person
Marina Mniszech
also: Марина Мнишек, Marina Mnishek, Marina Mniszek
Polish noblewoman (c. 1588-c. 1614) who married the First False Dmitry in 1606 and was briefly crowned tsaritsa of Russia during the Time of Troubles; after his murder she was married briefly to a second pretender and died in Russian captivity. Chekhov here urges Suvorin not to abandon a planned literary work on her, calling her the most colorful of historical figures while dismissing her attitude toward Russia and, in coarse terms, her as a woman.
Reading notes
- To L. S. Suvorin, 25 November 1889. Moscow. §5 she's too much of a woman
Renders the Russian "баба" -- a coarse, dismissive colloquial term for a woman (roughly "broad"/"female," with a peasant or low-register flavor, distinct from the neutral "женщина"), applied here by Chekhov directly to the historical Marina Mniszech alongside "мелка" ("petty"). Rendered faithfully rather than softened into a neutral term, consistent with the corpus no-softening policy: Chekhov's private register with Suvorin includes blunt, dismissive language about women that should not be sanded down in translation.