The epithalamic verses by M. V. Lomonosov and V. K. Trediakovsky (1730th – 1740th)

Abstract

The paper reviews Trediakovsky’s “dilogy” [1], devoted to the engagement (1729) and marriage (1730) of A. B. Kurakin and A. I. Panina, and Lomonosov’s “Ode on the Day of the Marriage of Their Imperial Highnesses the Sovereign Grand Duke Peter Feodorovich and Grand Duchess Catherine, 1745”. Much of the mythopoetic concept of epithalamium as lyric-dramatic genre proposed by Trediakovsky will be perceived by Lomonosov and by later writers through him. The principal innovations made by Lomonosov in epithalamic genre, became his mythological and political content and submission to the form of a solemn ode. The ode of 1745 by Lomonosov is the really conceptual ode. The phenomenon of the Royal marriage with explanation of its reasons is considered in it. The dual – erotico-political – ideological complex developed by Lomonosov and the corresponding “common places” of epithalamic odes will be crucial for poets until the end of the 18th century.