Tsarskaya Nevesta
(The Tsar's Bride)
Martha, the daughter of the Novgorod merchant Sobakin, is to marry the
boyar Likov; but Gryaznoi, one of Ivan the Terrible's bodyguard, has
sworn that she shall be his, and obtains from Bomely, the Tsar's doctor,
a potion with which he intends to destroy her memory. His discarded
mistress Lyuba, aided by Bomely, substitutes another concoction that
is to mar her beauty. This Martha drinks. Meantime, in accordance with
a royal custom, Ivan the Terrible has been endeavoring unseen to select
a bride. His choice falls upon Martha. When she hears from Gryaznoi
that Likov, her betrothed, has been executed for attempting to poison
her, she loses her reason. Lyuba, confessing to her act, is stabbed by
Gryaznoi, who gives himself up to justice.
synopsis by M. Montagu Nathan, Rimsky-Korsakof, Duffield & Co.,
New York, 1917.
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