Mankovsky Arkadiy Vladimirovich – Candidate in Philology, Senior Researcher of the Department of Literary Studies, Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences
The Choice of Death was the title of Apollon N. Maikov’s lyrical drama Three Deaths, the most famous of all his dramatic works, in a number of its intermediate versions; under this title it was circulated in copies at least as early as the early 1850s. Maikov’s lyrical dramas Three Deaths, The Death of Lucius and Two Worlds (Dva Mira) (in the final version – “tragedy”), connected by a common theme, motifs, plots and common characters, form a kind of cycle, which can be conditionally called a cycle of plays about the choice of death. One of the main characters of Three Deaths, the “Epicurean” Lucius, having witnessed the death of two others – Seneca and Lucan (historical figures) – outlines a program for his own death, which seems impeccable to him. The article is devoted to the consideration of what actually comes out of this program and is implemented and how it is presented in the next drama of the cycle, the second part of Three Deaths, as Maikov himself called The Death of Lucius. “Lyrical drama” (“tragedy”) Two Worlds (Dva Mira), final in the cycle, in which a new protagonist appears on the stage – “the last Roman” Decius, allows us to summarize (and this is essential for proposed analysis); Decius also awaits a cup of poison and he, like his predecessor, fatally rejects the cup of salvation, and in fact – other options for death, albeit more meaningful.
Apollon Maikov; Tacitus; Petronius; lyrical drama; Three Deaths; The Death of Lucius; Two Worlds (Dva Mira); historical figures; fictional characters; imperial Rome; catacombs; Christianity