The Gallant Lexicon of A. P. Sumarokov’s Love Elegies

The author analyses A. P. Sumarokov’s Love Elegies from the point of view of the writer’s reference to the book of French writer J. F. Dreux du Radier (1714–1780) The Dictionary of Love ( Dictionnaire d’amour ), which describes the gallant behavioural code. The correspondence of A. P. Sumarokov’s collection with the book by Dreux du Radier is considered through the prism of two authors: V. K. Trediakovsky and A. V. Khrapovitsky. If the former was an opponent of Sumarokov’s when it came to the issues underlying the reforming of the Russian language, the latter was a graduate of the same educational institution as Sumarokov. A. P. Sumarokov concentrates on the portrayal of the image of love which is expressed in his elegies, on the one hand, theatrically (through a number of sculptural poses), focusing his attention on different voice-frequency transitions. This tonality fluctuates within certain limits: from the fear of the lyrical hero that his love might not be requited when he confesses it to his Lovelady to the assurance of the lover of loss of mind from love, well in accordance with the rules of gallant behavior. On the other hand, the love feeling is visualised (for example, the portrait of the beloved consists of such features as “lips”, “breasts”) thus creating an illustration of the dictionary entries which can be found in  A Love Lexicon . Comparing the gallant lexicon of  Love Elegies to the book by Dreux du Radier, the Russian reader had to join the gallant behavioural code necessary to adopt the behaviour model of “a decent person”. However, the translation of Trediakovsky’s Journey to the Island of Love had an equally strong influence on the creation of the elegies. The analysis of how Russian writers perceived gallant discourse and reflected it in their creative work helps study the evolution of the consciousness of the gentry in the Russian literature of the second half of the 18 th century.