person
Romulus
also: Ромул
The legendary founder and first king of Rome, credited in later Roman antiquarian tradition with instituting the calendar; Chekhov invokes him as the (spurious) authority behind the name of the month of May.
Reading notes
- On May §4 Romulus
The legendary founder and first king of Rome, invoked here in Chekhov's mock-etymological joke deriving the name of May from a Latin word for elders.
- To Ye. M. Shavrova, 28 May 1891. Aleksin. §3 Romulus, Numa Pompilius
Chekhov drops the names of Rome's first two legendary kings into the middle of his mock-exasperated list of "The Mistake"'s repetitive cast (Sonya, "the dear departed," papa, mama), as an absurd non sequitur meant to dramatize how bewilderingly cluttered and directionless the story's roster of characters feels.