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diff --git a/1754.txt b/1754.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..51bd071 --- /dev/null +++ b/1754.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2933 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sea-Gull, by Anton Checkov + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Sea-Gull + +Author: Anton Checkov + +Release Date: February 21, 2006 [EBook #1754] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEA-GULL *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer and David Widger + + + + + +THE SEA-GULL + + +by Anton Checkov + + + +A Play In Four Acts + + + + +CHARACTERS + +IRINA ABKADINA, an actress + +CONSTANTINE TREPLIEFF, her son + +PETER SORIN, her brother + +NINA ZARIETCHNAYA, a young girl, the daughter of a rich landowner + +ILIA SHAMRAEFF, the manager of SORIN'S estate + +PAULINA, his wife + +MASHA, their daughter + +BORIS TRIGORIN, an author + +EUGENE DORN, a doctor + +SIMON MEDVIEDENKO, a schoolmaster + +JACOB, a workman + +A COOK + +A MAIDSERVANT + + +_The scene is laid on SORIN'S estate. Two years elapse between the third +and fourth acts_. + + + + +THE SEA-GULL + + + + +ACT I + +_The scene is laid in the park on SORIN'S estate. A broad avenue of +trees leads away from the audience toward a lake which lies lost in +the depths of the park. The avenue is obstructed by a rough stage, +temporarily erected for the performance of amateur theatricals, and +which screens the lake from view. There is a dense growth of bushes to +the left and right of the stage. A few chairs and a little table are +placed in front of the stage. The sun has just set. JACOB and some other +workmen are heard hammering and coughing on the stage behind the lowered +curtain_. + +MASHA and MEDVIEDENKO come in from the left, returning from a walk. + +MEDVIEDENKO. Why do you always wear mourning? + +MASHA. I dress in black to match my life. I am unhappy. + +MEDVIEDENKO. Why should you be unhappy? [Thinking it over] I don't +understand it. You are healthy, and though your father is not rich, he +has a good competency. My life is far harder than yours. I only have +twenty-three roubles a month to live on, but I don't wear mourning. +[They sit down]. + +MASHA. Happiness does not depend on riches; poor men are often happy. + +MEDVIEDENKO. In theory, yes, but not in reality. Take my case, for +instance; my mother, my two sisters, my little brother and I must all +live somehow on my salary of twenty-three roubles a month. We have to +eat and drink, I take it. You wouldn't have us go without tea and sugar, +would you? Or tobacco? Answer me that, if you can. + +MASHA. [Looking in the direction of the stage] The play will soon begin. + +MEDVIEDENKO. Yes, Nina Zarietchnaya is going to act in Treplieff's play. +They love one another, and their two souls will unite to-night in the +effort to interpret the same idea by different means. There is no ground +on which your soul and mine can meet. I love you. Too restless and sad +to stay at home, I tramp here every day, six miles and back, to be met +only by your indifference. I am poor, my family is large, you can have +no inducement to marry a man who cannot even find sufficient food for +his own mouth. + +MASHA. It is not that. [She takes snuff] I am touched by your affection, +but I cannot return it, that is all. [She offers him the snuff-box] Will +you take some? + +MEDVIEDENKO. No, thank you. [A pause.] + +MASHA. The air is sultry; a storm is brewing for to-night. You do +nothing but moralise or else talk about money. To you, poverty is the +greatest misfortune that can befall a man, but I think it is a thousand +times easier to go begging in rags than to--You wouldn't understand +that, though. + +SORIN leaning on a cane, and TREPLIEFF come in. + +SORIN. For some reason, my boy, country life doesn't suit me, and I am +sure I shall never get used to it. Last night I went to bed at ten and +woke at nine this morning, feeling as if, from oversleep, my brain had +stuck to my skull. [Laughing] And yet I accidentally dropped off to +sleep again after dinner, and feel utterly done up at this moment. It is +like a nightmare. + +TREPLIEFF. There is no doubt that you should live in town. [He catches +sight of MASHA and MEDVIEDENKO] You shall be called when the play +begins, my friends, but you must not stay here now. Go away, please. + +SORIN. Miss Masha, will you kindly ask your father to leave the dog +unchained? It howled so last night that my sister was unable to sleep. + +MASHA. You must speak to my father yourself. Please excuse me; I can't +do so. [To MEDVIEDENKO] Come, let us go. + +MEDVIEDENKO. You will let us know when the play begins? + +MASHA and MEDVIEDENKO go out. + +SORIN. I foresee that that dog is going to howl all night again. It is +always this way in the country; I have never been able to live as I like +here. I come down for a month's holiday, to rest and all, and am +plagued so by their nonsense that I long to escape after the first day. +[Laughing] I have always been glad to get away from this place, but I +have been retired now, and this was the only place I had to come to. +Willy-nilly, one must live somewhere. + +JACOB. [To TREPLIEFF] We are going to take a swim, Mr. Constantine. + +TREPLIEFF. Very well, but you must be back in ten minutes. + +JACOB. We will, sir. + +TREPLIEFF. [Looking at the stage] Just like a real theatre! See, +there we have the curtain, the foreground, the background, and all. No +artificial scenery is needed. The eye travels direct to the lake, and +rests on the horizon. The curtain will be raised as the moon rises at +half-past eight. + +SORIN. Splendid! + +TREPLIEFF. Of course the whole effect will be ruined if Nina is late. +She should be here by now, but her father and stepmother watch her so +closely that it is like stealing her from a prison to get her away from +home. [He straightens SORIN'S collar] Your hair and beard are all on +end. Oughtn't you to have them trimmed? + +SORIN. [Smoothing his beard] They are the tragedy of my existence. Even +when I was young I always looked as if I were drunk, and all. Women have +never liked me. [Sitting down] Why is my sister out of temper? + +TREPLIEFF. Why? Because she is jealous and bored. [Sitting down beside +SORIN] She is not acting this evening, but Nina is, and so she has set +herself against me, and against the performance of the play, and against +the play itself, which she hates without ever having read it. + +SORIN. [Laughing] Does she, really? + +TREPLIEFF. Yes, she is furious because Nina is going to have a +success on this little stage. [Looking at his watch] My mother is a +psychological curiosity. Without doubt brilliant and talented, capable +of sobbing over a novel, of reciting all Nekrasoff's poetry by heart, +and of nursing the sick like an angel of heaven, you should see what +happens if any one begins praising Duse to her! She alone must be +praised and written about, raved over, her marvellous acting in "La Dame +aux Camelias" extolled to the skies. As she cannot get all that rubbish +in the country, she grows peevish and cross, and thinks we are all +against her, and to blame for it all. She is superstitious, too. She +dreads burning three candles, and fears the thirteenth day of the month. +Then she is stingy. I know for a fact that she has seventy thousand +roubles in a bank at Odessa, but she is ready to burst into tears if you +ask her to lend you a penny. + +SORIN. You have taken it into your head that your mother dislikes your +play, and the thought of it has excited you, and all. Keep calm; your +mother adores you. + +TREPLIEFF. [Pulling a flower to pieces] She loves me, loves me not; +loves--loves me not; loves--loves me not! [Laughing] You see, she +doesn't love me, and why should she? She likes life and love and gay +clothes, and I am already twenty-five years old; a sufficient reminder +to her that she is no longer young. When I am away she is only +thirty-two, in my presence she is forty-three, and she hates me for +it. She knows, too, that I despise the modern stage. She adores it, and +imagines that she is working on it for the benefit of humanity and her +sacred art, but to me the theatre is merely the vehicle of convention +and prejudice. When the curtain rises on that little three-walled room, +when those mighty geniuses, those high-priests of art, show us people in +the act of eating, drinking, loving, walking, and wearing their coats, +and attempt to extract a moral from their insipid talk; when playwrights +give us under a thousand different guises the same, same, same old +stuff, then I must needs run from it, as Maupassant ran from the Eiffel +Tower that was about to crush him by its vulgarity. + +SORIN. But we can't do without a theatre. + +TREPLIEFF. No, but we must have it under a new form. If we can't do +that, let us rather not have it at all. [Looking at his watch] I love my +mother, I love her devotedly, but I think she leads a stupid life. She +always has this man of letters of hers on her mind, and the newspapers +are always frightening her to death, and I am tired of it. Plain, human +egoism sometimes speaks in my heart, and I regret that my mother is +a famous actress. If she were an ordinary woman I think I should be +a happier man. What could be more intolerable and foolish than my +position, Uncle, when I find myself the only nonentity among a crowd of +her guests, all celebrated authors and artists? I feel that they only +endure me because I am her son. Personally I am nothing, nobody. I +pulled through my third year at college by the skin of my teeth, as they +say. I have neither money nor brains, and on my passport you may read +that I am simply a citizen of Kiev. So was my father, but he was +a well-known actor. When the celebrities that frequent my mother's +drawing-room deign to notice me at all, I know they only look at me +to measure my insignificance; I read their thoughts, and suffer from +humiliation. + +SORIN. Tell me, by the way, what is Trigorin like? I can't understand +him, he is always so silent. + +TREPLIEFF. Trigorin is clever, simple, well-mannered, and a little, I +might say, melancholic in disposition. Though still under forty, he is +surfeited with praise. As for his stories, they are--how shall I put +it?--pleasing, full of talent, but if you have read Tolstoi or Zola you +somehow don't enjoy Trigorin. + +SORIN. Do you know, my boy, I like literary men. I once passionately +desired two things: to marry, and to become an author. I have succeeded +in neither. It must be pleasant to be even an insignificant author. + +TREPLIEFF. [Listening] I hear footsteps! [He embraces his uncle] I +cannot live without her; even the sound of her footsteps is music to me. +I am madly happy. [He goes quickly to meet NINA, who comes in at that +moment] My enchantress! My girl of dreams! + +NINA. [Excitedly] It can't be that I am late? No, I am not late. + +TREPLIEFF. [Kissing her hands] No, no, no! + +NINA. I have been in a fever all day, I was so afraid my father would +prevent my coming, but he and my stepmother have just gone driving. The +sky is clear, the moon is rising. How I hurried to get here! How I urged +my horse to go faster and faster! [Laughing] I am _so_ glad to see you! +[She shakes hands with SORIN.] + +SORIN. Oho! Your eyes look as if you had been crying. You mustn't do +that. + +NINA. It is nothing, nothing. Do let us hurry. I must go in half an +hour. No, no, for heaven's sake do not urge me to stay. My father +doesn't know I am here. + +TREPLIEFF. As a matter of fact, it is time to begin now. I must call the +audience. + +SORIN. Let me call them--and all--I am going this minute. [He goes +toward the right, begins to sing "The Two Grenadiers," then stops.] +I was singing that once when a fellow-lawyer said to me: "You have a +powerful voice, sir." Then he thought a moment and added, "But it is a +disagreeable one!" [He goes out laughing.] + +NINA. My father and his wife never will let me come here; they call this +place Bohemia and are afraid I shall become an actress. But this lake +attracts me as it does the gulls. My heart is full of you. [She glances +about her.] + +TREPLIEFF. We are alone. + +NINA. Isn't that some one over there? + +TREPLIEFF. No. [They kiss one another.] + +NINA. What is that tree? + +TREPLIEFF. An elm. + +NINA. Why does it look so dark? + +TREPLIEFF. It is evening; everything looks dark now. Don't go away +early, I implore you. + +NINA. I must. + +TREPLIEFF. What if I were to follow you, Nina? I shall stand in your +garden all night with my eyes on your window. + +NINA. That would be impossible; the watchman would see you, and Treasure +is not used to you yet, and would bark. + +TREPLIEFF. I love you. + +NINA. Hush! + +TREPLIEFF. [Listening to approaching footsteps] Who is that? Is it you, +Jacob? + +JACOB. [On the stage] Yes, sir. + +TREPLIEFF. To your places then. The moon is rising; the play must +commence. + +NINA. Yes, sir. + +TREPLIEFF. Is the alcohol ready? Is the sulphur ready? There must be +fumes of sulphur in the air when the red eyes shine out. [To NINA] Go, +now, everything is ready. Are you nervous? + +NINA. Yes, very. I am not so much afraid of your mother as I am of +Trigorin. I am terrified and ashamed to act before him; he is so famous. +Is he young? + +TREPLIEFF. Yes. + +NINA. What beautiful stories he writes! + +TREPLIEFF. [Coldly] I have never read any of them, so I can't say. + +NINA. Your play is very hard to act; there are no living characters in +it. + +TREPLIEFF. Living characters! Life must be represented not as it is, but +as it ought to be; as it appears in dreams. + +NINA. There is so little action; it seems more like a recitation. I +think love should always come into every play. + +NINA and TREPLIEFF go up onto the little stage; PAULINA and DORN come +in. + +PAULINA. It is getting damp. Go back and put on your goloshes. + +DORN. I am quite warm. + +PAULINA. You never will take care of yourself; you are quite obstinate +about it, and yet you are a doctor, and know quite well that damp air is +bad for you. You like to see me suffer, that's what it is. You sat out +on the terrace all yesterday evening on purpose. + +DORN. [Sings] + +"Oh, tell me not that youth is wasted." + +PAULINA. You were so enchanted by the conversation of Madame Arkadina +that you did not even notice the cold. Confess that you admire her. + +DORN. I am fifty-five years old. + +PAULINA. A trifle. That is not old for a man. You have kept your looks +magnificently, and women still like you. + +DORN. What are you trying to tell me? + +PAULINA. You men are all ready to go down on your knees to an actress, +all of you. + +DORN. [Sings] + +"Once more I stand before thee." + +It is only right that artists should be made much of by society and +treated differently from, let us say, merchants. It is a kind of +idealism. + +PAULINA. When women have loved you and thrown themselves at your head, +has that been idealism? + +DORN. [Shrugging his shoulders] I can't say. There has been a great deal +that was admirable in my relations with women. In me they liked, above +all, the superior doctor. Ten years ago, you remember, I was the only +decent doctor they had in this part of the country--and then, I have +always acted like a man of honour. + +PAULINA. [Seizes his hand] Dearest! + +DORN. Be quiet! Here they come. + +ARKADINA comes in on SORIN'S arm; also TRIGORIN, SHAMRAEFF, MEDVIEDENKO, +and MASHA. + +SHAMRAEFF. She acted most beautifully at the Poltava Fair in 1873; she +was really magnificent. But tell me, too, where Tchadin the comedian is +now? He was inimitable as Rasplueff, better than Sadofski. Where is he +now? + +ARKADINA. Don't ask me where all those antediluvians are! I know nothing +about them. [She sits down.] + +SHAMRAEFF. [Sighing] Pashka Tchadin! There are none left like him. The +stage is not what it was in his time. There were sturdy oaks growing on +it then, where now but stumps remain. + +DORN. It is true that we have few dazzling geniuses these days, but, on +the other hand, the average of acting is much higher. + +SHAMRAEFF. I cannot agree with you; however, that is a matter of taste, +_de gustibus._ + +Enter TREPLIEFF from behind the stage. + +ARKADINA. When will the play begin, my dear boy? + +TREPLIEFF. In a moment. I must ask you to have patience. + +ARKADINA. [Quoting from Hamlet] My son, + + "Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul; + And there I see such black grained spots + As will not leave their tinct." + +[A horn is blown behind the stage.] + +TREPLIEFF. Attention, ladies and gentlemen! The play is about to begin. +[A pause] I shall commence. [He taps the door with a stick, and speaks +in a loud voice] O, ye time-honoured, ancient mists that drive at night +across the surface of this lake, blind you our eyes with sleep, and show +us in our dreams that which will be in twice ten thousand years! + +SORIN. There won't be anything in twice ten thousand years. + +TREPLIEFF. Then let them now show us that nothingness. + +ARKADINA. Yes, let them--we are asleep. + +The curtain rises. A vista opens across the lake. The moon hangs low +above the horizon and is reflected in the water. NINA, dressed in white, +is seen seated on a great rock. + +NINA. All men and beasts, lions, eagles, and quails, horned stags, +geese, spiders, silent fish that inhabit the waves, starfish from the +sea, and creatures invisible to the eye--in one word, life--all, all +life, completing the dreary round imposed upon it, has died out at last. +A thousand years have passed since the earth last bore a living creature +on her breast, and the unhappy moon now lights her lamp in vain. No +longer are the cries of storks heard in the meadows, or the drone of +beetles in the groves of limes. All is cold, cold. All is void, void, +void. All is terrible, terrible--[A pause] The bodies of all living +creatures have dropped to dust, and eternal matter has transformed them +into stones and water and clouds; but their spirits have flowed together +into one, and that great world-soul am I! In me is the spirit of the +great Alexander, the spirit of Napoleon, of Caesar, of Shakespeare, +and of the tiniest leech that swims. In me the consciousness of man has +joined hands with the instinct of the animal; I understand all, all, +all, and each life lives again in me. + +[The will-o-the-wisps flicker out along the lake shore.] + +ARKADINA. [Whispers] What decadent rubbish is this? + +TREPLIEFF. [Imploringly] Mother! + +NINA. I am alone. Once in a hundred years my lips are opened, my voice +echoes mournfully across the desert earth, and no one hears. And you, +poor lights of the marsh, you do not hear me. You are engendered at +sunset in the putrid mud, and flit wavering about the lake till dawn, +unconscious, unreasoning, unwarmed by the breath of life. Satan, father +of eternal matter, trembling lest the spark of life should glow in you, +has ordered an unceasing movement of the atoms that compose you, and so +you shift and change for ever. I, the spirit of the universe, I alone +am immutable and eternal. [A pause] Like a captive in a dungeon deep and +void, I know not where I am, nor what awaits me. One thing only is not +hidden from me: in my fierce and obstinate battle with Satan, the source +of the forces of matter, I am destined to be victorious in the end. +Matter and spirit will then be one at last in glorious harmony, and the +reign of freedom will begin on earth. But this can only come to pass by +slow degrees, when after countless eons the moon and earth and shining +Sirius himself shall fall to dust. Until that hour, oh, horror! horror! +horror! [A pause. Two glowing red points are seen shining across the +lake] Satan, my mighty foe, advances; I see his dread and lurid eyes. + +ARKADINA. I smell sulphur. Is that done on purpose? + +TREPLIEFF. Yes. + +ARKADINA. Oh, I see; that is part of the effect. + +TREPLIEFF. Mother! + +NINA. He longs for man-- + +PAULINA. [To DORN] You have taken off your hat again! Put it on, you +will catch cold. + +ARKADINA. The doctor has taken off his hat to Satan father of eternal +matter-- + +TREPLIEFF. [Loudly and angrily] Enough of this! There's an end to the +performance. Down with the curtain! + +ARKADINA. Why, what are you so angry about? + +TREPLIEFF. [Stamping his foot] The curtain; down with it! [The curtain +falls] Excuse me, I forgot that only a chosen few might write plays or +act them. I have infringed the monopoly. I--I--- + +He would like to say more, but waves his hand instead, and goes out to +the left. + +ARKADINA. What is the matter with him? + +SORIN. You should not handle youthful egoism so roughly, sister. + +ARKADINA. What did I say to him? + +SORIN. You hurt his feelings. + +ARKADINA. But he told me himself that this was all in fun, so I treated +his play as if it were a comedy. + +SORIN. Nevertheless--- + +ARKADINA. Now it appears that he has produced a masterpiece, if you +please! I suppose it was not meant to amuse us at all, but that he +arranged the performance and fumigated us with sulphur to demonstrate to +us how plays should be written, and what is worth acting. I am tired +of him. No one could stand his constant thrusts and sallies. He is a +wilful, egotistic boy. + +SORIN. He had hoped to give you pleasure. + +ARKADINA. Is that so? I notice, though, that he did not choose an +ordinary play, but forced his decadent trash on us. I am willing to +listen to any raving, so long as it is not meant seriously, but in +showing us this, he pretended to be introducing us to a new form of art, +and inaugurating a new era. In my opinion, there was nothing new about +it, it was simply an exhibition of bad temper. + +TRIGORIN. Everybody must write as he feels, and as best he may. + +ARKADINA. Let him write as he feels and can, but let him spare me his +nonsense. + +DORN. Thou art angry, O Jove! + +ARKADINA. I am a woman, not Jove. [She lights a cigarette] And I am not +angry, I am only sorry to see a young man foolishly wasting his time. I +did not mean to hurt him. + +MEDVIEDENKO. No one has any ground for separating life from matter, as +the spirit may well consist of the union of material atoms. [Excitedly, +to TRIGORIN] Some day you should write a play, and put on the stage the +life of a schoolmaster. It is a hard, hard life. + +ARKADINA. I agree with you, but do not let us talk about plays or atoms +now. This is such a lovely evening. Listen to the singing, friends, how +sweet it sounds. + +PAULINA. Yes, they are singing across the water. [A pause.] + +ARKADINA. [To TRIGORIN] Sit down beside me here. Ten or fifteen years +ago we had music and singing on this lake almost all night. There are +six houses on its shores. All was noise and laughter and romance then, +such romance! The young star and idol of them all in those days was this +man here, [Nods toward DORN] Doctor Eugene Dorn. He is fascinating now, +but he was irresistible then. But my conscience is beginning to +prick me. Why did I hurt my poor boy? I am uneasy about him. [Loudly] +Constantine! Constantine! + +MASHA. Shall I go and find him? + +ARKADINA. If you please, my dear. + +MASHA. [Goes off to the left, calling] Mr. Constantine! Oh, Mr. +Constantine! + +NINA. [Comes in from behind the stage] I see that the play will never be +finished, so now I can go home. Good evening. [She kisses ARKADINA and +PAULINA.] + +SORIN. Bravo! Bravo! + +ARKADINA. Bravo! Bravo! We were quite charmed by your acting. With your +looks and such a lovely voice it is a crime for you to hide yourself +in the country. You must be very talented. It is your duty to go on the +stage, do you hear me? + +NINA. It is the dream of my life, which will never come true. + +ARKADINA. Who knows? Perhaps it will. But let me present Monsieur Boris +Trigorin. + +NINA. I am delighted to meet you. [Embarrassed] I have read all your +books. + +ARKADINA. [Drawing NINA down beside her] Don't be afraid of him, dear. +He is a simple, good-natured soul, even if he is a celebrity. See, he is +embarrassed himself. + +DORN. Couldn't the curtain be raised now? It is depressing to have it +down. + +SHAMRAEFF. [Loudly] Jacob, my man! Raise the curtain! + +NINA. [To TRIGORIN] It was a curious play, wasn't it? + +TRIGORIN. Very. I couldn't understand it at all, but I watched it with +the greatest pleasure because you acted with such sincerity, and the +setting was beautiful. [A pause] There must be a lot of fish in this +lake. + +NINA. Yes, there are. + +TRIGORIN. I love fishing. I know of nothing pleasanter than to sit on a +lake shore in the evening with one's eyes on a floating cork. + +NINA. Why, I should think that for one who has tasted the joys of +creation, no other pleasure could exist. + +ARKADINA. Don't talk like that. He always begins to flounder when people +say nice things to him. + +SHAMRAEFF. I remember when the famous Silva was singing once in the +Opera House at Moscow, how delighted we all were when he took the low C. +Well, you can imagine our astonishment when one of the church cantors, +who happened to be sitting in the gallery, suddenly boomed out: "Bravo, +Silva!" a whole octave lower. Like this: [In a deep bass voice] "Bravo, +Silva!" The audience was left breathless. [A pause.] + +DORN. An angel of silence is flying over our heads. + +NINA. I must go. Good-bye. + +ARKADINA. Where to? Where must you go so early? We shan't allow it. + +NINA. My father is waiting for me. + +ARKADINA. How cruel he is, really. [They kiss each other] Then I suppose +we can't keep you, but it is very hard indeed to let you go. + +NINA. If you only knew how hard it is for me to leave you all. + +ARKADINA. Somebody must see you home, my pet. + +NINA. [Startled] No, no! + +SORIN. [Imploringly] Don't go! + +NINA. I must. + +SORIN. Stay just one hour more, and all. Come now, really, you know. + +NINA. [Struggling against her desire to stay; through her tears] No, no, +I can't. [She shakes hands with him and quickly goes out.] + +ARKADINA. An unlucky girl! They say that her mother left the whole of an +immense fortune to her husband, and now the child is penniless because +the father has already willed everything away to his second wife. It is +pitiful. + +DORN. Yes, her papa is a perfect beast, and I don't mind saying so--it +is what he deserves. + +SORIN. [Rubbing his chilled hands] Come, let us go in; the night is +damp, and my legs are aching. + +ARKADINA. Yes, you act as if they were turned to stone; you can hardly +move them. Come, you unfortunate old man. [She takes his arm.] + +SHAMRAEFF. [Offering his arm to his wife] Permit me, madame. + +SORIN. I hear that dog howling again. Won't you please have it +unchained, Shamraeff? + +SHAMRAEFF. No, I really can't, sir. The granary is full of millet, and +I am afraid thieves might break in if the dog were not there. [Walking +beside MEDVIEDENKO] Yes, a whole octave lower: "Bravo, Silva!" and he +wasn't a singer either, just a simple church cantor. + +MEDVIEDENKO. What salary does the church pay its singers? [All go out +except DORN.] + +DORN. I may have lost my judgment and my wits, but I must confess I +liked that play. There was something in it. When the girl spoke of her +solitude and the Devil's eyes gleamed across the lake, I felt my hands +shaking with excitement. It was so fresh and naive. But here he comes; +let me say something pleasant to him. + +TREPLIEFF comes in. + +TREPLIEFF. All gone already? + +DORN. I am here. + +TREPLIEFF. Masha has been yelling for me all over the park. An +insufferable creature. + +DORN. Constantine, your play delighted me. It was strange, of course, +and I did not hear the end, but it made a deep impression on me. You +have a great deal of talent, and must persevere in your work. + +TREPLIEFF seizes his hand and squeezes it hard, then kisses him +impetuously. + +DORN. Tut, tut! how excited you are. Your eyes are full of tears. Listen +to me. You chose your subject in the realm of abstract thought, and you +did quite right. A work of art should invariably embody some lofty idea. +Only that which is seriously meant can ever be beautiful. How pale you +are! + +TREPLIEFF. So you advise me to persevere? + +DORN. Yes, but use your talent to express only deep and eternal truths. +I have led a quiet life, as you know, and am a contented man, but if I +should ever experience the exaltation that an artist feels during his +moments of creation, I think I should spurn this material envelope of my +soul and everything connected with it, and should soar away into heights +above this earth. + +TREPLIEFF. I beg your pardon, but where is Nina? + +DORN. And yet another thing: every work of art should have a definite +object in view. You should know why you are writing, for if you follow +the road of art without a goal before your eyes, you will lose yourself, +and your genius will be your ruin. + +TREPLIEFF. [Impetuously] Where is Nina? + +DORN. She has gone home. + +TREPLIEFF. [In despair] Gone home? What shall I do? I want to see her; I +must see her! I shall follow her. + +DORN. My dear boy, keep quiet. + +TREPLIEFF. I am going. I must go. + +MASHA comes in. + +MASHA. Your mother wants you to come in, Mr. Constantine. She is waiting +for you, and is very uneasy. + +TREPLIEFF. Tell her I have gone away. And for heaven's sake, all of you, +leave me alone! Go away! Don't follow me about! + +DORN. Come, come, old chap, don't act like this; it isn't kind at all. + +TREPLIEFF. [Through his tears] Good-bye, doctor, and thank you. + +TREPLIEFF goes out. + +DORN. [Sighing] Ah, youth, youth! + +MASHA. It is always "Youth, youth," when there is nothing else to be +said. + +She takes snuff. DORN takes the snuff-box out of her hands and flings it +into the bushes. + +DORN. Don't do that, it is horrid. [A pause] I hear music in the house. +I must go in. + +MASHA. Wait a moment. + +DORN. What do you want? + +MASHA. Let me tell you again. I feel like talking. [She grows more and +more excited] I do not love my father, but my heart turns to you. For +some reason, I feel with all my soul that you are near to me. Help me! +Help me, or I shall do something foolish and mock at my life, and ruin +it. I am at the end of my strength. + +DORN. What is the matter? How can I help you? + +MASHA. I am in agony. No one, no one can imagine how I suffer. [She lays +her head on his shoulder and speaks softly] I love Constantine. + +DORN. Oh, how excitable you all are! And how much love there is about +this lake of spells! [Tenderly] But what can I do for you, my child? +What? What? + +The curtain falls. + + + + +ACT II + +_The lawn in front of SORIN'S house. The house stands in the background, +on a broad terrace. The lake, brightly reflecting the rays of the sun, +lies to the left. There are flower-beds here and there. It is noon; +the day is hot. ARKADINA, DORN, and MASHA are sitting on a bench on the +lawn, in the shade of an old linden. An open book is lying on DORN'S +knees_. + +ARKADINA. [To MASHA] Come, get up. [They both get up] Stand beside me. +You are twenty-two and I am almost twice your age. Tell me, Doctor, +which of us is the younger looking? + +DORN. You are, of course. + +ARKADINA. You see! Now why is it? Because I work; my heart and mind are +always busy, whereas you never move off the same spot. You don't live. +It is a maxim of mine never to look into the future. I never admit the +thought of old age or death, and just accept what comes to me. + +MASHA. I feel as if I had been in the world a thousand years, and I +trail my life behind me like an endless scarf. Often I have no desire +to live at all. Of course that is foolish. One ought to pull oneself +together and shake off such nonsense. + +DORN. [Sings softly] + +"Tell her, oh flowers--" + +ARKADINA. And then I keep myself as correct-looking as an Englishman. I +am always well-groomed, as the saying is, and carefully dressed, with my +hair neatly arranged. Do you think I should ever permit myself to leave +the house half-dressed, with untidy hair? Certainly not! I have kept my +looks by never letting myself slump as some women do. [She puts her arms +akimbo, and walks up and down on the lawn] See me, tripping on tiptoe +like a fifteen-year-old girl. + +DORN. I see. Nevertheless, I shall continue my reading. [He takes up his +book] Let me see, we had come to the grain-dealer and the rats. + +ARKADINA. And the rats. Go on. [She sits down] No, give me the book, it +is my turn to read. [She takes the book and looks for the place] And +the rats. Ah, here it is. [She reads] "It is as dangerous for society to +attract and indulge authors as it is for grain-dealers to raise rats +in their granaries. Yet society loves authors. And so, when a woman +has found one whom she wishes to make her own, she lays siege to him +by indulging and flattering him." That may be so in France, but it +certainly is not so in Russia. We do not carry out a programme like +that. With us, a woman is usually head over ears in love with an author +before she attempts to lay siege to him. You have an example before your +eyes, in me and Trigorin. + +SORIN comes in leaning on a cane, with NINA beside him. MEDVIEDENKO +follows, pushing an arm-chair. + +SORIN. [In a caressing voice, as if speaking to a child] So we are happy +now, eh? We are enjoying ourselves to-day, are we? Father and stepmother +have gone away to Tver, and we are free for three whole days! + +NINA. [Sits down beside ARKADINA, and embraces her] I am so happy. I +belong to you now. + +SORIN. [Sits down in his arm-chair] She looks lovely to-day. + +ARKADINA. Yes, she has put on her prettiest dress, and looks sweet. That +was nice of you. [She kisses NINA] But we mustn't praise her too much; +we shall spoil her. Where is Trigorin? + +NINA. He is fishing off the wharf. + +ARKADINA. I wonder he isn't bored. [She begins to read again.] + +NINA. What are you reading? + +ARKADINA. "On the Water," by Maupassant. [She reads a few lines to +herself] But the rest is neither true nor interesting. [She lays down +the book] I am uneasy about my son. Tell me, what is the matter with +him? Why is he so dull and depressed lately? He spends all his days on +the lake, and I scarcely ever see him any more. + +MASHA. His heart is heavy. [Timidly, to NINA] Please recite something +from his play. + +NINA. [Shrugging her shoulders] Shall I? Is it so interesting? + +MASHA. [With suppressed rapture] When he recites, his eyes shine and his +face grows pale. His voice is beautiful and sad, and he has the ways of +a poet. + +SORIN begins to snore. + +DORN. Pleasant dreams! + +ARKADINA. Peter! + +SORIN. Eh? + +ARKADINA. Are you asleep? + +SORIN. Not a bit of it. [A pause.] + +ARKADINA. You don't do a thing for your health, brother, but you really +ought to. + +DORN. The idea of doing anything for one's health at sixty-five! + +SORIN. One still wants to live at sixty-five. + +DORN. [Crossly] Ho! Take some camomile tea. + +ARKADINA. I think a journey to some watering-place would be good for +him. + +DORN. Why, yes; he might go as well as not. + +ARKADINA. You don't understand. + +DORN. There is nothing to understand in this case; it is quite clear. + +MEDVIEDENKO. He ought to give up smoking. + +SORIN. What nonsense! [A pause.] + +DORN. No, that is not nonsense. Wine and tobacco destroy the +individuality. After a cigar or a glass of vodka you are no longer Peter +Sorin, but Peter Sorin plus somebody else. Your ego breaks in two: you +begin to think of yourself in the third person. + +SORIN. It is easy for you to condemn smoking and drinking; you have +known what life is, but what about me? I have served in the Department +of Justice for twenty-eight years, but I have never lived, I have never +had any experiences. You are satiated with life, and that is why you +have an inclination for philosophy, but I want to live, and that is why +I drink my wine for dinner and smoke cigars, and all. + +DORN. One must take life seriously, and to take a cure at sixty-five +and regret that one did not have more pleasure in youth is, forgive my +saying so, trifling. + +MASHA. It must be lunch-time. [She walks away languidly, with a dragging +step] My foot has gone to sleep. + +DORN. She is going to have a couple of drinks before lunch. + +SORIN. The poor soul is unhappy. + +DORN. That is a trifle, your honour. + +SORIN. You judge her like a man who has obtained all he wants in life. + +ARKADINA. Oh, what could be duller than this dear tedium of the country? +The air is hot and still, nobody does anything but sit and philosophise +about life. It is pleasant, my friends, to sit and listen to you here, +but I had rather a thousand times sit alone in the room of a hotel +learning a role by heart. + +NINA. [With enthusiasm] You are quite right. I understand how you feel. + +SORIN. Of course it is pleasanter to live in town. One can sit in one's +library with a telephone at one's elbow, no one comes in without being +first announced by the footman, the streets are full of cabs, and all--- + +DORN. [Sings] + +"Tell her, oh flowers---" + +SHAMRAEFF comes in, followed by PAULINA. + +SHAMRAEFF. Here they are. How do you do? [He kisses ARKADINA'S hand and +then NINA'S] I am delighted to see you looking so well. [To ARKADINA] My +wife tells me that you mean to go to town with her to-day. Is that so? + +ARKADINA. Yes, that is what I had planned to do. + +SHAMRAEFF. Hm--that is splendid, but how do you intend to get there, +madam? We are hauling rye to-day, and all the men are busy. What horses +would you take? + +ARKADINA. What horses? How do I know what horses we shall have? + +SORIN. Why, we have the carriage horses. + +SHAMRAEFF. The carriage horses! And where am I to find the harness for +them? This is astonishing! My dear madam, I have the greatest respect +for your talents, and would gladly sacrifice ten years of my life for +you, but I cannot let you have any horses to-day. + +ARKADINA. But if I must go to town? What an extraordinary state of +affairs! + +SHAMRAEFF. You do not know, madam, what it is to run a farm. + +ARKADINA. [In a burst of anger] That is an old story! Under these +circumstances I shall go back to Moscow this very day. Order a carriage +for me from the village, or I shall go to the station on foot. + +SHAMRAEFF. [losing his temper] Under these circumstances I resign my +position. You must find yourself another manager. [He goes out.] + +ARKADINA. It is like this every summer: every summer I am insulted here. +I shall never set foot here again. + +She goes out to the left, in the direction of the wharf. In a few +minutes she is seen entering the house, followed by TRIGORIN, who +carries a bucket and fishing-rod. + +SORIN. [Losing his temper] What the deuce did he mean by his impudence? +I want all the horses brought here at once! + +NINA. [To PAULINA] How could he refuse anything to Madame Arkadina, the +famous actress? Is not every wish, every caprice even, of hers, more +important than any farm work? This is incredible. + +PAULINA. [In despair] What can I do about it? Put yourself in my place +and tell me what I can do. + +SORIN. [To NINA] Let us go and find my sister, and all beg her not to +go. [He looks in the direction in which SHAMRAEFF went out] That man is +insufferable; a regular tyrant. + +NINA. [Preventing him from getting up] Sit still, sit still, and let +us wheel you. [She and MEDVIEDENKO push the chair before them] This is +terrible! + +SORIN. Yes, yes, it is terrible; but he won't leave. I shall have a talk +with him in a moment. [They go out. Only DORN and PAULINA are left.] + +DORN. How tiresome people are! Your husband deserves to be thrown out of +here neck and crop, but it will all end by this old granny Sorin and his +sister asking the man's pardon. See if it doesn't. + +PAULINA. He has sent the carriage horses into the fields too. These +misunderstandings occur every day. If you only knew how they excite me! +I am ill; see! I am trembling all over! I cannot endure his rough ways. +[Imploringly] Eugene, my darling, my beloved, take me to you. Our time +is short; we are no longer young; let us end deception and concealment, +even though it is only at the end of our lives. [A pause.] + +DORN. I am fifty-five years old. It is too late now for me to change my +ways of living. + +PAULINA. I know that you refuse me because there are other women who are +near to you, and you cannot take everybody. I understand. Excuse me--I +see I am only bothering you. + +NINA is seen near the house picking a bunch of flowers. + +DORN. No, it is all right. + +PAULINA. I am tortured by jealousy. Of course you are a doctor and +cannot escape from women. I understand. + +DORN. [TO NINA, who comes toward him] How are things in there? + +NINA. Madame Arkadina is crying, and Sorin is having an attack of +asthma. + +DORN. Let us go and give them both some camomile tea. + +NINA. [Hands him the bunch of flowers] Here are some flowers for you. + +DORN. Thank you. [He goes into the house.] + +PAULINA. [Following him] What pretty flowers! [As they reach the house +she says in a low voice] Give me those flowers! Give them to me! + +DORN hands her the flowers; she tears them to pieces and flings them +away. They both go into the house. + +NINA. [Alone] How strange to see a famous actress weeping, and for +such a trifle! Is it not strange, too, that a famous author should sit +fishing all day? He is the idol of the public, the papers are full +of him, his photograph is for sale everywhere, his works have been +translated into many foreign languages, and yet he is overjoyed if he +catches a couple of minnows. I always thought famous people were distant +and proud; I thought they despised the common crowd which exalts +riches and birth, and avenged themselves on it by dazzling it with the +inextinguishable honour and glory of their fame. But here I see them +weeping and playing cards and flying into passions like everybody else. + +TREPLIEFF comes in without a hat on, carrying a gun and a dead seagull. + +TREPLIEFF. Are you alone here? + +NINA. Yes. + +TREPLIEFF lays the sea-gull at her feet. + +NINA. What do you mean by this? + +TREPLIEFF. I was base enough to-day to kill this gull. I lay it at your +feet. + +NINA. What is happening to you? [She picks up the gull and stands +looking at it.] + +TREPLIEFF. [After a pause] So shall I soon end my own life. + +NINA. You have changed so that I fail to recognise you. + +TREPLIEFF. Yes, I have changed since the time when I ceased to recognise +you. You have failed me; your look is cold; you do not like to have me +near you. + +NINA. You have grown so irritable lately, and you talk so darkly and +symbolically that you must forgive me if I fail to follow you. I am too +simple to understand you. + +TREPLIEFF. All this began when my play failed so dismally. A woman never +can forgive failure. I have burnt the manuscript to the last page. Oh, +if you could only fathom my unhappiness! Your estrangement is to me +terrible, incredible; it is as if I had suddenly waked to find this +lake dried up and sunk into the earth. You say you are too simple to +understand me; but, oh, what is there to understand? You disliked +my play, you have no faith in my powers, you already think of me as +commonplace and worthless, as many are. [Stamping his foot] How well +I can understand your feelings! And that understanding is to me like +a dagger in the brain. May it be accursed, together with my stupidity, +which sucks my life-blood like a snake! [He sees TRIGORIN, who +approaches reading a book] There comes real genius, striding along like +another Hamlet, and with a book, too. [Mockingly] "Words, words, words." +You feel the warmth of that sun already, you smile, your eyes melt and +glow liquid in its rays. I shall not disturb you. [He goes out.] + +TRIGORIN. [Making notes in his book] Takes snuff and drinks vodka; +always wears black dresses; is loved by a schoolteacher-- + +NINA. How do you do? + +TRIGORIN. How are you, Miss Nina? Owing to an unforeseen development of +circumstances, it seems that we are leaving here today. You and I shall +probably never see each other again, and I am sorry for it. I seldom +meet a young and pretty girl now; I can hardly remember how it feels +to be nineteen, and the young girls in my books are seldom living +characters. I should like to change places with you, if but for an hour, +to look out at the world through your eyes, and so find out what sort of +a little person you are. + +NINA. And I should like to change places with you. + +TRIGORIN. Why? + +NINA. To find out how a famous genius feels. What is it like to be +famous? What sensations does it give you? + +TRIGORIN. What sensations? I don't believe it gives any. [Thoughtfully] +Either you exaggerate my fame, or else, if it exists, all I can say is +that one simply doesn't feel fame in any way. + +NINA. But when you read about yourself in the papers? + +TRIGORIN. If the critics praise me, I am happy; if they condemn me, I am +out of sorts for the next two days. + +NINA. This is a wonderful world. If you only knew how I envy you! Men +are born to different destinies. Some dully drag a weary, useless life +behind them, lost in the crowd, unhappy, while to one out of a million, +as to you, for instance, comes a bright destiny full of interest and +meaning. You are lucky. + +TRIGORIN. I, lucky? [He shrugs his shoulders] H-m--I hear you talking +about fame, and happiness, and bright destinies, and those fine words of +yours mean as much to me--forgive my saying so--as sweetmeats do, which +I never eat. You are very young, and very kind. + +NINA. Your life is beautiful. + +TRIGORIN. I see nothing especially lovely about it. [He looks at his +watch] Excuse me, I must go at once, and begin writing again. I am in a +hurry. [He laughs] You have stepped on my pet corn, as they say, and I +am getting excited, and a little cross. Let us discuss this bright and +beautiful life of mine, though. [After a few moments' thought] Violent +obsessions sometimes lay hold of a man: he may, for instance, think day +and night of nothing but the moon. I have such a moon. Day and night I +am held in the grip of one besetting thought, to write, write, write! +Hardly have I finished one book than something urges me to write +another, and then a third, and then a fourth--I write ceaselessly. I am, +as it were, on a treadmill. I hurry for ever from one story to another, +and can't help myself. Do you see anything bright and beautiful in that? +Oh, it is a wild life! Even now, thrilled as I am by talking to you, I +do not forget for an instant that an unfinished story is awaiting me. My +eye falls on that cloud there, which has the shape of a grand piano; I +instantly make a mental note that I must remember to mention in my story +a cloud floating by that looked like a grand piano. I smell heliotrope; +I mutter to myself: a sickly smell, the colour worn by widows; I must +remember that in writing my next description of a summer evening. I +catch an idea in every sentence of yours or of my own, and hasten to +lock all these treasures in my literary store-room, thinking that some +day they may be useful to me. As soon as I stop working I rush off to +the theatre or go fishing, in the hope that I may find oblivion there, +but no! Some new subject for a story is sure to come rolling through my +brain like an iron cannonball. I hear my desk calling, and have to go +back to it and begin to write, write, write, once more. And so it +goes for everlasting. I cannot escape myself, though I feel that I am +consuming my life. To prepare the honey I feed to unknown crowds, I am +doomed to brush the bloom from my dearest flowers, to tear them from +their stems, and trample the roots that bore them under foot. Am I not +a madman? Should I not be treated by those who know me as one mentally +diseased? Yet it is always the same, same old story, till I begin to +think that all this praise and admiration must be a deception, that I am +being hoodwinked because they know I am crazy, and I sometimes tremble +lest I should be grabbed from behind and whisked off to a lunatic +asylum. The best years of my youth were made one continual agony for me +by my writing. A young author, especially if at first he does not make +a success, feels clumsy, ill-at-ease, and superfluous in the world. His +nerves are all on edge and stretched to the point of breaking; he is +irresistibly attracted to literary and artistic people, and hovers about +them unknown and unnoticed, fearing to look them bravely in the eye, +like a man with a passion for gambling, whose money is all gone. I +did not know my readers, but for some reason I imagined they were +distrustful and unfriendly; I was mortally afraid of the public, and +when my first play appeared, it seemed to me as if all the dark eyes in +the audience were looking at it with enmity, and all the blue ones with +cold indifference. Oh, how terrible it was! What agony! + +NINA. But don't your inspiration and the act of creation give you +moments of lofty happiness? + +TRIGORIN. Yes. Writing is a pleasure to me, and so is reading the +proofs, but no sooner does a book leave the press than it becomes odious +to me; it is not what I meant it to be; I made a mistake to write it at +all; I am provoked and discouraged. Then the public reads it and says: +"Yes, it is clever and pretty, but not nearly as good as Tolstoi," or +"It is a lovely thing, but not as good as Turgenieff's 'Fathers and +Sons,'" and so it will always be. To my dying day I shall hear people +say: "Clever and pretty; clever and pretty," and nothing more; and when +I am gone, those that knew me will say as they pass my grave: "Here lies +Trigorin, a clever writer, but he was not as good as Turgenieff." + +NINA. You must excuse me, but I decline to understand what you are +talking about. The fact is, you have been spoilt by your success. + +TRIGORIN. What success have I had? I have never pleased myself; as +a writer, I do not like myself at all. The trouble is that I am made +giddy, as it were, by the fumes of my brain, and often hardly know what +I am writing. I love this lake, these trees, the blue heaven; nature's +voice speaks to me and wakes a feeling of passion in my heart, and I +am overcome by an uncontrollable desire to write. But I am not only +a painter of landscapes, I am a man of the city besides. I love my +country, too, and her people; I feel that, as a writer, it is my duty to +speak of their sorrows, of their future, also of science, of the rights +of man, and so forth. So I write on every subject, and the public hounds +me on all sides, sometimes in anger, and I race and dodge like a fox +with a pack of hounds on his trail. I see life and knowledge flitting +away before me. I am left behind them like a peasant who has missed his +train at a station, and finally I come back to the conclusion that all +I am fit for is to describe landscapes, and that whatever else I attempt +rings abominably false. + +NINA. You work too hard to realise the importance of your writings. What +if you are discontented with yourself? To others you appear a great and +splendid man. If I were a writer like you I should devote my whole life +to the service of the Russian people, knowing at the same time that +their welfare depended on their power to rise to the heights I had +attained, and the people should send me before them in a chariot of +triumph. + +TRIGORIN. In a chariot? Do you think I am Agamemnon? [They both smile.] + +NINA. For the bliss of being a writer or an actress I could endure want, +and disillusionment, and the hatred of my friends, and the pangs of my +own dissatisfaction with myself; but I should demand in return fame, +real, resounding fame! [She covers her face with her hands] Whew! My +head reels! + +THE VOICE OF ARKADINA. [From inside the house] Boris! Boris! + +TRIGORIN. She is calling me, probably to come and pack, but I don't want +to leave this place. [His eyes rest on the lake] What a blessing such +beauty is! + +NINA. Do you see that house there, on the far shore? + +TRIGORIN. Yes. + +NINA. That was my dead mother's home. I was born there, and have lived +all my life beside this lake. I know every little island in it. + +TRIGORIN. This is a beautiful place to live. [He catches sight of the +dead sea-gull] What is that? + +NINA. A gull. Constantine shot it. + +TRIGORIN. What a lovely bird! Really, I can't bear to go away. Can't you +persuade Irina to stay? [He writes something in his note-book.] + +NINA. What are you writing? + +TRIGORIN. Nothing much, only an idea that occurred to me. [He puts the +book back in his pocket] An idea for a short story. A young girl grows +up on the shores of a lake, as you have. She loves the lake as the gulls +do, and is as happy and free as they. But a man sees her who chances to +come that way, and he destroys her out of idleness, as this gull here +has been destroyed. [A pause. ARKADINA appears at one of the windows.] + +ARKADINA. Boris! Where are you? + +TRIGORIN. I am coming this minute. + +He goes toward the house, looking back at NINA. ARKADINA remains at the +window. + +TRIGORIN. What do you want? + +ARKADINA. We are not going away, after all. + +TRIGORIN goes into the house. NINA comes forward and stands lost in +thought. + +NINA. It is a dream! + +The curtain falls. + + + + +ACT III + +_The dining-room of SORIN'S house. Doors open out of it to the right +and left. A table stands in the centre of the room. Trunks and boxes +encumber the floor, and preparations for departure are evident. TRIGORIN +is sitting at a table eating his breakfast, and MASHA is standing beside +him_. + +MASHA. I am telling you all these things because you write books and +they may be useful to you. I tell you honestly, I should not have lived +another day if he had wounded himself fatally. Yet I am courageous; I +have decided to tear this love of mine out of my heart by the roots. + +TRIGORIN. How will you do it? + +MASHA. By marrying Medviedenko. + +TRIGORIN. The school-teacher? + +MASHA. Yes. + +TRIGORIN. I don't see the necessity for that. + +MASHA. Oh, if you knew what it is to love without hope for years and +years, to wait for ever for something that will never come! I shall not +marry for love, but marriage will at least be a change, and will bring +new cares to deaden the memories of the past. Shall we have another +drink? + +TRIGORIN. Haven't you had enough? + +MASHA. Fiddlesticks! [She fills a glass] Don't look at me with that +expression on your face. Women drink oftener than you imagine, but most +of them do it in secret, and not openly, as I do. They do indeed, and +it is always either vodka or brandy. [They touch glasses] To your good +health! You are so easy to get on with that I am sorry to see you go. +[They drink.] + +TRIGORIN. And I am sorry to leave. + +MASHA. You should ask her to stay. + +TRIGORIN. She would not do that now. Her son has been behaving +outrageously. First he attempted suicide, and now I hear he is going +to challenge me to a duel, though what his provocation may be I can't +imagine. He is always sulking and sneering and preaching about a new +form of art, as if the field of art were not large enough to accommodate +both old and new without the necessity of jostling. + +MASHA. It is jealousy. However, that is none of my business. [A pause. +JACOB walks through the room carrying a trunk; NINA comes in and stands +by the window] That schoolteacher of mine is none too clever, but he +is very good, poor man, and he loves me dearly, and I am sorry for him. +However, let me say good-bye and wish you a pleasant journey. Remember +me kindly in your thoughts. [She shakes hands with him] Thanks for your +goodwill. Send me your books, and be sure to write something in them; +nothing formal, but simply this: "To Masha, who, forgetful of her +origin, for some unknown reason is living in this world." Good-bye. [She +goes out.] + +NINA. [Holding out her closed hand to TRIGORIN] Is it odd or even? + +TRIGORIN. Even. + +NINA. [With a sigh] No, it is odd. I had only one pea in my hand. I +wanted to see whether I was to become an actress or not. If only some +one would advise me what to do! + +TRIGORIN. One cannot give advice in a case like this. [A pause.] + +NINA. We shall soon part, perhaps never to meet again. I should like you +to accept this little medallion as a remembrance of me. I have had your +initials engraved on it, and on this side is the name of one of your +books: "Days and Nights." + +TRIGORIN. How sweet of you! [He kisses the medallion] It is a lovely +present. + +NINA. Think of me sometimes. + +TRIGORIN. I shall never forget you. I shall always remember you as I saw +you that bright day--do you recall it?--a week ago, when you wore your +light dress, and we talked together, and the white seagull lay on the +bench beside us. + +NINA. [Lost in thought] Yes, the sea-gull. [A pause] I beg you to let me +see you alone for two minutes before you go. + +She goes out to the left. At the same moment ARKADINA comes in from the +right, followed by SORIN in a long coat, with his orders on his breast, +and by JACOB, who is busy packing. + +ARKADINA. Stay here at home, you poor old man. How could you pay visits +with that rheumatism of yours? [To TRIGORIN] Who left the room just now, +was it Nina? + +TRIGORIN. Yes. + +ARKADINA. I beg your pardon; I am afraid we interrupted you. [She sits +down] I think everything is packed. I am absolutely exhausted. + +TRIGORIN. [Reading the inscription on the medallion] "Days and Nights, +page 121, lines 11 and 12." + +JACOB. [Clearing the table] Shall I pack your fishing-rods, too, sir? + +TRIGORIN. Yes, I shall need them, but you can give my books away. + +JACOB. Very well, sir. + +TRIGORIN. [To himself] Page 121, lines 11 and 12. [To ARKADINA] Have we +my books here in the house? + +ARKADINA. Yes, they are in my brother's library, in the corner cupboard. + +TRIGORIN. Page 121--[He goes out.] + +SORIN. You are going away, and I shall be lonely without you. + +ARKADINA. What would you do in town? + +SORIN. Oh, nothing in particular, but somehow--[He laughs] They are soon +to lay the corner-stone of the new court-house here. How I should like +to leap out of this minnow-pond, if but for an hour or two! I am tired +of lying here like an old cigarette stump. I have ordered the carriage +for one o'clock. We can go away together. + +ARKADINA. [After a pause] No, you must stay here. Don't be lonely, and +don't catch cold. Keep an eye on my boy. Take good care of him; guide +him along the proper paths. [A pause] I am going away, and so shall +never find out why Constantine shot himself, but I think the chief +reason was jealousy, and the sooner I take Trigorin away, the better. + +SORIN. There were--how shall I explain it to you?--other reasons besides +jealousy for his act. Here is a clever young chap living in the depths +of the country, without money or position, with no future ahead of him, +and with nothing to do. He is ashamed and afraid of being so idle. I am +devoted to him and he is fond of me, but nevertheless he feels that he +is useless here, that he is little more than a dependent in this house. +It is the pride in him. + +ARKADINA. He is a misery to me! [Thoughtfully] He might possibly enter +the army. + +SORIN. [Gives a whistle, and then speaks with hesitation] It seems to +me that the best thing for him would be if you were to let him have +a little money. For one thing, he ought to be allowed to dress like a +human being. See how he looks! Wearing the same little old coat that +he has had for three years, and he doesn't even possess an overcoat! +[Laughing] And it wouldn't hurt the youngster to sow a few wild oats; +let him go abroad, say, for a time. It wouldn't cost much. + +ARKADINA. Yes, but--However, I think I might manage about his clothes, +but I couldn't let him go abroad. And no, I don't think I can let him +have his clothes even, now. [Decidedly] I have no money at present. + +SORIN laughs. + +ARKADINA. I haven't indeed. + +SORIN. [Whistles] Very well. Forgive me, darling; don't be angry. You +are a noble, generous woman! + +ARKADINA. [Weeping] I really haven't the money. + +SORIN. If I had any money of course I should let him have some myself, +but I haven't even a penny. The farm manager takes my pension from me +and puts it all into the farm or into cattle or bees, and in that way it +is always lost for ever. The bees die, the cows die, they never let me +have a horse. + +ARKADINA. Of course I have some money, but I am an actress and my +expenses for dress alone are enough to bankrupt me. + +SORIN. You are a dear, and I am very fond of you, indeed I am. But +something is the matter with me again. [He staggers] I feel giddy. [He +leans against the table] I feel faint, and all. + +ARKADINA. [Frightened ] Peter! [She tries to support him] Peter! +dearest! [She calls] Help! Help! + +TREPLIEFF and MEDVIEDENKO come in; TREPLIEFF has a bandage around his +head. + +ARKADINA. He is fainting! + +SORIN. I am all right. [He smiles and drinks some water] It is all over +now. + +TREPLIEFF. [To his mother] Don't be frightened, mother, these attacks +are not dangerous; my uncle often has them now. [To his uncle] You must +go and lie down, Uncle. + +SORIN. Yes, I think I shall, for a few minutes. I am going to Moscow +all the same, but I shall lie down a bit before I start. [He goes out +leaning on his cane.] + +MEDVIEDENKO. [Giving him his arm] Do you know this riddle? On four legs +in the morning; on two legs at noon; and on three legs in the evening? + +SORIN. [Laughing] Yes, exactly, and on one's back at night. Thank you, I +can walk alone. + +MEDVIEDENKO. Dear me, what formality! [He and SORIN go out.] + +ARKADINA. He gave me a dreadful fright. + +TREPLIEFF. It is not good for him to live in the country. Mother, if you +would only untie your purse-strings for once, and lend him a thousand +roubles! He could then spend a whole year in town. + +ARKADINA. I have no money. I am an actress and not a banker. [A pause.] + +TREPLIEFF. Please change my bandage for me, mother, you do it so gently. + +ARKADINA goes to the cupboard and takes out a box of bandages and a +bottle of iodoform. + +ARKADINA. The doctor is late. + +TREPLIEFF. Yes, he promised to be here at nine, and now it is noon +already. + +ARKADINA. Sit down. [She takes the bandage off his head] You look as if +you had a turban on. A stranger that was in the kitchen yesterday asked +to what nationality you belonged. Your wound is almost healed. [She +kisses his head] You won't be up to any more of these silly tricks +again, will you, when I am gone? + +TREPLIEFF. No, mother. I did that in a moment of insane despair, when I +had lost all control over myself. It will never happen again. [He kisses +her hand] Your touch is golden. I remember when you were still acting at +the State Theatre, long ago, when I was still a little chap, there was a +fight one day in our court, and a poor washerwoman was almost beaten to +death. She was picked up unconscious, and you nursed her till she was +well, and bathed her children in the washtubs. Have you forgotten it? + +ARKADINA. Yes, entirely. [She puts on a new bandage.] + +TREPLIEFF. Two ballet dancers lived in the same house, and they used to +come and drink coffee with you. + +ARKADINA. I remember that. + +TREPLIEFF. They were very pious. [A pause] I love you again, these last +few days, as tenderly and trustingly as I did as a child. I have no one +left me now but you. Why, why do you let yourself be controlled by that +man? + +ARKADINA. You don't understand him, Constantine. He has a wonderfully +noble personality. + +TREPLIEFF. Nevertheless, when he has been told that I wish to challenge +him to a duel his nobility does not prevent him from playing the coward. +He is about to beat an ignominious retreat. + +ARKADINA. What nonsense! I have asked him myself to go. + +TREPLIEFF. A noble personality indeed! Here we are almost quarrelling +over him, and he is probably in the garden laughing at us at this very +moment, or else enlightening Nina's mind and trying to persuade her into +thinking him a man of genius. + +ARKADINA. You enjoy saying unpleasant things to me. I have the greatest +respect for that man, and I must ask you not to speak ill of him in my +presence. + +TREPLIEFF. I have no respect for him at all. You want me to think him a +genius, as you do, but I refuse to lie: his books make me sick. + +ARKADINA. You envy him. There is nothing left for people with no talent +and mighty pretensions to do but to criticise those who are really +gifted. I hope you enjoy the consolation it brings. + +TREPLIEFF. [With irony] Those who are really gifted, indeed! [Angrily] I +am cleverer than any of you, if it comes to that! [He tears the bandage +off his head] You are the slaves of convention, you have seized the +upper hand and now lay down as law everything that you do; all else you +strangle and trample on. I refuse to accept your point of view, yours +and his, I refuse! + +ARKADINA. That is the talk of a decadent. + +TREPLIEFF. Go back to your beloved stage and act the miserable +ditch-water plays you so much admire! + +ARKADINA. I never acted in a play like that in my life. You couldn't +write even the trashiest music-hall farce, you idle good-for-nothing! + +TREPLIEFF. Miser! + +ARKADINA. Rag-bag! + +TREPLIEFF sits down and begins to cry softly. + +ARKADINA. [Walking up and down in great excitement] Don't cry! You +mustn't cry! [She bursts into tears] You really mustn't. [She kisses his +forehead, his cheeks, his head] My darling child, forgive me. Forgive +your wicked mother. + +TREPLIEFF. [Embracing her] Oh, if you could only know what it is to have +lost everything under heaven! She does not love me. I see I shall never +be able to write. Every hope has deserted me. + +ARKADINA. Don't despair. This will all pass. He is going away to-day, +and she will love you once more. [She wipes away his tears] Stop crying. +We have made peace again. + +TREPLIEFF. [Kissing her hand] Yes, mother. + +ARKADINA. [Tenderly] Make your peace with him, too. Don't fight with +him. You surely won't fight? + +TREPLIEFF. I won't, but you must not insist on my seeing him again, +mother, I couldn't stand it. [TRIGORIN comes in] There he is; I am +going. [He quickly puts the medicines away in the cupboard] The doctor +will attend to my head. + +TRIGORIN. [Looking through the pages of a book] Page 121, lines 11 and +12; here it is. [He reads] "If at any time you should have need of my +life, come and take it." + +TREPLIEFF picks up the bandage off the floor and goes out. + +ARKADINA. [Looking at her watch] The carriage will soon be here. + +TRIGORIN. [To himself] If at any time you should have need of my life, +come and take it. + +ARKADINA. I hope your things are all packed. + +TRIGORIN. [Impatiently] Yes, yes. [In deep thought] Why do I hear a note +of sadness that wrings my heart in this cry of a pure soul? If at any +time you should have need of my life, come and take it. [To ARKADINA] +Let us stay here one more day! + +ARKADINA shakes her head. + +TRIGORIN. Do let us stay! + +ARKADINA. I know, dearest, what keeps you here, but you must control +yourself. Be sober; your emotions have intoxicated you a little. + +TRIGORIN. You must be sober, too. Be sensible; look upon what has +happened as a true friend would. [Taking her hand] You are capable of +self-sacrifice. Be a friend to me and release me! + +ARKADINA. [In deep excitement] Are you so much in love? + +TRIGORIN. I am irresistibly impelled toward her. It may be that this is +just what I need. + +ARKADINA. What, the love of a country girl? Oh, how little you know +yourself! + +TRIGORIN. People sometimes walk in their sleep, and so I feel as if +I were asleep, and dreaming of her as I stand here talking to you. My +imagination is shaken by the sweetest and most glorious visions. Release +me! + +ARKADINA. [Shuddering] No, no! I am only an ordinary woman; you must not +say such things to me. Do not torment me, Boris; you frighten me. + +TRIGORIN. You could be an extraordinary woman if you only would. Love +alone can bring happiness on earth, love the enchanting, the poetical +love of youth, that sweeps away the sorrows of the world. I had no time +for it when I was young and struggling with want and laying siege to the +literary fortress, but now at last this love has come to me. I see it +beckoning; why should I fly? + +ARKADINA. [With anger] You are mad! + +TRIGORIN. Release me. + +ARKADINA. You have all conspired together to torture me to-day. [She +weeps.] + +TRIGORIN. [Clutching his head desperately] She doesn't understand me! +She won't understand me! + +ARKADINA. Am I then so old and ugly already that you can talk to me like +this without any shame about another woman? [She embraces and kisses +him] Oh, you have lost your senses! My splendid, my glorious friend, my +love for you is the last chapter of my life. [She falls on her knees] +You are my pride, my joy, my light. [She embraces his knees] I could +never endure it should you desert me, if only for an hour; I should go +mad. Oh, my wonder, my marvel, my king! + +TRIGORIN. Some one might come in. [He helps her to rise.] + +ARKADINA. Let them come! I am not ashamed of my love. [She kisses his +hands] My jewel! My despair! You want to do a foolish thing, but I don't +want you to do it. I shan't let you do it! [She laughs] You are mine, +you are mine! This forehead is mine, these eyes are mine, this silky +hair is mine. All your being is mine. You are so clever, so wise, the +first of all living writers; you are the only hope of your country. You +are so fresh, so simple, so deeply humourous. You can bring out every +feature of a man or of a landscape in a single line, and your characters +live and breathe. Do you think that these words are but the incense of +flattery? Do you think I am not speaking the truth? Come, look into my +eyes; look deep; do you find lies there? No, you see that I alone know +how to treasure you. I alone tell you the truth. Oh, my very dear, you +will go with me? You will? You will not forsake me? + +TRIGORIN. I have no will of my own; I never had. I am too indolent, too +submissive, too phlegmatic, to have any. Is it possible that women like +that? Take me. Take me away with you, but do not let me stir a step from +your side. + +ARKADINA. [To herself] Now he is mine! [Carelessly, as if nothing +unusual had happened] Of course you must stay here if you really want +to. I shall go, and you can follow in a week's time. Yes, really, why +should you hurry away? + +TRIGORIN. Let us go together. + +ARKADINA. As you like. Let us go together then. [A pause. TRIGORIN +writes something in his note-book] What are you writing? + +TRIGORIN. A happy expression I heard this morning: "A grove of maiden +pines." It may be useful. [He yawns] So we are really off again, +condemned once more to railway carriages, to stations and restaurants, +to Hamburger steaks and endless arguments! + +SHAMRAEFF comes in. + +SHAMRAEFF. I am sorry to have to inform you that your carriage is at the +door. It is time to start, honoured madam, the train leaves at two-five. +Would you be kind enough, madam, to remember to inquire for me where +Suzdaltzeff the actor is now? Is he still alive, I wonder? Is he well? +He and I have had many a jolly time together. He was inimitable in "The +Stolen Mail." A tragedian called Izmailoff was in the same company, I +remember, who was also quite remarkable. Don't hurry, madam, you still +have five minutes. They were both of them conspirators once, in the +same melodrama, and one night when in the course of the play they were +suddenly discovered, instead of saying "We have been trapped!" Izmailoff +cried out: "We have been rapped!" [He laughs] Rapped! + +While he has been talking JACOB has been busy with the trunks, and the +maid has brought ARKADINA her hat, coat, parasol, and gloves. The cook +looks hesitatingly through the door on the right, and finally comes into +the room. PAULINA comes in. MEDVIEDENKO comes in. + +PAULINA. [Presenting ARKADINA with a little basket] Here are some +plums for the journey. They are very sweet ones. You may want to nibble +something good on the way. + +ARKADINA. You are very kind, Paulina. + +PAULINA. Good-bye, my dearie. If things have not been quite as you could +have wished, please forgive us. [She weeps.] + +ARKADINA. It has been delightful, delightful. You mustn't cry. + +SORIN comes in through the door on the left, dressed in a long coat with +a cape, and carrying his hat and cane. He crosses the room. + +SORIN. Come, sister, it is time to start, unless you want to miss the +train. I am going to get into the carriage. [He goes out.] + +MEDVIEDENKO. I shall walk quickly to the station and see you off there. +[He goes out.] + +ARKADINA. Good-bye, all! We shall meet again next summer if we live. +[The maid servant, JACOB, and the cook kiss her hand] Don't forget me. +[She gives the cook a rouble] There is a rouble for all three of you. + +THE COOK. Thank you, mistress; a pleasant journey to you. + +JACOB. God bless you, mistress. + +SHAMRAEFF. Send us a line to cheer us up. [TO TRIGORIN] Good-bye, sir. + +ARKADINA. Where is Constantine? Tell him I am starting. I must say +good-bye to him. [To JACOB] I gave the cook a rouble for all three of +you. + +All go out through the door on the right. The stage remains empty. +Sounds of farewell are heard. The maid comes running back to fetch the +basket of plums which has been forgotten. TRIGORIN comes back. + +TRIGORIN. I had forgotten my cane. I think I left it on the terrace. [He +goes toward the door on the right and meets NINA, who comes in at that +moment] Is that you? We are off. + +NINA. I knew we should meet again. [With emotion] I have come to an +irrevocable decision, the die is cast: I am going on the stage. I am +deserting my father and abandoning everything. I am beginning life anew. +I am going, as you are, to Moscow. We shall meet there. + +TRIGORIN. [Glancing about him] Go to the Hotel Slavianski Bazar. Let +me know as soon as you get there. I shall be at the Grosholski House in +Moltchanofka Street. I must go now. [A pause.] + +NINA. Just one more minute! + +TRIGORIN. [In a low voice] You are so beautiful! What bliss to think +that I shall see you again so soon! [She sinks on his breast] I shall +see those glorious eyes again, that wonderful, ineffably tender smile, +those gentle features with their expression of angelic purity! My +darling! [A prolonged kiss.] + +The curtain falls. + +Two years elapse between the third and fourth acts. + + + + +ACT IV + +_A sitting-room in SORIN'S house, which has been converted into a +writing-room for TREPLIEFF. To the right and left are doors leading into +inner rooms, and in the centre is a glass door opening onto a terrace. +Besides the usual furniture of a sitting-room there is a writing-desk +in the right-hand corner of the room. There is a Turkish divan near the +door on the left, and shelves full of books stand against the walls. +Books are lying scattered about on the windowsills and chairs. It is +evening. The room is dimly lighted by a shaded lamp on a table. The wind +moans in the tree tops and whistles down the chimney. The watchman in +the garden is heard sounding his rattle. MEDVIEDENKO and MASHA come in_. + +MASHA. [Calling TREPLIEFF] Mr. Constantine, where are you? [Looking +about her] There is no one here. His old uncle is forever asking for +Constantine, and can't live without him for an instant. + +MEDVIEDENKO. He dreads being left alone. [Listening to the wind] This is +a wild night. We have had this storm for two days. + +MASHA. [Turning up the lamp] The waves on the lake are enormous. + +MEDVIEDENKO. It is very dark in the garden. Do you know, I think that +old theatre ought to be knocked down. It is still standing there, naked +and hideous as a skeleton, with the curtain flapping in the wind. I +thought I heard a voice weeping in it as I passed there last night. + +MASHA. What an idea! [A pause.] + +MEDVIEDENKO. Come home with me, Masha. + +MASHA. [Shaking her head] I shall spend the night here. + +MEDVIEDENKO. [Imploringly] Do come, Masha. The baby must be hungry. + +MASHA. Nonsense, Matriona will feed it. [A pause.] + +MEDVIEDENKO. It is a pity to leave him three nights without his mother. + +MASHA. You are getting too tiresome. You used sometimes to talk of other +things besides home and the baby, home and the baby. That is all I ever +hear from you now. + +MEDVIEDENKO. Come home, Masha. + +MASHA. You can go home if you want to. + +MEDVIEDENKO. Your father won't give me a horse. + +MASHA. Yes, he will; ask him. + +MEDVIEDENKO. I think I shall. Are you coming home to-morrow? + +MASHA. Yes, yes, to-morrow. + +She takes snuff. TREPLIEFF and PAULINA come in. TREPLIEFF is carrying +some pillows and a blanket, and PAULINA is carrying sheets and pillow +cases. They lay them on the divan, and TREPLIEFF goes and sits down at +his desk. + +MASHA. Who is that for, mother? + +PAULINA. Mr. Sorin asked to sleep in Constantine's room to-night. + +MASHA. Let me make the bed. + +She makes the bed. PAULINA goes up to the desk and looks at the +manuscripts lying on it. [A pause.] + +MEDVIEDENKO. Well, I am going. Good-bye, Masha. [He kisses his wife's +hand] Good-bye, mother. [He tries to kiss his mother-in-law's hand.] + +PAULINA. [Crossly] Be off, in God's name! + +TREPLIEFF shakes hands with him in silence, and MEDVIEDENKO goes out. + +PAULINA. [Looking at the manuscripts] No one ever dreamed, Constantine, +that you would one day turn into a real author. The magazines pay you +well for your stories. [She strokes his hair.] You have grown handsome, +too. Dear, kind Constantine, be a little nicer to my Masha. + +MASHA. [Still making the bed] Leave him alone, mother. + +PAULINA. She is a sweet child. [A pause] A woman, Constantine, asks only +for kind looks. I know that from experience. + +TREPLIEFF gets up from his desk and goes out without a word. + +MASHA. There now! You have vexed him. I told you not to bother him. + +PAULINA. I am sorry for you, Masha. + +MASHA. Much I need your pity! + +PAULINA. My heart aches for you. I see how things are, and understand. + +MASHA. You see what doesn't exist. Hopeless love is only found in +novels. It is a trifle; all one has to do is to keep a tight rein on +oneself, and keep one's head clear. Love must be plucked out the moment +it springs up in the heart. My husband has been promised a school in +another district, and when we have once left this place I shall forget +it all. I shall tear my passion out by the roots. [The notes of a +melancholy waltz are heard in the distance.] + +PAULINA. Constantine is playing. That means he is sad. + +MASHA silently waltzes a few turns to the music. + +MASHA. The great thing, mother, is not to have him continually in sight. +If my Simon could only get his remove I should forget it all in a month +or two. It is a trifle. + +DORN and MEDVIEDENKO come in through the door on the left, wheeling +SORIN in an arm-chair. + +MEDVIEDENKO. I have six mouths to feed now, and flour is at seventy +kopecks. + +DORN. A hard riddle to solve! + +MEDVIEDENKO. It is easy for you to make light of it. You are rich enough +to scatter money to your chickens, if you wanted to. + +DORN. You think I am rich? My friend, after practising for thirty years, +during which I could not call my soul my own for one minute of the night +or day, I succeeded at last in scraping together one thousand roubles, +all of which went, not long ago, in a trip which I took abroad. I +haven't a penny. + +MASHA. [To her husband] So you didn't go home after all? + +MEDVIEDENKO. [Apologetically] How can I go home when they won't give me +a horse? + +MASHA. [Under her breath, with bitter anger] Would I might never see +your face again! + +SORIN in his chair is wheeled to the left-hand side of the room. +PAULINA, MASHA, and DORN sit down beside him. MEDVIEDENKO stands sadly +aside. + +DORN. What a lot of changes you have made here! You have turned this +sitting-room into a library. + +MASHA. Constantine likes to work in this room, because from it he can +step out into the garden to meditate whenever he feels like it. [The +watchman's rattle is heard.] + +SORIN. Where is my sister? + +DORN. She has gone to the station to meet Trigorin. She will soon be +back. + +SORIN. I must be dangerously ill if you had to send for my sister. +[He falls silent for a moment] A nice business this is! Here I am +dangerously ill, and you won't even give me any medicine. + +DORN. What shall I prescribe for you? Camomile tea? Soda? Quinine? + +SORIN. Don't inflict any of your discussions on me again. [He nods +toward the sofa] Is that bed for me? + +PAULINA. Yes, for you, sir. + +SORIN. Thank you. + +DORN. [Sings] "The moon swims in the sky to-night." + +SORIN. I am going to give Constantine an idea for a story. It shall be +called "The Man Who Wished--L'Homme qui a voulu." When I was young, I +wished to become an author; I failed. I wished to be an orator; I speak +abominably, [Exciting himself] with my eternal "and all, and all," +dragging each sentence on and on until I sometimes break out into a +sweat all over. I wished to marry, and I didn't; I wished to live in the +city, and here I am ending my days in the country, and all. + +DORN. You wished to become State Councillor, and--you are one! + +SORIN. [Laughing] I didn't try for that, it came of its own accord. + +DORN. Come, you must admit that it is petty to cavil at life at +sixty-two years of age. + +SORIN. You are pig-headed! Can't you see I want to live? + +DORN. That is futile. Nature has commanded that every life shall come to +an end. + +SORIN. You speak like a man who is satiated with life. Your thirst for +it is quenched, and so you are calm and indifferent, but even you dread +death. + +DORN. The fear of death is an animal passion which must be overcome. +Only those who believe in a future life and tremble for sins committed, +can logically fear death; but you, for one thing, don't believe in a +future life, and for another, you haven't committed any sins. You have +served as a Councillor for twenty-five years, that is all. + +SORIN. [Laughing] Twenty-eight years! + +TREPLIEFF comes in and sits down on a stool at SORIN'S feet. MASHA fixes +her eyes on his face and never once tears them away. + +DORN. We are keeping Constantine from his work. + +TREPLIEFF. No matter. [A pause.] + +MEDVIEDENKO. Of all the cities you visited when you were abroad, Doctor, +which one did you like the best? + +DORN. Genoa. + +TREPLIEFF. Why Genoa? + +DORN. Because there is such a splendid crowd in its streets. When you +leave the hotel in the evening, and throw yourself into the heart of +that throng, and move with it without aim or object, swept along, hither +and thither, their life seems to be yours, their soul flows into you, +and you begin to believe at last in a great world spirit, like the one +in your play that Nina Zarietchnaya acted. By the way, where is Nina +now? Is she well? + +TREPLIEFF. I believe so. + +DORN. I hear she has led rather a strange life; what happened? + +TREPLIEFF. It is a long story, Doctor. + +DORN. Tell it shortly. [A pause.] + +TREPLIEFF. She ran away from home and joined Trigorin; you know that? + +DORN. Yes. + +TREPLIEFF. She had a child that died. Trigorin soon tired of her and +returned to his former ties, as might have been expected. He had +never broken them, indeed, but out of weakness of character had always +vacillated between the two. As far as I can make out from what I have +heard, Nina's domestic life has not been altogether a success. + +DORN. What about her acting? + +TREPLIEFF. I believe she made an even worse failure of that. She made +her debut on the stage of the Summer Theatre in Moscow, and afterward +made a tour of the country towns. At that time I never let her out of my +sight, and wherever she went I followed. She always attempted great +and difficult parts, but her delivery was harsh and monotonous, and her +gestures heavy and crude. She shrieked and died well at times, but those +were but moments. + +DORN. Then she really has a talent for acting? + +TREPLIEFF. I never could make out. I believe she has. I saw her, but she +refused to see me, and her servant would never admit me to her rooms. I +appreciated her feelings, and did not insist upon a meeting. [A pause] +What more can I tell you? She sometimes writes to me now that I have +come home, such clever, sympathetic letters, full of warm feeling. She +never complains, but I can tell that she is profoundly unhappy; not a +line but speaks to me of an aching, breaking nerve. She has one strange +fancy; she always signs herself "The Sea-gull." The miller in "Rusalka" +called himself "The Crow," and so she repeats in all her letters that +she is a sea-gull. She is here now. + +DORN. What do you mean by "here?" + +TREPLIEFF. In the village, at the inn. She has been there for five days. +I should have gone to see her, but Masha here went, and she refuses to +see any one. Some one told me she had been seen wandering in the fields +a mile from here yesterday evening. + +MEDVIEDENKO. Yes, I saw her. She was walking away from here in the +direction of the village. I asked her why she had not been to see us. +She said she would come. + +TREPLIEFF. But she won't. [A pause] Her father and stepmother have +disowned her. They have even put watchmen all around their estate to +keep her away. [He goes with the doctor toward the desk] How easy it is, +Doctor, to be a philosopher on paper, and how difficult in real life! + +SORIN. She was a beautiful girl. Even the State Councillor himself was +in love with her for a time. + +DORN. You old Lovelace, you! + +SHAMRAEFF'S laugh is heard. + +PAULINA. They are coming back from the station. + +TREPLIEFF. Yes, I hear my mother's voice. + +ARKADINA and TRIGORIN come in, followed by SHAMRAEFF. + +SHAMRAEFF. We all grow old and wither, my lady, while you alone, with +your light dress, your gay spirits, and your grace, keep the secret of +eternal youth. + +ARKADINA. You are still trying to turn my head, you tiresome old man. + +TRIGORIN. [To SORIN] How do you do, Peter? What, still ill? How silly of +you! [With evident pleasure, as he catches sight of MASHA] How are you, +Miss Masha? + +MASHA. So you recognised me? [She shakes hands with him.] + +TRIGORIN. Did you marry him? + +MASHA. Long ago. + +TRIGORIN. You are happy now? [He bows to DORN and MEDVIEDENKO, and then +goes hesitatingly toward TREPLIEFF] Your mother says you have forgotten +the past and are no longer angry with me. + +TREPLIEFF gives him his hand. + +ARKADINA. [To her son] Here is a magazine that Boris has brought you +with your latest story in it. + +TREPLIEFF. [To TRIGORIN, as he takes the magazine] Many thanks; you are +very kind. + +TRIGORIN. Your admirers all send you their regards. Every one in Moscow +and St. Petersburg is interested in you, and all ply me with questions +about you. They ask me what you look like, how old you are, whether you +are fair or dark. For some reason they all think that you are no longer +young, and no one knows who you are, as you always write under an +assumed name. You are as great a mystery as the Man in the Iron Mask. + +TREPLIEFF. Do you expect to be here long? + +TRIGORIN. No, I must go back to Moscow to-morrow. I am finishing another +novel, and have promised something to a magazine besides. In fact, it is +the same old business. + +During their conversation ARKADINA and PAULINA have put up a card-table +in the centre of the room; SHAMRAEFF lights the candles and arranges the +chairs, then fetches a box of lotto from the cupboard. + +TRIGORIN. The weather has given me a rough welcome. The wind is +frightful. If it goes down by morning I shall go fishing in the +lake, and shall have a look at the garden and the spot--do you +remember?--where your play was given. I remember the piece very well, +but should like to see again where the scene was laid. + +MASHA. [To her father] Father, do please let my husband have a horse. He +ought to go home. + +SHAMRAEFF. [Angrily] A horse to go home with! [Sternly] You know the +horses have just been to the station. I can't send them out again. + +MASHA. But there are other horses. [Seeing that her father remains +silent] You are impossible! + +MEDVIEDENKO. I shall go on foot, Masha. + +PAULINA. [With a sigh] On foot in this weather? [She takes a seat at the +card-table] Shall we begin? + +MEDVIEDENKO. It is only six miles. Good-bye. [He kisses his wife's +hand;] Good-bye, mother. [His mother-in-law gives him her hand +unwillingly] I should not have troubled you all, but the baby--[He bows +to every one] Good-bye. [He goes out with an apologetic air.] + +SHAMRAEFF. He will get there all right, he is not a major-general. + +PAULINA. Come, let us begin. Don't let us waste time, we shall soon be +called to supper. + +SHAMRAEFF, MASHA, and DORN sit down at the card-table. + +ARKADINA. [To TRIGORIN] When the long autumn evenings descend on us we +while away the time here by playing lotto. Look at this old set; we used +it when our mother played with us as children. Don't you want to take a +hand in the game with us until supper time? [She and TRIGORIN sit down +at the table] It is a monotonous game, but it is all right when one gets +used to it. [She deals three cards to each of the players.] + +TREPLIEFF. [Looking through the pages of the magazine] He has read his +own story, and hasn't even cut the pages of mine. + +He lays the magazine on his desk and goes toward the door on the right, +stopping as he passes his mother to give her a kiss. + +ARKADINA. Won't you play, Constantine? + +TREPLIEFF. No, excuse me please, I don't feel like it. I am going to +take a turn through the rooms. [He goes out.] + +MASHA. Are you all ready? I shall begin: twenty-two. + +ARKADINA. Here it is. + +MASHA. Three. + +DORN. Right. + +MASHA. Have you put down three? Eight. Eighty-one. Ten. + +SHAMRAEFF. Don't go so fast. + +ARKADINA. Could you believe it? I am still dazed by the reception they +gave me in Kharkoff. + +MASHA. Thirty-four. [The notes of a melancholy waltz are heard.] + +ARKADINA. The students gave me an ovation; they sent me three baskets of +flowers, a wreath, and this thing here. + +She unclasps a brooch from her breast and lays it on the table. + +SHAMRAEFF. There is something worth while! + +MASHA. Fifty. + +DORN. Fifty, did you say? + +ARKADINA. I wore a perfectly magnificent dress; I am no fool when it +comes to clothes. + +PAULINA. Constantine is playing again; the poor boy is sad. + +SHAMRAEFF. He has been severely criticised in the papers. + +MASHA. Seventy-seven. + +ARKADINA. They want to attract attention to him. + +TRIGORIN. He doesn't seem able to make a success, he can't somehow +strike the right note. There is an odd vagueness about his writings +that sometimes verges on delirium. He has never created a single living +character. + +MASHA. Eleven. + +ARKADINA. Are you bored, Peter? [A pause] He is asleep. + +DORN. The Councillor is taking a nap. + +MASHA. Seven. Ninety. + +TRIGORIN. Do you think I should write if I lived in such a place as +this, on the shore of this lake? Never! I should overcome my passion, +and give my life up to the catching of fish. + +MASHA. Twenty-eight. + +TRIGORIN. And if I caught a perch or a bass, what bliss it would be! + +DORN. I have great faith in Constantine. I know there is something in +him. He thinks in images; his stories are vivid and full of colour, +and always affect me deeply. It is only a pity that he has no definite +object in view. He creates impressions, and nothing more, and one cannot +go far on impressions alone. Are you glad, madam, that you have an +author for a son? + +ARKADINA. Just think, I have never read anything of his; I never have +time. + +MASHA. Twenty-six. + +TREPLIEFF comes in quietly and sits down at his table. + +SHAMRAEFF. [To TRIGORIN] We have something here that belongs to you, +sir. + +TRIGORIN. What is it? + +SHAMRAEFF. You told me to have the sea-gull stuffed that Mr. Constantine +killed some time ago. + +TRIGORIN. Did I? [Thoughtfully] I don't remember. + +MASHA. Sixty-one. One. + +TREPLIEFF throws open the window and stands listening. + +TREPLIEFF. How dark the night is! I wonder what makes me so restless. + +ARKADINA. Shut the window, Constantine, there is a draught here. + +TREPLIEFF shuts the window. + +MASHA. Ninety-eight. + +TRIGORIN. See, my card is full. + +ARKADINA. [Gaily] Bravo! Bravo! + +SHAMRAEFF. Bravo! + +ARKADINA. Wherever he goes and whatever he does, that man always has +good luck. [She gets up] And now, come to supper. Our renowned guest did +not have any dinner to-day. We can continue our game later. [To her son] +Come, Constantine, leave your writing and come to supper. + +TREPLIEFF. I don't want anything to eat, mother; I am not hungry. + +ARKADINA. As you please. [She wakes SORIN] Come to supper, Peter. [She +takes SHAMRAEFF'S arm] Let me tell you about my reception in Kharkoff. + +PAULINA blows out the candles on the table, then she and DORN roll +SORIN'S chair out of the room, and all go out through the door on the +left, except TREPLIEFF, who is left alone. TREPLIEFF prepares to write. +He runs his eye over what he has already written. + +TREPLIEFF. I have talked a great deal about new forms of art, but I feel +myself gradually slipping into the beaten track. [He reads] "The +placard cried it from the wall--a pale face in a frame of dusky +hair"--cried--frame--that is stupid. [He scratches out what he has +written] I shall begin again from the place where my hero is wakened by +the noise of the rain, but what follows must go. This description of a +moonlight night is long and stilted. Trigorin has worked out a process +of his own, and descriptions are easy for him. He writes that the neck +of a broken bottle lying on the bank glittered in the moonlight, and +that the shadows lay black under the mill-wheel. There you have a +moonlight night before your eyes, but I speak of the shimmering light, +the twinkling stars, the distant sounds of a piano melting into the +still and scented air, and the result is abominable. [A pause] The +conviction is gradually forcing itself upon me that good literature is +not a question of forms new or old, but of ideas that must pour freely +from the author's heart, without his bothering his head about any forms +whatsoever. [A knock is heard at the window nearest the table] What was +that? [He looks out of the window] I can't see anything. [He opens the +glass door and looks out into the garden] I heard some one run down +the steps. [He calls] Who is there? [He goes out, and is heard walking +quickly along the terrace. In a few minutes he comes back with NINA +ZARIETCHNAYA] Oh, Nina, Nina! + +NINA lays her head on TREPLIEFF'S breast and stifles her sobs. + +TREPLIEFF. [Deeply moved] Nina, Nina! It is you--you! I felt you would +come; all day my heart has been aching for you. [He takes off her hat +and cloak] My darling, my beloved has come back to me! We mustn't cry, +we mustn't cry. + +NINA. There is some one here. + +TREPLIEFF. No one is here. + +NINA. Lock the door, some one might come. + +TREPLIEFF. No one will come in. + +NINA. I know your mother is here. Lock the door. + +TREPLIEFF locks the door on the right and comes back to NINA. + +TREPLIEFF. There is no lock on that one. I shall put a chair against +it. [He puts an arm-chair against the door] Don't be frightened, no one +shall come in. + +NINA. [Gazing intently into his face] Let me look at you. [She looks +about her] It is warm and comfortable in here. This used to be a +sitting-room. Have I changed much? + +TREPLIEFF. Yes, you have grown thinner, and your eyes are larger than +they were. Nina, it seems so strange to see you! Why didn't you let me +go to you? Why didn't you come sooner to me? You have been here nearly a +week, I know. I have been several times each day to where you live, and +have stood like a beggar beneath your window. + +NINA. I was afraid you might hate me. I dream every night that you look +at me without recognising me. I have been wandering about on the shores +of the lake ever since I came back. I have often been near your house, +but I have never had the courage to come in. Let us sit down. [They sit +down] Let us sit down and talk our hearts out. It is so quiet and warm +in here. Do you hear the wind whistling outside? As Turgenieff says, +"Happy is he who can sit at night under the roof of his home, who has a +warm corner in which to take refuge." I am a sea-gull--and yet--no. +[She passes her hand across her forehead] What was I saying? Oh, yes, +Turgenieff. He says, "and God help all houseless wanderers." [She sobs.] + +TREPLIEFF. Nina! You are crying again, Nina! + +NINA. It is all right. I shall feel better after this. I have not cried +for two years. I went into the garden last night to see if our old +theatre were still standing. I see it is. I wept there for the first +time in two years, and my heart grew lighter, and my soul saw more +clearly again. See, I am not crying now. [She takes his hand in hers] +So you are an author now, and I am an actress. We have both been sucked +into the whirlpool. My life used to be as happy as a child's; I used to +wake singing in the morning; I loved you and dreamt of fame, and what is +the reality? To-morrow morning early I must start for Eltz by train in +a third-class carriage, with a lot of peasants, and at Eltz the educated +trades-people will pursue me with compliments. It is a rough life. + +TREPLIEFF. Why are you going to Eltz? + +NINA. I have accepted an engagement there for the winter. It is time for +me to go. + +TREPLIEFF. Nina, I have cursed you, and hated you, and torn up your +photograph, and yet I have known every minute of my life that my heart +and soul were yours for ever. To cease from loving you is beyond my +power. I have suffered continually from the time I lost you and began +to write, and my life has been almost unendurable. My youth was suddenly +plucked from me then, and I seem now to have lived in this world for +ninety years. I have called out to you, I have kissed the ground you +walked on, wherever I looked I have seen your face before my eyes, and +the smile that had illumined for me the best years of my life. + +NINA. [Despairingly] Why, why does he talk to me like this? + +TREPLIEFF. I am quite alone, unwarmed by any attachment. I am as cold +as if I were living in a cave. Whatever I write is dry and gloomy and +harsh. Stay here, Nina, I beseech you, or else let me go away with you. + +NINA quickly puts on her coat and hat. + +TREPLIEFF. Nina, why do you do that? For God's sake, Nina! [He watches +her as she dresses. A pause.] + +NINA. My carriage is at the gate. Do not come out to see me off. I shall +find the way alone. [Weeping] Let me have some water. + +TREPLIEFF hands her a glass of water. + +TREPLIEFF. Where are you going? + +NINA. Back to the village. Is your mother here? + +TREPLIEFF. Yes, my uncle fell ill on Thursday, and we telegraphed for +her to come. + +NINA. Why do you say that you have kissed the ground I walked on? You +should kill me rather. [She bends over the table] I am so tired. If I +could only rest--rest. [She raises her head] I am a sea-gull--no--no, +I am an actress. [She hears ARKADINA and TRIGORIN laughing in the +distance, runs to the door on the left and looks through the keyhole] He +is there too. [She goes back to TREPLIEFF] Ah, well--no matter. He +does not believe in the theatre; he used to laugh at my dreams, so that +little by little I became down-hearted and ceased to believe in it too. +Then came all the cares of love, the continual anxiety about my little +one, so that I soon grew trivial and spiritless, and played my parts +without meaning. I never knew what to do with my hands, and I could not +walk properly or control my voice. You cannot imagine the state of mind +of one who knows as he goes through a play how terribly badly he is +acting. I am a sea-gull--no--no, that is not what I meant to say. Do you +remember how you shot a seagull once? A man chanced to pass that way and +destroyed it out of idleness. That is an idea for a short story, but it +is not what I meant to say. [She passes her hand across her forehead] +What was I saying? Oh, yes, the stage. I have changed now. Now I am a +real actress. I act with joy, with exaltation, I am intoxicated by it, +and feel that I am superb. I have been walking and walking, and thinking +and thinking, ever since I have been here, and I feel the strength of +my spirit growing in me every day. I know now, I understand at last, +Constantine, that for us, whether we write or act, it is not the honour +and glory of which I have dreamt that is important, it is the strength +to endure. One must know how to bear one's cross, and one must have +faith. I believe, and so do not suffer so much, and when I think of my +calling I do not fear life. + +TREPLIEFF. [Sadly] You have found your way, you know where you are +going, but I am still groping in a chaos of phantoms and dreams, not +knowing whom and what end I am serving by it all. I do not believe in +anything, and I do not know what my calling is. + +NINA. [Listening] Hush! I must go. Good-bye. When I have become a +famous actress you must come and see me. Will you promise to come? But +now--[She takes his hand] it is late. I can hardly stand. I am fainting. +I am hungry. + +TREPLIEFF. Stay, and let me bring you some supper. + +NINA. No, no--and don't come out, I can find the way alone. My carriage +is not far away. So she brought him back with her? However, what +difference can that make to me? Don't tell Trigorin anything when you +see him. I love him--I love him even more than I used to. It is an idea +for a short story. I love him--I love him passionately--I love him to +despair. Have you forgotten, Constantine, how pleasant the old times +were? What a gay, bright, gentle, pure life we led? How a feeling as +sweet and tender as a flower blossomed in our hearts? Do you remember, +[She recites] "All men and beasts, lions, eagles, and quails, horned +stags, geese, spiders, silent fish that inhabit the waves, starfish from +the sea, and creatures invisible to the eye--in one word, life--all, all +life, completing the dreary round set before it, has died out at last. +A thousand years have passed since the earth last bore a living creature +on its breast, and the unhappy moon now lights her lamp in vain. No +longer are the cries of storks heard in the meadows, or the drone of +beetles in the groves of limes----" + +She embraces TREPLIEFF impetuously and runs out onto the terrace. + +TREPLIEFF. [After a pause] It would be a pity if she were seen in the +garden. My mother would be distressed. + +He stands for several minutes tearing up his manuscripts and throwing +them under the table, then unlocks the door on the right and goes out. + +DORN. [Trying to force open the door on the left] Odd! This door seems +to be locked. [He comes in and puts the chair back in its former place] +This is like a hurdle race. + +ARKADINA and PAULINA come in, followed by JACOB carrying some bottles; +then come MASHA, SHAMRAEFF, and TRIGORIN. + +ARKADINA. Put the claret and the beer here, on the table, so that we can +drink while we are playing. Sit down, friends. + +PAULINA. And bring the tea at once. + +She lights the candles and takes her seat at the card-table. SHAMRAEFF +leads TRIGORIN to the cupboard. + +SHAMRAEFF. Here is the stuffed sea-gull I was telling you about. [He +takes the sea-gull out of the cupboard] You told me to have it done. + +TRIGORIN. [looking at the bird] I don't remember a thing about it, not a +thing. [A shot is heard. Every one jumps.] + +ARKADINA. [Frightened] What was that? + +DORN. Nothing at all; probably one of my medicine bottles has blown up. +Don't worry. [He goes out through the door on the right, and comes back +in a few moments] It is as I thought, a flask of ether has exploded. [He +sings] + +"Spellbound once more I stand before thee." + +ARKADINA. [Sitting down at the table] Heavens! I was really frightened. +That noise reminded me of--[She covers her face with her hands] +Everything is black before my eyes. + +DORN. [Looking through the pages of a magazine, to TRIGORIN] There was +an article from America in this magazine about two months ago that I +wanted to ask you about, among other things. [He leads TRIGORIN to the +front of the stage] I am very much interested in this question. [He +lowers his voice and whispers] You must take Madame Arkadina away from +here; what I wanted to say was, that Constantine has shot himself. + +The curtain falls. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sea-Gull, by Anton Checkov + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEA-GULL *** + +***** This file should be named 1754.txt or 1754.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/5/1754/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer and David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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