Dovhalevsky, Mytrofan

Dovhalevsky, Mytrofan [Довгалевський, Митрофан; Dovhalevs'kyj], 18th century. Student at the Kyivan Mohyla Academy in 1718–32, monk, lecturer at the academy from 1733, professor of poetics from 1736. Dovhalevsky wrote a course on poetics in Latin and two school dramas: a Christmas play, Komicheskoe deistvie (A Comic Act, 1736) and an Easter play, Vlastotvornyi obraz chelovekoliubiia Bozhiia (The Power-Endowing Image of Divine Love for Man, 1737). The intermedes of these plays (five in each) are of particular interest. Such personae as an astrologer, peasants, Cossacks, itinerant tutors, Muscovite soldiers, Poles (appearing as oppressors), a Belarusian, and a gypsy appear in them. The intermedes are written in a language close to the vernacular. A modern-Ukrainian edition of his Poetyka (Poetics) was published in Kyiv in 1973.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]