outward form of the
verse, and in poetical expression of thought; in fact, he was "the poet
of expression," and rendered great service by his boldness and
originality of language, in that it taught men to write not as all
others wrote, but as it lay in their individual power to write; in other
words, he inculcated individuality in literature.

The only one of the many poets of Pushkin's epoch in Russia who did not
repeat and develop, in different keys, the themes of their master's
poetry, was Alexander Sergyeevitch Griboyedoff (1795-1829). He alone was
independent, original, and was related to the Pushkin period as Kryloff
was to the Karamzin period--merely by the accident of time, not by the
contents of his work. Griboyedoff was the first of a series of Russian
poets who depicted life in absolutely faithful, but gloomy, colors; and
it was quite in keeping with this view, that he did not live to see in
print the comedy in which his well-earned fame rested, at the time, and
which still keeps it fresh, by performances on the stage at the present
day.

There was nothing very cheerful or bright about the social life of the
'20's in the nineteenth century to make Russian poets take anything but
a gloomy view of matters in general. Griboyedoff, as an unprejudiced
man, endowed with great poetical gifts, and remarkable powers of
observation, was able to give a faithful and wonderfully complete
picture of high life in Moscow of that day, in his famous comedy "Woe
from Wit" ("Gore ot Uma"), and introduce to the stage types which had
never, hitherto, appeared in Russian comedy, because no one had looked
deep enough into Russian hearts, or been capable of limning, impartially
and with fidelity to nature, the emptiness and vanity of the characters
and aims which preponderated in Russian society.

He was well born and very well educated. After serving in the army in
1812, like most patriotic young Russians of the day, he entered the
foreign office, in 1817. There he probably made the acquaintance of
Pushkin, but he never became intimate with him, as he belonged to a
different literary circle, which included actors and dramatic writers.
His first dramatic efforts were not very promising, though his first
comedy, "The Young Married Pair," was acted in St. Petersburg in 1816.
In 1819 he was offered the post of secretary of legation in Persia,
which he accepted; and this took him away from the gay and rather wild
society existence whi