A Feast in Time of Plague

A Feast in Time of Plague («Пир во время чумы») is an 1830 play by Alexander Pushkin. The plot concerns a banquet in which the central figure taunts death with a toast "And so, O Plague, we hail thy reign!". The story is based on 4th scene of Act 1 of John Wilson's play The City of Plague (1816).

The play was written in 1830 and published in 1832 as one of four Little Tragedies (Malenkie tragedii, Маленькие трагедии) together with The Stone Guest (Kamenny gost', Каменный гость); Mozart and Salieri (Motsart i Salyeri, Моцарт и Сальери) and The Miserly Knight (Skupoy rytsar, Скупой рыцарь). All four of these plays were set as one act operas by Russian composers; Dargomyzhsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninov, and for the Feast, César Cui.