In the 6th issue of Russkaya Rech for 1998, V. G. Dolgushev's article "And the boys are bloody in the eyes..." is published - about the famous Pushkin line from the tragedy "Boris Godunov". The author writes that many people take these words of Pushkin literally, believing that this refers to Tsarevich Dimitri, who was killed on Godunov's orders. And asks a reasonable question: "But why boys and not a boy?" The answer is as follows: in the late XVIII - early XIX centuries, the phraseological unit boys in the eyes (run) was used in colloquial speech in the meaning "ripples, turns green" (here V. G. Dolgushev refers to the "Explanatory Dictionary of the living Great Russian Language" by V. I. Dahl). Then he points out that this phraseological turn (as well as another similar expression ulanch in the eyes run) is also given by M. I. Mikhelson in his collection of figurative words and allegories "Russian thought and Speech. Your own and someone else's. Experience of Russian phraseology". V. G. Dolgushev also found another evidence of the wide popularity of this phraseological unit - an anecdote about the writer and homeric drunkard Ermil Kostrov (c. 1750-1796). They say that a drunken Kostrov was asked by a young man: "Well, Yermil Ivanovich, don't you have boys in your eyes? And V. G. Dolgushev concludes that this common phraseology in the past was often used in relation to the state of intoxication, but "it could also be used in a broader sense, when referring to the flickering of some obscure spots when a person is in a bad state in general" (cf.: blurred vision, green in the eyes, green in the eyes went). Pushkin used this expression, giving it an additional meaning: "Since Boris Godunov thinks about his crime all the time, this flickering takes on an ominously bloody hue in his eyes." In addition, V. G. Dolgushev notes that in the " Dictionary of the language page 112 Pushkin" made an inaccuracy and did not highlight the phraseological construction of boys in the e ... Читать далее