concept
"The Monkey and the Spectacles" (Мартышка и очки)
The Monkey and the Spectacles
also: Мартышка и очки
Ivan Krylov's well-known verse fable, in which a monkey acquires a pair of spectacles but, not understanding their use, smashes them in frustration; a standard memorization piece for Russian schoolchildren, referenced in Chekhov's unfinished "Schulz" fragment as the fable the schoolboy protagonist has failed to learn by heart.
Reading notes
- Unfinished [Schulz] §2 "The Monkey and the Spectacles"
Мартышка и очки, a well-known verse fable by Ivan Krylov, standard memorization material for Russian schoolchildren; the joke of the fable (a monkey acquires spectacles, cannot work out how to use them, and smashes them in frustration) is left unstated in the source, which assumes the reader already knows it.