Selected plays

by Anton Chekhov

  LVOFF. No, I can't.

  ANNA. Nicholas can. I am beginning to be surprised, too, at the injustice of people. Why do they return hatred for love, and answer truth with lies? Can you tell me how much longer I shall be hated by my mother and father? They live fifty miles away, and yet I can feel their hatred day and night, even in my sleep. And how do you account for the sadness of Nicholas? He says that he only dislikes me in the evening, when the fit is on him. I understand that, and can tolerate it, but what if he should come to dislike me altogether? Of course that is impossible, and yet-no, no, I mustn't even imagine such a thing. [Sings]

  "Sparrow, Sparrow, where are you?"

  [She shudders] What fearful thoughts I have! You are not married, Doctor; there are many things that you cannot understand.

  LVOFF. You say you are surprised, but-but it is you who surprise me. Tell me, explain to me how you, an honest and intelligent woman, almost a saint, could allow yourself to be so basely deceived and dragged into this den of bears? Why are you here? What have you in common with such a cold and heartless-but enough of your husband! What have you in common with these wicked and vulgar surroundings? With that eternal grumbler, the crazy and decrepit Count? With that swindler, that prince of rascals, Misha, with his fool's face? Tell me, I say, how did you get here?

  ANNA. [laughing] That is what he used to say, long ago, oh, exactly! Only his eyes are larger than yours, and when he was excited they used to shine like coals-go on, go on!

  LVOFF. [Gets up and waves his hand] There is nothing more to say. Go into the house.

  ANNA. You say that Nicholas is not what he should be, that his faults are so and so. How can you possibly understand him? How can you learn to know any one in six months? He is a wonderful man, Doctor, and I am sorry you could not have known him as he was two or three years ago. He is depressed and silent now, and broods all day without doing anything, but he was splendid then. I fell in love with him at first sight. [Laughing] I gave one look and was caught like a mouse in a trap! So when he asked me to go with him I cut every tie that bound me to my old life as one snips the withered leaves from a plant. But things are different now. Now he goes to the Lebedieff's to amuse himself with other women, and I sit here in the garden and listen to the owls. [The WATCHMAN'S rattle is heard] Tell me, Doctor, have you any brothers and sisters?

  LVOFF. No.

  ANNA sobs.

  LVOFF. What is it? What is the matter?

  ANNA. I can't stand it, Doctor, I must go.

  LVOFF. Where?

  ANNA. To him. I am going. Have the horses harnessed. [She runs into the house.]

  LVOFF. No, I certainly cannot go on treating any one under these conditions. I not only have to do it for nothing, but I am forced to endure this agony of mind besides. No, no, I can't stand it. I have had enough of it. [He goes into the house.]

  The curtain falls.

  ACT II

  The drawing-room of LEBEDIEFFÕS house. In the centre is a door leading into a garden. Doors open out of the room to the right and left. The room is furnished with valuable old furniture, which is carefully protected by linen covers. The walls are hung with pictures. The room is lighted by candelabra. ZINAIDA is sitting on a sofa; the elderly guests are sitting in arm-chairs on either hand. The young guests are sitting about the room on small chairs. KOSICH, AVDOTIA NAZAROVNA, GEORGE, and others are playing cards in the background. GABRIEL is standing near the door on the right. The maid is passing sweetmeats about on a tray. During the entire act guests come and go from the garden, through the room, out of the door on the left, and back again. Enter MARTHA through the door on the right. She goes toward ZINAIDA.

  ZINAIDA. [Gaily] My dearest Martha!

  MARTHA. How do you do, Zinaida? Let me congratulate you on your daughter's birthday.

  ZINAIDA. Thank you, my dear; I am delighted to see you. How are you?

  MARTHA. Very well indeed, thank you. [She sits down on the sofa] Good evening, young people!

  The younger guests get up and bow.

  FIRST GUEST. [Laughing] Young people indeed! Do you call yourself an old person?

  MARTHA. [Sighing] How can I make any pretense to youth now?

  FIRST GUEST. What nonsense! The fact that you are a widow means nothing. You could beat any pretty girl you chose at a canter.

  GABRIEL brings MARTHA some tea.

  ZINAIDA. Why do you bring the tea in like that? Go and fetch some jam to eat with it!

  MARTHA. No thank you; none for me, don't trouble yourself. [A pause.]

  FIRST GUEST. [To MARTHA] Did you come through Mushkine on your way here?

  MARTHA. No, I came by way of Spassk. The road is better that way.

  FIRST GUEST. Yes, so it is.

  KOSICH. Two in spades.

  GEORGE. Pass.

  AVDOTIA. Pass.

  SECOND GUEST. Pass.

  MARTHA. The price of lottery tickets has gone up again, my dear. I have never known such a state of affairs. The first issue is already worth two hundred and seventy and the second nearly two hundred and fifty. This has never happened before.

  ZINAIDA. How fortunate for those who have a great many tickets!

  MARTHA. Don't say that, dear; even when the price of tickets is high it does not pay to put one's capital into them.

  ZINAIDA. Quite true, and yet, my dear, one never can tell what may happen. Providence is sometimes kind.

  THIRD GUEST. My impression is, ladies, that at present capital is exceedingly unproductive. Shares pay very small dividends, and speculating is exceedingly dangerous. As I understand it, the capitalist now finds himself in a more critical position than the man who--

  MARTHA. Quite right.

  FIRST GUEST yawns.

  MARTHA. How dare you yawn in the presence of ladies?

  FIRST GUEST. I beg your pardon! It was quite an accident.

  ZINAIDA gets up and goes out through the door on the right.

  GEORGE. Two in hearts.

  SECOND GUEST. Pass.

  KOSICH. Pass.

  MARTHA. [Aside] Heavens! This is deadly! I shall die of ennui.

  Enter ZINAIDA and LEBEDIEFF through the door on the right.

  ZINAIDA. Why do you go off by yourself like a prima donna? Come and sit with our guests!

  [She sits down in her former place.]

  LEBEDIEFF. [Yawning] Oh, dear, our sins are heavy! [He catches sight of MARTHA] Why, there is my little sugar-plum! How is your most esteemed highness?

  MARTHA. Very well, thank you.

  LEBEDIEFF. Splendid, splendid! [He sits down in an armchair] Quite right-Oh, Gabriel!

  GABRIEL brings him a glass of vodka and a tumbler of water. He empties the glass of vodka and sips the water.

  FIRST GUEST. Good health to you!

  LEBEDIEFF. Good health is too much to ask. I am content to keep death from the door. [To his wife] Where is the heroine of this occasion, Zuzu?

  KOSICH. [In a plaintive voice] Look here, why haven't we taken any tricks yet? [He jumps up] Yes, why have we lost this game entirely, confound it?

  AVDOTIA. [Jumps up angrily] Because, friend, you don't know how to play it, and have no right to be sitting here at all. What right had you to lead from another suit? Haven't you the ace left? [They both leave the table and run forward.]

  KOSICH. [In a tearful voice] Ladies and gentlemen, let me explain! I had the ace, king, queen, and eight of diamonds, the ace of spades and one, just one, little heart, do you understand? Well, she, bad luck to her, she couldn't make a little slam. I said one in no-trumps-- *

  * The game played is vint, the national card-game of Russia

  and the direct ancestor of auction bridge, with which it is

  almost identical. [translator's note]

  AVDOTIA. [Interrupting him] No, I said one in no-trumps; you said two in no-trumps--

  KOSICH. This is unbearable! Allow me-you had-I had-you had-[To LEBEDIEFF] But you shall decide it, Paul: I had the ace, king, queen, and eight of diamonds--

/>   LEBEDIEFF. [Puts his fingers into his ears] Stop, for heaven's sake, stop!

  AVDOTIA. [Yelling] I said no-trumps, and not he!

  KOSICH. [Furiously] I'll be damned if I ever sit down to another game of cards with that old cat!

  He rushes into the garden. The SECOND GUEST follows him. GEORGE is left alone at the table.

  AVDOTIA. Whew! He makes my blood boil! Old cat, indeed! You're an old cat yourself!

  MARTHA. How angry you are, aunty!

  AVDOTIA. [Sees MARTHA and claps her hands] Are you here, my darling? My beauty! And was I blind as a bat, and didn't see you? Darling child! [She kisses her and sits down beside her] How happy this makes me! Let me feast my eyes on you, my milk-white swan! Oh, oh, you have bewitched me!

  LEBEDIEFF. Why don't you find her a husband instead of singing her praises?

  AVDOTIA. He shall be found. I shall not go to my grave before I have found a husband for her, and one for Sasha too. I shall not go to my grave-[She sighs] But where to find these husbands nowadays? There sit some possible bridegrooms now, huddled together like a lot of half-drowned rats!

  THIRD GUEST. A most unfortunate comparison! It is my belief, ladies, that if the young men of our day prefer to remain single, the fault lies not with them, but with the existing, social conditions!

  LEBEDIEFF. Come, enough of that! Don't give us any mo re philosophy; I don't like it!

  Enter SASHA. She goes up to her father.

  SASHA. How can you endure the stuffy air of this room when the weather is so beautiful?

  ZINAIDA. My dear Sasha, don't you see that Martha is here?

  SASHA. I beg your pardon.

  [She goes up to MARTHA and shakes hands.]

  MARTHA. Yes, here I am, my dear little Sasha, and proud to congratulate you. [They kiss each other] Many happy returns of the day, dear!

  SASHA. Thank you! [She goes and sits down by her father.]

  LEBEDIEFF. As you were saying, Avdotia Nazarovna, husbands are hard to find. I don't want to be rude, but I must say that the young men of the present are a dull and poky lot, poor fellows! They can't dance or talk or drink as they should do.

  AVDOTIA. Oh, as far as drinking goes, they are all experts. Just give them-give them--

  LEBEDIEFF. Simply to drink is no art. A horse can drink. No, it must be done in the right way. In my young days we used to sit and cudgel our brains all day over our lessons, but as soon as evening came we would fly off on some spree and keep it up till dawn. How we used to dance and flirt, and drink, too! Or sometimes we would sit and chatter and discuss everything under the sun until we almost wagged our tongues off. But now-[He waves his hand] Boys are a puzzle to me. They are not willing either to give a candle to God or a pitchfork to the devil! There is only one young fellow in the country who is worth a penny, and he is married. [Sighs] They say, too, that he is going crazy.

  MARTHA. Who is he?

  LEBEDIEFF. Nicholas Ivanoff.

  MARTHA. Yes, he is a fine fellow, only [Makes a face] he is very unhappy.

  ZINAIDA. How could he be otherwise, poor boy! [She sighs] He made such a bad mistake. When he married that Jewess of his he thought of course that her parents would give away whole mountains of gold with her, but, on the contrary, on the day she became a Christian they disowned her, and Ivanoff has never seen a penny of the money. He has repented of his folly now, but it is too late.

  SASHA. Mother, that is not true!

  MARTHA. How can you say it is not true, Sasha, when we all know it to be a fact? Why did he have to marry a Jewess? He must have had some reason for doing it. Are Russian girls so scarce? No, he made a mistake, poor fellow, a sad mistake. [Excitedly] And what on earth can he do with her now? Where could she go if he were to come home some day and say: "Your parents have deceived me; leave my house at once!" Her parents wouldn't take her back. She might find a place as a house-maid if she had ever learned to work, which she hasn't. He worries and worries her now, but the Count interferes. If it had not been for the Count, he would have worried her to death long ago.

  AVDOTIA. They say he shuts her up in a cellar and stuffs her with garlic, and she eats and eats until her very soul reeks of it. [Laughter.]

  SASHA. But, father, you know that isn't true!

  LEBEDIEFF. What if it isn't, Sasha? Let them spin yarns if it amuses them. [He calls] Gabriel!

  GABRIEL brings him another glass of vodka and a glass of water.

  ZINAIDA. His misfortunes have almost ruined him, poor man. His affairs are in a frightful condition. If Borkin did not take such good charge of his estate he and his Jewess would soon be starving to death. [She sighs] And what anxiety he has caused us! Heaven only knows how we have suffered. Do you realise, my dear, that for three years he has owed us nine thousand roubles?

  MARTHA. [Horrified] Nine thousand!

  ZINAIDA. Yes, that is the sum that my dear Paul has undertaken to lend him. He never knows to whom it is safe to lend money and to whom it is not. I don't worry about the principal, but he ought to pay the interest on his debt.

  SASHA. [Hotly] Mamma, you have already discussed this subject at least a thousand times!

  ZINAIDA. What difference does it make to you? Why should you interfere?

  SASHA. What is this mania you all have for gossiping about a man who has never done any of you any harm? Tell me, what harm has he done you?

  THIRD GUEST. Let me say two words, Miss Sasha. I esteem Ivanoff, and have always found him an honourable man, but, between ourselves, I also consider him an adventurer.

  SASHA. I congratulate you on your opinion!

  THIRD GUEST. In proof of its truth, permit me to present to you the following facts, as they were communicated to me by his secretary, or shall I say rather, by his factotum, Borkin. Two years ago, at the time of the cattle plague, he bought some cattle and had them insured-

  ZINAIDA. Yes, I remember hearing' of that.

  THIRD GUEST. He had them insured, as you understand, and then inoculated them with the disease and claimed the insurance.

  SASHA. Oh, what nonsense, nonsense, nonsense! No one bought or inoculated any cattle! The story was invented by Borkin, who then went about boasting of his clever plan. Ivanoff would not forgive Borkin for two weeks after he heard of it. He is only guilty of a weak character and too great faith in humanity. He can't make up his mind to get rid of that Borkin, and so all his possessions have been tricked and stolen from him. Every one who has had anything to do with Ivanoff has taken advantage of his generosity to grow rich.

  LEBEDIEFF. Sasha, you little firebrand, that will do!

  SASHA. Why do you all talk like this? This eternal subject of Ivanoff, Ivanoff, and always Ivanoff has grown insufferable, and yet you never speak of anything else. [She goes toward the door, then stops and comes back] I am surprised, [To the young men] and utterly astonished at your patience, young men! How can you sit there like that? Aren't you bored? Why, the very air is as dull as ditchwater! Do, for heaven's sake say something; try to amuse the girls a little, move about! Or if you can't talk of anything except Ivanoff, you might laugh or sing or dance--

  LEBEDIEFF. [Laughing] That's right, Sasha! Give them a good scolding.

  SASHA. Look here, will you do me a favour? If you refuse to dance or sing or laugh, if all that is tedious, then let me beg you, implore you, to summon all your powers, if only for this once, and make one witty or clever remark. Let it be as impertinent and malicious as you like, so long as it is funny and original. Won't you perform this miracle, just once, to surprise us and make us laugh? Or else you might think of some little thing which you could all do together, something to make you stir about. Let the girls admire you for once in their lives! Listen to me! I suppose you want them to like you? Then why don't try to make them do it? Oh, dear! There is something wrong with you all! You are a lot of sleepy stick-in-the-muds! I have told you so a thousand times and shall always go on repeating it; there is something wrong with every one of you; something wrong, wrong, wrong!


  Enter IVANOFF and SHABELSKI through the door on the right.

  SHABELSKI. Who is making a speech here? Is it you, Sasha? [He laughs and shakes hands with her] Many happy returns of the day, my dear child. May you live as long as possible in this life, but never be born again!

  ZINAIDA. [Joyfully] My dear Count!

  LEBEDIEFF. Who can this be? Not you, Count?

  SHABELSKI. [Sees ZINAIDA and MARTHA sitting side by side] Two gold mines side by side! What a pleasant picture it makes! [He shakes hands with ZINAIDA] Good evening, Zuzu! [Shakes hands with MARTHA] Good evening, Birdie!