figure
Shapkin
also: Ivan Nikolaich, Шапкин, Иван Николаич
A once-slippery pettifogging lawyer, now a modest, grey-haired notary, who handled Uzelkov's corrupt divorce eighteen years earlier and accompanies him to the cemetery, cheerfully confessing to having bribed and cheated both parties.
Reading notes
- Old Age §5 pettifogger
Translates stryapchiy, a somewhat contemptuous term (predating the 1864 judicial reforms) for a low-status legal agent or pleader who handled cases -- often disreputably -- without the formal standing of a barrister; the word carries built-in connotations of sharp practice that Shapkin's own account of himself amply confirms.