Characters surnames derived from the Latin roots in the A.N. Ostrovosky’s plays

In Ostrovsky’s plays only two characters carry the last names derived from Latin roots, both of them being those artificial surnames given to seminary graduates. One of them - Benevolensky - was widely spread, Ostrovsky knew one person named Benevolensky, Pyotr Mironovich apparently was the prototype for the character of ‘The Poor Bride’ , they both graduated from the seminary, they were both officials in the court. The surname Negligentov was found only among pseudonyms. N.A. Dobrolyubov wrote one of his early articles under this name. There is no evidence that Ostrovsky knew something about this article as there is nothing in common between the article and the play. Dobrolyubov who had mentioned Negligentov in his critical articles twice apparently did not see this character as a parody of himself. These surnames are carried by the characters in the early Ostrovsky’s plays (‘The Poor Bride’ , 1851, ‘A Protégée of the Mistress’ , 1858), later on all family names were derived from the Russian words, mostly the dialectal ones.

surnames given to seminary graduates, A.N. Ostrovsky, prototype, charactonyms, using surname in the play