813-1855), for his very fine translations of the chief novels of Dickens. His renderings are real works of art, the result of a perfect knowledge of English life, and of such a deep assimilation of the genius of Dickens that the translator almost identified himself with the original author. PART VI The Drama CHAPTER VI THE DRAMA Its Origin--The Tsars Alexei and Peter I.--Sumarókoff--Pseudo-classical Tragedies: Knyazhnín, Ozeroff--First Comedies--The First Years of the Nineteenth Century--Griboyedoff--The Moscow Stage in the Fifties--Ostróvskiy; his first Dramas--“The Thunderstorm”--Ostróvskiy’s later Dramas--Historical Dramas: A. K. Tolstóy--Other Dramatic Writers. The Drama in Russia, as everywhere else, had a double origin. It developed out of the religious “mysteries” on the one hand and the popular comedy on the other, witty interludes being introduced into the grave, moral representations, the subjects of which were borrowed from the Old or the New Testament. Several such mysteries were adapted in the seventeenth century by the teachers of the Graeco-Latin Theological Academy at Kíeff for representation in Little Russian by the students of the Academy, and later on these adaptations found their way to Moscow. Towards the end of the seventeenth century--on the eve, so to speak, of the reforms of Peter I.--a strong desire to introduce Western habits of life was felt in certain small circles at Moscow, and the father of Peter, the Tsar Alexis, was not hostile to it. He took a liking to theatrical representations, and induced some foreigners residing at Moscow to write pieces for representation at the palace. A certain Gregory undertook this task and, taking German versions of plays, which used to be called at that time “English Plays,” he adapted them to Russian tastes. _The Comedy of Queen Esther and the Haughty Haman_, _Tobias_, _Judith_, etc., were represented before the Tsar. A high functionary of the Church, SIMEON PÓLOTSKIY, did not disdain to write such mysteries, and several of them have come down to us; while a daughter of Alexis, the princess Sophie (a pupil of Simeon), breaking with the strict habits of isolation which were then obligatory for women, had theatrical representations given at the palace in her presence.