TRILETSKY. Get to work, Seryozha! Let’s help your wife, and then . . .
VOINITSEV. Yes, yes, yes . . . (Goes to Sofya Yegorovna.)
IVAN IVANOVICH. The Lord has forsaken us . . . For our sins . . . For my sins . . . Why did you sin, you old clown? Killed God’s creatures, got drunk, talked dirty, sat in judgment . . . The Lord lost patience and struck you down.
End of Act Four
VARIANTS TO
Untitled Play
These come from an earlier autograph manuscript of the play.
page 6 / After: SHCHERBUK – VEROCHKA, 40
his daughters
LIZOCHKA, 25
ACT ONE
page 9 / After: you never stop eating! — Let’s take this morning, for instance . . . I was watching you and was amazed . . . Two glasses of tea, then a huge slice of beef, five eggs, two cups of coffee, about ten slices of toast . . .
page 9 / After: in corpore sano1 — as my teacher used to say, and he spoke the truth, if you don’t take into consideration the fact that his healthy ox’s head held a very feeble brain . . .
page 9 / After: That’s right, ma’am . . . — But you’ve got a Lenten face on today . . . You should smear it with butter . . .
ANNA PETROVNA. That’s flat, Nikolay Ivanych, very flat! Nothing funny about it, my charmer!
TRILETSKY. Never mind, ma’am . . .
Pause.
page 10 / After: down shady lanes — I bicker with her.
page 11 / After: Got her wits about her . . . — Not like our stupid little girls . . .
page 11 / After: I suppose so. — I don’t understand it myself. I wish someone would help . . .
page 11 / After: A marvelous creature . . . — She’s frittering away her whole life in one place, living out her years along with all these antediluvian, bird-brained Katechkas, Lizochkas, Matryoshas, who . . . who can’t hold a candle to her! Damn it, it’s offensive!
page 11 / After: ANNA PETROVNA. — No . . . what a tone! This is the first time I’ve heard you go on like this. This is very nice . . . So your little honey knows how to get a rise out of you!
page 11 / After: Whichever way it turns out . . . — We’ll get married, Kolichka!
page 11 / After: affairs. — And besides you’re a close friend . . .
page 12 / After: Pause. —
ANNA PETROVNA. If, contrary to expectation you don’t want to get married, but play around, have a little fun, then . . . don’t you dare touch her! You hear me? I’ll curse you out, I’ll make your life a misery, I’ll come to hate you! You should stick to your Katyas, Lizas, and Matyoshas. I’ll find it out, if there’s anything like that . . .
TRILETSKY. All right . . .
page 12 / After: Platonov hangs around here. — and your Platonov is no more than a pig.
page 12 / After: still asleep. — Nowadays he sleeps more than he lives.
page 13 / Before: We had friends as well — I’m not saying that we were perfect.
Pause.
page 13 / After: literary circles — with real people running them
page 13 / After: Don’t be silly, Nikolya! — And would you go through fire for your enemies, Porfiry Semyonovich?
page 14 / After: no laughing matter! — It’s annoying, honest to God! You come up with things for an outdoors party, you write a beautiful Demosthenic speech,2 you contribute to some newsrag, and you make a fuss all over again . . .
page 15 / After: concession! — Lucky for us that we know that your concessions make a total hash of your arguments! . . . You’re always making concessions . . .
page 15 / After: I didn’t say . . . —
VOINITSEV (laughs). Lucky for us that you don’t have the strength, my dear fellow, lucky for us that you are not called to punish and instruct those who don’t know how to be indignant and to despise! Lucky for you, as well! One should proceed from words to deeds, but your deeds would be a rude mistake . . . You would wreak havoc, despite the fact that you are the finest, kindest of men . . . First one should verify by deeds, feel, see, and only then speak . . .
page 16 / After: in this world! — Zoy mus man leben oyf der velt, mayn liber porits!3
page 17 / After: Nice instrument. — (Sings.)
Et j’frotte, frotte,
Et allez donc
Vient un monde
A la maison . . .4
page 18 / After: to spend with him. —
TRILETSKY. Why don’t you like him, Abram Abramych? Why don’t you care for the poor fellow?
VENGEROVICH SR. Who told you that I don’t care for him? He’s a splendid young man . . . But then again, I don’t like him because he’s so faultfinding, hotheaded . . . But then again you don’t like him either, it’s not just me!
page 19 / Before: You cruel, discourteous creature — What are you on about?
page 21 / After: my darling. — Don’t be a guitar, you’d die of boredom.
page 21 / After: Merci. —
ANNA PETROVNA. Is your little boy well?
They light cigarettes.
SASHA. He is. He’s already starting to walk . . .
page 21 / After: Got married and didn’t say a word! — I would have reminded him, if we weren’t such bears!
page 21 / After: all the best, all the best! — Later I’ll tell you of what!
page 21 / After: she’s stupid! —
VOINITSEV. Yes’m, Aleksandra Ivanovna! I’ve settled down, as you see, and become a solid citizen. And all because I got married . . .
SASHA. That’s only natural that’s the reason.
VOINITSEV. I’ve had it, I think to myself, with loafing around on my own, I’ll do what Aleksandra Ivanovna suggests. I’ll go and get married, I think! So I made up my mind . . .
SASHA. And you did the right thing, Sergey Pavlovich! Now you’re going to be happy. Now you’ll live the right way, you’ll learn about the very best aspect of life!
VOINITSEV. I always confided my secrets to you and I’ll go on confiding them, Aleksandra Ivanovna! Happy up to my eyebrows! I feel as if I’m in not seventh, but forty-seventh heaven! And I’m so glad that I did something to please you I can’t find the words! I didn’t always please you in the past, but now I see that I’ve pleased you.
PLATONOV. Well, there’s no better way to please her than to get married. She’s crazy about weddings!
SASHA. I don’t love weddings, I love order. The way I see it, when the time comes to get married, you get married. Loafing around with nothing to do is sinful and far from clever. You’ve pleased me a lot, Sergey Pavlovich! Thank you!