less, and remind one of Zhukovsky's, in that they
were influenced by foreign or Russian poets--Lermontoff, for instance.
But they have not a trace of genuine, unaffected feeling, of vivid,
burning passion, of inspiration. His best work is his prose historical
romance, "Prince Serebryany," which gives a lively and faithful picture
of Ivan the Terrible, his court, and life in his day. The dramas already
mentioned are almost if not equally famous in Russia, though less known
abroad. "Prince Serebryany," and "War and Peace" by the former author's
more illustrious cousin, Count L. N. Tolstoy, are the best historical
novels in the Russian language.

Another poet of this period was Apollon Nikolaevitch Maikoff, born in
1821, the son of a well-known painter. During his first period he gave
himself up to classical, bloodless poems, of which one of the most noted
is "Two Worlds," which depicts the clash of heathendom and Christianity
at the epoch of the fall of Rome. This poem he continued to write all
his life; the prologue, "Three Deaths," begun in 1841, was not finished
until 1872. To this period, also, belong "Two Judgments," "Sketches of
Rome," "Anacreon," "Alcibiades," and so forth. His second and best
period began in 1855, when he abandoned his cold classicism and wrote
his best works: "Clermont Cathedral," "Savonarola," "Foolish Dunya,"
"The Last Heathens," "Polya," "The Little Picture," and a number of
beautiful translations from Heine.

Still another poet was Afanasy Afanasievitch Shenshin, who wrote under
the name of Fet. Born in 1820, he began to write at the age of nineteen.
About that time, on entering the Moscow University, he experienced some
difficulty in furnishing the requisite documents, whereupon he assumed
the name of his mother during her first marriage--Fet. He reacquired his
own name, Shenshin, in 1875, by presenting the proper documents,
whereupon an imperial order restored it to him. From 1844 to 1855 he
served in the army, continuing to write poetry the while. Before his
death, in 1892, he published numerous volumes of poems, translations
from the classics, and so forth. Less talented than Count Alexei K.
Tolstoy, Apollon Maikoff, and other poets of that school, his name, in
Russian criticism, has become a general appellation to designate a poet
of pure art, for he was the most typical exponent of his school. Most of
his poems are short, and present a picture of nature, or of some
delicate, fleeting p