GLAGOLYEV SR. To roll in the mud the way this fellow’s rolling in it! (Points to Platonov.)
GLAGOLYEV JR. To roll in the mud . . . in Paris?!
GLAGOLYEV SR. Let’s look for happiness in another line of work! Enough! I’m fed up with acting a comedy for myself, hoodwinking myself with ideals! No more faith or love! No more decent people! Let’s go!
GLAGOLYEV JR. To Paris?
GLAGOLYEV SR. Yes . . . If we’re going to sin, let’s sin in a foreign country, not our native land! Until we’re rotting in our graves, let’s live like other people! Be my instructor, son! Let’s go to Paris!
GLAGOLYEV JR. Now that’s sweet, father! You taught me to read, and I’ll teach you to live! Let’s go!
They exit.
End of Act Three
ACT FOUR
The study of the late General Voinitsev. Two doors. Antique furniture, Persian carpets, flowers. The walls are hung with rifles, pistols, daggers (Caucasian workmanship), and so on. Family portraits. Busts of Krylov, Pushkin, and Gogol.82 A whatnot with stuffed birds. A bookcase filled with books. On the bookcase cigarette holders, little boxes, sticks, gun barrels, and so on. A writing desk, littered with papers, portraits, statuettes, and firearms. Morning.
SCENE I
SOFYA YEGOROVNA and KATYA enter.
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. Don’t get so excited! Talk sense!
KATYA. Something bad’s going on, madam! Doors and windows all wide open, inside everything upside-down, smashed up . . . The door’s torn off its hinges . . . Something bad happened, madam! That’s why one of our hens crowed like a cock!
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. What do you think it was?
KATYA. I don’t think about it, madam. What can I think? I only know something happened . . . Either Mikhail Vasilich went far away, or else he laid hands on himself . . . The gent, madam, has a passionate nature! I’ve known him for two years now . . .
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. No . . . Were you in the village?
KATYA. Yes, ma’am . . . Nowhere to be found . . . Four hours or so I walked around . . .
SOFYA YEGOROVNA (sits down). What’s to be done? What’s to be done?
Pause.
You’re sure that he’s nowhere around here? Sure?
KATYA. I don’t know, madam . . . Something bad has happened . . . That’s why my heart’s aching! Give it up, madam! After all, it’s a sin! (Weeps.) I feel sorry for the master Sergey Pavlovich . . . He was such a good-looker, and now what’s he like? All worn out these last two days, the darling, running around like a wild man. A good master gone to the dogs . . . I feel sorry for Mikhail Vasilich too . . . There was a time he was a real cut-up, there was a time you couldn’t get away from his jokes, and now he looks like death warmed over . . . Give it up, madam!
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. Give what up?
KATYA. Love. What’s the sense in it? Nothing but shame. And I feel sorry for you too. What are you like now? You’ve lost weight, don’t drink, don’t eat, don’t sleep, all you do is cough . . .
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. Go out again, Katya! Maybe he’s back at the school. . .
KATYA. Right away . . .
Pause.
You should get some sleep.
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. Go out again, Katya! Have you gone?
KATYA (aside). You don’t come of peasant stock! (Sharply, tearfully.) Where am I to go, madam?
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. I want to get some sleep. I didn’t sleep all night long. Don’t shout so loudly! Get out of here!
KATYA. Yes, ma’am . . . There’s no reason to eat your heart out this way! . . . You should go to your room and lie down! (Exits.)
SCENE II
SOFYA YEGOROVNA and then VOINITSEV.
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. It’s horrible! Yesterday he gave his word of honor he’d show up at the cabin at ten o’clock and he didn’t . . . I waited for him till dawn . . . So much for word of honor! So much for love, so much for our eloping! . . . He doesn’t love me!
VOINITSEV (enters). I’m going to bed . . . Maybe I’ll get some sleep . . . (On seeing Sofya Yegorovna.) You . . . in my room? In my study?
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. Is that where I am? (Looks around.) Yes . . . But I came in inadvertently, without even noticing . . . (Goes to the door.)
VOINITSEV. Just a minute!
SOFYA YEGOROVNA (stops). Well?
VOINITSEV. Please, let me have a few minutes of your time . . . Can you stay here for a few minutes?
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. Talk! You have something you want to say?
VOINITSEV. Yes . . .
Pause.
The time is past when we were not strangers to one another in this room . . .
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. It is past.
VOINITSEV. Forgive me, though, I was starting to get carried away. You’re leaving?
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. Yes.
VOINITSEV. Hm . . . Soon?
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. Today.
VOINITSEV. With him?
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. Yes.
VOINITSEV. I wish you happiness!
Pause.
A firm foundation for happiness! Flesh run amok and another person’s heartbreak . . . Another person’s heartbreak always contributes to somebody’s happiness! However, that’s stale . . . People would rather hear a new lie than an old truth . . . Never mind! Live as best you can!
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. You wanted to say something . . .
VOINITSEV. Does it sound as if I’m silent? All right then . . . Here’s what I wanted to say . . . I want to be completely candid with you, not beholden to you, and therefore I ask you to forgive my behavior yesterday . . . Last night I was rude to you, crude, malicious . . . Forgive me, please . . . Will you forgive me?
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. I forgive you. (Makes to leave.)
VOINITSEV. Wait a second, wait, that’s not all! I have something more to say. (Sighs.) I’m going mad, Sophie! I haven’t got the strength to bear this dreadful blow . . . I’m mad, and yet I quite understand . . . Amidst the fog spreading in my brain, amidst the mass of something gray, leaden, heavy, there glints a little glimmer of light, which enables me to understand it all . . . If that little glimmer goes out on me too, well then, that means . . . I’m utterly lost. I quite understand . . .
Pause.
Here I stand in my own study; in this study once occupied by my father, Major-General Voinitsev of His Majesty’s retinue, knight of St. George, a great and glorious man! People only saw what was wrong with him . . . They saw the way he beat and trampled, but how he was beaten and trampled, nobody wanted to see . . . (Points at Sofya Yegorovna.) Here is my ex-wife . . .
SOFYA YEGOROVNA tries to leave.
VOINITSEV. Wait a second! Let me finish! I’m talking like an idiot, but listen to me! After all, it’s for the last time!