Influence of Georgian Folklore on the Griboedov’s Comedy “Woe From Wit”

Abstract

Once in the Caucasus, Griboedov is a gifted liguist and composer, who gets aquainted with the Georgian languade and culture. In his articles there are Georgian words, in his poetry he refers to Georgian themes (“Kalyanchi”, the unfinished tragedy “Georgian night”).

But Georgian folklore also influenced his masterpiece – the Comedy “Woe from wit”. In the Russian folklore we have not found a proverb/saing that rymes with the consept of “mind – plague”. They are not in the collection of Proverbs of the Russian people by V.I.Dal’. They are absent in the tradition of russian comedies of the XVIII century.

From our point of view the title of his Comedy Griboedov built as a result of familiarity with one of the most famous traditional endings of Georgian fairy tales «Čiri – ikha, lhini – akha, khaţo – ikha, phkvili – akha” (pestilence (the plague) – there is, a party – here, there – shifting, flour – here). Similar binomial formulas are found in Armtnian, Iranian folklore and other peoples. However, thr“plague”repetedly rhymed in Griboedov’s Comedy with the word “mind”, could be suggested by Georgian folklore, as evidenced by various textual observations.