Final scene of Alexander Sumarokov’s tragedy “Dimitry the Pretender” and the death of its hero
There is a tragedy by Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov called "Dimitry the Pretender". And it contains these lines:
...
Parmen
(with a drawn sword, tearing Ksenia from his hands)
Your cruelties and your thunderings are over!
Our people are delivered from deaths, persecutions, wounds,
The tyrant in his impotence is a terror to no one.
Literal translation
Dimitry
Begone, soul, to hell, and be a captive for ever!
(Stabs himself in the breast with a dagger and, expiring, falls into the arms of the guards.)
Ah, if only the whole universe had perished with me!
Literal translation
End of the tragedy
A curious thing, aphoristic. And so I have the feeling that the end of the tragedy is, after all, not far off.