Masks of the Empress: Polyphony of Personae in Catherine the Great's Oh, These Times!

Authors

Lurana Donnels O'Malley

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, the first paragraph of the essay follows:

A famous ruler wrote a letter to a famous philosopher in October of 1772 on the subject of a group of new plays:

Opinion here is that the anonymous author of these new Russian

comedies, though he shows talent, has grave faults; he knows nothing

about the theatre, and his plots are weak. However this is not the case

with his characters, which are well-sustained and drawn from every-

day life. There are flashes of wit, he makes you laugh, his morality

is pure, and he knows his nation very well.¹

The philosopher in this case was Voltaire, to whom the ruler planned to send a Russian comedy in French translation, entitled Oh, These Times! Nowhere did this letter reveal that the female ruler shared a body and a pen with the anonymous male playwright, that they were in fact the same person-Catherine the Great.

Recommended Citation

O'Malley, Lurana Donnels (1997) "Masks of the Empress: Polyphony of Personae in Catherine the Great's Oh, These Times!," Comparative Drama: Vol. 31: Iss. 1, Article 5.
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/compdr/vol31/iss1/5