The Brothers Karamazov

^[115]in the form of a dove: the Holy Spirit appeared “like a dove” only once, at Christ’s baptism in the Jordan (see Matthew 3:16, Mark 1:10, Luke 3:22).

^[116] Elijah: Luke 1:17 (Revised Standard Version).

^[117]the gates of hell: Matthew 16:18.

^[118] Den Dank, Dame, begehr ich nicht: “Madame, I want no thanks.” From Schiller’s ballad “The Glove” (1797).

^[119]And in all nature . . .: lines from Pushkin’s poem “The Demon” (1823).

^[120]Chernomazov: Arina Petrovna inadvertently brings out the implicit meaning of Alyosha’s surname: cherny is Russian for “black”; however, in the Turkish and Tartar languages, kara also means “black” (the root, maz, in Russian conveys the idea of “paint” or “smear”).

^[121]Now I’m likeFamusov ...: Famusov, Chatsky, and Sophia are characters in A. S. Griboyedov’s celebrated comedy Woe from Wit (1824), in which the last scene takes place on a stairway.

^[122]An invincible power . . .: the Russian original was heard and written down by Dostoevsky in Moscow ca. 1839. Smerdyakov sings the last stanza a bit further on.

^[123]You opened her matrix: a biblical expression (see Exodus 13:2, 12; 34:19); Grigory often uses such language, and Smerdyakov has picked up some of it, e.g., “nativity” just before.

^[124]father of the present one: Napoleon 1 was the uncle, not the father, of Napoleon III.

^[125]Petrovka: a street in the center of Moscow.

^[126]sticky little leaves . . .: allusion to Pushkin’s poem “Chill Winds Still Blow” (1828).

^[127]professions de foi: “professions of faith.”

^[128]a tinge of nobility: a borrowing from Pushkin’s epigram “A tsar was once told . . .” (1825): “Flatterers, flatterers, try to preserve / A tinge of nobility even in your baseness.”

^[129]And how believest thou ...: this first half of Ivan’s question comes from the Orthodox order for the consecration of a bishop; in response the bishop-elect recites the Creed.

^[130]an old sinner . . .: Voltaire. The quotation comes from his Epistles, 111, “To the Author of a New Book on the Three Impostors” (1769); cf. note 3 to page 24 in section 1.1.4.

^[131]the Word . . .: see John 1:1-2.

^[132] John the Merciful: a saint, patriarch of Alexandria (611-19). The episode comes, however, from Flaubert’s “La Légende de Saint-Julien - l’Hospitalier” (1876), “Saint Julian the Merciful” in Turgenev’s Russian translation (1877). Ivan significantly substitutes the name John (Ioann, in Russian, i.e., Ivan) for Julian: Flaubert’s Julian is a parricide.

^[133]they ate ...: see Genesis 3:5.

^[134]as Polonius says ... .Hamlet, 1.3.129 (we have substituted an appropriate line from the passage Dostoevsky quotes in Russian translation).

^[135]image and likeness: here, as just earlier, Ivan plays perversely on Genesis 1:26 (“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”).

^[136]on its meek eyes: from “Before Evening,” a poem from the cycle About the Weather (1859) by Nikolai Nekrasov.

^[137]Tartars: see note 5 to page 27 in section 1.1.5.

^[138]A little girl ...: this and the preceding story are both based on actual court cases. Dostoevsky discussed the first at length in Diary of a Writer (1876); the defense attorney there, V. D. Spassovich, is thought to be a possible model for Fetyukovich in B.K.

^[139]Ieven forget where I read it: the story actually appeared in the Russian Herald (1877, no. 9), where B.K. was also published serially The article was entitled “Memoirs of a Serf.“

^[140]the liberator of the people: Alexander II, tsar from 1855 to 1881; the emancipation of the serfs was the most important of his many reforms.

^[141]paradise ... fire from heaven: Ivan combines biblical and Greek motifs, the paradise of Genesis with the revolt of Prometheus, who “stole fire from heaven” against the will of Zeus.

^[142]the hind lie down with the lion: a variation on Isaiah 11:6,65:25.

^[143]Just art thou ...: a variation on several biblical passages: cf. Revelation 15:3-4, 16:7,19:1-2; Psalm 119:137.

^[144]Ihasten to return my ticket: allusion to Schiller’s poem “Resignation” (1784).

^[145]and for all: echoes an Orthodox liturgical phrase (cf. note 2 to page 164 in section 2.4.1).

^[146]the only sinless One: Christ. The words come from the Hymn of the Resurrection sung at Matins in the Orthodox Church.