Eugene Onegin (Russian Literature Classic). Alexander Pushkin

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      XXXVI

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      Ye miracles of courtly grace,

      He left you first, and I must own

      The manners of the highest class

      Have latterly vexatious grown;

      And though perchance a lady may

      Discourse of Bentham or of Say,

      Yet as a rule their talk I call

      Harmless, but quite nonsensical.

      Then they’re so innocent of vice,

      So full of piety, correct,

      So prudent, and so circumspect

      Stately, devoid of prejudice,

      So inaccessible to men,

Their looks alone produce the spleen.¹⁶

¹⁶ Apropos of this somewhat ungallant sentiment, a Russian scholiast remarks:—“The whole of this ironical stanza is but a refined eulogy of the excellent qualities of our countrywomen. Thus Boileau, in the guise of invective, eulogizes Louis XIV. Russian ladies unite in their persons great acquirements, combined with amiability and strict morality; also a species of Oriental charm which so much captivated Madame de Stael.” It will occur to most that the apologist of the Russian fair “doth protest too much.” The poet in all probability wrote the offending stanza in a fit of Byronic “spleen,” as he would most likely himself have called it. Indeed, since Byron, poets of his school seem to assume this virtue if they have it not, and we take their utterances under its influence for what they are worth.