SEER, Vol. 8y,No. i,January 2oog DOCUMENTS Konstantin Bal'mont's Oxford Lectures on Russian Fin de Steele Poetry: Publication, Introduction and Comments ERIC METZ In June 1897 the Russian Symbolist poet Konstantin Bal'mont was invited to Oxford University to give a series of lectures on Russian poetry. Details on Bal'mont's stay in England, and on the circum stances inwhich the lectures took place, were provided thirtyyears ago by A. G. Cross, in an article that also included the publication of the poet's wife's reminiscences of the trip.1The poet gave four talks,which took place at the Taylor Institution respectively on 4, 7, 9 and 11June 1897, and discussed the following subjects: 1) a general overview of Russian poetry in the nineteenth century; 2) Pushkin and his followers; Tiutchev; 3) Fet and Fofanov; 4) the new generation of Russian poets. The present publication presents the poet's discussion of contemporary poetry in the strict sense of the word, i.e. the second part of the third lecture (Fofanov), and the whole of the fourth lecture. The manuscript is preserved in a notebook of Bal'mont's found in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts, Moscow (RGALI, f. 57, op. 1, ed. khr. 68). Bal'mont's Oxford lectures were only partially published during his lifetime. On the one hand, the first lecture and the first part of the second one (i.e. without the discussion of Tiutchev), appeared in 1904, as an essay entitled 'O russkikh poetakh' ('On Russian Poets'), which was part of Bal'mont's book Gornye vershiny {Mountain Peaks).2 On the Eric Metz isAssociate Professor at the Department of Slavic and East European Studies at Ghent University (UGent) and Professor at the Higher Institute for Translators and Interpreters (University College of Antwerp). 1 A. G. Cross, 'Konstantin Bal'mont inOxford in 1897', Oxford Slavonic Papers, 12, 1979, pp. 104-16. The complete memoirs of Ekaterina Andreeva-Bal'mont appeared more recently: E. A. Andreeva-Bal'mont, Vospominaniia, Moscow, 1996. 2 K. D. Bal'mont, Gornye vershiny.Sbornik statei,Moscow, 1904, pp. 59-74. Although the footnote on the bottom of the first page says that the text consists of '[ojtryvki iz lektsii chitannykh v Taylor Institution v Oksforde, vesnoi 1897-go', the author concluded his essay ERIC METZ 79 other hand, his discussion of Tiutchev and Fet was included in the programmatic article 'Elementarnye slova o simvolicheskoi poezii' ('Elementary Words on Symbolist Poetry'), for the same book.3 The poet did not return, however, to his treatment of the contemporary state of Russian poetry. The importance of the text published below liesmainly in the fact that it can be considered to be Bal'mont's first critical account of Russian fin de siecle poetry in general and Russian Symbolism in particular. The idea of inviting the thirty-year-old Bal'mont was suggested to Professor William R. Morfill by the poet's friend, Prince Vladimir Argutinskii-Dolgorukov, who was at that time studying inOxford.4 As indicated by a letter from Bal'mont to Argutinskii-Dolgorukov, dated 14 February 1896, the invitation coincided well with his long-standing plans: 2 Continued with an extended paragraph which does not occur in the manuscript. In a programmatic tone, the paragraph first emphasizes that Russians should identify their national 'Poetic Genius' ('Poeticheskii Genii') with English poetry, rather than with poetry written in German or French. Furthermore, it focuses on 'psychological lyric poetry' ('psikhologiches kaia lirika') as the new mode of poetic diction (ibid., p. 74). Otherwise, the manuscript of the lecture ismore elaborate where Aleksei Tolstoi, Golenishchev-Kutuzov and other mi nor poets are concerned (RGALI, f. 57, op. 1, ed. khr. 68, 1. 26 and further). 3 Bal'mont, Gornye vershiny,pp. 74-95. The last article reflected, in its turn, a lecture given by Bal'mont to Russian emigres in Paris, in the spring of 1900 (compare Bal'mont's footnote on p. 74 in Gornye vershiny). It turns out, however, that a large part of this article ? namely that about Tiutchev and Fet ? had already been written for the Oxford lectures. Pages 84-92 of 'Elementarnye slova...