THE PLAYS OF ANDREYEFF.*
ANDREYEFF, a man of about forty-five, is one of the two or three outstanding figures among the present generation of
Russian writers. His reputation may be less to-day than it was a few years ago, but nevertheless it would be absurd to deny his importance, and any appreciation of modern Russian literature which left him out of account must be incomplete. To English readers, however, be is always likely to remain unsympathetic and repugnant, for, even though we conceded that his intentions were essentially honest and high-minded, the depth of the pessimism which forms his most congenial atmosphere would be too much for most of us. A number of his prose stories have already appeared in English—one of them, The .Red Laugh, a horrible sketch on the theme of war, has just been reprinted (T. Fisher Unwin, 2s. net)—but his plays have hitherto been obtainable only in American editions. It is unlucky that the two volumes now given to us should overlap. Andreyeff's best- known drama, The Lzfe of Man, occurs in both, and we should have been very glad to be given one of the others in exchange for it—Anathema, for instance, or the more recent Thought, or even the topical play upon Belgium's martyrdom that was being acted in Russia last winter. But at any rate we now have some opportunity of forming a judgment upon Andreyeff's dramatic work. What we are given in these volumes is all of a "symbolic" character. It has a little in common with Maeterlinck, but much more with the later work of Strindberg, and it shows us the full flood of the reaction in Russia against the extreme realism of Tchekhoff and the early days of the Moscow Art Theatre. The Life of Man is a modern "morality" (Andreyeff has said that it originated from a second-hand account of Everynian), and shows us symbolically
the whole of human existence in its five short acts. In The Black Maskers the symbolism is more obscure, but it seems to echo the Greek notion of ilgins with its disastrous consequences.
The Sabine Women, a lighter play, symbolizes the political parties of Russia. The Sabines, who represent the " Cadets," or moderate reformers, always march into battle with, first, two steps forward and, then, one step backward. Their drill- sergeant addresses them thus :—
"Two steps forward! One step backward ! Two steps forward! One step backward ! The first two steps are designed to indicate, Sabines, the unquenchable fire of our stormy seals, the firm will, the irresistible advance. The step backward symbolizes the step of reason, the step of experience and of the mature mind. In taking that step we ponder the outcome of our acts. In taking it we also maintain, as it were, a close bond with tradition, with our ancestors, with our great past. History makes no leaps, and we, Sabines, at this great moment, we are history! Trumpeters, trumpet!" [And so they march triumphantly across the stage— two steps forward, one step backward.]
It will be seen, then, that Andreyeff is not invariably a pessimist ; nor, as readers of his stories will know, is he always a symbolist. " Every work," he has said, " should be written in the style which it demands. . . . I am not the slave of either symbolism or realism, but they are my servants."
• (1) Nays. By Leonid Andreyeff. Translated by Clarence L. Meader and Fred Newton Scott. London: Duckworth and Co. [8s.]—(2) The Li ,e of Man. By Leonidas Andreiev. Translated by C. J. Rogarth. London ; George Allen and Unwin. [2s. Gd. net.]
This is a most sensible rule of work, and it must be borne in mind by those who fear that they may find a lack of variety in the present selection of plays. They will find relief, too, from the possible monotony of the symbolism in the vivid and multifarious imagination which is perhaps Andreyeff's highest quality. From his pessimism, in spite of The Sabine Women, they must not expect to escape so easily. May we boldly recommend them not to take it too seriously ? When the gloom is "piled on" so monstrously " thick " we can afford to smile at it. The popular definition of a pessimist may even be turned inside out, and we may almost say that "an optimist is a man who lives with a pessimist." Our minds will always react against extreme views of either sort.
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