Saturday, January 21, 2012

Current Favourite Footnote

Prince Dmitri Ivanovich Dolgorukov (1797-1867), the son of the poet I.M. Dolgorukov, was at that time the secretary to the Russian Embassy in London. Dolgorukov became friends with Washington Irving in Madrid, where he was the attaché to the Russian Embassy. Before the beginning of his diplomatic career Dolgorukov had written poems and had been a member of the ‘Green Lamp’ literary society, where he met Pushkin. On 4 April 1820 Dolgorukov became attached to the Russian Embassy in Constantinople (along with S.I. Turguénev and D.V. Dashkov). In 1821 he returned to Petersburg. In a letter from Pushkin to S.I. Turguénev there is a reminiscence of Dolgorukov: ‘Give my regards to Chu [Dashkov], if Chu remembers me, but Dolgorukov has forgotten me.’ Dolgorukov’s letters from abroad were printed in the Russian Archive (1914-1915). They contain not a single mention of Irving, or of Pushkin.

I think it's the word 'reminiscence' that gets to me...

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