The Bear

Reading notes

• To I. L. Leontyev, 22 February 1888. Moscow. §11 "The Bear."

  Chekhov's one-act vaudeville, written in early 1888 and mentioned here in passing as an idle trifle.

• To Ya. P. Polonsky, 22 February 1888. Moscow. §4 "The Bear"

  Chekhov's one-act vaudeville "The Bear" (Медведь), tossed off in idle hours; he later dedicated it to Polonsky, fulfilling the promise made in his January 1888 letter to dedicate a future work to him.

• To I. L. Leontyev, 14 September 1888. Moscow. §7 "The Bear"

  Chekhov's one-act vaudeville, written earlier in 1888 (mentioned in passing in and); he asks whether Shcheglov approves before sending it to the censor.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 3 November 1888. Moscow. §11 "Bear"

  Chekhov's one-act vaudeville "The Bear", already well attested in this corpus (cf. letters 515 and 517, the latter giving a detailed account of the same noisy, successful run at Korsh's theater referenced here in brief summary).

• To A. S. Suvorin, 3 November 1888. Moscow. §12 The coffee-pot killed my "Bear."

  "The Bear," Chekhov's vaudeville already well attested elsewhere in this corpus (see's's, and's headnotes); this letter documents a specific production mishap -- a burst coffee-pot scalding the lead actress -- that forced its cancellation, distinct from the "tomorrow" opening reported in.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 10 November 1888. Moscow. §9 "The Bear"

  Chekhov's one-act vaudeville "The Bear", already well attested in this corpus (cf. letters 515, 517, 519), here being submitted via Shcheglov to the Petersburg Theatrical Committee for approval to stage in the capital.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 10 November 1888. Moscow. §10 the bear and the she-bear

  Not literal animals: Chekhov's own joking reference to the play "The Bear"'s two lead performers in the Moscow production, via the animal imagery embedded in the play's title and plot, commenting that they are not acting their parts particularly well. Glossed as wordplay on, not a separate cast entity.

• To I. L. Leontyev, 11 November 1888. Moscow. §3 my "Bear" back

  Chekhov's own one-act vaudeville "The Bear," already established throughout this correspondence; the concern here is which actress will introduce it to the Petersburg imperial stage.

• To I. L. Leontyev, 11 November 1888. Moscow. §10 "The Bear,"

  Chekhov's own vaudeville, closing the joke list of six "animal" play titles; the same play discussed in \S3 of this letter.

• To I. L. Leontyev, 16–17 November 1888. Moscow. §2 "The Bear": one for Smolensk

  Chekhov's own one-act vaudeville, already established throughout this correspondence; here Chekhov sends two printed copies, one destined for an unnamed contact in Smolensk and one left to Shcheglov's discretion. "Smolensk" names only the destination, with no further recipient identified in the source.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 18 November 1888. Moscow. §6 my "Bear" is going on at the Alexandrinsky

  Chekhov's one-act farce "The Bear" (Медведь), already well established in this corpus as in active production (e.g.); the Alexandrinsky is the imperial theater in Petersburg.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 23 November 1888. Moscow. §5 "The Bear"

  Chekhov's one-act play; the conditional instruction to notarize a copy of the power of attorney already sent applies only if the play is actually staged, continuing the same negotiation thread as \S3.

• To Ye. K. Sakharova, 13 January 1889. Moscow. §12 My "Bear"

  Chekhov's one-act vaudeville "The Bear" (1888), already established in this corpus; he jokes that its commercial success would better earn it the title "The Milch Cow."

• To A. S. Suvorin, 20 February 1889. Moscow. §12 My "Bear" is already going into a second edition

  Chekhov's one-act vaudeville "The Bear" (written early 1888), noted here as commercially successful enough to warrant a second printing, nearly sold out.

• To N. A. Leikin, 21 February 1889. Moscow. §5 "Ivanov," together with "The Bear"

  Chekhov's one-act vaudeville "Medved" (The Bear), here paired with his play "Ivanov" as the two properties whose combined royalties brought him nearly a thousand roubles.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 21 February 1889. Moscow. §4 "The Bear"

  Chekhov's one-act vaudeville "Medved" (The Bear), whose royalties from the same theater directorate are also to be collected.

• To I. M. Kondratyev, 5 March 1889. Moscow. §5 "The Bear" ran eighteen times at Korsh's, and yet the bill shows it as seventeen

  Chekhov's one-act vaudeville "The Bear" (Медведь), one of his most frequently performed stage pieces in this period, running at institution:korsh-theatre, the private Moscow playhouse of F. A. Korsh. This is a routine royalties dispute: the performance count on Kondratyev's bill determines the fee owed to Chekhov.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 6 March 1889. Moscow. §4 "The Bear"

  Chekhov's popular one-act vaudeville, written in early 1888; its royalty income is discussed similarly in, five days earlier.

• To V. K. Mitkevich, 12 August 1889. Sumy. §4 Bear

  Chekhov's one-act vaudeville "The Bear" (\foreignlanguage{russian}{Медведь}), written in early 1888; the work V. K. Mitkevich sought permission to translate into French for the French stage.

• To I. L. Leontyev, 18 September 1889. Moscow. §7 "The Bear"

  Chekhov's one-act vaudeville, at the center of the performance-rights dispute described here between Korsh and Abramova.

• To A. S. Lazarev, 23 November 1889. Moscow. §7 The Bear

  Chekhov's own one-act vaudeville \emph{Медведь} (\emph{The Bear}), cited here as his own example of writing a play roughly six months ahead of its target season.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 30 August 1891. Bogimovo. §6 I'll get to Moscow, take a hundred fifty to two hundred roubles for "The Bear" from the Society

  "The Society" is the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers (institution:society-dramatic-writers), which collected and distributed performance royalties on behalf of its members; "The Bear" (\emph{Медведь}), Chekhov's 1888 one-act vaudeville, was by 1891 a staple of the popular repertoire and a reliable, if modest, source of ready income for him -- part of the letter's larger point (\S6) that this summer's earnings let him pay off a thousand-rouble debt.

• To M. P. Chekhova, 3 February 1892. Voronezh. §7 They're doing "The Bear."

  Chekhov's own one-act vaudeville "The Bear" (Медведь), written in early 1888 and by this point a stage staple; he mentions, in passing, that a provincial theater in Voronezh is performing it the evening he writes, without further comment.

• To the Chekhovs, April 1891. Naples. §6 the amateur fools who are going to perform my "Bear"

  \textit{Медведь} ("The Bear"), Chekhov's popular one-act farce written in 1888, had by 1891 become a staple of amateur and provincial theatrical evenings precisely because it was short, broadly funny, and required only three actors; Chekhov's self-deprecating hope that its royalties from "fool" amateur productions will cover his mounting travel debt is characteristic of his mixed pride and mockery toward his own lighter theatrical work, in contrast to the more serious literary ambitions voiced elsewhere in the correspondence.