Selected plays

by Anton Chekhov

  [In the house the "Maiden's Prayer" is played on the piano.]

  IRINA. Tomorrow evening I'll not be hearing that "Maiden's Prayer," I won't be meeting Protopopov . . . [a pause]. Protopopov is sitting there in the drawing-room; he's come again today. . . .

  KULYGIN. The headmistress hasn't come yet?

  IRINA. No. They've sent for her. If only you knew how hard it is for me to live here alone, without Olya, . . . Now that she is headmistress and lives at the high-school and is busy all day long, I'm alone, I'm bored, I have nothing to do, and I hate the room I live in. . . . I've made up my mind, since I'm not fated to be in Moscow, that so it must be. It must be destiny. There's no help for it, . . . It's all in God's hands, that's the truth. When Nikolay Lvovitch made me an offer again . . . I thought it over and made up my mind, . . . He's a good man, it's wonderful really how good he is. . . . And I suddenly felt as though my soul had grown wings, my heart felt so light and again I longed for work, work. . . . Only something happened yesterday, there's some mystery hanging over me.

  CHEBUTYKIN. Nonsense.

  NATASHA [at the window]. Our headmistress!

  KULYGIN. The headmistress has come. Let's go in [goes into the house with IRINA].

  CHEBUTYKIN [reads the newspaper, humming softly]. "Tarara-boom-dee-ay."

  [MASHA approaches; in the background ANDREY is pushing the baby carriage.]

  MASHA. Here he sits, snug and settled.

  CHEBUTYKIN. Well, why not?

  MASHA [sits down]. Nothing . . . [a pause]. Did you love my mother?

  CHEBUTYKIN. Very much.

  MASHA. And did she love you?

  CHEBUTYKIN [after a pause]. That I don't remember.

  MASHA. Is my man here? It's just like our cook Marfa used to say about her policeman: is my man here?

  CHEBUTYKIN. Not yet.

  MASHA. When you get happiness by snatches, by little bits, and then lose it, as I'm losing it, by degrees one grows coarse and spiteful . . . [Points to her bosom] I'm boiling here inside . . . [Looking at ANDREY, who is pushing the baby carriage] Here's our Andrey, . . . All our hopes are shattered. It's like thousands of people raised a huge bell, a lot of money and of labour was spent on it, and it suddenly fell and smashed. All at once, for no reason whatever. That's just how it is with Andrey, . . .

  ANDREY. When will they be quiet in the house? There's such a noise.

  CHEBUTYKIN. Soon [looks at his watch]. My watch is an old-fashioned one with a repeater . . . [winds his watch, it strikes]. The first, the second, and the fifth batteries are going at one o'clock [a pause]. And I'm going tomorrow.

  ANDREY. For good?

  CHEBUTYKIN. I don't know. Perhaps I'll come back in a year. Though goodness knows. . . . It doesn't matter one way or another.

  [There is the sound of a harp and violin being played far away in the street.]

  ANDREY. The town will be empty. It's as though you put an extinguisher over it [a pause]. Something happened yesterday near the theatre; everyone is talking of it, and I know nothing about it.

  CHEBUTYKIN. It was nothing. Foolishness. Solyony began annoying the baron and he lost his temper and insulted him, and it came in the end to Solyony's having to challenge him [looks at his watch]. It's time, I think. . . . It was to be at half-past twelve in the Crown forest that we can see from here beyond the river . . . Piff-paff! [Laughs] Solyony imagines he is a Lermontov and even writes verses. Joking apart, this is his third duel.

  MASHA. Whose?

  CHEBUTYKIN. Solyony's.

  MASHA. And the baron's?

  CHEBUTYKIN. What about the baron? [a pause]

  MASHA. My thoughts are in a muddle. . . . Anyway, I tell you, you ought not to let them do it. He may wound the baron or even kill him.

  CHEBUTYKIN. The baron is a very good fellow, but one baron more or less in the world, what does it matter? Let them! It doesn't matter. [Beyond the garden a shout of "Aa-oo! Halloo!"] You can wait. That's Skvortsov, the second, shouting. He's in a boat [a pause].

  ANDREY. In my opinion to take part in a duel, or to be present at it even in the capacity of a doctor, is simply immoral.

  CHEBUTYKIN. That only seems so. . . . We're not real, nothing in the world is real, we don't exist, but only seem to exist. . . . Nothing matters!

  MASHA. How they keep on talking, talking all day long [goes]. To live in such a climate, it may snow any minute, and then all this talk on the top of it [stops]. I'm not going indoors, I can't go in there. . . . When Vershinin comes, tell me . . . [goes down the avenue]. And the birds are already flying south . . . [looks up]. Swans or geese. . . . Darlings, happy birds . . . . . . . [goes out].

  ANDREY. Our house will be empty. The officers are going, you are going, Irina is getting married, and I shall be left in the house alone.

  CHEBUTYKIN. What about your wife?

  [Enter FERAPONT with papers.]

  ANDREY. A wife is a wife. She's a straightforward, upright woman, kind, perhaps, but for all that there's something in her which makes her no better than some petty, blind, hairy animal. Anyway she's not a human being. I speak to you as to a friend, the one man to whom I can open my soul. I love Natasha, that's so, but sometimes she seems to me absolutely vulgar, and then I don't know what to think, I can't account for my loving her or, anyway, having loved her.

  CHEBUTYKIN [gets up]. I'm going away tomorrow, my boy, perhaps we'll never meet again, so this is my advice to you. Put on your cap, you know, take your stick and walk off . . . walk off and just go, go without looking back. And the farther you go, the better.

  [SOLYONY crosses the stage in the background with two officers; seeing CHEBUTYKIN he turns towards him; the officers walk on.]

  SOLYONY. Doctor, it's time! It's half-past twelve [greets ANDREY].

  CHEBUTYKIN. Directly. I'm sick of you all. [To ANDREY] If anyone asks for me, Andryusha, say I'll be back directly . . . [sighs]. Oho-ho-ho!

  SOLYONY. He had not time to say alack before the bear was on his back [walks away with the doctor]. Why are you croaking, old man?

  CHEBUTYKIN. Come!

  SOLYONY. How do you feel?

  CHEBUTYKIN [angrily]. Like a pig in clover.

  SOLYONY. The old man doesn't need excite himself. I won't do anything much, I'll only shoot him like a snipe [takes out scent and sprinkles his hands]. I've used a whole bottle today, and still they smell. My hands smell like a corpse [a pause]. Yes. . . . Do you remember the poem? "And, restless, seeks the stormy ocean, as though in tempest there were peace." . . .

  CHEBUTYKIN. Yes. He had not time to say alack before the bear was on his back [goes out with SOLYONY. Shouts are heard: "Halloo! Oo-oo!" ANDREY and FERAPONT come in].

  FERAPONT. Papers for you to sign. . . .

  ANDREY [nervously]. Let me alone! Let me alone! I beg you! [Walks away with the baby carriage.]

  FERAPONT. That's what the papers are for -- to be signed [retires into the background].

  [Enter IRINA and TUZENBAKH, wearing a straw hat; KULYGIN crosses the stage shouting "Aa-oo, Masha, aa-oo!"]

  TUZENBAKH. I believe that's the only man in the town who's glad that the officers are going away.

  IRINA. That's very natural [a pause]. Our town will be empty now.

  TUZENBAKH. Dear, I'll be back directly.

  IRINA. Where are you going?

  TUZENBAKH. I must go into the town, and then . . . to see my comrades off.

  IRINA. That's not true. . . Nikolay, why are you so absent-minded today? [a pause] What happened yesterday near the theatre?

  TUZENBAKH [with a gesture of impatience]. I'll be here in an hour and with you again [kisses her hands]. My beautiful one . . . [looks into her face]. For five years now I've loved you and still I can't get used to it, and you seem to me more and more lovely. What wonderful, exquisite hair! What eyes! I shall carry you off tomorrow, we'll work, we'll be rich, my dreams will come true. You'll be happy. There's only one thing, one thing: you don't love me!

  IRINA. That's not in my p
ower! I'll be your wife and be faithful and obedient, but there is no love, I can't help it [weeps]. I've never been in love in my life! Oh, I have so dreamed of love, I've been dreaming of it for years, day and night, but my soul is like a wonderful piano which is locked and the key has been lost [a pause]. You look worried.

  TUZENBAKH. I didn't sleep all night. There has never been anything in my life so dreadful that it could frighten me, and only that lost key torments my soul and won't let me sleep. . . . Say something to me . . . [a pause]. Say something to me. . . .

  IRINA. What? What am I to say to you? What?

  TUZENBAKH. Anything.

  IRINA. Stop it! Stop it! [a pause]

  TUZENBAKH. What trifles, what little things suddenly à propos of nothing acquire importance in life! You laugh at them as before, think them nonsense, but still you go on and feel that you don't have the power to stop. Let's don't talk about it! I'm happy. I feel as though I were seeing these firs, these maples, these birch trees for the first time in my life, and they all seem to be looking at me with curiosity and waiting. What beautiful trees, and, really, how beautiful life ought to be under them! [A shout of "Halloo! Aa-oo!"] I must be off; it's time. . . . See, that tree is dead, but it waves in the wind with the others. And so it seems to me that if I die I'll still be part of life, one way or another. Good-bye, my darling . . . [kisses her hands]. Those papers of yours you gave me are lying under the calendar on my table.

  IRINA. I'm coming with you.

  TUZENBAKH [in alarm]. No, no! [Goes off quickly, stops in the avenue.] Irina!

  IRINA. What is it?

  TUZENBAKH [not knowing what to say]. I didn't have any coffee this morning. Ask them to make me some [goes out quickly].

  [IRINA stands lost in thought, then walks away into the background of the scene and sits down on the swing. Enter ANDREY with the baby carriage, and FERAPONT comes into sight.]

  FERAPONT. Andrey Sergeyevitch, the papers aren't mine; they are government papers. I didn't invent them.

  ANDREY. Oh, where is it all gone? What's become of my past, when I was young, happy, and clever, when my dreams and thoughts were exquisite, when my present and my past were lighted up by hope? Why on the very threshold of life do we become dull, drab, uninteresting, lazy, indifferent, useless, unhappy? . . . Our town has been in existence for two hundred years -- there are a hundred thousand people living in it; and there's not one who's not like the rest, not one saint in the past, or the present, not one man of learning, not one artist, not one man in the least remarkable who could inspire envy or a passionate desire to imitate him. . . . They only eat, drink, sleep, and then die . . . others are born, and they also eat and drink and sleep, and not to be bored to stupefaction they vary their lives by nasty gossip, vodka, cards, litigation; and the wives deceive their husbands, and the husbands tell lies and pretend that they see and hear nothing, and an overwhelmingly vulgar influence crushes the children, and the divine spark is quenched in them and they become the same sort of pitiful, dead creatures, all exactly alike, as their fathers and mothers. . . . [To FERAPONT, angrily] What do you want?

  FERAPONT. Eh? There are papers to sign.

  ANDREY. You're a nuisance!

  FERAPONT [handing him the papers]. The porter from the local court was saying just now that there was as much as two hundred degrees of frost in Petersburg last winter.

  ANDREY. The present is hateful, but when I think of the future, it's so nice! I feel so light-hearted, so free. A light dawns in the distance, I see freedom. I see how I and my children will become free from sloth, from kvass, from goose and cabbage, from naps after dinner, from mean, parasitic living. . . .

  FERAPONT. He says that two thousand people were frozen to death. The people were terrified. It was either in Petersburg or Moscow, I don't remember.

  ANDREY [in a rush of tender feeling]. My dear sisters, my wonderful sisters! [Through tears] Masha, my sister!

  NATASHA [in the window]. Who's talking so loud out there? Is that you, Andryusha? You'll wake baby Sophie. Il ne faut pas faire du bruit, la Sophie est dormée déjê. Vous êtes un ours. [Getting angry] If you want to talk, give the carriage with the baby to somebody else. Ferapont, take the baby carriage from the master!

  FERAPONT. Yes, ma'am [takes the baby carriage] .

  ANDREY [in confusion]. I'm talking quietly.

  NATASHA [petting her child, inside the room]. Bobik! Naughty Bobik! Little rascal!

  ANDREY [looking through the papers]. Very well, I'll look through them and sign what needs signing, and then you can take them back to the Board. . . . [Goes into the house reading the papers; FERAPONT pushes the baby carriage farther into the garden.]

  NATASHA [speaking indoors]. Bobik, what is mamma's name? Darling, darling! And who is this? This is auntie Olya. Say to auntie, "Good morning, Olya!"

  [Two wandering musicians, a man and a girl, enter and play a violin and a harp; from the house enter VERSHININ with OLGA and ANFISA, and stand off a minute listening in silence; IRINA comes up.]

  OLGA. Our garden is like a public passage; they walk and ride through. Nanny, give those people something.

  ANFISA [gives money to the musicians]. Go away, and God bless you, my dear souls! [The musicians bow and go away.] Poor things. They must be hungry. Why else would they do it? [To IRINA] Good morning, Irisha! [Kisses her.] Well, my little girl, I'm having a time of it! Living in the high-school, in a government apartment, with dear Olyushka -- that's what the Lord has granted to me in my old age! I've never lived so well in my life, sinful woman that I am. . . . It's a big flat, and I have a room to myself and my own bed. All at the government expense. I wake up in the night and, O Lord, Mother of God, there's no one in the world happier than me!

  VERSHININ [looks at his watch]. We're just going, Olga Sergeyevna. It's time to be off [a pause]. I wish you every, every. . . .Where is Marya Sergeyevna?

  IRINA. She is somewhere in the garden. . . . I'll go and look for her.

  VERSHININ. If you'll be so kind. I am in a hurry.

  ANFISA. I'll go and look for her too. [Shouts] Mashenka, aa-oo! [Goes with IRINA into the farther part of the garden.] Aa-oo! Aa-oo!

  VERSHININ. Everything comes to an end. Here we are parting [looks at his watch]. The town has given us something like a lunch; we've been drinking champagne, the mayor made a speech. I ate and listened, but my heart was here, with you all. . . [looks round the garden]. I've grown used to you. . . .

  OLGA. Shall we ever see each other again?

  VERSHININ. Most likely not [a pause]. My wife and two little girls will stay here for another two months; please, if anything happens, if they need anything . . .

  OLGA. Yes, yes, of course. Set your mind at rest [a pause]. By tomorrow there won't be a soldier in the town -- it'll all turn into a memory, and of course for us it'll be like beginning a new life . . . [a pause]. Nothing turns out as we would have it. I didn't want to be a headmistress, and yet I am. It seems we are not to live in Moscow. . . .

  VERSHININ. Well . . . . Thank you for everything. . . . Forgive me if anything was amiss. . . . I've talked a great deal: forgive me for that too -- don't think too badly of me.

  OLGA [wipes her eyes]. Why doesn't Masha come?

  VERSHININ. What else am I to say to you at parting? What am I to philosophise about? . . . [Laughs] Life is hard. It seems to many of us dull and hopeless; but yet we must admit that it goes on getting clearer and easier, and it looks as though the time were not far off when it'll be full of happiness [looks at his watch]. It's time for me to go! In old days men were absorbed in wars, filling all their existence with marches, raids, victories, but now all that is a thing of the past, leaving behind it a great void which there is so far nothing to fill: humanity is searching for it passionately, and of course will find it. Ah, if only it could be quickly! [a pause] If, don't you know, hard work were united with education and education with hard work. . . [Looks at his watch] But, really, it's time for me to go. . . .

  OLGA.
Here she comes.

  [MASHA comes in.]

  VERSHININ. I have come to say good-bye. . . .

  [OLGA moves a little away to leave them free to say good-bye.]

  MASHA [looking into his face]. Good-bye . . . [a prolonged kiss].

  OLGA. Don't, don't. . . .

  [MASHA sobs violently.]

  VERSHININ. Write to me. . . . Don't forget me! Let me go! . . . Time is up! . . . Olga Sergeyevna, take her, I must . . . go . . . I'm late . . . [Much moved, kisses OLGA'S hands; then again embraces MASHA and quickly goes off.]

  OLGA. Come, Masha! Stop it, darling.

  [Enter KULYGIN.]

  KULYGIN [embarrassed]. Never mind, let her cry -- let her. . . . My good Masha, my dear Masha! . . . You are my wife, and I'm happy, anyway. . . . I don't complain; I don't say a word of blame. . . . Here Olya is my witness. . . . We'll begin the old life again, and I won't say one word, not a hint. . . .

  MASHA [restraining her sobs]. By the sea-strand an oak-tree green. . . . Upon that oak a chain of gold. . . . Upon that oak a chain of gold. . . . I am going mad. . . . By the sea-strand . . . an oak-tree green. . . .

  OLGA. There, there, Masha. . . . Calm yourself. . . . Give her some water.

  MASHA. I'm not crying now. . . .

  KULYGIN. She's not crying now . . . she's being good. . . .

  [The faint sound of a far-away shot.]

  MASHA. By the sea-strand an oak-tree green, upon that oak a chain of gold. . . . The cat is green . . . the oak is green. . . . I am mixing it up . . . [drinks water]. My life's a failure, . . . I want nothing now. . . . I'll calm down in a minute. . . . It doesn't matter. . . . What does "strand" mean? Why do these words haunt me? My thoughts are in a tangle. [Enter IRINA.]

  OLGA. Calm yourself, Masha. Come, that's a good girl. Let's go indoors.

  MASHA [angrily]. I'm not going in. [Sobs, but at once checks herself] I don't go into that house now and I won't.

  IRINA. Let's sit together, even if we don't say anything. I'm going away tomorrow, you know . . . [a pause].

  KULYGIN. I took a false beard and moustache from a boy in the third form yesterday, just look . . . [puts on the beard and moustache]. I look like the German teacher . . . [laughs]. Don't I? Funny creatures, those boys.