figure
Bucephalus
also: Буцефале
The renowned warhorse of Alexander the Great, a stock reference for classical-education comedy.
Reading notes
- To L. S. Mizinova, 11 January 1891. Petersburg. §6 Bartsal, or Bucephalus, whichever -- I've forgotten his name
A double joke built on a garbled name. "Bartsal" likely glances at Anton Bartsal, a well-known Bolshoi opera singer of the day -- though the corpus's headnote for this letter treats the precise referent as too slight to pin down with confidence, possibly some itinerant entertainer Mizinova mentioned. Chekhov then "corrects" himself to "Bucephalus," the name of Alexander the Great's famous warhorse -- a comically inflated substitution that turns whoever Mizinova's companion is into a legendary steed, and the pretended memory-lapse ("I've forgotten his name") is itself the joke's punchline, treating a presumably minor figure as beneath the trouble of getting right.
- To L. S. Mizinova, 21 January 1891. Petersburg. §9 Tell Bucephalus that I sneeze on his regards
"Bucephalus" -- Alexander the Great's warhorse -- continues the running joke from the 11 January letter, where Chekhov garbled an unnamed companion of Mizinova's into "Bartsal, or Bucephalus, whichever." Ten days on, the placeholder has hardened into her acknowledged nickname for the same third party, used here alone with no further explanation needed -- itself a sign the joke was already established between them.