person
Meliton Shishkin
Meliton
also: Мелитон Шишкин, Мелитон, Meliton, the steward, приказчик
The steward of Dementyev's farmstead, out hunting with his dog Damka on a wet, overcast morning; a large, fleshy man with a thin, hoarse voice out of keeping with his build, whose glum conversation with an old shepherd about the dwindling of game, fish, forests, and the physical decline of the gentry draws out his own private grief over poverty and a wretched home life.
Reading notes
- The Shepherd's Pipe §1 the steward of Dementyev's farmstead
A прика́зчик (steward/bailiff) managed a landowner's estate or farmstead on the owner's behalf, hiring labor and overseeing day-to-day operations; Meliton's post -- and his own admission later in the story of eight children, a drunken streak, and ten rubles a month -- place him socially between the peasants and the gentry he later contrasts, belonging fully to neither.
- The Shepherd's Pipe §42 it's time it knew its limits
Meliton's summary -- sin and forgetfulness of God as the cause of the world's coming end -- is the pious, conventional gloss he reaches for; his own far more personal outburst about poverty and an unbearable home a few lines later (loc 52-56) suggests his real grievance is closer to home than to eschatology.