initial commit of ebook 1753HEADmain

2 files changed, 944 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/swnsg10.txt b/old/swnsg10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a4f3906
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/swnsg10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,944 @@
+***The Project Gutenberg Etext of Swan Song, by Anton Checkov***
+#2 in our series by Anton Checkhov    [Chekov, Tchekhov, Tchekoff]
+
+[If you have trouble searching, you might try using his first and
+middle names "Anton Pavlovich" with or without a last name.  mh]
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check
+the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!!
+
+Please take a look at the important information in this header.
+We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an
+electronic path open for the next readers.  Do not remove this.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations*
+
+Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and
+further information is included below.  We need your donations.
+
+
+Swan Song
+
+by Anton Checkov
+
+May, 1999  [Etext #1753]
+
+
+***The Project Gutenberg Etext of Swan Song, by Anton Checkov***
+******This file should be named swnsg10.txt or swnsg10.zip******
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, swnsg11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, swnsg10a.txt
+
+
+Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions,
+all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a
+copyright notice is included.  Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any
+of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+
+Please note:  neither this list nor its contents are final till
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.  To be sure you have an
+up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes
+in the first week of the next month.  Since our ftp program has
+a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a
+look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a
+new copy has at least one byte more or less.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.  This
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If our value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-six text
+files per month, or 432 more Etexts in 1999 for a total of 2000+
+If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the
+total should reach over 200 billion Etexts given away this year.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext
+Files by December 31, 2001.  [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion]
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only ~5% of the present number of computer users.
+
+At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third
+of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 3,333 Etexts unless we
+manage to get some real funding; currently our funding is mostly
+from Michael Hart's salary at Carnegie-Mellon University, and an
+assortment of sporadic gifts; this salary is only good for a few
+more years, so we are looking for something to replace it, as we
+don't want Project Gutenberg to be so dependent on one person.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+
+All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/CMU": and are
+tax deductible to the extent allowable by law.  (CMU = Carnegie-
+Mellon University).
+
+For these and other matters, please mail to:
+
+Project Gutenberg
+P. O. Box  2782
+Champaign, IL 61825
+
+When all other email fails. . .try our Executive Director:
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org
+if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if
+it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . .
+
+We would prefer to send you this information by email.
+
+******
+
+To access Project Gutenberg etexts, use any Web browser
+to view http://promo.net/pg.  This site lists Etexts by
+author and by title, and includes information about how
+to get involved with Project Gutenberg.  You could also
+download our past Newsletters, or subscribe here.  This
+is one of our major sites, please email hart@pobox.com,
+for a more complete list of our various sites.
+
+To go directly to the etext collections, use FTP or any
+Web browser to visit a Project Gutenberg mirror (mirror
+sites are available on 7 continents; mirrors are listed
+at http://promo.net/pg).
+
+Mac users, do NOT point and click, typing works better.
+
+Example FTP session:
+
+ftp sunsite.unc.edu
+login: anonymous
+password: your@login
+cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg
+cd etext90 through etext99
+dir [to see files]
+get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files]
+GET GUTINDEX.??  [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99]
+GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books]
+
+***
+
+**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor**
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here?  You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault.  So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you.  It also tells you how
+you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement.  If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from.  If you received this etext on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-
+tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor
+Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at
+Carnegie-Mellon University (the "Project").  Among other
+things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext
+under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works.  Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects".  Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this
+etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from.  If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy.  If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS".  NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors,
+officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost
+and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or
+indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause:
+[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification,
+or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     etext or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word pro-
+     cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The etext may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the etext (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the
+     net profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon
+     University" within the 60 days following each
+     date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare)
+     your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time,
+scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty
+free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution
+you can think of.  Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg
+Association / Carnegie-Mellon University".
+
+*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*
+
+
+
+
+
+This file contains the chronology, the introduction, Swan Song.
+
+
+
+
+
+Swan Song
+
+by Anton Checkov
+
+
+
+
+PLAYS BY ANTON TCHEKOFF
+
+
+TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN, WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MARIAN FELL
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+Introduction
+Chronological List of Works
+The Swan Song
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+ANTON TCHEKOFF
+
+THE last years of the nineteenth century were for Russia tinged
+with doubt and gloom. The high-tide of vitality that had risen
+during the Turkish war ebbed in the early eighties, leaving
+behind it a dead level of apathy which lasted until life was
+again quickened by the high interests of the Revolution. During
+these grey years the lonely country and stagnant provincial towns
+of Russia buried a peasantry which was enslaved by want and toil,
+and an educated upper class which was enslaved by idleness and
+tedium. Most of the "Intellectuals," with no outlet for their
+energies, were content to forget their ennui in vodka and
+card-playing; only the more idealistic gasped for air in the
+stifling atmosphere, crying out in despair against life as they
+saw it, and looking forward with a pathetic hope to happiness for
+humanity in "two or three hundred years." It is the inevitable
+tragedy of their existence, and the pitiful humour of their
+surroundings, that are portrayed with such insight and sympathy
+by Anton Tchekoff who is, perhaps, of modern writers, the dearest
+to the Russian people.
+
+Anton Tchekoff was born in the old Black Sea port of Taganrog on
+January 17, 1860. His grandfather had been a serf; his father
+married a merchant's daughter and settled in Taganrog, where,
+during Anton's boyhood, he carried on a small and unsuccessful
+trade in provisions. The young Tchekoff was soon impressed into
+the services of the large, poverty-stricken family, and he spoke
+regretfully in after years of his hard-worked childhood. But he
+was obedient and good-natured, and worked cheerfully in his
+father's shop, closely observing the idlers that assembled there,
+and gathering the drollest stories, which he would afterward
+whisper in class to his laughing schoolfellows. Many were the
+punishments which he incurred by this habit, which was
+incorrigible.
+
+His grandfather had now become manager of an estate near
+Taganrog, in the wild steppe country of the Don Cossacks, and
+here the boy spent his summers, fishing in the river, and roving
+about the countryside as brown as a gipsy, sowing the seeds of
+that love for nature which he retained all his life. His evenings
+he liked best to spend in the kitchen of the master's house among
+the work people and peasants who gathered there, taking part in
+their games, and setting them all laughing by his witty and
+telling observations.
+
+When Tchekoff was about fourteen, his father moved the family to
+Moscow, leaving Anton in Taganrog, and now, relieved of work in
+the shop, his progress at school became remarkable. At seventeen
+he wrote a long tragedy, which was afterward destroyed, and he
+already showed flashes of the wit that was soon to blaze into
+genius.
+
+He graduated from the high school at Taganrog with every honour,
+entered the University of Moscow as a student of medicine, and
+threw himself headlong into a double life of student and author,
+in the attempt to help his struggling family.
+
+His first story appeared in a Moscow paper in 1880, and after
+some difficulty he secured a position connected with several of
+the smaller periodicals, for which, during his student years, he
+poured forth a succession of short stories and sketches of
+Russian life with incredible rapidity. He wrote, he tells us,
+during every spare minute, in crowded rooms where there was "no
+light and less air," and never spent more than a day on any one
+story. He also wrote at this time a very stirring
+blood-and-thunder play which was suppressed by the censor, and
+the fate of which is not known.
+
+His audience demanded laughter above all things, and, with his
+deep sense of the ridiculous, Tchekoff asked nothing better. His
+stories, though often based on themes profoundly tragic, are
+penetrated by the light and subtle satire that has won him his
+reputation as a great humourist. But though there was always a
+smile on his lips, it was a tender one, and his sympathy with
+suffering often brought his laughter near to tears.
+
+This delicate and original genius was at first subjected to harsh
+criticism, which Tchekoff felt keenly, and Trigorin's description
+in "The Sea-Gull" of the trials of a young author is a cry from
+Tchekoff's own soul. A passionate enemy of all lies and
+oppression, he already foreshadows in these early writings the
+protest against conventions and rules, which he afterward put
+into Treplieff's reply to Sorin in "The Sea-Gull": "Let us have
+new forms, or else nothing at all."
+
+In 1884 he took his degree as doctor of medicine, and decided to
+practise, although his writing had by now taken on a professional
+character. He always gave his calling a high place, and the
+doctors in his works are drawn with affection and understanding.
+If any one spoke slightingly of doctors in his presence, he would
+exclaim: "Stop! You don't know what country doctors do for the
+people!"
+
+Tchekoff fully realised later the influence which his profession
+had exercised on his literary work, and sometimes regretted the
+too vivid insight it gave him, but, on the other hand, he was
+able to write: "Only a doctor can know what value my knowledge of
+science has been to me," and "It seems to me that as a doctor I
+have described the sicknesses of the soul correctly." For
+instance, Trigorin's analysis in "The Sea-Gull" of the state of
+mind of an author has well been called "artistic diagnosis."
+
+The young doctor-writer is described at this time as modest and
+grave, with flashes of brilliant gaiety. A son of the people,
+there was in his face an expression that recalled the
+simple-hearted village lad; his eyes were blue, his glance full
+of intelligence and kindness, and his manners unaffected and
+simple. He was an untiring worker, and between his patients and
+his desk he led a life of ceaseless activity. His restless mind
+was dominated by a passion of energy and he thought continually
+and vividly. Often, while jesting and talking, he would seem
+suddenly to plunge into himself, and his look would grow fixed
+and deep, as if he were contemplating something important and
+strange. Then he would ask some unexpected question, which showed
+how far his mind had roamed.
+
+Success was now rapidly overtaking the young author; his first
+collection of stories appeared in 1887, another one in the same
+year had immediate success, and both went through many editions;
+but, at the same time, the shadows that darkened his later works
+began to creep over his light-hearted humour.
+
+His impressionable mind began to take on the grey tinge of his
+time, but much of his sadness may also be attributed to his
+ever-increasing ill health.
+
+Weary and with an obstinate cough, he went south in 1888, took a
+little cottage on the banks of a little river "abounding in fish
+and crabs," and surrendered himself to his touching love for
+nature, happy in his passion for fishing, in the quiet of the
+country, and in the music and gaiety of the peasants. "One would
+gladly sell one's soul," he writes, "for the pleasure of seeing
+the warm evening sky, and the streams and pools reflecting the
+darkly mournful sunset." He described visits to his country
+neighbours and long drives in gay company, during which, he says,
+"we ate every half hour, and laughed to the verge of colic."
+
+His health, however, did not improve. In 1889 he began to have
+attacks of heart trouble, and the sensitive artist's nature
+appears in a remark which he made after one of them. "I walked
+quickly across the terrace on which the guests were assembled,"
+he said, "with one idea in my mind, how awkward it would be to
+fall down and die in the presence of strangers."
+
+It was during this transition period of his life, when his
+youthful spirits were failing him, that the stage, for which he
+had always felt a fascination, tempted him to write "Ivanoff,"
+and also a dramatic sketch in one act entitled "The Swan Song,"
+though he often declared that he had no ambition to become a
+dramatist. "The Novel," he wrote, "is a lawful wife, but the
+Stage is a noisy, flashy, and insol ent mistress." He has put his
+opinion of the stage of his day in the mouth of Treplieff, in
+"The Sea-Gull," and he often refers to it in his letters as "an
+evil disease of the towns" and "the gallows on which dramatists
+are hanged."
+
+He wrote "Ivanoff " at white-heat in two and a half weeks, as a
+protest against a play he had seen at one of the Moscow theatres.
+Ivanoff (from Ivan, the commonest of Russian names) was by no
+means meant to be a hero, but a most ordinary, weak man oppressed
+by the "immortal commonplaces of life," with his heart and soul
+aching in the grip of circumstance, one of the many "useless
+people" of Russia for whose sorrow Tchekoff felt such
+overwhelming pity. He saw nothing in their lives that could not
+be explained and pardoned, and he returns to his ill-fated,
+"useless people" again and again, not to preach any doctrine of
+pessimism, but simply because he thought that the world was the
+better for a certain fragile beauty of their natures and their
+touching faith in the ultimate salvation of humanity.
+
+Both the writing and staging of "Ivanoff" gave Tchekoff great
+difficulty. The characters all being of almost equal importance,
+he found it hard to get enough good actors to take the parts, but
+it finally appeared in Moscow in 1889, a decided failure! The
+author had touched sharply several sensitive spots of Russian
+life--for instance, in his warning not to marry a Jewess or a
+blue-stocking--and the play was also marred by faults of
+inexperience, which, however, he later corrected. The critics
+were divided in condemning a certain novelty in it and in
+praising its freshness and originality. The character of Ivanoff
+was not understood, and the weakness of the man blinded many to
+the lifelike portrait. Tchekoff himself was far from pleased with
+what he called his "literary abortion," and rewrote it before it
+was produced again in St. Petersburg. Here it was received with
+the wildest applause, and the morning after its performance the
+papers burst into unanimous praise. The author was
+enthusiastically feted, but the burden of his growing fame was
+beginning to be very irksome to him, and he wrote wearily at this
+time that he longed to be in the country, fishing in the lake, or
+lying in the hay.
+
+His next play to appear was a farce entitled "The Boor," which he
+wrote in a single evening and which had a great success. This was
+followed by "The Demon," a failure, rewritten ten years later as
+"Uncle Vanya."
+
+All Russia now combined in urging Tchekoff to write some
+important work, and this, too, was the writer's dream; but his
+only long story is "The Steppe," which is, after all, but a
+series of sketches, exquisitely drawn, and strung together on the
+slenderest connecting thread. Tchekoff's delicate and elusive
+descriptive power did not lend itself to painting on a large
+canvas, and his strange little tragicomedies of Russian life, his
+"Tedious Tales," as he called them, were always to remain his
+masterpieces.
+
+In 1890 Tchekoff made a journey to the Island of Saghalien, after
+which his health definitely failed, and the consumption, with
+which he had long been threatened, finally declared itself. His
+illness exiled him to the Crimea, and he spent his last ten years
+there, making frequent trips to Moscow to superintend the
+production of his four important plays, written during this
+period of his life.
+
+"The Sea-Gull" appeared in 1896, and, after a failure in St.
+Petersburg, won instant success as soon as it was given on the
+stage of the Artists' Theatre in Moscow. Of all Tchekoff's plays,
+this one conforms most nearly to our Western conventions, and is
+therefore most easily appreciated here. In Trigorin the author
+gives us one of the rare glimpses of his own mind, for Tchekoff
+seldom put his own personality into the pictures of the life in
+which he took such immense interest.
+
+In "The Sea-Gull" we see clearly the increase of Tchekoff's power
+of analysis, which is remarkable in his next play, "The Three
+Sisters," gloomiest of all his dramas.
+
+"The Three Sisters," produced in 1901, depends, even more than
+most of Tchekoff's plays, on its interpretation, and it is almost
+essential to its appreciation that it should be seen rather than
+read. The atmosphere of gloom with which it is pervaded is a
+thousand times more intense when it comes to us across the
+foot-lights. In it Tchekoff probes the depths of human life with
+so sure a touch, and lights them with an insight so piercing,
+that the play made a deep impression when it appeared. This was
+also partly owing to the masterly way in which it was acted at
+the Artists' Theatre in Moscow. The theme is, as usual, the
+greyness of provincial life, and the night is lit for his little
+group of characters by a flash of passion so intense that the
+darkness which succeeds it seems well-nigh intolerable.
+
+"Uncle Vanya" followed "The Three Sisters," and the poignant
+truth of the picture, together with the tender beauty of the last
+scene, touched his audience profoundly, both on the stage and
+when the play was afterward published.
+
+"The Cherry Orchard" appeared in 1904 and was Tchekoff's last
+play. At its production, just before his death, the author was
+feted as one of Russia's greatest dramatists. Here it is not only
+country life that Tchekoff shows us, but Russian life and
+character in general, in which the old order is giving place to
+the new, and we see the practical, modern spirit invading the
+vague, aimless existence so dear to the owners of the cherry
+orchard. A new epoch was beginning, and at its dawn the singer of
+old, dim Russia was silenced.
+
+In the year that saw the production of "The Cherry Orchard,"
+Tchekoff, the favourite of the Russian people, whom Tolstoi
+declared to be comparable as a writer of stories only to
+Maupassant, died suddenly in a little village of the Black
+Forest, whither he had gone a few weeks before in the hope of
+recovering his lost health.
+
+Tchekoff, with an art peculiar to himself, in scattered scenes,
+in haphazard glimpses into the lives of his characters, in
+seemingly trivial conversations, has succeeded in so
+concentrating the atmosphere of the Russia of his day that we
+feel it in every line we read, oppressive as the mists that hang
+over a lake at dawn, and, like those mists, made visible to us by
+the light of an approaching day.
+
+
+CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL WORKS OF ANTON TCHEKOFF
+
+PLAYS
+
+"The Swan Song" 1889
+"The Proposal" 1889
+"Ivanoff " 1889
+"The Boor" 1890
+"The SeaGull" 1896
+"The Tragedian in Spite of Himself" 1899
+"The Three Sisters" 1901
+"Uncle Vanya" 1902
+"The Cherry Orchard" 1904
+
+NOVELS AND SHORT STORIES
+
+"Humorous Folk" 1887
+"Twilight, and Other Stories" 1887
+"Morose Folk" 1890
+"Variegated Tales" 1894
+"Old Wives of Russia" 1894
+"The Duel" 1895
+"The Chestnut Tree" 1895
+"Ward Number Six" 1897
+
+MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES
+
+"The Island of Saghalien" 1895
+"Peasants" 1898
+"Life in the Provinces" 1898
+"Children" 1899
+
+
+
+
+The Swan Song
+
+
+CHARACTERS
+
+VASILI SVIETLOVIDOFF, a comedian, 68 years old
+
+NIKITA IVANITCH, a prompter, an old man
+
+THE SWAN SONG
+
+The scene is laid on the stage of a country theatre, at night,
+after the play. To the right a row of rough, unpainted doors
+leading into the dressing-rooms. To the left and in the
+background the stage is encumbered with all sorts of rubbish. In
+the middle of the stage is an overturned stool.
+
+SVIETLOVIDOFF. [With a candle in his hand, comes out of a
+dressing-room and laughs] Well, well, this is funny! Here's a
+good joke! I fell asleep in my dressing-room when the play was
+over, and there I was calmly snoring after everybody else had
+left the theatre. Ah! I'm a foolish old man, a poor old dodderer!
+I have been drinking again, and so I fell asleep in there,
+sitting up. That was clever! Good for you, old boy! [Calls]
+Yegorka! Petrushka! Where the devil are you? Petrushka! The
+scoundrels must be asleep, and an earthquake wouldn't wake them
+now! Yegorka! [Picks up the stool, sits down, and puts the candle
+on the floor] Not a sound! Only echos answer me. I gave Yegorka
+and Petrushka each a tip to-day, and now they have disappeared
+without leaving a trace behind them. The rascals have gone off
+and have probably locked up the theatre. [Turns his head about]
+I'm drunk! Ugh! The play to-night was for my benefit, and it is
+disgusting to think how much beer and wine I have poured down my
+throat in honour of the occasion. Gracious! My body is burning
+all over, and I feel as if I had twenty tongues in my mouth. It
+is horrid! Idiotic! This poor old sinner is drunk again, and
+doesn't even know what he has been celebrating! Ugh! My head is
+splitting, I am shivering all over, and I feel as dark and cold
+inside as a cellar! Even if I don't mind ruining my health, I
+ought at least to remember my age, old idiot that I am! Yes, my
+old age! It's no use! I can play the fool, and brag, and pretend
+to be young, but my life is really over now, I kiss my hand to
+the sixty-eight years that have gone by; I'll never see them
+again! I have drained the bottle, only a few little drops are
+left at the bottom, nothing but the dregs. Yes, yes, that's the
+case, Vasili, old boy. The time has come for you to rehearse the
+part of a mummy, whether you like it or not. Death is on its way
+to you. [Stares ahead of him] It is strange, though, that I have
+been on the stage now for forty-five years, and this is the first
+time I have seen a theatre at night, after the lights have been
+put out. The first time. [Walks up to the foot-lights] How dark
+it is! I can't see a thing. Oh, yes, I can just make out the
+prompter's box, and his desk; the rest is in pitch darkness, a
+black, bottomless pit, like a grave, in which death itself might
+be hiding.... Brr.... How cold it is! The wind blows out of the
+empty theatre as though out of a stone flue. What a place for
+ghosts! The shivers are running up and down my back. [Calls]
+Yegorka! Petrushka! Where are you both? What on earth makes me
+think of such gruesome things here? I must give up drinking; I'm
+an old man, I shan't live much longer. At sixty-eight people go
+to church and prepare for death, but here I am--heavens! A
+profane old drunkard in this fool's dress--I'm simply not fit to
+look at. I must go and change it at once.... This is a dreadful
+place, I should die of fright sitting here all night. [Goes
+toward his dressing-room; at the same time NIKITA IVANITCH in a
+long white coat comes out of the dressing-room at the farthest
+end of the stage. SVIETLOVIDOFF sees IVANITCH--shrieks with
+terror and steps back] Who are you? What? What do you want?
+[Stamps his foot] Who are you?
+
+IVANITCH. It is I, sir.
+
+SVIETLOVIDOFF. Who are you?
+
+IVANITCH. [Comes slowly toward him] It is I, sir, the prompter,
+Nikita Ivanitch. It is I, master, it is I!
+
+SVIETLOVIDOFF. [Sinks helplessly onto the stool, breathes heavily
+and trembles violently] Heavens! Who are you? It is you . . . you
+Nikitushka? What . . . what are you doing here?
+
+IVANITCH. I spend my nights here in the dressing-rooms. Only
+please be good enough not to tell Alexi Fomitch, sir. I have
+nowhere else to spend the night; indeed, I haven't.
+
+SVIETLOVIDOFF. Ah! It is you, Nikitushka, is it? Just think, the
+audience called me out sixteen times; they brought me three
+wreathes and lots of other things, too; they were all wild with
+enthusiasm, and yet not a soul came when it was all over to wake
+the poor, drunken old man and take him home. And I am an old man,
+Nikitushka! I am sixty-eight years old, and I am ill. I haven't
+the heart left to go on. [Falls on IVANITCH'S neck and weeps]
+Don't go away, Nikitushka; I am old and helpless, and I feel it
+is time for me to die. Oh, it is dreadful, dreadful!
+
+IVANITCH. [Tenderly and respectfully] Dear master! it is time for
+you to go home, sir!
+
+SVIETLOVIDOFF. I won't go home; I have no home--none!
+none!--none!
+
+IVANITCH. Oh, dear! Have you forgotten where you live?
+
+SVIETLOVIDOFF. I won't go there. I won't! I am all alone there. I
+have nobody, Nikitushka! No wife--no children. I am like the wind
+blowing across the lonely fields. I shall die, and no one will
+remember me. It is awful to be alone--no one to cheer me, no one
+to caress me, no one to help me to bed when I am drunk. Whom do I
+belong to? Who needs me? Who loves me? Not a soul, Nikitushka.
+
+IVANITCH. [Weeping] Your audience loves you, master.
+
+SVIETLOVIDOFF. My audience has gone home. They are all asleep,
+and have forgotten their old clown. No, nobody needs me, nobody
+loves me; I have no wife, no children.
+
+IVANITCH. Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Don't be so unhappy about it.
+
+SVIETLOVIDOFF. But I am a man, I am still alive. Warm, red blood
+is tingling in my veins, the blood of noble ancestors. I am an
+aristocrat, Nikitushka; I served in the army, in the artillery,
+before I fell as low as this, and what a fine young chap I was!
+Handsome, daring, eager! Where has it all gone? What has become
+of those old days? There's the pit that has swallowed them all! I
+remember it all now. Forty-five years of my life lie buried
+there, and what a life, Nikitushka! I can see it as clearly as I
+see your face: the ecstasy of youth, faith, passion, the love of
+women--women, Nikitushka!
+
+IVANITCH. It is time you went to sleep, sir.
+
+SVIETLOVIDOFF. When I first went on the stage, in the first glow
+of passionate youth, I remember a woman loved me for my acting.
+She was beautiful, graceful as a poplar, young, innocent, pure,
+and radiant as a summer dawn. Her smile could charm away the
+darkest night. I remember, I stood before her once, as I am now
+standing before you. She had never seemed so lovely to me as she
+did then, and she spoke to me so with her eyes--such a look! I
+shall never forget it, no, not even in the grave; so tender, so
+soft, so deep, so bright and young! Enraptured, intoxicated, I
+fell on my knees before her, I begged for my happiness, and she
+said: "Give up the stage!" Give up the stage! Do you understand?
+She could love an actor, but marry him--never! I was acting that
+day, I remember--I had a foolish, clown's part, and as I acted, I
+felt my eyes being opened; I saw that the worship of the art I
+had held so sacred was a delusion and an empty dream; that I was
+a slave, a fool, the plaything of the idleness of strangers. I
+understood my audience at last, and since that day I have not
+believed in their applause, or in their wreathes, or in their
+enthusiasm. Yes, Nikitushka! The people applaud me, they buy my
+photograph, but I am a stranger to them. They don't know me, I am
+as the dirt beneath their feet. They are willing enough to meet
+me . . . but allow a daughter or a sister to marry me, an
+outcast, never! I have no faith in them, [sinks onto the stool]
+no faith in them.
+
+IVANITCH. Oh, sir! you look dreadfully pale, you frighten me to
+death! Come, go home, have mercy on me!
+
+SVIETLOVIDOFF. I saw through it all that day, and the knowledge
+was dearly bought. Nikitushka! After that . . . when that girl .
+. . well, I began to wander aimlessly about, living from day to
+day without looking ahead. I took the parts of buffoons and low
+comedians, letting my mind go to wreck. Ah! but I was a great
+artist once, till little by little I threw away my talents,
+played the motley fool, lost my looks, lost the power of
+expressing myself, and became in the end a Merry Andrew instead
+of a man. I have been swallowed up in that great black pit. I
+never felt it before, but to-night, when I woke up, I looked
+back, and there behind me lay sixty-eight years. I have just
+found out what it is to be old! It is all over . . . [sobs] . . .
+all over.
+
+IVANITCH. There, there, dear master! Be quiet . . . gracious!
+[Calls] Petrushka! Yegorka!
+
+SVIETLOVIDOFF. But what a genius I was! You cannot imagine what
+power I had, what eloquence; how graceful I was, how tender; how
+many strings [beats his breast] quivered in this breast! It
+chokes me to think of it! Listen now, wait, let me catch my
+breath, there; now listen to this:
+
+  "The shade of bloody Ivan now returning
+   Fans through my lips rebellion to a flame,
+   I am the dead Dimitri! In the burning
+   Boris shall perish on the throne I claim.
+   Enough! The heir of Czars shall not be seen
+   Kneeling to yonder haughty Polish Queen!"*
+
+*From "Boris Godunoff," by Pushkin. [translator's note]
+
+Is that bad, eh? [Quickly] Wait, now, here's something from King
+Lear. The sky is black, see? Rain is pouring down, thunder roars,
+lightning--zzz zzz zzz--splits the whole sky, and then, listen:
+
+  "Blow winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
+   You cataracts and hurricanoes spout
+   Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
+   You sulphurous thought-executing fires
+   Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts
+   Singe my white head! And thou, all shaking thunder,
+   Strike flat the thick rotundity o' the world!
+   Crack nature's moulds, all germons spill at once
+   That make ungrateful man!"
+
+[Impatiently] Now, the part of the fool. [Stamps his foot] Come
+take the fool's part! Be quick, I can't wait!
+
+IVANITCH. [Takes the part of the fool]
+
+"O, Nuncle, court holy-water in a dry house is better than this
+rain-water out o' door. Good Nuncle, in; ask thy daughter's
+blessing: here's a night pities neither wise men nor fools."
+
+SVIETLOVIDOFF.
+
+  "Rumble thy bellyful! spit, fire! spout, rain!
+   Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters;
+   I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness;
+   I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children."
+
+Ah! there is strength, there is talent for you! I'm a great
+artist! Now, then, here's something else of the same kind, to
+bring back my youth to me. For instance, take this, from Hamlet,
+I'll begin . . . Let me see, how does it go? Oh, yes, this is it.
+[Takes the part of Hamlet]
+
+"O! the recorders, let me see one.-- To withdraw with you. Why do
+you go about to recover the wind of me, as if you would drive me
+into a toil?"
+
+IVANITCH. "O, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too
+unmannerly."
+
+SVIETLOVIDOFF. "I do not well understand that. Will you play upon
+this pipe?"
+
+IVANITCH. "My lord, I cannot."
+
+SVIETLOVIDOFF. "I pray you."
+
+IVANITCH. "Believe me, I cannot."
+
+SVIETLOVIDOFF. "I do beseech you."
+
+IVANITCH. "I know no touch of it, my lord."
+
+SVIETLOVIDOFF. " 'Tis as easy as lying: govern these vantages
+with your finger and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and
+it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the
+stops."
+
+IVANITCH. "But these I cannot command to any utterance of
+harmony: I have not the skill."
+
+SVIETLOVIDOFF. "Why, look you, how unworthy a thing you make of
+me. You would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you
+would pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me from
+my lowest note to the top of my compass; and there is much music,
+exce llent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it
+speak. S'blood! Do you think I am easier to be played on than a
+pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me,
+you cannot play upon me!" [laughs and clasps] Bravo! Encore!
+Bravo! Where the devil is there any old age in that? I'm not old,
+that is all nonsense, a torrent of strength rushes over me; this
+is life, freshness, youth! Old age and genius can't exist
+together. You seem to be struck dumb, Nikitushka. Wait a second,
+let me come to my senses again. Oh! Good Lord! Now then, listen!
+Did you ever hear such tenderness, such music? Sh! Softly;
+
+  "The moon had set. There was not any light,
+   Save of the lonely legion'd watch-stars pale
+   In outer air, and what by fits made bright
+   Hot oleanders in a rosy vale
+   Searched by the lamping fly, whose little spark
+   Went in and out, like passion's bashful hope."
+
+[The noise of opening doors is heard] What's that?
+
+IVANITCH. There are Petrushka and Yegorka coming back. Yes, you
+have genius, genius, my master.
+
+SVIETLOVIDOFF. [Calls, turning toward the noise] Come here to me,
+boys! [To IVANITCH] Let us go and get dressed. I'm not old! All
+that is foolishness, nonsense! [laughs gaily] What are you crying
+for? You poor old granny, you, what's the matter now? This won't
+do! There, there, this won't do at all! Come, come, old man,
+don't stare so! What makes you stare like that? There, there!
+[Embraces him in tears] Don't cry! Where there is art and genius
+there can never be such things as old age or loneliness or
+sickness . . . and death itself is half . . . [Weeps] No, no,
+Nikitushka! It is all over for us now! What sort of a genius am
+I? I'm like a squeezed lemon, a cracked bottle, and you--you are
+the old rat of the theatre . . . a prompter! Come on! [They go]
+I'm no genius, I'm only fit to be in the suite of Fortinbras, and
+even for that I am too old.... Yes.... Do you remember those
+lines from Othello, Nikitushka?
+
+  "Farewell the tranquil mind! Farewell content!
+   Farewell the plumed troops and the big wars
+   That make ambition virtue! O farewell!
+   Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill trump,
+   The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife,
+   The royal banner, and all quality,
+   Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war!"
+
+IVANITCH. Oh! You're a genius, a genius!
+
+SVIETLOVIDOFF. And again this:
+
+  "Away! the moor is dark beneath the moon,
+   Rapid clouds have drunk the last pale beam of even:
+   Away! the gathering winds will call the darkness soon,
+   And profoundest midnight shroud the serene lights of heaven."
+
+They go out together, the curtain falls slowly.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Swan Song, by Anton Checkov
+
diff --git a/old/swnsg10.zip b/old/swnsg10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0122910
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/swnsg10.zip