It is interesting to see what Pushkin
says of Byron's poem. In his notes there is the following passage--

"Byron knew Mazepa through Voltaire's history of Charles XII. He was
struck solely by the picture of a man bound to a wild horse and borne
over the steppes. A poetical picture of course; but see what he did
with it. What a living creation! What a broad brush! But do not expect
to find either Mazepa or Charles, nor the usual gloomy Byronic hero.
Byron was not thinking of him. He presented a series of pictures, one
more striking than the other. Had his pen come across the story of the
seduced daughter and the father's execution, it is improbable that
anyone else would have dared to touch the subject."

CHAPTER III

LERMONTOV

The romantic movement in Russia was, as far as Pushkin was concerned,
not really a romantic movement at all. Still less was it so in the
case of the Pleiade which followed him. And yet, for want of a better
word, one is obliged to call it the _romantic_ movement, as it was a
new movement, a renascence that arose out of the ashes of the
pseudo-classical eighteenth century convention. Pushkin was followed
by a Pleiade.

The claim of his friend and fellow-student, BARON DELVIG, to fame,
rests rather on his friendship with Pushkin (to whom he played the
part of an admirable critic) than on his own verse. He died in 1831.
YAZYKOV, PRINCE BARIATINSKY, VENEVITINOV, and POLEZHAEV, can all be
included in the Pleiade; all these are lyrical poets of the second
order, and none of them--except Polezhaev, whose real promise of
talent was shattered by circumstances (he died of drink and
consumption after a career of tragic vicissitudes)--has more than an
historical interest.

Pushkin's successor to the throne of Russian letters was Lermontov: no
unworthy heir. The name Lermontov is said to be the same as the Scotch
Learmonth. The story of his short life is a simple one. He was born at
Moscow in 1814. He visited the Caucasus when he was twelve. He was
taught English by a tutor. He went to school at Moscow, and afterwards
to the University. He left in 1832 owing to the disputes he had with
the professors. At the age of eighteen, he entered the Guards' Cadet
School at St. Petersburg; and two years later he became an officer in
the regiment of the Hussars. In 1837 he was transferred to Georgia,
owing to the scandal caused by the outspoken violence of his verse;
but he was transferred to Novgorod in