person
Marcus Aurelius
also: Марк Аврелий, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Roman emperor (r. 161-180 AD) and Stoic philosopher, author of the private philosophical notebook known as the "Meditations"; Chekhov here lends Lensky a copy of this work, annotated with his own pencil marginalia, in a 9 April 1889 Easter note.
Reading notes
- Ward No. 6 §190 Marcus Aurelius said
Andrei Yefimych's paraphrase ("Pain is a living image of pain: make an effort of will to change that image, cast it off, stop complaining, and the pain will vanish") loosely echoes ideas from the "Meditations" on the mind's power over its own judgments of pain, though it is quoted from memory in conversation rather than cited exactly -- part of the story's larger point that Andrei Yefimych's Stoicism is bookish and secondhand.
- To A. P. Lensky, 9 April 1889. Moscow. §3 Marcus Aurelius
The Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher (121-180 AD), whose "Meditations" Chekhov here lends to Lensky, annotated with his own pencil marginalia that he says carry no special weight for the reader.