The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-10-16
A PORTRAIT OF MAzEPpA

A PORTRAIT OF MAzEPPA.
A portrait of Mazeppa painted from life
has been discovered at Kief, in Southern
Russia, and is being engraved by the Rus
sian academician, Demetry Kowkosky.
1t will surprise nearly every one who
hears that Mazeppa was real, living man,
who could sit for his portrait-he seems
so like purely mythical being, like Bel
lerophon or like one of the Amazons He
is associated in our minds altogether with
the very unreal world of the circus ring,
with bareback riders and trained horses.
Indeed, be may be said to resemble a
centaur, for he and the fiery steed can
hardly be thought of apart. Yet he was
a real man, and cut quite figure in his
part of the world two hundred years ago.
This portrait probably represents not a
staggering youth, with curling locks and
budding mustache, but grizzled war
rior in Russian uniform and decorated
with military oredrs.
Joan Stephsnovich Mazeppa was q
| Cossack, who made successful war against
the savage Tartars who desolated South
ern Russia, driving them back to the Cas-
plan. This SO recommended him to Peter
the Great that he invited the Cossack to
his court and covered him with honors
and gifts. But when Peter sent him
against the invading Swedes under
Charles XII. he betrayed the Russians
and went over with his followers to the
enemy. Peter defeated them both and
drove them into Turkish territory, where,
| fearing to fall into the hands of his for
mer relentless master, Mazeppa killed
himself. He had before this hidden all
the treasures which he had amassed in
his wars, and through gifts from those he
had served, in caverns in the hills around
Kief. The portrait now discovered was
probably hidden at this time.
The incident by which alone we know
him actually did occur. He was by birth
| Cossack, but when very young he was
sent to serve as page in the court of the
Polish king. There his beauty and brav-
cry won him great favor, especially with
the ladies. With one of them, the wife
Of a certain noble, he was suspected
of too great an intimacy, and the jealous
husband in revenge ordered him to be
bound naked to the back of wild horse
that had never been ridden. The horse
was Tartar horse from the steppes, and
when loosed he rushed madly back to his
native country with the unwilling rider
bound to his back. The Cossacks received
the unhappy youth when nearly dead
from exhaustion, and he grew up among
them, remarkable for strength and brav-
cry.
Byron got his story out Of Voltaire's
Life of Charles XII" and worked it up
into his dashing and attractive poem. A
story so dramatic was at once seized upon
for adaptation to the stage, and it was
presented here as early as 1926 by an En-
glishman named Hunter. He also was
very handsome man, and made great
stir in the town. This was at the circus
which is now the Walnut Street Theatre.
The picture of Mazeppa bound to the
horses back, which everybody knows 30
well, was painted by Horace Vernet, one
of the greatest of French artists. Vernet,
OF course, got his inspiration from Byron,
to whom we all owe whatever knowledge
we may have of the brilliant Cossack
rider and soldier.
Mazeppa's real motives for betraying
Peter are not cert ainly known. The Poles,
who look upon him as hero, always
maintained that he had in view the
welfare of the Polish nation, and they
point to the fact that he stipulated with
the Swedish king for the independence
of Poland. II this be the truth it gives
certain dignity to the act, but the Russian
story runs more in accord with what
otherwise is known of him. They say
that he was led to go over to the enemy
by the Establishments of certain Polish
princess. This would better correspond
with the rest of his adventurous career.
Few men, however, who are simply adj
venturers, get their actions recorded by
historian like Voltaire and celebrated
by poet like Byron and painted by a
master like Vernet and get to be known
by all schoolboys who speak the English
language, and all this not from any act
of doing, but one of suffering merely. A
better man might find it disagreeable TO
be personated before the public by some
of the persons who have represented Ma
zeppa in this city in recent times.-PhH-
adelphia Times.
DINING WITH THE QUEEN.