Briggs: Andrey trusts Kutuzov and his motto: 'Patience and Time'.
Maude: The priest's wife offers Kutuzov 'bread and salt'. He has a further talk with Prince Andrew who declines a place on the staff. 'Patience and Time'. Prince Andrew's confidence in Kutuzov
Translation:
XVI.
— Well now everything, — said Kutuzov, signing the last paper and, heavy lifting and spreading the folds of his white, plump neck, with a cheered up face directed to the door.
The wife of the priest, with a rush of blood on her face, grabbed for the dish which, despite that she had so long prepared it, she all the same had not managed to give it in time. And with a low bow she brought it to Kutuzov.
The eye of Kutuzov squinted; he smiled, took her hand for his chin and said:
— And how beautiful! Thanks, darling!
He took out of the pocket of his trousers some gold and placed it on the dish.
— Well what, how to live? — said Kutuzov, directing to the alloted for him room. The wife of the priest, smiling with dimples on a blushed face, passed for him to the chambermaid. The adjutant got out to Prince Andrey on the porch and invited him to breakfast; in half an hour Prince Andrey called again to Kutuzov. Kutuzov lied on the armchair in that same unfastened frock coat. He held in his hand a French book and at the entrance of Prince Andrey, laid it down with a knife, displaced. This was the Knights of the Swan,647 a writing of madam de Genlis,648 as saw Prince Andrey by the wrapper.
— Well sit down, sit down here, talk, — said Kutuzov. — sad, very sad. Yet remember, my friend that I am your father, another father... — Prince Andrey told Kutuzov all that he knew about the demise of his father, and about what he saw at Bald Mountains, driving through them.
— To what... to what led it! — spoke suddenly Kutuzov in a thrilled voice, obviously clearly presenting to himself, from the story of Prince Andrey, the position, in which Russia was found. — Give terms, give terms, — he added with a vicious expression on his face and, obviously not wishing to continue this worrying to him conversation, said: — I called you for you to be left with myself.
— I thank your lordship, — was the response of Prince Andrey, — but I am afraid that I am not fit anymore for staff, — he said with a smile, which Kutuzov saw. Kutuzov interrogatively looked at him. — But the main thing, — added Prince Andrey, — I am used to the regiment, love the officers, and the people, it seems, have fallen in love with me. It would be a pity for me to leave the regiment. Should I refuse from honor to be with you, then believe...
A clever, good and together with that thin and mocking expression shined on the chubby face of Kutuzov. He interrupted Bolkonsky.
— I regret, you would need me; but you are right, you are right. We do not need people here. Advisers are always many, but people are not. There would not be such regiments, if all the advisers would serve there in the regiments, as you. I from Austerlitz remember you... I remember, remember, with the banner I remember, — said Kutuzov, and a joyful color threw on the face of Prince Andrey at these recollections. Kutuzov pulled him behind the arm, substituting his cheek, and again Prince Andrey in the eyes of the old man saw tears. Although Prince Andrey knew that Kutuzov was fragile in tears, and that he especially caressed him in pity owing to the willingness to express empathy to his loss, but for Prince Andrey happy and flattering was this memory about Austerlitz.
— Go with the Lord on his path. I know your journey — this is a journey of honor. — He was silent. — I pitied about you in Bucharest: I needed to send you. — And, changing conversation, Kutuzov started to speak about the Turkish war and the conclusion of peace. — Yes, not little reproached me, — said Kutuzov, — for the war and for the peace... but all has come in time. Everything comes in time for those, who know to wait.649 And there were not less advisers than here... — he continued, returning to the advisers, which apparently occupied him. — Oh advisers, advisers! — he said. — If we would all listen, we would be there in Turkey and peace would not be concluded, yes and the war would not be finished. All soon, but fast in the long exit. If Kamensky would not have died, he would be gone. He with thirty thousand stormed fortresses. Taking a fortress is not difficult, to win a campaign is difficult. But for this you do not need to storm and to attack, but need patience and time. Kamensky to Rushchuk sent soldiers, but I only to them (patience and time) sent and took more fortresses than Kamensky, and made the Turks eat horse meat. — He shook his head. — And will the French too! Believe my word, — encouragingly spoke Kutuzov, hitting himself on the chest: — They will by me eat horse meat! — and again his eyes glazed in tears.
— However the same must we accept a battle? — said Prince Andrey.
— We must, if all want this, there is nothing to do... but believe, darling: no stronger are those two warriors, patience and time; those do all, and advisers by this ear do not hear, — that is what is bad!650 One wants to, another does not want to. What to do? — he asked, apparently expecting an answer. — And, what do you command to do? — he repeated, and his eyes shone a deep, smart expression. — I say to you, what to do, — he spoke, as Prince Andrey all the same was not responding. — I say to you, what to do, and what I will do. In doubt, my dear, — he was silent —refrain,651 — he reprimanded with arrangement.
— Well, goodbye, my friend; remember that I in all my soul carry with you your loss and that I am to you not lordly, not prince and not commander in chief, but I am your father. Should that be needed, all to me. Goodbye, darling. — he again hugged and kissed him. And Prince Andrey still did not have time to exit to the door, as Kutuzov reassuringly sighed and took again for the unfinished novel of madam Genlis Les chevaliers du Gygne (The Knights of the Swan).
How and from what this happened, Prince Andrey could not in any way explain; but after this meeting with Kutuzov he returned to his regiment calmed in the score of the common passage of cases and in the score of who it entrusted was to. The more he saw absent only the personal in this old man, in whom stayed as if only habits of passions instead of a mind (grouping events and making findings) only the ability of calm contemplation of the passage of events, by that more he was calm for that what all will be so, as it must be. "In him will be nothing. He thinks up nothing, nothing will be undertaken," thought Prince Andrey, "but he will listen to all, will remember all, will place all in their place, nothing useful will be disturbed and nothing harmful will be allowed. He understands what is something stronger and more significant than his commitment, — this is the imminent move of events, and he knows to see them, knows to understand their matters, and in this view of meaning he knows to recant from participation in these events, from his personal commitment, directed to another. "But the main thing," thought Prince Andrey, "why I believe in him is that he is Russian, despite the novel of Genlis and French sayings; this is that how his voice trembled when he said: "To what led!" and that he was stuck saying about how he "forced them to eat horse meat." In this same feeling, which more or less vaguely was tested by all, and was established that unanimity and common good, which accompanied the popular, contrary to courtier considerations, to the election of Kutuzov as commander in chief.
647 Les chevaliers du Cygne, (The Knights of the Swan,)
648 madame de Genlis, (Madame de Genlis,)
649 Tout vient à point à celui qui sait attendre. (Everything comes right to him who knows how to wait.)
650 n'entendent pas de cette oreille, voilà le mal. (do not hear with this ear, here is the evil.)
651 Dans le doute, mon cher, abstiens toi, (In doubt, my dear, abstain,)
Locations: see previous chapter
Mentioned: French, Lysyya Gory, Russia (and Russian), Austerlitz, Bucharest, Turkey (also Turk and Turkish), Rushchuk
Pevear and Volokhonsky Notes: Staying with Kutuzov and Prince Andrei, Andrei says he wants to stay with his regiment rather than being an adviser. Kutuzov tells him that he remembers what Andrei did at Austerlitz and weeps again.
Kutuzov: "I've been reproached a good deal...both for the war and the peace."
Note: The gifted young general N. M. Kamensky (1778-1811) took part in several stormings of fortresses...during the Turkish campaign of 1810-11, but fell ill and died before the end of the war, which was negotiated by Kutuzov."
Kutuzov claims that he made the Turks eat horseflesh and that he will make the French eat it too.
"there's nothing stronger than those two warriors, patience and time...When in doubt, my dear...abstain"
Prince Andrei's inner monologue on Kutuzov: "He understands that there is something stronger and more significant than his will--the inevitable course of events--and he's able to see them....renounce his personal will and direct it elsewhere."
This, Tolstoy tells us, is why that while the court rejects Kutuzov, the people accept him as their own. Importantly, he is fundamentally Russian.
Characters (characters who do not appear, but are mentioned are placed in italics. First appearances are in Bold. First mentions are underlined. Final appearance denoted by *):
Kutuzof (also "serene highness", "commander-in-chief", "prince", and "father" to Andrei.)
The priest's wife (from last chapter, with the priest (pope in Dole) obviously getting a mention as well.)
Prince Andrei Bolkonsky
Madame de Genlis
Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky ("father")
Kamiensky
Abridged Versions: End of chapter 19 in Bell.
Gibian: Chapter 16.
Fuller: The chapter begins with Kutuzov making Andrey sit down and have a talk and that he is another father to him, removing everything with the priest's wife, the adjutant getting Andrey to go to lunch with him, and the Madame de Genlis reference. The conversation about the Turkish war is removed. We end with a line break.
Komroff: The priest's wife is removed. Conversations are trimmed down and the chapter ends with a line break after Time and Patience, removing Andre's monologue at the end of the chapter.
Kropotkin: Chapter 12: We start after Andrei gets back from lunch, but the rest of the chapter is preserved.
Bromfield: End of Chapter 7, the real difference lying in Prince Andrei's reflections after his conversation, which are more about himself and how the conversation affected him rather than his and Russia's view of Kutuzov.
Simmons: Chapter 16: A few small details, like the Madame de Genlis book, are removed, but overall the chapter is preserved.
Additional Notes:
Davidov/Troubetzkoy: Page 84: "I decided to ask for a separate command in disregard of the much repeated and generally observed rule: never ask for an assignment nor refuse one!"
Segur/Townsend: Page 54: Kutuzov was described to him as an old man whose reputation dated from the time, long ago, when he had received an unusual wound. Since then he had always managed to take skillful advantage of events. Even the defeat at Austerlitz--which he had predicted--had increased his standing, and his last campaigns against the Turks had added to his stature....His slow, vindictive, and crafty nature was characteristic of the Tartar, and he could prepare for implacable warfare with a policy of gentleness, flexibility, and patience."
Troyat/Pinkham: Page 150: “No sooner was Kutuzov named to his supreme post than he prepared to leave for the army. Before setting out he met one last time with Madame de Stael. The new generalissimo, who had been soundly educated in Strasbourg and was deeply interested in French literature, admired this capable, talented woman. She for her part saw him as the champion of resistance to the invader. “He was an old man with the most graceful manners and animated expression, although he had lost an eye by one of the many wounds he had received in the fifty years of his military career,” she wrote. “Looking at him, I was afraid he would not be to the struggle against the strong and ruthless men who were swooping down upon Russia from every corner of Europe; but the Russians, who are courtiers in St. Petersburg, become Tatars again in the army...I was moved when I left this illustrious Marshal Kutuzov; I did not know whether I was embracing a conqueror or a martyr, but I could see he understood all the greatness of the cause for which he was responsible.”
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