Pavel Svobodin

Reading notes

• The Critic §20 Svobodin

  Pavel Matveyevich Svobodin (1850-1892) was a genuinely admired comic and character actor of the Russian stage in the 1880s, later a close personal friend of Chekhov's. The noble father's tirade against him here -- calling him a cold, talentless "dilettante" -- is the character's drunken bile and the story's comic engine, not a verdict Chekhov endorsed; the story's irony depends on the reader recognizing Svobodin's real standing.

• Unclean Tragedians and Leprous Playwrights §12 Svobodin

  Pavel Svobodin, a real, well-known comic actor of the Russian popular stage, named for a sight gag: Burl's part apparently requires a strongman to carry him off.

• To A. N. Kanayev, 26 March 1883. Moscow. §7 Svobodin

  Pavel Svobodin, a well-known comic actor of the Russian popular stage, whose fate amid the Korsh company's breakup Chekhov reports he does not yet know.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 3 January 1889. Moscow. §4 Svobodin [sic -- source reads "Свободны," a corruption of "Свободин"]

  SOURCE CORRUPTION, preserved literally: the Russian source reads "Свободны", which is not a real word or name in this context but a garbled rendering of "Свободин" -- the actor Pavel Svobodin, already established under the correctly spelled form elsewhere in this corpus. Per this corpus's policy of preserving corrupted source readings literally rather than silently emending them, the translation carries the garbled form forward with a bracketed editorial flag rather than quietly substituting the corrected name. This mention should nonetheless be treated as referring to, the same actor, and NOT used to create or reference any separate entity under the garbled spelling "Свободны"/"Svobodny." He is being cast here to play Shabelsky in the Petersburg "Ivanov."

• To A. S. Suvorin, 5 March 1889. Moscow. §6 Svobodin was here

  Pavel Svobodin, the comic actor and friend of Chekhov's, a recurring figure in this correspondence; here the source of the rumor about the letter Chekhov asks Suvorin to forward.

• To I. L. Leontyev, 16 March 1889. Moscow. §3 give the money to Svobodin for the Society for Aid to Stage Performers

  Pavel Svobodin, the actor already extensively established in this corpus (e.g.) as a close theatrical correspondent of Chekhov's; here named as the intended recipient of the sale proceeds for the Society for Aid to Stage Performers, consistent with his known involvement in that theatrical charitable circle.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 9 April 1889. Moscow. §3 Svobodin

  Pavel Svobodin, the actor and close theatrical friend already established elsewhere in this corpus as a frequent go-between and correspondent on Chekhov's and Pleshcheyev's travel plans; here he had reported to Chekhov that Pleshcheyev intended to come to Moscow, a plan that fell through.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 14 May 1889. Sumy. §7 Svobodin promised to come and see me.

  Pavel Svobodin, actor and close theatrical correspondent of Chekhov's, already established elsewhere in this corpus.

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 31 May 1889. Sumy. §4 Svobodin

  Pavel Svobodin, the actor, a recurring visitor and correspondent elsewhere in this period's letters.

• To N. N. Obolonsky, 4 June 1889. Sumy. §5 Svobodin's and Lensky's benefit performances

  The unfinished play for the Imperial Theaters (see the preceding note) had already been promised for a joint benefit performance for the actors Pavel Svobodin and Alexander Lensky. Per the translator's report, the joint-benefit context here should be treated as newly attested in this letter pending confirmation against other appearances of Svobodin and Lensky elsewhere in the corpus; both are independently well established individually, but a joint Svobodin/Lensky benefit performance thread is not otherwise documented in this corpus as of this letter.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 26 June 1889. Sumy. §4 Svobodin was staying with me.

  Pavel Svobodin, the actor, a close theatrical correspondent of Chekhov's, reusing the corpus's established entity. An earlier corpus headnote had flagged a discrepancy over the actor's given name; the correct historical name is Pavel Svobodin, and this canonical entity record reflects that correction -- the name "Yakov Svobodin" does not appear in this letter's apparatus.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 12–13 October 1889. Moscow. §8 Svobodin

  Pavel Matveyevich Svobodin, actor at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg and a friend of Chekhov's who carried the play to the directorate and can supply the details of its rejection.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 17 October 1889. Moscow. §8 То есть Вас я пригласил к себе, чтобы было кому писать обо мне, а Свободина приглашал, чтобы было кому всучить свою пьесу.

  Chekhov reports, indignantly and sarcastically, the literary gossip's cynical reinterpretation of his hospitality: that he had invited Suvorin purely to secure favorable press coverage and Svobodin purely to get his play accepted for production. The bitter aftertaste image ("как будто вместо водки я выпил рюмку чернил с мухами" / "as if, instead of vodka, I'd drunk a glass of ink with flies in it") registers how much this stung, despite Chekhov's dismissive "trifles, nonsense."

• To A. S. Suvorin, 16 October 1891. Moscow. §8 In my letters to Lessing and the rest

  "Lessing" here is not the German dramatist but a private joking alias Chekhov and Suvorin used for the actor Pavel Svobodin (cf., where the same nickname -- "Сей Лессинг (сиречь Свободин)" -- is glossed outright as Svobodin, mocking his habit of holding forth on classic authors). Chekhov is saying that even in letters to insiders in on the joke, he is keeping his Petersburg travel plans deliberately vague.

• To M. I. Chaykovsky, 16 February 1890. Moscow. §7 Khodykov ought to be played by Svobodin.

  Pavel Svobodin, a well-known actor of the day (already catalogued in this corpus as from an earlier cameo mention), proposed here by Chekhov as his casting suggestion for the role of Khodykov -- an implicit endorsement of both the character and the actor.

• To M. P. Chekhova, 16 January 1891. Petersburg. §6 Svobodin's name-day party

  Pavel Matveyevich Svobodin (1850-1892), a leading actor of the Alexandrinsky Theatre and a friend of Chekhov's; his name-day, like Ivan Chekhov's, fell on 16 January, the feast of St. John.

• To V. O. Mikhnevich, 17 January 1891. Petersburg. §3 Mine lay at the "Novoye Vremya" office for about three days; you are yourself to blame for this, since you left Svobodin's before I did.

  The mix-up evidently happened at the rooms of the actor Pavel Svobodin: both men left their hats behind, and each apparently took the other's by mistake. Chekhov's own hat was misdelivered to or held at the "Novoye Vremya" office for three days before this note was written; he lightly needles Mikhnevich for the delay by pointing out that Mikhnevich left Svobodin's earlier than he did, implying the mistake was more likely Mikhnevich's doing.