Palogch—the running together of a name and patronymic—Pavel Iosifovich—as it would sound when said quickly.

Bitter! Bitter! —this is said at Russian weddings to force the bride and groom to kiss, to take away the supposedly bitter taste of the food.

Panayev... Skabichevsky—two very second-rate writers of the nineteenth century. Panayev (1812-62) wrote sentimental society tales; Skabichevsky (1838-1910) was a critic and publicist.

CHAPTER 29

One of the most beautiful buildings—easily recognized as the Pashkov House, a mansion built in the 1780s, which was said to be one of the most beautiful buildings of old Moscow. Bulgakov had visited it in the early 1920s when it was the Rumyantsev Museum. It is now one of the buildings of the Russian State Library, formerly known

Commentary 357

as the Lenin Library. The mansion has a striking setting in downtown Moscow, and there are wonderful views from its rooftop. This is a very operatic setting. Wagnerian motifs—black horses and riders, swords, flight, and VVoland's bass voice—are scattered through the last chapters of the book.

Dressed in his black soutane—an interesting, and very specific, choice of dress for Woland, this is the cassock normally wom by the secular clergy of the Catholic church.

Shacks condemned—as Bulgakov was writing, this area (where the Cathedral of Christ the Redeemer had been demolished), was to be completely redeveloped to make room for a Palace of the Soviets, which, however, was never built.

I prefer Rome—Azazello is certainly thinking of something specific here—he seldom speaks, but when he does, it is important. While Moscow was supposed to become the " third Rome" according to ancient Russian predictions, an idea recycled by various Russian thinkers over the centuries, this doesn't seem quite enough to prompt Azazello's comment. However, it makes more sense if there is another parallel, another event in Rome at which this band might have been present, namely the famous burning of Rome under Nero in 64 A.D. Bulgakov had originally planned to have the entire city of Moscow burn at the end of this novel, but changed his mind, and had only specific locations go up in flames.

He has not earned light, he has earned peace—this is a crucial statement. Even in earlier drafts, the Master was not intended to go to the light. There are various theories about this, but the one that seems most convincing is that the Master gave up faith in himself completely, a great sin in the eyes of the author of Faust, for example, who conveys the message that striving is all. In Dante's Divine Comedy the moon, a major fascination of the Master's, is the place for those who have left vows unfulfilled, perhaps as a result of outside pressures over which they had no control, but their vows are unfulfilled nonetheless. One might easily conclude that the Master has not fulfilled his vow to be a writer, to continue to work. Dante underscores that the moon is the abode of those who did not return to their mission as soon as the external pressure was taken away.