Trivia questions (of extreme import to me at the moment)

[Leslie J. Dorfman]

Dear SEELangs subscribers:

I am happy to report that there are three more references to the
term _tambur[-]mazhor_.  The first comes from Leslie Dorfman:
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Loren,
        I don't know if this has any relevance to your question, but there
is an operetta by Offenbach which was translated into Russian in 1936 as
"Doch' tambur-mazhora."  I don't know it in the original.  I came across
this because it was translated by the poet about whom I'm writing my
dissertation, Elizaveta Polonskaja.  The operetta was staged in Leningrad
by the Leningradskij Teatr Muzykal'noj komedii.

For what it's worth...

Best,
Leslie Dorfman
serapion at umich.edu

The last two come from the 17-vulume _SSRLIa_ (both from vo. 15, col. 91):

<2>  Vperedi bezhali dvumia riadami ulichnye mal'chishki, i VYSOKII
TAMBUR-MAZHOR shagal, otmaxivaia takt bol'shim zhelezom.  [Citing "Korol.
_Bez iazyka._]

Note the use of _vysokij_; my original example likened the hight of a
sturgeon to 'a certain _tambur-mazhor_' using the _s_+ACC construction,
which (among other things, requires the complement of _s_ to be a well
known "yardstick" of some sort.  I still haven't looked up the date of
publication of the cited source.  Any additional insight would be greatly
appreciated (and gladly acknowledged).

<3>  Vspomniv derzkuiu nadmennost' frantsuzov, TAMBUR-
     MAZHOROV velikoi armii, shestvovavshikh po uli-
     tsam sozhzhennoi Moskvy, poradovalsia ia za na-
     shikh gvardeiskikh muzykantov, igravshikh nashi
     slavnye pokhodnye marshi b Tiul'ri.
     [citing "Nikul.  _Rosii vern. syny._"]

With this example I show the line breaks as-is.  This is because
the same _SSRLIa_ entry lists that hyphenating this word is the
archaic way to represent it.  With item <3> the two parts were
divided between the two lines, making it impossible to tell.

Thanks again, Leslie (and Steve, Glenn, and Alexei) for your
very informative responses.  --Loren Billings (billings at princeton.edu)