Selected plays Read online

  VOYNITSKY. [Laughing] Bravo! Bravo! All that's very pretty, but it's also unconvincing. So, my friend [To ASTROV] you must let me go on burning firewood in my stoves and building my sheds of planks.

  ASTROV. You can burn peat in your stoves and build your sheds of stone. Oh, I don't object, of course, to cutting wood from necessity, but why destroy the forests? The woods of Russia are trembling under the blows of the axe. Millions of trees have perished. The homes of the wild animals and birds have been desolated; the rivers are shrinking, and many beautiful landscapes are gone forever. And why? Because men are too lazy and stupid to stoop down and pick up their fuel from the ground. [To HELENA] Am I not right, Madame? Who but a stupid barbarian could burn so much beauty in his stove and destroy that which he cannot make? Man is endowed with reason and the power to create, so that he may increase that which has been given him, but until now he has not created, but demolished. The forests are disappearing, the rivers are running dry, the wild life is exterminated, the climate is spoiled, and the earth becomes poorer and uglier every day. [To VOYNITSKY] I see irony in your look; you don't take what I am saying seriously, and -- and -- after all, it may very well be nonsense. But when I pass village forests that I have preserved from the axe, or hear the rustling of the young trees set out with my own hands, I feel as if I had had some small share in improving the climate, and that if mankind is happy a thousand years from now I'll have been a little bit responsible for their happiness. When I plant a little birch tree and then see it budding into young green and swaying in the wind, my heart swells with pride and I -- [Sees the WORKMAN, who is bringing him a glass of vodka on a tray] however -- [He drinks] I must be off. Probably it's all nonsense, anyway. Good-bye.

  He goes toward the house. SONYA takes his arm and goes with him.

  SONYA. When are you coming to see us again?

  ASTROV. I can't say.

  SONYA. Not for a month again?

  ASTROV and SONYA go into the house. MME. VOYNITSKAYA and TELEGIN remain near the table. HELENA and VOYNITSKY walk over to the terrace.

  HELENA. You have behaved shockingly again. Ivan, what sense was there in teasing your mother and talking about perpetuum mobile? And at lunch you quarreled with Alexander again. Really, your behaviour is too petty.

  VOYNITSKY. But what if I hate him?

  HELENA. You hate Alexander without reason; he's like every one else, and no worse than you are.

  VOYNITSKY. If you could only see your face, the way you move! Oh, how tedious your life must be, absolutely tedious.

  HELENA. It is tedious, yes, and boring! You all abuse my husband and look on me with compassion; you think, "Poor woman, she's married to an old man." How well I understand your compassion! As Astrov said just now, see how you thoughtlessly destroy the forests, so that there will soon be none left. So you also destroy mankind, and soon loyalty and purity and self-sacrifice will have vanished with the woods. Why cannot you look calmly at a woman unless she is yours? Because, the doctor was right, you are all possessed by a devil of destruction; you have no mercy on the woods or the birds or on women or on one another.

  VOYNITSKY. I don't like your philosophy.

  HELENA. That doctor has a sensitive, weary face -- an interesting face. Sonya evidently likes him, and she's in love with him, and I can understand it. This is the third time he's been here since I have come, and I haven't had a real talk with him yet or made much of him. He thinks I'm disagreeable. Do you know, Ivan, the reason you and I are such friends? I think it's because we are both boring and tedious. Yes, tedious. Don't look at me in that way, I don't like it.

  VOYNITSKY. How can I look at you otherwise when I love you? You are my joy, my life, and my youth. I know that my chances of being loved in return are infinitely small, don't exist, but I ask nothing of you. Only let me look at you, listen to your voice --

  HELENA. Hush, some one will overhear you.

  [They go toward the house.]

  VOYNITSKY. [Following her] Let me speak to you of my love, don't drive me away, and this alone will be my greatest happiness!

  HELENA. Ah! This is agony! [Both go into the house.]

  TELEGIN strikes the strings of his guitar and plays a polka. MME. VOYNITSKAYA writes something on the margins of her pamphlet.

  The curtain falls.

  ACT II

  The dining-room of SEREBRYAKOV'S house. It is night. The tapping of the WATCHMAN'S rattle is heard in the garden. SEREBRYAKOV is dozing in an arm-chair by an open window and HELENA is sitting beside him, also half asleep.

  SEREBRYAKOV. [Rousing himself] Who is here? Is it you, Sonya?

  HELENA. It's me.

  SEREBRYAKOV. Oh, it is you, Nelly. This pain is intolerable.

  HELENA. Your shawl has slipped down. [She wraps up his legs in the shawl] Let me shut the window, Alexander.

  SEREBRYAKOV. No, leave it open; I am suffocating. I dreamt just now that my left leg belonged to some one else, and it hurt so that I woke. I don't believe this is gout, it is more like rheumatism. What time is it?

  HELENA. Half past twelve. [A pause.]

  SEREBRYAKOV. I want you to look for Batyushkov's works in the library tomorrow. I think we have him.

  HELENA. What?

  SEREBRYAKOV. Look for Batyushkov tomorrow morning; we used to have him, I remember. Why do I find it so hard to breathe?

  HELENA. You're tired; this is the second night you've had no sleep.

  SEREBRYAKOV. They say that Turgenev got angina of the heart from gout. I am afraid I am getting angina too. Oh, damn this horrible, accursed old age! Ever since I have been old I have been hateful to myself, and I am sure, hateful to you all as well.

  HELENA. You speak as if we were to blame for your being old.

  SEREBRYAKOV. I am more hateful to you than to any one.

  HELENA gets up and walks away from him, sitting down at a distance.

  SEREBRYAKOV. You are quite right, of course. I am not an idiot; I can understand you. You are young and healthy and beautiful, and longing for life, and I am an old man, almost a corpse already. Don't I know it? Of course I see that it is foolish for me to live so long, but wait! I shall soon set you all free. My life cannot drag on much longer.

  HELENA. You're overtaxing my powers of endurance. Be quiet, for God's sake!

  SEREBRYAKOV. It appears that, thanks to me, everybody's power of endurance is being overtaxed; everybody is miserable, only I am blissfully triumphant. Oh, yes, isn't it obvious?

  HELENA. Be quiet! You're torturing me.

  SEREBRYAKOV. I torture everybody. Obviously.

  HELENA. [Weeping] This is unbearable! Tell me, what is it you want from me?

  SEREBRYAKOV. Nothing.

  HELENA. Then be quiet, please.

  SEREBRYAKOV. It is funny that everybody listens to Ivan and his old idiot of a mother, but the moment I open my lips you all begin to feel ill-treated. You can't even stand the sound of my voice. Even if I am hateful, even if I am a selfish tyrant, haven't I the right to be one at my age? Haven't I earned it? Haven't I, I ask you, the right to be respected, now that I am old?

  HELENA. No one is disputing your rights. [The window slams in the wind] The wind's rising, I'd better shut the window. [She shuts it] We'll have rain in a moment. Your rights have never been questioned by anybody. [Pause]

  The WATCHMAN in the garden sounds his rattle and sings a song.

  SEREBRYAKOV. I have spent my life working in the interests of learning. I am used to my library and the lecture hall and to the esteem and admiration of my colleagues. Now I suddenly find myself plunged in this wilderness, condemned to see the same stupid people from morning till night and listen to their futile conversation. I want to live; I long for success and fame and the stir of the world, and here I am in exile! Oh, it is dreadful to spend every moment grieving for the lost past, to see the success of others and sit here with nothing to do but to fear death. I can't stand it! I don't have the strength. And they will not even forgive me for being old!
/>   HELENA. Wait, have patience; I'll be old myself in four or five years.

  SONYA comes in.

  SONYA. Father, you sent for Dr. Astrov, and now when he comes you refuse to see him. It's inconsiderate to give a man so much trouble for nothing.

  SEREBRYAKOV. What do I care about your Astrov? He understands medicine about as well as I understand astronomy.

  SONYA. We can't send for the whole medical faculty, can we, to treat your gout?

  SEREBRYAKOV. I won't talk to that madman!

  SONYA. Do as you please. [She sits down.] It's all the same to me.

  SEREBRYAKOV. What time is it?

  HELENA. After midnight.

  SEREBRYAKOV. It is stifling in here. Sonya, hand me that bottle on the table.

  SONYA. Here it is. [She hands him a bottle of medicine.]

  SEREBRYAKOV. [Crossly] No, not that one! Can't you understand me? Can't I ask you to do a thing?

  SONYA. Will you stop throwing tantrums? Some people may like it, but you can please leave me out of it. I don't like it. Besides, I haven't the time; we're cutting the hay tomorrow and I must get up early.

  VOYNITSKY comes in wearing a dressing gown and carrying a candle.

  VOYNITSKY. A thunderstorm is coming up. [The lightning flashes] There it is! Go to bed, Helena and Sonya. I've come to take your place.

  SEREBRYAKOV. [Frightened] No, no, no! Don't leave me alone with him! Oh, don't. He will talk me to death.

  VOYNITSKY. But you must give them a little rest. They have not slept for two nights.

  SEREBRYAKOV. Then let them go to bed, but you go away too! Thank you. I implore you to go. For the sake of our former friendship do not protest against going. We will talk some other time ---

  VOYNITSKY. [Smiles ironically] Our former friendship! Our former ---

  SONYA. Hush, Uncle Vanya!

  SEREBRYAKOV. [To his wife] My darling, don't leave me alone with him. He will talk me to death.

  VOYNITSKY. This is ridiculous.

  MARINA comes in carrying a candle.

  SONYA. You must go to bed, Nanny, it's late.

  MARINA. I haven't cleared away the tea things. Can't go to bed yet.

  SEREBRYAKOV. No one can go to bed. They are all worn out, only I enjoy perfect happiness.

  MARINA. [Goes up to SEREBRYAKOV and speaks tenderly] What's the matter, master? Does it hurt? My own legs are aching too, oh, so badly. [Arranges his shawl about his legs] You've had this illness such a long time. Sonya's poor mother used to stay awake with you too, and wear herself out for you. She loved you dearly. [A pause] Old people want to be pitied as much as young ones, but nobody cares about them somehow. [She kisses SEREBRYAKOV'S shoulder] Come, master, let me give you some lime-flower tea and warm your poor feet for you. I shall pray to God for you.

  SEREBRYAKOV. [Deeply touched] Let us go, Marina.

  MARINA. My own feet are aching so badly, oh, so badly! [She and SONYA lead SEREBRYAKOV out] Sonya's mother used to wear herself out with sorrow and weeping. You were still little and silly then, Sonya. Come, come, master.

  SEREBRYAKOV, SONYA and MARINA go out.

  HELENA. I'm absolutely exhausted by him, and can hardly stand.

  VOYNITSKY. You're exhausted by him, and I'm exhausted by my own self. I haven't slept for three nights.

  HELENA. Something is wrong in this house. Your mother hates everything but her pamphlets and the professor; the professor is irritable, he won't trust me, and fears you; Sonya is angry with her father, and with me, and hasn't spoken to me for two weeks; you hate my husband and openly sneer at your mother; I'm at the end of my strength, and have come near bursting into tears at least twenty times today. Something is wrong in this house.

  VOYNITSKY. Leave philosophy alone, please.

  HELENA. You are cultured and intelligent, Ivan, and you surely understand that the world is not destroyed by villains and conflagrations, but by hate and malice and all these petty squabbles. It's your duty to make peace, and not to growl at everything.

  VOYNITSKY. Help me first to make peace with myself. My darling! [Seizes her hand and kisses it.]

  HELENA. Let go! [She drags her hand away] Go away!

  VOYNITSKY. Soon the rain will be over, and all nature will sigh and awake refreshed. Only I'm not refreshed by the storm. Day and night the thought haunts me like a fiend, that my life is lost for ever. My past does not count, because I frittered it away on trifles, and the present has so terribly miscarried! What shall I do with my life and my love? What can I do with them? This wonderful feeling of mine will be wasted and lost as a ray of sunlight is lost that falls into a dark chasm, and my life will go with it.

  HELENA. I somehow can't think or feel when you speak to me of your love, and I don't know how to answer you. Forgive me, I have nothing to say to you. [She tries to go out] Good-night!

  VOYNITSKY. [Barring the way] If you only knew how I'm tortured by the thought that beside me in this house is another life that's being lost forever -- it's yours! What are you waiting for? What damned philosophy stands in your way? Oh, understand, understand ---

  HELENA. [Looking at him intently] Ivan, you're drunk!

  VOYNITSKY. Perhaps. Perhaps.

  HELENA. Where's the doctor?

  VOYNITSKY. In there, spending the night in my room. Perhaps I'm drunk, perhaps I am; nothing is impossible.

  HELENA. Have you been drinking today? Why do you do that?

  VOYNITSKY. Because in that way I get a taste of being alive. Don't try to stop me, Helena!

  HELENA. You never used to drink, and you never used to talk so much. Go to bed, I'm tired of you.

  VOYNITSKY. [Bending down to kiss her hand] My sweetheart, my beautiful one ---

  HELENA. [Angrily] Leave me alone! Really, this has become too disagreeable.

  HELENA goes out.

  VOYNITSKY [Alone] She's gone! [A pause] I met her first ten years ago, at my sister's house, when she was seventeen and I was thirty-seven. Why didn't I fall in love with her then and propose to her? It would've been so easy! And now she would have been my wife. Yes, we would both have been waked tonight by the thunderstorm, and she would've been frightened, but I would have held her in my arms and whispered: "Don't be afraid! I'm here." Oh, enchanting dream, so sweet that I laugh to think of it. [He laughs] But my God! My head reels! Why am I so old? Why won't she understand me? I hate all that rhetoric of hers, that morality of indolence, that absurd talk about the destruction of the world -- I hate it all -- [A pause] Oh, how I've been deceived! For years I've worshipped that miserable gout-ridden professor -- worked like an ox for him. Sonya and I have squeezed this estate dry for his sake. We've bartered our butter and curds and peas like misers, and have never kept a morsel for ourselves, so that we could scrape enough money together to send to him. I was proud of him and of his learning; I received all his words and writings as inspired, and, dear God, now? Now he's retired, and what's the total of his life? Not a page of his work will survive! He's absolutely unknown, and his fame has burst like a soap-bubble. I've been deceived; I see that now, foolishly deceived.

  ASTROV comes in. He has his coat on, but is without his waistcoat or tie, and is slightly drunk. TELEGIN follows him, carrying a guitar.

  ASTROV. Play!

  TELEGIN. But every one is asleep.

  ASTROV. Play!

  TELEGIN begins to play softly.

  ASTROV. [To VOYNITSKY] Are you alone here? No ladies about? [Sings softly with his arms akimbo.]

  "The hut is cold, the fire is dead;

  Where shall the master lay his head?"

  The thunderstorm woke me. It was a heavy shower. What time is it?

  VOYNITSKY. The devil only knows.

  ASTROV. I thought I heard Helena's voice.

  VOYNITSKY. She was here a moment ago.

  ASTROV. What a beautiful woman! [Looking at the medicine bottles on the table] Medicine, is it? What a variety we have; prescriptions from Moscow, from Kharkov, from Tula! Why, he's been pestering all the tow
ns of Russia with his gout! Is he ill, or simply pretending?

  VOYNITSKY. He's really ill. [A pause]

  ASTROV. What's the matter with you tonight? You seem sad. Is it because you're sorry for the professor?

  VOYNITSKY. Leave me alone.

  ASTROV. Or in love with the professor's wife?

  VOYNITSKY. She's my friend.

  ASTROV. Already?

  VOYNITSKY. What do you mean by "already"?

  ASTROV. A woman can only become a man's friend after having first been his acquaintance and then his mistress -- then she becomes his friend.

  VOYNITSKY. What vulgar philosophy!

  ASTROV. What do you mean? Yes, I must confess I'm getting vulgar, but then, you see, I'm drunk. I usually only drink like this once a month. At such times my audacity and impertinence know no bounds. I feel capable of anything. I attempt the most difficult operations and do them magnificently. The most brilliant plans for the future take shape in my head. I'm no longer a poor fool of a doctor, but mankind's greatest benefactor. Greatest! I evolve my own system of philosophy and all of you seem to crawl at my feet like so many insects or microbes. [To TELEGIN] Play, Waffles!

  TELEGIN. My dear boy, I would with all my heart, but do listen to reason; everybody in the house is asleep.

  ASTROV. Play!

  TELEGIN plays softly.

  ASTROV. I want a drink. Come, we still have some brandy left. And then, as soon as it's day, you will come home with me. O-Key? I have an assistant who can't say "OK," always says "O-Key." Awful rascal. So, O-Key? [He sees SONYA, who comes in at that moment.]

  ASTROV. I beg your pardon, I have no tie on. [He goes out quickly, followed by TELEGIN.]

  SONYA. Uncle Vanya, you and the doctor have been drinking again! The old boys have been getting together! It's all very well for him, he's always done it, but why do you follow his example? It looks bad at your age.