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Updated: May 13, 2025
He was in that amiable frame of mind of a perfectly intoxicated man, when every passer-by, directly he looks him in the face, is sure to say, 'Bless you, brother, bless you! The Blinkard, as red as a lobster, and his nostrils dilated wide, was laughing malignantly in a corner; only Nikolai Ivanitch, as befits a good tavern-keeper, preserved his composure unchanged.
The Gabbler and the Blinkard began joining in in an undertone, and exclaiming: 'Bravely done!... Take it, you rogue!... Sing it out, you serpent! Hold it! That shake again, you dog you!... May Herod confound your soul! and so on. Nikolai Ivanitch behind the bar was nodding his head from side to side approvingly.
When the sun shone clear the water on beyond became a shimmering blazing shield of white-hot metal; and an hour of uninterrupted gazing upon it would have turned an argus into a blinkard. But other times early morning or evening or when stormy weather impended the lagoon became all a wonderful deep clear blue, the colour of molten stained glass.
'There, I said you'd begin, cried the Gabbler; 'didn't I say so? 'There, there, don't cluck, remarked the Wild Master contemptuously. 'Begin, he went on, with a nod to the booth-keeper. 'What song am I to sing? asked the booth-keeper, beginning to be nervous. 'What you choose, answered the Blinkard; 'sing what you think best.
He looked like a house-serf; thick grey hair stood up in disorder above his withered and wrinkled face. He was calling to some one hurriedly, waving his arms, which obviously were not quite under his control. It could be seen that he had been drinking already. 'Come, come along! he stammered, raising his shaggy eyebrows with an effort. 'Come, Blinkard, come along!
I should think he would sing since he's got a bet on it, you precious innocent, you noodle, Blinkard! 'Well, come in, simpleton! retorted the Blinkard. 'Then give us a kiss at least, lovey, stammered the Gabbler, opening wide his arms. 'Get out, you great softy! responded the Blinkard contemptuously, giving him a poke with his elbow, and both, stooping, entered the low doorway.
In his usual place behind the bar, almost filling up the entire opening in the partition, stood Nikolai Ivanitch in a striped print shirt; with a lazy smile on his full face, he poured out with his plump white hand two glasses of spirits for the Blinkard and the Gabbler as they came in; behind him, in a corner near the window, could be seen his sharp-eyed wife.
But the Don would not be pacified; and walked out, calling himself an ass and a blinkard for having demeaned himself to such a company, forgetting that he had brought it on himself. And the Don actually was appeased, and went there the very next evening, sneering at himself the whole time for going. "Fool that I am! that girl has bewitched me, I believe.
I looked round attentively; every face wore an expression of intense expectation; the Wild Master himself showed signs of uneasiness; my neighbour, even, the peasant in the tattered smock, craned his neck inquisitively. The Blinkard put his hand into the cap and took out the booth-keeper's halfpenny; every one drew a long breath. Yakov flushed, and the booth-keeper passed his hand over his hair.
Or was there something of intended satire; is the Professor and Seer not quite the blinkard he affects to be? Of an ordinary mortal we should have decisively answered in the affirmative; but with a Teufelsdrockh there ever hovers some shade of doubt. In the mean while, if satire were actually intended, the case is little better.
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