institution
Musical-Dramatic Society
the Musical-Dramatic Society
also: Музыкально-драматическое общество
An amateur or semi-professional society of uncertain exact name, of which Prince A. I. Urusov holds some office (Chekhov believes chairman); Chekhov admits in the same breath that he does not know its precise title. He proposes Shavrova for membership (15-ruble fee) on Urusov's behalf. In (24/25 February 1892), Chekhov confirms this society is distinct from the Society of Art and Literature (institution:society-art-and-literature) -- ruling out that guess -- but its actual name and charter remain unknown even to him; he defers to Urusov for the particulars, so the society's identity stays unresolved within the correspondence.
Reading notes
- To Ye. M. Shavrova, 22 February 1892. Moscow. §3 the Musical-Dramatic Society
"Музыкально-драматическое общество" -- an amateur or semi-professional society of uncertain exact title, distinct from the well-known Society of Art and Literature that Chekhov attended the opening of in 1888 (institution:society-art-and-literature), which he would have known by name. Chekhov's own parenthetical ("I do not know the society's exact name") signals the identification is provisional; the following letter (24/25 February 1892), corrects the name -- this entity should be reconciled with that letter's apparatus once built.
- To Ye. M. Shavrova, 24–25 February 1892. Moscow. §3 some other Society
The correction lands back on the same unnamed body first raised in as the "Musical-Dramatic Society" (institution:musical-dramatic-society-1892), whose exact name Chekhov admitted then he did not know and whose charter ("устав") he still does not know here. Rather than supplying the name, Chekhov defers to Urusov for the particulars -- the society's identity remains unresolved within the correspondence.