[The room shared by OLGA and IRINA. Beds, screened off, on the right and
left. It is past 2 a.m. Behind the stage a fire-alarm is ringing; it has
apparently been going for some time. Nobody in the house has gone to bed
yet. MASHA is lying on a sofa dressed, as usual, in black. Enter OLGA
and ANFISA.]
ANFISA. Now they are downstairs, sitting under the stairs. I said to
them, “Won’t you come up,” I said, “You can’t go on like this,” and they
simply cried, “We don’t know where father is.” They said, “He may be
burnt up by now.” What an idea! And in the yard there are some people...
also undressed.
OLGA. [Takes a dress out of the cupboard] Take this grey dress.... And
this... and the blouse as well.... Take the skirt, too, nurse.... My
God! How awful it is! The whole of the Kirsanovsky Road seems to have
burned down. Take this... and this.... [Throws clothes into her hands]
The poor Vershinins are so frightened.... Their house was nearly burnt.
They ought to come here for the night.... They shouldn’t be allowed
to go home.... Poor Fedotik is completely burnt out, there’s nothing
left....
ANFISA. Couldn’t you call Ferapont, Olga dear. I can hardly manage....
OLGA. [Rings] They’ll never answer.... [At the door] Come here, whoever
there is! [Through the open door can be seen a window, red with flame:
afire-engine is heard passing the house] How awful this is. And how I’m
sick of it! [FERAPONT enters] Take these things down.... The Kolotilin
girls are down below... and let them have them. This, too.
FERAPONT. Yes’m. In the year twelve Moscow was burning too. Oh, my God!
The Frenchmen were surprised.
OLGA. Go on, go on....
FERAPONT. Yes’m. [Exit.]
OLGA. Nurse, dear, let them have everything. We don’t want anything.
Give it all to them, nurse.... I’m tired, I can hardly keep on my
legs.... The Vershinins mustn’t be allowed to go home.... The girls can
sleep in the drawing-room, and Alexander Ignateyevitch can go downstairs
to the Baron’s flat... Fedotik can go there, too, or else into our
dining-room.... The doctor is drunk, beastly drunk, as if on purpose,
so nobody can go to him. Vershinin’s wife, too, may go into the
drawing-room.
ANFISA. [Tired] Olga, dear girl, don’t dismiss me! Don’t dismiss me!
OLGA. You’re talking nonsense, nurse. Nobody is dismissing you.
ANFISA. [Puts OLGA’S head against her bosom] My dear, precious girl, I’m
working, I’m toiling away... I’m growing weak, and they’ll all say go
away! And where shall I go? Where? I’m eighty. Eighty-one years old....
OLGA. You sit down, nurse dear.... You’re tired, poor dear.... [Makes
her sit down] Rest, dear. You’re so pale!
[NATASHA comes in.]
NATASHA. They are saying that a committee to assist the sufferers from
the fire must be formed at once. What do you think of that? It’s a
beautiful idea. Of course the poor ought to be helped, it’s the duty of
the rich. Bobby and little Sophy are sleeping, sleeping as if nothing at
all was the matter. There’s such a lot of people here, the place is full
of them, wherever you go. There’s influenza in the town now. I’m afraid
the children may catch it.
OLGA. [Not attending] In this room we can’t see the fire, it’s quiet
here.
NATASHA. Yes... I suppose I’m all untidy. [Before the looking-glass]
They say I’m growing stout... it isn’t true! Certainly it isn’t! Masha’s
asleep; the poor thing is tired out.... [Coldly, to ANFISA] Don’t dare
to be seated in my presence! Get up! Out of this! [Exit ANFISA; a pause]
I don’t understand what makes you keep on that old woman!
OLGA. [Confusedly] Excuse me, I don’t understand either...
NATASHA. She’s no good here. She comes from the country, she ought to
live there.... Spoiling her, I call it! I like order in the house!
We don’t want any unnecessary people here. [Strokes her cheek] You’re
tired, poor thing! Our head mistress is tired! And when my little Sophie
grows up and goes to school I shall be so afraid of you.
OLGA. I shan’t be head mistress.
NATASHA. They’ll appoint you, Olga. It’s settled.
OLGA. I’ll refuse the post. I can’t... I’m not strong enough.... [Drinks
water] You were so rude to nurse just now... I’m sorry. I can’t stand
it... everything seems dark in front of me....
NATASHA. [Excited] Forgive me, Olga, forgive me... I didn’t want to
annoy you.
[MASHA gets up, takes a pillow and goes out angrily.]
OLGA. Remember, dear... we have been brought up, in an unusual way,
perhaps, but I can’t bear this. Such behaviour has a bad effect on me, I
get ill... I simply lose heart!
NATASHA. Forgive me, forgive me.... [Kisses her.]
OLGA. Even the least bit of rudeness, the slightest impoliteness, upsets
me.
NATASHA. I often say too much, it’s true, but you must agree, dear, that
she could just as well live in the country.
OLGA. She has been with us for thirty years.
NATASHA. But she can’t do any work now. Either I don’t understand, or
you don’t want to understand me. She’s no good for work, she can only
sleep or sit about.
OLGA. And let her sit about.
NATASHA. [Surprised] What do you mean? She’s only a servant. [Crying] I
don’t understand you, Olga. I’ve got a nurse, a wet-nurse, we’ve a cook,
a housemaid... what do we want that old woman for as well? What good is
she? [Fire-alarm behind the stage.]
OLGA. I’ve grown ten years older to-night.
NATASHA. We must come to an agreement, Olga. Your place is the school,
mine--the home. You devote yourself to teaching, I, to the household.
And if I talk about servants, then I do know what I am talking about; I
do know what I am talking about... And to-morrow there’s to be no more
of that old thief, that old hag... [Stamping] that witch! And don’t you
dare to annoy me! Don’t you dare! [Stopping short] Really, if you don’t
move downstairs, we shall always be quarrelling. This is awful.
[Enter KULIGIN.]
KULIGIN. Where’s Masha? It’s time we went home. The fire seems to be
going down. [Stretches himself] Only one block has burnt down, but there
was such a wind that it seemed at first the whole town was going to
burn. [Sits] I’m tired out. My dear Olga... I often think that if
it hadn’t been for Masha, I should have married you. You are awfully
nice.... I am absolutely tired out. [Listens.]
OLGA. What is it?
KULIGIN. The doctor, of course, has been drinking hard; he’s terribly
drunk. He might have done it on purpose! [Gets up] He seems to be coming
here.... Do you hear him? Yes, here.... [Laughs] What a man... really...
I’ll hide myself. [Goes to the cupboard and stands in the corner] What a
rogue.
OLGA. He hadn’t touched a drop for two years, and now he suddenly goes
and gets drunk....
[Retires with NATASHA to the back of the room. CHEBUTIKIN enters;
apparently sober, he stops, looks round, then goes to the wash-stand and
begins to wash his hands.]
CHEBUTIKIN. [Angrily] Devil take them all... take them all.... They
think I’m a doctor and can cure everything, and I know absolutely
nothing, I’ve forgotten all I ever knew, I remember nothing, absolutely
nothing. [OLGA and NATASHA go out, unnoticed by him] Devil take it. Last
Wednesday I attended a woman in Zasip--and she died, and it’s my fault
that she died. Yes... I used to know a certain amount five-and-twenty
years ago, but I don’t remember anything now. Nothing. Perhaps I’m not
really a man, and am only pretending that I’ve got arms and legs and a
head; perhaps I don’t exist at all, and only imagine that I walk, and
eat, and sleep. [Cries] Oh, if only I didn’t exist! [Stops crying;
angrily] The devil only knows.... Day before yesterday they were talking
in the club; they said, Shakespeare, Voltaire... I’d never read, never
read at all, and I put on an expression as if I had read. And so did the
others. Oh, how beastly! How petty! And then I remembered the woman
I killed on Wednesday... and I couldn’t get her out of my mind, and
everything in my mind became crooked, nasty, wretched.... So I went and
drank....
[IRINA, VERSHININ and TUZENBACH enter; TUZENBACH is wearing new and
fashionable civilian clothes.]
IRINA. Let’s sit down here. Nobody will come in here.
VERSHININ. The whole town would have been destroyed if it hadn’t been
for the soldiers. Good men! [Rubs his hands appreciatively] Splendid
people! Oh, what a fine lot!
KULIGIN. [Coming up to him] What’s the time?
TUZENBACH. It’s past three now. It’s dawning.
IRINA. They are all sitting in the dining-room, nobody is going. And
that Soleni of yours is sitting there. [To CHEBUTIKIN] Hadn’t you better
be going to sleep, doctor?
CHEBUTIKIN. It’s all right... thank you.... [Combs his beard.]
KULIGIN. [Laughs] Speaking’s a bit difficult, eh, Ivan Romanovitch!
[Pats him on the shoulder] Good man! _In vino veritas_, the ancients
used to say.
TUZENBACH. They keep on asking me to get up a concert in aid of the
sufferers.
IRINA. As if one could do anything....
TUZENBACH. It might be arranged, if necessary. In my opinion Maria
Sergeyevna is an excellent pianist.
KULIGIN. Yes, excellent!
IRINA. She’s forgotten everything. She hasn’t played for three years...
or four.
TUZENBACH. In this town absolutely nobody understands music, not a soul
except myself, but I do understand it, and assure you on my word of
honour that Maria Sergeyevna plays excellently, almost with genius.
KULIGIN. You are right, Baron, I’m awfully fond of Masha. She’s very
fine.
TUZENBACH. To be able to play so admirably and to realize at the same
time that nobody, nobody can understand you!
KULIGIN. [Sighs] Yes.... But will it be quite all right for her to take
part in a concert? [Pause] You see, I don’t know anything about it.
Perhaps it will even be all to the good. Although I must admit that our
Director is a good man, a very good man even, a very clever man, still
he has such views.... Of course it isn’t his business but still, if you
wish it, perhaps I’d better talk to him.
[CHEBUTIKIN takes a porcelain clock into his hands and examines it.]
VERSHININ. I got so dirty while the fire was on, I don’t look like
anybody on earth. [Pause] Yesterday I happened to hear, casually, that
they want to transfer our brigade to some distant place. Some said to
Poland, others, to Chita.
TUZENBACH. I heard so, too. Well, if it is so, the town will be quite
empty.
IRINA. And we’ll go away, too!
CHEBUTIKIN. [Drops the clock which breaks to pieces] To smithereens!
[A pause; everybody is pained and confused.]
KULIGIN. [Gathering up the pieces] To smash such a valuable object--oh,
Ivan Romanovitch, Ivan Romanovitch! A very bad mark for your
misbehaviour!
IRINA. That clock used to belong to our mother.
CHEBUTIKIN. Perhaps.... To your mother, your mother. Perhaps I didn’t
break it; it only looks as if I broke it. Perhaps we only think that
we exist, when really we don’t. I don’t know anything, nobody knows
anything. [At the door] What are you looking at? Natasha has a little
romance with Protopopov, and you don’t see it.... There you sit and see
nothing, and Natasha has a little romance with Protopovov.... [Sings]
Won’t you please accept this date.... [Exit.]
VERSHININ. Yes. [Laughs] How strange everything really is! [Pause] When
the fire broke out, I hurried off home; when I get there I see the house
is whole, uninjured, and in no danger, but my two girls are standing by
the door in just their underclothes, their mother isn’t there, the crowd
is excited, horses and dogs are running about, and the girls’ faces are
so agitated, terrified, beseeching, and I don’t know what else. My heart
was pained when I saw those faces. My God, I thought, what these girls
will have to put up with if they live long! I caught them up and ran,
and still kept on thinking the one thing: what they will have to live
through in this world! [Fire-alarm; a pause] I come here and find their
mother shouting and angry. [MASHA enters with a pillow and sits on
the sofa] And when my girls were standing by the door in just their
underclothes, and the street was red from the fire, there was a dreadful
noise, and I thought that something of the sort used to happen many
years ago when an enemy made a sudden attack, and looted, and burned....
And at the same time what a difference there really is between the
present and the past! And when a little more time has gone by, in two or
three hundred years perhaps, people will look at our present life with
just the same fear, and the same contempt, and the whole past will seem
clumsy and dull, and very uncomfortable, and strange. Oh, indeed, what a
life there will be, what a life! [Laughs] Forgive me, I’ve dropped
into philosophy again. Please let me continue. I do awfully want to
philosophize, it’s just how I feel at present. [Pause] As if they
are all asleep. As I was saying: what a life there will be! Only just
imagine.... There are only three persons like yourselves in the town
just now, but in future generations there will be more and more, and
still more, and the time will come when everything will change and
become as you would have it, people will live as you do, and then you
too will go out of date; people will be born who are better than
you.... [Laughs] Yes, to-day I am quite exceptionally in the vein. I am
devilishly keen on living.... [Sings.]
“The power of love all ages know,
From its assaults great good does grow.” [Laughs.]
MASHA. Trum-tum-tum...
VERSHININ. Tum-tum...
MASHA. Tra-ra-ra?
VERSHININ. Tra-ta-ta. [Laughs.]
[Enter FEDOTIK.]
FEDOTIK. [Dancing] I’m burnt out, I’m burnt out! Down to the ground!
[Laughter.]
IRINA. I don’t see anything funny about it. Is everything burnt?
FEDOTIK. [Laughs] Absolutely. Nothing left at all. The guitar’s burnt,
and the photographs are burnt, and all my correspondence.... And I was
going to make you a present of a note-book, and that’s burnt too.
[SOLENI comes in.]
IRINA. No, you can’t come here, Vassili Vassilevitch. Please go away.
SOLENI. Why can the Baron come here and I can’t?
VERSHININ. We really must go. How’s the fire?
SOLENI. They say it’s going down. No, I absolutely don’t see why the
Baron can, and I can’t? [Scents his hands.]
VERSHININ. Trum-tum-tum.
MASHA. Trum-tum.
VERSHININ. [Laughs to SOLENI] Let’s go into the dining-room.
SOLENI. Very well, we’ll make a note of it. “If I should try to make
this clear, the geese would be annoyed, I fear.” [Looks at TUZENBACH]
There, there, there.... [Goes out with VERSHININ and FEDOTIK.]
IRINA. How Soleni smelt of tobacco.... [In surprise] The Baron’s asleep!
Baron! Baron!
TUZENBACH. [Waking] I am tired, I must say.... The brickworks....
No, I’m not wandering, I mean it; I’m going to start work soon at the
brickworks... I’ve already talked it over. [Tenderly, to IRINA] You’re
so pale, and beautiful, and charming.... Your paleness seems to shine
through the dark air as if it was a light.... You are sad, displeased
with life.... Oh, come with me, let’s go and work together!
MASHA. Nicolai Lvovitch, go away from here.
TUZENBACH. [Laughs] Are you here? I didn’t see you. [Kisses IRINA’S
hand] good-bye, I’ll go... I look at you now and I remember, as if it
was long ago, your name-day, when you, cheerfully and merrily, were
talking about the joys of labour.... And how happy life seemed to me,
then! What has happened to it now? [Kisses her hand] There are tears in
your eyes. Go to bed now; it is already day... the morning begins.... If
only I was allowed to give my life for you!
MASHA. Nicolai Lvovitch, go away! What business...
TUZENBACH. I’m off. [Exit.]
MASHA. [Lies down] Are you asleep, Feodor?
KULIGIN. Eh?
MASHA. Shouldn’t you go home.
KULIGIN. My dear Masha, my darling Masha....
IRINA. She’s tired out. You might let her rest, Fedia.
KULIGIN. I’ll go at once. My wife’s a good, splendid... I love you, my
only one....
MASHA. [Angrily] Amo, amas, amat, amamus, amatis, amant.
KULIGIN. [Laughs] No, she really is wonderful. I’ve been your husband
seven years, and it seems as if I was only married yesterday. On
my word. No, you really are a wonderful woman. I’m satisfied, I’m
satisfied, I’m satisfied!
MASHA. I’m bored, I’m bored, I’m bored.... [Sits up] But I can’t get it
out of my head.... It’s simply disgraceful. It has been gnawing away at
me... I can’t keep silent. I mean about Andrey.... He has mortgaged this
house with the bank, and his wife has got all the money; but the house
doesn’t belong to him alone, but to the four of us! He ought to know
that, if he’s an honourable man.
KULIGIN. What’s the use, Masha? Andrey is in debt all round; well, let
him do as he pleases.
MASHA. It’s disgraceful, anyway. [Lies down]
KULIGIN. You and I are not poor. I work, take my classes, give private
lessons... I am a plain, honest man... _Omnia mea mecum porto_, as they
say.
MASHA. I don’t want anything, but the unfairness of it disgusts me.
[Pause] You go, Feodor.
KULIGIN. [Kisses her] You’re tired, just rest for half an hour, and I’ll
sit and wait for you. Sleep.... [Going] I’m satisfied, I’m satisfied,
I’m satisfied. [Exit.]
IRINA. Yes, really, our Andrey has grown smaller; how he’s snuffed
out and aged with that woman! He used to want to be a professor, and
yesterday he was boasting that at last he had been made a member of the
district council. He is a member, and Protopopov is chairman.... The
whole town talks and laughs about it, and he alone knows and sees
nothing.... And now everybody’s gone to look at the fire, but he sits
alone in his room and pays no attention, only just plays on his fiddle.
[Nervily] Oh, it’s awful, awful, awful. [Weeps] I can’t, I can’t bear it
any longer!... I can’t, I can’t!... [OLGA comes in and clears up at her
little table. IRINA is sobbing loudly] Throw me out, throw me out, I
can’t bear any more!
OLGA. [Alarmed] What is it, what is it? Dear!
IRINA. [Sobbing] Where? Where has everything gone? Where is it all?
Oh my God, my God! I’ve forgotten everything, everything... I don’t
remember what is the Italian for window or, well, for ceiling... I
forget everything, every day I forget it, and life passes and will never
return, and we’ll never go away to Moscow... I see that we’ll never
go....
OLGA. Dear, dear....
IRINA. [Controlling herself] Oh, I am unhappy... I can’t work, I shan’t
work. Enough, enough! I used to be a telegraphist, now I work at the
town council offices, and I have nothing but hate and contempt for all
they give me to do... I am already twenty-three, I have already been
at work for a long while, and my brain has dried up, and I’ve grown
thinner, plainer, older, and there is no relief of any sort, and time
goes and it seems all the while as if I am going away from the real, the
beautiful life, farther and farther away, down some precipice. I’m in
despair and I can’t understand how it is that I am still alive, that I
haven’t killed myself.
OLGA. Don’t cry, dear girl, don’t cry... I suffer, too.
IRINA. I’m not crying, not crying.... Enough.... Look, I’m not crying
any more. Enough... enough!
OLGA. Dear, I tell you as a sister and a friend if you want my advice,
marry the Baron. [IRINA cries softly] You respect him, you think highly
of him.... It is true that he is not handsome, but he is so honourable
and clean... people don’t marry from love, but in order to do one’s
duty. I think so, at any rate, and I’d marry without being in love.
Whoever he was, I should marry him, so long as he was a decent man. Even
if he was old....
IRINA. I was always waiting until we should be settled in Moscow, there
I should meet my true love; I used to think about him, and love him....
But it’s all turned out to be nonsense, all nonsense....
OLGA. [Embraces her sister] My dear, beautiful sister, I understand
everything; when Baron Nicolai Lvovitch left the army and came to us in
evening dress, [Note: I.e. in the correct dress for making a proposal of
marriage.] he seemed so bad-looking to me that I even started crying....
He asked, “What are you crying for?” How could I tell him! But if God
brought him to marry you, I should be happy. That would be different,
quite different.
[NATASHA with a candle walks across the stage from right to left without
saying anything.]
MASHA. [Sitting up] She walks as if she’s set something on fire.
OLGA. Masha, you’re silly, you’re the silliest of the family. Please
forgive me for saying so. [Pause.]
MASHA. I want to make a confession, dear sisters. My soul is in pain.
I will confess to you, and never again to anybody... I’ll tell you this
minute. [Softly] It’s my secret but you must know everything... I can’t
be silent.... [Pause] I love, I love... I love that man.... You saw him
only just now.... Why don’t I say it... in one word. I love Vershinin.
OLGA. [Goes behind her screen] Stop that, I don’t hear you in any case.
MASHA. What am I to do? [Takes her head in her hands] First he seemed
queer to me, then I was sorry for him... then I fell in love with
him... fell in love with his voice, his words, his misfortunes, his two
daughters.
OLGA. [Behind the screen] I’m not listening. You may talk any nonsense
you like, it will be all the same, I shan’t hear.
MASHA. Oh, Olga, you are foolish. I am in love--that means that is to be
my fate. It means that is to be my lot.... And he loves me.... It is all
awful. Yes; it isn’t good, is it? [Takes IRINA’S hand and draws her to
her] Oh, my dear.... How are we going to live through our lives, what is
to become of us.... When you read a novel it all seems so old and easy,
but when you fall in love yourself, then you learn that nobody knows
anything, and each must decide for himself.... My dear ones, my
sisters... I’ve confessed, now I shall keep silence.... Like the
lunatics in Gogol’s story, I’m going to be silent... silent...
[ANDREY enters, followed by FERAPONT.]
ANDREY. [Angrily] What do you want? I don’t understand.
FERAPONT. [At the door, impatiently] I’ve already told you ten times,
Andrey Sergeyevitch.
ANDREY. In the first place I’m not Andrey Sergeyevitch, but sir. [Note:
Quite literally, “your high honour,” to correspond to Andrey’s rank as a
civil servant.]
FERAPONT. The firemen, sir, ask if they can go across your garden to the
river. Else they go right round, right round; it’s a nuisance.
ANDREY. All right. Tell them it’s all right. [Exit FERAPONT] I’m tired
of them. Where is Olga? [OLGA comes out from behind the screen] I came
to you for the key of the cupboard. I lost my own. You’ve got a little
key. [OLGA gives him the key; IRINA goes behind her screen; pause] What
a huge fire! It’s going down now. Hang it all, that Ferapont made me so
angry that I talked nonsense to him.... Sir, indeed.... [A pause] Why
are you so silent, Olga? [Pause] It’s time you stopped all that nonsense
and behaved as if you were properly alive.... You are here, Masha.
Irina is here, well, since we’re all here, let’s come to a complete
understanding, once and for all. What have you against me? What is it?
OLGA. Please don’t, Audrey dear. We’ll talk to-morrow. [Excited] What an
awful night!
ANDREY. [Much confused] Don’t excite yourself. I ask you in perfect
calmness; what have you against me? Tell me straight.
VERSHININ’S VOICE. Trum-tum-tum!
MASHA. [Stands; loudly] Tra-ta-ta! [To OLGA] Goodbye, Olga, God bless
you. [Goes behind screen and kisses IRINA] Sleep well.... Good-bye,
Andrey. Go away now, they’re tired... you can explain to-morrow....
[Exit.]
ANDREY. I’ll only say this and go. Just now.... In the first place,
you’ve got something against Natasha, my wife; I’ve noticed it since
the very day of my marriage. Natasha is a beautiful and honest creature,
straight and honourable--that’s my opinion. I love and respect my wife;
understand it, I respect her, and I insist that others should respect
her too. I repeat, she’s an honest and honourable person, and all your
disapproval is simply silly... [Pause] In the second place, you seem to
be annoyed because I am not a professor, and am not engaged in study.
But I work for the zemstvo, I am a member of the district council, and
I consider my service as worthy and as high as the service of science.
I am a member of the district council, and I am proud of it, if you want
to know. [Pause] In the third place, I have still this to say... that I
have mortgaged the house without obtaining your permission.... For that
I am to blame, and ask to be forgiven. My debts led me into doing it...
thirty-five thousand... I do not play at cards any more, I stopped long
ago, but the chief thing I have to say in my defence is that you girls
receive a pension, and I don’t... my wages, so to speak.... [Pause.]
KULIGIN. [At the door] Is Masha there? [Excitedly] Where is she? It’s
queer.... [Exit.]
ANDREY. They don’t hear. Natasha is a splendid, honest person. [Walks
about in silence, then stops] When I married I thought we should be
happy... all of us.... But, my God.... [Weeps] My dear, dear sisters,
don’t believe me, don’t believe me.... [Exit.]
[Fire-alarm. The stage is clear.]
IRINA. [behind her screen] Olga, who’s knocking on the floor?
OLGA. It’s doctor Ivan Romanovitch. He’s drunk.
IRINA. What a restless night! [Pause] Olga! [Looks out] Did you hear?
They are taking the brigade away from us; it’s going to be transferred
to some place far away.
OLGA. It’s only a rumour.
IRINA. Then we shall be left alone.... Olga!
OLGA. Well?
IRINA. My dear, darling sister, I esteem, I highly value the Baron, he’s
a splendid man; I’ll marry him, I’ll consent, only let’s go to Moscow!
I implore you, let’s go! There’s nothing better than Moscow on earth!
Let’s go, Olga, let’s go!
Curtain