GREAT RUSSIA 373

In the west of Europe but rare In Russia. Domna freely mocked
her wooer, but was ready enough to many him, despite the bad
omens her mother perceived. The omens proved to be true; she
died as Mitrii approached the house, and her mother died with
her. Mitrii could only kill himself, reproaching (for some reason
or other) his sister for being the cause of the disaster. There are
a number of other odd ballads of this sort, some of them being
frankly vulgar and full of buffoonery. They represent the decay
of the genre in central Russia.

Thanks to the fact that romantic matter has been taken up by
the cycles of Kiev and Novgorod and given a setting which Is, in
some part, undoubtedly historical, the notion of a historical ballad
is somewhat ambiguous in Russia. There are, however, many
important cbylinys which arise directly out of the events they relate,
so that not only the names or some details can be verified, but the
whole transaction. As in other countries, these historical pieces
give us the chronology of ballad composition. The 'byliny* of the
older cycles, we have seen, could not have arisen before the down-
fall of Kiev, though they may rely on evelicanija' or courtly narra-
tives of an older age; nor do the majority of them reach their present
development before the fifteenth or the sixteenth century. This
same development is seen in the historical pieces. The first we
encounter Is The Princes of Tver (Speranskii, Scelkan Dudenfe^lc)*
referring to an event of the year 1327. The style of such poems Is
more simple and literal than In the old cycles, but the Influence
of these upon historical matter is evident In the three pieces on
Prince Roman of Galicla, which have become entirely novelesque.
Avdofja of Rjazan (Rybnikov 182) doubtless refers to the Tatar
sieges of 1365 or 1377, though the city was attacked also four times
in the fifteenth century. It relates that Bahmet the Turk destroyed
Kazan (meaning Rjazan) and took forty thousand prisoners.
Avdot'ja resolved to save at least one of thems but her wit charmed
the sultan into releasing them all.

It was with the great tragedies that marked the reigns of Ivan the
Terrible and Boris Godunov that the historical 'byliny' reached
their highest development in style and theme. These pieces are
worthy to stand beside the best work of the older cycles. The cap-
ture of Kazan in 1552 opens this series* followed by the more
domestic themes of the tsaritsa's death (1559), Ivan's remarriage
(1561), the attempted slaying of the tsarevich (1581), and the