ere weak, lacking in
independent creation, and where the whole tone was gloomy. This gloomy
tone expressed the sentiments of all Russia of the period, and it was
natural that Byronic heroes should be in consonance with the general
taste. At this juncture, a highly talented poet arose, Mikhail
Yurievitch Lermontoff (1814-1841), who, after first imitating Pushkin,
speedily began to imitate Byron--and that with far more success than
Pushkin had ever done--with great delicacy and artistic application to
the local conditions. Thus, as a vivid, natural echo of this epoch in
Russian life, the poet became dear to the heart of Russians; and in the
'40's they regarded him as the equal of the writers they most loved.

Lermontoff, the son of a poor but noble family, was reared by his
grandmother, as his mother died when he was a baby, and his father, an
army officer, could not care for him. The grandmother did her utmost to
give him the best education possible at that time, and to make him a
brilliant society man. The early foreign influence over Pushkin was, as
we have seen, French. That over Lermontoff was rather English, which was
then becoming fashionable. But like many another young Russian of that
day, Lermontoff wrote his first poems in French, imitating Pushkin's
"The Fountain of Baktchesarai" and Byron's "The Prisoner of Chillon." He
finished the preparatory school with the first prize for composition and
history, and entered the University, which he was soon compelled to
leave, in company with a number of others, because of a foolish prank
they had played on a professor. In those days, when every one was
engrossed in thoughts of military service and a career, and when the few
remaining paths which were open to a poor young man had thus been closed
to him, but one thing was left for him to do--enter the army.
Accordingly, in 1832, Lermontoff entered the Ensigns' School in St.
Petersburg; but during his two years there he did not abandon
verse-making, and here he first began to imitate Byron. A couple of
poems, "Ismail Bey" (1832) and "Hadji Abrek" (1833) were published by a
comrade, without Lermontoff's knowledge, at this time. In general, it
may be said of Lermontoff at that period that he cared not in the least
for literary fame, and made no haste to publish his writings, as to
which he was very severe. Many were not published until five or six
years after they were written.

Soon after leaving the military school Lermo