Delphi Complete Works of Anton Chekhov (Illustrated) (410 page)

ACT II

The dining-room of the SEREBRYAKOVS’ house. A sideboard, a dinner table in the middle of the room. Time: after one o’clock at night. From the garden comes the sound of the night watchman’s knocks.

SCENE I

SEREBRYAKOV (sitting in a chair in front of the window and dozing) and ELENA ANDREYEVNA (sitting near by and also dozing)

SEREBRYAKOV (awaking): Who’s there! Is it you, Sonya?

HLENA ANDREYEVNA: It’s me. . . .

SEREBRYAKOV: You, Lena dear? . . . The pain is excruciating

!

ELENA ANDREYEVNA: Your rug is on the floor. . . .

(Wrapping it round his legs.) I’ll shut the window, Alexander.

SEREBRYAKOV: No, don’t, I’m hot. ... I had just fallen into a doze and dreamed that my left leg did not belong to me. ... I awoke with excruciating pain. No, it’s not gout.

I think it is rheumatism. What’s the time now?

ELENA ANDREYEVNA I TWENTY PAST ONE,
      
(A PAUSE.)

SEREBRYAKOV: Have a look in the morning, in the library,

for Batyushkov. I believe we’ve got his books.

ELENA ANDREYEVNA WHAT?

SEREBRYAKOV: Have a look for Batyushkov. I remember we had his works. But why am I breathing with such difficulty?

ELENA ANDREYEVNA: You’re tired. It’s the second night now you haven’t slept.

SEREBRYAKOV: They say that Turgenev’s gout has developed

into angina pectoris. I am afraid that this will happen in my case, too. Cursed, loathsome old age! Curse it!

Since I’ve grown old I’ve become disgusting to myself. And to all of you I must present a disgusting spectacle.

ELENA ANDREYEVNA: You speak of your old age in such a tone as if we all were to blame for your growing old.

SEREBRYAKOV: You are the first to be disgusted by me.

ELENA ANDREYEVNA: How stupid of you!

(Moving away and sitting down at some distance.)

SEREBRYAKOV: Of course, you’re right. I’m not a fool and quite understand. You’re young, healthy, handsome,

you’re eager for life; and I am an old man, almost a corpse.

Well? Don’t I real-ze it all? And, of course, it is foolish of me to be still alive., But wait a little while, I’ll free you all soon.

ELENA ANDREYEVNA: Alexander, it’s crushing me! If I deserve any reward for the sleepless nights, I ask only this from you: be quiet! For the love of Christ, be quiet! I ask for nothing else.

SEREBRYAKOV: It comes to this then, that, thanks to me,

all of you have become crushed, and are bored and wasting your youth; and I am the only one who is enjoying life and is content. Just so, of course!

ELENA ANDREYEVNA ‘. Be quiet! You’ve worn me out!

SEREBRYAKOV: I have worn out everyone. Of course!

ELENA ANDREYEVNA (crying): It’s unbearable! Tell me what you want from me.

SEREBRYAKOV: Nothing.

ELENA ANDREYEVNA Be quiet, then, I beg.

SEREBRYAKOV: Isn’t it curious, if George or that old idiot Marie Vassilievna starts speaking, it seems all right; everybody

listens to them. But if I say a single word, everybody begins to feel distressed. Even my voice is disgusting. Well,

let us suppose I am disgusting, I am an egotist, I am a despot;

but indeed haven’t I, even in my old age, a certain right to egotism? Haven’t I indeed deserved it? My life has been hard. I and Orlovsky were undergraduates together. Ask him. He had a good time and went about with gipsy women;

he was my benefactor; and I at that time lived in a cheap, dirty room. I worked day and night, like an ox. I starved and worried because I lived at someone else’s expense. Then I went to Heidelberg University, but I saw nothing of Heidelberg;

I went to Paris, but I saw nothing of Paris — all the time I sat within four walls and worked. And since I became professor,

and all through my life, I have served science, as they say, with faith and truth, as I am still serving her. Indeed, for all this,

I ask you, have I not the right to a peaceful old age, to some consideration from people?

ELENA ANDREYEVNA: Nobody disputes your right. (The window is rattling in the wind.) The wind is getting up; I’ll shut the window. (Shutting it.) It’s going to rain presently,

. . . Nobody disputes your rights.

(A pause. Outside the night watchman knocks and sings a song.)

SEREBRYAKOV: To work all one’s life long for science, to get accustomed to one’s study, to one’s audience, to respected colleagues, and then all of a sudden, without rhyme or reason,

to find oneself in this sepulchre, to have to see stupid people,

day in and day out to hear trivial conversations! I want to live, I love success, I love popularity, noise; but here I am —

in exile. Every minute pining for the past, watching the successes of others, afraid of death! . . . I cannot! I haven’t the strength! And here some people won’t even forgive me my old age!

ELENA ANDREYEVNA: Wait awhile, have patience: in five or six years’ time I too shall be old.

ENTER SONYA.

SCENE II

The same and SONYA

SONYA: I wonder why the doctor has not come yet. I told Stepan, if the Zemstvo doctor was out, to drive over and fetch the Wood Demon.

SEREBRYAKOV: Of what use is your Wood Demon to me?

He understands as much about medicine as I do about astronomy.

SONYA: You don’t want us to call in the whole medical faculty to treat your gout?

SEREBRYAKOV: I am not even going to talk to that crazy fellow.

SONYA: Just as you please. (Sitting down.) I don’t mind.

SEREBRYAKOV: What’s the time now?

ELENA ANDREYEVNA: Not yet tWO.

SEREBRYAKOV: It’s stifling here... Sonya, give me the medicine on the table.

SONYA: Certainly.
             
(Handing him the medicine.)

SEREBRYAKOV (irritably): Ah, not this one. It’s no use asking for anything!

SONYA: Please, don’t be capricious! Some may like it,

but pray spare me. I don’t like it.

SEREBRYAKOV: That girl has an impossible character.

Why are you cross?

SONYA: And why do you speak in such a mournful tone!

Anyone might think that you are actually unhappy. Yet there are very few people as happy as you are.

SEREBRYAKOV: Just so, of course I I am very, very it PRY.

SONYA: Certainly, you’re happy... And if you uve gout, you know perfectly well that the attack will pass by the morning. Why grieve then? Why make a fuss?

Enter VOYNITSKY in a dressing-gown, with a candle.

SCENE III

The same and VOYNITSKY

VOYNITSKY: There’s a storm coming on. (A flash of lightning.)

I say! Elena and Sonya, go to bed; I’ll take your place here.

SEREBRYAKOV (frightened): No, no, don’t leave me with him! No, he’ll talk my head off.

VOYNITSKY: But they need a rest! They’ve not slept for two nights.

SEREBRYAKOV: Let them go to bed, but you too must go away. Thank you. I implore you to go. In the name of our past friendship, don’t refuse me. We will have a talk some other time.

VOYNITSKY: Our past friendship! . . . This, I must say,

is news to me.

ELENA ANQREYEVNA: Be quiet, George!

SEREBRYAKOV: My dear, don’t leave me with him! He’ll talk my head off.

VOYNITSKY: It is getting ridiculous.

KHROUSCHOV’S VOICE (behind the scenes): They’re in the dining-room? Here? Please attend to my horse!

VOYNITSKY: The doctor has come.

ENTER KHROUSCHOV.

SCENE IV

The same and KHROUSCHOV

KHROUSCHOV: What weather! The rain ran after me,

but I just managed to escape it. How do you do?

(Greeting them.)

SEREBRYAKOV: I’m sorry we troubled you. I did not want it at all.

KHROUSCHOV: Never mind, it’s perfectly all right! But what’s the matter with you, Alexander Vladimirovich?

Aren’t we ashamed of being seedy? Oh, we mustn’t!

What’s wrong?

SEREBRYAKOV: Why do doctors always speak to patients in a condescending tone?

KHROUSCHOV (laughing): Well, you shouldn’t be so observant... (In a gentle voice) Won’t you lie down on your bed? You aren’t comfortable here. In bed you’ll be warmer and more restful. Come ... I will examine you there . . . and everything will be all right.

ELENA ANDREYEVNA: Do as the doctor says, Alexander.

Do go.

KHROUSCHOV: If you find it hard to walk, we will move you there in your chair.

SEREBRYAKOV: I can manage... I’ll walk... (Getting up.) Only they should not have troubled you. (KHROUSCHOV

and SONYA support him under the arms.) Besides, I don’t verv much believe in . . . pharmacy. Why are you supporting me? ... I can walk by myself.

[GOES OUT WITH KHROUSCHOV AND SONYA.