Centenary Paper: Drunken Russian Don Quixote: A Forgotten Early Cervantine Reference

This paper brings to light a forgotten Latin poem, ‘In quendam qui ebrius in vrbe Moscua periculū fecerit fortitudinis in imagines camini’/ ‘On a Certain Man Who, While Being Drunk in the City of Moscow, Tested His Mettle Against Some Images on a Stove’ by Richard James (1592–1638), a Jacobean traveller, diplomat and polymath. Between 1618 and 1620 James participated in an English legation to Muscovy. The main product of his extensive stay was his diary, containing the first Russian–English dictionary, remarks about Russian culture and six Russian folk songs. However, James’ contribution to Russian–English literary relations – which was greater than is usually cited – includes a connection to Spain. His notebook also contained English and Latin poems, some dealing with Russia and Russian affairs, among them the epigram cited above, a facetious, mock-epic description of the wanton acts of some Russian drunkard, who attacked an image with a sword. The poet likens him to ‘pistilli equitem’ (the Knight of the Burning Pestle) and ‘Iberum Kishotum’ (Don Quixote) an allusion that can be safely placed among the top 40 earliest literary references to Don Quixote in England, and is definitely the earliest reference to Cervantes’ character on Russian soil.