Without a Dowry and Other Plays

by Alexander Ostrovsky

  MME NYEGIN (by the window). Could that be the Prince who drove up? That’s who it is.

  NAROKOV. Well, in that case I’ll leave now, through the kitchen. Adieu, madame.

  MME NYEGIN. Adieu, moosir!

  Narokov goes out behind the partition. Dulyebov and Bakin enter.

  MME NYEGIN. She’s not home, Your Excellency, please excuse us. She went shopping.

  DULYEBOV. That’s all right, it doesn’t matter. I’ll wait.

  MME NYEGIN. As you wish, Your Excellency.

  DULYEBOV. You just go about your business, don’t go to any trouble, please. I’ll wait.

  Mme. Nyegin goes off.

  BAKIN. Sir, we’ve both come at the same time.

  DULYEBOV. What difference does that make? There’s room here for both of us.

  BAKIN. No, one of us is extra, and the extra one is me. That’s just my luck. I dropped in on Smelsky too, and Velikatov was sitting there. He didn’t say a word.

  DULYEBOV. But you should have started a conversation. You know how to talk, so the chances are on your side.

  BAKIN. It doesn’t always work out that way. Velikatov is more convincing when he’s quiet than I am when I talk.

  DULYEBOV. Why is that?

  BAKIN. Because he’s rich. You know how the proverb goes, “Never rival men of wealth; don’t fight strong men, guard your health.” So I give way. Velikatov is rich, and you are strong with your sweet talk.

  DULYEBOV. And how do you intend to win?

  BAKIN. With boldness, Prince. Boldness, they say, is what takes cities.

  DULYEBOV. It’s probably easier to take cities… Still, that’s your affair. If you’re not afraid of losing, then why not try boldness?

  BAKIN. I’d rather suffer defeat than go in for compliments.

  DULYEBOV. Every one to his liking.

  BAKIN. To go courting, pay compliments, resurrect the days of chivalry, that’s just too much honor for our ladies!

  DULYEVOV. Every one to his viewpoint.

  BAKIN. It seems to me it’s enough just to come right out with it: “Here I am, just as you see me. I offer you such and such. Would you care to love me?”

  DULYEBOV. Yes, but you know that would be offensive for a woman.

  BAKIN. Well, that’s their business, whether to take offense or not. At least I’m not deceiving them. After all, with all the things I’m busy with, I can’t take up love seriously. So why should I pretend to be in love, to delude somebody with hopes that might not be realized! Isn’t it a lot better to have a clear understanding?

  DULYEBOV. Every one to his own style. Tell me, please, what kind of man is Velikatov?

  BAKIN. I know as much about him as you do. He’s very rich. He has a splendid estate in the next province, a sugar beet factory, a stud farm, and a distillery too, I think. He comes here to the fair, but whether it’s to buy or sell horses I don’t know. I don’t know how he talks with the horse dealers either, but with us he’s quiet most of the time.

  DULYEBOV. Does he have tact?

  BAKIN. Very much so. Instead of arguing, he agrees with everybody, and you can never tell whether he’s serious or pulling your leg.

  DULYEBOV. But he’s very courteous.

  BAKIN. Terribly. In the theater he knows absolutely everybody by name: the cashier, the prompter, even the property man, and he shakes hands with all of them. And he’s charmed the old women completely. He knows everything and puts himself into everything that interests them. In other words, he treats all the old women like a most respectful and obliging son.

  DULYEBOV. But he doesn’t seem to show any preference for the young ladies; he shies away from them.

  BAKIN. In that regard you can set your mind at rest, Prince, he’s not a dangerous rival for you. For some reason he’s shy with young ladies, and he never speaks first to them. When they address him, all he says is, “What would you like? What do you want?”

  DULYEBOV. But perhaps this coldness is calculated. Couldn’t be he trying to get them interested in him?

  BAKIN. But what can he count on? He’s leaving tomorrow or the day after.

  DULYEBOV. Is that so?… Really?

  BAKIN. It’s a sure thing. He told me so himself. He has everything ready for departure.

  DULYEBOV. That’s too bad! He’s a very pleasant man, so steady, so calm.

  BAKIN. It seems to me his calmness comes from his limitations. A man just doesn’t keep his intelligence to himself, he shows it in some way, but he keeps quiet, which means he’s not bright. Still, he’s not stupid either, because he figures it’s better to stay quiet than to say stupid things. He has just enough intelligence and ability to behave properly and not squander what papa left him.

  DULYEBOV. That fact is, papa left him a ruined estate, and he built it back up again.

  BAKIN. All right, so give him credit for some practical sense and thrift.

  DULYEBOV. Add a little more, and he’ll turn out to be a very clever and practical man.

  BAKIN. For some reason I don’t care to believe that. But it doesn’t really matter to me whether he’s smart or stupid. What bothers me is that he’s so rich.

  DULYEBOV. He is?

  BAKIN. Yes. I can’t get it out of my head that it would be a lot better if I were rich and he were poor.

  DULYEBOV. Yes, that would be better for you, but why for him?

  BAKIN. Oh the hell with him, what’s he to me! I’m talking about myself. But it’s time to go to work. I yield you the field uncontested. Good-bye, Prince.

  DULYEBOV (giving his hand). Good-bye, Grigory Antonych.

  Bakin leaves. Mme. Nyegin enters.

  MME NYEGIN. He left? He didn’t wait?

  DULYEBOV. What do you pay for this apartment?

  MME NYEGIN. Twelve rubles, Your Excellency.

  DULYEBOV (pointing to the corner). Am I right in saying that it must be damp there?

  MME NYEGIN. You get the kind of apartment you pay for.

  DULYEBOV. You’ll have to change it. (Opening the door to the right.) And what’s there?

  MME NYEGIN. That’s Sasha’s bedroom. And on the right is my room, and there’s the kitchen.

  DULYEBOV (to himself). It’s pitiful. Yes… of course, this is impossible.

  MME NYEGIN. It’s in keeping with our means, Your Excellency.

  DULYEBOV. Please, don’t talk about what you don’t understand. A good actress can’t live like this. It can’t be done, I tell you, it’s impossible. It’s not proper.

  MME NYEGIN. But where can we get the revenue?

  DULYEBOV. What kind of word is that, “revenue”?

  MME NYEGIN. From what income, Your Excellency?

  DULYEBOV. But why should we be concerned about your income?

  MME NYEGIN. But where are we going to get it, Your Excellency?

  DULYEBOV. You and your “Where are we going to get it”! Who cares! It’s nobody’s business, get it where you want. Only it’s impossible to live like this, it’s… well, it’s just not proper, that’s all there is to it.

  MME NYEGIN. Now if we had a salary…

  DULYEBOV. Well, whether it’s a salary or something else, that’s your business.

  MME NYEGIN. What we get from the benefit performances for her is very small.

  DULYEBOV. And whose fault is that? To get a lot from benefit performances you have to know the right people, how to choose them, how to manage things… I can give you the names of about ten people you have to get on your side, then you’d have wonderful benefit performances, even with prizes and gifts. It’s simple enough, something everybody’s known for a long time. You have to entertain the right people… And how can you do that here! What’s here? Who’s going to come here?

  MME NYEGIN. But you know, the audience seems to like her, but when it comes to a benefit performance, then… you just can’t attract them at all.

  DULYEBOV. What audience are you talking about? The students, the shopkeepers, the petty officials! They’re very happy to clap their han
ds off, they’ll call back the actress Nyegin ten times, but for all that, they’re no-good trash, they won’t pay a kopeck extra at a benefit performance.

  MME NYEGIN. That’s the gospel truth, Your Excellency. Of course, if we had some acquaintances, it would be quite a different matter.

  DULYEBOV. No question. You can’t blame the public, the public is never at fault. The same for public opinion, it’s ridiculous to complain against that. You must know how to earn the love of the public. What’s necessary is for your daughter to be surrounded all the time by rich young men, or, more properly speaking, her main friends should be us, the solid people. We’re all busy the whole day long, some of us with family and household business, some of us with public affairs, so we only have a few hours free in the evening. So where can we find a suitable place, if not with a young actress, where we can relax, so to speak, from our burdens? For one man it’s getting away from his domestic problems, for another from the problems connected with his area of responsibility.

  MME NYEGIN. That’s too hard for me to understand, Your Excellency. You better say those words to my Sasha.

  DULYEBOV. Yes, I’ll tell her, I’ll most certainly tell her. That’s what I came here for.

  MME NYEGIN. There, I think she’s coming now.

  DULYEBOV. Only don’t you get in our way.

  MME NYEGIN. Really now, do you think I’m my own child’s enemy? (Alexandra enters.) What took you so long? The Prince has been waiting a long time for you. (She takes her daughter’s hat, umbrella, and cloak. She goes off.)

  DULYEBOV (approaches and kisses Alexandra’s hand). Ah, my joy, at last you’ve come.

  ALEXANDRA. Excuse me, Prince. I’m having so much trouble with my benefit performance. It’s agony… (She becomes pensive.)

  DULYEBOV (sitting down). Tell me, please, my dear friend…

  ALEXANDRA (coming out of her pensiveness). What would you like to know?

  DULYEBOV. What was that play you last played in?

  ALEXANDRA. “Uriel Acosta.”2

  DULYEBOV. Yes, yes… You played wonderfully, wonderfully. How much feeling, how much nobility! I’m not joking when I say that.

  ALEXANDRA. Thank you, Prince.

  DULYEBOV. They write such strange plays now; you can’t understand a thing.

  ALEXANDRA. But that play was written long ago.

  DULYEBOV. Long ago? Was it by Karatygin3 or Grigoryev?4

  ALEXANDRA. Neither. It was by Gutzkow.

  DULYEBOV. Ah! Gutzkow… I know, I know. He also wrote a comedy, a wonderful comedy, “A Russian Remembers a Good Deed.”

  ALEXANDRA. That one’s by Polevoy,5 Prince.

  DULYEBOV. Oh yes… I got them mixed up… Polevoy… Nicholas Polevoy. He came from the lower middle class… He taught himself French, wrote learned books, took it all from the French… Only then he had an argument with somebody… with some learned men or some professors. Now how could he do a thing like that! How was it possible, how was it proper! So, they told him not to write any learned books, and they ordered him to write some vaudeville pieces. Later on he himself was grateful for that, he made more money that way. “I wouldn’t have thought of it,” he said. Why are you so sad?

  ALEXANDRA. I have many cares, Prince.

  DULYEBOV. My beauty, you should be jollier, it’s still too early for you to be thinking about things. Find some distraction, amuse yourself with something. Just now I was talking with your mother…

  ALEXANDRA. What about, Prince?

  DULYEBOV. Why naturally about you, my treasure, what else? You have a bad apartment here… It’s impossible for an actress, a beautiful young woman, to live in such a hut. It’s not proper.

  ALEXANDRA (a bit offended). A bad apartment? Well, what of it? I know myself there are better apartments… I should think, Prince, you’d be a little sorry for me and not remind me of my poverty. Even without you I feel it every hour, every moment.

  DULYEBOV. But don’t you think I’m sorry for you? I’m very sorry for you, my beauty.

  ALEXANDRA. Then keep your sympathy to yourself, Your Excellency! Your sympathy doesn’t do me any good, and it’s unpleasant to hear it. You find my apartment bad, but I find it acceptable, and I don’t need a better one. If you don’t like my apartment, if it’s unpleasant for you to be in such an apartment, then nobody’s keeping you.

  DULYEBOV. Now don’t get excited, don’t get excited, my joy! You haven’t heard me to the end, and you’re being angry with a man who’s devoted to you heart and soul… That’s just not right…

  ALEXANDRA. Please go ahead and speak, I’m listening.

  DULYEBOV. I’m a man of tact, I never humiliate anybody, I’m known for my tact. I never would have dared to criticize your apartment if I didn’t have in view…

  ALEXANDRA. What, Prince?

  DULYEBOV. To offer you another, one much better.

  ALEXANDRA. At the same rent?

  DULYEBOV. Well, what do we care about the rent?

  ALEXANDRA. There’s something here I don’t understand, Prince.

  DULYEBOV. You see, my delight, it’s like this. I’m a very kind and tender man, everybody knows it… In spite of my years I’ve kept onto all my freshness of feeling… I can still fall in love, like a young man…

  ALEXANDRA. I’m very glad for you. But what does that have to do with my apartment?

  DULYEBOV. It’s very simple. Don’t you really see? I love you… I want to cherish you, to spoil you… that would be a delight for me… that’s my necessity. I have a lot of tenderness in my soul, I need to shower affection on somebody, I can’t manage without it. So, come to me, my little bird!

  ALEXANDRA (gets up). You’re out of your mind!

  DULYEBOV. That’s rude, my friend, it’s rude!

  ALEXANDRA. Where did you ever get an idea like that? Really! I gave you no cause at all… How could you dare say such things?

  DULYEBOV. Take it easy now, take it easy, my little friend!

  ALEXANDRA. But what is this! To come into somebody else’s home and just like that, for no good reason, to start a stupid and offensive conversation.

  DULYEBOV. Now take it easy, take it easy, please! You are still very young to talk like that.

  ALEXANDRA. I like that! “You are still young”! That means you can offend young people as much as you want and they have to keep quiet.

  DULYEBOV. But where’s there any offense here? Where’s the offense? It’s a most ordinary sort of business. You don’t know life or proper society, and yet you dare to pass judgment on a respected man! In actuality it is you who are offending me!

  ALEXANDRA (in tears). Oh, my God! No, this is more than I can bear…

  DULYEBOV. For everything there’s a proper form, young lady! You just don’t have good breeding. If you didn’t like my offer, then you should have thanked me all the same and told me your unwillingness politely, or somehow made a joke of it.

  ALEXANDRA. Oh, leave me alone, please! I don’t need your moral admonitions. I know myself what I should do. I know what’s good and bad. Oh, my God!… I just don’t want to listen to you.

  DULYEBOV. But why shout?

  ALEXANDRA. And why shouldn’t I shout? I’m in my own home, who’s there to be afraid of?

  DULYEBOV. Very well! Only remember this, my joy. I don’t forget an insult.

  ALEXANDRA. All right, all right, I’ll remember it.

  DULYEBOV. I’m sorry, but I thought you were a well-brought-up young woman. There was no way to expect that because of some little trifle or other you would burst into tears and show a lot of emotion, just like some kitchen woman.

  ALEXANDRA. All right, fine, I’m a kitchen woman, only I want to be a woman of honor.

  Mme. Nyegin appears in the doorway.

  DULYEBOV. Congratulations! Only honor itself isn’t enough. You have to be more intelligent, and more prudent, so you won’t cry afterwards. Don’t send me any of those tickets at sponsors’ prices. I won’t be going to your benefit performance, I don’t have t
he time. And if I do decide to go, then I’ll send to the box office for a regular-priced ticket. (He leaves.)

  Mme. Nyegin enters.

  MME NYEGIN. What is it? What’s going on here? Has the Prince left? He wasn’t angry, was he?

  ALEXANDRA. Let him be angry!

  MME NYEGIN. What are you saying! Come to your senses! Before a benefit performance? Are you in your right mind?

  ALEXANDRA. But it’s just impossible! The things he says! If you could have heard!

  MME NYEGIN. But what’s that to you! Let him talk. Words won’t kill you.

  ALEXANDRA. But you don’t know what he said. It’s really none of your business.

  MME NYEGIN. I know, I know it all very well, what men say.

  ALEXANDRA. And we can listen to that and stay calm?

  MME NYEGIN. But what’s the harm! Let him talk away as much as he wants. Let him spout all his nonsense. You just laugh to yourself!

  ALEXANDRA. Oh, don’t give me lessons! Leave me alone, please! I know how to behave.

  MME NYEGIN. I can see what you know. Right before a benefit performance you quarrel with a man like that!

  ALEXANDRA. Mama, can’t you see I’m upset? I’m trembling all over, and you keep after me.

  MME NYEGIN. No, now you just wait! Listen to sense from your mother! How can you quarrel before a benefit performance when you need certain people?… Couldn’t you have waited a bit? Afterwards you can quarrel as much as you want, I won’t say a word. Because I realize you can’t let them get away with everything, you’ve got to hold them back. But now they’ll call you a scarecrow!

  ALEXANDRA. Mama, that’s enough…

  MME NYEGIN. No, it’s not! Before that benefit performance you should have been polite…

  ALEXANDRA. But I didn’t quarrel with him. I just felt offended and told him to leave me alone.

  MME NYEGIN. And that’s where you were stupid, yes, stupid! You should have tried to be as polite as you could, say to him, “Your Excellency, we are always very much pleased with you and always very grateful to you. Only we don’t find pleasure in listening to those vile things. We are completely opposed to what you understand of us.” That’s what you should have said! Because that way it’s honorable, it’s noble, it’s polite.