According to the hero of Chekhov's story "My
Life," even pretty Anyuta Blagovo (a namesake of Vadim's second
wife) is but a dogrose compared to beautiful Maria Dolzhikov (who
consents to marry the extravagant Misail) who looks to Misail like a fine
cultured rose:
Я мысленно ставил её рядом с нашими
барышнями, и даже красивая, солидная Анюта Благово не выдерживала сравнения
с нею; разница была громадная, как между
хорошей культурной розой и диким шиповником. (Chapter Seven)
In his poem V restorane (In a Restaurant, 1910) Blok (who
in another poem compares Florence to a smoky iris) famously mentions a
black rose:
Я сидел у окна в переполненном зале.
Где-то пели
смычки о любви.
Я послал тебе чёрную розу в бокале
Золотого, как небо,
аи.
I sat by the window in a crowded room.
Distant bows were singing of
love.
I sent you a black rose in a goblet
Of champagne, golden as the
sky.
Iris Black is Vadim's first wife.
Rozy (Roses) is a collection of poetry (1930) by G. Ivanov
(satirized by VN as Galatov in Lips to Lips and as Johnson in
The Night Journey, a fragment of Vivian Calmbrood's poem).
Re Viedma: in Russian we spell it Вьедма (V'edma). V'edma = ved'ma (witch)
Alexey Sklyarenko