figure
Hecuba
also: Гекуба, Hecuba
The Trojan queen of Greek myth, invoked here via the proverbial line from Shakespeare's Hamlet ('What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba') -- the doctor uses 'What is Hecuba to you, or you to Hecuba?' to accuse the princess of playing at grief and devotion she does not truly feel toward the monastery.
Reading notes
- The Princess §57 What is Hecuba to you, or you to Hecuba?
The doctor quotes, almost verbatim, Hamlet's line about the player weeping for the Trojan queen Hecuba, a figure with no real connection to him (Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2: "What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, / That he should weep for her?"). Applied to the princess's relationship with the monastery, the allusion accuses her devotion of being just such performed, disconnected grief -- moving herself to tears over a cause that means nothing to her personally.
- To K. S. Barantsevich, 14 April 1888. Moscow. §4 Hecuba
Echoes the proverbial line from Hamlet ("What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba?"), used here by Barantsevich (per Chekhov's paraphrase) and answered by Chekhov to argue that no one group holds an exclusive claim on mourning Garshin.