[The old garden at the house of the PROSOROVS. There is a long avenue
of firs, at the end of which the river can be seen. There is a forest
on the far side of the river. On the right is the terrace of the house:
bottles and tumblers are on a table here; it is evident that champagne
has just been drunk. It is midday. Every now and again passers-by walk
across the garden, from the road to the river; five soldiers go past
rapidly. CHEBUTIKIN, in a comfortable frame of mind which does not
desert him throughout the act, sits in an armchair in the garden,
waiting to be called. He wears a peaked cap and has a stick. IRINA,
KULIGIN with a cross hanging from his neck and without his moustaches,
and TUZENBACH are standing on the terrace seeing off FEDOTIK and RODE,
who are coming down into the garden; both officers are in service
uniform.]
TUZENBACH. [Exchanges kisses with FEDOTIK] You’re a good sort, we got on
so well together. [Exchanges kisses with RODE] Once again.... Good-bye,
old man!
IRINA. Au revoir!
FEDOTIK. It isn’t au revoir, it’s good-bye; we’ll never meet again!
KULIGIN. Who knows! [Wipes his eyes; smiles] Here I’ve started crying!
IRINA. We’ll meet again sometime.
FEDOTIK. After ten years--or fifteen? We’ll hardly know one another
then; we’ll say, “How do you do?” coldly.... [Takes a snapshot] Keep
still.... Once more, for the last time.
RODE. [Embracing TUZENBACH] We shan’t meet again.... [Kisses IRINA’S
hand] Thank you for everything, for everything!
FEDOTIK. [Grieved] Don’t be in such a hurry!
TUZENBACH. We shall meet again, if God wills it. Write to us. Be sure to
write.
RODE. [Looking round the garden] Good-bye, trees! [Shouts] Yo-ho!
[Pause] Good-bye, echo!
KULIGIN. Best wishes. Go and get yourselves wives there in Poland....
Your Polish wife will clasp you and call you “kochanku!” [Note:
Darling.] [Laughs.]
FEDOTIK. [Looking at the time] There’s less than an hour left. Soleni
is the only one of our battery who is going on the barge; the rest of
us are going with the main body. Three batteries are leaving to-day,
another three to-morrow and then the town will be quiet and peaceful.
TUZENBACH. And terribly dull.
RODE. And where is Maria Sergeyevna?
KULIGIN. Masha is in the garden.
FEDOTIK. We’d like to say good-bye to her.
RODE. Good-bye, I must go, or else I’ll start weeping.... [Quickly
embraces KULIGIN and TUZENBACH, and kisses IRINA’S hand] We’ve been so
happy here....
FEDOTIK. [To KULIGIN] Here’s a keepsake for you... a note-book with a
pencil.... We’ll go to the river from here.... [They go aside and both
look round.]
RODE. [Shouts] Yo-ho!
KULIGIN. [Shouts] Good-bye!
[At the back of the stage FEDOTIK and RODE meet MASHA; they say good-bye
and go out with her.]
IRINA. They’ve gone.... [Sits on the bottom step of the terrace.]
CHEBUTIKIN. And they forgot to say good-bye to me.
IRINA. But why is that?
CHEBUTIKIN. I just forgot, somehow. Though I’ll soon see them again, I’m
going to-morrow. Yes... just one day left. I shall be retired in a year,
then I’ll come here again, and finish my life near you. I’ve only one
year before I get my pension.... [Puts one newspaper into his pocket and
takes another out] I’ll come here to you and change my life radically...
I’ll be so quiet... so agree... agreeable, respectable....
IRINA. Yes, you ought to change your life, dear man, somehow or other.
CHEBUTIKIN. Yes, I feel it. [Sings softly.] “Tarara-boom-deay....”
KULIGIN. We won’t reform Ivan Romanovitch! We won’t reform him!
CHEBUTIKIN. If only I was apprenticed to you! Then I’d reform.
IRINA. Feodor has shaved his moustache! I can’t bear to look at him.
KULIGIN. Well, what about it?
CHEBUTIKIN. I could tell you what your face looks like now, but it
wouldn’t be polite.
KULIGIN. Well! It’s the custom, it’s modus vivendi. Our Director is
clean-shaven, and so I too, when I received my inspectorship, had
my moustaches removed. Nobody likes it, but it’s all one to me. I’m
satisfied. Whether I’ve got moustaches or not, I’m satisfied.... [Sits.]
[At the back of the stage ANDREY is wheeling a perambulator containing a
sleeping infant.]
IRINA. Ivan Romanovitch, be a darling. I’m awfully worried. You were out
on the boulevard last night; tell me, what happened?
CHEBUTIKIN. What happened? Nothing. Quite a trifling matter. [Reads
paper] Of no importance!
KULIGIN. They say that Soleni and the Baron met yesterday on the
boulevard near the theatre....
TUZENBACH. Stop! What right... [Waves his hand and goes into the house.]
KULIGIN. Near the theatre... Soleni started behaving offensively to the
Baron, who lost his temper and said something nasty....
CHEBUTIKIN. I don’t know. It’s all bunkum.
KULIGIN. At some seminary or other a master wrote “bunkum” on an essay,
and the student couldn’t make the letters out--thought it was a Latin
word “luckum.” [Laughs] Awfully funny, that. They say that Soleni is in
love with Irina and hates the Baron.... That’s quite natural. Irina is
a very nice girl. She’s even like Masha, she’s so thoughtful.... Only,
Irina your character is gentler. Though Masha’s character, too, is a
very good one. I’m very fond of Masha. [Shouts of “Yo-ho!” are heard
behind the stage.]
IRINA. [Shudders] Everything seems to frighten me today. [Pause] I’ve
got everything ready, and I send my things off after dinner. The
Baron and I will be married to-morrow, and to-morrow we go away to
the brickworks, and the next day I go to the school, and the new life
begins. God will help me! When I took my examination for the teacher’s
post, I actually wept for joy and gratitude.... [Pause] The cart will be
here in a minute for my things....
KULIGIN. Somehow or other, all this doesn’t seem at all serious. As if
it was all ideas, and nothing really serious. Still, with all my soul I
wish you happiness.
CHEBUTIKIN. [With deep feeling] My splendid... my dear, precious
girl.... You’ve gone on far ahead, I won’t catch up with you. I’m left
behind like a migrant bird grown old, and unable to fly. Fly, my
dear, fly, and God be with you! [Pause] It’s a pity you shaved your
moustaches, Feodor Ilitch.
KULIGIN. Oh, drop it! [Sighs] To-day the soldiers will be gone, and
everything will go on as in the old days. Say what you will, Masha is
a good, honest woman. I love her very much, and thank my fate for her.
People have such different fates. There’s a Kosirev who works in the
excise department here. He was at school with me; he was expelled
from the fifth class of the High School for being entirely unable to
understand _ut consecutivum_. He’s awfully hard up now and in very
poor health, and when I meet him I say to him, “How do you do, _ut
consecutivum_.” “Yes,” he says, “precisely _consecutivum_...” and
coughs. But I’ve been successful all my life, I’m happy, and I even have
a Stanislaus Cross, of the second class, and now I myself teach others
that _ut consecutivum_. Of course, I’m a clever man, much cleverer than
many, but happiness doesn’t only lie in that....
[“The Maiden’s Prayer” is being played on the piano in the house.]
IRINA. To-morrow night I shan’t hear that “Maiden’s Prayer” any more,
and I shan’t be meeting Protopopov.... [Pause] Protopopov is sitting
there in the drawing-room; and he came to-day...
KULIGIN. Hasn’t the head-mistress come yet?
IRINA. No. She has been sent for. If you only knew how difficult it is
for me to live alone, without Olga.... She lives at the High School;
she, a head-mistress, busy all day with her affairs and I’m alone,
bored, with nothing to do, and hate the room I live in.... I’ve made
up my mind: if I can’t live in Moscow, then it must come to this. It’s
fate. It can’t be helped. It’s all the will of God, that’s the truth.
Nicolai Lvovitch made me a proposal.... Well? I thought it over and made
up my mind. He’s a good man... it’s quite remarkable how good he is....
And suddenly my soul put out wings, I became happy, and light-hearted,
and once again the desire for work, work, came over me.... Only
something happened yesterday, some secret dread has been hanging over
me....
CHEBUTIKIN. Luckum. Rubbish.
NATASHA. [At the window] The head-mistress.
KULIGIN. The head-mistress has come. Let’s go. [Exit with IRINA into the
house.]
CHEBUTIKIN. “It is my washing day.... Tara-ra... boom-deay.”
[MASHA approaches, ANDREY is wheeling a perambulator at the back.]
MASHA. Here you are, sitting here, doing nothing.
CHEBUTIKIN. What then?
MASHA. [Sits] Nothing.... [Pause] Did you love my mother?
CHEBUTIKIN. Very much.
MASHA. And did she love you?
CHEBUTIKIN. [After a pause] I don’t remember that.
MASHA. Is my man here? When our cook Martha used to ask about her
gendarme, she used to say my man. Is he here?
CHEBUTIKIN. Not yet.
MASHA. When you take your happiness in little bits, in snatches, and
then lose it, as I have done, you gradually get coarser, more bitter.
[Points to her bosom] I’m boiling in here.... [Looks at ANDREY with the
perambulator] There’s our brother Andrey.... All our hopes in him have
gone. There was once a great bell, a thousand persons were hoisting it,
much money and labour had been spent on it, when it suddenly fell
and was broken. Suddenly, for no particular reason.... Andrey is like
that....
ANDREY. When are they going to stop making such a noise in the house?
It’s awful.
CHEBUTIKIN. They won’t be much longer. [Looks at his watch] My watch is
very old-fashioned, it strikes the hours.... [Winds the watch and makes
it strike] The first, second, and fifth batteries are to leave at one
o’clock precisely. [Pause] And I go to-morrow.
ANDREY. For good?
CHEBUTIKIN. I don’t know. Perhaps I’ll return in a year. The devil
only knows... it’s all one.... [Somewhere a harp and violin are being
played.]
ANDREY. The town will grow empty. It will be as if they put a cover over
it. [Pause] Something happened yesterday by the theatre. The whole town
knows of it, but I don’t.
CHEBUTIKIN. Nothing. A silly little affair. Soleni started irritating
the Baron, who lost his temper and insulted him, and so at last Soleni
had to challenge him. [Looks at his watch] It’s about time, I think....
At half-past twelve, in the public wood, that one you can see from here
across the river.... Piff-paff. [Laughs] Soleni thinks he’s Lermontov,
and even writes verses. That’s all very well, but this is his third
duel.
MASHA. Whose?
CHEBUTIKIN. Soleni’s.
MASHA. And the Baron?
CHEBUTIKIN. What about the Baron? [Pause.]
MASHA. Everything’s all muddled up in my head.... But I say it ought not
to be allowed. He might wound the Baron or even kill him.
CHEBUTIKIN. The Baron is a good man, but one Baron more or less--what
difference does it make? It’s all the same! [Beyond the garden somebody
shouts “Co-ee! Hallo! “] You wait. That’s Skvortsov shouting; one of the
seconds. He’s in a boat. [Pause.]
ANDREY. In my opinion it’s simply immoral to fight in a duel, or to be
present, even in the quality of a doctor.
CHEBUTIKIN. It only seems so.... We don’t exist, there’s nothing on
earth, we don’t really live, it only seems that we live. Does it matter,
anyway!
MASHA. You talk and talk the whole day long. [Going] You live in
a climate like this, where it might snow any moment, and there you
talk.... [Stops] I won’t go into the house, I can’t go there.... Tell me
when Vershinin comes.... [Goes along the avenue] The migrant birds are
already on the wing.... [Looks up] Swans or geese.... My dear, happy
things.... [Exit.]
ANDREY. Our house will be empty. The officers will go away, you are
going, my sister is getting married, and I alone will remain in the
house.
CHEBUTIKIN. And your wife?
[FERAPONT enters with some documents.]
ANDREY. A wife’s a wife. She’s honest, well-bred, yes; and kind, but
with all that there is still something about her that degenerates her
into a petty, blind, even in some respects misshapen animal. In any
case, she isn’t a man. I tell you as a friend, as the only man to whom I
can lay bare my soul. I love Natasha, it’s true, but sometimes she seems
extraordinarily vulgar, and then I lose myself and can’t understand why
I love her so much, or, at any rate, used to love her....
CHEBUTIKIN. [Rises] I’m going away to-morrow, old chap, and perhaps
we’ll never meet again, so here’s my advice. Put on your cap, take a
stick in your hand, go... go on and on, without looking round. And the
farther you go, the better.
[SOLENI goes across the back of the stage with two officers; he catches
sight of CHEBUTIKIN, and turns to him, the officers go on.]
SOLENI. Doctor, it’s time. It’s half-past twelve already. [Shakes hands
with ANDREY.]
CHEBUTIKIN. Half a minute. I’m tired of the lot of you. [To ANDREY] If
anybody asks for me, say I’ll be back soon.... [Sighs] Oh, oh, oh!
SOLENI. “He didn’t have the time to sigh. The bear sat on him heavily.”
[Goes up to him] What are you groaning about, old man?
CHEBUTIKIN. Stop it!
SOLENI. How’s your health?
CHEBUTIKIN. [Angry] Mind your own business.
SOLENI. The old man is unnecessarily excited. I won’t go far, I’ll only
just bring him down like a snipe. [Takes out his scent-bottle and scents
his hands] I’ve poured out a whole bottle of scent to-day and they still
smell... of a dead body. [Pause] Yes.... You remember the poem
“But he, the rebel seeks the storm,
As if the storm will bring him rest...”?
CHEBUTIKIN. Yes.
“He didn’t have the time to sigh,
The bear sat on him heavily.”
[Exit with SOLENI.]
[Shouts are heard. ANDREY and FERAPONT come in.]
FERAPONT. Documents to sign....
ANDREY. [Irritated]. Go away! Leave me! Please! [Goes away with the
perambulator.]
FERAPONT. That’s what documents are for, to be signed. [Retires to back
of stage.]
[Enter IRINA, with TUZENBACH in a straw hat; KULIGIN walks across the
stage, shouting “Co-ee, Masha, co-ee!”]
TUZENBACH. He seems to be the only man in the town who is glad that the
soldiers are going.
IRINA. One can understand that. [Pause] The town will be empty.
TUZENBACH. My dear, I shall return soon.
IRINA. Where are you going?
TUZENBACH. I must go into the town and then... see the others off.
IRINA. It’s not true... Nicolai, why are you so absentminded to-day?
[Pause] What took place by the theatre yesterday?
TUZENBACH. [Making a movement of impatience] In an hour’s time I shall
return and be with you again. [Kisses her hands] My darling... [Looking
her closely in the face] it’s five years now since I fell in love with
you, and still I can’t get used to it, and you seem to me to grow more
and more beautiful. What lovely, wonderful hair! What eyes! I’m going to
take you away to-morrow. We shall work, we shall be rich, my dreams will
come true. You will be happy. There’s only one thing, one thing only:
you don’t love me!
IRINA. It isn’t in my power! I shall be your wife, I shall be true to
you, and obedient to you, but I can’t love you. What can I do! [Cries] I
have never been in love in my life. Oh, I used to think so much of love,
I have been thinking about it for so long by day and by night, but
my soul is like an expensive piano which is locked and the key lost.
[Pause] You seem so unhappy.
TUZENBACH. I didn’t sleep at night. There is nothing in my life so awful
as to be able to frighten me, only that lost key torments my soul and
does not let me sleep. Say something to me [Pause] say something to
me....
IRINA. What can I say, what?
TUZENBACH. Anything.
IRINA. Don’t! don’t! [Pause.]
TUZENBACH. It is curious how silly trivial little things, sometimes
for no apparent reason, become significant. At first you laugh at these
things, you think they are of no importance, you go on and you feel that
you haven’t got the strength to stop yourself. Oh don’t let’s talk about
it! I am happy. It is as if for the first time in my life I see these
firs, maples, beeches, and they all look at me inquisitively and wait.
What beautiful trees and how beautiful, when one comes to think of it,
life must be near them! [A shout of Co-ee! in the distance] It’s time
I went.... There’s a tree which has dried up but it still sways in the
breeze with the others. And so it seems to me that if I die, I shall
still take part in life in one way or another. Good-bye, dear....
[Kisses her hands] The papers which you gave me are on my table under
the calendar.
IRINA. I am coming with you.
TUZENBACH. [Nervously] No, no! [He goes quickly and stops in the avenue]
Irina!
IRINA. What is it?
TUZENBACH. [Not knowing what to say] I haven’t had any coffee to-day.
Tell them to make me some.... [He goes out quickly.]
[IRINA stands deep in thought. Then she goes to the back of the stage
and sits on a swing. ANDREY comes in with the perambulator and FERAPONT
also appears.]
FERAPONT. Andrey Sergeyevitch, it isn’t as if the documents were mine,
they are the government’s. I didn’t make them.
ANDREY. Oh, what has become of my past and where is it? I used to be
young, happy, clever, I used to be able to think and frame clever ideas,
the present and the future seemed to me full of hope. Why do we, almost
before we have begun to live, become dull, grey, uninteresting, lazy,
apathetic, useless, unhappy.... This town has already been in existence
for two hundred years and it has a hundred thousand inhabitants, not one
of whom is in any way different from the others. There has never been,
now or at any other time, a single leader of men, a single scholar, an
artist, a man of even the slightest eminence who might arouse envy or a
passionate desire to be imitated. They only eat, drink, sleep, and then
they die... more people are born and also eat, drink, sleep, and so
as not to go silly from boredom, they try to make life many-sided
with their beastly backbiting, vodka, cards, and litigation. The wives
deceive their husbands, and the husbands lie, and pretend they see
nothing and hear nothing, and the evil influence irresistibly oppresses
the children and the divine spark in them is extinguished, and they
become just as pitiful corpses and just as much like one another as
their fathers and mothers.... [Angrily to FERAPONT] What do you want?
FERAPONT. What? Documents want signing.
ANDREY. I’m tired of you.
FERAPONT. [Handing him papers] The hall-porter from the law courts was
saying just now that in the winter there were two hundred degrees of
frost in Petersburg.
ANDREY. The present is beastly, but when I think of the future, how good
it is! I feel so light, so free; there is a light in the distance, I see
freedom. I see myself and my children freeing ourselves from vanities,
from kvass, from goose baked with cabbage, from after-dinner naps, from
base idleness....
FERAPONT. He was saying that two thousand people were frozen to death.
The people were frightened, he said. In Petersburg or Moscow, I don’t
remember which.
ANDREY. [Overcome by a tender emotion] My dear sisters, my beautiful
sisters! [Crying] Masha, my sister....
NATASHA. [At the window] Who’s talking so loudly out here? Is that you,
Andrey? You’ll wake little Sophie. _Il ne faut pas faire du bruit, la
Sophie est dormée deja. Vous êtes un ours._ [Angrily] If you want
to talk, then give the perambulator and the baby to somebody else.
Ferapont, take the perambulator!
FERAPONT. Yes’m. [Takes the perambulator.]
ANDREY. [Confused] I’m speaking quietly.
NATASHA. [At the window, nursing her boy] Bobby! Naughty Bobby! Bad
little Bobby!
ANDREY. [Looking through the papers] All right, I’ll look them over and
sign if necessary, and you can take them back to the offices....
[Goes into house reading papers; FERAPONT takes the perambulator to the
back of the garden.]
NATASHA. [At the window] Bobby, what’s your mother’s name? Dear, dear!
And who’s this? That’s Aunt Olga. Say to your aunt, “How do you do,
Olga!”
[Two wandering musicians, a man and a girl, are playing on a violin and
a harp. VERSHININ, OLGA, and ANFISA come out of the house and listen for
a minute in silence; IRINA comes up to them.]
OLGA. Our garden might be a public thoroughfare, from the way people
walk and ride across it. Nurse, give those musicians something!
ANFISA. [Gives money to the musicians] Go away with God’s blessing on
you. [The musicians bow and go away] A bitter sort of people. You don’t
play on a full stomach. [To IRINA] How do you do, Arisha! [Kisses her]
Well, little girl, here I am, still alive! Still alive! In the High
School, together with little Olga, in her official apartments... so the
Lord has appointed for my old age. Sinful woman that I am, I’ve never
lived like that in my life before.... A large flat, government property,
and I’ve a whole room and bed to myself. All government property. I wake
up at nights and, oh God, and Holy Mother, there isn’t a happier person
than I!
VERSHININ. [Looks at his watch] We are going soon, Olga Sergeyevna. It’s
time for me to go. [Pause] I wish you every... every.... Where’s Maria
Sergeyevna?
IRINA. She’s somewhere in the garden. I’ll go and look for her.
VERSHININ. If you’ll be so kind. I haven’t time.
ANFISA. I’ll go and look, too. [Shouts] Little Masha, co-ee! [Goes out
with IRINA down into the garden] Co-ee, co-ee!
VERSHININ. Everything comes to an end. And so we, too, must part. [Looks
at his watch] The town gave us a sort of farewell breakfast, we had
champagne to drink and the mayor made a speech, and I ate and listened,
but my soul was here all the time.... [Looks round the garden] I’m so
used to you now.
OLGA. Shall we ever meet again?
VERSHININ. Probably not. [Pause] My wife and both my daughters will stay
here another two months. If anything happens, or if anything has to be
done...
OLGA. Yes, yes, of course. You need not worry. [Pause] To-morrow there
won’t be a single soldier left in the town, it will all be a memory,
and, of course, for us a new life will begin.... [Pause] None of our
plans are coming right. I didn’t want to be a head-mistress, but they
made me one, all the same. It means there’s no chance of Moscow....
VERSHININ. Well... thank you for everything. Forgive me if I’ve... I’ve
said such an awful lot--forgive me for that too, don’t think badly of
me.
OLGA. [Wipes her eyes] Why isn’t Masha coming...
VERSHININ. What else can I say in parting? Can I philosophize about
anything? [Laughs] Life is heavy. To many of us it seems dull and
hopeless, but still, it must be acknowledged that it is getting lighter
and clearer, and it seems that the time is not far off when it will be
quite clear. [Looks at his watch] It’s time I went! Mankind used to
be absorbed in wars, and all its existence was filled with campaigns,
attacks, defeats, now we’ve outlived all that, leaving after us a great
waste place, which there is nothing to fill with at present; but mankind
is looking for something, and will certainly find it. Oh, if it only
happened more quickly. [Pause] If only education could be added to
industry, and industry to education. [Looks at his watch] It’s time I
went....
OLGA. Here she comes.
[Enter MASHA.]
VERSHININ. I came to say good-bye....
[OLGA steps aside a little, so as not to be in their way.]
MASHA. [Looking him in the face] Good-bye. [Prolonged kiss.]
OLGA. Don’t, don’t. [MASHA is crying bitterly]
VERSHININ. Write to me.... Don’t forget! Let me go.... It’s time. Take
her, Olga Sergeyevna... it’s time... I’m late...
[He kisses OLGA’S hand in evident emotion, then embraces MASHA once more
and goes out quickly.]
OLGA. Don’t, Masha! Stop, dear.... [KULIGIN enters.]
KULIGIN. [Confused] Never mind, let her cry, let her.... My dear Masha,
my good Masha.... You’re my wife, and I’m happy, whatever happens... I’m
not complaining, I don’t reproach you at all.... Olga is a witness to
it. Let’s begin to live again as we used to, and not by a single word,
or hint...
MASHA. [Restraining her sobs] “There stands a green oak by the sea,
And a chain of bright gold is around it....
And a chain of bright gold is around it....”
I’m going off my head... “There stands... a green oak... by the sea.”...
OLGA. Don’t, Masha, don’t... give her some water....
MASHA. I’m not crying any more....
KULIGIN. She’s not crying any more... she’s a good... [A shot is heard
from a distance.]
MASHA. “There stands a green oak by the sea,
And a chain of bright gold is around it...
An oak of green gold....”
I’m mixing it up.... [Drinks some water] Life is dull... I don’t want
anything more now... I’ll be all right in a moment.... It doesn’t
matter.... What do those lines mean? Why do they run in my head? My
thoughts are all tangled.
[IRINA enters.]
OLGA. Be quiet, Masha. There’s a good girl.... Let’s go in.
MASHA. [Angrily] I shan’t go in there. [Sobs, but controls herself at
once] I’m not going to go into the house, I won’t go....
IRINA. Let’s sit here together and say nothing. I’m going away
to-morrow.... [Pause.]
KULIGIN. Yesterday I took away these whiskers and this beard from a boy
in the third class.... [He puts on the whiskers and beard] Don’t I look
like the German master.... [Laughs] Don’t I? The boys are amusing.
MASHA. You really do look like that German of yours.
OLGA. [Laughs] Yes. [MASHA weeps.]
IRINA. Don’t, Masha!
KULIGIN. It’s a very good likeness....
[Enter NATASHA.]
NATASHA. [To the maid] What? Mihail Ivanitch Protopopov will sit with
little Sophie, and Andrey Sergeyevitch can take little Bobby out.
Children are such a bother.... [To IRINA] Irina, it’s such a pity you’re
going away to-morrow. Do stop just another week. [Sees KULIGIN and
screams; he laughs and takes off his beard and whiskers] How you
frightened me! [To IRINA] I’ve grown used to you and do you think it
will be easy for me to part from you? I’m going to have Andrey and his
violin put into your room--let him fiddle away in there!--and we’ll put
little Sophie into his room. The beautiful, lovely child! What a little
girlie! To-day she looked at me with such pretty eyes and said “Mamma!”
KULIGIN. A beautiful child, it’s quite true.
NATASHA. That means I shall have the place to myself to-morrow. [Sighs]
In the first place I shall have that avenue of fir-trees cut down, then
that maple. It’s so ugly at nights.... [To IRINA] That belt doesn’t suit
you at all, dear.... It’s an error of taste. And I’ll give orders to
have lots and lots of little flowers planted here, and they’ll smell....
[Severely] Why is there a fork lying about here on the seat? [Going
towards the house, to the maid] Why is there a fork lying about here on
the seat, I say? [Shouts] Don’t you dare to answer me!
KULIGIN. Temper! temper! [A march is played off; they all listen.]
OLGA. They’re going.
[CHEBUTIKIN comes in.]
MASHA. They’re going. Well, well.... Bon voyage! [To her husband] We
must be going home.... Where’s my coat and hat?
KULIGIN. I took them in... I’ll bring them, in a moment.
OLGA. Yes, now we can all go home. It’s time.
CHEBUTIKIN. Olga Sergeyevna!
OLGA. What is it? [Pause] What is it?
CHEBUTIKIN. Nothing... I don’t know how to tell you.... [Whispers to
her.]
OLGA. [Frightened] It can’t be true!
CHEBUTIKIN. Yes... such a story... I’m tired out, exhausted, I won’t say
any more.... [Sadly] Still, it’s all the same!
MASHA. What’s happened?
OLGA. [Embraces IRINA] This is a terrible day... I don’t know how to
tell you, dear....
IRINA. What is it? Tell me quickly, what is it? For God’s sake! [Cries.]
CHEBUTIKIN. The Baron was killed in the duel just now.
IRINA. [Cries softly] I knew it, I knew it....
CHEBUTIKIN. [Sits on a bench at the back of the stage] I’m tired....
[Takes a paper from his pocket] Let ‘em cry.... [Sings softly]
“Tarara-boom-deay, it is my washing day....” Isn’t it all the same!
[The three sisters are standing, pressing against one another.]
MASHA. Oh, how the music plays! They are leaving us, one has quite left
us, quite and for ever. We remain alone, to begin our life over again.
We must live... we must live....
IRINA. [Puts her head on OLGA’s bosom] There will come a time when
everybody will know why, for what purpose, there is all this suffering,
and there will be no more mysteries. But now we must live... we must
work, just work! To-morrow, I’ll go away alone, and I’ll teach and give
my whole life to those who, perhaps, need it. It’s autumn now, soon it
will be winter, the snow will cover everything, and I shall be working,
working....
OLGA. [Embraces both her sisters] The bands are playing so gaily, so
bravely, and one does so want to live! Oh, my God! Time will pass on,
and we shall depart for ever, we shall be forgotten; they will
forget our faces, voices, and even how many there were of us, but
our sufferings will turn into joy for those who will live after us,
happiness and peace will reign on earth, and people will remember with
kindly words, and bless those who are living now. Oh dear sisters, our
life is not yet at an end. Let us live. The music is so gay, so joyful,
and, it seems that in a little while we shall know why we are living,
why we are suffering.... If we could only know, if we could only know!
[The music has been growing softer and softer; KULIGIN, smiling happily,
brings out the hat and coat; ANDREY wheels out the perambulator in which
BOBBY is sitting.]
CHEBUTIKIN. [Sings softly] “Tara... ra-boom-deay.... It is my
washing-day.”... [Reads a paper] It’s all the same! It’s all the same!
OLGA. If only we could know, if only we could know!
Curtain.
THE CHERRY ORCHARD
A COMEDY IN FOUR ACTS
CHARACTERS
LUBOV ANDREYEVNA RANEVSKY (Mme. RANEVSKY), a landowner
ANYA, her daughter, aged seventeen
VARYA (BARBARA), her adopted daughter, aged twenty-seven
LEONID ANDREYEVITCH GAEV, Mme. Ranevsky’s brother
ERMOLAI ALEXEYEVITCH LOPAKHIN, a merchant
PETER SERGEYEVITCH TROFIMOV, a student
BORIS BORISOVITCH SIMEONOV-PISCHIN, a landowner
CHARLOTTA IVANOVNA, a governess
SIMEON PANTELEYEVITCH EPIKHODOV, a clerk
DUNYASHA (AVDOTYA FEDOROVNA), a maidservant
FIERS, an old footman, aged eighty-seven
YASHA, a young footman
A TRAMP
A STATION-MASTER
POST-OFFICE CLERK
GUESTS
A SERVANT
The action takes place on Mme. RANEVSKY’S estate
ACT ONE
[A room which is still called the nursery. One of the doors leads into
ANYA’S room. It is close on sunrise. It is May. The cherry-trees are
in flower but it is chilly in the garden. There is an early frost.
The windows of the room are shut. DUNYASHA comes in with a candle, and
LOPAKHIN with a book in his hand.]
LOPAKHIN. The train’s arrived, thank God. What’s the time?
DUNYASHA. It will soon be two. [Blows out candle] It is light already.
LOPAKHIN. How much was the train late? Two hours at least. [Yawns and
stretches himself] I have made a rotten mess of it! I came here on
purpose to meet them at the station, and then overslept myself... in my
chair. It’s a pity. I wish you’d wakened me.
DUNYASHA. I thought you’d gone away. [Listening] I think I hear them
coming.
LOPAKHIN. [Listens] No.... They’ve got to collect their luggage and so
on.... [Pause] Lubov Andreyevna has been living abroad for five years;
I don’t know what she’ll be like now.... She’s a good sort--an easy,
simple person. I remember when I was a boy of fifteen, my father, who
is dead--he used to keep a shop in the village here--hit me on the face
with his fist, and my nose bled.... We had gone into the yard together
for something or other, and he was a little drunk. Lubov Andreyevna, as
I remember her now, was still young, and very thin, and she took me to
the washstand here in this very room, the nursery. She said, “Don’t
cry, little man, it’ll be all right in time for your wedding.” [Pause]
“Little man”.... My father was a peasant, it’s true, but here I am in a
white waistcoat and yellow shoes... a pearl out of an oyster. I’m rich
now, with lots of money, but just think about it and examine me, and
you’ll find I’m still a peasant down to the marrow of my bones. [Turns
over the pages of his book] Here I’ve been reading this book, but I
understood nothing. I read and fell asleep. [Pause.]
DUNYASHA. The dogs didn’t sleep all night; they know that they’re
coming.
LOPAKHIN. What’s up with you, Dunyasha...?
DUNYASHA. My hands are shaking. I shall faint.
LOPAKHIN. You’re too sensitive, Dunyasha. You dress just like a lady,
and you do your hair like one too. You oughtn’t. You should know your
place.
EPIKHODOV. [Enters with a bouquet. He wears a short jacket and
brilliantly polished boots which squeak audibly. He drops the bouquet as
he enters, then picks it up] The gardener sent these; says they’re to go
into the dining-room. [Gives the bouquet to DUNYASHA.]
LOPAKHIN. And you’ll bring me some kvass.
DUNYASHA. Very well. [Exit.]
EPIKHODOV. There’s a frost this morning--three degrees, and the
cherry-trees are all in flower. I can’t approve of our climate. [Sighs]
I can’t. Our climate is indisposed to favour us even this once. And,
Ermolai Alexeyevitch, allow me to say to you, in addition, that I bought
myself some boots two days ago, and I beg to assure you that they squeak
in a perfectly unbearable manner. What shall I put on them?
LOPAKHIN. Go away. You bore me.
EPIKHODOV. Some misfortune happens to me every day. But I don’t
complain; I’m used to it, and I can smile. [DUNYASHA comes in and
brings LOPAKHIN some kvass] I shall go. [Knocks over a chair] There....
[Triumphantly] There, you see, if I may use the word, what circumstances
I am in, so to speak. It is even simply marvellous. [Exit.]
DUNYASHA. I may confess to you, Ermolai Alexeyevitch, that Epikhodov has
proposed to me.
LOPAKHIN. Ah!
DUNYASHA. I don’t know what to do about it. He’s a nice young man, but
every now and again, when he begins talking, you can’t understand a word
he’s saying. I think I like him. He’s madly in love with me. He’s an
unlucky man; every day something happens. We tease him about it. They
call him “Two-and-twenty troubles.”
LOPAKHIN. [Listens] There they come, I think.
DUNYASHA. They’re coming! What’s the matter with me? I’m cold all over.
LOPAKHIN. There they are, right enough. Let’s go and meet them. Will she
know me? We haven’t seen each other for five years.
DUNYASHA. [Excited] I shall faint in a minute.... Oh, I’m fainting!
[Two carriages are heard driving up to the house. LOPAKHIN and DUNYASHA
quickly go out. The stage is empty. A noise begins in the next room.
FIERS, leaning on a stick, walks quickly across the stage; he has just
been to meet LUBOV ANDREYEVNA. He wears an old-fashioned livery and a
tall hat. He is saying something to himself, but not a word of it can be
made out. The noise behind the stage gets louder and louder. A voice is
heard: “Let’s go in there.” Enter LUBOV ANDREYEVNA, ANYA, and CHARLOTTA
IVANOVNA with a little dog on a chain, and all dressed in travelling
clothes, VARYA in a long coat and with a kerchief on her head. GAEV,
SIMEONOV-PISCHIN, LOPAKHIN, DUNYASHA with a parcel and an umbrella, and
a servant with luggage--all cross the room.]
ANYA. Let’s come through here. Do you remember what this room is,
mother?
LUBOV. [Joyfully, through her tears] The nursery!
VARYA. How cold it is! My hands are quite numb. [To LUBOV ANDREYEVNA]
Your rooms, the white one and the violet one, are just as they used to
be, mother.
LUBOV. My dear nursery, oh, you beautiful room.... I used to sleep
here when I was a baby. [Weeps] And here I am like a little girl again.
[Kisses her brother, VARYA, then her brother again] And Varya is just as
she used to be, just like a nun. And I knew Dunyasha. [Kisses her.]
GAEV. The train was two hours late. There now; how’s that for
punctuality?
CHARLOTTA. [To PISCHIN] My dog eats nuts too.
PISCHIN. [Astonished] To think of that, now!
[All go out except ANYA and DUNYASHA.]
DUNYASHA. We did have to wait for you!
[Takes off ANYA’S cloak and hat.]
ANYA. I didn’t get any sleep for four nights on the journey.... I’m
awfully cold.
DUNYASHA. You went away during Lent, when it was snowing and frosty, but
now? Darling! [Laughs and kisses her] We did have to wait for you, my
joy, my pet.... I must tell you at once, I can’t bear to wait a minute.
ANYA. [Tired] Something else now...?
DUNYASHA. The clerk, Epikhodov, proposed to me after Easter.
ANYA. Always the same.... [Puts her hair straight] I’ve lost all my
hairpins.... [She is very tired, and even staggers as she walks.]
DUNYASHA. I don’t know what to think about it. He loves me, he loves me
so much!
ANYA. [Looks into her room; in a gentle voice] My room, my windows, as
if I’d never gone away. I’m at home! To-morrow morning I’ll get up and
have a run in the garden....Oh, if I could only get to sleep! I didn’t
sleep the whole journey, I was so bothered.
DUNYASHA. Peter Sergeyevitch came two days ago.
ANYA. [Joyfully] Peter!
DUNYASHA. He sleeps in the bath-house, he lives there. He said he was
afraid he’d be in the way. [Looks at her pocket-watch] I ought to wake
him, but Barbara Mihailovna told me not to. “Don’t wake him,” she said.
[Enter VARYA, a bunch of keys on her belt.]
VARYA. Dunyasha, some coffee, quick. Mother wants some.
DUNYASHA. This minute. [Exit.]
VARYA. Well, you’ve come, glory be to God. Home again. [Caressing her]
My darling is back again! My pretty one is back again!
ANYA. I did have an awful time, I tell you.
VARYA. I can just imagine it!
ANYA. I went away in Holy Week; it was very cold then. Charlotta talked
the whole way and would go on performing her tricks. Why did you tie
Charlotta on to me?
VARYA. You couldn’t go alone, darling, at seventeen!
ANYA. We went to Paris; it’s cold there and snowing. I talk French
perfectly horribly. My mother lives on the fifth floor. I go to her, and
find her there with various Frenchmen, women, an old abbé with a book,
and everything in tobacco smoke and with no comfort at all. I suddenly
became very sorry for mother--so sorry that I took her head in my arms
and hugged her and wouldn’t let her go. Then mother started hugging me
and crying....
VARYA. [Weeping] Don’t say any more, don’t say any more....
ANYA. She’s already sold her villa near Mentone; she’s nothing left,
nothing. And I haven’t a copeck left either; we only just managed to get
here. And mother won’t understand! We had dinner at a station; she asked
for all the expensive things, and tipped the waiters one rouble each.
And Charlotta too. Yasha wants his share too--it’s too bad. Mother’s got
a footman now, Yasha; we’ve brought him here.
VARYA. I saw the wretch.
ANYA. How’s business? Has the interest been paid?
VARYA. Not much chance of that.
ANYA. Oh God, oh God...
VARYA. The place will be sold in August.
ANYA. O God....
LOPAKHIN. [Looks in at the door and moos] Moo!... [Exit.]
VARYA. [Through her tears] I’d like to.... [Shakes her fist.]
ANYA. [Embraces VARYA, softly] Varya, has he proposed to you? [VARYA
shakes head] But he loves you.... Why don’t you make up your minds? Why
do you keep on waiting?
VARYA. I think that it will all come to nothing. He’s a busy man. I’m
not his affair... he pays no attention to me. Bless the man, I don’t
want to see him.... But everybody talks about our marriage, everybody
congratulates me, and there’s nothing in it at all, it’s all like a
dream. [In another tone] You’ve got a brooch like a bee.
ANYA. [Sadly] Mother bought it. [Goes into her room, and talks lightly,
like a child] In Paris I went up in a balloon!
VARYA. My darling’s come back, my pretty one’s come back! [DUNYASHA has
already returned with the coffee-pot and is making the coffee, VARYA
stands near the door] I go about all day, looking after the house, and
I think all the time, if only you could marry a rich man, then I’d be
happy and would go away somewhere by myself, then to Kiev... to Moscow,
and so on, from one holy place to another. I’d tramp and tramp. That
would be splendid!
ANYA. The birds are singing in the garden. What time is it now?
VARYA. It must be getting on for three. Time you went to sleep, darling.
[Goes into ANYA’S room] Splendid!
[Enter YASHA with a plaid shawl and a travelling bag.]
YASHA. [Crossing the stage: Politely] May I go this way?
DUNYASHA. I hardly knew you, Yasha. You have changed abroad.
YASHA. Hm... and who are you?
DUNYASHA. When you went away I was only so high. [Showing with her hand]
I’m Dunyasha, the daughter of Theodore Kozoyedov. You don’t remember!
YASHA. Oh, you little cucumber!
[Looks round and embraces her. She screams and drops a saucer. YASHA
goes out quickly.]
VARYA. [In the doorway: In an angry voice] What’s that?
DUNYASHA. [Through her tears] I’ve broken a saucer.
VARYA. It may bring luck.
ANYA. [Coming out of her room] We must tell mother that Peter’s here.
VARYA. I told them not to wake him.
ANYA. [Thoughtfully] Father died six years ago, and a month later my
brother Grisha was drowned in the river--such a dear little boy of
seven! Mother couldn’t bear it; she went away, away, without looking
round.... [Shudders] How I understand her; if only she knew! [Pause] And
Peter Trofimov was Grisha’s tutor, he might tell her....
[Enter FIERS in a short jacket and white waistcoat.]
FIERS. [Goes to the coffee-pot, nervously] The mistress is going to
have some food here.... [Puts on white gloves] Is the coffee ready? [To
DUNYASHA, severely] You! Where’s the cream?
DUNYASHA. Oh, dear me...! [Rapid exit.]
FIERS. [Fussing round the coffee-pot] Oh, you bungler.... [Murmurs
to himself] Back from Paris... the master went to Paris once... in a
carriage.... [Laughs.]
VARYA. What are you talking about, Fiers?
FIERS. I beg your pardon? [Joyfully] The mistress is home again. I’ve
lived to see her! Don’t care if I die now.... [Weeps with joy.]
[Enter LUBOV ANDREYEVNA, GAEV, LOPAKHIN, and SIMEONOV-PISCHIN, the
latter in a long jacket of thin cloth and loose trousers. GAEV, coming
in, moves his arms and body about as if he is playing billiards.]
LUBOV. Let me remember now. Red into the corner! Twice into the centre!
GAEV. Right into the pocket! Once upon a time you and I used both to
sleep in this room, and now I’m fifty-one; it does seem strange.
LOPAKHIN. Yes, time does go.
GAEV. Who does?
LOPAKHIN. I said that time does go.
GAEV. It smells of patchouli here.
ANYA. I’m going to bed. Good-night, mother. [Kisses her.]
LUBOV. My lovely little one. [Kisses her hand] Glad to be at home? I
can’t get over it.
ANYA. Good-night, uncle.
GAEV. [Kisses her face and hands] God be with you. How you do resemble
your mother! [To his sister] You were just like her at her age, Luba.
[ANYA gives her hand to LOPAKHIN and PISCHIN and goes out, shutting the
door behind her.]
LUBOV. She’s awfully tired.
PISCHIN. It’s a very long journey.
VARYA. [To LOPAKHIN and PISCHIN] Well, sirs, it’s getting on for three,
quite time you went.
LUBOV. [Laughs] You’re just the same as ever, Varya. [Draws her close
and kisses her] I’ll have some coffee now, then we’ll all go. [FIERS
lays a cushion under her feet] Thank you, dear. I’m used to coffee. I
drink it day and night. Thank you, dear old man. [Kisses FIERS.]
VARYA. I’ll go and see if they’ve brought in all the luggage. [Exit.]
LUBOV. Is it really I who am sitting here? [Laughs] I want to jump
about and wave my arms. [Covers her face with her hands] But suppose I’m
dreaming! God knows I love my own country, I love it deeply; I couldn’t
look out of the railway carriage, I cried so much. [Through her tears]
Still, I must have my coffee. Thank you, Fiers. Thank you, dear old man.
I’m so glad you’re still with us.
FIERS. The day before yesterday.
GAEV. He doesn’t hear well.
LOPAKHIN. I’ve got to go off to Kharkov by the five o’clock train. I’m
awfully sorry! I should like to have a look at you, to gossip a little.
You’re as fine-looking as ever.
PISCHIN. [Breathes heavily] Even finer-looking... dressed in Paris
fashions... confound it all.
LOPAKHIN. Your brother, Leonid Andreyevitch, says I’m a snob, a usurer,
but that is absolutely nothing to me. Let him talk. Only I do wish you
would believe in me as you once did, that your wonderful, touching eyes
would look at me as they did before. Merciful God! My father was the
serf of your grandfather and your own father, but you--you more than
anybody else--did so much for me once upon a time that I’ve forgotten
everything and love you as if you belonged to my family... and even
more.
LUBOV. I can’t sit still, I’m not in a state to do it. [Jumps up and
walks about in great excitement] I’ll never survive this happiness....
You can laugh at me; I’m a silly woman.... My dear little cupboard.
[Kisses cupboard] My little table.
GAEV. Nurse has died in your absence.
LUBOV. [Sits and drinks coffee] Yes, bless her soul. I heard by letter.
GAEV. And Anastasius has died too. Peter Kosoy has left me and now lives
in town with the Commissioner of Police. [Takes a box of sugar-candy out
of his pocket and sucks a piece.]
PISCHIN. My daughter, Dashenka, sends her love.
LOPAKHIN. I want to say something very pleasant, very delightful, to
you. [Looks at his watch] I’m going away at once, I haven’t much time...
but I’ll tell you all about it in two or three words. As you already
know, your cherry orchard is to be sold to pay your debts, and the sale
is fixed for August 22; but you needn’t be alarmed, dear madam, you
may sleep in peace; there’s a way out. Here’s my plan. Please attend
carefully! Your estate is only thirteen miles from the town, the railway
runs by, and if the cherry orchard and the land by the river are broken
up into building lots and are then leased off for villas you’ll get at
least twenty-five thousand roubles a year profit out of it.
GAEV. How utterly absurd!
LUBOV. I don’t understand you at all, Ermolai Alexeyevitch.
LOPAKHIN. You will get twenty-five roubles a year for each dessiatin
from the leaseholders at the very least, and if you advertise now I’m
willing to bet that you won’t have a vacant plot left by the autumn;
they’ll all go. In a word, you’re saved. I congratulate you. Only,
of course, you’ll have to put things straight, and clean up.... For
instance, you’ll have to pull down all the old buildings, this house,
which isn’t any use to anybody now, and cut down the old cherry
orchard....
LUBOV. Cut it down? My dear man, you must excuse me, but you don’t
understand anything at all. If there’s anything interesting or
remarkable in the whole province, it’s this cherry orchard of ours.
LOPAKHIN. The only remarkable thing about the orchard is that it’s very
large. It only bears fruit every other year, and even then you don’t
know what to do with them; nobody buys any.
GAEV. This orchard is mentioned in the “Encyclopaedic Dictionary.”
LOPAKHIN. [Looks at his watch] If we can’t think of anything and don’t
make up our minds to anything, then on August 22, both the cherry
orchard and the whole estate will be up for auction. Make up your mind!
I swear there’s no other way out, I’ll swear it again.
FIERS. In the old days, forty or fifty years back, they dried the
cherries, soaked them and pickled them, and made jam of them, and it
used to happen that...
GAEV. Be quiet, Fiers.
FIERS. And then we’d send the dried cherries off in carts to Moscow and
Kharkov. And money! And the dried cherries were soft, juicy, sweet, and
nicely scented.... They knew the way....
LUBOV. What was the way?
FIERS. They’ve forgotten. Nobody remembers.
PISCHIN. [To LUBOV ANDREYEVNA] What about Paris? Eh? Did you eat frogs?
LUBOV. I ate crocodiles.
PISCHIN. To think of that, now.
LOPAKHIN. Up to now in the villages there were only the gentry and the
labourers, and now the people who live in villas have arrived. All towns
now, even small ones, are surrounded by villas. And it’s safe to say
that in twenty years’ time the villa resident will be all over the
place. At present he sits on his balcony and drinks tea, but it may well
come to pass that he’ll begin to cultivate his patch of land, and then
your cherry orchard will be happy, rich, splendid....
GAEV. [Angry] What rot!
[Enter VARYA and YASHA.]
VARYA. There are two telegrams for you, little mother. [Picks out a key
and noisily unlocks an antique cupboard] Here they are.
LUBOV. They’re from Paris.... [Tears them up without reading them] I’ve
done with Paris.
GAEV. And do you know, Luba, how old this case is? A week ago I took out
the bottom drawer; I looked and saw figures burnt out in it. That case
was made exactly a hundred years ago. What do you think of that? What?
We could celebrate its jubilee. It hasn’t a soul of its own, but still,
say what you will, it’s a fine bookcase.
PISCHIN. [Astonished] A hundred years.... Think of that!
GAEV. Yes... it’s a real thing. [Handling it] My dear and honoured case!
I congratulate you on your existence, which has already for more than
a hundred years been directed towards the bright ideals of good and
justice; your silent call to productive labour has not grown less in the
hundred years [Weeping] during which you have upheld virtue and faith
in a better future to the generations of our race, educating us up
to ideals of goodness and to the knowledge of a common consciousness.
[Pause.]
LOPAKHIN. Yes....
LUBOV. You’re just the same as ever, Leon.
GAEV. [A little confused] Off the white on the right, into the corner
pocket. Red ball goes into the middle pocket!
LOPAKHIN. [Looks at his watch] It’s time I went.
YASHA. [Giving LUBOV ANDREYEVNA her medicine] Will you take your pills
now?
PISCHIN. You oughtn’t to take medicines, dear madam; they do you neither
harm nor good.... Give them here, dear madam. [Takes the pills, turns
them out into the palm of his hand, blows on them, puts them into his
mouth, and drinks some kvass] There!
LUBOV. [Frightened] You’re off your head!
PISCHIN. I’ve taken all the pills.
LOPAKHIN. Gormandizer! [All laugh.]
FIERS. They were here in Easter week and ate half a pailful of
cucumbers.... [Mumbles.]
LUBOV. What’s he driving at?
VARYA. He’s been mumbling away for three years. We’re used to that.
YASHA. Senile decay.
[CHARLOTTA IVANOVNA crosses the stage, dressed in white: she is very
thin and tightly laced; has a lorgnette at her waist.]
LOPAKHIN. Excuse me, Charlotta Ivanovna, I haven’t said “How do you do”
to you yet. [Tries to kiss her hand.]
CHARLOTTA. [Takes her hand away] If you let people kiss your hand, then
they’ll want your elbow, then your shoulder, and then...
LOPAKHIN. My luck’s out to-day! [All laugh] Show us a trick, Charlotta
Ivanovna!
LUBOV ANDREYEVNA. Charlotta, do us a trick.
CHARLOTTA. It’s not necessary. I want to go to bed. [Exit.]
LOPAKHIN. We shall see each other in three weeks. [Kisses LUBOV
ANDREYEVNA’S hand] Now, good-bye. It’s time to go. [To GAEV] See you
again. [Kisses PISCHIN] Au revoir. [Gives his hand to VARYA, then to
FIERS and to YASHA] I don’t want to go away. [To LUBOV ANDREYEVNA]. If
you think about the villas and make up your mind, then just let me
know, and I’ll raise a loan of 50,000 roubles at once. Think about it
seriously.
VARYA. [Angrily] Do go, now!
LOPAKHIN. I’m going, I’m going.... [Exit.]
GAEV. Snob. Still, I beg pardon.... Varya’s going to marry him, he’s
Varya’s young man.
VARYA. Don’t talk too much, uncle.
LUBOV. Why not, Varya? I should be very glad. He’s a good man.
PISCHIN. To speak the honest truth... he’s a worthy man.... And my
Dashenka... also says that... she says lots of things. [Snores, but
wakes up again at once] But still, dear madam, if you could lend me...
240 roubles... to pay the interest on my mortgage to-morrow...
VARYA. [Frightened] We haven’t got it, we haven’t got it!
LUBOV. It’s quite true. I’ve nothing at all.
PISCHIN. I’ll find it all right [Laughs] I never lose hope. I used to
think, “Everything’s lost now. I’m a dead man,” when, lo and behold, a
railway was built over my land... and they paid me for it. And something
else will happen to-day or to-morrow. Dashenka may win 20,000 roubles...
she’s got a lottery ticket.
LUBOV. The coffee’s all gone, we can go to bed.
FIERS. [Brushing GAEV’S trousers; in an insistent tone] You’ve put on
the wrong trousers again. What am I to do with you?
VARYA. [Quietly] Anya’s asleep. [Opens window quietly] The sun has risen
already; it isn’t cold. Look, little mother: what lovely trees! And the
air! The starlings are singing!
GAEV. [Opens the other window] The whole garden’s white. You haven’t
forgotten, Luba? There’s that long avenue going straight, straight, like
a stretched strap; it shines on moonlight nights. Do you remember? You
haven’t forgotten?
LUBOV. [Looks out into the garden] Oh, my childhood, days of my
innocence! In this nursery I used to sleep; I used to look out from here
into the orchard. Happiness used to wake with me every morning, and then
it was just as it is now; nothing has changed. [Laughs from joy] It’s
all, all white! Oh, my orchard! After the dark autumns and the cold
winters, you’re young again, full of happiness, the angels of heaven
haven’t left you.... If only I could take my heavy burden off my breast
and shoulders, if I could forget my past!
GAEV. Yes, and they’ll sell this orchard to pay off debts. How strange
it seems!
LUBOV. Look, there’s my dead mother going in the orchard... dressed in
white! [Laughs from joy] That’s she.
GAEV. Where?
VARYA. God bless you, little mother.
LUBOV. There’s nobody there; I thought I saw somebody. On the right, at
the turning by the summer-house, a white little tree bent down, looking
just like a woman. [Enter TROFIMOV in a worn student uniform and
spectacles] What a marvellous garden! White masses of flowers, the blue
sky....
TROFIMOV. Lubov Andreyevna! [She looks round at him] I only want to show
myself, and I’ll go away. [Kisses her hand warmly] I was told to wait
till the morning, but I didn’t have the patience.
[LUBOV ANDREYEVNA looks surprised.]
VARYA. [Crying] It’s Peter Trofimov.
TROFIMOV. Peter Trofimov, once the tutor of your Grisha.... Have I
changed so much?
[LUBOV ANDREYEVNA embraces him and cries softly.]
GAEV. [Confused] That’s enough, that’s enough, Luba.
VARYA. [Weeps] But I told you, Peter, to wait till to-morrow.
LUBOV. My Grisha... my boy... Grisha... my son.
VARYA. What are we to do, little mother? It’s the will of God.
TROFIMOV. [Softly, through his tears] It’s all right, it’s all right.
LUBOV. [Still weeping] My boy’s dead; he was drowned. Why? Why, my
friend? [Softly] Anya’s asleep in there. I am speaking so loudly, making
such a noise.... Well, Peter? What’s made you look so bad? Why have you
grown so old?
TROFIMOV. In the train an old woman called me a decayed gentleman.
LUBOV. You were quite a boy then, a nice little student, and now your
hair is not at all thick and you wear spectacles. Are you really still a
student? [Goes to the door.]
TROFIMOV. I suppose I shall always be a student.
LUBOV. [Kisses her brother, then VARYA] Well, let’s go to bed.... And
you’ve grown older, Leonid.
PISCHIN. [Follows her] Yes, we’ve got to go to bed.... Oh, my gout! I’ll
stay the night here. If only, Lubov Andreyevna, my dear, you could get
me 240 roubles to-morrow morning--
GAEV. Still the same story.
PISCHIN. Two hundred and forty roubles... to pay the interest on the
mortgage.
LUBOV. I haven’t any money, dear man.
PISCHIN. I’ll give it back... it’s a small sum....
LUBOV. Well, then, Leonid will give it to you.... Let him have it,
Leonid.
GAEV. By all means; hold out your hand.
LUBOV. Why not? He wants it; he’ll give it back.
[LUBOV ANDREYEVNA, TROFIMOV, PISCHIN, and FIERS go out. GAEV, VARYA, and
YASHA remain.]
GAEV. My sister hasn’t lost the habit of throwing money about. [To
YASHA] Stand off, do; you smell of poultry.
YASHA. [Grins] You are just the same as ever, Leonid Andreyevitch.
GAEV. Really? [To VARYA] What’s he saying?
VARYA. [To YASHA] Your mother’s come from the village; she’s been
sitting in the servants’ room since yesterday, and wants to see you....
YASHA. Bless the woman!
VARYA. Shameless man.
YASHA. A lot of use there is in her coming. She might have come tomorrow
just as well. [Exit.]
VARYA. Mother hasn’t altered a scrap, she’s just as she always was.
She’d give away everything, if the idea only entered her head.
GAEV. Yes.... [Pause] If there’s any illness for which people offer many
remedies, you may be sure that particular illness is incurable, I think.
I work my brains to their hardest. I’ve several remedies, very many,
and that really means I’ve none at all. It would be nice to inherit a
fortune from somebody, it would be nice to marry our Anya to a rich
man, it would be nice to go to Yaroslav and try my luck with my aunt the
Countess. My aunt is very, very rich.
VARYA. [Weeps] If only God helped us.
GAEV. Don’t cry. My aunt’s very rich, but she doesn’t like us. My
sister, in the first place, married an advocate, not a noble.... [ANYA
appears in the doorway] She not only married a man who was not a noble,
but she behaved herself in a way which cannot be described as proper.
She’s nice and kind and charming, and I’m very fond of her, but say what
you will in her favour and you still have to admit that she’s wicked;
you can feel it in her slightest movements.
VARYA. [Whispers] Anya’s in the doorway.
GAEV. Really? [Pause] It’s curious, something’s got into my right eye...
I can’t see properly out of it. And on Thursday, when I was at the
District Court...
[Enter ANYA.]
VARYA. Why aren’t you in bed, Anya?
ANYA. Can’t sleep. It’s no good.
GAEV. My darling! [Kisses ANYA’S face and hands] My child.... [Crying]
You’re not my niece, you’re my angel, you’re my all.... Believe in me,
believe...
ANYA. I do believe in you, uncle. Everybody loves you and respects
you... but, uncle dear, you ought to say nothing, no more than that.
What were you saying just now about my mother, your own sister? Why did
you say those things?
GAEV. Yes, yes. [Covers his face with her hand] Yes, really, it was
awful. Save me, my God! And only just now I made a speech before a
bookcase... it’s so silly! And only when I’d finished I knew how silly
it was.
VARYA. Yes, uncle dear, you really ought to say less. Keep quiet, that’s
all.
ANYA. You’d be so much happier in yourself if you only kept quiet.
GAEV. All right, I’ll be quiet. [Kisses their hands] I’ll be quiet. But
let’s talk business. On Thursday I was in the District Court, and a lot
of us met there together, and we began to talk of this, that, and the
other, and now I think I can arrange a loan to pay the interest into the
bank.
VARYA. If only God would help us!
GAEV. I’ll go on Tuesday. I’ll talk with them about it again. [To VARYA]
Don’t howl. [To ANYA] Your mother will have a talk to Lopakhin; he, of
course, won’t refuse... And when you’ve rested you’ll go to Yaroslav to
the Countess, your grandmother. So you see, we’ll have three irons in
the fire, and we’ll be safe. We’ll pay up the interest. I’m certain.
[Puts some sugar-candy into his mouth] I swear on my honour, on anything
you will, that the estate will not be sold! [Excitedly] I swear on my
happiness! Here’s my hand. You may call me a dishonourable wretch if I
let it go to auction! I swear by all I am!
ANYA. [She is calm again and happy] How good and clever you are, uncle.
[Embraces him] I’m happy now! I’m happy! All’s well!
[Enter FIERS.]
FIERS. [Reproachfully] Leonid Andreyevitch, don’t you fear God? When are
you going to bed?
GAEV. Soon, soon. You go away, Fiers. I’ll undress myself. Well,
children, bye-bye...! I’ll give you the details to-morrow, but let’s go
to bed now. [Kisses ANYA and VARYA] I’m a man of the eighties.... People
don’t praise those years much, but I can still say that I’ve suffered
for my beliefs. The peasants don’t love me for nothing, I assure you.
We’ve got to learn to know the peasants! We ought to learn how....
ANYA. You’re doing it again, uncle!
VARYA. Be quiet, uncle!
FIERS. [Angrily] Leonid Andreyevitch!
GAEV. I’m coming, I’m coming.... Go to bed now. Off two cushions into
the middle! I turn over a new leaf.... [Exit. FIERS goes out after him.]
ANYA. I’m quieter now. I don’t want to go to Yaroslav, I don’t like
grandmother; but I’m calm now; thanks to uncle. [Sits down.]
VARYA. It’s time to go to sleep. I’ll go. There’s been an unpleasantness
here while you were away. In the old servants’ part of the house, as you
know, only the old people live--little old Efim and Polya and Evstigney,
and Karp as well. They started letting some tramps or other spend the
night there--I said nothing. Then I heard that they were saying that I
had ordered them to be fed on peas and nothing else; from meanness, you
see.... And it was all Evstigney’s doing.... Very well, I thought,
if that’s what the matter is, just you wait. So I call Evstigney....
[Yawns] He comes. “What’s this,” I say, “Evstigney, you old fool.”...
[Looks at ANYA] Anya dear! [Pause] She’s dropped off.... [Takes ANYA’S
arm] Let’s go to bye-bye.... Come along!... [Leads her] My darling’s
gone to sleep! Come on.... [They go. In the distance, the other side of
the orchard, a shepherd plays his pipe. TROFIMOV crosses the stage and
stops on seeing VARYA and ANYA] Sh! She’s asleep, asleep. Come on, dear.
ANYA. [Quietly, half-asleep] I’m so tired... all the bells... uncle,
dear! Mother and uncle!
VARYA. Come on, dear, come on! [They go into ANYA’S room.]
TROFIMOV. [Moved] My sun! My spring!
Curtain.
ACT TWO
[In a field. An old, crooked shrine, which has been long abandoned; near
it a well and large stones, which apparently are old tombstones, and
an old garden seat. The road is seen to GAEV’S estate. On one side rise
dark poplars, behind them begins the cherry orchard. In the distance
is a row of telegraph poles, and far, far away on the horizon are the
indistinct signs of a large town, which can only be seen on the finest
and clearest days. It is close on sunset. CHARLOTTA, YASHA, and DUNYASHA
are sitting on the seat; EPIKHODOV stands by and plays on a guitar; all
seem thoughtful. CHARLOTTA wears a man’s old peaked cap; she has unslung
a rifle from her shoulders and is putting to rights the buckle on the
strap.]
CHARLOTTA. [Thoughtfully] I haven’t a real passport. I don’t know how
old I am, and I think I’m young. When I was a little girl my father and
mother used to go round fairs and give very good performances and I used
to do the _salto mortale_ and various little things. And when papa and
mamma died a German lady took me to her and began to teach me. I liked
it. I grew up and became a governess. And where I came from and who
I am, I don’t know.... Who my parents were--perhaps they weren’t
married--I don’t know. [Takes a cucumber out of her pocket and eats] I
don’t know anything. [Pause] I do want to talk, but I haven’t anybody to
talk to... I haven’t anybody at all.
EPIKHODOV. [Plays on the guitar and sings]
“What is this noisy earth to me,
What matter friends and foes?”
I do like playing on the mandoline!
DUNYASHA. That’s a guitar, not a mandoline. [Looks at herself in a
little mirror and powders herself.]
EPIKHODOV. For the enamoured madman, this is a mandoline. [Sings]
“Oh that the heart was warmed,
By all the flames of love returned!”
[YASHA sings too.]
CHARLOTTA. These people sing terribly.... Foo! Like jackals.