Virgil inside out

In France, this work has become the most striking ^[1] work in the genre of literary travesty , burlesque (see Traveled poem of the era of classicism ). It was the most famous of Scarron's poems. ^[2]

Pious I sing
What, laying on his back
Native gods and with them
Dad with gray curls,
From the city where the Greeks
Beat the darkness of honest citizens
Came to another where he was once
Poor Remus with Brother’s hand
For it is killed that through the ditch
Jumped without a word. (Translation by O. Rumer)

The Soviet Literary Encyclopedia of 1937 characterizes this work as follows: “The contrast specific to burlesque of an elevated theme and a trivial, low-lying syllable was vividly expressed in Scarron’s burlesque epics “ Le Typhon, ou la gigantomachie ”(Typhon, or the struggle of the giants, 1644) and especially “ Le Virgile travesti “(Virgil inside out, 1648), which dealt a crushing blow to antique themes and the entire estate-noble aesthetics of classicism. The Olympic gods and heroes of the Aeneids spoke the language of market traders here, and the use of the low syllable also entailed a number of corresponding variations in the plot, its vulgar coloring. Scarron’s burlesques also struck precision poetry, although at the same time they got along well with it, essentially being only different sides of the same Baroque style complex ” ^[3] . Another characteristic of the work: “Scarron didn’t at all count with the idol of the classicists, the ancient Roman poet Virgil, disrespectfully turning his“ Aeneid ”in the most ridiculous way. He endowed the heroes of this poem with features that do not fit in with the usual idea of ​​the lofty characters of mythology: Aeneas is turned into a cowardly and tearful veil, Dido into a youthful coquette, Trojans into a stingy and judicious bourgeois (...) Moreover, Scarron’s poem was deliberately anointed with deliberate creating a comic effect. “Virgil inside out” was a storm of success among contemporaries, made the burlesque genre extremely popular and caused a lot of imitations - even “Burlesque Gospel” can be found among them ” ^[2] . “Scarron adheres to the plot outline of Virgil's Aeneid, changing only the internal characteristics of the characters. Thus, Scarron’s burlesque work turns into a subscript comment of the ancient poem: the writer sets himself the task of revealing what he considers conditional, contrived in this epic work, idolized by the theorists of classicism. Scarron reduces the image of Aeneas, exposes his failure as an epic hero, ridicules the official historiography depicting the bearers of state power as creators and creators of history. Where Virgil is dominated by rock and providence, Scarron sees only an occasional combination of circumstances ” ^[4] .

Thanks to this work, the word travesty penetrated the English language and became popular ^{[5] [6]} .

Although Scarron’s poem was the ancestor of the genre in Europe, before him a similar alteration was composed by Giovanni Battista Lally ( it ), “ L'Eneide travestita del Signor Gio” (1634) ^[7] . The researcher, noting the level of humor in these skits, writes: “Lally lowered“ Aeneid ”by just a couple of notes, while Scarron lowered it a few octaves lower” ^[7] .

The tradition of the Iroicomic redistributions of the Aeneid, popularized by Scarron, was continued in other languages ^{[8] [9]} :

• England : Charles Cotton , Scarronides: or, Virgile Travestie. Being the First Book of Virgil's Aeneis in English, Burlesque »(1664)
• Holland : P. Langendik (1735)
• Denmark : Ludwig Golberg (1754)
• Johann Benjamin Michaelis ( de ), Leben und Taten des teuren Helden Aeneas (1771)
• F. Berkan (1779-83)
• Austria : Alois Blumauer , “The Adventures of the Pious Hero Aeneas” (“Virgils Aeneis, travestiert”) (1784-8). This parody was very successful and influenced the Slavic countries.
• Russian “ Vergilieva Eneyida, turned inside out ” by Nikolai Osipov , published in 1791, with the continuation of Kotelnitsky (1801).
• Ukrainian " Aeneid " by Ivan Kotlyarevsky , the first parts were published in 1798
• Belarusian " Aeneid inside out " by Vincent Rovinsky , written in the 1820s
• "Aeneid - a comic poem", Nikolai Nevedomsky , 1828
• "Humorous Aeneid" by Ivan Boychevsky (St. Petersburg, 1896) ^[10]

After the publication of the Russian parody, Karamzin wrote in May 1792:

None of the ancient poets were travestied as often as poor Virgil. The Frenchman Scarron, the Englishman Cotton and the German Bloomauer, wanted to amuse the public at the expense of him, and in fact they did. Those who did not find taste in the important Aeneid read with great desire the comic arrangement of this poem, and laughed with all their heart. One of our compatriots also decided to have fun with old Maron, and dress him in a clownish dress. With all due respect to the greatest of the poets of Augustow, I do not consider such jokes to be a sin - and the true Aeneid Virgiliev will remain in its price, despite all the French, English, German and Russian mockingbirds. It is only necessary that the jokes are really funny; otherwise they will be unbearable for tasteful readers. In fairness, we can say that in our Aeida turned inside out there are many good, and even a kind of beautiful places ^{[11] [12]} .

The poet Vasily Maikov , in his poem "Elisha, or Annoyed Bacchus", which is a parody of the first full translation of the "Aeneid" by Vasily Petrov , published under the title "Eney", refers to Scarron, asking to inspire ^[13] :

And you, darling, beloved Scarron,
Leave luxurious Priyap a magnificent throne,
Leave the writers blaspheming the gang,
Come on, will you tone me to a beep or a balalaika,
So that I could like you to buzz
Dress up the heroes of my heroes;
So that Zeus was my talker, Hermias crazy kid,
Neptune as the most stupid cattle,
And in a word, so that my goddesses and gods
Tore all gut readers.

• French text

• Dashkevich, N.P. Malorusskaya and other burlesque (playful) Aeneids / N. Dashkevich. - Kiev: type. University of St. Vladimir N.T. Korchak-Novitsky, 1898.
• Oliynyk, Irina Valentinovna. Typological study of the language of burlesque literature (based on the works of P. Scarron “Reformed Virgil” and I. Kotlyarevsky “Aeneid”). : abstract of thesis. ... candidate of philological sciences. Odessa, 1996
• Dominique Bertrand, "Travestissement d'un haut lieu virgilien: l'Etna revisité par Scarron", Les Méditerranées du XVII sicle , Tübingen, Narr, 2002, p. 49-62.
• Jean-Yves Boriaud, “L'Image des dieux dans le Virgile travesti”, Burlesque et formes parodiques dans la littérature et les arts Seattle, PFSCL, 1987, p. 411-421.
• Gérard Genette, Palimpsestes , Paris, édition du Seuil, 1982, chapitre XII, p. 77-88.
• H. Gaston Hall, “Scarron and the Travesty of Virgil”, Yale French Studies , 1967, n ° 38, p. 115-27.
• Alain Niderst, "Scarron, les Scudéry et le burlesque", Burlesque et formes parodiques dans la littérature et les arts , Seattle, Papers on Fr. Seventeenth Cent. Lit., 1987, p. 139-146.
• Jean Serroy, "Prolégomènes à une édition du Virgile travesti", Burlesque et formes parodiques dans la littérature et les arts Seattle, Papers on Fr. Seventeenth Cent. Lit., 1987, p. 339—348.
• Jean Serroy, “Scarron, le burlesque et la Fronde ”, La Fronde en question , Aix-en-Provence, Univ. de Provence, 1989, p. 143-155.
• Jean Serroy, Scarron / Furetière: Inventaire de l'inventaire, La Littérature et le réel , Paris, Aux Amateurs de Livres, 1989, p. 211-219.
• Jürgen von Stackelberg, “Lalli, Scarron et les Mazarinades: parodie et réalisme dans la littérature française au milieu du XVII sicle”, Studi Francesi , Sept-Dec 2004, n ° 48 (3 [144]), p. 517-26.
• Thomas Stauder, “ Le Lutrin de Boileau et Le Virgile travesty de Scarron: étude comparative des procédés et des fonctions”, Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature , 2004, numéro 31 (61), p. 461-79.