I am ready." Although "Shoemaker, Stick to Your Last," the central idea of which is that girls of the merchant class will be much happier if they marry in their own class than if they wed nobles, who take them solely for their money (the usual reason for such alliances, even at the present day), had an immense success, both in Moscow and in St.Petersburg, Ostrovsky received not a penny from it.

In the latter city, also, the censor took a hand, because "the nobility was put to shame for the benefit of the merchant class," and the theater management was greatly agitated when the Emperor and all the imperial family came to the first performance.
But the Emperor remarked, "There are very few plays which have given me so much pleasure; it is not a play, it is a lesson." "The Poor Bride" (written in 1852) was then put on the stage, and the author received a small payment on the spot.

In 1854 "Poverty is not a Vice" appeared, and confirmed the author's standing as a writer of the first class.

This play, a great favorite still, contains many presentations of old Russian customs.

It was the first from which the author received a regular royalty, ranging from one-twentieth to two-thirds of the profits.
After many more comedies, all more or less noted, all more or less objected to by the censor, for various reasons, and hostility and bad treatment on the part of the theatrical authorities, Ostrovsky attained the zenith of his literary fame with his masterpiece, "Groza" ("The Thunderstorm").