page 37 / After: stand in the way all on their own . . . — However, don’t you scowl so hard, Sofya Yegorovna! I’m not a complete waste of time. I have an excellent hobby. My hobby consists in not spoiling my baby boy, playing the guitar and constantly cursing the moment when I came up with the insane, homicidal idea of leaving the university, leaving what I now so love . . .
page 38 / After: ladies’ polonaise. — I made conquests, I turned men into cuckolds, but now I’m retired.
page 39 / After: no serial number!” — What do you still have to drag your loins in here for?
page 40 / After: I suppose . . . — (to Sofya Yegorovna.) There, as you see . . . A fascinating tribe!
page 40 / After: you start to be wary of young people . . . —
SHCHERBUK (out the window). They’re here? They’re here to hoist their own father on a pike? To show off their disobedience? In green dresses, the idiots, they’ve tarted themselves up! Look, Christian folk! Lizards! (Whistles.) Green as grass! Shshsh . . .
VEROCHKA (offstage). Papa dear, you can talk dirty at home . . .
ANNA PETROVNA. Who’s that? Your daughters, Pavel Petrovich? Why don’t they come in? (Out the window.) Good afternoon! Come in, we’ll say our hellos inside!
VEROCHKA (offstage). Is the doctor here, Your Excellency?
ANNA PETROVNA. The doctor won’t pick on you. Come inside!
VEROCHKA (offstage). And is Mister Platonov there?
ANNA PETROVNA. I promise you they won’t pick on you.
Laughter.
SHCHERBUK. They’re here! They might as well have brought their mother too!
SCENE XV
The same, VEROCHKA, and LIZOCHKA.
Enter, make curtsies and sit at the piano.
TRILETSKY. Ah, ah! (Hides his face behind a handkerchief.) Ah! Whom do I see?
Laughter.
For shame! For shame! I’m so embarrassed! There are unmarried women here!
SHCHERBUK sprawls in an armchair and gazes disdainfully at his daughters.
VEROCHKA. Best wishes on your lawful marriage, your excellency!
ANNA PETROVNA. Not me, but Sergey Pavlovich . . .
VOINITSEV. Thank you very, very much! How are you?
VEROCHKA. Merci. . . Your Excellency, I . . . Mama dear sends you her regards . . .
ANNA PETROVNA. Merci . . . (To Triletsky.) Stop it!
SHCHERBUK. My eyes are dazzled! What beauties! They came to show off their manners . . . Parlay voo fransay? Vui! Non!
PLATONOV. Why are you in hiding, Nikolay?
TRILETSKY. Lizaveta Pavlovna is here . . . Ah! I’m so embarrassed . . .
LIZOCHKA. Mama dear sent you her regards, Your Excellency.
ANNA PETROVNA. Thank you. (to Triletsky.) Stop it!
SHCHERBUK (winks at Triletsky). Aren’t they the pretty things! They should obey their father!
ANNA PETROVNA. Pay no attention, Vera Pavlovna, or you, Yelizaveta Pavlovna, to that laughter. The doctor is always laughing and mostly for no good reason. Mister Platonov is the same.
PLATONOV. I have no idea of laughing.
ANNA PETROVNA. Pay no attention . . . Remember the fable: “Once friends went for a walk one night . . .”? Remember?
VEROCHKA. I don’t remember, Your Excellency.
Huge laugh.
SHCHERBUK (applauds). A regular philistine! They do not understand decorum and propriety! That’s what comes of not showing respect to your father, you slags!
VEROCHKA. Papa dear, you can talk dirty at home . . .
SHCHERBUK (turns his back on her). There are no paternal feelings in my breast! I had a few but they’re gone! Begone!
TRILETSKY (hugs himself in glee). Oof! This is just to my taste! (Embraces Shcherbuk.) Great Beelzebub Bucephalovich! Great man!
page 41 / After: my father’s friends. —
SHCHERBUK. Little beauties, little cuties . . . They’re here! Their mother doesn’t keep them at home!
ANNA PETROVNA. Pavel Petrovich! (Shakes her head.)
page 42 / After: Don’t be angry, please! — What value can I put on your good words, your noble appearance, your kindly smiles, endearments, how can I put any faith in them, if I know that you, his friends, were incapable and, perhaps, even too lazy to protect my father from thousands of follies, and if I know that you haven’t got the strength to grab me by the scruff of my neck and pull me out of the quicksand?
page 43 / After: You don’t? . . . — It’s not for you to talk about charity . . . Take a look: everyone’s surprised and affected. Around here it’s usually boldness or stupidity that raises eyebrows.
page 43 /
SCENE XVI
The same, VASILY, and OSIP.
VASILY (runs in). Sergey Pavlych! Mistress!
OSIP (chases Vasily and slams the door). Slap my face because I’m a menace to society! (Stops in bewilderment.)
VASILY. He’s tortured me to death . . . He pummeled my whole back with his fists . . . There’s no escape . . .
OSIP. He flew in here! . . . They’ve already arrived . . . (Laughs.) Honest to God, it’s an accident. I was chasing him, and wound up in here . . . (Starts to withdraw.) An accident . . .
ANNA PETROVNA. What new stupidity is this?
PLATONOV. Ah . . . Whom do I see!? The devil’s bosom buddy! Hold on, hold on! (Grasps Osip by the shoulder.) Hold on, my dear fellow.
ANNA PETROVNA (to Vasily). Put Yakov in your place and retire to the kitchen to wipe your feet! (To Platonov.) Let him go, Mikhail Vasilich! (To Osip.) Greetings, Osip, and clear out!
VASILY. Massacred my whole back . . . Been feeding his face since first thing in the morning . . . Damned fellow can’t get enough to eat!
Laughter.
ANNA PETROVNA. You’ll tell us later! Get out!
VASILY. Yes, ma’am. (Exits.)
page 44 / After: give you something to eat . . . — You ought get a shave as well, your physiugly face looks like a cactus . . . You ask Yakov for a shave . . .
page 48 / After: And who gave you the right? — (Whispers in Verochka’s ear.)
VEROCHKA sits at the piano and loudly plays a waltz.
page 48 / After: Honor’s gone down the drain! — Where is it? It’s got old, worn out, turned into a hollow sound used to describe something obsolete . . .
page 49 / After: All of a sudden . . . —
VEROCHKA. Why are you telling this, Papa dear?